The first approach to a solution of the problem which I obtained came
a week or two later. Sebastian was engaged in observing a case where
certain unusual symptoms had suddenly supervened. It was a case of some
obscure affection of the heart. I will not trouble you here with the
particular details. We all suspected a tendency to aneurism. Hilda Wade
was in attendance, as she always was on Sebastian's observation cases.
We crowded round, watching. The Professor himself leaned over the cot
with some medicine for external application in a basin. He gave it to
Hilda to hold. I noticed that as she held it her fingers trembled, and
that her eyes were fixed harder than ever upon Sebastian. He turned
round to his students. "Now this," he began, in a very unconcerned
voice, as if the patient were a toad, "is a most unwonted turn for the
disease to take. It occurs very seldom. In point of fact, I have only
observed the symptom once before; and then it was fatal. The patient in
that instance"--he paused dramatically--"was the notorious poisoner, Dr.
Yorke-Bannerman."
As he uttered the words, Hilda Wade's hands trembled more than ever, and
with a little scream she let the basin fall, breaking it into fragments.
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