"Oh, sure. Old Doc Kraus handles the cases for the whole county when they come up. There ain't enough to keep him on full time, but we send for him whenever we need him. He makes the examination and runs the inquest." "What did he think about the red blotches on the faces of the nine corpses?" "Nothing. To tell you the truth I never thought enough about them to bring it up. "And he's never mentioned it to you." "No." "I can't possibly conceive of anyone missing them." "The Doc's getting pretty old," Ward explained. "He don't see so good. We been trying to get a younger saw-bones for a long time, but nobody had the guts to tell him he was fired, I guess. He was born here; lived here for seventy-two years. He's a nice enough old guy. Matter of fact, everybody sort of looks up to him as the town granddad. He's a kindly old duffer; always doing things for folks and going out of his way to help a neighbor and things like that. I'll send for him and ask him if he noticed the marks and what he thinks about them." "No, I'd prefer it if you didn't. For the present, let's work quietly. As far as I'm concerned, everybody's under suspicion and any word getting out that we're working on the case might spoil things." "Old Doc Kraus under suspicion!" Ward scoffed with a loud guffaw. "Say, that's rich. Why, I'd trust him ahead of my own Dad and that's saying a lot. Why he brought me into this world forty-two years ago. Used to spank me when I was a kid and needed one. Why...." "I did not say I suspected Doctor Kraus," Mr. Peck interrupted. "I merely inferred that everybody was under suspicion until we begin to find something definite to go on. The reasons, I believe, are obvious." "I get you Mr. Peck." "Now then, the inquest has been performed in this last case?" "Yes; early this morning; just before you got here. They handed down a verdict of accidental death." "Have you made any attempts to identity the corpse?" "Certainly. We figured it was you on account of the papers. We been trying to trace you through the Frisco police. So far no information has come in." "That's quite possible. I lead a very quiet life; live at a bachelor club and am not listed either in the phone book or the City Directory." "I sent finger prints to the Frisco Police. If this guy's got a record, we'll know who he is pretty quick." "That's fine." Mr. Peck stood for a moment with a thoughtful finger to his lips. "I think we'll visit the spot where the body was discovered," he decided abruptly. "We can go in my car." * * * * * Ten minutes later, J. Peter Peck, accompanied by Charlie Ward and followed by Christian, stepped from the machine at a point opposite the spot where the body had been found.