The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-09-14
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: The Emperor's Prayer Book I:
J BY Bryan MacMahon. !
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

L porous pharmacy in popular
south coast watering place. My busi-
ness Is one which would be described
by the transfer agents as going of
ITSELF" 1t is necessity in the dis
trict, and, therefore, fear neither
the competition of cutting stores nor
that of company pharmacists.
possess neat. little villa in the sub
urbs, to which 1 retire when thecar
of the day are over, and where am
welcomed by loving wife and two dar-
ling children. am not ambitios Is, nor
do / banker after wealth. / am CON
tent with my lot, and my life is happy.
1t was not always SO. A few years
ago was a hard-wrought and uncared-
for slave-a London chemists assist
ant. worked on an average 13 hours
a day on weekdays, and had freedom
only on every alternate Sunday. Every
evening travelled by the London, Chat
ham & Dover railway to my humble
lodgings at Herne Hill, and every morn
ing l came by the same route to the
city. My life was thus spent in alter
nate spells of work and sleep, and I
was receiving the modest salary of two
guineas per week. l could see no
prospect of marrying the little girl to
whom had become engaged some four
years previously, and who was now pa
tiently waiting for me in pretty Susr
sex village. Truly, the curse of Adam
lay heavily upon me, and, struggling
beneath its load, was beginning pre-
maturely to show signs of age.
The only happiness my life afforded
was the looking forward to and re-
ceiving weekly letters, addressed in a
well-known hand and bearing the Ring
mer postmark; but this pleasure was
not unalloyed with pain as / thought
that / was now no nearer the consum-
nation of my hopes than when with
palpitating heart / had opened the first
note from Nellie.
Such was my life when an incident oc-
curred-a very slight incident-which
proved the turning point of my for
tunes.
1t was evening, and business was be-
coming more brisk as the night ad-
vanced. / had turned with a feeling of
relief from attending to the wants of
a fussy and hypochondriacal old lady,
when man of foreign aspect, but
somewhat familiar appearance, en-
tered the shop where was employed
and asked for seven pounds of medi-
Gated cotton wool. While engaged in
supplying the stuff j endeavored to
bring to mind the circumstances un-
der which l had seen him before. 1t
quickly dawned upon me that / had
observed him a few mornings previous
ly walking briskly to and fro in the
garden attached to the house next to
that in which | lodged. AS customer
succeeded customer the incident faded
from my mind. and did not again pre-
sent itself until the following Sunday,
which happened to be one of those /
had free.
had risen late, and after breakfast
was enjoying pipe in the garden at
the rear of my lodgings, when my eye
was arrested by broken bottle lying
on rubbish heap in the next garden.
It was not an ordinary bottle, but one
of those known as Winchester quarts, ;"
which have a capacity of about half
gallon, and are rarely seen outside of
a chemists storeroom. Prompted by
curiosity to see what it had contained.
l vaulted across the palings dividing
the gardens and examined the label.
which was still intact. / read there:
"Acid: Nitric: Fortiss: Pur. 1890"
The edge of my curiosity was now
whetted. What could a private indi-
vidual want with such a quantity of
the strongest nitric acid as that bottle
contained ?" asked myself; and then
the purchase of the cotton wool flashed
across my mind.
Now, taken singly, these two articles
are largely used, and the yearly con-
sumption of both is immense. The pur-
chase of the one or the other in small
portions is nothing unusual, but when
both are bought in almost wholesale
quantities by the same individual
strong suspicion is aroused, so much
SO, that chemists had some time pre-
viously been requested to notify such
sales to the police authorities. How
ever, kept my thoughts to myself and
resolved, in future, to keep as close a
watch on my neighbor's doings and
habits as the limited time at my dis
posal would allow of.
The only thing that noticed pecul-
lar, however, was that every night,
while the rest of the house was in total
darkness, the attics seemed to be oc-
cupied, as the windows looking out
on the roof were usually brilliantly
illuminated. A few cautious inquiries
from my landiady had ELECTED the in
formation that the house was occupied
by two men; and she had. waxed merry
while telling me that they seemed to
do all the housework themselves. as a
female had never been seen to enter
the place, front or back" but the fact
that they were foreigners seemed to her
to account for all their peculiarities.
Foreigners like, sir" said she,
"seems to ave ways different to u.s."
A Afortnight passed, and I was unable
to get any more information. The at
ties were illuminated every night, and, f,
becoming impatient, at last resolved
to satisfy my curiosity as to what was
being done there, and the only means
l could think of for doing so consisted
in going and looking.
Having decided on this course, lost
very little time in putting my resolve
into action. / arrived home late one
night and let myself in with my latch
key; my landlady had gone to bed,
having, as she usually did when /