He took this book out and carried it to the table, still without looking
at it. He opened it, or rather let its leaves fall open of their own
accord--still without looking at it; and then, with a strange
superstitious fear--mingled in his mind with the natural shame that
accompanied his conscious folly--he looked at the page before him. The
line on which he fixed his eye was the heading of a letter. It was in
larger type than the rest of the page, and it was very plain to him as he
stood a little way from the table, looking down at the open book.
The line ran thus:
"ON THE FALLIBILITY OF COPPER GAUZE AS A TEST FOR THE DETECTION OF
ARSENIC."
The book was a volume of the _Lancet_; the date twenty years ago.
"What an oracle!" thought Valentine, with a cynical laugh at his own
folly, and some slight sense of relief. In all feeble tamperings with
powers invisible there lurks a sense of terror in the weak human heart.
He had tempted those invisible ones, and the oracle he only half believed
in might have spoken to his confusion and dismay. He was glad to think
the oracle meant nothing.
And yet, even in this dry as dust title of a scientific communication
from a distinguished toxicologist there was some sinister significance.
It was the letter of a great chemist, who demonstrated therein the
fallibility of all tests in relation to a certain poison.
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