A Study in Scarlet — page 170: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

168 A STUDY IN SCAKLET. ‘‘* What do you think of Lucy Ferrier now ?’ I cried, | locking the door and shaking the key in his face. | ‘Punishment has been slow in coming, but it has over- taken you at last.’ I saw his coward lips tremble as I spoke. He would have begged for his life, but he knew well that it was useless. . “Would you murder me ?’” he stammered. “There is no murder,’ I answered. ‘Who talks of | murdering a mad dog? What mercy had you upon my poor darling when you dragged her from her slaughtered father and bore her away to your accursed and shame. less harem?’ ““* Tt was not I who killed her father,’ he cried. “*But it was you who broke her innocent heart,’ I shrieked, thrusting the box before him. ‘ Let the high God judge between us. Choose and eat. There 1s death in one and life in the other. I shall take what . you leave. Let us see if there is justice upon the earth, or if we are ruled by chance.’ | “He cowered away with wild cries and prayers for mercy, but I drew my knife and held it to his turoat until he had obeyed me. Then I swallowed the other, and we stood facing each other in silence for a minute or more, waiting to see which was to live and which was to die. Shall I ever forget the look which came over his face when the first warning pangs told him that the poison was in his system? I laughed as I saw it, and Eomicbooks.com