One attendant supported him and the other
ran for the prison surgeon. But Pendean was already
dead--poisoned with cyanide of potassium.
You will remember two facts which might have thrown light upon
his secret. The first was his accident in Italy as a youth; the
second your constant interest in a peculiar, inhuman quality of
his expression which you were never able to understand. Both
are now explained. With ordinary eyes the secret would have
doubtless been swiftly discovered by us. But in his case, so
dark were they, that pupil and iris were almost the same colour
and hence our failure to explain the artificial mystery of his
glance. He had, of course, a secret receptacle upon his person
beyond human knowledge or power of discovery, for he says that
only his mother knew of his accident. That accident was the
loss of an eye. Behind an eye of glass that took its place had
lain concealed, until he required it, the capsule of poison
found crushed within his mouth after death.
Pages:
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500