"Then, for God's sake, tell me, what does it all mean?" he gasped,
quivering with excitement.

"I gave you the card because I wanted you to--to--"

Here a terrible spasm of coughing shook her whole body, and she fell
back exhausted.

An agonizing despair tugged at Burwell's heart. Frantically snatching
the card from its envelope, he held it close to the woman's face.

"Tell me! Tell me!"

With a supreme effort, the pale figure slowly raised itself on the
pillow, its fingers clutching at the counterpane.

Then the sunken eyes fluttered--forced themselves open--and stared in
stony amazement upon the fatal card, while the trembling lips moved
noiselessly, as if in an attempt to speak. As Burwell, choking with
eagerness, bent his head slowly to hers, a suggestion of a smile
flickered across the woman's face. Again the mouth quivered, the man's
head bent nearer and nearer to hers, his eyes riveted upon the lips.
Then, as if to aid her in deciphering the mystery, he turned his eyes to
the card.

With a cry of horror he sprang to his feet, his eyeballs starting from
their sockets. Almost at the same moment the woman fell heavily upon the
pillow.

Every vestige of the writing had faded! The card was blank!

The woman lay there dead.

II

The Card Unveiled

No physician was ever more scrupulous than I have been, during my thirty
years of practice, in observing the code of professional secrecy; and it
is only for grave reasons, partly in the interests of medical science,
largely as a warning to intelligent people, that I place upon record the
following statements.

One morning a gentleman called at my offices to consult me about some
nervous trouble. From the moment I saw him, the man made a deep
impression on me, not so much by the pallor and worn look of his face as
by a certain intense sadness in his eyes, as if all hope had gone out of
his life. I wrote a prescription for him, and advised him to try the
benefits of an ocean voyage. He seemed to shiver at the idea, and said
that he had been abroad too much, already.

As he handed me my fee, my eye fell upon the palm of his hand, and I saw
there, plainly marked on the Mount of Saturn, a cross surrounded by two
circles. I should explain that for the greater part of my life I have
been a constant and enthusiastic student of palmistry. During my travels
in the Orient, after taking my degree, I spent months studying this
fascinating art at the best sou