1
00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:06,759
Speaker 1: A mysterious case by Anna Catherine Greene. It was a

2
00:00:06,759 --> 00:00:09,919
mystery to me, but not to the other doctors. They took,

3
00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,439
as was natural, the worst possible view of the matter,

4
00:00:12,679 --> 00:00:15,880
and accepted the only solution which the facts seemed to warrant.

5
00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:19,039
But they are men, and I am a woman. Besides,

6
00:00:19,199 --> 00:00:21,559
I knew the nurse well, and I could not believe

7
00:00:21,559 --> 00:00:25,039
her capable of wilful deceit, much less of the heinous

8
00:00:25,039 --> 00:00:28,640
crime which deceit in this case involved. So to me

9
00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:33,240
the affair was a mystery. The facts were these. My patient,

10
00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:37,560
a young typewriter, seemingly without friends or enemies, lay in

11
00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,359
a small room of a boarding house, afflicted with a

12
00:00:40,399 --> 00:00:45,600
painful but not dangerous malady. Though she was comparatively helpless,

13
00:00:45,759 --> 00:00:48,359
her vital organs were strong, and we never had a

14
00:00:48,399 --> 00:00:52,560
moment's uneasiness concerning her till one morning when we found

15
00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:56,280
her in an almost dying condition from having taken as

16
00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:59,840
we quickly discovered a dose of poison instead of the

17
00:01:00,079 --> 00:01:02,280
soothing mixture which had been left for her with the

18
00:01:02,399 --> 00:01:07,280
nurse poison, and no one, not even herself or the nurse,

19
00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,640
could explain how the same got into her room, much

20
00:01:10,719 --> 00:01:14,120
less into her medicine, And when I came to study

21
00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,280
the situation, I found myself as much at a loss

22
00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:20,359
as they, owing to the fact that there neither was,

23
00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,159
nor ever had been a drop of it in my possession.

24
00:01:23,879 --> 00:01:26,400
The mixture then was pure when it left my hand,

25
00:01:26,719 --> 00:01:29,560
and according to the nurse whom, as I have said,

26
00:01:29,879 --> 00:01:33,680
I implicitly believe it went into the glass pure. And

27
00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,120
yet when two hours later, without her having left the

28
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,640
room or anybody coming into it, she found occasion to

29
00:01:40,719 --> 00:01:43,879
administer the draft, poison was in the cup, and the

30
00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:47,159
patient was only saved from death by the most immediate

31
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,840
and energetic measures, not only on her part, but on

32
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,959
that of doctor Holmes, who, in her haste and perturbation

33
00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:59,400
she had called in from the adjacent house. The patient, young, innocent,

34
00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:04,480
unform fortunate, but of a strangely courageous disposition, betrayed nothing

35
00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,239
but the utmost surprise at the perils she had so

36
00:02:07,359 --> 00:02:11,719
narrowly escaped. When doctor Holmes intimated that perhaps she had

37
00:02:11,759 --> 00:02:14,960
been tired of suffering and had herself found means of

38
00:02:15,039 --> 00:02:18,879
putting the deadly drug into her medicine, she opened her

39
00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,560
great gray eyes with such a look of childlike surprise

40
00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:25,800
and reproach that he blushed and murmured some sort of

41
00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,759
apology poison myself, she cried, when you promise me that

42
00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:33,360
I shall get well. You do not know what a

43
00:02:33,439 --> 00:02:36,039
horror I have of dying in debt, or you would

44
00:02:36,039 --> 00:02:39,919
never say that. This was some time after the critical

45
00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,680
moment had passed, and there were in the room Missus Dayton,

46
00:02:43,759 --> 00:02:48,240
the landlady, Doctor Holmes, the nurse, and myself. At the

47
00:02:48,319 --> 00:02:51,639
utterance of these words, we all felt ashamed and cast

48
00:02:51,719 --> 00:02:55,159
looks of increased interest at the poor girl. She was

49
00:02:55,319 --> 00:03:00,159
very lovely, though without means, and to all appearance without friends,

50
00:03:00,319 --> 00:03:04,199
she possessed in great degree the charm of winsomeness, and

51
00:03:04,319 --> 00:03:08,199
not even her many sufferings nor the indignation under which

