Ashton-Kirk, Secret Agent Read online

  CHAPTER VII

  THE METHYLENE STAIN

  The following morning the secret agent sat in his study immersed in thenewspapers. Each contained a circumstantial account of the murder of Dr.Morse, and each, according to its policy, commented thereon. Much wasmade of the mysterious happenings at Sharsdale and the equallymysterious communications at Eastbury; the police had gone to apprehendKarkowsky at his lodgings, but he was missing.

  The _Star_, true to its enterprising spirit, contained front pagereproductions of the three drawings which young Warwick had shownAshton-Kirk.

  "The pictures," said this newspaper, "will in the end be found tocontain the solution of the entire matter. What they mean and why thecolors varied so is just now a puzzle. The crowned woman and the crosswith the different colored strokes are at this stage of the caseabsolutely without meaning. But the police are working upon this phaseof the affair with much interest and zeal; and any hour may bring forthamazing results. Osborne, a talented man from the central office, hasthe matter in hand; and judging from past performances, he shouldaccomplish wonders."

  "Well, there are worse than Osborne," commented Fuller when his employerpointed out the latter passage, "but he'll never set the earth torocking, at that."

  "He has a healthy brain," said Ashton-Kirk, "but he seldom centers itproperly. And if his mind is kept constantly between the narrow barriersof police procedure, its possessor cannot hope for moments ofinspiration."

  The _Standard_ dwelt at great length upon the missing bag and thedisappearance of Philip Warwick. The story of the two Japanese convincedthis newspaper that with Warwick discovered the case would end there andthen.

  "There can scarcely be any doubt that it was he whom Messrs. Okiu andHumadi saw leaping over the hedge fence in the moonlight," declared the_Standard_. "The leather bag which he carried was more than likely thesame that Dr. Morse was fumbling with when the servant last saw him inthe library. To be sure, the old woman does not definitely state that itwas Warwick's voice which she heard later as she sat upon the step. Butcircumstances fail to point to any other possible person. The house wasabsolutely secure, except for the street door, and the servant sat infront of that. It would have been impossible for any one to have passedin and she not be aware of it. The young man, Drevenoff, was in his roomfrom first to last; we are sure of this because Miss Corbin saw him goup the stairs before Dr. Morse sent for the servant about the key, andis absolutely certain that he did not come down until after the body wasdiscovered. Warwick, therefore, is the only person unaccounted for; andthe fact that a person answering his description, even if only vaguely,was seen stealing away shortly after the time the crime must have beencommitted, seems almost convincing evidence of his guilt. And that thisdimly seen person also carried a hand-bag, the only article learned tobe missing, and that Warwick's present whereabouts is unknown, almostclinches the supposition."

  Fuller nodded his head at this.

  "They make a good case against him," said he. "I'm also of the opinionthat Warwick, when found, will tell a mighty illuminating story--if hehas the mind."

  Ashton-Kirk threw the papers from him with a yawn.

  "As usual," said he, "they grasp the obvious and apparently sensationalfeatures. The trouble with some of the journals and their staffs,however, is not lack of acuteness; it is the desire to get in on a goodstory before their rivals--to flame out into broad-faced type whichwill give the prospective purchaser a blow between the eyes as it liesupon the stand, or allow the newsboys a fine line to fill the streetswith. But the real things are not brought forward with such a dramaticrush; they filter gradually through a mass of extraneous matter andtheir quality appears only to a person seeking an absolutely convincingresult."

  He pulled off his coat and turned up his sleeves; entering thelaboratory, he opened the drawer of a stand and took out the two piecesof glass broken from the front of Dr. Morse's bookcase. Holding these upto the light he said:

  "We secured two very satisfactory blood smears under most unpromisingconditions. That the clot was not altogether hard was fortunate; andthat I was able to take advantage of the fact without accident wasdoubly so."

  Lighting a Bunsen burner he passed the glass once through the flame;then he took a shallow vessel and poured out a quantity of liquid; inthis he immersed one of the bits of glass with its dry stain.

  "Some sort of a test?" inquired Fuller.

  "Yes. This bath of alcohol will fix the smear."

  "I see."

  Fuller's curiosity prompted him to inquire as to what would follow thisfixation; but knowledge of the other's habits of mind forbade this.

  "About all that is known of the parasite for which I am going to seek,"said Ashton-Kirk as he stood by the tray, watch in hand, "is due in thefirst place to a French army surgeon named Laveran. After him came theItalian, Marchiafava, the German, Koch, and a number of others. There isa monograph upon the subject by Mannaberg which is most comprehensive."

  "What sort of a little beast is it?" asked Fuller.

  "A lively, wriggling atom--a unicellular organism, directly upon theborder-land between the animal and vegetable kingdoms."

  "That sounds very exact and scientific," said the other. "But it meanslittle to me."

  "The young specimens of the plasmodia, as this particular germ isstyled, develop in the red blood cells; and as they grow they destroytheir habitation. I could tell you of interesting changes of color inthe blood corpuscles, of the active, joyous dancing of the parasite, andof its multiplication by sporulation. But not now. All this, however, isrepeated again and again; and each sporulation of the parasite isusually associated with marked symptoms in the person whose blood itinhabits."

