"The stain must have come from
the point of the pin, and when the pin was drawn out of the box, not
when it was thrust into it. In the latter case the pin point would have
been cleansed before passing through the lining, and the stain would
have been on the outside rather than the inside."
"Surely."
"Then it at once became plain that Mary Barton, while sitting there, had
thrust her hat pin through one of the previously made apertures,
possibly aiming to discover in this way what the box contained, and in
so doing she probably pricked the confined reptile."
"Ah, I see," nodded Chick. "All this strongly indicated that something
might have been confined in the casket."
"Yes, certainly. Not thus learning what the box contained," continued
Nick, "Mary Barton decided to open it. The moment she raised the lid the
snake, probably angered by its wound and long confinement, instantly
struck at her hand, snake-fashion, and buried its fangs in her wrist."
"Hence the tiny, red spot which you so quickly discovered."
"Precisely."
"Very shrewd of you, Nick."
"Greatly frightened, the girl probably fainted, and fell to the ground,"
added Nick, in conclusion of the deductions by which he had solved the
remarkable mystery.
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