The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-04-05
SHROUDED In MYSTERY.

Tt was a mystery to me, but not to the
other doctors They took, as was all natural.
the worst possible view of the matter, and
accepted the only solution which the facts
seemed to warrant. But they are men. and
| am a woman; besides, l knew the nurse
well. and could not believe her capable Oh
willful deceit, much less of the heinous crime
which deceit in this case involved. 80 10
me the affair was a mystery, and, as such,
matter to be penetrated, though the Diff
eulties in the way of doing this seemed at
the moment iusurmountable.
The facts were these.
My patient. a young typewriter, seemingly
without friends or enemies, lay in the small
room of boarding house, affected with a
painful but not dangerous malady. Though
she was comp ratiVely helpless, her vital or
gans were strong. and we never had a mo-
ment's uneasiness concerning her, till one
morning when we found her in an almost
dying condition from having taken, as we
quickly discovered. dose of poison instead
of the soothing mixture which had been
left for her with her nurse. Poison! and no
one, not even herself and the nurse, could
explain how the same got into the room,
much less into her medicine And when /
came TO study the situation l found myself
as much at q loss as they: indeed. more so
for l knew had made no mistake in pre-
pairing the mixture, and that even if L had.
this especial poison could not have found its
way into 1t, owing TO the fact that there
neither was nor ever had been drop OF 1t
in my possession.
The mixture, then, was pure when II left
my hand, and, according TO the nurse, whom.
as | have said. | implicitly believed, it went
into the glass pure And yet when two
hours later, without her having left the
room or any body coming into II, she found
occasion TO administer the daught, poison
was in the cup ana the patient was only
saved from death by the most immediate
and energetic measures, not only on her
part, but on that of DR.. Holmes whom in
her haste aud perturbation she had called
in from the adjacent house.
The patient, young, innocent, unfortu =
nate, but of strangely courageous DISPOSE
ton. betrayed nothing but the utmost sur
prise at the peril she had SO narrowly es-
capped. When DR.. Holmes intimated that
perhaps she had been tired of suffering and
had herself found means Of putting the
deadly drug into her medicine she opened
her great gray eyes with such q look Of
childiike surprise and reproach that he
bluShed and murmured some sort of apology.
Poison myself" she cried, when you
promise me that l shall get well? You do
not know what a horror | have of dying In
" "
This was some time after the critical mo-
ment had passed and there were in the
room Mrs. Dayton. the landady, DR..
Holmes, the nurse aud myself. At the ut
teTance OF these words We felt ashamed,
and cast looks Of increased interest at the
poor girl.
She was very lovely. Though without
means, and TO all appearance without
friends. she possessed in great degree the
charm OF wins omeness, and not even her
many sufferings. nor tAe Indignation under
which she was then laboTlng, could quite rob
her c0untenaEce of thattender and confidiug
expression which so often redeems the
planest face and makes beauty doubly at
tTactiye.
DIR. Holmes does not know YOU" hast
ened TO say. :" do, and utterly Tepel for
you any such insinuatiOn. In return, NilI
you tell me il there is any one in the world
whom you call your enemy? Though the
chief mystery is how so deadly and unusual
a poison could have got into clean glass
without the knowledge of yourself or the
nurse; still Ii might not be amisS to know if
there is one, here or elsewhere who for any
reason might desire your death"
The surprise in the chiidlike eyes in
creased rather than diminished.
Il don't know what to say" she muir
INJURED. Il am SO Insignificant and feeble a
person that IL seems absurd for NE to talk of
having an enemy. Besides, l have none.
On the contrary. every one seems to love me
more than 1 deserve. Haven't you noticed
il, Mrs Dayton?"
The landlady smiled and stroked the sick
girls hand.
Indeed she replied. II have noticed
that people love you, but | have never
thought that it was more than you de-
served: You are a dear little thing.
Addie."
And though she knew and l knew that
the every one" mentioned by the poor girl
meant ourselves and possibly her unknown
employer, We were none the less touched by
her words, or inclined to believe that the
facts were as she had stated, and that acct
dent rather than malice lay at the base of
the deploTable occurrence we were endeav-
oring TO fathom. But what an accident!
Does poison drop from the walls or evolve
Itself out Of the air which we breathe? The
more we studied the mystery the deeper
and less explainable did IL become,
And. indeed, l doubt If we should have
ever got to the bottom of it il there had not
presently occurred in my patient a repeti-
tion Of the same dangerous symptoms, fol-
lowed by the same discovery of poison in
the glass, and the same failure on the part Of
herself and the nurse TO account for ii. was
reused from my bed at midnight TO attend
her, and as l entered her room and met her
beseeching eyes looking upon me from the
very shadow Of death. made VOW that l
would never cease my efforts till / had PEN
etrated the secret OF what certainly looked
like persistent attempt upon this poor girls
life.
went about the matter deliberately. AS
soon as / could leave her side | drew the
nurse into corner and again questioned her
The answers were the same as before.
Addle had shown distress as soon as she
had swallowed her usual quantity of medi-
cine, and in few minutes more wes In a
perilous condition.
Addie?"
81 did"
Where did you take IL from?"
rom the place where you left 1.-THE
little stand on the farther side of the bed. -
And DO you mean to say that you had
not touched 1t since l prepared it?"
do, ma'am."
room2" '"'
mo one, ma'am."
looked at her intently. ] trusted her.
but the best OF US are but mortals.
Can you assure me that you have not
been asleep during this tme?'
Look at this letter / have been writing. -
she returned: 1t is eight pages long, and
IL was not begun when you left US at TO-"
shook my head and fell into a deep rev.
cry. How was this matter to be Calculated
ana how was my patient to be saved? An
other draught Of this deadly poison, and nc
power on earth could resus itate her. What
shonid d0 and with what weapons sbould
combat danger at once so subtle and SC
deadlyp Reflection brought no decision
and L left the room at last, determined upor
but one point. and that was the immediate
removal OF my patient. But before / had
left the house / changed nv mind even or
this point. Removal of the patient mean
safety to her. perhaps. but not the explana-
tion oil her mysterious poisoning. l would
change the position of her bed. and / wonld
even set a watch over her and the nurse
notyet.