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Show ( p ;:- t.-, .-; ." ;,"-t. (g ' '-. 1 t - V J v" A ; n : r y J ? . hf v. , - " , As g ' " 5 xjjj - 1& . - ' V r . - B AD g FSpcA. . , Artists who -will appear on the new 7iiidBvile hill at the Orphemn theater 1 Wednesday evening and of which ; ill St. Denis, assisted by Ted Shawn "i her compsny of marvelous dancing "is from India, Greece and Egypt, nU be the headliiicr. to New York Theaters (Continued From Preceding Page.) " millionaire, rtonie really clever com-M com-M was contributed by C.eomo llassell Louis Simon. "A PAIR OF QUEENS." is fast iind furious and lite plot if 'fly heuti-lriii.u in "A ''air of Ouocns. ' fr.-i ci-odded to three persons Otio '""".'i' I:. A. Sevmonr pp ow n ;m'i Harry .wis-ju th .tii;ti're theater. U is one ;l':0se swift, hl't pieces which no one " without i-oniim: near craekinc; a '' 'I'ni n.hth. Piere i-osr.iiins plenty f ejooks I'lili.'!', n iealmis wit'i. a -m nic si'f- Riid oilier conmionpi.i'-e inureilir-nts. '' : il'nsi' tiro stirreJ mm-iher ii1 make a ''''.iuli wt'il worth seUiri Peini-e the piihlic. i;'fl linnoi of the rvenin are 'lividcil '"t-oii M;n;,rt I'.lHirnn ami llnrii i':im-Misft i':im-Misft Viiiurno will be remeinheivd ,f3'l'li.-s in "A V'jiiv of Si'.t." another rT,Kin.-tion. Mr. r;t::iorn was n 'r: ' in "A I-'ull House' a l! irl 0 for wliifn wo art- hulebtoii to Mr. "z''e. Ho now ta!irs i lie part of a slow-f'i slow-f'i (lot?i-tive. k,sfph anlhM- p'nvs his part well. it is a pitv lie Ii.is im; in-M" ""s tn in- and dan-. Nnthlei'ii ! fr'M mi J Vai.-e S": i should also bp ' '"hfinod. U is a in'-n- pi.-ri oi'ina lire, ; 'i wn! di-:initoint nobody. THE SQUARE PLAYERS. 'i'e Washington Souaie riay.rs hc-.iii 1 ",r first full season in t imn.'dy j Ipv ); a programme of four P:iiV-' P:iiV-' ' 'liosnn from litt-ir sucs''- ot me . ,,; Iv.o wltn ers. Tliese w-i'e "Lit- j "-;ui:'.-ni':i!ll. S;' !: nu. " M of Siiini Antlioi." and "A V'-.w. ' ":iadi,JS W,. lea ni tb it t'ie P av -' ! :1! oou appear with soii.e n-w a no " 1 HtiuKf. witi.-ii should add to tlinr - f'i- uniuni1 prorlui-i ins. , lfroopra-uir grand opera pet foniiances, j j THE STRANGE la a A f 1I TF1 I O s " ' 1 B , fly MAX RITTENBERG cases op MA!UiNUM, bcientitic Lonsnkant - 1 L 7H MFry FI4SX. Til!' 0;i.lx .,f a),lsJ, ,) K'--1 iu)..s i,lm-rai.l...T ioti.-, .... lK0 ll.c.tuw i,..,.,-h v.i a ril:,'! opeui; irc:i r,i:''-'" a fl'v I)'- flnmp jellcl with an iil.va.,! W;,,io ii,,,,,,, v.-at.-!i.-,; Ivrr x.rr,'.:;tii. his assistant, j . ,i au.i'nt the ilamo the while (f.r- .'("lain ul a rr, ihle ,t,vi'v. 'J'bo .,!,(. ,mo lowI.v UaikeiuM to r: ,-iivlo of a jili-tcning Siny.hl,.k. It HS no! ti.e vl-cty, luotorlpo liiadi of soot. Twit-i'ii-all.v. that stain on the ii yin poia-c-lam r.-a known as an "arsonu- mirror. mir-ror. -' and it provnl t-on.-hisiv.-lv that the- human remains they wi-ru analyzing lield arsenical poisonini;. The boy Mcri'ilitll shivered slightly. His sensitive mind ionped Irom that yiistenini; slain to its inevitable cur ollr.ry the noose of the law around the neek of a t'eliow being. But with Mayuum. bluate.l 'in fiber by his twenty rive years of consultant prai'ie.e am! niativ einniual eases in wlueh hi? seientu'ic help had been sonuht. the tram of thought suggested was -ery ilir'fereut. "Another of lhos ' arsenic bun-S'.ers, bun-S'.ers, " he reiuaikeil with seeming callousness. cal-lousness. " Will people never leain that arsenic is the easiest poison in the world to trace; Isheepl The same old method ever sim-e the dues of the early i:vptians. Xo credit for us in that kind of hich-school analysis. Arsenic Ar-senic any schoolboy couid show the presence of a milligramme of the stuff!" And since the remainder of the testing test-ing was purely a matter of routine, calling