The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1913-09-06
CATIONS
NURSE
By ELIZABETH WEED

y
Ger, Lieutenant Caxton, who was Ill.
found the lieutenant in the house of
widow with very pretty daughter.
He was in bed Internationally, for at
times he was quite able to be up ana
about. When he was confined to his
room the young woman had the care
of him.
The thought entered my head that
perhaps Caxton was sojering In order
to remain in close proximity to the girl,
but l was soon convinced that he was
really i'll. His symptoms not being ia
miliar to me, did not know what to do
for him except to give him stimulat-
ing drug-quinine-to help him to throw
off what was troubling him. But he
did not improve, and l was puzzled
what next to do.
1 had some experience with Indian
poison cases, though not much, and 1t
Caxton had not been in the care of
girl who treated him with such tender
ness that could not doubt she was in
love with him l would have believed
that for some reason or other she was
poisoning him.
Talking one day with the widow, I
learned that they were not family
indigenous to India, but had come
from Java 1t then flashed upon me
that had heard that Jayanese girl
who loves a man will either have ffp
or kill him. This gave me clew to
Cations case.
From that time forward I watched
his nurses every movement. 1 also
told Caxton Of my belief that his nurse
was in love with him. He confessed
that he had begun to suspect as much
himself and that he had occasionally
treated her with more consideration
than he should have done. asked
him If he had noticed that he was bet
ter at such times, and he said that,
come to think of it, he thought he had.
From this 1 surmised that when he
gave her hope she lessened or discon-
tinued her poison doses.
MY problem was to discover II she,
was really poisoning him and If so in
what way. In most such cases the
drug is administered in the food I
succeeded in getting samples of the
food the patient was taking at times
when he was in a low condition and
analysed them, but I could not find the
slightest trace of anything that should
not have been there Eastern races
are famous for their methods Of pol
soning, and / had during my service
in India gathered some information
regarding them. l therefore kept my
eyes open with a view to discovering
some other way by which Cations
nurse was working on him, If she was
doing so at all, of which was by no
means sure.
I suggested to him to get out of the
house, but he said there was no hos
pital for him to go to and he was re-
ceiving much better nursing than The
would in his quarters. saw that it
and the only other way for me to do
was to solve the puzzle of his illness.
A common way Of administering poi
son In countries where 1t is much used
Is by means of a finger ring. A person
wearing one viii clasp the hand Of an
other, and a minute point prfcking the
skin will inject a poison. l noticed
that Cations nurse wore ring on her
finger and suspected that she gave
him doses In that way. pretended to
admire the ring and asked her to let
me examine it. She handed it to me
without hesitation, and looked it
over very carefully. No, poison was
not administered in that way. The
ring was perfectly plain gold, and II
there had been any injecting apparatus,
however minute, I would have discoy-
cred it.
Another Indian method of inflfcting
poison is through the air. 1t is often
breathed and sometimes inhaled from
| q perfume. There are persons in In
dia who have taken deadly poison in
| minute doses, gradually increasing
them till the poison takers have become
| immune to harm and so saturated with
the drug that their very breath is dead
| ~ to others. I shuddered at the idea
of Cations nurse being one of these
But after contriving to get SO near her
for few minutes that 1 could take
| her breath / felt no unusual sensation
from it whatever. So gave up fhis
clew
Seeing plant in Cations room, I
| told his nurse to take 1t out, since the
perfume Of flowers Is considered harm
| ful to the sick. She obeyed, and after
that did not see it in the room again
till one morning went in to see Cax-
ton before his nurse had fixed his room
for the day. Then saw the plant
and asked him how 1t came to be
there, contrary to my instructions. He
informed me that his nurse was accus-
toned to bring it to his room before
leaving him for the night and taking
it away the first thing In the morning.
/ at once pounced upon this as at
fording solution Of the puzzle. had
heard Of the poison plant Of India
and how one need only to inhale its
perfume to be affected by it Picking
a flower from 1t, took it away with
me and put myself sufficiently under
Its influence to convince me that 1t
was being used upon Caxton.
at once informed him Of the fact,
and he was glad to return to his quar-
tiers, where, as soon as the deleterious
effects of what he had been subjected
to passed off, he recovered.
But we never let the girl know that
we had discovered her method of pro-
cedure.
Deafness Cannot Be Cured
by local applications, as they cam