THE WINGED DEATH.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 303, 18 June 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WINGED DEATH.

I had been for little time engaged, through a medical agency, in doing locum tenens'work in different parts of England, when I received a summons by telegram to go and take temporary charge of a practice in the suburbs of Bradford, The address was that of a Dr Wolford, who had died suddenly two days before, but beyond this I had no information. I was met at the Bradford Midland Station by a surly-looking individual, who, saying that his name was Sugden, and that he was the late Dr Wolford's dispenser, at once suggested that we should go and have a drink. I looked sharply at the man, and what I saw prompted me to decline, on the plea that I must look after my luggage. I have formed the habit (a dangerous one, by the way) of judging by first impression?, and already I knew that I should dislike this man, I concealed this feeling, however, and during the drive from the station endeavoured to learn something about the manner of Dr Wolford's death ; but as I received only monosyllabic replies from my companion, I soon gave up the attempt at conversation. On our arrival at the house I was at once shown into the dining room, where Mrs Wolford was waiting to receive me. ' Oh, Dr Meldrum,' she cried, as she came forward to greet me, ' you can't think how glad I am to see you. I've been counting the hours till you could be here.' The warmth of this welcome rather surprised me, but I murmured some suitable reply, and expressed my regret for the sad occurrence which had made my presence necessary. At the mention of her husband's name, Mrs Wolford's eyes filled with tears. ' Yes,' she said, simply, 'it was very sudden, and very, very cruel.' And then, with a sudden keen glance up into my face, she added : ' Are you clever, Dr Meldrum—clever in your profession, I mean ; because there is a problem in this house to be solved that will need a clever man. Oh, Dr Meldrum, I wonder whether you know what it is to be without a friend whom you can trust!' At this point she showed signs of breaking down altogether, but with a strong effort restrained herself. ' You wonder why I ask you these questions V she went on. ' You think me hysterical—but I'm not, doctor.' ' Xo,' said I, though in point of fact I did think so. ' I recognise that you are anxious that your husband's practise should be in competent hands, and from what I have seen of the dispenser ' She interrupted me with a gesture. ' It's not that,' she said, impatiently ; and then, after a slight pause : ' Dr Meldrum, I'm afraid !' 1 Afraid V said I. 'Of what V

' Afraid of my boy's life—and my own.' The terror in her voice as she said these words was very real.

'ls your son ill V 1 asked. 'Yes. Will you come and see him now 1 There is just time before dinner.'

I expressed my readiness, and wc went upstairs to the boy's bedroom. On the way Mrs Wolford explained that this was her only child, ten years old ; and added, tearfully; that if she were to lose him too, as well as her husband, she should die. We found the boy sleeping quietly ; without waking him I took his temperature, but found no indication of feverishness, and this, as I pointed out to his mother, was, in a child, a tairly onclusive protf that at present there was not much the matter. 'Thank heaven for that!' she said, earnestly. ' What do you fear ?' said I.

There was a sound of someone opening and shutting the door of the room next to the one in which we were, The footsteps came along the passage and paused at the door, instead of answering me, Mrs Wolford, who seemed to be listening intently, wrote with her finger on the counterpane tho one word, Poison.' Then we heard the footsteps pass on and go downstairs. ' Come,' said Mrs Wolford, after a slight pause, ' when you have washed we will go down to dinner. You must oe hungry and I just now heard Mr Sugded leave his room, so he'll be waiting for up.' After my experience in the cab, I quite expected that the conversation at dinner would be mostly between Mrs Wolford and myself; but in this I was wrong, for Sugden, who in the presence of the lady seemed quite to have thrown off the eccentric morosoness of manner which I had put down to semi-intoxication, talked continuously and well, and proved himself an exceedingly interesting and well-informed companion—so long, that is, as Mrs Wolford remained with us. As soon, howover, as she had left the room, his behaviour underwent a complete change. He became sullen at once, and did not trouble to observe even the ordinary courtesies of the dinner table for my benefit.

One incident I mention, because of its bearing on the tragedy which occurred later. There was a big Persian cat in the room, which Sugden seemed to take a strange delight in teasing to a point of fury. Finally, in-its struggle to get away from his rough handling, the cat scratched his left thumb, deeply enough to draw a good deal of blood, and got a savage slap for doing it, and the dispenser got up and left me, slamming tho door behind him as he went. -

Hardly had he left the room when M rs Wolford returned, and in a low, frightened voice asked me to come at once and see her son.

