Cub read over his shoulder:
“Cupola.... May 19th, 3:55 P. M. I have just failed to administer to the patient in Bed 11, Ward B, Medicine Clinic, a hypodermic of coniine. She opened her eyes suddenly and recognized me as ... Cub Sterling! Nothing could be more fortunate.
“Beforehand I presented to Bessie Ellis my usual token. I was followed by an orderly whom I suspect as a detective. I got away ... but at last ... at last ... my brother may be arrested.... It has worked, perfectly!”
“My God! Lil!” Higgins said savagely as he dropped the book onto the plain deal table.
Nobody paid him any attention.
Cub Sterling said, “‘My brother?’”
And Sally Ferguson picked up the book and began reading aloud from the first page. Her voice was thin and pointed and she read:
“In 1883 there came to Heidelberg as a medical student a young American named Ethridge Sterling. He had studied at the Hotel Dieu and in New York. He lived at the Eagle Inn and attended lectures in surgery under Klotz.
“As a chambermaid at the Eagle Inn, there was a young Bavarian girl, Gretchen Seinrich. She was fair to gaze upon and full of country spirits.”
Cub Sterling had sat down, his head buried in his cupped hands. Matthew Higgins rested against a corner of the table. He was suddenly old. Lil Parkins ... for many years....
They both listened, vacant of expression, and at the same time horrified with interest, to Sally’s voice:
“From the spring of 1883 to the fall of 1884 young Sterling prevailed upon Gretchen Seinrich to live with him and she did so. I like to believe they were in love. I know she always was in love with him.
“In October 1884, Sterling was suddenly called back to New York by the unexpected death of his father. He promised to write. He never did so. He promised to send his address. He did not do so.
“The last night he spent in Heidelberg he spent with her. While she was still asleep he arose and wrote the note containing all of the above promises, and before she woke he had packed and gone....
“And I was conceived....
“She returned to Bavaria and went to work as a seamstress. After my birth, my mother determined to come to America and find my father ... and so she went to work at a more profitable profession ... the oldest.”