The Vestibule Limited Mystery — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

THE VESTIBULE LIMITED MYSTERY. 19 Obeying, Iam instantly at his side. “What does Samuels declare is the matter?” he asks. “He says Mr. Hammond is dying—that he has taken arsenic in some liquid shape with the inten- tion of committing suicide.” “Does he hold out any chance of saving him?” “None.” “You and [ know that is false, Mr. Craig. The Jew is simply carrying out his part of the agree- ment; but he does not suspect where the contents of tie little vial went.” “But——” I begin, when Colonel Acton stops” me short, for the puzzled look on my face tells him what I am about to say. “You wonder what ails Robert. I can tell you.” This pleases me. | I have been dreadfully worried lest after all these plotting rascals have gotten the better of us, and something in the face of Acton tells me this is not so. “T[Thave been talking with Robert’s sister about the matter, and she tells me he has been subject to a peculiar periodical fit of this kind ever since child- hood. They are apt to come on about once a year, and then only after some period of great excite- ment. “She says she has known him to lie in a state of coma, like one dead, and then to rise up from it as bright as a button, just as though the affair acted | upon his mind and gave his brain a yearly clear- ing up. “His case has been a source of wonder to physi- cians in a quiet way. His sister declares that one of those fits has come upon him during the night, - Gomichboo mn KS €o