coroner and Kennedy was able to gain a complete idea of the case
rapidly, almost as well as if we had been called in immediately.

Fortescue's body, it seemed, had been discovered sprawled out in a
big armchair, as Burke had said, by one of his assistants only a
few hours before when he had come to the laboratory in the morning
to open it. Evidently he had been there undisturbed all night,
keeping a gruesome vigil over his looted treasure house.

As we gleaned the meager facts, it became more evident that
whoever had perpetrated the crime must have had the diabolical
cunning to do it in some ordinary way that aroused no suspicion on
the part of the victim, for there was no sign of any violence
anywhere.

As we entered the laboratory, I noted an involuntary shudder on
the part of Paula Lowe, but, as far as I knew, it was no more than
might have been felt by anyone under the circumstances.

Fortescue's body had been removed from the chair in which it had
been found and lay on a couch at the other end of the room,
covered merely by a sheet. Otherwise, everything, even the
armchair, was undisturbed.

Kennedy pulled back a corner of the sheet, disclosing the face,
contorted and of a peculiar, purplish hue from the congested blood
vessels. He bent over and I did so, too. There was an unmistakable
odor of tobacco on him. A moment Kennedy studied the face before
us, then slowly replaced the sheet.