The Lost Heir

William Scriven, Tobacconist, Fetter Lane." The address was in his own handwriting. H

am

e aint much of it, but it is mitely strong. About as much as will lie on the end of a knife will make a man foam at the mouth and fall into convulsions, three times as much as that will kill him outrite. He says there aint no taste in it. I hope this will suit your purpus. You will be sorry to hear that Long Peter has been wiped out; he was spered by a native, who thort Pete wanted to run a

Sto

Hilda wrote t

, and that he and the other doctors had not yet come to any decision upon it, as none of them had ever seen one precisely like it. He said that some of the symptoms were those of an epileptic fit, but the convulsions were so violent that they rather resembled tetanus than an ordinary fit. Altogether he seemed greatly puzzled, and he would give no opinion as to whether it was likely to recur. Uncle is better to-day; he told me that he, Mr. Simcoe, and four others had been dining together. He had just drunk hi

hat he will soon be his dear self again. The three doctors are going to have a meeting here to-morrow. I shall be anxious, indeed, to hear the result. I hope that they will order him a change, and that we can go down together, either to his place or mine; then I can always be with him, whereas here he goe

e, and was continued o

zzled. They had brought with them a fourth doctor, Sir Henry Havercourt, who is the greatest authority on such maladies. He had seen uncle, and asked him a few questions, and had a talk with Dr. Pearson, and had from him a minute account of the s

ry is not altogether complete. You may have noticed that his voice is not only weak, but there is a certain hesitation in it. His face has not altogether recovered its natural expression, and is slightly, very slightly, drawn on one side, which would seem to point to paralysis; while in other respects the attack was as unlike a paralytic stroke as it could well have been. Thus, you see, it is difficult in the extreme for us to give any positive opinion concerning a case which is so entirely an exceptional one. We can only hope for the best, and trust to the strength of his

could be done when he was in such a state as he was the other night, beyond sprinkling his face with water, and that he himself felt powerless in the case of an attack that was altogether beyond his experience. Of course he said it w

to me from what he said that it would also be desirable that, besides being a skillful doctor, he should b

at the case should be watched very carefully. He said that he would think the matter over, and that if

ce a fortnight, from Saturday until Monday, which he could do, as his practice was to a large extent a consulting one. I could see plainly e

s, 'Don't let any of his town friends in to see him; and I think that it would be as well that none of them should go down to visit him in the country. Let him be kept altogether free from anything that would in the smallest degree excite

he was lying on the sofa in his room; and Tom Roberts, who had been the General's soldier-servant years before, and had been in hi

ck of jungle fever in India. However, no doubt I shall pick up soon, just I did then. Pearson tells me that he and

own place

btfully, and then after a pause

l memories that had somehow escaped him, and Hilda, resolutely repr

t yet. He is going to arrange for a comfortable carriage in which you can lie down and rest. We shall make an early start. He will arrange for hor

he coach many a time when I was a boy,

way was not made till s

't made, Hilda; at le

and he stood by his master's shoulder, prompt

r Dr. Pearson said that you cannot go unt

strong, my dear.

is Frida

o go early next week; it is not as if we were going to ride down. I was always fond of ri

ncle; and the country w

enty of time to get strong

f that time he dropped asleep. Hilda made a sign to Roberts to stay with him, and then ran up to her own room, close

al was sleeping as peacefully as a child, and he thought it was like enough that he would no

There she sat thinking. For the first time she realized how immense was the change in her uncle. She had seen him several times each day, but he had spoken

r again to herself. "What a wreck-oh, what

and her fingers twining restlessly round each other. Presently the door opened very gently, and a voice said, "May I come in?" She sprang to

er she had sobbed for some time on her friend

ay after your letter? Aunt is with me; she is downstairs, tidying herself up. We shut

r pupils

n for an hour. Mrs. Brown is looking after her, and getting her a cup of tea, and I asked her to bring two cups up here. I thought that

or's opinion and the pl

even and twenty. Dr. Pearson said he was likely to become a very distinguished man in his profession some day. He is going to begin at once. He will not sleep here, but will spend most of his time here, partly because he wants to study the case, and partly because he wants uncle to get accustomed to him. He will travel down with us, which will be a great comfort to me, for there is no saying how uncle may stand the journey. I suggested that we shou

r uncle so

nd physically," and she gave an acc

country air, and you and me to amuse him, to say nothing of th

r coming all this way for my sake. You don't know what good your coming has effected. Before you opened the door I was in the depth of despair; everything seemed shaken, everything looked hopeless

had taken place with Miss Purcell, whom, although a stranger, she was unaffectedly glad to see, as it seemed to t

was opinion that there was some improvement, but that it was very slight; the others could see no change since they had seen him ten days before. However, they agreed with the

inion of the case, Dr.

inted rather to the administration of some drug than to any other cause. I admit that I am not acquainted with any drug whose administration would lead to any such results; but then I know of no other manner in which they could be brought about save by some lesion of a blood vessel in the brain of so unusual a character that no such case has hitherto been reported in any work with which I am

nciated had not occurred to any of them, but, as he spoke, they all recognized that the symptoms might under other circumstan

his kind. However, there is no doubt that we are all somewhat prone, when we meet with a case possessing unusual or altogether exceptional features, to fall back upon the theory of poisoning. In this case, fortunately, the circumstances are such as to preclude the possibility

y should prove that we were mistaken, it would be nothing short of professional ruin. Here, as you said, the theory is happily irreconcilable with the circumstances of the case, and no drug known to European science would produce so strange a seizure or the after-effects. Of course, as we all know, on the west coast of Afric

njury that he has ever received was when he was terribly torn and nearly killed by a tiger some twenty years ago in India. It may be useful to you, Dr. Leeds, to keep this in your mind. There can be no doubt that scratches and bites, even of the domestic cat, occasionally give rise to violent inflammations, and probably, indeed I believe it to be the case, those of the great cats of India are still more poisonous. As is the case with the bite of a mad dog, the poison may in some cases remain latent for a cons

is afternoon and spend a few hours in looking through the medical works at the library of the India Office to see if there are any re

t of the distance. At each change Dr. Leeds got down and had two or three minutes' talk with Hilda, and when the General was awake gave him a spoonful of restorative medicine. His presence close at hand was a great comfort to Hilda, upon whom the strain of wat