"And very speedy death," added the colonel. "Witness what happened to poor little Chet. The watch was wound up—I wound it myself as a matter of fact, though I did not dream that the time mechanism had anything to do with the poisoned needle. Then the dog, playing with it, as he would with a bone, bit on the rim, just at the time when the needle was set to operate. It shot out, punctured his lip, and Chet died."
"Did you know it was a poisoned watch?" asked Jack Young.
"I had guessed that after what happened, and that is why I warned Donovan to be careful. But, as I said, I thought it was like a sword cane or a spring dagger—that only pressure on a certain part was needed to force out the needle with its death-carrying smear of some subtle Indian poison. I never dreamed it was like an alarm clock."
"Well, it was," said Mr. Kettridge. "I can easily see all the parts, now that I have taken it apart, and the time-setting arrangement is very compact, simple and effective."
"You were careful not to scratch yourself on the needle?" asked the colonel quickly.
"Oh, yes indeed! I took that out first. But do you think, Colonel, in spite of what I have said about Jimmie not knowing how this watch operated, and, presumably, not having done any work on it—do you think he can have planned to kill Mrs. Darcy with it?"
"Hardly. And yet it is possible that Mrs. Darcy may have been killed by the watch."
"Killed by it?—how?" gasped Jack Young. "I thought she was stabbed, and her skull fractured."
"She had both those injuries, it is true. But what is to have prevented her from having been punctured by the watch just before she received those hurts?
"I mean in this way," went on the colonel. "We will assume that Singa Phut, finding some trifling thing the matter with his devilish watch, brought it to the Darcy shop, where he was fairly well known.