call-ing for no special exercise of wits. Magnum Mag-num left ror the office to change his disreputable laboratory coat and tu motor-boat to his hoine out liv the Plumstead Marshes. In the office, an imperious call of the telephone bell interrupted him in shirt sleeves. He took up the receiver with a enrt, "Magnum speaking. Who's that?'' As he listened, his rugged features fea-tures lighted up with the zeaf of the investigator, "bounds as if it, were a ease worth my time.'' he answered crisply. " Yes, come straight here and bring the vhole facts with you." fiomp fifteen minutes later Detective-Inspector Callaghnu was laying before be-fore the scientist one of the strangest eases that had over baffled Scotland Yard and the medical experts retained in its service. "The vnlei found him in the morning. morn-ing. done dead. The electric light was binning. Appniently the baron had switched it on the middle of the night in order to take his usual drink from the vacuum flask on a table by the bedside. ' ' "Where's the flask?" "Here." t'allaglian prodm-ed it from its careful wrappings an ordinary leather-covered vacuum flask, of half-pint size, such as are sold by the thousand for travelers and picnic makers and others who need to keep hot Ihiubls hot and cold liquids cold. "The valet's story is that he found it lying on the bedroom carpet, as it the baron had let it fall to the floor. Ami the flask was empty. " "Whv emphasize the empty?" "That's the astonishing feature of the case. The valet had filled it as usual us-ual with iced tisane a kind of continental conti-nental orange-flower water. Not a single drop remained. " "The baron had drunk it off." "Apparently not." "How do you know he didn't?" challenged Magnum. "Because we've alreadv hail the contents con-tents of the stomach ami renal organs analvzed.-1 " By whom?" demandil t be scientist with marked asperity. Into ( allaghau s professional voice of authority crept an apologetic note: " Dr. All red f ressw ell. As you know, sir, we usunllv take analyses to him." Magnum retorted frowuiugly: "The interesting ones. Leaving to me the kind of schoolboy analysis for arsenic I've been carrying out in there this afternoon." He jerked his hand toward the laboratory. "Or else I'm expected to clean up a (let- Or. Alfred t.'resswcll has muddled -a case. ' ' , The deteciivc owned a safticieney of tact. He answered soothingly: "It's because Dr. I'resswell has failed that' we come to a higher authority. He can Iind no trace whatever of poison. Probably his range of knowledge is more limiled 'than vour own." "Well, return to this empty Mask. The liquid would have spilt on the floor or carpet when the baron dropped the Bask." . , . "1 have the Hour rug outside in my taxi. There was not a spol of liipiid found on it. Nor was ihere a single drop left in (he llask. ' ' Mnunum unscrewed the stopper and unified thoughtfully. Well, siri" queried the detectne. " stone-cold scent bv now." replied Magnum. speaking metaphorically, Then he shot a darting glance at ( allaghau al-laghau from under his bristling penthouse pent-house evehrows. "What makes von believe be-lieve that Baron von Neuhausen was. poisoned? He might have died oi t'nght or shock or natural heart disease '"'Heart disea-e. was the Krt conclu-,ion conclu-,ion of the doctor, they called to the hotel bedroom. Certainly Hie ...an had a weak heart -one could tell that on, the general tlabb.nes, ur the b0dv ami the heavy-pouched eyes. H, ,.'" the detective paused i.npres-.:v,,ly".the i.npres-.:v,,ly".the doctor had the sense to iWon to the valet's story and examine ,,-ther. He found the tongue puffed and 'tended and the palate Mistered. ' a. -ee that for vour-elt. 1 he modi-. modi-. J oxoorts can make nnthine. el ...' What was tl.i storv of the valet . It turns around a ionnese c:.0:.:el singer. She's now starring at the 1 abey , ti -iHsei.rs of the five- Or.