"On the face of things, Mr. Haviland, does that look plausible? Is the Count, as you describe him, a man who would engage a burglar of the Bates type to commit a brutal crime? Again, if Bates were merely the Count's tool, would he not, when caught, pass the blame on to his employer?" "He sure would! You are right, Mr. Stone, those two never hooked up together! It's out of the question. But as Estelle and Bates are in cahoots, why didn't she give Miss Carrington the poison, herself?" "Well, she did fix the bromide, hoping to make her mistress sleep soundly. But the lady never took it. Now, if the maid had given or expected to give the poison, why the bromide at all?" "But, look here," broke in Hardy, "mightn't it be that Estelle did do the poisoning and arranged the bromide as a blind, to put us off the track, exactly as it has done?" "There's small use speculating about that poison," said Stone thoughtfully, "we must go at that systematically. We must find out where it was bought and by whom. People can't go round buying deadly poison without a record being made of the sale. We must inquire of druggists, until we find out these facts." "There's no druggist about here who would sell aconitine," said Hardy, "it doubtless was bought in New York." "That, of course, adds to the difficulty of tracing the sale, but it must be done. Mr. Hardy, I will ask you to do all you can to find out about that." "You want to look up a French apothecary," advised Haviland. "That Count is at the bottom of this, as sure as shootin', and he's full clever enough to hide his tracks mighty closely. Why, that man is a fortune-hunter and an adventurer, and he wanted that ten thousand dollars, and he poisoned Miss Lucy to get it! That's what he did! And he was on deck that night, after the jewels, that's where he was! It was he in that room talking, it was he who left his glove there,--of course, he didn't know it,--and now you've got him under lock and key, I hope you'll keep him there, and not let this Bates discovery get him the slip. If the two were not working together, then, surely they are incriminated separately, and you want to look into the case of little old Mr. Count!" "You may be right, Mr. Haviland," and Fleming Stone smiled at him, "but I think you are assuming a lot because of your prejudice against the Frenchman. Was he very attentive to Miss Carrington? Had he proposed marriage to her?" "That we don't know. Of course, we had all been afraid he would----" "Why afraid?" "Oh, we didn't want my cousin to marry an adventurer. Of course, he only wanted her fortune, and as her business manager, I had a right to interfere, or at least, to look after her interests enough to prevent that." "But was she not a capable woman, who could be supposed to know her own mind?"