1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:07,440 A mysterious case by Anna Catherine Greene. It was a mystery to me, 2 00:00:07,639 --> 00:00:10,919 but not to the other doctors. They took, as was natural, the 3 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:15,039 worst possible view of the matter, and accepted the only solution which the facts 4 00:00:15,039 --> 00:00:18,120 seemed to warrant. But they are men, and I am a woman. 5 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,199 Besides, I knew the nurse well, and I could not believe her capable 6 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:27,039 of wilful deceit, much less of the heinous crime which deceit in this case 7 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:31,920 involved. So to me the affair was a mystery. The facts were these. 8 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:37,479 My patient, a young typewriter, seemingly without friends or enemies, lay 9 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:41,320 in a small room of a boarding house, afflicted with a painful but not 10 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:47,240 dangerous malady. Though she was comparatively helpless, her vital organs were strong, 11 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:52,560 and we never had a moment's uneasiness concerning her till one morning when we found 12 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:58,200 her in an almost dying condition from having taken as we quickly discovered a dose 13 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:02,280 of poison instead of the soothing mixture which had been left for her with the 14 00:01:02,399 --> 00:01:07,760 nurse poison, and no one, not even herself or the nurse, could 15 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:11,000 explain how the same got into her room, much less into her medicine, 16 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:15,680 And when I came to study the situation, I found myself as much at 17 00:01:15,879 --> 00:01:19,640 a loss as they, owing to the fact that there neither was, nor 18 00:01:19,719 --> 00:01:23,959 ever had been a drop of it in my possession. The mixture then was 19 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,840 pure when it left my hand, and according to the nurse whom, as 20 00:01:27,879 --> 00:01:33,680 I have said, I implicitly believe it went into the glass pure. And 21 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:38,680 yet when two hours later, without her having left the room or anybody coming 22 00:01:38,719 --> 00:01:42,000 into it, she found occasion to administer the draft, poison was in the 23 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:47,359 cup, and the patient was only saved from death by the most immediate and 24 00:01:47,599 --> 00:01:52,079 energetic measures, not only on her part, but on that of doctor Holmes, 25 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:56,120 who, in her haste and perturbation she had called in from the adjacent 26 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:00,159 house. The patient, young, innocent, unform fortunate, but of a 27 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:07,040 strangely courageous disposition, betrayed nothing but the utmost surprise at the perils she had 28 00:02:07,079 --> 00:02:12,439 so narrowly escaped. When doctor Holmes intimated that perhaps she had been tired of 29 00:02:12,479 --> 00:02:16,639 suffering and had herself found means of putting the deadly drug into her medicine, 30 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:23,319 she opened her great gray eyes with such a look of childlike surprise and reproach 31 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:29,360 that he blushed and murmured some sort of apology poison myself, she cried, 32 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:32,159 when you promise me that I shall get well. You do not know what 33 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,840 a horror I have of dying in debt, or you would never say that. 34 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,960 This was some time after the critical moment had passed, and there were 35 00:02:42,039 --> 00:02:46,639 in the room Missus Dayton, the landlady, Doctor Holmes, the nurse, 36 00:02:46,719 --> 00:02:51,240 and myself. At the utterance of these words, we all felt ashamed and 37 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,919 cast looks of increased interest at the poor girl. She was very lovely, 38 00:02:55,360 --> 00:03:00,599 though without means, and to all appearance without friends, she possessed in great 39 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:07,520 degree the charm of winsomeness, and not even her many sufferings nor the indignation 40 00:03:07,719 --> 00:03:12,159 under which she was then laboring, could quite rob her countenance of that tender 41 00:03:12,439 --> 00:03:19,159 and confiding expression which so often redeems the plainest face and makes beauty doubly attractive. 42 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:23,759 Doctor Holmes does not know you. I hasten to say I do, 43 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:29,280 and utterly repel for you any such insinuation. In return, will you tell 44 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:31,520 me if there is any one in the world whom you can call your enemy. 45 00:03:32,159 --> 00:03:37,560 Though the chief mystery is how so deadly and unusual a poison could have 46 00:03:37,599 --> 00:03:42,919 gotten into a clean glass without the knowledge of yourself or the nurse. Still, 47 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,400 it might not be amiss to know if there is any one here or 48 00:03:46,439 --> 00:03:51,439 elsewhere, who, for any reason might desire your death. The surprise and 49 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:55,080 the childlike eyes increased, rather than diminished. I don't know what to say, 50 00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:00,840 she murmured. I am so insignificant and feeble a per person that it 51 00:04:00,879 --> 00:04:03,960 seems absurd for me to talk of having an enemy. Besides, I have 52 00:04:04,159 --> 00:04:09,759 none. On the contrary, everyone seems to love me more than I deserve. 