"Very strange," murmured Kilsip, to himself, with a disappointed look
on his face. "But why did Moreland keep still so long?"
"I cannot tell you," replied Calton, "but, no doubt, the confession
will explain all."
"Then for Heaven's sake read it," broke in Dr. Chinston, impatiently.
"I'm quite in the dark, and all your talk is Greek to me."
"One moment," said Kilsip, dragging a bundle from under his chair, and
untying it. "If you are right, what about this?" and he held up a light
coat, very much soiled and weather-worn.
"Whose is that?" asked Calton, startled. "Not Whyte's?"
"Yes, Whyte's," repeated Kilsip, with great satisfaction. "I found it
in the Fitzroy Gardens, near the gate that opens to George Street, East
Melbourne. It was up in a fir-tree."
"Then Mr. Frettlby must have got out at Powlett Street, and walked down
George Street, and then through the Fitzroy Gardens into town," said
Calton.
Kilsip took no heed of the remark, but took a small bottle out of the
pocket of the coat and held it up.
"I also found this," he said.
"Chloroform," cried everyone, guessing at once that it was the missing
bottle.
"Exactly," said Kilsip, replacing it. "This was the bottle which
contained the poison used by--by--well, call him the murderer. The name
of the chemist being on the label, I went to him and found out who
bought it. Now, who do you think?" with a look of triumph.
"Frettlby," said Calton, decidedly.
"No, Moreland," burst out Chinston, greatly excited.
"Neither," retorted the detective, calmly. "The man who purchased this
was Oliver Whyte himself."
"Himself?" echoed Brian, now thoroughly surprised, as, indeed were all
the others.
"Yes. I had no trouble in finding out that, thanks to the 'Poisons
Act.' As I knew no one would be so foolish as to carry chloroform about
in his pocket for any length of time, I mentioned the day of the murder
as the probable date it was bought. The chemist turned up in his book,
and found that Whyte was the purchaser."
"And what did he buy it for?" asked Chinston.
"That's more than I can tell you," said Kilsip, with a shrug of his
shoulders. "It's down in the book as being bought for medicinal uses,
which may mean anything."
"The law requires a witness," observed Calton, cautiously. "Who was the
witness?"
Again Kilsip smiled triumphantly.
"I think I can guess," said Fitzgerald. "Moreland?"
Kilsip nodded.
"And I suppose," remarked Calton, in a slightly sarcastic tone, "that
is another of your proofs against Moreland. He knew that Whyte had
chloroform on him, therefore he followed him that night and murdered
him?"
"Well, I--"
"It's a lot of nonsense," said the barrister, impatiently. "There's
nothing against Moreland to implicate him. If he killed Whyte, what
made him go and see Frettlby?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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