get his poor old father to handle it and to
show it to people. It's a strong, irritant poison--sap of the upas tree
is the base of it--producing first an irritation of the skin, then a
blister, and, when that broke, communicating the poison directly to the
blood every time the skeleton hand touched it. A weak solution at first,
so that the decline would be natural, the growth of the malady gradual.
But if I'd found that phial in your room last night, as he hoped and
believed I had done--well, look for yourself. The finger of the skeleton
is thick with the beastly, gummy stuff to-night. Double strength, of
course. The next time his father touched it he'd have died before
morning. And the old chap fairly worshipping him. I suspected him, and
suspected what the stuff that was being used really was from the
beginning. Last night I drugged him, and then I knew."

"Knew, Mr. Cleek? Why, how could you?"

"The most virulent poisons have their remedial uses, Captain," he made
reply. "You can kill a man with strychnine; you can put him in his grave
with arsenic; you can also use both these powerful agents to cure and to
save, in their proper proportions and in the proper way. The same rule
applies to ayupee. Properly diluted and properly used, it is one of the
most powerful agents for the relief, and, in some cases, the cure, of
Bright's disease of the kidneys. But the Government guards this unholy
drug most carefully. You can't get a drop of it in Java for love nor
money, unless on the order of a recognized physician; and you can't
bring it into the ports of England unless backed by that physician's
sworn statement and the official stamp of the Javanese authorities. A
man undeniably afflicted with Bright's disease could get these
things--no other could. Well, I wanted to know who had succeeded in
getting ayupee into this country and into this house. Last night I
drugged every man in it, and I found out."

"But how?"

"By finding the one who could not sleep stretched out at full length.
One of the strongest symptoms of Bright's disease is a tendency to draw
the knees up close to the body in sleep, Captain, and to twist the arms
above the head. Of all the men under this roof, this man here was the
only one who slept like that last night!" He paused and looked down at
the scowling, sullen creature on the floor. "You wretched little cur!"
he said with a gesture of unspeakable contempt. "And all for the sake of
an old man's mone