53 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:14,759 Haven't you noticed it, missus Dayton. The landlady smiled and stroked the 54 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:18,800 sick girl's hand. Indeed, she replied, I have noticed that people love 55 00:04:18,879 --> 00:04:23,160 you, but I have never thought it was more than you deserved. You 56 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:27,519 are a dear little thing, addie. And thus she knew, and I 57 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,759 knew that the every one mentioned by the poor girl meant ourselves and possibly her 58 00:04:31,879 --> 00:04:36,319 unknown employer. We were none the less touched by her words. The more 59 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:42,279 we study the mystery, the deeper and less explainable did it become. And 60 00:04:42,399 --> 00:04:45,519 indeed, I doubt if we should ever have got to the bottom of it, 61 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,639 if there had not presently occurred in my patient, a repetition of the 62 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:54,879 same dangerous symptoms, followed by the same discovery of poison in the glass, 63 00:04:55,199 --> 00:04:59,199 and the same failure on the part of herself and nurse to account for it. 64 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,639 I was aroused from my bed at midnight to attend her, And as 65 00:05:02,639 --> 00:05:06,920 I entered her room and met her beseeching eyes looking upon me from the very 66 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,240 shadow of death, I made a vow that I would never cease my efforts 67 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,759 until I had penetrated the secret of what certainly looked like a persistent attempt upon 68 00:05:16,759 --> 00:05:23,319 this poor girl's life. I went about the matter deliberately. As soon as 69 00:05:23,319 --> 00:05:26,720 I could leave her side, I drew the nurse into a corner and again 70 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:30,720 questioned her. The answers were the same as before. Addie had shown distress 71 00:05:30,759 --> 00:05:34,959 as soon as she had swallowed her usual quantity of medicine, and in a 72 00:05:34,959 --> 00:05:41,040 few minutes more was in a perilous condition. Did you hand the glass yourself 73 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:45,879 to Addie? I did. Where did you take it from from the place 74 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:48,160 where you left it the little stand on the farther side of the bed. 75 00:05:48,879 --> 00:05:53,079 And do you mean to say that you had not touched it since I prepared 76 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:57,000 it. I do, ma'am, And that no one else has been in 77 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:00,279 the room, No one, ma'am. I look did her intently. I 78 00:06:00,439 --> 00:06:04,839 trusted her. But the best of us are but mortal. Can you assure 79 00:06:04,879 --> 00:06:10,160 me that you have not been asleep during this time? Look at this letter 80 00:06:10,199 --> 00:06:14,040 I have been writing, she returned. It is eight pages long, and 81 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,319 it was not begun when you left us at ten o'clock. I shook my 82 00:06:17,399 --> 00:06:23,120 head and fell into a deep reverie. How was that matter to be elucidated? 83 00:06:23,399 --> 00:06:27,519 And how was my patient to be saved? Another draft of this deadly 84 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,279 poison, and no power on earth could resuscitate her? What should I do? 85 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:35,519 And with what weapons should I combat? A danger at once so subtle 86 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:41,199 and so deadly. Reflection brought no decision, and I left the room at 87 00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:46,360 last determined upon but one point, and that was the immediate removal of my 88 00:06:46,519 --> 00:06:49,800 patient. But before I had left the house, I changed my mind even 89 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:55,040 on this point. Removal of the patient meant safety to her, perhaps, 90 00:06:55,360 --> 00:07:00,160 but not the explanation of her mysterious poisoning. I would change the position of 91 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:02,439 her bed, and I would even set a watch over her and the nurse, 92 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,360 but I would not take her out of the house, not yet. 93 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:11,360 And what had produced this change in my plans the look of a woman whom 94 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:14,639 I met on the stairs. I did not know her, but when I 95 00:07:14,839 --> 00:07:17,720 encountered her glance, I felt that there was some connection between us, and 96 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:21,519 I was not at all surprised to hear her ask, and how is miss 97 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:27,480 Wilcox to day? Miss Wilcox is very low? I returned. The least 98 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,680 neglect, the least shocked to her nerves, would be sufficient to make all 99 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:36,360 my efforts useless. Otherwise she will it well. I nodded. I had 100 00:07:36,399 --> 00:07:42,120 exaggerated the condition of the sufferer, but some secret instinct compelled me to do 101 00:07:42,199 --> 00:07:46,160 so. The look which passed over the woman's face satisfied me that I had 102 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:49,000 done well. And though I left the house, it was with the intention 103 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:56,279 of speedily returning and making inquiries into the woman's character and position in the household. 