Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/135

Rh everybody did think. I am perfectly certain that twenty-nine out of the thirty guests who have just left us are convinced that you will be dead by to-morrow morning.'

"'What! dead of the cholera? '

"'Yes, of the cholera.'

"'Great God, impossible!'

"'It is as I say.'

"'Come now, frankly . . . can it be . . . can it really be?'

"Oh! sir, what a wonderful thing imagination is, to be sure! after laughing at Bazile, whom they over-pursuaded into having the fever, here was I feeling my pulse and rubbing my stomach, almost believing I had the cramp already, and was going to have the colic directly. Anyway, one thing was beyond doubt. I was getting colder and colder, I could feel I was!

"'Poor dear fellow,' said Vanly, looking at me compassionately, 'fortunately the complaint has not made much progress yet, and my first husband bequeathed me an infallible specific'

"'Against the cholera?'

"'Precisely.'

"'Oh, the worthy man! well, dearest Vanly, now is the very time to use it: this specific of yours.'

"'Oh, ho! so you admit you are ill?'

"'Yes, I begin to think so. Oh Lord! what is that? '

"'Quick, dear, quick! the collimiilligrubs are coming on!'

"' What, the collimulligrubs?'

"The word sounds bad enough in English; but in Chinese it was much worse; so when she told me the collinulligrubs were coming on, I thought indeed it was all up!

"'The collimulligrubs!' I could only repeat, sinking on a chair. 'Well, then, dearest Vanly, what is to be done?'

"'Only to drink at once a glass of this red liquor I was mixing when you came in, feeling certain, poor fellow, what was coming.'

"Then quick, the glass, quick, the red liquor! Oh, oh! the collimulligrubs are coming on again. Quick, quick, quick!'

"Vanly poured out the red liquor into a glass, which she handed me. I took it with a trembling hand, raised it to my lips, and was just going to drain the contents to the last drop when I saw Vanly turn pale and fix her eyes on the door of the room.

"At the same moment I heard a wellknown voice crying:

"'In Heaven's name, Olifus, do not drink it!'

"'Shimindra,' I exclaimed, 'deuce take it, what are you doing here! '

"'I am here to do for you what you did for me—to save your life.'

"'Ah, dear Shimindra, so you too have a cure for cholera.'

"'No, I have no cure, and it would be useless if I had.'

"'Useless, do you say, useless?'

"'Yes, useless and needless!'

"'Then I have not got the cholera?'

"'Not you.'

"'But if it is not the cholera, what is it?'

"'It is this,'—and Shimindra fixed her eyes on Vanly, who grew paler and paler, 'it is this—you have married a poisoner.'

"Vanly gave a sharp cry as if a serpent had bitten her.

"'A poisoner?' I stammered.

"'Are you going to listen to that woman?' my wife asked.

"'My good Shimindra,' I observed, shaking my head, 'surely you are going too far.'

"'A poisoner, I tell you,' the girl reiterated.

"By this time Vanly was livid.

"'We will just reckon up your victims, madame,' went on Shimindra, 'and see how you poisoned them each.'

"'Oh! come away, Olifus, come away,' wailed Vanly.

"'No, stay here and hear me!' ordered Shimindra.

"Then, looking straight at Vanly:

"'You poisoned your first husband, the doctor, with the bean of St. Ignatius, which grows so plentifully at Mindanao. You poisoned your second husband, the Mandarin, with the ticunas of America. You poisoned your third husband, the judge, with the ouari, of Guiana. Last of all, this evening you were going to poison your fourth husband, Olifus, with the upas of Java.'

"'You lie, you lie,' cried Vanly.

"'I lie, do I?' said Shimindra; 'very well, if I lie, drink this glass of pink liquor which you were going to give your husband under pretence that he had the cholera.'

"So saying, she took the glass, which I had put down on the table, and offered it