??351: Chapter 214: The Arsenic Eater of London (4K)_2
351: Chapter 214: The Arsenic Eater of London (4K)_2
The young man voiced his doubts, “Are officers really that miraculous?”
“Are you a Yankee?” Arthur eyed the young man up and down.
“No wonder, I thought your accent was a bit strange.”
The young man seed quite displeased at being singled out as an Arican, his face flushed as he responded, “Sir, it doesn’t matter where I’m from.
What matters is, I can provide you with the percussion revolver you want.
I’ve been here for nearly three days, yet none of these old London bureaucrats have taken
seriously.
I assure you, my Colt Revolver is absolutely the best portable firearm in the world so far.
If the officers at Scotland Yard were equipped with this product, it would definitely be of great help to you!
Before, you had to reload after firing a shot, but now you can take down six enemies with one load—that’s a sixfold increase in combat efficiency.
Are you sure you don’t want to consider it?”
“Colt Revolver?” Arthur, upon hearing this term, was stunned for a mont.
After pondering for a while, he thought of a na he had once seen in a military magazine and tentatively asked, “Samuel Colt?”
When Colt heard Arthur blurt out his na, he was so surprised that he opened his mouth wide, hardly knowing what to say.
“You…
How could you tell I’ve been adrift at sea for a year?
And how do you even know my na?”
Arthur, on hearing this, simply pulled out his pipe with a hint of mystery, “That’s right, that’s how detectives are.”
The guard beside them, seeing Arthur about to light up, panicked and snatched away the matches and matchbox, “My God!
Mr.
Hastings!
The gunpowder storeroom is just next door, do you plan to blow us all to the heavens?”
It was then that Arthur rembered where he was.
He quickly put down his now redundant hand and gave an embarrassed laugh, “Sorry.”
He looked at Colt again, and after a mont’s thought, he said, “Wait for
here for a while.
Once I’ve finished my business, we can continue discussing your revolver.
Although I can’t interfere with Scotland Yard’s overall decisions regarding equipnt purchase, I do have the autonomy to make small decisions within my own departnt.”
With that said, Arthur turned to the guard and said, “Co on, sir, let’s go to the laboratory first.”
Standing behind him, Colt could not conceal his elation upon hearing this.
The nineteen-year-old Arican yelled after Arthur, “Detective sir, I haven’t had lunch yet, I’ll be waiting at the café outside!
With your amazing deductive skills, you surely know which café I’m talking about, right?
Don’t stand
up!”
No sooner had Colt finished speaking than he turned and sprinted towards the exit, occasionally jumping up and down and clenching his fists to punch the air.
It was obvious that the young man was thrilled at the chance of securing a new order.
Noticing this scene, Arthur simply turned to the guard and asked, “How many cafés are there outside the factory?”
“Just one.”
“Then good.”
Following the guard’s lead, Arthur crossed the workshop to reach a small red brick building not far from the back of the workshop.
Walking through the concrete forecourt, and just as he reached the second floor, Arthur slled a strong, pungent scent.
He pondered for a while, feeling that the odor was sowhat familiar.
After thinking for a long ti, he finally confird that this scent was extrely similar to the French garlic that Great Dumas had planted in the garden.
Just as Arthur thought the guard was leading him to the arsenal’s experintal kitchen, the room that ca into view as the door was opened was neither a bustling cooking scene nor any sweating chefs.
The overall arrangent of the room was identical to the laboratories the Royal Society provided for chemists, with various colorful solutions and transparent beakers filling several shelves, and in the center of the room on the experintal table, a beaker was being heated.
The guard tapped lightly on the door with his finger and prompted, “Mr.
Marsh.”
The man who was standing in front of the beaker frowning in thought looked up and noticed Arthur and the guard.
He spoke, “And who might this be?”
“Mr.
Arthur Hastings, Scotland Yard Inspector.”
“Ah!
It’s you, co in quickly.”
Jas Marsh invited Arthur inside and, while pointing to the bubbling, heated liquid in the beaker, he explained, “I must say, Scotland Yard is very lucky to have taken on this case.
If this had happened a few weeks earlier, the truth might have been lost forever.”
Hearing this, Arthur followed up with a question, “So you an to say…
Mr.
Marsh, have you discovered so interesting phenona?”
“Interesting may not be the word, but I believe it to be a tragedy.”
Marsh began, “With life and death at stake, I will not beat around the bush with you.
You may have heard so news from the Royal dical Association; just recently I discovered a thod to test for traces of arsenic.
The beaker before you contains hydrochloric acid, hydrogen sulfate, and food residue extracted from the victim’s stomach.
According to the test thod, once these mixtures are heated, and if there are traces of arsenic in the food residue, arsine gas will be produced, which is, to be more precise, the intense garlic sll you are now detecting.”
“Arsenic?” Arthur couldn’t help but frown at the ntion of this elent.
Speaking of arsenic might be too scientifically precise; if one were to call it by its common na—arsenic trioxide—then it would seem much more familiar to many.
Arsenic trioxide, as a historically notorious poison, has been used for homicide in both the East and the West, with records dating back to several centuries before the Common Era.
Firstly, as Jas Marsh ntioned, for a long ti, humanity lacked the scientific ans to consistently detect traces of arsenic.
Secondly, as a perfect poison, arsenic trioxide, by itself, is tasteless.
When dissolved in water, it only makes the water slightly sweet, making it difficult for the victim to realize they’ve been poisoned.
Moreover, the symptoms of poisoning, such as diarrhea and vomiting, are easily confused with other diseases.
After all, at this ti in London, several epidemics that commonly caused diarrhea and vomiting were rampant.
A person who was poisoned would just assu they had co down with an illness due to bad luck.
But most crucially, arsenic trioxide was very easy to co by.
Since the Industrial Revolution, various tal slting industries had thrived in Britain, and the various arsenic compounds that were by-products of tallurgy were carefully packaged by factory owners and sold as special vermin control products such as rat poison and flypaper.
And what was even more outrageous was that, since the ti of Elizabeth I, won of all social strata in London started using various arsenic-containing costics, from the simplest face creams to high-end perfus, nearly all of which contained traces of arsenic.
Also, a so-called Fowler’s solution, recognized in London as an effective redy for malaria, contained arsenic.
Thinking of this, Arthur finally understood why Bernie Harrison had been so confident.
Because being overpowered by arsenic leading to death wasn’t necessarily sufficient to convict him of murder unless Scotland Yard obtained a complete chain of evidence of the cri.
Otherwise, even with the test results from the stomach contents, it was impossible to fully convict him.
Many ladies in society voluntarily consud arsenic to achieve a rosy complexion, and not a few died as a result.
To bring down a mber of Parliant over such a trivial matter, particularly a perfur skilled in the art, was no easy feat.
Reflecting on this, Arthur beca deeply contemplative.
He was pondering how to convict Bernie Harrison when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Agares rushing in through the wall.
The Red Devil, looking as if sothing had frightened him, grabbed Arthur and urgently motioned to leave, “Arthur!
Damn it, co outside and look, I’ve seen those bloody fools fishing out bodies by the Thas River again!”
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