She saw the effect and smiled.
“I do not recognize you, madam,” said Nick Carter. “If ever I met you before I have certainly forgotten it, and it is hardly possible that one would forget such a face as yours.”
“For the present call me Mignon.”
“Well, Mignon, what can I do for you?” The officer smiled. “I can’t do much for myself just at present.”
“What’s this?” exclaimed the woman, starting forward and snatching a phial from a small table at the side of the bed.
“Medicine; the doctor sent it here but a few minutes ago,” answered the detective. “I was just about to take a spoonful, when you were announced.”
“You have not taken any of it; you are sure?”
Such was the intensity of her manner and her nervousness that the detective started.
“No,” he replied; “but why do you ask? The physician attending me would not send me anything wrong; he is one of the foremost in his profession.”
“Thank God you did not take it!” Mignon cried. “Your physician did not send you that. A few drops of it would cause your death in the most horrible agony. No antidote would save you.”