do that?"

"Because, despite the efforts of myself and Dr. Medjora, the girl did
not improve."

"That is to say, you found yourself incompetent to control the
disease?"

"I felt that I should have assistance. It is common practice to call a
physician in consultation when a disease becomes uncontrollable."

"He is usually a man who has special knowledge, is he not?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you considered Dr. Meredith such a man?"

"Yes, sir."

"That is to say, he had more knowledge of this disease than you
yourself?"

"Not that precisely. But he has made a special study of the disease,
and I knew that he could give us valuable advice."

"After Dr. Meredith came into the case the patient began to improve,
did she not?"

"Yes, sir."

"On the last day of her life, you met Dr. Meredith at the house, and
you decided that it would be safe to leave the patient until the
following day, I believe. You found her much improved?"

"Yes, sir."

"The membrane had all disappeared, had it not?"

"Very nearly."

"So much so that she could swallow without difficulty?"

"She swallowed very well."

"In fact you concluded that she would recover?"

"I thought that she had passed the crisis, but I did not deem her to
be entirely out of danger."

"Did you, at any time during this illness, prescribe or administer
opium in any form?"

"No, sir."

"Did you see any evidence of that drug exhibited by her condition,
lethargic sleep, contracted pupils, or any other diagnostic symptom?"

"No, sir."

"Now, then, you left this girl in the afternoon, recovering from her
attack of diphtheria and able to swallow, and you were hurriedly
called back in the evening, and found her dying. Did not that surprise
you?"

"Yes. I had not expected the disease to take a fatal turn, at least
not so rapidly."

"Yet she was in such a condition that she could not even swallow
coffee?"

"No, but that----"

"Never mind the reasons, Doctor. The fact is all that we want. Shortly
after your entrance into her room she died, did she not?"

"Yes, sir, at eleven thirty. About five minutes after."

"Now, Doctor, notwithstanding the fact that in the afternoon you
thought this girl practically out of danger, and notwithstanding the
sudden and alarming change which you saw in her that night, and in
spite of the fact that the specialist whom you yourself had called
into the case, reported to you that he suspected morphine poisoning,
you signed a