' Certainly,' said I ; ' but what is the matter V

' He's in a fit of some sort. And, oh, Dr Meldrum, I'm afraid—horribly afraid—of that sinister man !' His nurse was standing by the bedside as we entered the boy's bedroom, holding his hand, and trying to keep him covered by the bedclothes, which in his convulsive movements he continnally threw off. At our approach she made way for us and went over to the fireplace. The first glance I took at my little patient told me that it was no trivial child's ailment that I had to treat ; the muscles of the face wore drawn and set, and his limbs were straight and rigid. I had hardly time to note these symptoms, however, before the paroxysm, and almost immediately he dropped into a sound sleep. ' Send that woman away,' I whispered to Mrs Wolford. ' You can go to supper, Jane,' said the lady. •Dr Meldrum 'and I will stay with Master Ronald.' ' Now,' said I, when the nurse had gone, 'how many of these attacks has he had V

' Three to-day. The first came on about 11 o'clock, just after he had had his lunch.' •What did he have?' 1 Some strawberries, which I bought for him myself.' 'No one could have tampered with them, I suppose ?' ' Quite impossible,' said Mrs Wolford, decidedly. ' I brought them straight up to this room, and he ate them about half an hour afterwards I did not have occasion to leave the room in the interval, so that the fruit was in my sight the whole time until he had it.'

' Strange !' said I- ' What else has he had V

'Nothing that I have not prepared for him with my own hands,' replied Mrs Wolford emphatically ; and then, with a little cry, ' Haven't I told you that T, too, suspected poison 1 Doctor, what is the poison?' ' Strychnine,' I answered ; 'at least, I think so, but the symptoms are not absolutely characteristic. He has not had enough, fortunately, to be fatal, provided we can prevent him having any more. But tell me—what made you suspect poison V ' Because,' said Mrs Wolford, « his father had a similar attack, though a much milder one, the night before he died.'

' But,' said I, incredulously, ' I was told that your husband died of heart disease.'

' Yes ! he died of heart disease — the doctors say so ; but how am I to be sure that they are right ? He was found dead in his study chair. No one saw him die; and there will be no inquest.' " But about your boy," said I,

" why do you suspect Mr Sugden of wishing to harm him 1

At this question Mrs Wolford, strangely enough, seemed to become confused. She hesitated, began sentences which she did not finish, and then, in a short of defiant rush, gave me three or four very feminine and, to my mind, absolutely unconvincing reasons for thinking as she did. I was puzzled by this peculiar change in her manner. I said nothing, however, and a movement on the part of our patient put an end to what threatened to become an awkward silence. The boy was awake, and complaining of thirst, llis mother ran to a cupboard and, opening it with a key which she took from her pocket, brought out a plate of calves' foot jelly. " I made this myself, doctor," she declared, " and have kept it locked up, so it will be safe to gfve him it."

' There's a wasp having some of it, mummie," said the boy, and I was pleased to notice that the painful symptoms which had shown themselves before were now gone. The muscles of his face were still slightly drawn, but that was all, Mrs Wolford took a spoon and knocked the wasp, together with the part of the jelly which it had attacked, into the fire, and then fed the boy with the remainder. After he had had it he went to sleep at once.

Presently Mrs Wolford went away to prepare some more food to be ready for him when he should wake again, and I meanwhile undertook to stay with him. 1 was musing over the difficulties of this peculiar case, when I suddenly became aware of a buzzing sound in the room, which I presently traced to another wasp which had somehow found its way in. Now, I have an intense dislike to wasps, so when after a fow circuits of the room the insect found the remains of the jelly on the plate by the boy's bedside and settled down to enjoy this, I killed ib with a flick of ray handkerchief. Hardly, however, had I done so when again I heard a buzzing, and it seemed to me that thi3 time the sound came from behind a wardrobe in one corner ; it was not continuous, but was intermittently sandwiched in between intervals of silence, as though another wasp was imprisoned there, and was making spasmodic efforts to get out. 1 went to reconnoitre, and presently the yellow insect crawled out, and, escaping the blow which I aimed at it, started in its turn to perform the irritatingly sonorous voyage of discovery round the room. Then a strange thought struck me : Why should there be this succession of wasps coming thus mysteriously into a bedroom, loug after the hour whem these insects, in the ordinary course of things, would be abroad ? And why . .

