Beadle's Dime Novels No. 14 — page 81: what you’re looking at

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

A PARISIAN STORY. 79 universal. Attached to the part of the ring intended to be worn inside the finger were two minute lion’s claws, of the sharpest steel, and having clefts in them filled with a violent poison. Ina ball or other crowded assembly, the wearer of this fatal ring, wishing to exercise revenge on any one pres- ent, would take the victim’s hand, and when pressing it, ever so gently, the sharp claw wowld be sure to inflict a slight scratch on the skin, and the victim would be equally sure to be dead before the next morning. Notwithstanding the length of time which must have elapsed since the poison was secre- ted in the ring in question, it was still powerful enough to cause great danger, as has been seen, to the gentleman who had so unwarily touched it.” At the moment he ceased reading this statement, a flash of acute pain, sharp and sudden as lightning, spread from Pen- non’s hand over his body. Upon the first finger of his left hand, a small red spot began to inflame and swell~he exam- ined. it closely; it seemed to have been punctured, either by some sharp metal, or by the sting of an insect. “Pshaw ! it is the bite of a spider, or the sting of a bee,” he muttered; but as the pain intermitted, only to increase, and began to be excruciating, he felt alarmed. “Confound that necklace! there’s something about the clasp of it that’s not right,” he exclaimed. “I remember scratching myself with it when I lifted it out of the box this morning. It shan’t be the death of me, however, if there’s ~ any virtue in the power of suction,”—and applying his lips to~ the wound, he extracted as much as possible of whatever poison it contained. Then, going to the kitchen, he had the housekeeper wash it with a strong alkali, and bind it over wlth a poultice of scraped castile-soap. “No wonder I felt and acted so strangely, this morning,” he thought, “ it was this mysterious poison working in my veins, I'll go and take some of my elixir vitw, and see if I cannot shake off the spel. Great heavens! is it not terrible to think Clematis has been wearing that*futal bauble! I do not be- lieve the lightning struck her at all. I believe it was the be- numbing influence of this poison, weakened by its long repose. in the water.- It is so fortunate that I did not restore it to her mother before I made this discovery.” comiclbooks.conmn