"I'll be perfectly frank with you. The policy in question is for
one hundred thousand dollars, and is incontestable. His wife is
the beneficiary. The company is perfectly willing to pay, but we
want to be sure that it is all straight first. There are certain
suspicious circumstances that in justice to ourselves we think
should be cleared up. That is all--believe me. We are not seeking
to avoid an honest liability."

"What are these suspicious circumstances?" asked Craig,
apparently satisfied with the explanation.

"This is in strict confidence, gentlemen," began Mr. Andrews.
"Mr. Morowitch, according to the story as it comes to us,
returned home late one night last week, apparently from his
office, in a very weakened, a semiconscious, condition. His
family physician, Doctor Thornton, was summoned, not at once, but
shortly. He pronounced Mr. Morowitch to be suffering from a
congestion of the lungs that was very like a sudden attack of
pneumonia.

"Mr. Morowitch had at once gone to bed, or at least was in bed,
when the doctor arrived, but his condition grew worse so rapidly
that the doctor hastily resorted to oxygen, under which treatment
he seemed to revive. The doctor had just stepped out to see
another patient when a hurry call was sent to him that Mr.
Morowitch was rapidly sinking. He died before the doctor could
return. No statement whatever concerning the cause of his sudden
illness was made by Mr. Morowitch, and the death-certificate, a
copy of which I have, gives pneumonia as the cause of death. One
of our men has seen Doctor Thornton, but has been able to get