-lw-Mrai 'Z e v are announced to Or ?ive ,,, 1 v u ' -.-..it-. ii o, t i' o. ;re o: t pr I. ew.sonn M 'I , , of ' ' .Jer " no I Thurs.lav. Monday. ;'-' , ,- t!.e . . S(.r.i,:.l.c -K V.,.- u,.aM ,.t nn.nil " d J, ; , fornix ,!', 'J;.. ;V- ..,ei.-. -fie United ' from ' Tli I l'Ve"... off';: f : 0" , -v . ,,.,. io roll. :'.! loi.oito, ,1,,, I .'ru.-s H.li i"- i" I room' ' l,in:-! i vf" -;:c..--:T:i!:::,;r--: . ; 1 ''Presently the two halves of stage door swung outward." vaudeville theater. MLtzi So re I is the name uo donht you have, seen il.'' "I'm not interested ia the nuisie-hall nuisie-hall doings. " ' "Well, tor those wha like the snaky, white-dovil style of continental beauty, the woman is fascinating. The baron undoubtedly followed her to London on the ehaso. Then Mitzi's husband eaniR oecr iiid told him to clear out. The baron persisted iu staying. And now he is dead. Thai's the framework j of the valet Ja accusation. "Have you arrested the husband?'1 ' ' Not yet. Wle can lay hands ou him at any moment. First we want our evidence. We want to know what caused the baron 's death. Name the poison and the tracing of the rest, will be easy. The more unusual the poison the simpler to find out where it was bought and bv whom.'1 ' 1 Bring in ' the rug, ' ' said Magnum. 'I'll turn it over to Meredith for analysis and then you can drive me to the P. M. room and the hotel, and show me the scene at I'i rst-haud. ' ' After the grisly detail of the postmortem post-mortem room,' they proceeded to the Hotel Ho-tel Monopole one of the great caravansaries caravan-saries that string; from Charing 'ross, I making first elann on the custom of 'travelers from the continent. Though i Oallaghan was received with deference by the mat t re d 'hotel, it was easy to read that- the hotel people were bitterly bitter-ly annoyed by the occurrence of the death under their roof, causing scandal and loss of trade. ('allaghau philosophized: "These big hotels might have been planned for the crime. The one aim of the manage-menl manage-menl is to hu.-ii up. They would have I that, doctor called in give a certificate lot' death by natural heart failure, if the valet hadn 't raised such a loud protest. Lord knows how many people die mysteriously mys-teriously or disappear mysteriously 'at the big hotels of the big capitals' like Loudon and Paris. A ml thefts why anyone wit h decent clothes and an air of 'money can walk' in and out of these places without the slightest challenge.-''" They were alone at the moment in an elbow tu rn of a corridor. 'allaghau 'al-laghau rapped briskly at a door. There was no answer. He turned the handle a nd entered a sitting room in oecupa- j tion; coolly taking up a traveling clock from the ma nt el piece, he, pocketed it. As th-y left the room a chambermaid passed along the corridor, but she a rcely not iced t hem and went on without a word. "We've, stolen a clock,'' said the detective. de-tective. "Tt might hae been a jewel cane. I'll ru'ti (hat in with the hotel manager. They proceeded to the locked suite of apartments which had been in occupation occupa-tion of the Austrian nobleman. L'u-der L'u-der the orders of Scot land Yard, the rooms had been left exact ly in their condition of the morning when the Baron von .Xeidmuj'n had been found iving dead in t he oi double bed of i inlaid rosewood. Pillows, hed cover-! cover-! ings, toilet accessories, trunks all these were left in place, and across a chair had been laid the delicare lavender silk ni'jht attire taken from the corpse, t Magnum, with his abnormally developed de-veloped seno of smell. went nosing I about the mom like a hound on t he trail. " Phpw! lie u-ed pertumes, ' re- j ! marked Ihe M-ientist with an air of di- j i guT. While the grisline-s of the po-d-! mortem had lei i him apparently uu- moved, this touch of er'f.Miiiuacy had the 'curious eflec! of ordVii'lie.