Craig. He excused himself and went back to a
cabinet where I saw him place a little vial and a hypodermic needle in
his vest pocket.

CHAPTER XXXII

THE FLUORISCINE TEST

Our trip over to the other borough was uneventful except for the
toilsome time we had to get to the docks where South and Central
American ships were moored. We boarded the _Haytien_ at last and Burke
led us along the deck toward a cabin. I looked about curiously. There
seemed to be the greatest air of suppressed excitement. Everyone was
talking, in French, too, which seemed strange to me in people of their
color. Yet everything seemed to be in whispers as if they were in fear.

We entered the cabin after our guide. There in the dim light lay the
body of Leon in a bunk. There were several people in the room, already,
among them the beautiful Mademoiselle Collette. She pretended not to
recognize Kennedy until we were introduced, but I fancied I saw her
start at finding him in company with Burke. Yet she did not exhibit
anything more than surprise, which was quite natural.

Burke turned the sheet down from the face of the figure in the bunk.
Leon had been a fine-looking specimen of his race, with good features,
strong, and well groomed. Kennedy bent over and examined the body
carefully.

"A very strange case," remarked the ship's surgeon, whom Burke beckoned
over a moment later.

"Quite," agreed Craig absently, as he drew the vial and the hypodermic
from his pocket, dipped the needle in and shot a dose of the stuff into
the side of the body.

"I can't find out that there is any definite cause of death," resumed
the surgeon.

Before Craig could reply someone else entered the darkened cabin. We
turned and saw Collette run over to him and take his hand.

"My guardian, Monsieur Aux Cayes," she introduced, then turned to him
with a voluble explanation of something in French.

Aux Cayes was a rather distinguished looking Haytian, darker than
Collette, but evidently of the better class and one who commanded
respect among the natives.

"It is quite extraordinary," he said with a marked accent, taking up the
surgeon's remark. "As for these people--" he threw out his hands in a
deprecating gesture--"one cannot blame them for being perplexed when
your doctors disagree."

Kennedy had covered up Leon's face again and Collette was crying softly.

"Don't, my dear child," soothed Aux Cayes, patting her shoulder gently.
"Please, try to calm thy