"Not the slightest," said Braile.
"Let's consider the murder theory. Ricori, you have had more experience in this line than we, so listen
carefully and forget your witch," I said, brutally enough. "There are three essential factors to any
murder-method, opportunity, motive. Take them in order. First-the method.
"There are three ways a person can be killed by poison or by infection: through the nose-and this
includes by gases-through the mouth and through the skin. There are two or three other avenues.
Hamlet's father, for example, was poisoned, we read, through the ears, although I've always had my
doubts about that. I think, pursuing the hypothesis of murder, we can bar out all approaches except
mouth, nose, skin-and, by the last, entrance to the blood can be accomplished by absorption as well as
by penetration. Was there any evidence whatever on the skin, in the membranes of the respiratory