in the way of the official
police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. The poison
still remained upon the talc had they the wit to find it. Now, Watson,
we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open
our window to avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of
society, and you will seat yourself near that open window in an
armchair unless, like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to
do with the affair. Oh, you will see it out, will you? I thought I
knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may
be the same distance from the poison and face to face. The door we
will leave ajar. Each is now in a position to watch the other and to
bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem alarming. Is
that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder--or what remains of
it--from the envelope, and I lay it above the burning lamp. So! Now,
Watson, let us sit down and await developments."

They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair before
I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and nauseous. At the
very first whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all
control. A thick, black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told
me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my
appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was
monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes
swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning
of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the
threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing horror
took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, that my eyes
were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like leather.
The turmoil within my brain was such that something must surely snap.
I tried to scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was
my own voice, but distant and detached from myself At the same moment,
in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had
a glimpse of Holmes's face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror--the
very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead. It was that
vision which gave me an instant of sanity and of strength. I dashed
from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together we lurched
through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown ourselves down
upon the grass