The Azure Ring by Arthur B. Reeve
The Azure Ring* by Arthur B. Reeve is a mystery story featuring scientific detective Craig Kennedy and his journalist companion Walter Jameson, who are called in by the Westchester County district attorney to investigate the deaths of two young lovers found dead on the eve of their wedding. Laura Wainwright, a popular young woman from a respectable Westchester family, and her fiancé John Templeton, a promising New York attorney, are discovered dead in the library of her family home, seated together on a davenport, their right hands clasped. No one is known to have visited them, the door was unlocked but not forced, and investigators cannot agree on a cause of death. The coroner believes the victims were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide fumes from an antique charcoal brazier in the room, while the district attorney suspects poison. Chemical tests yield inconclusive and contradictory results, leaving the case at a standstill after a week of investigation. Kennedy dismisses all existing hypotheses and starts fresh, quickly determining through blood analysis that carbon monoxide was not the cause and that the chemical traces found are not cyanide. He identifies a dark precipitate in the blood samples that points him toward an exotic and little-known poison. To confirm his findings and establish a lethal dose, he injects progressively larger quantities of the extracted substance into himself, suffering alarming symptoms including paralysis of the chest muscles and extreme respiratory distress, but surviving to complete his investigation. Meanwhile, Jameson investigates the backgrounds of several figures connected to the victims. He learns that Laura had previously been married to Schuyler Vanderdyke, a charming but dissolute man who had caused their divorce through his relationship with a woman known as Miss Laporte, later appearing as Mrs. Ralston. Both Vanderdyke and Mrs. Ralston had been operating fraudulent investment schemes in New York and South America, and Templeton, in his capacity as a special legal master investigating financial fraud, had been pursuing cases against them. The two schemers are revealed to have worked together across multiple South American countries, switching sides in political conflicts for personal gain, and to have had a close personal relationship spanning years. Kennedy assembles all relevant parties in his laboratory, including the Wainwright family, the coroner, the district attorney, Vanderdyke, and Mrs. Ralston, and reveals that the poison is curare, also called woorali, derived from the Strychnos toxifera tree of South America. It kills by producing complete paralysis of the respiratory muscles, mimicking asphyxiation, while leaving consciousness and sensation largely intact until the very end. It is virtually undetectable because it leaves no distinctive chemical signature familiar to contemporary forensic examiners. Kennedy demonstrates its effects on mice and explains how he confirmed its presence in the victims' blood. He accuses Vanderdyke of having visited the house on the afternoon of the deaths, and Vanderdyke, having secretly administered curare to himself through his own device, can only raise his hand in faint confirmation before lapsing into paralysis. The weapon is the ring itself, a blue lapis lazuli ring with a hollow spring-loaded point concealed behind the stone, capable of delivering a fatal scratch during a handshake. Vanderdyke had visited Templeton under the pretense of goodwill, shaken hands with him and apparently with Laura as well, and administered the poison undetected. Mrs. Ralston, in her grief, attempts to poison herself by rubbing the curare gourd against her tongue, but Kennedy calmly notes that curare is largely inert when swallowed and that she is in no danger. Kennedy uses artificial respiration and oxygen to attempt to revive Vanderdyke after his confession, achieving momentary partial recovery, but Vanderdyke then deliberately drags the ring's poisoned point across his own face, introducing a fresh fatal dose and placing himself beyond rescue. He dies in full consciousness, aware of each organ failing in succession. The case is resolved, and the azure ring is revealed as both the murder weapon and the instrument of the murderer's own self-destruction.
By Arthur B. Reeve · Genre: Mystery, Detective Fiction, Crime Fiction