Addison," he said, "we should know all there is
to know about 'the _Oritoga_ mystery.' But I think we should have
advanced a long step towards this information if we could apprehend
the Eurasian. Of course we have gathered up all the ragged details of
the Red House incident: I refer to the carter who delivered the crate
and collected it in the morning, of the caterer who supplied the
supper and so forth. As I had fully expected, none of the evidence
helped us at all."
"'The voice,'" I began.
"Exactly! The same 'voice' beyond a doubt, and the whole thing worked
through the means of district messengers and others, telephonically
instructed. No one appeared throughout, Mr. Addison."
"Yet," I said deliberately, "there was one point at which some one
_must_ have appeared--"
"Yes," he interrupted, "some one dragged the body out of that
supper-room, down to the garage, and packed it in the crate."
"You have definitely convinced yourself that the telephone device was
practiced there?"
"Beyond question. Haven't you seen the exchange number? That plug
where at some time a gas-fitting had been fixed up in the wall--you
remember?--proved on investigation to communicate with an empty room
adjoining. The gas cylinder was placed there of course, and the
telephone in the recess of the supper-room, where, fastened in by the
velvet curtain, any one using the poison installation would be
suffocated almost immediately.
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