"I was afraid it would be," said the colonel, quietly. "Don't go near him, Jack, for, unless I'm much mistaken--"

The two men gazed at the dog. The little animal suddenly looked up at them in a peculiar manner. It whined and its body was shaken as with a cold shiver. A little blood was running down the lips which were now foam-flecked.

"The dog's going mad!" cried Jack. "Look out, Colonel, or--"

"You needn't be afraid," was the calm answer, as the other turned toward the door. "He'll never hurt any one. Ah, I thought so!"

And, as the colonel spoke, Chet gave a shudder, fell over on his side and, with a long sigh, lay very still.

CHAPTER XVI

THE COLONEL WONDERS

"What did that, Colonel? What devilish thing did that?" and with a trembling finger Jack Young pointed to the body of the dead dog on the floor of the detective's room. "What killed the poor brute?"

"Unless I'm very much mistaken this did," was the answer in a low voice, and the colonel, with the watch still wrapped carefully in the wad of tissue paper, placed it on the table.

"That ticker killed the dog? Nonsense! He didn't swallow it! He had it in his mouth, but he got it out! That couldn't have killed him!"

"I think it did though, Jack, just as it killed Shere Ali and just as--"

"Do you mean--that's what killed Mrs. Darcy--that watch?"

"I don't know yet, Jack."

"But how could it? How could--"

The visitor ceased his questions to watch the colonel, who had gone to a closet and taken out a pair of rubber gloves. Putting them on, he took the watch from its tissue paper wrappings, and then, holding it under the gleaming light on his table, he gave a twist to the case, pressed on a certain point in the rim with the end of his lead pencil and a tiny needle shot out into view.

"Look!" said the colonel to Jack Young.

"Good Lord! An infernal machine in a watch!"

"Not exactly an infernal machine, but a poisoned needle which only required pressure on the rim of the case to shoot it out into the hand, or whatever part of a person or animal was near it. Poor Chet, gnawing the watch which he was playing with--worrying it as he would a bone--must have bitten on the right place. The needle shot out, pierced his tongue or lips and--the deadly poison did the rest!"

"But, Colonel--this--this is the watch Mrs. Darcy had in her hand when she was found dead!"

"Yes," was the cool response.

"And its the same one Shere Ali had in his hand when he was found dead!"

"Yes."

"But both of them had their heads smashed in!"

"Yes, Jack."

"But, Great Scott, Colonel! the watch can't do that as well as poison to death! It's out of the question!"

"Of course it is. I didn't claim the watch did anything like that. I don't even claim the poison-needle watch killed Mrs. Darcy or Shere Ali. But that it did kill Chet I'm certain."

"I believe you're right there, Colonel Ashley. Poor little dog!" and Jack, who loved animals, looked at the limp body.

"I know I'm right, Jack. If I had seen, in time, that he had the watch I'd have tried to get it away from him. But maybe it will turn out for the best. In the interests of justice--"

"Do you think this will help in solving the mystery?"

"It may."

"But I thought you said the poison-needle watch might not have killed Mrs. Darcy?"

"I'm not saying anything, Jack. It might, and might not."

"But the blow on her head--the stab wound in her side--?"

"Both could have been inflicted after the poison watch killed her--if it did. Mind you, Jack, I'm making no statements. I am only suggesting possibilities."

"But-- Great Scott, Colonel--Shere Ali was killed in the same way!

He had the ticking watch in his hand, and his head was smashed in!"

"Yes."

"And of course _he_ may have been struck on his head after he died from the poisoned watch?"

"Exactly."

"And this watch Darcy had in his possession to repair just before Mrs.

Darcy was found dead, and she had it in her hand and--say, Colonel, where are we at?" and Jack Young looked hopelessly at his chief.

"I don't know," was the measured answer. "I wish I did. There is only one thing we can be sure of, and that is, no matter what part Darcy had in the murder--if he had any--by means of this watch in the case of Mrs. Darcy, he had none in Shere Ali's case, for Darcy was locked up when that tragedy occurred."

"That's so, Colonel. And yet-- Oh, well, what's the use of speculating? What are you going to do next?"

"I don't know. I wish--"

There came another knock on the door and a voice asked:

"Is Chet in here, Colonel? I generally find him with you when he isn't in my room and--"

Mr. Bland entered through the opened door, and from the figures of the detective and his helper the eyes of Chet's owner went to that of the motionless dog. Chet's master sensed something wrong, for with a cry of his pet's name he hurried toward the stretched-out animal.

"Don't!" exclaimed the colonel, reaching out a restraining hand. "The dog has been poisoned, and with a poison so deadly that even some of the foam from his lips, in a tiny scratch, might cause your death.

Don't touch him with bare hands."

"Poisoned, Colonel! Chet poisoned?"