-j hi ?ensibil- ! a..-. ! He puisued a:omi: "The liquid from the flaii miL'iiT have fallen on to the j 'pajamas, jacked or on the shins. I We'll anaiyze these as well." " 1 'II have them t.i-en to yoar labora- ! tories at on'" answered ihe detective, : iuniiiii to the telephone. j j " nd 're.-we!l V material. ' ' : ( ertainlv i "The ingredients for making the or-I ance flow er drink. ' ' ! ' F'"e; thinr you necdV' i j h ; . ; 1 1 a - e von o r e i h T he i vaVt?" ! . in '.'.i.-tociv. ;i- n.arter of ron- ;t;ne. b,-i yo'.i take it from me that the. I tiki :i i- d'iiTc innocent. ' ' I ; ! d b;c to .nation lrm fo7 I --f. ' ' rt1' .rr.e-1 'diioiiM?. - ho did red j believe in takini: 'i i- ind opiii;on ' from anyore. j T!!'1 room it.-el f . an nr i. i na ry h t -' bedroom furnished with conventional luxury, offered no suggestion toward elucidating- the mystery of the crime beyond, the fact tliat the door opened into tho sitting-room and another door direct into tho corridor. ' ' A poisoner might have entered that way," said Callaghan, "as easily as we went into the room down the corridor and stole the clock.' ' "Then the baron kept his doors unlocked un-locked f " "The valet says that he rarely troubled trou-bled to lock them. Few people realise the dangers of these great hotels.'' While Meredith, with his infinity of patience and his technique of a virtuoso, vir-tuoso, worked through the evening and far into the night on the analysis of the materials given to him, Magnum went to cross-question the valet. The scientist had never had an aptitude for foreign languages and had never forced himself to learn them. A police po-lice court interpreter acted as intermediary. inter-mediary. The valet jVoved to be an oldish, shrunken little' fellow, crumpled up with the blow of his master's death and the ignominy oi' his own arrest, yet, when roused to speech, garrulous, expos tula tive, vehement in gesture, repetitious, irrelevant. It required far more than the scant patience of Magnum Mag-num to 4leal with him, and very litt le was gained from the interview. According Ac-cording to custom, the inau had prepared pre-pared bis master's tisane, and left it by the bedside and gone to his own rest. The baron had returned home late without, with-out, awakening his servant. The rest was vehement theory. "A fool, but loyal," was Magnum's mental summary. He left, and, acting on a sudden impulse, im-pulse, made to the Pahu'e theater to witness the performance of the Viennese disense. He was just in time for Mit.t Sorcl 's ' ' ten o 'clock t urn. ' 7 The curtain raised to a st age hooped with hangings of a brilliant petunia; very quietly the hangings parted and there glided before the audience a slim figure gowned in dead black of panne velvet unrelieved. The face had the ivory-white pallor of a magnolia ; the hands were thin almost to the point of trauslucency ; the eyes, deep-lashed, were cast downward. A strange, exotic-flower exotic-flower was this Viennese singer. Before she was half through her iirst song or rather, recital of a Heine poem translated trans-lated into English and set to nntsii Magnum knew that he was in the presence pres-ence of a. starve genius. This woman could create. 