Part 74

"Well, I think that as Professor Gourbeil has cured two persons of the deadly effects of the drug Miss Tennison should see him," I remarked.

"I quite agree. It is for that reason I have come to London," he said. "I understand that you, Mr. Garfield, take a personal interest in my niece, therefore I want to ask you a favour--namely, that if I pay the expenses would you accompany my sister and her daughter to Lyons?"

"Willingly. But I will pay my own expenses, please," was my prompt reply.

At first he would not hear of it, until I declined to go unless I went independently, and then we arranged for our departure.

Four days later we descended at the big busy Perrache station at Lyons from the lumbering rapide which had brought us from Paris, and entered the Terminus Hôtel which adjoins the platform. Later, from the concierge, we found that Professor Gourbeil of the Facultés des Sciences et de Médecine, lived in the Avenue Felix Faure, and I succeeded over the telephone in making an appointment with him for the following day at noon.

This I kept, going to him alone in order to explain matters.

I found him to be a short, florid-faced man with a shock of white hair and a short white beard. His house was a rather large one standing back in a well-kept garden full of flowers, and the room in which he received me was shaded and cool.

I told him of Professor Vega's recommendation, whereupon he exclaimed in French:

"Ah! I know Professor Vega. We met last year at our conference in Paris--a very brilliant man!"

Then, as briefly as I could, I explained how the deadly drug orosin had been surreptitiously administered to Gabrielle and myself, and its effects upon us both.

"Orosin!" exclaimed the old savant, raising his thin hands. "Ah! There is not much hope of the lady's recovery. I have known of only two cases within my experience. The effect of orosin upon the human brain is mysterious and lasting. It produces a state of the brain-cells with which we cannot cope. A larger dose produces strong homicidal tendencies and inevitable death, and a still larger dose almost instantaneous death."

I told him how we both had lost all sense of our surroundings for weeks, and how we were both found at the roadside, she in Hampshire and I in France.

"You were both victims of some plot; that is evident. Of course you have invoked the aid of the police?"

I did not reply. I certainly feared to seek the assistance of Scotland Yard.

He explained to me practically what Professor Vega had done regarding orosin and its terrible effect.

"There have been other cases of its administration," said the great alienist. "Somebody must be preparing the drug and selling it for sinister purposes. Though it is so little known as yet that its manufacturer must be an expert toxicologist with special knowledge."

"Have you seen many cases of its administration?" I asked eagerly.

"Yes. Quite a number," was the old Professor's reply. "I am in communication with Doctor Duroc, of the Salpêtrière in Paris, and together we are keeping a record of the cases where orosin is administered by some mysterious hand. Whose, we have no idea. We leave that to the Sûreté. But you say that your adventure and that of mademoiselle occurred in London?"

I repeated my story. Then I ventured to ask:

"Do you, Professor, know anything of a Doctor Moroni, of Florence?"

The white-bearded, shock-haired man reflected for a moment, and then moving in his chair, replied:

"I fancy I have heard his name. Moroni--Moroni? Yes, I am sure someone has mentioned him."

"As a toxicologist?"

"Probably. I do not really remember. I believe I met him at one of the conferences in Paris or Geneva. He was with one of your English professors--one of your medico-legists whose name at the moment escapes my memory. He gave evidence in that curious case of alleged poison at the Old Bailey, in London, a year ago."

"But is Doctor Moroni known as an expert in poison?"

"Not to my personal knowledge. Possibly he is, and I have heard his name in that connexion. Why do you ask?"

"Because he has had my friend Miss Tennison under his care. He has taken her to see several specialists in Italy." Then in a sudden burst of confidence I told him of my great love for the girl who, like myself, had been attacked in secret. Further, I told him that the reason of my steady inquiry was in her interests, as well as in my own.

"My dear Monsieur Garfield, now that you are so frank with me I will do my utmost in the interests of both of you," declared the dear old Professor, as he rose and crossed to the window. "What you have told me interests me intensely. I see by your travels to Spain and the South that you are leaving no stone unturned to arrive at a true solution of the problem--and I will help you. Orosin is the least known and most dangerous drug that has ever been discovered in our modern civilization. Used with evil intent it is unsuspected and wellnigh undiscoverable, for the symptoms often resemble those of certain diseases of the brain. The person to whom the drug is administered either exhibits an exhilaration akin to undue excess of alcohol, or else the functions of the brain are entirely distorted, with a complete loss of memory or a chronic aberration of the brain."