"Boyd!" shouted Warren. "Oh, preposterous!"
"That is what I thought—at first."
"Why, why, damn it, man!" exclaimed Warren. "Doctor John wouldn't do such a thing. He is just a hot-tempered, peppery old Southern——"
"Exactly, sir, and has been accused of passing information through our lines. Time and again he has been threatened with arrest."
Warren mopped his hot face; then dropped back into his chair. "Go ahead and explain your theory more definitely," he directed abruptly.
"Doctor John is devoted to Miss Newton. I don't doubt he has assisted her on many occasions—" Ward checked his hasty speech. He did not wish to convince Warren that Nancy was a spy. That would not be doing her a service.
"Listen to me, Senator," he checked off his remarks on his fingers to emphasize them. "Doctor John Boyd is the only person who has any curari in this city—to that I am willing to swear. Miss Newton may have confided to him that Lloyd suspected her of being a spy, and that she feared him. Doctor John may have overheard Lloyd when he told Symonds that he had absolute proof of her guilt. He attends several of Mrs. Lane's boarders professionally, and may have been in the house at that time."
"Hold on, hold on; not so fast, man," cautioned Warren. "It is not likely Doctor John went about carrying poison in his pocket, and how was it possible for him to be there at the psychological moment?"
"You forget his office is next door to Mrs. Lane's; it would not have taken him five minutes to get the poison and reënter the boarding house. Secondly," as Warren still stared at him with unbelieving eyes, "Doctor John disappeared that night and has not been heard of since."