1'he grim tragedy of the poem pictured itself on the stage as vividly as if reality were being lived through. Every movement of her head and hands stood for atmosphere. There was not a gesture too much. It was indeed in-deed art. And from tragedy she passed into ber second recital to pure comedy: t hen to melting pathos : and then to full-blooded passion. She held her audience au-dience hvpnotized by the glamour of her personality a nd the magic of her art. Even Magnum, severely pracl ical and u use n si tive to emotion, recogni'ed the charm of this strange exotic. "A woman who would attract many lovers. " ' he meditated. ' ' The wrong kind and the right kind both. One could understand her driving a lover to suicide or crime. ' He began to speculate on what sort of man the husband mibt be. alia al-ia gh an had mentioned h im, but had given no desc ript ion. It struck Magnum Mag-num that if the husband v.-ere ti!l in London he won Pi bp seeing Ins wife home at tho end of the performance. If on -waiting outside the stage door M annum lett the auditorium and mad-' for the quiet .cide street on to which the stae door of the theater opened. H-- found he a not the only one to wail tor the appearance of the I -erformers. Loungers wtt- gathered there -ome out ot clbow-c; some in evening dres and npei a hat. with the con er.tional Invrrne.c thrown nrr the arn on t Ii i warm niht. of .Tun"-; some i:'."-,:v"T t terca' s nor jennose d-i-e. but a op: - re;; riv citizens of poti- rar-w rar-w ' Thee United to s-"e Mi: -i Sorel n: i!o' same sp?;it h; men fii' prt ;iie ::c,i;re ..f M.n;' Li-n. i'i .-ilont hf-m- Tie-rii'lv ;'e tr.n halve- ,,f the -hp donr -wung outward, and the. diseu.- and her husband moved quickly through the waiting crowd to their electric brougham brough-am drawn up by the pavement. .vA thick-set, heavily bearded man was this husband, unprepossessing,-carrying himself him-self with a somewhat exaggerated air of protectiveness, and at the same time of defiance, as though he dared any one to address his wife. Magnum, usually a quick reader of character, hesitated to draw conclusions. The husband was holding upon the door of the brougham when suddenly! Mitzi Sorel, glancing casually in Mag- ! nmn 's direction, gave an involuntary j gasp and swayed as though about to faint. ft was momentary only the. I next instant Bhe had regained control I of herself, and with tightened lips stepped through the door into the dark interior of the brougham. The' husband hus-band followed, and with the silent, catlike cat-like movement of an electric-driven vehicle, ve-hicle, the brougham slid away to the broad yellow glare of Cambridge Circus. Magnum, most unusually, felt nonplused. non-plused. He had never before met the j discuse, and even his strong, tinge of human vanity could not make him believe be-lieve that she recognized him by reputation. repu-tation. Could it have been some one behind his shoulder who had caused that most , unmistakable start of feart Magnum wheeled round, to find the crowd of i loungers mostly dispersing. A young i fellow in a grav lounge suit and straw hat remained still, gazing intently after! the receding brougham, I ' ' An extraordinary woman, ' ' re- j marked Magnum casually. : The young man seemed to start out 1 of a reverie. "Extraordinary? Yes, of course, ' ' he answered, and without further word moved off. "Another moth!" thought 'Magnum And then at a venture he followed, keeping a discreet distance. The young fellow went toward the gloomy region of Gower street where the lodgings of Loudon university students cluster. He fitted his latchkey latch-key into a quiet house of trim respectability respecta-bility and let himself in. For the greater part of that night and the whole of, the two following days, Magnum and his protege work- i ed at the analysis ot the material supplied sup-plied to them by Scotland Yard. The results were unsatisfactory in ' the extreme. Where Ir. Crosswell had found nothing toxic, Magnum found 1 nothing. The" solution made from the washings of the bedroom rug ami sheets aiso yielded nothing of interest. j Magnum, puffing furiously