“And yet you——”
“That is quite another matter. Years ago, when I was far away from here, it was in my power to render a great service to a distinguished chemist, and he made me a present of this combination of his skill. It would be impossible to trace this bottle; I have had it ten years, and the man who gave it to me is dead. Ten years? No, I am wrong, it is now twelve.”
“And in all these years has not this substance lost any of its destructive powers?”
“I tried it only a month ago. I threw a pinch of it into a basin of milk and gave it to a powerful mastiff. He drank the milk and in ten seconds fell stark and dead.”
“Horrible!” exclaimed Diana, covering her face with her hand, and recoiling from the tempter.
A sinister smile quivered upon the thin lips of the Counsellor.
“Why do you say horrible?” asked he; “the dog had shown symptoms of rabies, and had he bitten me, I might have expired in frightful torture. Was it not fair self-defence? Sometimes, however, a man is more dangerous than a dog. A man blights the whole of my life; I strike him down openly, and the law convicts me and puts me to death; but I do not contemplate doing so, for I would suppress such a man secretly.”
Diana placed her hands on the man’s mouth and stopped a further exposition of his ideas.
“Listen to me,” said she. But at this moment a heavy step was heard outside. “It is Norbert,” gasped she.
“Impossible! It is more likely his father.”