“Doc,” he said, as soon as the bandage was drawn tight and a tourniquet applied, “see what kind of a fist Piggy Bill writes. If it’s the literature the little lady says, I’ll bet it against Shakespeare.”
Doctor Jarvis then spread the paper Tessie had given him on the counter, while Tessie and the inspector leaned over his shoulder.
“The first paragraph calls for morphine and scopolamin,” said he. “But scopolamin has no virtue in a surgical case. But wait,” he added, “there is more. My God, what infamy!”
For a moment he was speechless, then began reading words incomprehensible to his hearers.
“Monsieur et cher ami:” was the salutation, then came the following words: “C’est bien drôle que le mot ‘scopolamin’ et le mot qui exprime l’extrait de la noix vomique ont la meme total; il serait bien dommage si l’on prendrait l’un pour l’autre.”
“What does it all mean?” asked Inspector Craven.
“Well,” answered the doctor, “it is not medical Latin nor any other kind of Latin. It is written in fairly good French, not at all difficult to follow. This is how it reads: ‘My dear friend: it is very curious that the word “scopolamin” and the word which signifies the extract of nux vomica have the same number of letters. It would be sad if one mistook the one for the other.’
“That was why he told Tessie scopolamin would help Craighead. It happened to have the same number of letters the way he spelled it (without the ‘e’) as strychnine. Strychnine is an alkaloid of nux vomica. He knew Tessie was ignorant of French—the rest was easy. But I don’t understand what he hoped to gain by it.”
“What, a hard-boiled guy like that?” shouted the inspector. “Hell, he needed $10,000. If Tessie got married he would send for her and tell the story counting on her fear to see that he got enough to pay the lawyer who guaranteed to get him out. Why, this bunch saw Tessie paying blackmail for murder the next ten years.” Then turning to the girl, he continued:
“Tessie, you have our compliments. I hope fortune will smile on you. This has been a terrible ordeal for a young girl.”