There they led right into a little water tank. Kennedy
yanked them out. As he did so he pulled something with them.
"Two electrodes--the villain placed there," he exclaimed, holding
them up triumphantly for me to see.
"Y-yes," I replied dubiously, "but what does it all mean?"
"Why, don't you see? Under the influence of the electric current
the water was decomposed and gave off oxygen and hydrogen. The
free hydrogen passed up the furnace pipe and combining with the
arsenic in the wall paper formed the deadly arseniuretted
hydrogen."
He cast the whole improvised electrolysis apparatus on the floor
and dashed up the cellar steps.
"I've found it!" he cried, hurrying into Elaine's room. "It's in
this room--a deadly gas--arseniuretted hydrogen."
He tore open the windows and threw them all open. "Have her
moved," he cried to Aunt Josephine. "Then have a vacuum cleaner go
over every inch of wall, carpet and upholstery."
Standing beside her, he breathlessly explained his discovery.
"That wall paper has been loaded down with arsenic, probably Paris
green or Schweinfurth green, which is aceto-arsenite of copper.
Every minute you are here, you are breathing arseniuretted
hydrogen. The Clutching Hand has cleverly contrived to introduce
the nascent gas into the room. That acts on the arsenic compounds
in the wall paper and hangings and sets free the gas.
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