briskly, betraying no sign of hesitation. "I think the best thing
we can do is to go to my own laboratory. There at least there is
something I must investigate sooner or later."

No one offering either a suggestion or an objection, we four again
entered our cab. It was quite noticeable now that the visit had
shaken Paula Lowe, but Kennedy still studiously refrained from
questioning her, trusting that what she had seen and heard,
especially Burke's report as to Baron Kreiger, would have its
effect.

Like everyone visiting Craig's laboratory for the first time, Miss
Lowe seemed to feel the spell of the innumerable strange and
uncanny instruments which he had gathered about him in his
scientific warfare against crime. I could see that she was
becoming more and more nervous, perhaps fearing even that in some
incomprehensible way he might read her own thoughts. Yet one thing
I did not detect. She showed no disposition to turn back on the
course on which she had entered by coming to us in the first
place.

Kennedy was quickly and deftly testing the stub of the little
thin, gold-tipped cigarette.

"Excessive smoking," he remarked casually, "causes neuroses of the
heart and tobacco has a specific affinity for the coronary
arteries as well as a tremendous effect on the vagus nerve. But I
don't think this was any ordinary smoke."

He had finished his tests and a quiet smile of satisfaction