Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/470

 The Strange Case of Dr. Cream. tion to call, and on the following Friday Miss Masters was handed a letter in which the writer stated that he would see her that day between three and five o'clock. At the time appointed, both women were seated at the window looking into the street when they noticed one Matilda Clover walking toward the Lambeth Road. Cream was following and they observed the woman turn and smile. The two girls put on their hats and walked quickly after. Clover stood at the door of the house where she lived, look ing towards the man, who came up to her, fqllowed her into the house and the door closed behind them. After waiting for half an hour they went away. A few days later Elizabeth May again saw the couple together. At the lodgings where Matilda Clover and her illegitimate child resided, there was a servant, one Lucy Rose. On the morning of the 20th she found in her lodger's room an open letter in which the writer, whose name she did not recall, invited the recipient to meet him outside the Canterbury Hall at 7.30 that evening. Lucy assisted her to put the child to bed and Miss Clover left the house a little after seven. Later she re turned accompanied by Cream who remained with her for some time. Clover subsequently went out again to ply her trade and returned early in the morning between one and two o'clock. An hour later, the house was roused by the shrieks of one in dreadful agony. The unfortunate was found lying across the bed, her head wedged in between it and the wall. A medical man, hastily summoned, attributed the illness to alcoholism, knowing that the woman was much addicted to drink, and treated her accordingly. This, despite the fact that delirium tremens differs from strychnine poisoning in many important par ticulars. Notably the mind is clouded in

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the former case while in the latter it is clear. The character of the' convulsions also differs considerably. After frightful agony endur ing for over four hours, the victim, ceased to suffer. Dr. Graham, her regular physician, under circumstances of the greatest culpa bility, signed a death certificate in which it was stated that he had attended her during the last illness. On October 22, Matilda Clover was buried at Tooting by the parish authorities. She had reached the last stage of the painful road which fate had marked out for her. Her wretched and obscure life had ended and she rested in a pauper's grave, remembered but by few. Only one knew that a fearful tragedy had been enacted and that was he who had administered the fatal dose., On November 28, Cream wrote a letter in the assumed name of "M. Malone" to Dr. Broadbent, a man of high eminence in his profession, in which it was stated that certain incriminating letters had been found by him among Clover's effects. The modest sum 0f .£2,500 was fixed as their value. " If you don't want the evidence," he said, " of course it will be turned over to the police at once and your ruin will surely follow. Think well before you decide on this matter. It is just this, —£2,500 sterling on one hand, and ruin, shame, and disgrace on the other. Answer by personal on the first page of the Daily Chronicle any time next week. I am not humbugging you and I have evidence strong enough to ruin you forever." It is exceedingly important to bear in mind that there was here a charge of death by strychnine poisoning made at a time when no one suspected it to have been the instrument of death. Dr. Broadbent turned the letter over to the police and pursuant to their instructions an answer was inserted in the Chronicle, but strange to say nothing came of it.