understandable than the study holding Kennedy's interest. Though I could not grasp it,
curiosity kept me hovering close.
"You see"--Nagoya spoke as he finished the test he was making at the moment--"without
a doubt it is crotalin, the venom of the rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus."
"There was no snake actually present," I hastened to explain, breaking in. Then at a
glance from Kennedy I stopped, abashed, for all this had been made clear to the scientist.
"It is not necessary," Nagoya replied, turning to me with the politeness characteristic of
the East. "Crotalin can be obtained now with fair ease. It is a drug used in a new
treatment of epilepsy which is being tried out at many hospitals."
I nodded my thanks, not wanting to interrupt again.
Kennedy pressed on to the next point he wished established. "That was the spot on the
portieres. Now the ampulla."
"Also crotalin." Doctor Nagoya spoke positively.
"How about this solution?" Kennedy took from my package the tube with the liquid made
from the faint spots on the towel which I had found and which had been our first clue. "It
is not crotalin."
The Japanese turned to his laboratory table.
Kennedy muttered some vague suggestions which were too technical for me but which
seemed to enable Nagoya to eliminate a great deal of work. The test progressed rapidly.
Finally the savant stepped back, regarding the solution with a very satisfied smile.
"It is," he explained, carefully, "some of the very anticrotalus venin which we have
perfected right here in the institute."
Kennedy nodded. "I suspected as much." There was great elation in his manner. "You
see, I had heard all about your wonderful work."
"Yes!" Nagoya waved his hand around at the wonderfully equipped room, only one detail
in the many arrangements for medical research made possible by the generosity of
Castleton. "Yes," he repeated, proud of his laboratory, as he well might be, "we have
made a great deal of progress in the development of protective sera--antivenins, we call
them."
"Are they distributed widely?" Kennedy asked, thoughtfully.
"All over the world. We are practically the only source of supply."