at his1 tank briar pipe, plodded up and down ! the laboratory, wliile the patient Mcr-. edith, sitting on a benchstool, waited j for the conclusions of the master mind, i His task was to carry out with a per-, feet technique the analyses intrusted, to, him; deductions he left to Magnum. I Presently the consultant' stopped short in his pacing and thundered out: " I Relieve tnere was no liquid in the j flask not a drop of it!" "Hut the blistering of the dead man's mouth." objected Meredith mildly. "Some poisonous gas in the bottle." "What gas would that- be ? ' ' The' used the word in its scientific meaning mean-ing of any substance in a condition of vapor.; The quest iou seemed unanswerable. Xo odorless gas that Magnum knew of could produce sueh a result, and corrosives cor-rosives like hydrofluoric acid or ecetyl chloride would have left unmittaktible ; t races in the flask besides their char- j act eristic odors. A lengt hy sea nh i thiouiih works of reference brought no clue to light. Xevcrth- !es. they ex- ha ijsted the flask and analysed by t he j .1. .1. Thomson method xhe air with- I drawn. It proved to fie ordinary, com- j mou place air. Apparently their in, e-- j titrations had come to the end of a e-,il- , de-sac. A blank wall fro-ed them. "And yet 1 believe allaghan is I right. mused Magnum. "That em pi y : fia-k i- the key to the mystery. Find j out what wa inside it. and the re-t j woi'H lie ensv. ' ' "Suppiiie uc'v:t" to -i;t it open.": !:.f.'L"?-t"d Meredith. j Magnum smiled gMiii'y. "'Tiv il 'on ' like."' j M em. ni h wnr ed w ,i H i-h iel a nd j hnn-.m1' until had '-;t a wnjr, : 'hrouzh the stout leather cover and I the double layer of aluminum of the vacuum va-cuum flask. But only bland and odor- j less emptiness was there to mock them for their trouble. "Go off to bed and loavo me to puzzle this out," said Magnum with a sudden kindness. ' ' You re looking fagged to death." "To bed? But it's ouly six o'clock and daylight! ' ' "Is HI " The scientist had completely com-pletely forgotten whether it were night or day. "Well, put your watch ou six hours and make believe it is midnight." When young Meredith had gone. Magnum drew scribbling paper toward him and began to diagram the possible possi-ble ways of "solving the mystery. His mind worked most easily in the medium of diagrams and formulae, in ordinary language, the case resolved itself finally to this: Find the poison or find the poisoner. Either would lead to the other. Since he had not found the poison poi-son and loathed to let Scotland Yard ; know that he was beaten, Magnum bo- 1 gan to concentrate his thoughts on Mitzi Sorel and her husband. i They seemed very close to the crime. j What was the exact connection ? A husband's revenge from jealousy; a pas- Isionate woman's fit of hatred; a frail 'woman's fear of revelations'? ! Yet this fact pressed itself to the j foreground: Tho crime had been car- i ried out by a method so novel, so far removed from the ordinary, that it had completely baffled Magnum. Could such a method be devised hy a music- (hall artist or her stocky, unimaginative husband? Their procedure wotdd surely sure-ly be the usual arsenic, vitriol, strychnine strych-nine or prussic acid, all easily recognizable recog-nizable in the post-mortem testing unless un-less some one with special scientific knowledge had devised for husband or for wifo a method of poisoning unknown un-known to toxicologists. Magnum 'a thoughts switched to the voung fellow in the gray tweed suit he had spoken to outside the stage door of t he palace. Did this ma u know anything relevant ? flower street and the University of London held a suggest i veness of scientific knowledge. Magnum resolved to pay a call at tne Gower street lodging, of which be had noted the