104 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:01,000 I learned little or nothing. That she occupied a good room and paid 105 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,720 for it regularly seemed to be sufficient to satisfy missus Dayton. Her name, 106 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:11,199 which proved to be Lauroue, showed her to be French, and her promptly 107 00:08:11,199 --> 00:08:13,759 paid ten dollars a week, showed her to be respectable. What more could 108 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:20,000 any hard working landlady require? But I was distrustful. Her face, though 109 00:08:20,079 --> 00:08:24,360 handsome, possessed an eager, ferocious look which I could not forget. And 110 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:28,160 the slight gesture with which she had passed me at the close of the short 111 00:08:28,199 --> 00:08:31,960 conversation I had given before, had a suggestion of triumph in it, which 112 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:37,240 seemed to contain whole volumes of secret and mysterious hate. I went into missus 113 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:43,240 Wilcox's room, very thoughtful, I am going. But here the nurse held 114 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:46,000 up her hand. Hark, she whispered. She had just set the clock 115 00:08:46,039 --> 00:08:50,600 and was listening to it, striking. I did, hark, but not 116 00:08:50,639 --> 00:08:54,559 to the clock. Whose step is that? I asked, after she had 117 00:08:54,639 --> 00:08:58,120 left the clock and sat down. Oh, someone in the next room. 118 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,879 The walls here are very thin, only boards in places. I did not 119 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,399 complete what I had begun to say. If I could hear steps through the 120 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:11,120 partition, then could our neighbors hear us talk? And what I had determined 121 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:15,639 upon must be kept secret from all outsiders. I drew a sheet of paper 122 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:20,440 toward me and wrote, I shall stay here to night. Something tells me 123 00:09:20,519 --> 00:09:24,120 that in doing this, I shall solve this mystery. But I must appear 124 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:26,799 to go, take my instructions as usual, and bid me good night. 125 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:31,559 Lock the door after me, but with a turn of the key, instantly 126 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:35,240 unlock it again. I shall go downstairs, see that my carriage drives away, 127 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,440 and quietly return. On my re entrance, I shall expect to find 128 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,480 Miss Wilcox on the couch with the screen drawn up around it, you in 129 00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:48,200 the big chair, and the light lowered. What I do thereafter need not 130 00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:52,600 concern you. Pretend to go to sleep. The nurse nodded and immediately entered 131 00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:58,159 upon the program I had planned. I prepared the medicine as usual, placed 132 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:01,799 it in its usual glass, and made that glass where it had always been, 133 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:05,360 set on a little table at the farther side of the bed. Then 134 00:10:05,399 --> 00:10:09,720 I said good night and passed hurriedly out. I was fortunate enough to meet 135 00:10:09,759 --> 00:10:13,759 no one going or coming. I regained the room, pushed open the door, 136 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,360 and, finding everything in order, proceeded at once to the bed, 137 00:10:18,759 --> 00:10:22,919 upon which, after taking off my hat and cloak and carefully concealing them, 138 00:10:22,159 --> 00:10:28,000 I lay down and deftly covered myself up. My idea was this that, 139 00:10:28,039 --> 00:10:31,440 by some mesmeric influence of which she was ignorant, the nurse had been forced 140 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:35,279 to either poison the glass herself or open the door for another to do it. 141 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:39,519 If this were so, she or the other person would be obliged to 142 00:10:39,559 --> 00:10:43,679 pass around the foot of the bed in order to reach the glass, and 143 00:10:43,759 --> 00:10:46,159 I should be sure to see it, for I did not pretend to sleep. 