The pad, reeking with the sickly smelling stuff, was jammed over his mouth and nostrils and held there.
The acting governor was a sturdy fellow, and if he had not been taken so entirely by surprise, might have given this steel-muscled senator a hard tussle. As it was, he could only struggle feebly, while vainly endeavoring to shout for help.
Not that it would have done him any good. He had spoken truly when he said that any sort of disturbance might take place in this felt-lined room without its being heard outside.
But it was only natural for him to endeavor to cry out. It was the involuntary act of an animal in extreme peril or pain, when a human being does not reason any more than a dog.
The chloroform worked rapidly. Moreover, the senator had jerked his head against the back of the chair with a force that would have half stunned him, even without the anæsthetic.
Jabez Portersham managed to emit a gurgling cry. But the arm around his throat pressed more tightly, while the fumes of the drug crept upward and gripped his brain.
Vainly the acting governor tried to get out of the chair, with only a vague consciousness of what was happening.
In the few seconds during which he tried to fight off the effect of the deadly, nauseating fumes, he half realized that he actually was being drugged by one of the most prominent men in the United States—one who might have been supposed absolutely incapable of such a crime—or of any crime, for that matter.
That was his last incoherent thought. Then everything became blank to him.
The senator stepped back when he saw that his victim was thoroughly overcome, and an evil grin spread over his face.