n entirely original method of experimentation upon those
drugs and poisons which did not require to be introduced into the
blood-stream. His method was simplicity itself. An alcoholic solution
"carried" a minute quantity of the drug in its vapor, just as an
alcoholic solution carries a minute quantity of perfuming essential
oil. He inhaled the odor of the alcoholic solution. The effect was
immediately, strictly temporary, and not dangerous. He was enabled to
describe the odors, in some cases the tastes, and in a few instances
the effects of the substances he listed, from personal experience.

* * * * *

And Bell had used his method as an unpromising but possible test for a
drug in the drink that had been brought him. He inhaled the strangling
odor of the spilled liquor on his handkerchief. And there was a drug
involved. For an instant he was dizzy, and for an instant he saw the
room through a vivid blue haze. And something clicked in his brain and
said "It's _yague_." And the relief of dealing with something which he
knew--if only at second-hand--was so enormous that he felt almost
weak.

_Yague_, you see, is an extract from the leaves of a plant which is
not yet included in materia medica. It has nearly the effect of
scopolamine--once famous in connection with twilight sleep--and
produces a daze of blue light, an intolerable sleepiness, and
practically all the effects of hypnotism. A person under _yague_, as
under scopolamine or hypnosis, will seem to slumber and yet will obey
any order, by whomever given. He will answer any question without
reserve or any concealment. And on awakening he will remember nothing
done under the influence of the potion. The effects are not
particularly harmful.

Bell then, sat in an apparent half-daze, half-slumber, in the salon in
which he waited for Ribiera to appear. He knew exactly what he was
expected to do. Ribiera wanted to find out what he knew or suspected
about Ortiz's death. Ribiera wanted to know many things, and he would
believe what Bell told him because he thought Bell had taken enough
_yague_ to be practically an hypnotic subject. Let Ribiera believe
what he was told!

When he came into the room, bland and smiling, Bell did not stir. He
was literally crawling, inside, with an unspeakable repulsion to the
man and the things for which he stood. But he seemed dazed and dull,
and when Ribiera began to ask questions he babbled his answers in