“Marshall Maddox was overcome by the poison gas contained in a
thin-shelled bomb that was thrown through his state-room window. The
corrosion of the metal in the room gave me a clue to that. Then――”
“But what is this poison gas?” I demanded, horrified.
Kennedy looked at me fixedly a moment. “Chlorine,” he replied,
simply; adding, “the spectroscope shows that there is a total absence
of pigment in the blood. You can readily see that it is no wonder,
if it has this action, that death is sometimes so rapid as to be
almost instantaneous. Why, man alive, this thing destroys without
the possibility of reconstitution! It is devilish in the quantity he
inhaled it.”