The Vestibule Limited Mystery — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

| THE VESTIBULE LIMITED MYSTERY. 65 God’s.sake, sir, awaken to the fact that your peril is great and do not trust any one who has not proved a friend.” _ “Don’t attempt to. set me against my wife, Mr. Jones. Iwill not believe a syllable if youdo. If wrong has been done me, she has been an uncon- scious tool!” he exclaims, stubbornly. “T have said nothing against her yet, Mr. Ham- mond. All I want to do is to get your eyes opened to the fact that danger hangs over your head. Once you believe that, 1 am sure you will take reasonable measures for protection against these people.” “Well, you have not proved it yet, sir,” with some show of defiance: I pick up the basket. | “Let us see how the animal is getting on.” Placing it to my earI can hear no sound from within the basket. There seems to be a dead weight under the cover; I can distinguish a differ- ence between the present and that other time of lifting it, when the cat rested on its feet. My mean- ing must be clear, when I state that a basket with a dead cat init appears to weigh more than one containing a live animal. Unfastening the cord, I remove the lid. ~ Both of us glance eagerly into the basket, and just as I expected, in the ten minutes that have elapsed, the cat has stiffened out indeath. There has been no struggle; the poison is of such a nature that, taken in quantity, it paralyzes and then brings a speedy death. Lam horrified myself when I gaze upon the awful effects of the drug, even though expecting just such a spectacle. As for Hammond, I really feel sorry Comirecboo cS (e(o) Nh.