The Treasure-Train | Page 4

an act of omission
would count for as much as an act of commission. Whoever could
foresee what was going to happen might capitalize that information for
much money. If there was a plot and Barnes had been a victim, what
was its nature? I recalled Miss Euston's overheard conversation in the
tea-room. Both names had been mentioned. In short, I soon found
myself wondering whether some one might not have tempted Lane
either to do or not to do something.
"I wish you'd go over to the St. Germaine, Walter," remarked Kennedy,
at length, looking up from his work. "Don't tell Miss Euston of Lane's
visit. But ask her if she will keep an eye out for that woman she heard
talking--and the man, too. They may drop in again. And tell her that if
she hears anything else, no matter how trivial, about Barnes, she must
let me know."
I was glad of the commission. Not only had I been unable to arrive
anywhere in my conjectures, but it was something even to have a
chance to talk with a girl like Maude Euston.
Fortunately I found her at home and, though she was rather
disappointed that I had nothing to report, she received me graciously,
and we spent the rest of the evening watching the varied life of the
fashionable hostelry in the hope of chancing on the holders of the
strange conversation in the tea-room.
Once in a while an idea would occur to her of some one who was in a
position to keep her informed if anything further happened to Barnes,
and she would despatch a messenger with a little note. Finally, as it
grew late and the adventuress of the tea-room episode seemed unlikely
to favor the St. Germaine with her presence again that night, I made my

excuses, having had the satisfaction only of having delivered Kennedy's
message, without accomplishing anything more. In fact, I was still
unable to determine whether there was any sentiment stronger than
sympathy that prompted her to come to Kennedy about Barnes. As for
Lane, his name was scarcely mentioned except when it was necessary.
It was early the next morning that I rejoined Craig at the laboratory. I
found him studying the solution which he had extracted from the
blood-soaked gauze after first removing the blood in a little distilled
water.
Before him was his new spectroscope, and I could see that now he was
satisfied with what the uncannily delicate light-detective had told him.
He pricked his finger and let a drop of blood fall into a little fresh
distilled water, some of which he placed in the spectroscope.
"Look through it," he said. "Blood diluted with water shows the
well-known dark bands between D and E, known as the
oxyhemoglobin absorption." I looked as he indicated and saw the dark
bands. "Now," he went on, "I add some of this other liquid."
He picked up a bottle of something with a faint greenish tinge.
"See the bands gradually fade?"
I watched, and indeed they did diminish in intensity and finally
disappear, leaving an uninterrupted and brilliant spectrum.
"My spectroscope," he said, simply, "shows that the blood-crystals of
Barnes are colorless. Barnes was poisoned--by some gas, I think. I wish
I had time to hunt along the road where the accident took place." As he
said it, he walked over and drew from a cabinet several peculiar
arrangements made of gauze.
He was about to say something more when there came a knock at the
door. Kennedy shoved the gauze arrangements into his pocket and
opened it. It was Maude Euston, breathless and agitated.

"Oh, Mr. Kennedy, have you heard?" she cried. "You asked me to keep
a watch whether anything more happened to Mr. Barnes. So I asked
some friends of his to let me know of anything. He has a yacht, the Sea
Gull, which has been lying off City Island. Well, last night the captain
received a message to go to the hospital, that Mr. Barnes wanted to see
him. Of course it was a fake. Mr. Barnes was too sick to see anybody
on business. But when the captain got back, he found that, on one
pretext or another, the crew had been got ashore--and the Sea Gull is
gone--stolen! Some men in a small boat must have overpowered the
engineer. Anyhow, she has disappeared. I know that no one could
expect to steal a yacht--at least for very long. She'd be recognized soon.
But they must know that, too."
Kennedy looked at his watch.
"It is only a few hours since the train started from Halifax," he
considered. "It will be due in New York early to-morrow morning--
twenty million dollars in gold and thirty millions in securities-- a
seven-car steel train,