A Bid for Fortune · Part I · Chapter 1 6 (3/3)

“I think he’ll do now,” he said to her as he rubbed his plump hands together; “but I’ll look round in the course of the afternoon.”

“One moment,” I said feebly, for I found I was too weak to speak above a whisper. “Would you mind telling me where I am, and what is the matter with me?”

“I should very much like to be able to do so,” was the doctor’s reply. “My opinion is, if you want me to be candid, that you have been drugged and well-nigh poisoned, by a remarkably clever chemist. But what the drug and the poison were, and who administered it to you, and the motive for doing so, is more than I can tell you. From what I can learn from the hotel proprietors you were brought here from the railway station in a cab last night by a gentleman who happened to find you in the carriage in which you travelled down from London. You were in such a curious condition that I was sent for and this nurse procured. Now you know all about it.”

“What day did you say this is?”

“Saturday, to be sure.”

“Saturday!” I cried. “You don’t mean that! Then, by Jove, I’ve missed the Saratoga after all. Here, let me get up! And tell them downstairs to send for the Inspector of Police. I have got to get to the bottom of this.”

I sat up in bed, but was only too glad to lie down again, for my weakness was extraordinary. I looked at the doctor.

“How long before you can have me fit to travel?”

“Give yourself three days’ rest and quiet,” he replied, “and we’ll see what we can do.”

“Three days? And two days and a half to cross the continent, that’s five and a half⁠—say six days. Good! I’ll catch the boat in Naples, and then, Dr. Nikola, if you’re aboard, as I suspect, I should advise you to look out.”