process of digestion, as
nearly as may be, where the laudanum found it last year.

At a reasonable time after dinner I propose to lead the conversation
back again--as inartificially as I can--to the subject of the Diamond,
and of the Indian conspiracy to steal it. When I have filled his mind
with these topics, I shall have done all that it is in my power to do,
before the time comes for giving him the second dose.

* * * * *

Half-past eight.--I have only this moment found an opportunity of
attending to the most important duty of all; the duty of looking in the
family medicine chest, for the laudanum which Mr. Candy used last year.

Ten minutes since, I caught Betteredge at an unoccupied moment, and told
him what I wanted. Without a word of objection, without so much as an
attempt to produce his pocket-book, he led the way (making allowances
for me at every step) to the store-room in which the medicine chest is
kept.

I discovered the bottle, carefully guarded by a glass stopper tied
over with leather. The preparation which it contained was, as I had
anticipated, the common Tincture of Opium. Finding the bottle still well
filled, I have resolved to use it, in preference to employing either of
the two preparations with which I had taken care to provide myself, in
case of emergency.

The question of the quantity which I am to administer presents certain
difficulties. I have thought it over, and have decided on increasing the
dose.

My notes inform me that Mr. Candy only administered twenty-five minims.
This is a small dose to have produced the results which followed--even
in the case of a person so sensitive as Mr. Blake. I think it highly
probable that Mr. Candy gave more than he supposed himself to have
given--knowing, as I do, that he has a keen relish of the pleasures of
the table, and that he measured out the laudanum on the birthday, after
dinner. In any case, I shall run the risk of enlarging the dose to forty
minims. On this occasion, Mr. Blake knows beforehand that he is going to
take the laudanum--which is equivalent, physiologically speaking, to his
having (unconsciously to himself) a certain capacity in him to resist
the effects. If my view is right, a larger quantity is therefore
imperatively required, this time, to repeat the results which the
smaller quantity produced, last year.

* * * * *

Ten o'clock.--The witnesses, or the company (which shall I call them?)
reached the house an hour since.