  "You speak as though you expected to find some such condition in this,"and Fuller nodded toward the blood smear.

  "I expect nothing. I am merely about to prove or disprove asuggestion."

  At the end of twenty minutes, Ashton-Kirk took the bit of glass from thefixing bath, threw the alcohol into a waste pipe and ran some water intothe vessel.

  "It will take some ten minutes for the slide to dry," said he. "And inthe meantime we shall prepare the next step in the process."

  He took down a bottle filled with a dark blue liquid. This he held up tothe light that poured in from the window.

  "Here," said he, "is the bloodhound upon whom I depend to find and markthe parasite. It bears the rather formidable name in its present stateof aqueous methylene-blue, and is in a two per cent. solution. Combinedwith it is a five per cent. solution of borax. I had a druggist send itin this morning."

  This mixture he poured into the small vessel until the bottom was barelycovered; then he added water until there was a layer of perhaps onecentimeter in thickness, and the blue began to become transparent.

  The alcohol had dried off the bit of glass by this time; and Ashton-Kirktook the fragment up with a pair of forceps and dipped it several timesinto the methylene stain; after this he passed it through clear wateruntil the blue paled to a greenish tinge. Then he took up a white discof filter paper; placing this upon a stand he laid the glass upon itand carefully dried both sides, much as one would blot ink from a lettersheet.

  "This process is what is called staining," said Ashton-Kirk, "and themethod I have used is one recommended by Koch; it is somewhat similar tothe older one of Mannaberg, but more rapid in result."

  Out of a tube he dropped a single gem-like globule of cedar oil upon theblood smear; then he covered it with a small square of glass; upon thisin its turn fell a second drop of the oil.

  The whole was then placed in position under a microscope and fastened.Then the secret agent brought out the lens. It glittered like a tinydiamond in a huge setting, and Fuller gazed at it fascinated.

  "How you can see anything through a glass as small as that I can'tunderstand," said he. "It looks like the point of an awl."

  "It is a one-twelfth objective," replied the other, as he screwed thelens firmly down upon the cover glass, and
thus embedded it, so tospeak, in the globule of cedar oil.

  "It is necessary," said he, "that the specimen be observed through theoil because the lens must be brought down directly upon the glass;without the oil the glass would be scratched and the whole thingruined."

  Then he set himself to the close study of what the tiny lens madeplain; in a few moments he lifted his head with an exclamation oftriumph.

  "I have it!" he cried.

  "What have you found?" asked Fuller eagerly.

  "Evidence," answered Ashton-Kirk, triumphantly, "that will enable me tolay my hand upon the person who searched the library and clothing of Dr.Morse."

  "The murderer?"

  "Perhaps he is that also--who knows?"

  "But," demanded Fuller, "I don't quite understand."

  Ashton-Kirk waved his hand toward the microscope, and Fuller applied hiseye to it.

  "What do you see?" asked the secret agent.

  "A pale green circle," answered the other, "and it is crowded withirregularly shaped spots."

  "Compare the circle with the dial of a watch and look closely at thepoint where the six should be."

  "Yes," said Fuller.

  "What do you see--at a very little distance from the edge?"

  "There are some small blue spots; some are dark, the others lighter andmore intense."

  "That last is my proof," said Ashton-Kirk. Then as Fuller turned uponhim a still inquiring look, he added:

  "The indications have been that some member of Dr. Morse's householdhad a hand in his death. The house was secure at all points; it was notpossible for any one to gain an entrance after the locking up. You mightsay: Suppose the criminal had entered the house before the time forlocking up and remained concealed until he saw his opportunity? To thatI would answer that we would have detected his method of departure. Heshould have left something unfastened behind him unless he had aconfederate in the house. That the doors and windows, in every instance,were fast proves that this must be the case."

  Fuller nodded his head.

  "That's so," said he.

  "Now let us take the members of the household one at a time. MissCorbin----"

  Fuller waved his hand.

  "Oh, she's out of it," said he.

  "Very well," said Ashton-Kirk, his white teeth showing in a smile. "Thenlet us take up Nanon. Here we have a severely religious woman--one whoevidently detested her employer, but who served him well and had beenmany years in the family."

  "It looks as though we'd have to pass her, too," said Fuller. "There isno reason why _she_ should murder Dr. Morse that I can see."

  Again the other smiled.

  "In this you agree with the newspapers, at any rate," said he. "None ofthem have found occasion to associate her with the matter, either."

  "I also agree with the papers in the matter of Warwick," said Fuller. "Iknow that it's best to start without preconceived notions, but I can'thelp thinking that, if he's not exactly the man, he knows quite a bitabout it all."

  "That he has unaccountably disappeared is a bad point against him,"admitted Ashton-Kirk. "And that some one resembling him was seenstealing away in the night, carrying a hand-bag, is another and mostdamaging one. However, as you say, it is best not to start withpreconceived notions; and until we are sure that the unknown _was_Warwick, and that the bag he carried _was_ the missing bag, we'd betternot accuse him."

