The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-24
WITH VEIRD WEAPONS.
BY DUFFIELD OSBORNE.
Assher sf a. The Spell of Ashsaroth.~
'lCopyright, 1885 by Bacheller. johnson and
Bacheller.l


PARf III.
Gripping the arms Of my seat with
both hands and leaning forward with q
face from which felt all the blood had
vanished. stammered out:
"You do not-you cannot think that
that"
"That what?" he asked, eyeing me
Iclosely.
''That these people have been"
but for the life of me could not get
the word out.
'Murdered?" he queried, calmly.
"Poisoned!" at last managed to
ejaoulate.
WELL" said Prof. Fournier, cross
ing one leg over the other and leaning
back among the cushions, 1--WE shall
see. / confess that 1 have certain
ideas on the subject which am hardly
ready to formulate just yet. This
much / will say for your guidance;
that / do not suspect the presence of
any ordinary poison administered by
any ordinary poiscner. In fact, the
case Is such that, II l find my ideas
pubstantinted. / shall consider it my
duty to humanity TO take upon myself
the punishmsnt rather than the ex-
posure of the criminal"
! From this time until our arrival at
Arteuil no conversation passed be-
tween us. Fournier seemed wrapped
In thougfht, and my own mind was busy
with the awful suspicion his words
had suggested. i could not but ac-
knowledge that the facts strongly
favored my companions apparent the
ory, but the difficulty was to realize
what poison could have been used,
and how any poison could have been
administered In such vast number
OF cases. It seemed to argue a con-
spiracy OF impossible dimensions, and
at this point was foundering hope
lessly when our train drew into the
station.
Our coming had been duly heralded.
6everal physicians were waiting on
the platform. and, among them,
saw the handsome and intellectual
face of Toedt He rushed forward to
emiwace US.
A. the same moment, but whether
by accident or design ] could not
fstknm, Fournisr turned to give some
direction to q porter and ignored the
fr1sud1y greeting. I saw queer look
como over Toedt's face, but he made
M motion to renew his advance. and
tho incident would have left little or
no impression ON me, had II not re-
caIled TO my memory that scene in tho
Paris cafe.
A . matter Of faot, however, the
professional situetion was of nature
to banish everything else from our
minds. The condition was indeed
frightful. Hardly family of wealth
or standing but had lost one or more
Of its smemebers, and, In some instances,
tho entire household, including the
servanss. md been simply obliterated.
The symptoms were horrible In the ex-
trexus, but you arc not q medical man
and to describe them In detail would
not mako my story any the more COM
prehensible to you. Suffice to state
that thay indicated p malignant decay
Of the mucous tissues of the body, and,
worse than all, there was not single
record Of q cure. Night and day we
worlxed-at first with feverish en-
thusiasm, then with dogged perse-
verancs; while our efforts slowly dwin-
died from attempts to save, down to
mere endeavors to alleviate the suffer-
ings Of the stricken ones until the
great alleviator Of all human suffering
should press his cooling hand upon
their brows. Meanwhile, strange to re-
late, Tho business and laboring quarters
of the town still remained exempt but
Tor few sporadic cases.
I had rather imagined, ut first that
Ruurnier might have observed In the
vmptoms something akin TO those pro-
duccd by tho new poisons with which
y had believed him to have been ex-
perilnenting, but soon saw that this
Bupposition was groundless. The APP
parently natural death of the Guinea
pig was as far as anything could be
from the horrors of these dissolutions.
We had ATTEMPTED no autopsies.. The
pnyBictan who, before the coming Oh
the pest, shared with Toedt the fashion
Able practice of Arteuil, had essayed
ono. been taken down himself. and died.
Later, one of the first OF the visiting
men had braved the same danger. with
the same result to himself and his as
Isistants. Since then autopsies had
been abandoned.
had had several conversations with
my former classmate when relieved
for few moments from my labors, and
i found, to my surprise, that he had
mot entirely yielded to the despair
which the rest of US felt. He had first
Ibelieved. he said, that the best prac-
Itics was TO fortify against the con-
Itagion. and, with this object in view.
had made IL point TO visit most OF
his patients at the time of the outbreak
of the epidemic. He admitted, how
ever, that his efforts to ward of had,
thus far, proved about as unavailing as
ours TO cure.
II confess to you," he said, at the
conclusion of ono Of these talks, "that
p have little or no hope which is not