ich appeared open to the
smallest number of objections.

"She shall take a turn for the worse," he thought; "and the doctor will
be an uncommonly clever man, and particularly well read in criminal
jurisprudence, if he sees anything suspicious in it."

Thus pondering, this astute miscreant stopped at Covent Garden,
dismissed his cab, and purchased a basket of very fine Jaffa oranges.
He then hailed another cab, and drove with his parcel to the shop of an
eminent firm of chemists, again dismissing his cab. In the shop he asked
for a certain substance, which it may be as well not to name, and got
what he wanted in a small phial, marked _poison_. Mr. Cranley then
called a third cab, gave the direction of a surgical-instrument maker's
(also eminent), and amused his leisure during the drive in removing the
label from the bottle. At the surgical-instrument maker's he complained
of neuralgia, and purchased a hypodermic syringe for injecting morphine
or some such anodyne into his arm. A fourth cab took him back to the
house in Victoria Square, where he let himself in with a key, entered
the dining-room, and locked the door.

Nor was he satisfied with this precaution. After aimlessly moving chairs
about for a few minutes, and prowling up and down the room, he paused
and listened. What he heard induced him to stuff his pocket-handkerchief
into the keyhole, and to lay the hearth-rug across the considerable
chink which, as is usual, admitted a healthy draught under the bottom
of the door. Then the Honorable Mr. Cranley drew down the blinds,
and unpacked his various purchases. He set them out on the table in
order--the oranges, the phial, and the hypodermic syringe.

Then he carefully examined the oranges, chose half a dozen of the
best, and laid the others on a large dessert plate in the dining-room
cupboard. One orange he ate, and left the skin on a plate on the table,
in company with a biscuit or two.

When all this had been arranged to his mind, Mr. Cranley chose another
orange, filled a wineglass with the liquid in the phial, and then
drew off a quantity in the little syringe. Then he very delicately and
carefully punctured the skin of one of the oranges, and injected into
the fruit the contents of the syringe. This operation he elaborately
completed in the case of each of the six chosen oranges, and then
tenderly polished their coats with a portion of the skin of the fruit
he had eaten. That portion of the skin he consumed