Annihilation by Isabel Ostrander

They argued hotly all the way back to the New Queen's Mall, Dennis convinced that his prediction was already verified and McCarty combating the idea from force of habit as much as from any other urge, although he felt that the indications were too vague as yet, the clues too tenuous, to be woven into a fabric of proof.

"What's it that this Otto had a few words with him? " he demanded as they reached the west gate on the Avenue. "Ching Lee went further than that with a knife! Because Truda is working now in a house where a child died of the lockjaw, and Calabar bean is one of the cures they try for it, you've got it all fixed that Otto laid hold of some of it there, or Truda gave it to him, and he must needs have gone over the way and sprinkled enough of it on Hughes' dinner, unbeknownst to any one, to kill him! 'Tis well you took to fire-fighting, Denny, instead of following me on the Force!"