This dope - bad stuff, whether it's morphine, cocaine, or something else.We'll just keep this card up in front where we can get at it easily."The next mental card had on it the name of LeGrand Blossom."Curious chap, him," mused the detective."He's very fond of thesound of his own voice, particularly where he can get an audience, as he had at the inquest.Well, I don't know anything about you, Mr.Blossom, neither for nor against you, but I'll keep your card within reach, also.Can't neglect any possibilities in cases like this.And now for some others."There were many cards in the colonel's index, and he ran rapidly over them as he waited for a bite.They bore the names of many members of the golf and yachting clubs of which Mr.Carwell had been a member.There were also the names of the household servants, and the dead man's nearest relatives, including his sister and Viola.But the colonel did not linger long over any of these memoranda.The card of Viola Carwell, however, had mentally penciled on it the somewhat mystic symbol 58 C.
H.- i6i* and this the colonel looked at from every angle.
"I really must get a book on chemistry," he mused."I may need it to find out what kind of dope Forette uses - if he takes any."And thus the colonel sat in the shade, beside the quiet stream, the little green book by his side.But he did not open it now, and though his gaze was on his line, where it cut the water in a little swirl, he did not seem to see it.
"Shag!" suddenly exclaimed the colonel, breaking a stillness that was little short of idyllic.
"Yes, sah, Colonel! Yes, sah!" and the colored man awoke with a skill perfected by long practice under similar circumstances.
"Shag, the fishing here is miserable!" "Yes, sah, Colonel.Shall we-all move?""Might as well.I haven't had a nibble, and from the looks of everything - even the evidence of Mr.Walton himself - it ought to have been a most choice location.However, there will be other days, and - "The colonel's voice was cut short by a shrill call from his delicate reel, and a moment later he had leaped to his feet and cried:
"Shag, I'm a most monumental liar!"
"Yes, sah, Colonel.Dat's whut yo' suah is !""I've got the biggest bite I ever had! Get that landing net and see if you can forget that you're a cross between a snail and a mud turtle!" cried the colonel excitedly.
"Yes, sah!"
Shag moved on nimble feet, and presently stood down on the shore, near the edge of the stream, while the colonel, on the bank above the eddy, played the fish that had taken his bait and sought to depart with it to some watery fastness to devour it at his leisure.But the hook and tackle held him.
Up and down in the pool rushed the fish, and the colonel's rod bent to the strain, but it did not break.It had been tested in other piscatorial battles and was tried and true.
The battle progressed, not so unequal as it might seem, considering the frail means used to ensnare the big fish.And the prize was gradually being brought within reach of the landing net.
"Get ready now, Shag!" ordered the colonel."Yes, sah, I'se all ready!"There was a final rush and swirl in the water.Shag leaned over, his eyes shining in delight, for the fish was an extraordinarily large one.He was about to scoop it up in the net, to take the strain off the rod which was curved like a bow, when there came a streak of something white sailing through the air.It fell with a splash into the water so close to the fish that it must have bruised its scaly side, and then, in some manner, the denizen of the stream, either in a desperate flurry, or because the blow of the white object broke its hold on the hook, was free, and with a dart scurried back into the element that was life itself.
For a moment there was portentous silence on the part of Colonel Ashley.He gazed at his dangling line and at the straightened pole.Then he solemnly said:
"Shag!"
"Yes, sah, Colonel!" "What happened?"
"By golly, Colonel! dat's whut I'd laik t' know.Must hab been ashootin' star, or suffin laik dat!I never done see - "At that moment a drawling voice from somewhere back of the fringe of trees and bushes broke in with:
"I fancy I made that water hazard all right, though it was a close call.Which reminds me of the perhaps interesting fact that forty-five and sixty- four hundredths cylindrical feet of water will weigh twenty-two hundred and forty pounds, figuring one cubic foot of salt water at sixty-four and three-tenths pounds, if you get my meaning!" and there was a genial laugh.
"Well, I don't get it, and I don't care to," was the rejoinder."But I'm ready to bet you a cold bottle that you've gone into instead of over that water hazard.""Done! Come on, we'll take a look!"