number, and went forthwilh to do fo. The first difficulty was that he neither knew the man 's mime nor had any valid excuse for introducing himself him-self into the house. However, Magnum was not to be stopped by trifles of that kind. When the donr was opened to him by a maid servant, he ordered authoritatively au-thoritatively : "Take my card to your lodger." ' ' W hidi one. sir? ' "Tho clean-shaven you ng ma n who wears a gray suit. ' ' "Would you mean Mr. Heath?" ' ' Yes. And tell him my call is important. im-portant. ' ' " Hg'b out, sir. He a I ways has Ii is dinner out." "Then I'll wait in his room until he returns. ' ' The girl, London t ra ined. looked at Magnum suspiciously. ' 1 We cotildn 't ! n How that. sir. " she returned. "But ! if you like to cpII again al about nine ! o 'clock ' ' i "Are vou sure he i- not at the university uni-versity V ' demanded M a gnu nr. feeling his wnv toward the status of the voung man. ' (,P.iit sure, ii . .Mr. ea Hi on ly gives- his evening lectures Tuesday? and Fridays. I "Must be denionMrator or asidant lecturer." was the ";nv men'al deduction. deduc-tion. Aloud: "Lene mv curd in his . room and tell him 1 '11 call later. ' ' Thence he proceeded to the univer-ifv building1- higher up (lower street, where he a.-ked to see the univei-ify calendar an. a i-y laba- of the prill ie- urea. From these ihe slaLi-; of Halph Heath was u'dfd'ly found a demonstrator in the depart in '-nt of physical chemist rv. Magnum glanced -a--i;al'y over the printed sumn.arv of lectures he had to d-di er during the. t erm an ad a need cfiii rue covering a mi rn bnr of lines of modern rfoarelj. nddenly Ma ga u m 'i i, iodic d the i" 1 Tabus in hi1- hand with a brnrqae J vei'finen-e. "dood hea.'ep.. what a! fool not ,o have il,r.u-):t that be fc ''): em;,'-.- fi:t I --of .-ot;r. e if was found e:n . it ;. ! ' h T'-e da yf.ivh '' i'oi '-OUT-; h: c 1 .-a l(-" i ii a r v iri t'li e. poi on line, and a!) tire tune it wa?j the most ordinary substance in tho world. No smell, no stain, or corrosion, no trace of liquid left what else could it be?" H e made a; once to a public telephone, tele-phone, ami after some delav got a connection con-nection through to Callaghan. "The mystery is sol vou," he told the detective autoritati velv. "Yon can so straight ajiead and arrest M it:'.i Sorel and her husba nd. ' ' ' Hot h of them ? ' ' " t can't bo sure for sn hour or so which of the two is the guilty party. Be on the safe side and have them both arrested. "What was the poison used?" Magnum had a keen souse of dramatic dra-matic value in the presentation of his results. ' ' There are tons of the substance sub-stance all over London. " he answered cryptically. "You can tell Or. Cross- . well he had plenty of it tn his own labora labo-ra t o ry . " "Then it w ill be difficult to pro e when and where they obtained it?" " Xot at all. Leave that to me. I'm n o w going t o call o n t h e ma n who su pplied it in its concent rated form to either Mitzi Sorel or her husband.'" And before the detective could press x further questions. Magnum rang ofl and walked briskly to the house whom Ralph Heath had his apartments. Tho maid servant, answering the bell, gave the reply that Mr. Heath had returned from his dinner, had taken up M ag-iium ag-iium 's card, had made no comment on it, and had gone out without leaving anv message behind. This w as unexpoi t ed and annoying. There seemed nothing to be done but wait about the neighborhood until the young demonstrator should return home. Residential Gower street is not a convenient con-venient neighborhood for loitering in, but Magnum solved that poiut by hiring hir-ing a taxi and sitting in it. , By midnight Heath had not put in an appearance, and reluctantly Magnum Mag-num gave up this policeman 