PAOLINA. OR THE MILLION AIRE'S PLOT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10148, 26 January 1911, Page 2

PAOLINA. OR THE MILLION AIRE'S PLOT.

(OUR BERI£L..

By MARIPOSA WEIR, Author tf "tvaayne's Temptation," "A Chase Rours<* iiiz Worltf,' etc.

CHAPTER Xlll—Continued. "Is the superintendent of the hospital present?" demanded Spiretti, of a woman who was passing through the ward. j "I will see," she replied. She departed and returning in a ■ minute reported that "the doctor" was in the recaption room. Spiretti took out his note hook, pencilled some words on a card, and handed it to'the/woman. : "Deliver this to him," lie said. . He next, felt Zip's pul'se, after that'': he laid his hand on'his chest ovfer the 1 region of his heart, frowning most portentously the while. The patient was now in a deep - slumber, like that produced by opiates. "They've poisoned him," said Gina, beginning to cry. "I knew that something dreadful would happen when I saw Mark Punderson around here." [ "Do-not weep," said Spiretti gently, "he is not yet past help,, though it is most fortunate that I happened to be present at this crisis." At this moment the resident physician, with Spiretti's card in his hand, entered the ward. "Dr Spiretti, I presume?" he said. "The same," returned 'the Italian. "You will excuse my abrupt summons, but the case was-urgent. Here is a patient in your institution to whom poison has been administered. As 3'ou have charge here, it is well that \ou should not bo ignorant of so strange a circumstance." "What do you mean?" asked the hospital official sternly. "This pottage," returned the Italaapv laying ,hisi' finger upon, the edge of the soup dish, "was brought to the patient by one of your servants. He partook of it, and behold the result. This is not a natural sleep. There was poison in the pottage." The hospital physician took the dish, and as Spiretti had done before, tested it by the sense of smell. Then he tasted a spoonful of the broth, and looked grave and perplexed. "There is something here that suggests chloroform," he said. "No," said Spiretti, "it is not chloroform. It is something far more dangerous and deadly. What do you conceive to be the present condition of the patient?" , The physician felt Zip's pulse, and listened to-the stertorous breathing. "He is in a deep sleep, certainly not, a natural or a normal one—a sleep produced, undoubtedly; by the drug i whose presence in the soup we have both detected, though 1 am free to | confess that it is one with which I am unacquainted. From what you said just now I infer that you are better informed" "It fs an anaesthetic," replied Spiretti,' "the formula for the preparation of which is known to but two living persons. I call it an anaesthetic, but it may with equal, propriety, be styled rt poison, since it is really both, and operates as the one or the other, according to the manner and quantity in which it is given. It was evidently administered to this- boy as a poison. He is now in.a state of coma, so profound that the transition from sleep to death is inevitable if he is not wakened within an hour." "Not so bad as that, I think," returned the physician, who did not exactly like the air of superior knowledge which seemed to sit so easily i and normally on the Italian. "Let us first use the stomach pump, and 1 then administer strong coffee. I think we can rouse him after a good shaking." The Italian smiled with ill-conceal-ed; contempt at these crude suggestions. ■ 'The volatile essence has long since been dissipated," he said. "There is no longer any in the stomach to be removed. The poison is now winking in the brain. As to arousing this ... sleeper with.coffee, or by shaking l±iin • '—Well, you, might. "as. ■ well employ such means to reanimate :tb.V dead. Observe this." As he spolce he took a small morocco case from his breast pocket, and form that a long needle. Then he turned down the bedclothes, and baring the sleeper's arm to the el'.ow, thrust the needle deep into the flesh. Gina murmured a piteous pro luting "oh, doctor," but the patient did not stir or utter a sound to indicate ithat he felt the wound. "Sir," said Spiretti, withdrawing

the needle, "you might now amputate his leg without waking him." "Since you seem to know all about the patient's condition," said the hospital doctor, somewhat irascibly, "and to assume also that no one else understands it, perhaps you will yourself suggest what ought to be done. For my part, I have not the slightest doubt that the treatment I have indicated, with perhaps the addition of a hot foot bath, with a few tablespoonsful of .mustard in the water, would prove successful. That being my opinion!; I suppose I ought ■ without, delay to; resort to the reme-' dies I have named, as I occupy the position of responsibility here." Notwithstanding this confident "language the speaker's manner' was nervous, and he seemed ill at ease. "Sir," returned Spiretti, with much, gravity, "even now, while we discourse, the young man is hovering at the narrow confine that divides between life and death. The measures you speak of are powerless to break the benumbing spell that seals his senses, and bring him back to life." He once more felt the s eeper's 1 pulse, after which he laid his hand upon his temples. Then he placed the tips of his forefingers upon his eyelids, and drew them back until the eyes were exposed. After observing them narrowly, he muttered to himself: j "It is as I supposed. The contraction of the pupil is decisive. What is [ to be done must be done quickly." ' He next took out his watch, and havftig looked at it, said, still holding it in his hand: "lii thirty minutes he' will have ceaspd to .'if-. lefjb v ,tlrqs...., Even it . less time than that this insidious coma may have deepened into the sleep from which there is no waking.'' CHAPTER, XTV. THE PRINCESS ASTONISHES THE DOCTORS, "Why then," cried Gina, springing to her feet, "do you sit here and j do nothing if he is in such danger? ' Why do you dispute while lie is dying?" The girl spoke with an energy that made both the doctors start, j Spiretti eyed her curiously and wonderingly. "Surely, it is her tone," he said ab- , sently, "her eyes, her pose. And the crown of thick, coiled tresses, the red gold crown of the Marlianis." "Will you not do anything?" cried the girl, vehemently. "He has been poisoned her in your hospital, and now you will let him die without an j effort to save him. But I will be a witness against you. There is a man who desires his death, and who has wealth to hire yillains to do his will. It is here that lie has ben poisoned, and if he dies his death will rest upon those in authority here." The hospital doctor eyed her in mingled wrath and amazement, not without a shade of alarm to qualify them. Then, turning to Spiretti, he said: . . "Why is : it that after sneering at the treatment that I proposed, you still suggest nothing?" "If you will place the patient in my hands," returned the, Italian "I will proceed to do what is yet pos- . sible." "Proceed, then, inHeavcn's name," cried the other excitedly, "but I wash my hands of the responsibility." "There is-no power now that can dispel this deadly .stupor but the power of electricity or magnetism," said Spiretti. "You observe that the stertorous breathing has now ceased. Listen as closely as you will, and you shall not hear him breathe at all." "There is no pulse," said the hospital doctor, looking anxious as he felt the boy's wrist, "at least, none that I can feel." "I presimie," said Spiretti,' ''that there ,is a battery in this establishment. If so, let me have it with the least possible delay, for verily the case ' is pressing." ' To be Continued.