The automobile started for town fifteen
or twenty minutes ago to bring her home."
"Keep your shirt on, Court," warned Charlie Webster. "You'll bust a
blood vessel. Cool off! There's no use talkin' about GETTING him.
Whoever it was that planted these dog-buttons around town was
slick enough to cover up his tracks. We'll never find out who did
it. It's happened before, and the result is always the same. Dead
dogs tell no tales."
"But those two fellows I saw down at the corner last night--"
"Would you be able to identify them?"
"No,--hang it all! It was too dark. It was about half-past nine.
Why, earlier in the evening I was at Miss Crown's. I saw the dog.
He was on the terrace. He growled at me,--he always growled at me.
He didn't like me. Mrs. Strong came to the door and called him into
the house. I am sure he was all right then. When is he supposed to
have got the poison, Doctor?"
"This morning. She let him out of the house about seven o'clock.
Paid no attention to him till he came crawling around to the
kitchen door some time afterward. He just laid down and kicked a few
times,--that's what makes me think it was prussic acid. It knocks
'em quick."
"Come on, Charlie," cried Courtney, clutching the other's arm. "We
must go up to the house. There may be some trace,--something that
will give us a clue."
He was at the house when the car returned without Alix.
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