52
00:03:08,199 --> 00:03:11,439
she was then laboring, could quite rob her countenance of

53
00:03:11,479 --> 00:03:15,879
that tender and confiding expression which so often redeems the

54
00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:21,159
plainest face and makes beauty doubly attractive. Doctor Holmes does

55
00:03:21,199 --> 00:03:24,159
not know you. I hasten to say I do, and

56
00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,840
utterly repel for you any such insinuation. In return, will

57
00:03:28,879 --> 00:03:30,680
you tell me if there is any one in the

58
00:03:30,719 --> 00:03:33,840
world whom you can call your enemy. Though the chief

59
00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:37,479
mystery is how so deadly and unusual a poison could

60
00:03:37,479 --> 00:03:40,599
have gotten into a clean glass without the knowledge of

61
00:03:40,639 --> 00:03:44,280
yourself or the nurse. Still, it might not be amiss

62
00:03:44,319 --> 00:03:47,520
to know if there is any one here or elsewhere, who,

63
00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:51,439
for any reason might desire your death. The surprise and

64
00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:55,439
the childlike eyes increased, rather than diminished. I don't know

65
00:03:55,479 --> 00:03:59,240
what to say, she murmured. I am so insignificant and

66
00:03:59,319 --> 00:04:02,120
feeble a per person that it seems absurd for me

67
00:04:02,199 --> 00:04:05,400
to talk of having an enemy. Besides, I have none.

68
00:04:06,039 --> 00:04:09,080
On the contrary, everyone seems to love me more than

69
00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,639
I deserve. Haven't you noticed it, missus Dayton. The landlady

70
00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:17,800
smiled and stroked the sick girl's hand. Indeed, she replied,

71
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,639
I have noticed that people love you, but I have

72
00:04:20,759 --> 00:04:23,399
never thought it was more than you deserved. You are

73
00:04:23,439 --> 00:04:27,319
a dear little thing, addie. And thus she knew, and

74
00:04:27,399 --> 00:04:30,240
I knew that the every one mentioned by the poor

75
00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:34,639
girl meant ourselves and possibly her unknown employer. We were

76
00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,480
none the less touched by her words. The more we

77
00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:41,439
study the mystery, the deeper and less explainable did it become.

78
00:04:42,199 --> 00:04:44,639
And indeed, I doubt if we should ever have got

79
00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:47,040
to the bottom of it, if there had not presently

80
00:04:47,079 --> 00:04:51,240
occurred in my patient, a repetition of the same dangerous symptoms,

81
00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:54,879
followed by the same discovery of poison in the glass,

82
00:04:55,199 --> 00:04:57,759
and the same failure on the part of herself and

83
00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:01,199
nurse to account for it. I was aroused from my

84
00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:04,160
bed at midnight to attend her, And as I entered

85
00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,160
her room and met her beseeching eyes looking upon me

86
00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,040
from the very shadow of death, I made a vow

87
00:05:10,319 --> 00:05:13,279
that I would never cease my efforts until I had

88
00:05:13,319 --> 00:05:16,839
penetrated the secret of what certainly looked like a persistent

89
00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:21,399
attempt upon this poor girl's life. I went about the

90
00:05:21,439 --> 00:05:24,399
matter deliberately. As soon as I could leave her side,

91
00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,480
I drew the nurse into a corner and again questioned her.

92
00:05:27,879 --> 00:05:31,120
The answers were the same as before. Addie had shown

93
00:05:31,199 --> 00:05:34,439
distress as soon as she had swallowed her usual quantity

94
00:05:34,439 --> 00:05:37,160
of medicine, and in a few minutes more was in

95
00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:41,639
a perilous condition. Did you hand the glass yourself to Addie?

96
00:05:42,079 --> 00:05:45,560
I did. Where did you take it from from the

97
00:05:45,639 --> 00:05:47,879
place where you left it the little stand on the

98
00:05:47,959 --> 00:05:50,680
farther side of the bed. And do you mean to

99
00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:53,279
say that you had not touched it since I prepared it.

100
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,879
I do, ma'am, And that no one else has been

101
00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,879
in the room, No one, ma'am. I look did her intently.

102
00:06:01,199 --> 00:06:04,199
I trusted her. But the best of us are but mortal.

