" You
remember I took from your hands the newspaper containing the earl's
letter to Cibras, in order to read it with my own eyes. I had my
reasons, and I was justified. That letter contains three mistakes in
spelling: "here" is printed "hear," "pass" appears as "pas," and "room"
as "rume." Printers' errors, you say? But not so--one might be, two in
that short paragraph could hardly be, three would be impossible. Search
the whole paper through, and I think you will not find another. Let us
reverence the theory of probabilities: the errors were the writer's,
not the printer's. General Paralysis of the Insane is known to have
this effect on the writing. It attacks its victims about the period of
middle age--the age at which the deaths of all the Orvens who died
mysteriously occurred. Finding then that the dire heritage of his
race--the heritage of madness--is falling or fallen on him, he summons
his son from India. On himself he passes sentence of death: it is the
tradition of the family, the secret vow of self-destruction handed down
through ages from father to son. But he must have aid: in these days it
is difficult for a man to commit the suicidal act without
detection--and if madness is a disgrace to the race, equally so is
suicide.
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