The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-05-13

1T isn't all over, is it,"
The doctor nodded with COM
pressed lips.
when and where?"
II don't know. Come in. They're
getting up downstairs; there'll be
some tea in a minute"
For heavens sake tell me what
you've heard!"
Haven't / told you? They rang
up just after you went. He bought
prussic acid yesterday"
Dollar had dropped into his
elaborate old chair; the bent
head between his hands dropped
over its own reflection in the
monastic wfiting-table.
"Who rang up?" asked the
man on his legs.
Some of your people,
"Wes that all they had to tell
your"
"That was all; we shan't have
long to wait for the rest"
Where did he buy it,"
cat his own chemist's-'to put
poor old dog out of its misery!
His very words, Vinson, so they
tell me. l shall hear them all my
life"
"And it has taken all night to
learn this, has it, from the chem
lists where the poor devil dealt"
THAT was my fault" said he.
81 told them to confine their at
tention to entries made in the
poison books after o'clock yes
terday afternoon. Peterborough
fhad signed his name and got the
stuff earlier in the day"
Before you had told him any
thing?"
"He had his own suspicious,
you must remember. | had con-
firmed them-and her first words
left no more to be said, that he
could bear to hear. If only he
had waited another minute. If
only | had dragged him back to
face it QUIT" groaned Dollar, in a
bottomless pit of self-reproach. Il
call myself a crime doctor, yet |
let my patient creep into space
with a bottle of prussic acid, and
commit the one crime | had to
prevent"
"Why prussic acid, I wonder?"
The idle question was not asked
for information, but 1t happened
to be one that Dollar could an
swer, and it brought him to his
book-shelves with a certain alac-
rity.
81 know" he said, Though I
never thought of it till this min
ute! was trying to write him a
prescription on Sunday night,
when the poor chap suddenly re-
marked that Shelley was right,
and ! found him dipping into
these Letters, and had the luck to
spot the very bit he'd struck. 1t
was this"--and he read out the
passage beginning:
you, of course, enter into So
ciety at Leghorn; should you
meet with any scientific person,
capable of preparing the prussic
acid, or essential oil of bitter al
monds, | should regard 1t as a
great kindness II you could pro-
cure me a small quantity"-down
to 1T would be a comfort to me
to hold in my hands that golden
key to the chamber of perpetual
peace"
Topham Wilson's only comment
was to pick up the book. which
had fallen to the floor with the
concluding words. Dollar was
swaying where he stood, glancing
in horror toward the door: at that
moment 1t opened, and Mrs. Bar
ton entered with the tea tray.
Mrs. Barton" said the doctor,
in a voice that failed him as it
had not done all night. II don't
want to hurt your feelings, but
did that boy of yours speak the
truth when he told me he had
seen Mr.. Peterborough out?"
'He did not sir, and his father
thrashed him for IT." cried the
good woman. "And that was very
wrong OF Barton, because I was as
bad as the boy, in not telling you
at the time. So we've all done
wrong together, and we don't de-
serve to stay, as l told the both
of them!"
The poor soul was forgiven and
consoled, with an unconscious
sympathy not lost on ,Topham
Vinson, to whom 1t was extended
moment later.
Take "a drink of your tea,"
said Dollar. "Itwill do you good"
What about your"
"I'm going upstairs first"
You've thought of some
thing!"
81 have" replied Dollar in a
tragic whisper. 1--WE thought OF
my chamber Of perpetual peace"
That sanctuary was on the Sec
ond floor, and it had triple doors
so spaced that each could be shut
in turn before the next opened.
The house might have been in
an uproar, and yet one might have
entered this room without admit
ting the slightest sound by the
door. The window was of triple
glass, that would have deadened
an explosion on its sill, and the
walls were thickly wadded behind
ap inner paneling of aromatic
pine.
The first sensation on entering