103
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,480
Can you assure me that you have not been asleep

104
00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,120
during this time? Look at this letter I have been writing,

105
00:06:11,319 --> 00:06:14,439
she returned. It is eight pages long, and it was

106
00:06:14,519 --> 00:06:17,839
not begun when you left us at ten o'clock. I

107
00:06:17,879 --> 00:06:21,240
shook my head and fell into a deep reverie. How

108
00:06:21,399 --> 00:06:24,120
was that matter to be elucidated? And how was my

109
00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:28,040
patient to be saved? Another draft of this deadly poison,

110
00:06:28,319 --> 00:06:31,839
and no power on earth could resuscitate her? What should

111
00:06:31,879 --> 00:06:34,639
I do? And with what weapons should I combat? A

112
00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:39,079
danger at once so subtle and so deadly. Reflection brought

113
00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,560
no decision, and I left the room at last determined

114
00:06:42,639 --> 00:06:46,079
upon but one point, and that was the immediate removal

115
00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:49,199
of my patient. But before I had left the house,

116
00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,759
I changed my mind even on this point. Removal of

117
00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:56,000
the patient meant safety to her, perhaps, but not the

118
00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:59,879
explanation of her mysterious poisoning. I would change the position

119
00:07:00,079 --> 00:07:02,319
of her bed, and I would even set a watch

120
00:07:02,399 --> 00:07:04,680
over her and the nurse, but I would not take

121
00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:07,879
her out of the house, not yet. And what had

122
00:07:07,879 --> 00:07:10,720
produced this change in my plans the look of a

123
00:07:10,759 --> 00:07:13,439
woman whom I met on the stairs. I did not

124
00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:16,360
know her, but when I encountered her glance, I felt

125
00:07:16,399 --> 00:07:19,079
that there was some connection between us, and I was

126
00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,160
not at all surprised to hear her ask, and how

127
00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,959
is miss Wilcox to day? Miss Wilcox is very low?

128
00:07:26,079 --> 00:07:29,879
I returned. The least neglect, the least shocked to her nerves,

129
00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:33,800
would be sufficient to make all my efforts useless. Otherwise

130
00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:38,240
she will it well. I nodded. I had exaggerated the

131
00:07:38,279 --> 00:07:41,759
condition of the sufferer, but some secret instinct compelled me

132
00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:44,600
to do so. The look which passed over the woman's

133
00:07:44,639 --> 00:07:47,560
face satisfied me that I had done well. And though

134
00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:50,240
I left the house, it was with the intention of

135
00:07:50,319 --> 00:07:54,399
speedily returning and making inquiries into the woman's character and

136
00:07:54,439 --> 00:07:59,120
position in the household. I learned little or nothing. That

137
00:07:59,199 --> 00:08:01,920
she occupied a good room and paid for it regularly

138
00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:05,720
seemed to be sufficient to satisfy missus Dayton. Her name,

139
00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:09,720
which proved to be Lauroue, showed her to be French,

140
00:08:10,279 --> 00:08:12,839
and her promptly paid ten dollars a week, showed her

141
00:08:12,879 --> 00:08:16,720
to be respectable. What more could any hard working landlady require?

142
00:08:17,319 --> 00:08:21,800
But I was distrustful. Her face, though handsome, possessed an eager,

143
00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:24,920
ferocious look which I could not forget. And the slight

144
00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,560
gesture with which she had passed me at the close

145
00:08:27,639 --> 00:08:31,000
of the short conversation I had given before, had a

146
00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:34,200
suggestion of triumph in it, which seemed to contain whole

147
00:08:34,279 --> 00:08:38,240
volumes of secret and mysterious hate. I went into missus

148
00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:42,679
Wilcox's room, very thoughtful, I am going. But here the

149
00:08:42,759 --> 00:08:46,159
nurse held up her hand. Hark, she whispered. She had

150
00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,840
just set the clock and was listening to it, striking.