. , . I looked at the jelly. The third wasp had already settled upon it. Great heavens ! was this the clue for which I bad been seeking? I examined the wardrobe again. It concealed a door which communicated with the next room —Mr Sugden's ! My suspicions were being rapidly confirmed. With a feeling almost of elation I took an empty tumbler, •end carefully inverting it over the jelly dish imprisoned the busily-feeding wasp. And then I rang the bell.

Mrs Wolford answered the sum nions herself. I showed her the wasp, and explaining that I had formed a somewhat strange notion about it, asked her to stay with Ronald while I went to my. room to test my theory. Ten minutes later 1 was in Sugden's room. I went in without knocking, and tak<ng no notice of his presence, walked straight up to the door of communication between his room and Roland's and examined it. Fixed in a corner of one of the panels, I found a funnel-shaped piece of tin. My hypothesis was almost proved now, for this plainly was the path by which the wasps had entered, and the analysis I had hurriedly made of the fragments of jelly told me only too clearly the murderous errand on which tliey had been sent.

A low, chuckling laugh behind me caused me to turn sharply round, and a cold shiver ran down my spine at what E saw. Sugden was covering me with a revolver, and the gleaming barrel was within six inches of my face ! 4 So, Mr Meldrum,' he began, slowly, watching me the while with an evil, catlike alertness, " you have been spying on me 1 ? No, I wouldn't try a rush if I were you ; you might get hurt. This revolver is really loaded.'

He spoke quietly, but there was a gleam in his eyes which I knew and feared, for I had seen it once before in a time of danger shining in the glances of a homicidal maniac. ' I must congratulate you, Dr Meldrum," he went on, " upon your acumen, for I see you have suspected my little winged messengers of death. What, by the way, is tho death which they carry ? Did you find out 1 Strychnia ?—no, Dr Meldrum, not thai It was something much more deadly than strychnia, though its effects are, I grant you, similar. What do you think of promaines—the poison that is bred of putrefaction ? More artistic than your strychnia, I think, and infinitely more deadly; for I've improved on the book methods of preparation, I may tell you, and this little 4oz jar

(which contains merely a scientifically prepared putrefaction of a rabbit's brain) will kill if you so much as dip a scratched finger into it.' He had laid down the revolver while he spoko, and 1 thought I saw my chance. With a quick movement I tried so grab it, but he was quicker: and, almost before I had risen from my chair, the revolver was in his hand, and he had me covered again. But he had not expected that I would make the attempt, and the start which he gave caused him to spill his horrible liquid, which trickled slowly over his left hand, and fell in big, oily drops upon the floor. ' Too bad of you, Dr Meldrum,' he said, with mock chagrin, " to make me spill my exilir of death ; before it has finished its work too 1 Ah, well, it has not been altogether wasted, since one Tictim has fallen already by its means. You doubt me? I assure you I speak the truth—the late Dr Wolford is my witness.' • You sneering fiend,' I cried, in an access oE hysterical fur#, ' you lie ! He died of heart disease.' 1 And shall I tell you why he died ?' went on the maniac with rising excitement. I loved the woman he married ; loved her for years ; loved her long before he ever met her. She knew this, and she scorned mo.' 1 And now, Dr Meldrum, you have thought good to come in my way ! Well, I have fire shots in this pistol—one for you, one for the boy, one for the mother, the fourth for myself, and the fifth in reserve, in case any of the others should chance to miss. Shall I use them now 1 No, I'm in a puixotic mood to-night. I'll take you on level terms !' With a wild laugh, he fired tho five shots into the grate, and then throwing the pistol to, the floor, sprang tiger like at my throat. He was a stronger man than I, and he bore me down ; hut in a moment, even in the very act of his rush, an agony of terror seized him. His grasp on my throat relaxed, he gave a wild shriek of torment, and then his muscles quivered and stiffened, and his body went backwards like a bow. His own vile drug, stealing into his blood through tho opening door left by the scratch of a tormented cat upon his thumb, had seized him in its cruel grip ; and before the servants, alarmed by the sound of the shots, had time to reach the room, he was lying before me dead, slain by the venom of his own brewing.