The Gold of the Gods

at and plunged again into his investigation of the blo

Leslie's perplexed face looked in on us. He was carrying a large jar

over a Bunsen burner, "have you found anything yet? I h

mica; but my tests show that it must have been something very much like it. I've looked for all the ordinary known poisons and some of the little-known alkaloids, but, Kennedy, I always get back to the sa

at last a ray of light had pierced the darkness. He reache

ht into a clean tube and added a few drops of the spirits of turpentine. A cloudy, d

d the coroner eage

erfectly right about the asphyxiation, Doctor," he remarked slowly, "bu

slie and I asked

I am quite sure of it, but it is new to me. By the way, may I trouble y

we agreed readily, especially because by going we might

director of the Museum, and a few moments

rector and presenting the note. He was a close friend o

moment?" he apologized

exhibit just

y he returned carrying a gourd, incrusted on its hol

p carefully in a box. "I don't need to ask you to tell Professor Kenne

the car again, carrying the package, after hi

se that we could have bee

oratory, but, to my s

le. I stopped shor

oxygen beside him, from which he was inhaling laboriously copious dr

our absence an attempt had been made on his lif

attempt at a smile. "Only I-thin

ly. But he seemed quite put out when I suggested that he was working too hard o

ng the package that contained the

iquids and a number of other chemicals. At the end of the table was a large,

has happened. Has any one been

rms and shoulders as if to get rid of so

use the oxygen?" I repeated, determin

as no ordinary asphyxiatio

"I could see th

eye, on the point of a lancet or needle, a prick of the skin not anything like that wound of Mendoza's, were necessary. But, fortunately, more of the poison was used, making it just that much easier to trace, though for the time

ment, and we list

on, circulation, or respiration until the end approaches. It seems to be one of the most powerful agents of which I have ever heard. When introduced in

hite mouse from the huge box

I am now going to inject a little of the blood

d not even wince, so lightly did he touch it. But as we watched, its life seemed g

licorice-like stuff that incrusted it. He dissolved the particle in some alcohol, and with a sterilized needle rep

pparently in the same manner as the second, you have proved that the poison is the same in both cases? And if it is the same, can you show that it affects human

rtled me, it was

, extracted it, sterilized it,

listened. "Then that was what was the matter?" I blu

blood samples six centigrams of the poison. It is almost unknown. I could only be sure of what I discovered by testing the p

gasped Leslie, "

do it, if I hadn't got rid

himself the dog!" exclaimed Leslie. "I need the cre

dy la

n I slowly worked my way up to three and then four centigrams. You see what I had recovered was far from the real thing. They did not seem at first to produce any very a

xclaimed. "Didn't

ssitude and vertigo that was most distressing, and six centigrams, the whole amount which I had recovered from th

d at each other an

under in handling this case, as well as other work. However that may be, the added centigram produced so much more on top of the five centigrams I had pr

serious disturbance of my breathing made it apparent to me that walking, waving my arms, anything, was imperative. My lungs felt glued up, and the muscles of my chest refused to work. Everyt

erienced in the Cave of the Winds of Niagara, where water is more abundant in the atmosphere than air. Yet my watch afterward indicated only about twenty minutes of extreme distres

ather lose my job,

ve been a good deal more than I took. Six centigrams which I recovered from these small samples are

s too overwhe

son that was used on Men

often a calabash. This is in a gourd. It is a blackish, brittle stuff, incrusting the sides of the gourd just as if it was poured in in the

table, where we could see it closely.

bed it. It is now an article of commerce, and is to be found in the United States Pharmacoepia as

blow-pipes and quivers full of poisoned darts made of thin, charred pieces of bamboo, tipped with this stuff. One of them aimed a dart.

e son. Says to me good-bye for his wife and the village. Then he lies down. His tongue talks no longer. No sight in his eyes. He folds his arms. H

the horror of the thing sank deep

arrows. Its principal ingredient is derived from the Strychnos toxifera tree, which yields also the drug nux vomica, which you, Dr. Leslie, h

sent to you with the warning about the curse of Mansiche and the Gold of the Gods. What if there shou

us all? Who was likely to have known of curare? I confess that I

eautiful little Senorita, about whom these terrible events centred. Though I had no reason for it, I could not fo

ce might know of the arrow poison of Indian

t it was a man who stole the dagger from the Museum. It may be that it was already poisoned, too. In that case t

Mendoza's body. Kennedy, however, did not seem to be worried. Leslie had long since given up trying to form an

r. Leslie, and, long after he had left, t

OF MANSICHE ON TH