151
00:08:49,399 --> 00:08:52,519
I did, hark, but not to the clock. Whose step

152
00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:55,240
is that? I asked, after she had left the clock

153
00:08:55,279 --> 00:08:58,399
and sat down. Oh, someone in the next room. The

154
00:08:58,519 --> 00:09:02,559
walls here are very thin, only boards in places. I

155
00:09:02,639 --> 00:09:05,200
did not complete what I had begun to say. If

156
00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,039
I could hear steps through the partition, then could our

157
00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:11,399
neighbors hear us talk? And what I had determined upon

158
00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:14,879
must be kept secret from all outsiders. I drew a

159
00:09:14,919 --> 00:09:18,519
sheet of paper toward me and wrote, I shall stay

160
00:09:18,519 --> 00:09:21,279
here to night. Something tells me that in doing this,

161
00:09:21,399 --> 00:09:24,559
I shall solve this mystery. But I must appear to go,

162
00:09:25,039 --> 00:09:27,799
take my instructions as usual, and bid me good night.

163
00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,519
Lock the door after me, but with a turn of

164
00:09:30,519 --> 00:09:34,320
the key, instantly unlock it again. I shall go downstairs,

165
00:09:34,559 --> 00:09:38,240
see that my carriage drives away, and quietly return. On

166
00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,240
my re entrance, I shall expect to find Miss Wilcox

167
00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:43,799
on the couch with the screen drawn up around it,

168
00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:46,759
you in the big chair, and the light lowered. What

169
00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,000
I do thereafter need not concern you. Pretend to go

170
00:09:50,159 --> 00:09:54,000
to sleep. The nurse nodded and immediately entered upon the

171
00:09:54,039 --> 00:09:57,519
program I had planned. I prepared the medicine as usual,

172
00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:00,720
placed it in its usual glass, and made that glass

173
00:10:00,759 --> 00:10:03,279
where it had always been, set on a little table

174
00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:05,840
at the farther side of the bed. Then I said

175
00:10:05,879 --> 00:10:10,320
good night and passed hurriedly out. I was fortunate enough

176
00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,399
to meet no one going or coming. I regained the room,

177
00:10:13,639 --> 00:10:17,360
pushed open the door, and, finding everything in order, proceeded

178
00:10:17,399 --> 00:10:20,519
at once to the bed, upon which, after taking off

179
00:10:20,519 --> 00:10:23,559
my hat and cloak and carefully concealing them, I lay

180
00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:28,000
down and deftly covered myself up. My idea was this that,

181
00:10:28,039 --> 00:10:31,360
by some mesmeric influence of which she was ignorant, the

182
00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,159
nurse had been forced to either poison the glass herself

183
00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:36,919
or open the door for another to do it. If

184
00:10:36,919 --> 00:10:39,840
this were so, she or the other person would be

185
00:10:39,879 --> 00:10:42,080
obliged to pass around the foot of the bed in

186
00:10:42,159 --> 00:10:44,600
order to reach the glass, and I should be sure

187
00:10:44,639 --> 00:10:47,159
to see it, for I did not pretend to sleep.

188
00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:50,840
By the low light enough could be discerned for safe

189
00:10:50,879 --> 00:10:53,759
movement about the room, and not enough to make apparent

190
00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:56,360
the change which had been made in the occupant of

191
00:10:56,399 --> 00:11:00,399
the bed. I waited with indescribable anxiety, and more than

192
00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:03,960
once fancied I heard steps, if not a feverish breathing,

193
00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:07,279
close to my bed head, But no one appeared, and

194
00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:10,840
the nurse in her big chair did not move. At last,

195
00:11:10,879 --> 00:11:14,679
I grew weary, and fearful of losing control over my eyelids.

196
00:11:14,919 --> 00:11:17,679
I fixed my gaze upon the glass, as if in

197
00:11:17,799 --> 00:11:21,399
so doing I could find a talisman to keep me awake. When,

198
00:11:21,799 --> 00:11:25,600
Great God, what was it? I saw a hand, a

199
00:11:25,639 --> 00:11:30,120
creeping hand, coming from nowhere and joined to nothing, closing

200
00:11:30,159 --> 00:11:34,639
about that glass and drawing it slowly away till it disappeared.

201
00:11:34,799 --> 00:11:38,320
Entirely from before my eyes. I gasped. I could not

202
00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:41,159
help it, but I did not stir. For now I

203
00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,600
knew I was asleep and dreaming, But no, I pinched

204
00:11:44,639 --> 00:11:47,000
myself under the clothes, and find that I am very

205
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:51,440
wide awake, indeed. And then look, look, the glass is returning.

