WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:06.759 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.