Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/283

Rh "These are all right," she declared, pointing to her bag. "But, if you wish, I'll meet you to-morrow at eleven o'clock outside Westminster Station, on the Embankment. You can then take the notes to any bank and change them."

"And five thousand this day week?"

"If the desired event has occurred by then."

I saw a blotting pad upon the sideboard, and crossing to it got her to write a few scribbled lines of agreement, which she duly signed.

Then taking leave of her I left the house of mystery.

The manner in which Lionel Wray had been killed and the way in which the affair had been made to simulate suicide betrayed the artist. That was certainly not the first occasion on which Heinrich Otto had used ergotonin with criminal intent. He had been aware—by demonstration most probably—of its action in instantly arresting the flow of the blood, of producing a marble-like pallor, and of contracting the superficial muscles of the face, thereby rendering the victim unrecognizable even by his nearest friends. The drug had been administered first, and directly afterwards the shot had been fired and the