I caught Leslie’s eye as he gave the last information.  Though I did not know much about beriberi, I had read of it, and knew that it was especially prevalent in the Orient.  I did not know what importance to attach to Kato and his going home at night.

“Have you done any investigating yourself?” asked Kennedy.

Leslie hesitated a moment, as though deprecating his own efforts in that line, though when he spoke I could see no reason why he should, except that it had so often happened that Kennedy had seen the obvious which was hidden from most of those who consulted him.

“Yes,” he replied, “I thought perhaps there might be some motive back of it all which I might discover.  Possibly it was old Mrs. Marbury’s fortune—­not a large one, but substantial.  So it occurred to me that the will might show it.  I have been to the surrogate.”

“And?” prompted Kennedy, approvingly.

“Mrs. Marbury’s will has already been offered for probate.  It directs, among other things, that twenty-five thousand dollars be given by her daughter, to whom she leaves the bulk of her fortune, to Doctor Aitken, who had been Mr. Marbury’s physician and her own.”

Leslie looked at us significantly, but Kennedy made no comment.

“Would you like to go up there and see them?” urged the commissioner, anxious to get Craig’s final word on whether he would co-operate in the affair.

“I certainly should,” returned Kennedy, heartily, folding up the letter which had first attracted his interest.  “It looks as if there were more to this thing than a mere disease, however unusual.”

Doctor Leslie could not conceal his satisfaction, and without delaying a moment more than was necessary hurried us out into one of the department cars, which he had left waiting outside, and directed the driver to take us to the Forum Apartments, one of the newest and most fashionable on the Drive.

Miss Langdale met us at the door and admitted us into the apartment.  She was a striking type of trained nurse, one of those who seem bubbling over with health and vivacity.  She seemed solicitous of her patients and reluctant to have them disturbed, yet apparently not daring to refuse to admit Doctor Leslie.  There was nothing in her solicitude, however, that one could take exception to.

Miss Langdale conducted us softly down a hallway through the middle of the apartment, and I noted quickly how it was laid out.  On one side we passed a handsomely furnished parlor and dining-room, opposite which were the kitchen and butler’s pantry, and, farther along, a bedroom and the bath.  On down the hall, on the right, was Doctor Wardlaw’s study, or rather den, for it was more of a library than an office.

The nurse led the way, and we entered.  Through the windows one caught a beautiful vista of the Drive, the river, and the Jersey shore.  I gazed about curiously.  Around the room there were bookcases and cabinets, a desk, some easy-chairs, and in the corner a table on which were some of Wardlaw’s paraphernalia, for, although he was not a practising physician, he still specialized in his favorite branches of eye and ear surgery.