waited just to see if Turnbull got
the letter and to find out what he'd do with the securities, which he
had refused to turn over to me. After he had read the forged letter Mr.
Turnbull acted sort of faint and went out in the hall. I could just see
him put down a box on the hall table and lean against the wall. Then he
went into the dining room and came back a second later carrying a glass
of water, and I saw him take up and open a small box and toss some
white pills into his mouth; then he took a good drink, and, picking up a
handkerchief lying on the table, he went back into the library."

There was silence as Sylvester's callous recital of the tragedy ended.
Helen, her eyes tearless and dark with suffering, sank slowly back in
her chair and rested her head against Barbara's sympathetic shoulder.

"So Turnbull's death was accidental after all," exclaimed Ferguson. "Or
was it suicide?"

"Accident," answered Kent. "I found some nitro-glycerine pills in the
umbrella stand by the hall table." Colonel McIntyre nodded. "Evidently
Turnbull put down his pill box before getting a glass of water, and in
his attack of giddiness accidentally opened your box of aconitine pills,
Mrs. Brewster, instead of his own, and swallowed a fatal dose, thinking
they were nitroglycerine."

Mrs. Brewster bowed her head in agreement. "That must have been it," she
said. "However, I saw Colonel McIntyre tear off the paper wrapping
and open my package of pills just before dinner, and when I heard that
Jimmie had died from aconitine I--I--" she stammered and stopped short.

"You suspected I had murdered him?" asked McIntyre softly.

"Yes," she looked appealingly at him. "Forgive me, I should never have
suspected you, but the pills, box and all, were missing the next morning
from the hall table."

"Turnbull must have thrown the box into the umbrella stand," explained
Kent. "That was where I found it. Did you get the securities,
Sylvester?" turning to the prisoner.

"No," sullenly. "She did," and a jerk of his thumb indicated Helen
McIntyre.

Helen raised her head and addressed them slowly.

"Jimmie and I expected Barbara to come in at any moment, and he
started to leave when we saw you coming downstairs," she turned to Mrs.
Brewster. "Jimmie declared that if we were found together I might
be compromised. He couldn't explain his presence without exposing
father--we both thought you a forger, father," she interpolated, as
McIntyre took her h