“Have you any opinion as to the cause?”
“I would say it was caused by inhaling some very powerful corrosive gas, possibly of a deadly nature, though from what it was derived or how administered I cannot imagine, even if I am right. I am going to submit them to tests, however, also the blood, that may enable me to form a more definite opinion and solve the problem.”
“Do you think there is any problem, doctor, or any doubt, to put it more properly, that Gaston Todd died an unnatural death?”
“No, not the slightest, Mr. Carter.”
“Do you think it the result of a crime?”
“Well, I think the circumstances warrant very serious suspicions,” Doctor Marvin said gravely.
“So do I,” Nick declared. “As a matter of fact, gentlemen, I feel reasonably sure that Gaston Todd was, with some strange and atrocious means, most foully murdered.”
“We agree with you,” Coroner Kane now asserted. “There are other circumstances which warrant that suspicion.”
“You mean?”
“They involve a young man known to have had feelings of bitter enmity for Todd, with whom he had an angry altercation night before last and who was seen leaving the Waldmere Chambers only a minute or two before Todd was found dead on the corridor floor.”