Even after I had drunk it, I still felt the remains of the drowsy feeling hanging around me.

It was now ten minutes to eleven, and I opened my wardrobe to find the only weapon with which I proposed to arm myself,--a heavily loaded Malacca cane, which had more than once done me good service.

To my surprise it was not in its accustomed corner.

I was perfectly certain that I had seen it since my return from Paris, and I proceeded to make a thoroughly methodical search.

I left scarcely an inch of space in my rooms undisturbed.