JULIAN FREKE.
Post-Scriptum: My will is made, leaving my money to St. Luke's Hospital, and bequeathing my body to the same institution for dissection. I feel sure that my brain will be of interest to the scientific world. As I shall die by my own hand, I imagine that there may be a little difficulty about this. Will you do me the favour, if you can, of seeing the persons concerned in the inquest, and obtaining that the brain is not damaged by an unskillful practitioner at the post-mortem, and that the body is disposed of according to my wish?
By the way, it may be of interest to you to know that I appreciated your motive in calling this afternoon. It conveyed a warning, and I am acting upon it. In spite of the disastrous consequences to myself, I was pleased to realize that you had not underestimated my nerve and intelligence, and refused the injection. Had you submitted to it, you would, of course, never have reached home alive. No trace would have been left in your body of the injection, which consisted of a harmless preparation of strychnine, mixed with an almost unknown poison, for which there is at present no recognized test, a concentrated solution of sn —
At this point the manuscript broke off.
«Well, that's all clear enough,» said Parker.
«Isn't it queer?» said Lord Peter. «All that coolness, all those brains — and then he couldn't resist writing a confession to show how clever he was, even to keep his head out of the noose.»
«And a very good thing for us,» said Inspector Sugg, «but Lord bless you, sir, these criminals are all alike.»
«Freke's epitaph,» said Parker, when the Inspector had departed. «What next, Peter?»
«I shall now give a dinner party,» said Lord Peter, «to Mr. John P. Milligan and his secretary and to Messrs. Crimplesham and Wicks. I feel they deserve it for not having murdered Levy.»
«Well, don't forget the Thippses,» said Mr. Parker.