"That's it."

"On bail? No, it couldn't be with a murder charge!" expostulated Donovan. "He can't be out! You're kiddin'!"

"He's croaked!" answered the deputy warden. "We found him dead in his cell half an hour ago."

CHAPTER XIV

THE HIDDEN WIRES

Donovan looked at the deputy as if about to dispute the statement. The detective even opened his lips to speak, but no sound came through them. Donovan sat down in a chair.

"Do you mean--" he asked, pa.s.sing his hand over his face, as though to brush away unseen cobwebs. "Do you mean that he's _dead_?"

"Sure," was the answer. "Croaked, I told you. Deader 'n a burned out cigarette."

"Well," observed Donovan dispa.s.sionately, "that's the limit!"

"I agree with you," said the colonel, and there was a curious look on his face. "Though if you mean it's the _end_ I beg to differ. It's only the _beginning_."

"How'd it happen?" asked Donovan sharply.

"We don't know," was the answer. "The Dago was all right to-day, except he seemed a little glummer than usual. He didn't eat any supper though but that's nothing. Lots of times the birds in here get off their feed," and the deputy warden made a comprehensive gesture.

"He was locked up with the rest to-night and we got sort of quiet and comfortable here and I was having a game of pinochle with Tom Doyle when one of our boarders in murderers' row lets out a howl. Course I went to see what it was, and there was the Dago--croaked!"

"What did it?" asked Donovan.

"We don't know. Doc Warren's in now giving him the once-over."

"Did he have any visitors to-day?" asked the colonel.

"Yes, a fellow like himself--Indian I reckon. But we didn't let him further than the corridor. It wasn't visiting day for the fellows in his row, so the Dago left a package and went away."

"What was in the package?" the colonel questioned further.

"Oh, just some cigarettes. Singa Phut didn't like the kind we keep, and he had to have his own fancy kind. He's had 'em before, so we knew they was all right."

"Was that all?"

"Every blessed thing that was in the package. So we let him have the cigarettes. That was about four o'clock. He was dead at eight. Here comes the doctor now. Maybe he can tell you something."

Doctor Warren, rubbing his hands to get rid of the lint from the warden's towel, came along settling himself into his coat which he had removed the better to examine the body of the East Indian.

"Well, Donovan," said the county physician, "your friend saved you the trouble of convicting him."

"Yep. But I'd a had him all right. I'd a sent him to the chair without any trouble. But what ailed him, Doc?"

"I can't say yet. Looks like a case of heart disease. I'll hold an autopsy in the morning. He's dead all right."

"I thought maybe some of the other prisoners might have got in and croaked him," commented the headquarters detective. "Riley was saying some one let out a yell."

"That was Schmidt--fellow that killed his wife," interposed the deputy warden. "He's in the cell next to where the Dago was. Schmidt said he heard the foreigner breathing awful funny. It was his last breath all right. He was dead when I got in, Doc."

"Yes, they go quick that way."

"Are you sure it was heart disease, Dr. Warren?" asked the colonel.

"No, not at all. I just mentioned that as most probable. He didn't look strong. I can't tell for a certainty until to-morrow."

"Pardon me, Dr. Warren, for presuming on what is particularly your own ground, but did you look to see if any of the cigarettes were left in his cell?"

"I didn't notice. If you want to take a look come on back. And I don't in the least mind any suggestions from you, Colonel. I'm too much interested in your work. In fact, I'd be glad to have you help in this investigation if you think there's anything crooked."

"Oh, not at all. Suicide is, of course, the most natural suspicion in a case like this, and it isn't hard to conceal enough opium in a cigarette to kill a dozen men."

"Blazes! I never thought of that!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the deputy. "Come on!"

and he led the way back to the cell.

Singa Phut's body had been removed to another part of the jail. But the cell was as it had been when the final summons came to the East Indian.

There were the few poor possessions he had been allowed to have with him--simple and apparently safe enough. And, scattered on the floor, were some of the cigarettes, made from strong Latakia tobacco, the peculiar odor of which was, even yet, noticeable in the corners of the cell.

"He smoked some of 'em all right," observed the deputy.

"Let's have a look," suggested the colonel. "If we had a better light in here it might help."

"I'll bring one of the two-hundred watt bulbs we use down in the office," said the warden, who had joined the little group. There was an electric light socket in each cell--recently installed as the result of the agitation of a prison reform committee. The low-powered bulb was taken out and the glaring nitrogen gas one subst.i.tuted. It made the cell very bright, and by the glare the colonel gathered up a number of the cigarettes. Some had been smoked down to a mere stub; others had not been lighted, and two or three were broken in half, neither end showing signs of either having been scorched by a match or wet by the lips of Singa Phut.

"Queer he'd waste 'em that way," observed Donovan. "Usually they can't get enough to smoke."

"He didn't exactly waste them," said the colonel grimly, as he looked at the divided but otherwise perfect cigarettes in his hand.

"What do you call it then?" demanded the headquarters detective.

"Well, I think he was looking for something in the cigarettes--and--he found it."

"What do you mean?" asked Dr. Warren.

"Wait. Maybe I can show you."

Colonel Ashley carefully gathered up all the cigarettes in the cell, a number of them being perfect. With them, and the black b.u.t.ts, as well as the broken paper tubes, he moved over to the small table in the cell, and spread them out.

Donovan reached under the colonel's arm and broke open one of the whole cigarettes. "I don't see--" he began. "For the love of Mike look at this!" he suddenly exclaimed. "There's a needle in this dope stick!"

"And, if you value your life don't touch it!" cried the colonel.