As for the autopsy that was performed on Marchant, it did, indeed, show that he was suffering from hardening of the arteries, due to his manner of living, as Karatoff had asserted.  Indeed, the police succeeded in showing that it was just for that trouble that Marchant was going to Karatoff, which, to my mind, seemed quite sufficient to establish the therapeutic hypnotist as all that Gaines had accused him of being.  Even to my lay mind the treatment of arteriosclerosis by mental healing seemed, to say the least, incongruous.

Yet the evidence against Karatoff and Errol was so flimsy that they had little trouble in getting released on bail, though, of course, it was fixed very high.

My own inquiries among the other reporters on the Star who might know something offered a more promising lead.  I soon found that Errol had none too savory a reputation.  His manner of life had added nothing to his slender means, and there was a general impression among his fellow club-members that unfortunate investments had made serious inroads into the principal of his fortune.  Still, I hesitated to form even an opinion on gossip.

Quite unsatisfied with the result of my investigation, I could not restrain my impatience to get back to the laboratory to find out whether Kennedy had made any progress in his tests of the tea.

“If you had been five minutes earlier,” he greeted me, “you would have been surprised to find a visitor.”

“A visitor?” I repeated.  “Who?”

“Carita Belleville,” he replied, enjoying my incredulity.

“What could she want?” I asked, at length.

“That’s what I’ve been wondering,” he agreed “Her excuse was plausible.  She said that she had just heard why I had come with Gaines.  I suppose it was half an hour that she spent endeavoring to convince me that Karatoff and Errol could not possibly have had any other connection than accidental with the death of Marchant.”

“Could it have been a word for them and half an hour for herself?” I queried, mystified.

Kennedy shrugged.  “I can’t say.  At any rate, I must see both Karatoff and Errol, now that they are out.  Perhaps they did send her, thinking I might fall for her.  She hinted pretty broadly at using my influence with Gaines on his report.  Then, again, she may simply have been wondering how she herself stood.”

“Have you found anything?” I asked, noticing that his laboratory table was piled high with its usual paraphernalia.

“Yes,” he replied, laconically, taking a bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid and pouring a few drops in a beaker of slightly tinged water.

The water turned slowly to a beautiful green.  No sooner was the reaction complete than he took some bromine and added it.  Slowly again the water changed, this time from the green to a peculiar violet red.  Adding more water restored the green color.

“That’s the Grandeau test,” he nodded, with satisfaction.  “I’ve tried the physiological test, too, with frogs from the biological department, and it shows the effect on the heart that I—­”