Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/102

90 scrape off enough of the little fragments of skin under two of my finger-nails to give scarlet fever to twenty children.

I had often manufactured cases, but now two thousand of the "best and brightest" were being dangled cleverly before me.

I had not only to communicate the disease, however, but it was needful also to render it fatal—not such an easy business, yet I could not think of any better plan. You see, such an enormous amount of care was taken to keep the boy from running any risks. He was always carefully watched and guarded.

I drove directly home from the fever case and covered the two infected fingers with rubber points cut from a glove, which could be slipped off under cover of my handkerchief, or even the bed-clothes, if necessary.

I intended to plant my disease-carrying atoms at the moment when I took the boy's temperature, and I was a good deal taken aback to find that since my departure the day previously, Mrs. Chalmers had persuaded a friend of hers, who was a nurse, to pay her a short visit, and help look after Jackie; at the same time, consequently, I found that the temperature had been already taken. [sic]