Hardy looked at the man in amazement. He had expected a different mode of procedure from this talented sleuth. He had looked for a quiet, even icy, demeanor, and magical and instantaneous solution of all mystery. And here was the great man, clearly baffled at the queerly tangled web of evidence, and, moreover, caught in the toils of a woman whom Hardy fully believed to be the criminal herself. But he only said quietly, "What way does your theory point, Mr. Stone? I may be able to help you." "You can't, Hardy, because you're so determined to find Miss Stuart guilty that you couldn't see it as I do. You consider the strange features of this case--and Lord knows they _are_ strange!--separately, whereas they must be looked at as a whole. The gown, the quantity of jewelry, the smiling face, the glove, the overheard conversation,--all these points are to be considered as of one import,--as leading to one conclusion. And you think of them as implicating--separately, mind you--Miss Stuart, Miss Frayne, and the noble Count. Now, all those queer points are not only connected, but identical in their significance. But never mind that. Here's the place to begin. Miss Carrington was poisoned. She didn't poison herself. Who did?" "Mr. Stone, you have put it tersely. I entirely agree that all we are seeking is the answer to that last question of yours." "I will yet give it to you," and Fleming Stone spoke solemnly rather than boastingly. "The poison, the aconitine, was taken by Miss Carrington as she sat there at her own dressing-table. She took it willingly, smilingly,----" "Yes, because she didn't know she was taking it. When she ate the sandwich----" "The poison wasn't in the sandwich. She took that poison in water. The tumbler and spoon that were used are even now on the glass shelf in her bath-room." "You know this?" "I know that in the glass that now stands there a chemist has found a slight trace of aconite. I took the glass myself to be tested, with that result. This is not a great discovery, it merely proves that the poison was administered in water, not in a sandwich." "But it also means that it was given to her by some one who could persuade her to take the solution, unquestioningly,--not under compulsion." "It would seem so." "And that points to Miss Stuart." "Not necessarily. Hardy, I refuse to discuss these things with you if you avow everything to condemn her. Why does what I have just told you point to Miss Stuart any more than any one else in the house? Why not Miss Frayne? Or Haviland?" "Pshaw! Nobody suspects Gray Haviland."