  There was a pause; the secret agent looked at the stained blood smearfor a moment and then continued:

  "There is still another person--the fourth and last. This personpossessed the marked symptoms of a common complaint--chills followed byfever. To this person I know Dr. Morse gave quinine."

  "Well?" asked Fuller, eagerly.

  "Chills and fever are indications of malaria--quinine is the invariableremedy for that complaint. And the light blue spots which you see inthat smear of blood," pointing to the microscope, "are the germs of thatsame disease."

  For a moment Fuller stood as though transfixed.

  "You have the man!" he cried at last. "You have him beyond the shadow ofa doubt! To think," in great admiration, "that he should be found out insuch an unusual way. Why, it is one of the----" Here he paused, theenthusiasm died from his face, and he added slowly: "But suppose thatblood clot was not left upon the drawer pull at the time you think. Theman may have been in the library during the afternoon upon a perfectlylegitimate errand."

  But Ashton-Kirk shook his head.

  "No," said he. "It happened last night about the time of the murder. Ifit had been earlier the blood would have been dry and hard to the core."

  "I see," said Fuller. "I recall that you were surprised at its havingretained any softness, even at that. But there is something else. IfMiss Corbin is sure that Drevenoff did not descend from the third floor,after once going to his room, how do you account for his presence in thelibrary at that time?"

  "Miss Corbin was in position to see Drevenoff as he ascended the backstairs. She did not see him descend, and so concluded that he could nothave done so. As a matter of fact he could have gained the first floorwithout any trouble by passing through some unoccupied rooms upon thethird floor, and using the front or main staircase."

  "Then that's it," declared Fuller. "He came down that way while the oldservant was in the kitchen seeing to the coffee, did his work and wentback to his room by the same route. But," with a puzzled look upon hisface, "what in the world ever drew your attention to Drevenoff in thefirst place--that is, what made you think it might be his blood upon thehandle of the drawer?"

  "Do you recall that while I was examining the desk I stopped to listen?"

  "Yes, and told me to put out the lights."

  "The sound that I heard came from the room in the rear of the library;when I asked you to switch off the lights it was because I wanted toopen the door between the two rooms without the knowledge of the personwho may have made the sound."

  "You saw no one?"

  "No. But I heard something like quick footsteps going down the hall, andthen the soft closing of the street door."

  "By George, I heard that, too," said Fuller, remembering.

  "Some one had been in the room in the rear of the library," saidAshton-Kirk. "What I heard in the first place was perhaps some sort ofsound made as he was stealing away. Drevenoff was the last person I hadseen in the hall, and naturally he was suggested to me as the cause ofthe sounds."

  "But you had told him to go to the police station."

  "Told him--yes. But if you will remember, he had not yet gone when weentered the library. He said that the police station was a matter offour blocks; if he had gone at once he would have reached there longbefore I heard the sound in the back room. I at once went to the 'phone,which I had noticed in the back hall, and called up the station inquestion. No; he had not yet reached there. Would the sergeant kindlymake a private note of when he did? The sergeant would."

  "And did he?"

  "He whispered it to me as I was leaving the house later. Drevenoffreached the police station less than ten minutes after I called themup--just about the length of time it would take him to get there if itwere he who had been in the rear room."

  "Ah!"

  "The man's actions seemed suspicious, even before I received thisapparent verification; also I had not forgotten the intelligence we hadgathered concerning his father. So when I came upon the blood clot Inaturally had him in mind; the symptoms of malaria and the quinine cameback to me, and I at once determined upon this test on the chance thatit would turn out as it has."

  "I think you have sufficient evidence to have him taken at once." ButAshton-Kirk shook his head.

  "It would be enough to hold him on, at any rate," protested Fuller. "Andif he's not arrested now, he may escape, and Dr. Morse's murder will gounavenged."

  The secret agent took up his big German pipe.

  "The murder of Dr. Morse," said he, "is a most frightful crime againstsociety. I am perfectly willing to do what I can to trace the criminal,b
ut don't forget that the important matter with us is another thingentirely."

  "You mean the document, or whatever it was, which was stolen byDrevenoff's father?"

  "Which _may_ have been stolen by Drevenoff's father. Exactly. The murderof Dr. Morse is only incidental to this." Here the pipe was lighted andheavy clouds of smoke began to rise. "And even though young Drevenoff_should_ prove to be the murderer, I don't think we need fear hisattempting to escape."

  "No?"

  "No. For some little time, at any rate, it will be perfectly safe togive him a free foot; indeed, it may prove to be of great advantage tous to do so. He has not yet found the thing of which he is in search.That is plain. If he had, he would have been off before now. So, for atime at least, it will be highly interesting to watch his movements; forwho knows but what it is through him that we are to save the governmentmuch embarrassment."

  Fuller regarded his employer, the huge pipe and the smoke clouds whichrose lazily above both; there was much speculation in his eye.

  "You have not lost sight of the Japanese?" said he.

  "The Japanese!" Ashton-Kirk took the amber bit from his mouth and hiswhite teeth gleamed as he laughed. "Oh, no! I have not forgotten them.Mr. Okiu and his friend Mr. Humadi interest me exceedingly.