e there will be a bluish tint."
He leaned back and pulled at his beard. "I should think it will show
itself in the whites of the eyes first, just as jaundice shews itself
there. Leonora won't like that--it won't suit her colouring. You see
that these fish, when cooked, retained the bluish hue. That is very
interesting."

"It's very bad luck on the trout."

"Why?"

"After getting the bacillus into their system, they blunder on to a hook
and meet their death straight away."

"The bacillus is not proof against death by violence," replied Sarakoff
gravely. "That is a factor that will always remain constant. We are
agreed in looking on all disease as eventually due to poisons derived
from germ activity, but a bang on the head or asphyxiation or prussic
acid or a bullet in the heart are not due to a germ. Yes, these poor
trout little knew what a future they forfeited when they took the bait."

"The bacillus is in Birmingham by now," I said suddenly. I passed my
hand across my brow nervously, and glanced at the manuscript lying
before Sarakoff. "You had better keep those papers locked up. I spent an
awful day at the hospital. It dawned on me that the whole medical
profession will want to tear us in pieces before the year is out."

"In theory they ought not to."

"Who cares for theory, when it is a question of earning a living? As I
walked along the street to-day, I could have shrieked aloud when I saw
everybody hurrying about as if nothing were going to happen. This is
unnerving me. It is so tremendous."

Sarakoff picked up his pen, and traced out a pattern in the blotting-pad
before him.

"The Water Committee of Birmingham are investigating the matter," he
observed. "It will be amusing to hear their report. What will they think
when they make a bacteriological examination of the water in the
reservoir? It will stagger them."

The next morning I was down to breakfast before my friend and stood
before the fire eagerly scanning the papers. At first I could find
nothing that seemed to indicate any further effects of the bacillus. I
was in the act of buttering a piece of toast when my eye fell on one of
the newspapers lying beside me. A heading in small type caught my eye.

"_The measles epidemic in Ludlow._" I picked the paper up.

"The severe epidemic of measles which began last week and seemed likely
to spread through the entire town, has mysteriously abated. Not only are
no further cases reported, but several do