FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49  
50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>   >|  
me the benefit of your opinion in making out my report?" Dr. Cumberly glanced at his daughter; and seeing her to be perfectly composed:--"For the moment, I have formed no opinion, Mr. Hilton," he said, quietly, "not having had an opportunity to conduct a proper examination." Hilton bent and whispered, confidentially, in the other's ear:-- "She was drugged!" The innuendo underlying the words struck Dr. Cumberly forcibly, and he started back with his brows drawn together in a frown. "Do you mean that she was addicted to the use of drugs?" he asked, sharply; "or that the drugging took place to-night." "The drugging DID take place to-night!" whispered the other. "An injection was made in the left shoulder with a hypodermic syringe; the mark is quite fresh." Dr. Cumberly glared at his fellow practitioner, angrily. "Are there no other marks of injection?" he asked. "On the left forearm, yes. Obviously self-administered. Oh, I don't deny the habit! But my point is this: the injection in the shoulder was NOT self-administered." "Come, Helen," said Cumberly, taking his daughter's arm; for she had drawn near, during the colloquy--"you must get to bed." His face was very stern when he turned again to Mr. Hilton. "I shall return in a few minutes," he said, and escorted his daughter from the room. VI AT SCOTLAND YARD Matters of vital importance to some people whom already we have met, and to others whom thus far we have not met, were transacted in a lofty and rather bleak looking room at Scotland Yard between the hours of nine and ten A. M.; that is, later in the morning of the fateful day whose advent we have heard acclaimed from the Tower of Westminster. The room, which was lighted by a large French window opening upon a balcony, commanded an excellent view of the Thames Embankment. The floor was polished to a degree of brightness, almost painful. The distempered walls, save for a severe and solitary etching of a former Commissioner, were nude in all their unloveliness. A heavy deal table (upon which rested a blotting-pad, a pewter ink-pot, several newspapers and two pens) together with three deal chairs, built rather as monuments of durability than as examples of art, constituted the only furniture, if we except an electric lamp with a green glass shade, above the table. This was the room of Detective-Inspector Dunbar; and Detective-Inspector Dunbar, at the hour of our entrance, will
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49  
50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Cumberly

 
Hilton
 
injection
 

daughter

 
administered
 
drugging
 
shoulder
 

opinion

 

Inspector

 

Dunbar


Detective
 

whispered

 

Westminster

 

acclaimed

 
advent
 
commanded
 

balcony

 

excellent

 

opening

 
fateful

French
 

window

 

lighted

 

transacted

 
entrance
 

Scotland

 

morning

 
polished
 

constituted

 
pewter

blotting
 

furniture

 

rested

 

examples

 

chairs

 
durability
 

newspapers

 

unloveliness

 

painful

 
distempered

brightness

 

Embankment

 

monuments

 

degree

 
severe
 

Commissioner

 

electric

 
solitary
 

etching

 

Thames