“Pardon my rather brusk reception of you,” he apologized. “I did not know that. Was it recently—suddenly?”
“Both recently and suddenly.”
“I did not know that I seldom read the papers, and have not looked at one lately. I had not heard that he was ill.”
“'He wasn't, Colonel Ashley. Mr. Carwell died very suddenly on the Maraposa Golf Club links, after making a stroke that gave him the championship.”
“Heart disease or apoplexy?”
“Neither one. It was poison.”
“You amaze me, Mr.—er—Mr.—”
“Bartlett. Yes, Mr. Carwell died of poison, as the autopsy showed.”
“'Was he—did he—”
“That is what we want to find out,” interrupted the messenger eagerly. “The county physician says Mr. Carwell is a suicide. His daughter, Miss Viola, can not believe it. Nor can I. There has been some talk that his affairs are involved. As you may have known, he was somewhat of a—”