ou give me some kind of a
bracer--I feel--so--deadly."

Burns got up and prepared something in a glass something not
particularly palatable, but when it had taken action, which it promptly
did, Chester's white face had acquired a tinge of colour and he could go
on.

"I stopped in Gardner's office one day when my head was worse than
usual. Had to meet a man in ten minutes--important deal on for the
house--had to be at my best. Told Gardner so. He fixed me."

"He did--blame him--fixed you for a dope-fiend. I've told you a hundred
times you had precisely the kind of temperament that must avoid that
sort of thing like the gallows." Burns hit the desk with his fist as he
spoke, with a thump of impatience.

"It seems to set me up for a while--I can do anything. Then afterward--"

"You're getting the afterward all right. How much do you take?"

Chester mentioned the amount of the drug, stating reluctantly that for
the last two days he had been obliged slightly to increase it in order
to get the full effect.

"Of course you have--that's the insidiousness of the devil's stuff. How
soon does it get into action?"

"Oh, right away--almost instantly."

"What! Is your imagination strong enough to--See here, Ches"--Burns
leaned forward "you're taking the stuff by mouth, of course?"

Chester's eyes went down. "Why--I tried it that way--but it was so
slow."

Burns ejaculated something under his breath; the quick colour, always
ready to flare under his clear skin, leaped out.

"Gardner gave you a hypo, I suppose?"

"Yes."

"So you went and bought a syringe and taught yourself the trick. Suppose
you give me a look at it."

Like a shamed schoolboy Chester unwillingly drew forth the small case
from his pocket. Burns received it. He opened it and took out the tiny
instrument. "It looks like a very good one," he observed with a sort
of deadly quietness, and with one motion of his big fingers snapped the
glass barrel in two.

At this Chester took fire. "That's going a little too far!" he burst out
in wrath.

"Is it? Thought it was you who had gone too far. It's up to me to bring
you back--while I can. Getting this little fiend out of the way is the
first step. Keep cool, Ches--and I'll try to do the same, though it
makes my blood boil to think how little you've cared for my lectures to
you on this very thing."

"I have cared. But I had no idea."

"Well, you have one now. It's taken you five weeks to acquire enough of