DICING WITH DEATH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20483, 8 December 1934, Page 30 (Supplement)

DICING WITH DEATH.

STOPPING A TYPHUS PLAGUE

MYSTERIOUS THEFTS FROM DOCTORS' CARS—CABINET MINISTERS ANXIETY'—A MONOMANIA AGAINST BRITAIN—HUNGARIAN MEDICO'S PREJUDICE FtAISES VIOLENT HATRED DRAMATIC INTERVIEW DESPERATE STRUGGLE TO AVOID ARREST—DETAILS OF DEMONIACAL PLOT DISCOVERED. (B X EX-DETECTIVE INSPECTOR HERBERT T. FITCH, formerly of the Special Branch. New Scotland Yard.—All rights reserved.)

Bather less than twelve months ago the newspapers reported the disappearance of some plague vials from the car of a famous doctor, who had been carrying out experiments with a view to combating the effects of a deadly disease. Two weeks later an even briefer notice appeared, reporting that the “plague vials’’ had been recovered. During that fortnight 1 was busily engaged with one of the most interesting cases of my career.

To my great relief the doctor nodded, and asked to see the plague spots I had mentioned. I started suddenly and pointed a trembling hand to the door—not the one through which I had entered, but another giving access to an inner room. “What’s that?” I gasped. “1-1 thought I saw—a man half-open that door—and then shut it again. I must be seeing things.” Bluff That Succeeded. I assumed that the doctor, if he was really the man who had stolen the plague vials, would keep them in that room. He only occupied two rooms here and the one where we sat obviously did not contain them. My bluff worked. The doctor, evidently terrified that a detective was searching the other room, turned with an oath and leapt through the door. I followed him just as quickly. The room was queerly furnished. It was a bedroom, but all the washstand furniture had been put on the floor. On the marble top nowstood test tubes, a retort containing some brownish liquid, several little bottles — and a number of carefully-corked and waxed vials filled with colourless liquid. I knew I had found what I sought. At that instant, the doctor leapt at me. He evidently realised my bluff, and, associating my build with his own terror of detectives, had guessed what I was really after. I have fought some tough people in my time—l once fought a madman in the precinct* of Buckingham Palace itself. But this madman was about the strongest man I ever tackled. After we had swayed to and fro for a couple of minutes. I flung him off. Then I in to pin him against the wall. But he swept up one of the vials from the washstand top and lunged at me with it. I am not chemist

I read the original paragraph describing how the vials, with enough strepto baccillus in them to devastate London, had vanished from the car as it waited outside the owner’s residence. Such things had happened once or twice before, of course, and a study of my news cuttings revealed the surprising fact that in thefts of this nature the stolen germs had always been strepto baccillus—deadly originator of typhus fever, the “Black Death” which wiped out thousands in England hundreds of years ago.

The affair did not come precisely into my province, however, and J was therefore surprised when a few days later a C «-* a * ri 4 amous statesman telephoned my office. He asked me to come and see him, and his first question to me when I arrived concerned the theft of the plague vials. Had I any theory to account for their disappearance? I had one. but it sounded very wild and improbable. On being pressed however. I admitted that it looked as if one person had carried out this and the previous robberies, and that his object was to gain a supply of the deadly typhus germs. His reply was to push over a confidential report for me to read, one which had evidently reached him but recently. It was from a medical authority in a Midland town, and it

