s ... it hurts," she stammered.

The two men quickly carried her to her room and laid her on the bed:

"She ought to have an emetic," said Lupin.

"Open the cupboard," said the doctor. "You'll see a medicine-case....
Have you got it?... Take out one of those little tubes.... Yes, that
one.... And now some hot water.... You'll find some on the tea-tray in
the other room."

Jeanne's own maid came running up in answer to the bell. Lupin told her
that Mlle. Darcieux had been taken unwell, for some unknown reason.

He next returned to the little dining-room, inspected the sideboard and
the cupboards, went down to the kitchen and pretended that the doctor
had sent him to ask about M. Darcieux's diet. Without appearing to do
so, he catechized the cook, the butler, and Baptiste, the lodge-keeper,
who had his meals at the manor-house with the servants. Then he went
back to the doctor:

"Well?"

"She's asleep."

"Any danger?"

"No. Fortunately, she had only taken two or three sips. But this is the
second time to-day that you have saved her life, as the analysis of this
bottle will show."

"Quite superfluous to make an analysis, doctor. There is no doubt about
the fact that there has been an attempt at poisoning."

"By whom?"

"I can't say. But the demon who is engineering all this business clearly
knows the ways of the house. He comes and goes as he pleases, walks
about in the park, files the dog's chain, mixes poison with the food
and, in short, moves and acts precisely as though he were living the
very life of her--or rather of those--whom he wants to put away."

"Ah! You really believe that M. Darcieux is threatened with the same
danger?"

"I have not a doubt of it."

"Then it must be one of the servants? But that is most unlikely! Do you
think ...?"

"I think nothing, doctor. I know nothing. All I can say is that the
situation is most tragic and that we must be prepared for the worst.
Death is here, doctor, shadowing the people in this house; and it will
soon strike at those whom it is pursuing."

"What's to be done?"

"Watch, doctor. Let us pretend that we are alarmed about M. Darcieux's
health and spend the night in here. The bedrooms of both the father and
daughter are close by. If anything happens, we are sure to hear."

There was an easy-chair in the room. They arranged to sleep in it turn
and turn about.

In reality, Lupin slept for only two or three hours. In the middle of
the night he left