most suspicious nature, when properly magnified. I
knew those hungry forms. Still, I would not decide offhand on my own
authority in a matter of such moment. Sebastian's character was at
stake--the character of the man who led the profession. I called in
Callaghan, who happened to be in the ward, and asked him to put his eye
to the instrument for a moment. He was a splendid fellow for the use of
high powers, and I had magnified the culture 300 diameters. "What do you
call those?" I asked, breathless.

He scanned them carefully with his experienced eye. "Is it the microbes
ye mean?" he answered. "An' what 'ud they be, then, if it wasn't the
bacillus of pyaemia?"

"Blood-poisoning!" I ejaculated, horror-struck.

"Aye; blood-poisoning: that's the English of it."

I assumed an air of indifference. "I made them that myself," I rejoined,
as if they were mere ordinary experimental germs; "but I wanted
confirmation of my own opinion. You're sure of the bacillus?"

"An' haven't I been keeping swarms of those very same bacteria under
close observation for Sebastian for seven weeks past? Why, I know them
as well as I know me own mother."

"Thank you," I said. "That will do." And I carried off the microscope,
bacilli and all, into Hilda Wade's sitting-room. "Look yourself!" I
cried to her.

She stared at them through the instrument with an unmoved face. "I
thought so," she answered shortly. "The bacillus of pyaemia. A most
virulent type. Exactly what I expected."

"You anticipated that result?"

"Absolutely. You see, blood-poisoning matures quickly, and kills almost
to a certainty. Delirium supervenes so soon that the patient has no
chance of explaining suspicions. Besides, it would all seem so very
natural! Everybody would say: 'She got some slight wound, which
microbes from some case she was attending contaminated.' You may be sure
Sebastian thought out all that. He plans with consummate skill. He had
designed everything."

I gazed at her, uncertain. "And what will you DO?" I asked. "Expose
him?"

She opened both her palms with a blank gesture of helplessness. "It
is useless!" she answered. "Nobody would believe me. Consider the
situation. YOU know the needle I gave you was the one Sebastian meant to
use--the one he dropped and I caught--BECAUSE you are a friend of mine,
and because you have learned to trust me. But who else would credit it?
I have only my word against his--an unknown nurse's against the great
Pro