Read "Annihilation" by Isabel Ostrander online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The litter of wrecked balloons was cleared away and the one which had changed color with such sinister significance was carefully deposited in an empty tin cracker box. With pipe and cigar alight Dennis and McCarty were discussing the latest development, their fatigue forgotten in their renewed zeal.
"There's an old guy I know living far uptown that's a wizard about chemistry," McCarty observed, neglecting to mention that the "wizard" had an interesting police record. "I'll take the box with what's left of that blue balloon in it up to him, come morning, but we'll not breathe a word of it to another living soul! 'Tis somebody on the Mall or with easy access to it that's walking around with two murders and a disappearance on the conscience of him, maybe giving us fair words every day and the grand laugh behind our backs. We don't know who it is and till we do we'll be telling nothing to any of them."