Overview

There is no doubt how Miss Lummis died. Someone soaked the arsenic out of fly-paper and then used it to poison her. But who, and why? Actually, the death of Miss Lummis comes as a shock of knowledge to us in the second act, after we've come through the first act to learn what a dowdy and mean woman she was. She agreed to turn over her cash and securities to Dyson, the insurance agent, in whose home she was lodged, in return for a tidy annuity. Dyson is a heartless miser, and it was therefore very much to his advantage when Miss Lummis died. Indeed he planned to murder her, but we do not know for certain that he did it. Inquisitive relatives bring the case to light, and Dyson is on the spot. As he attempts to explain to his lawyer, everything he says makes him more certainly guilty. In the end the lawyer declines the case, turning down Dyson's piteous plea in the same way Dyson himself had earlier turned down a needy lodger.