Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1902-02-28
The Winged Death

! Inc winged Death s
nHAD been for some little time en-
gagged. through a medical agency
in doing locum tenens work in diff
ferent parts of England, when l re
ceived q summons by telegram to q
and take temporary charge Of a prac
tice in the suburbs Of Bradford. The
address was that Of a DR.. wolford, who
had died suddenly two days before. bu1
beyond this l had no information.
was met at the Bradford Midland sta
ton by a surly looking individual, who
saying that his name was Sugden, and
that lie was the late DR.. Wolford's dis
penser, at once suggested that We
should go and have a drink.
looked sharply at the man, and WIN,
l saw prompted me to decline, ON l..
plea that l must look after my luggage
l have formed the habit IA dangerous
ono, by the way of judging by first i'm
pressions, and already l knew that ]
should dislike this a l concealed
this feeling, however, and during the
drive o the station e%ndeavored to
learn something about the II of
Dr. Wolford's Geath; but as l received
only monosyllabic replies from my com
panion, l soon gave up the attempt at
conversation.
e On our arrival at the house I was at
once shown into the dining room, where
Mrs. Wolford was waiting to receive
mt.
"Oh, DIR. Mcldrum," she cried, as she
came forward to greet me, you can't
think how glad l am to see you. I've
been counting the hours till you could
be here"
The warmth of this welcome rather
surprised me, but l murmured some
suitable reply, and expressed my re-
greet for. the sad occurrence which had
made my presence necessary. At the
mention of her husbands name, Mrs.
Woltord's eyes filled with tears.
"1es." she said simply; SIT was sud.
den, and very, very cruel" And then,
with a sudden, keen glance up into my
lace, she added: Are you clever, DIR.
Meldrum?@clever in your profession,
l mean; because there is a problem in
this house to be solved that will need
a clever man. Oh, DIR. Medium, 1 O
der whether you know what it is to be
without a friend whom you can trust!"
At this point she showed signs of
breaking down altogether, but with a
strong effort restrained herself.
You wonder why 1 ask you these
questions?' she went on. "Yoa think
me hysterical-but I'm not, DOCTOR"
No." said l, though in point of fact
! did think Sc. II recognize that you
are anxious that your husbands prac.
tice should be in competent hands. and
from what / have seer of the dis.
penser@
She interrupted new It'll a gesture.
Its not that" she said, impatiently:
and then, after a slight pause. "Nr.
Medium, I'm afraid"
"Afraid!' said 1. "Of .what?'
Afraid for my boys life-and INV
own"
The terror in her voice as she said
shese words was very real,
us your son ILL.," 1 asked.
YES. Will you come and see him
now? There Is just time before din.
uev."
expressed my readiness, and went
upstairs to the boys bedroom. On the
way Mrs. Wolford explained TINT his
was her only child, 10 years old: and
added, tearfully, that if she were to
lose him too. as well IS her husband,
she should die. We found the how
sleeping quietly; without waking him
took his temperature, but found no
indication of feverishness, and this. MS
I pointed out to his mother, was. in n
child. a fairly conclusive proof that Mt
present there was not much the matter.
"Thank heaven for that" she said.
earnestly.
"What do you fear?:" said I.
Ihere was a sound Of some one open
Ing and shutting the door of the room
next to the one in which we were. The
footsteps came along the passage and
paused at our door. Instead of answer.
Ing me, Mrs. Wolford, who seemed to
be listening intently, wrote with her
finger on the counterpanc tile one word.
POISON.
Then we heard the footsteps pass on,
and go down stairs.
Come" said Mrs. wolford. after y
slight pause, when you have washed
we will go down to dinner. You must
be hungry, and I just now heard Mr..
Sugden leave his room. so he'll be wait.
ting for us"
After my experience in the cab.
quite expected that the conversation at
dinner would be mostly between Mrs.
Wolford and myself; but in this I was
wrong, for sugden, who in the presence
of the lady seemed quite to have
thrown OF the eccentric moroseness of
manner which l had put down to semi.
talked continuously and
md proved himself an exceeding
kipgtend well informed com