“Then who was it whom I saw and believed to be my brother?” she demanded.
“Ah!” said the detective, “that is another matter. I think, however, that we will experience very little difficulty in determining that question, when once I have had access to the lares and penates in the room of Ramon Orizaba. However, I see Doctor Pollock returning, and so I will leave you two together, with the injunction that you had better go to your mother as soon as convenient. And, Danton, within a few hours it must be generally known that your guest was murdered, so I would suggest that you prepare your mother for the intelligence. In fact, I wish you would tell her at once, for it is more than likely that I will find it necessary to talk the matter over with her soon. Now, just one more suggestion. I think you owe it to your sister to tell her everything that has occurred, just as you told it to me, and to add to the telling all that has taken place since you entered my house this morning. You may also tell her who I am, and why I am here.”
The detective left them then and hurried across the lawn to meet the doctor who had returned according to his promise, and together they repaired at once to the room where the body of Ramon Orizaba had been taken—to the rooms he had occupied always when he was a guest at Linden Fells.
“Doctor,” said Nick, when they were alone together in the room and had closed and locked the door behind them, “I have asked this favor of you for two reasons. One is because I want a good, reliable witness to all that happens and to support every discovery I may make, and the other is because I require your professional services as an expert. The undertakers will be here shortly, and we will then have to turn the body over to them, but, in the meantime, we can easily complete such researches as it is necessary to make.
“You will find, to begin with, that this man was killed by a needle which was thrust into the back of his neck. Come; we will turn the body over and search for it, and I will ask you to withdraw it for use as evidence. There is the only mark left by the wound. It is scarcely perceptible, is it?”
“No. I should not have seen it at all if you had not drawn my attention to it.”
“Will you extract the needle? The broken end must be quite close to the surface of the skin.”
“Are you sure it is there?”
“Positive.”
“Just beneath the skin?”