Everything was so damned convenient, Roy Auckland thought: the poisoned soup which was sure to have been discovered because Phrecle always brought the thermos bottles to the party when they knocked off for lunch; the obvious bomb, placed after suspicion had been aroused by the first attempt. Careful questioning had revealed that anyone might have put it there during the lunchtime siesta when no one was paying much attention to where anyone else went.

Dr. James had said that he hadn't considered the possibility of another attempt so soon, and that he had been trying to give the appearance of normality. Yes, it was in character.

But others might have tried to open the fatal box, which must have been substituted for the original before supper. Burleigh and Edholm had not gone out; either might have gone to the lab, seen the box there, and started to fool around with it. If your fingers happened to cover both solid black squares simultaneously, and you squeezed, the top flew open. It wasn't likely to happen by accident, but it could happen.

The obvious conclusion was that three persons knew how to open the boxes: Shirley, who had made an imitation; Dr. James, the intended victim; and Glamis, the actual one. Shirley or James could have told Glamis how it was done.

And there was one more possibility: the person who had rigged the needle, if that person were neither James nor Shirley. But he had to consider the possibility that Howard James had planned the murder of Kenneth

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