Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/224

212 Then I threw myself into my chair and lit a cigarette.

Yes. Whatever the situation was in the Auberon household, the lady was certainly very shrewd and clever. And that she had attempted to fascinate me could not be disguised. What did it mean? Next morning I was up early. I rubbed the damp swab upon a cover-glass, dried it, and stained it with methylene blue for a few minutes. Then I washed the film, dried it, mounted it and placed it beneath my microscope.

No second glance was required to determine the nature of the disease from which Mr. Auberon was suffering. The bacilli were present in characteristic form, those slender rods, some straight, some slightly curved, their thickness being slightly greater than the tubercle bacillus—the indisputable proof of diphtheria.

When I called an hour later I carried with me some antidiphtheric serum. I was introduced to Captain Edward Auberon, the sick man's son, a tall, well-built fellow almost the same age as his step-mother.

The wife introduced him, and to them I told the result of my diagnosis. Both were