Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/269

Rh the hands of a man who is hard-up, and who is not hampered by conscience?

Ah, Brown, I often think how many practitioners are, like myself, compelled to keep up appearances upon a limited income, and in addition, most probably, have some secret feminine entanglement. To the doctor are confessed the family secrets, and well—in many cases, he can, if he so wishes, profit very considerably by his knowledge.

I was telling you, however, of how I watched that dark, unlit, neglected house in Avenue Road—watched it nightly from dark until dawn—and yet without result.

I suppose quite a fortnight must have gone by when one overcast night, at about half-past one, while in a shabby suit and golf-cap, I lounged at the corner of Avenue Road, I saw a taxi stop about a hundred yards away, and from it there descended a man, with an old woman in a black bonnet and shawl.

They paid the driver, and the cab having moved off, the pair strolled along slowly towards where I was standing in the shadow, and suddenly entered the gate of the tenantless house.

Their actions surprised me, and my curiosity being aroused, I crept along the pavement