life is so complex nowadays--"

He passed out with scarcely a nod at us. Kennedy did not attempt
to question him. He was thinking rapidly.

"Walter, we have no time to lose," he exclaimed, seizing a
telephone that stood on a stand near by. "This is the time for
action. Hello--Police Headquarters, First Deputy O'Connor,
please."

As Kennedy waited I tried to figure out how it could have
happened. I wondered whether it might not have been Mrs. Garrett.
Would she stop at anything if she feared the loss of her favorite
drug? But then there were so many others and so many ways of
"getting" anybody who interfered with the drug traffic that it
seemed impossible to figure it out by pure deduction.

"Hello, O'Connor," I heard Kennedy say; "you read that story in
the Star this morning about the drug fiends at that Broadway
cabaret? Yes? Well, Jameson and I wrote it. It's part of the drug
war that Mrs. Sutphen has been waging. O'Connor, she's been
poisoned--oh, no--she's all right now. But I want you to send out
and arrest Whitecap and that fellow Armstrong immediately. I'm
going to put them through a scientific third degree up in the
laboratory to-night. Thank you. No--no matter how late it is,
bring them up."

Dr. Coleman had gone long since, Mr. Sutphen had absolutely no
interest further than the recovery of Mrs. Sutphen just now, and
Mrs. Sutphen was resting quietly and could not be seen.