206
00:11:51,799 --> 00:11:55,679
The hand, a woman's hand is slowly setting it back

207
00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:58,320
in its place, And with a bound I had that

208
00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:01,000
hand in my grasp. It is a living hand, and

209
00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:03,759
it is very warm and strong and fierce. And the

210
00:12:03,799 --> 00:12:06,919
glasses fallen and lies shattered between us. And a double

211
00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:10,200
cry is heard, one from behind the partition, through an

212
00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:13,039
opening in which this hand had been thrust, and one

213
00:12:13,039 --> 00:12:15,200
from the nurse, who has jumped to her feet, and

214
00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,159
is even now assisting me in holding the struggling member,

215
00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:21,080
upon which I have managed to scratch a tell tale

216
00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:24,519
mark with a piece of the fallen glass. At sight

217
00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:27,200
of the iron like grip which this latter lays upon

218
00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:30,320
the intruding member, I at once released my own grasp

219
00:12:30,759 --> 00:12:33,639
hold on I cried, and leaping from the bed, I

220
00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,360
hastened first to my patient, whom I carefully reassured, and

221
00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:40,320
then into the hall, where I found the landlady, running

222
00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,120
to see what was the matter. I have found the wretch,

223
00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:46,320
I cried, and drawing her after me, hurried about to

224
00:12:46,399 --> 00:12:49,240
the other side of the partition, where I found a closet,

225
00:12:49,519 --> 00:12:51,960
and in it the woman I had met on the stairs,

226
00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:55,519
but glaring now like a tiger in her rage, menace,

227
00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:59,720
and fear. That woman was my humble, little patience, bitter

228
00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:05,080
unknown enemy, enamored of a man who, unwisely perhaps had

229
00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:08,440
expressed in her hearing his admiration for the pretty typewriter.

230
00:13:08,879 --> 00:13:12,080
She had conceived the idea that he intended to marry

231
00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,559
the latter, and, vowing vengeance, had taken up her abode

232
00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:18,840
in the same house with the innocent girl. Where had

233
00:13:18,879 --> 00:13:21,759
it not been for the fortunate circumstance of my meeting

234
00:13:21,759 --> 00:13:24,679
her on the stairs, she would certainly have carried out

235
00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:28,360
her scheme, a vile and secret murder. The poison she

236
00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:30,960
had bought in another city, and the hole in the

237
00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:34,399
partition she had herself cut. This had been done at

238
00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:38,039
first for the purpose of observation, she having detected, in

239
00:13:38,159 --> 00:13:41,639
passing by Miss Wilcox's open door, that a banner of

240
00:13:41,759 --> 00:13:44,919
painted silk hung over that portion of the wall in

241
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,639
such a way as to hide any aperture which might

242
00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:52,000
have been made there. Afterward, when Miss Wilcox fell sick,

243
00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:55,720
and she discovered, by short glimpses through her loophole that

244
00:13:55,799 --> 00:13:58,399
the glass of medicine was placed on a table just

245
00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:02,360
under this banner, could not resist the temptation to enlarge

246
00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:05,759
the hall, to assize sufficient to admit the pushing aside

247
00:14:05,759 --> 00:14:08,799
of the banner, and the reaching through of her murderous hand.

248
00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:11,720
Why she did not put poison enough in the glass

249
00:14:11,759 --> 00:14:14,799
to kill Miss Wilcox at once I have never discovered.

250
00:14:15,279 --> 00:14:19,000
Probably she feared detection, that, by doing as she did,

251
00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:22,200
she brought about the very event she had endeavored to avert.

252
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:25,159
Is the most pleasing part of the tale. When the

253
00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,799
gentleman of whom I have spoken learned of the wicked

254
00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:31,279
attempt which had been made upon Miss Wilcox's life, his

255
00:14:31,399 --> 00:14:34,679
heart took pity upon her, and a marriage ensued, which

256
00:14:34,759 --> 00:14:37,440
I have every reason to believe is a happy one.

257
00:14:38,759 --> 00:14:42,960
This concludes the reading of a Mysterious Case by Anna

258
00:14:43,159 --> 00:14:44,279
Catherine Greene.