astonishment, were most disconcerting, but Mr. Cornell managed to
stammer forth:

"Mr. Spielhagen is in here consulting his thesis. When your man brought
in the cordial, I was awkward enough to catch up your glass and carry it
in to Mr. Spielhagen. He drank it and I--I am anxious to see if it did
him any harm."

As he uttered the last word he felt Mr. Van Broecklyn's hand slip from
his shoulder, but no word accompanied the action, nor did his host make
the least move to follow him into the room.

This was a matter of great regret to him later, as it left him for a
moment out of the range of every eye, during which he says he simply
stood in a state of shock at seeing Mr. Spielhagen still sitting there,
manuscript in hand, but with head fallen forward and eyes closed; dead,
asleep or--he hardly knew what; the sight so paralyzed him.

Whether or not this was the exact truth and the whole truth, Mr. Cornell
certainly looked very unlike himself as he stepped back into Mr. Van
Broecklyn's presence; and he was only partially reassured when that
gentleman protested that there was no real harm in the drug, and that
Mr. Spielhagen would be all right if left to wake naturally and without
shock. However, as his present attitude was one of great discomfort,
they decided to carry him back and lay him on the library lounge. But
before doing this, Mr. Upjohn drew from his flaccid grasp the precious
manuscript, and carrying it into the larger room placed it on a remote
table, where it remained undisturbed till Mr. Spielhagen, suddenly
coming to himself at the end of some fifteen minutes, missed the sheets
from his hand, and bounding up, crossed the room to repossess himself of
them.

His face, as he lifted them up and rapidly ran through them with
ever-accumulating anxiety, told them what they had to expect.

The page containing the formula was gone!

* * * * *

Violet now saw her problem.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote B: Reprinted by permission of the author and G. P. Putnam's
Sons.]

[Footnote C: An adventure of Violet Strange, the female counterpart of
Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Craig Kennedy. Undoubtedly the most
unique and original detective in fiction. A witch-woman--but always
charming!]

II

There was no doubt about the loss I have mentioned; all could see that
page 13 was not there. In vain a second handling of every sheet, the one
so numbered was not to be found. Page 14 me