“Yes,” replied Jack, becoming interested, for he had seen many animals unconscious for hours after eating the weed.
“Very well,” continued the visitor. “Now, I will tell you that we have extracted the juice of the weed, and that the liquid can easily be mixed with any sort of food or drink. Do you follow me?”
Jack nodded his head.
“Whoever eats food or drinks anything containing a quantity of this shortly becomes delirious, and while in that condition will talk of the things that have been most impressed upon his mind. In the food you have just eaten a sufficient amount of this tincture has been placed to put you in such a condition.”
Jack was conscious of a cold chill running through his back at the possibilities so coolly suggested, and his jaw set with a great determination.
“But suppose I should not talk?” he asked.
“There is not one chance in a million of failure,” was the reply; “but, if it does fail, I shall probably consider it necessary to do something worse.”
Again the cold chill ran through Jack’s body. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could do so the visitor rose from his seat, remarking:
“Perhaps you will tell me what I desire to know without all this unpleasantness, eh?”
“No,” replied Jack.