," she went on, "and as
this was in the basket, mayn't it be that he took the last ones,
and----"

"And they were poisoned!"

"One of them was. See, somebody had put a poisoned one in among the
others."

"That leads back to Thorpe, who else could do that?"

"And we don't know that anybody did, only it might have been."

"Can you smell any prussic acid in the vial?"

"No," and Zizi sniffed at it, "I seem to think I do, but I daresay it's
my vivid imagination. Do you suppose a chemist could discern any?"

"Probably not, but we might make a try at it. Pretty slim clue, anyway,
Ziz."

"I know it, but I have a hunch it's the real thing. You see, Blair was
in the habit of taking these things----"

"How do you know?"

"Carlotta Harper told me. I've quizzed her a lot about Mr. Blair's
personal habits, and he always carried soda mints in his pocket, and
took one now and then. So, as there was no soda mint bottle found in his
pockets, and this was in the basket, it's a logical deduction that he
finished this bottle that night that he died. And they all think the
poison was given to him through some simple trick, so why not this?"

"It may be. It very likely is. But where does it get us?"

"Dunno yet. But, say it was done that way, it needn't have been done
here. Maybe the murderer put a poisoned mint in the bottle when they
were somewhere together."

"How could he?"

"Oh, lots of ways. Say Blair had his coat off, playing golf or
billiards, or----"

"He'd carry such a bottle in his waistcoat pocket, I think."

"Well, it's all surmise. The thing to do is to begin from the other end.
Who had a motive?"

"That's what I'm trying to trace. Nothing doing as yet. Hello, here's
that old letter from Joshua, the guide. Look at it! It is in a small,
cramped hand, and you know the one purporting to be from him later was
in a big, sprawly hand. Somebody faked that letter!"

"Well, there's something to work on, then."

"But maybe Thorpe did it."

"Not he. Why should he? He had nothing to do with that Labrador trip."

"What was the letter about, the other Joshua letter?"

"Advising him not to try to bring Peter Crane's body down to New York,
or to postpone the matter, or something like that."

"Queer business, that. Why should anybody want to fake a letter like
that?"

"I don't believe anybody did. More likely some one else wrote for the
guide. They're an ignorant lot, and writing is an unwelcome task to
them."