A LARGE BLONDE LADY
Reaching The Haven, Colonel Ashley, who had trailed LeGrand Blossom to the latter's boarding place without anything having developed, was met by Shag, who was up later than usual, for it was now close to midnight.
"What now, Shag!" exclaimed the colonel."Don't tell me there are any more detective cases for me to work on.I simply won't listen.I wish I hadn't to this one.It's getting more and more tangled every minute, and the fish are biting well.Hang it all, Shag, why did you let me take up this golf course mystery?""I didn't do it, Colonel, no, sah!"
"What's the use of talking that way, Shag!You know you did!""Yes, sah, Colonel.Dat's whut I did!" confessed Shag with a grin.When the colonel was in this mood there was nothing for it but to agree with him.
"And it's the worst tangle you ever got me into!" went on Shag's master."There's no head or tail to it.""Den it ain't laik a fish; am it?" asked Shag, with the freedom of long years of faithful service.
"No, it isn't - worse luck!" stormed the colonel."I never saw such a case.The diamond cross mystery was nothing like it.""But I thought, Colonel, sah, dat de mo' of a puzzle it were, de bettah yo' laiked it!" ventured Shag.
Colonel Ashley tried to repress a smile.
"Get to bed, you black rascal!" he said with an affectionate pat on Shag's back."Get to bed! What are you staying up so late for, anyhow?""To gib yo' a message, Colonel, sah," answered Shag."Miss Viola done say I was t' wait up, an', when yo' come in, t' tell yo' dat she wants t' see you.""Oh, all right.Where is she?"
"In de liberry, Colonel, sah!"
The detective made his way through the dimly-lighted hall, and, on tapping at the library door, was bidden by Viola to enter.
"Still up?" he asked."It was time for you to be asleep long ago if you want your eyes to keep as bright as they always are.""They don't feel very bright," she answered, with a little laugh."They seem to be full of sticks.But I wanted to ask you something - to consult with you - and I didn't want to go to sleep without doing it.I want you to read these," and she spread out before him the letters she had found hidden in the drawer of the safe.
Colonel Ashley, in silence, looked over one document after another, including the torn ones.When he had finished he looked across the table at Viola.
"What do you make of it?" she asked."I don't know," he frankly confessed."But we must find out if your father owed the captain anything - for money advanced in an emergency, or for anything else.Who would know about the money affairs?""Mr.Blossom.He has full charge of the office now, and access to all the books.Aunt Mary and I have to trust to him for everything.It is all we can do.""Yes, I suppose so," agreed the detective.And he did not speak of the scene of which he had recently been a witness.
"Then if you will come with me, we will go the first thing in the morning to father's office and see LeGrand Blossom," decided Viola."We will ask Mr.Blossom if he knows anything about the debt between my father and Captain Poland.""It would be wise, I think."
And as the colonel retired that night he said, musingly:
"Another angle, and another tangle.I must read a little Izaak Walton to compose my mind."So he opened the little green book and read this observation from the Venator:
"And as for the dogs that we use, who can commend their excellency to that height which they deserve?How perfect is the houndat smelling, who never leaves or forsakes his first scent, but follows it through so many changes and varieties of other scents, even over and in the water, and into the earth.""Ah," mused the colonel, "I think I must cling to my first scent, and follow it through or over the water or into the earth."Then, laying aside the little green book, with its atmosphere of calm delight, he picked up a little thin volume, which bore on its title page "The Poisonous Plants of New Jersey."And in that he read:
"The water hemlock (Cicuta maculata L.) is the mostpoisonous plant in the flora of the United States,and has probablydestroyed more human lives than allour other toxic plants combined.As amember of theparsley family (Umbellifera) it resembles in general appearance the carrot and parsnip of the same group ofplants.Itgrows in swampy land.The poisoning of the human is chiefly with the fleshy roots.
"The active principle of this cicuta is the volatile alkaloid canine, common also to the poison hemlock (Conium macula turn L.) The symptoms of the poisoning are many, including violent contraction of the muscles,dilated pupils and epilepsy...No antidote for caninepoisoning is known...The active canine...was thepoison employed by the Greeks in putting prisoners todeath, Socrates being one of its illustrious victims."And having read that much, Colonel Ashley looked at a little slip in the book.It bore the penciled memorandum "58 C.H.- ~I6I*.""I wonder - I wonder," mused the colonel, and so wondering, and with fitful dreams attending his slumbers, he passed the night.
Jean Forette drove the colonel and Viola to the office.They arrived rather early.In fact LeGrand Blossom was not yet in, and when he did enter, a few minutes later, he was plainly surprised to see them.