reported the outbreak of an isolated case of typhus fever. This, of course, is one of the most infectious diseases known to humanity. “There may be no connection,” said the statesman quietly, “but we can’t afford to take even the slightest risk with such an awful disease. If it spread it might wipe out the greater part of England. This is not a case we can pursue officially, because my suspicion has no shred of evidence to back it up. But I want you to investigate privately. Find out where those germs have gone, and how this man became infected with typhus fever.” A Statesman's Concern. He handed me several typed sheets pinned together. These were police reports concerning the theft from the car, and supplied all the data which had so far been collected about that robbery. Notes against one or two items appeared in the margins in his own neat, precise writing. I asked him a few questions about the notes he had made and found that he had already prosecuted certain inquiries. If he had not been a great statesman, this man would have made himself famous as a detective., W hen I left him I had in my mind a number of slender clues —and a certain name and address. It was one of the leading doctors of London—a specialist on all sorts of fever diseases and the author of a number of brilliant papers concerning typhus. This doctor, 1 had been assured by th* man I had just left, had a monomania against Britain. He himself was a Hungarian by birth, though he had long been naturalised. And, since the war, he had the idea that Britain had been chiefly responsible in separating Hungary from Austria, and now entertained a very violent hatred against us. He was a morose though brilliant man, who lived alone in a street near Portman Square. 1 went to his house straight away, primed with an excuse for wanting to consult him. His receptionist, however, told me that the doctor was away on a short holiday. I asked where he had gone, and said it was vital that I consulted him and no one else concerning a tropical fever which I had contracted some years ago and which often recurred. I said I would pay any fee whatever, and in the end learned that the doctor was staying in Birmingham. The typhus case had occurred in Birmingham. Theory Put to the Test. I got the next train to Birmingham, with the doctor’s address in my pocket. Even now 1 could not quite believe in the tentative theory which the statesman who called me in had mentioned. But I would certainly have to test it now. I called at the hotel where my quarry was staying and sent up a private card. After some delay I was shown up to his rooms. He was a taciturn, dark-faced man with extraordinarily brilliant eyes and a nervous manner. He was also in a very bad mood as he asked me my business. I said I had come to consult him about some spots which had shown themselves that day on my chest. I simulated lassitude and mental torpor, and said that I felt feverish and unwell. His eyes lit up with a demoniacal glare for an instant and then he asked me how I had known where to find him. Drawing a bow *t a venture, I said that “Mrs. Smith” (which will do as the name for the real typhus patient) had told me that her husband had suffered from just such eymptoms before he went tc hospital. She had recommended the doctor who had attended her husband. In giving this explanation I depended upon the probable ; truth o i m j political employer’s theory. 1

enough to know whether, if he had stabbed me with it, bieaknjg the glass ana semluig the contents into my blood, t should have been injected with enough typhus to kill a town, but i thought of that at the time and took pretty good care to grab iiallP, 111 ,’ aml a, ‘ d kee P out of mischief. famt J ’ \vie madl, “ ai uoliiip>it ‘ d 111 a dead shamming, I called lor assistance? A nTge boy came running in and we got the doctmfetched*. mCe y Wlth some rope the b °y lJSp re ‘ ul , e *, a ? lination o£ that little hotel bedroom laid bale details of a hellish plot. Ihis doctor, crazed by his monomania against Britain, had from time to time j*® ° PP °£ Un f arose ’ ®tolen vials of frepto baccilli from various places and experimented with them.

Plans of Wholesale Poisoning. and U wh‘?fh from . hU u diars ' whkh 1 combined a madman’s ravings for whob.J?° St - an , d ghastly details *P° ,sonin g> he had discovered + thod of msert tug the plague germs ?' ater supplies. He had PPome and ß hid nPaH m *? rt . operations there, -l. a Preliminary test by deliof th e i y cer f m tmß d , oßepb Smith with some f «‘°° f r^ e at C sta a t^mtm before could b maL"&j“h “'-^opect "toTve.Te whe B e nd^ n d senTT 1 ’| Edln bu''gh andels? out Great Britain yPhUS rag “ g throu S b ' plans oould have carried out his lut hr could s’T-tcd ° pen , *,° doubt ' m f l V aVe -been 'lort befo n re r te of madnesl, hifhad'covered h" iSt , ed genius fSaiSSgerm? one T' 6 v ‘ aie ° f pC ftmcrrr’i C w^lc h was broken in our struggle, were removed with the verv greatest care by the local health authorities and the room properly cleaned and fe\ m er g wR d - B ° litary case of typhus no further. CUred 3nd the lnfect,on spread

As for the doctor, he was confined in asylum at the desire of his only living relative, after being certified insane He was morose and furious bv turns after regaining consciousness following our struggle, and it was said H, n t not live long—though I believe he is still was Cl fi tod ' V 't the Sanie asylum where he

Only in the* mind of a murderous madTW f^ ld u S, { C - h ? sch ? me have originated. tlrribh- near Y® msan,ty ’ the doctor came ter r , J-! ) nea * to success. mi? U S£fL.: he *: nPral strikp in Britain in rhlpf r sV.xiLt £ nt °J er Angelica Balabaroff. to niih^ Ur , ier ,’ fo (lirect an to seize power and depose the Kine The attempt was supported by international financiers who wanted to make "ineetin 0 " ba° if kn ° Wlt ’ <lSre . of it. i ?^ S °£?- th *>\P r ™! SP<l P°wcr To °thelr h ßng e lish dupes. Mr. 1-itch was present in dis guise and caused the arrest ~f al ] the ri.i week" e? Instalment*. 1 ] St " ry WUI