“Of course I couldn’t go in right after her, so I drove around the corner.  Then it occurred to me that it would be a good time to stop in to see Dr. Harris—­when he was out.  You know my experience with the fakers has made me pretty good at faking up ailments.  Then, too, I knew that it would be easy when he was not there.  I said I was an old patient and had an appointment and that I’d wait, although I knew those were not his regular office hours.  He has an alleged trained nurse there all the time.  She let me into his waiting-room on the second floor in front—­you remember the private dining-rooms are in back.  I waited in momentary fear that he would come back.  You see, I had a scheme of my own.  Well, I waited until at last the nurse had to leave the office for a short time.

“That was my chance.  I tiptoed over to his desk in the next room.  On it were a lot of letters.  I looked over them but could find nothing that seemed to be of interest.  They were all letters from other people.  But they showed that he must have quite an extensive practice, and that he is not over-scrupulous.  I didn’t want to take anything that would excite suspicion unless I had to.  Just then I heard someone coming down the corridor from the elevator.  I had just time to get back to a chair in the waiting-room when the door opened and there was that Titian from the office, you remember.  She saw me without recognizing me, went in and laid some papers on his desk.  As soon as she was gone, I went in again and looked them over.  Here was one that she had copied for him.”

Kennedy had been carefully scrutinizing the sheet of paper as she told how she obtained it.

“It couldn’t be better as far as our purposes are concerned,” he congratulated.  “It seems to consist of some notes he had made and wished to preserve about drugs.”

I leaned over and read: 

Veronal.—­Diethylmalonyl or diethylbarbituric acid.  A hypnotic used extensively.  White, crystalline, odourless, slightly bitter.  Best in ten to fifteen grain cachets.  Does not affect circulatory or respiratory systems or temperature.  Toxicity low:  135 gr. taken with no serious result.  Unreasonable use for insomnia, however, may lead to death.

Heroin.—­Constant use of heroin has been known to lead to—­

I looked inquiringly at Kennedy.

“Just some fragmentary notes which he had evidently been making.  Rather interesting in themselves as showing perhaps something of his practice, but not necessarily incriminating.”

While we were discussing the contents of the notes, Kennedy had laid over the typewritten sheet the rules and graduated strip of glass which he had used in examining the strange letter signed “An Outcast.”

A moment later he pulled the letter itself from a drawer and laid the two pieces of writing side by side, comparing them, going from one to the other successively.