"Oh, he was murdered all right. Poisoned.

But you know what these poisoning cases are like. It's very tricky getting the evidence.

Very tricky. All the possibilities may point one way -" amp; "That's what I'm trying to get at. You've got it all taped out in your mind, haven't you?"

"It's a case of very strong probability.

It's one of those obvious things. The perfect set-up. But I don't know, I'm sure. It's tricky."

I looked appealingly at the Old Man.

He said slowly:

"In murder cases, as you know, Charles, the obvious is usually the right solution.

Old Leonides married again, ten years ago."

"When he was seventy five?"

"Yes, he married a young woman of twenty four." t I whistled.

"What sort of a young woman."

"A young woman out of a tea shop. A perfectly respectable young woman - good looking in an anaemic 5 apathetic sort of way."

"And she's the strong probability?"

"I ask you, sir," said Taverner. "She's only thirty four now - and that's a dangerous age. She likes living soft. And there's a young man in the house. Tutor to the grandchildren. Not been in the war - got a bad heart or something. They're as thick as thieves."^ | I looked at him thoughtfully. It was, certainly, an old and familiar pattern. The mixture as before. And the second Mrs. | Leonides was, my father had emphasized, very respectable. In the name of respectabi| lity many murders have been committed.

"What was it?" I asked. "Arsenic?"

"No. We haven't got the analyst's report yet - but the doctor thinks it's eserine."

"That's a little unusual, isn't it? Surely easy to trace purchaser."

"Not this thing. It was his own stuff, you see. Eyedrops."

"Leonides suffered from diabetes," said my father. "He had regular injections of 11 insulin. Insulin is given out in small bottles with a rubber cap. A hypodermic needle is | pressed down through the rubber cap and the injection drawn up."