"What am I to do?" he asked. "Tell me what I am to do."
"What it may be wisest to do I cannot tell you," answered Mr. Burkham,
almost as helplessly as the other had asked the question. "I can give you
the name of the best man to get to the bottom of such a case--a man who
gave evidence on the Fryar trial--Jedd. You have heard of Jedd, I
daresay. You had better go straight to Jedd, and take him down with you
to Miss Halliday. His very name will frighten Sheldon."
"I will go at once. Stay--the address! Where am I to find Dr. Jedd?"
"In Burlington Row. But there is one thing to be considered."
"What?"
"The interference of Jedd may only make that man desperate. He may hasten
matters now as he hastened matters before. If you had seen his coolness
at that time; if you had seen him, as I saw him, standing by that poor
fellow's deathbed, comforting him--yes, with friendly speeches--laughing
and joking, watching the agonising pain and the miserable sickness, and
all the dreary wretchedness of such a death, and _never_ swerving from
his work; if you had seen him, you would understand why I am afraid to
advise you. That man was as desperate as he was cool when he murdered his
friend. He will be more reckless this time."
"Why?"
"Because he has reached a higher stage in the science of murder. The
symptoms of that poor Yorkshireman were the symptoms of arsenical
poisoning; the symptoms of which you have told me to-day denote a
vegetable poison.
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