144 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:50,960 By the low light enough could be discerned for safe movement about the room, 145 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:54,639 and not enough to make apparent the change which had been made in the 146 00:10:54,720 --> 00:11:00,720 occupant of the bed. I waited with indescribable anxiety, and more than once 147 00:11:00,799 --> 00:11:05,200 fancied I heard steps, if not a feverish breathing, close to my bed 148 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,120 head, But no one appeared, and the nurse in her big chair did 149 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:13,600 not move. At last, I grew weary, and fearful of losing control 150 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,679 over my eyelids. I fixed my gaze upon the glass, as if in 151 00:11:16,799 --> 00:11:22,120 so doing I could find a talisman to keep me awake. When, Great 152 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:26,519 God, what was it? I saw a hand, a creeping hand, 153 00:11:26,639 --> 00:11:31,279 coming from nowhere and joined to nothing, closing about that glass and drawing it 154 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:37,600 slowly away till it disappeared. Entirely from before my eyes. I gasped. 155 00:11:37,919 --> 00:11:41,159 I could not help it, but I did not stir. For now I 156 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:45,440 knew I was asleep and dreaming, But no, I pinched myself under the 157 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:48,799 clothes, and find that I am very wide awake, indeed. And then 158 00:11:48,279 --> 00:11:52,720 look, look, the glass is returning. The hand, a woman's hand 159 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:58,240 is slowly setting it back in its place, And with a bound I had 160 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:01,320 that hand in my grasp. It is a living hand, and it is 161 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:05,919 very warm and strong and fierce. And the glasses fallen and lies shattered between 162 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,440 us. And a double cry is heard, one from behind the partition, 163 00:12:09,799 --> 00:12:13,320 through an opening in which this hand had been thrust, and one from the 164 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:16,559 nurse, who has jumped to her feet, and is even now assisting me 165 00:12:16,639 --> 00:12:20,759 in holding the struggling member, upon which I have managed to scratch a tell 166 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:24,159 tale mark with a piece of the fallen glass. At sight of the iron 167 00:12:24,279 --> 00:12:28,559 like grip which this latter lays upon the intruding member, I at once released 168 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:33,639 my own grasp hold on I cried, and leaping from the bed, I 169 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,120 hastened first to my patient, whom I carefully reassured, and then into the 170 00:12:37,159 --> 00:12:41,480 hall, where I found the landlady, running to see what was the matter. 171 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,399 I have found the wretch, I cried, and drawing her after me, 172 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:48,759 hurried about to the other side of the partition, where I found a 173 00:12:48,759 --> 00:12:52,279 closet, and in it the woman I had met on the stairs, but 174 00:12:52,399 --> 00:12:56,039 glaring now like a tiger in her rage, menace, and fear. That 175 00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:01,639 woman was my humble, little patience, bitter unknown enemy, enamored of a 176 00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:07,879 man who, unwisely perhaps had expressed in her hearing his admiration for the pretty 177 00:13:07,919 --> 00:13:11,519 typewriter. She had conceived the idea that he intended to marry the latter, 178 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:16,639 and, vowing vengeance, had taken up her abode in the same house with 179 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:20,360 the innocent girl. Where had it not been for the fortunate circumstance of my 180 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:24,240 meeting her on the stairs, she would certainly have carried out her scheme, 181 00:13:24,399 --> 00:13:28,759 a vile and secret murder. The poison she had bought in another city, 182 00:13:30,039 --> 00:13:33,200 and the hole in the partition she had herself cut. This had been done 183 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:37,799 at first for the purpose of observation, she having detected, in passing by 184 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:43,960 Miss Wilcox's open door, that a banner of painted silk hung over that portion 185 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,759 of the wall in such a way as to hide any aperture which might have 186 00:13:46,799 --> 00:13:52,159 been made there. Afterward, when Miss Wilcox fell sick, and she discovered, 187 00:13:52,159 --> 00:13:56,600 by short glimpses through her loophole that the glass of medicine was placed on 188 00:13:56,679 --> 00:14:01,440 a table just under this banner, could not resist the temptation to enlarge the 189 00:14:01,519 --> 00:14:05,759 hall, to assize sufficient to admit the pushing aside of the banner, and 190 00:14:05,879 --> 00:14:11,120 the reaching through of her murderous hand. Why she did not put poison enough 191 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:15,759 in the glass to kill Miss Wilcox at once I have never discovered. Probably 192 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:18,840 she feared detection, that, by doing as she did, she brought about 193 00:14:18,879 --> 00:14:22,840 the very event she had endeavored to avert. Is the most pleasing part of 194 00:14:22,879 --> 00:14:26,799 the tale. When the gentleman of whom I have spoken learned of the wicked 195 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:31,519 attempt which had been made upon Miss Wilcox's life, his heart took pity upon 196 00:14:31,559 --> 00:14:35,639 her, and a marriage ensued, which I have every reason to believe is 197 00:14:35,679 --> 00:14:43,279 a happy one. This concludes the reading of a Mysterious Case by Anna Catherine Greene.