I was hunting around for cotton and laudanum.
"You have a tooth just like it yourself, Miss Rachel," she
whimpered. "And I'm sure Doctor Boyle's been trying to take it
out for years."
There was no laudanum, and Liddy made a terrible fuss when I
proposed carbolic acid, just because I had put too much on the
cotton once and burned her mouth. I'm sure it never did her any
permanent harm; indeed, the doctor said afterward that living on
liquid diet had been a splendid rest for her stomach. But she
would have none of the acid, and she kept me awake groaning, so
at last I got up and went to Gertrude's door. To my surprise, it
was locked.
I went around by the hall and into her bedroom that way. The bed
was turned down, and her dressing-gown and night-dress lay ready
in the little room next, but Gertrude was not there. She had not
undressed.
I don't know what terrible thoughts came to me in the minute I
stood there. Through the door I could hear Liddy grumbling, with
a squeal now and then when the pain stabbed harder. Then,
automatically, I got the laudanum and went back to her.
It was fully a half-hour before Liddy's groans subsided. At
intervals I went to the door into the hall and looked out, but I
saw and heard nothing suspicious. Finally, when Liddy had
dropped into a doze, I even ventured as far as the head of the
circular staircase, but there floated up to me only the even
breathing of Winters, the night detective, sleeping just
inside the entry.
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