"Oh, haven't you found out anything yet?" she burst out. "Can't you say
anything definite?"

Colonel Ashley shook his head in negation.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I'm just as sorry about it as you are.
But I have seldom had a case in which there were so many clews that lead
into blind allies. I was just trying to arrange a plan of procedure
that I thought might lead to something."

"Can you?" she asked eagerly.

"I haven't finished yet. What I need most is a book on poisons-a
comprehensive chemistry would do, but I haven't been able to find one
around here," and he glanced at the books lining the library walls.
"Your father didn't go in for that sort of thing."

"No. But can't you send to New York for one?"

"I suppose I could - yes. I wonder if they might have one in the local
library?"

"I'm sure I don't know," and Viola leaned over to pick a thread from the
carpet. "I don't draw books from there. When it was first opened I
took out a card, but when I saw how unclean some of the volumes were I
never afterward patronized the place."

"Then you wouldn't know whether they had a book on poisons, or poison
plants or not?"