equally to
exclude the idea of morphinomania. Your opium-eater does not reduce
himself to a state of coma. He usually keeps well within the limits of
the tolerance that has been established. The conclusion that emerges is,
I think, that the drug was administered by some other person; and the
most likely person seems to be Mr. Weiss."

"Isn't morphine a very unusual poison?"

"Very; and most inconvenient except in a single, fatal dose, by reason
of the rapidity with which tolerance of the drug is established. But we
must not forget that slow morphine poisoning might be eminently
suitable in certain cases. The manner in which it enfeebles the will,
confuses the judgment and debilitates the body might make it very useful
to a poisoner whose aim was to get some instrument or document executed,
such as a will, deed or assignment. And death could be produced
afterwards by other means. You see the important bearing of this?"

"You mean in respect of a death certificate?"

"Yes. Suppose Mr. Weiss to have given a large dose of morphine. He then
sends for you and throws out a suggestion of sleeping sickness. If you
accept the suggestion he is pretty safe. He can repeat the process until
he kills his victim and then get a certificate from you which will cover
the murder. It was quite an ingenious scheme--which, by the way, is
characteristic of intricate crimes; your subtle criminal often plans his
crime like a genius, but he generally executes it like a fool--as this
man seems to have done, if we are not doing him an injustice."

"How has he acted like a fool?"

"In several respects. In the first place, he should have chosen his
doctor. A good, brisk, confident man who 'knows his own mind' is the
sort of person who would have suited him; a man who would have jumped at
a diagnosis and stuck to it; or else an ignorant weakling of alcoholic
tendencies. It was shockingly bad luck to run against a cautious
scientific practitioner like my learned friend. Then, of course, all
this secrecy was sheer tomfoolery, exactly calculated to put a careful
man on his guard; as it has actually done. If Mr. Weiss is really a
criminal, he has mismanaged his affairs badly."

"And you apparently think that he is a criminal?"

"I suspect him deeply. But I should like to ask you one or two questions
about him. You say he spoke with a German accent. What command of
English had he? Was his vocabulary good? Did he use any German idioms?"

"No. I sh