Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/174

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162
THE DEATH-DOCTOR

discovered nothing. I therefore treated him even more affably than before, but took the precaution of removing everything of importance from the safe to my bank in a sealed tin box.

I was having a lot of trouble just at this time with a nurse, a keen, handsome woman of the world, bent solely on self-aggrandisement. She had been called in to attend a case of mine which had ended fatally, but, sad to say, the patient before she died confided enough to this nurse to enable her to come and threaten me, unless I made it worth her while to keep quiet. I was talking one evening to Anderson in his room; we had each just lighted a cigar, when the page-boy came to tell me that Nurse James, the blackmailer I mentioned, would like to see me.

"Excuse me, Anderson," I said. "I must just see this woman; I shan't be long."

I had, however, quite a lengthy and very stormy interview, which ended in the transference of two five-pound notes from my pocket to her purse. I was startled when I came to let her out to find the door of my room ajar. I could have sworn I shut it most carefully when I entered; therefore someone,