's work of watching; and went to a hotel for tha night. In the morning he called early at the apartment house, only to be mot with the reply, obviously genuine, that the young man had not returned home since nine o'clock on the evoning before. be-fore. Then it was that a glimpse of tho inner slory came to Magnum, and ho made haste to Scotland Y'ard to hao the authorities scatter broadcast a description de-scription of tho missing man. It was not from "Ralph Heath that the hidden motive of that strange ; crime came to light. Without doubt ho j b ad linked up Aiagnum's call at his I house with the arrest the same evening I of the two Viennese, and, fearing that 'his secret had been discovered, he fled to the continent by the midnight hoab train. Hunted by the police ot France as well as England he finally threw himself into the switt-flowiug Hhone at Lyons. Mitzi Sorel, on 'her arrest, had per- sistently refused to answer any questions ques-tions relative to the young demonstrator, demonstra-tor, but when the nows of Heath 'a suicide came, her control broke down into passionate self-reproaches: "That dear boy, how he love met Never can 1 forgive myself I Never I . Ho love we, you understand, for the good motive. But tho baron" her eyes blazed out into hatred "that was different. There was a moment when I thought I loved the baron, and . . . one is foolish sometimes. My husband suspect, and be follow me to London. The baron will not go away. I iraploro him to go away, but he refuse. H e smile at mo so." With a rapid play ! of feature and shoulders, the actress. I had brought before her listeners tho ! scene in vivid lite. " What to do? It I is my husband that I truly love. I want to keep him for Always. Hp begin to accuse me . . . And that poor boy Who is dead knew of my trouble. 1 say i to him, cannot you make the baron go j away from London. He answer that ! for me he would do any thing. I give. ! him a kiss the kiss of a sister, you i understand and he. goes to see t he : ba ron. Bu never, never did I dream that the poor boy would do violence! ! 1 swear to you that I would not send him did T even for one momeDt. sup-ipect!" sup-ipect!" Her passionate sobbing carrier! jaway her words like chips on tho stream 'of a mountain torrent. Callaghan supplied more of the story, pieced together from his invest i-,gations. i-,gations. "Heath had a fruitless interview inter-view with the baron. Then, the fol- lowing evening, he returned, enfered the ba ron s bedroom at the M onopole, and substituted for the fiak of iced ! tisane a similar vacuum flask of his own. There are thousands of them in use, and one would -look much the Fame as another. an-other. With the lax system of observation observa-tion at those big hotels, it was a sitnplft matter for him to sdip in without arousing arous-ing suspicion. ' ' ! Magnum completed the tale: " Ynn can inform Dr. A If red Crosswell that! the poison he totally failed to discover was air. Liquid air. One gulp of that: ' stuff would kill any man not of an iron const it u! ion. Heath go( it. from the university laboratories, where they specialize in low-temperature research work. " Hut why was t here not, a drop of it left, when the flask was found on the bedroom Moor!" Callpghan had asked. Tho scion t ist, ennf empf noun of t hi ft layman 's ignora nee, answered brusquely brusque-ly : ' ' Fva porn ted ! The si it IT would keep liquid in a eloped vacuum flak ; but if split, or if stopper were not, screwed home, liquid air would siinplv become air. it wouldn't Ipava a. tracm behind. The empty f"?k it nver --ontained anything but. hir." And he ridded loftily: "Only n medical medi-cal dunderhead could have missed suh an nli v inns solution ! ' : H" said nothing of hi? own three Hnyl of I ruitless testing. |