onviction that it is the
right and proper course for me to take," he continued. "You will forgive
me some of the ill which I have done you, Maisie, when I tell you that
I really died this morning--all unknown to Cumberledge and you--and that
nothing but my will force has sufficed to keep spirit and body together
until I should carry out your will in the manner which you suggested. I
shall be glad when I have finished, for the effort is a painful one,
and I long for the peace of dissolution. It is now a quarter to seven. I
have every hope that I may be able to leave before eight."

It was strange to hear the perfect coolness with which he discussed his
own approaching dissolution. Calm, pale, and impassive, his manner was
that of a professor addressing his class. I had seen him speak so to a
ring of dressers in the old days at Nathaniel's.

"The circumstances which led up to the death of Admiral Scott Prideaux,
and the suspicions which caused the arrest of Doctor Yorke-Bannerman,
have never yet been fully explained, although they were by no means so
profound that they might not have been unravelled at the time had a man
of intellect concentrated his attention upon them. The police, however,
were incompetent and the legal advisers of Dr. Bannerman hardly less so,
and a woman only has had the wit to see that a gross injustice has been
done. The true facts I will now lay before you."

Mayfield's broad face had reddened with indignation; but now his
curiosity drove out every other emotion, and he leaned forward with the
rest of us to hear the old man's story.

"In the first place, I must tell you that both Dr. Bannerman and
myself were engaged at the time in an investigation upon the nature and
properties of the vegetable alkaloids, and especially of aconitine. We
hoped for the very greatest results from this drug, and we were both
equally enthusiastic in our research. Especially, we had reason to
believe that it might have a most successful action in the case of a
certain rare but deadly disease, into the nature of which I need not
enter. Reasoning by analogy, we were convinced that we had a certain
cure for this particular ailment.

"Our investigation, however, was somewhat hampered by the fact that the
condition in question is rare out of tropical countries, and that in our
hospital wards we had not, at that time, any example of it. So serious
was this obstacle, that it seemed that we must leave other men more
favour