The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-04-13
IT EVIDENT BORN MEN HAD BEEN DEAD SOME TINE

y IL
pegs.
They are in here, Bunny" he said
and turned the handle
The door would only open a few inch
e.. bat a detcstable dior came out,
with 4 broad bar Of yellow gaslight.
Ratiles put his handkerchief to his
nose. l followed his example. signing
to our ally to DO the same. and in an
other minute we all three had squeezed
into the room.
The man with the yellow boots was
lying against the door. the counts
great carcass sprawlcd upon the table
and at glance it was evident that
both men had been dead some hours.
The old CamorriSt had the stem of a
liqueur glass between his swollen blue
fingers. one Of which had been cut in
the breakugc, and the livid flesh was
also brown with the last blood that it
would ever shed His face was on the
table, the huge muStache projecting
from under either lcaden cheek. yet
looking Itself strangely alive Broken
bread and frozen scraps of macaroni
lay upon the cloth and at the bottom of
two soup plates and tureon. The
macarOni had tiuge OF tomato. and
there was crimson dram left in the
tumblers. with an empty fasco to
show whence it came. but near the
great gray head upon the table another
liqucur glass stood, unbrolien and still
full of some white and sinking liquid
and near that tiny silver flask, which
made me recoil from Rallies as l had
not from the dead. for knew it to be
his.
Come out Of this poisonous air" he
said sternly. land will tell you how it
has happened"
So we all three gathered together in
the hall but it was Rallies who stood
nearest the street door, his back to it,
his eyes upon us two, and though it
was to me only that he spoke at first
he would pause from point to point and
translate into Italian for the benefit of
the one eyed alien to whom he owed
his life
"You probably don't even know the
name, Bunny" he began, "of the dead
Hest poison yet known to science 1t is
cyanide of cacodyl, and | have carried
that small flask of it about with me
for months. Where | got it matters
Dothing. The whole point is that
mere sniff reduces flesh to clay. | have
never had any opinion of suicide, as
you know, but | always felt it worth
while to be forearmed against the very
worst Well, Il bottle of this stuff is
calculated to stiffen an ordinary room
full of ordinary people within five min
utes, and | remembered my flask when
they had me as good as crucified in the
small hours of this morning. | asked
them TO take it out of my pocket. l
begged them TO give me Il drink before
they left me, and what do you suppose
they did?"
l thought of many things, but sug-
gested none, while Rallies turned this
much of his statement into sufficiently
fluent Italian. But when he faced me
again his face was still flaming.
THAT beast Corbucci" said he. How
can pity him? He took the flask. He
would give me none. He flicked me in
the face instead. My idea was that
he at least should go with me-to sell
my life as dearly as that-and a sniff
would have settled us both. But, no,
he must tantaliZe and torment me. He
thought it brandy. He must take it
downstairs to drink to my destruction.
Can you have any pity for a hound
like that?"
LET us CO." at last said hoarsely
as Rafiles finished speaking in Italian,
and his second listener stood open
mouthed.
1--WE will CO." said Raffles, "and we
will chance being seen. If the worst
comes to the worst this good chap Will
prove that | have been tied up since l
o'clock this morning, and the medical
evidence will decide how long those
dogs have been dead"
But the worst did not come to the
worst, more power to my untorgotten
friend the cabman, who never came
forward to say what manner OF men
he had driven to Bloomsbury square at
top speed on the very day upon which
the tragedy was discovered there or
whence he had driven them. 10 be
sure, they had not behaved like MUIR
derers, whereas the evidence at the in
quest all went to show that the de-
funct Corbucci was the little better
His reputation, which transpired with
his identity, was that of a libertine ana
a renegade, while the internal appara-
tus upstairs revealed the tiendish arts
of the anarchist to boot. The inquiry
resulted eventually in an open verdict
and was chiefly instrumental in killing
such compassion as is usually felt LOT
the dead who die in their sins.
But Raffles would not have passed
this title for this tale.
VIII NOT De concerned at mems not