"
Craig paused a moment to emphasise his remarks.
"Here in my hand, gentlemen, I hold the price of a woman's
beauty."
He stopped again for several moments, then resumed.
"And now, having shown it to you, for my own safety I will place
it back in its leaden casket."
Drawing off his gloves, he proceeded.
"I have found out by a cablegram to-day that seven weeks ago an
order for one hundred milligrams of radium bromide at thirty-five
dollars a milligram from a certain person in America was filled
by a corporation dealing in this substance."
Kennedy said this with measured words, and I felt a thrill run
through me as he developed his case.
"At that same time, Mrs. Close began a series of treatments with
an X-ray specialist in New York," pursued Kennedy. "Now, it is
not generally known outside scientific circles, but the fact is
that in their physiological effects the X-ray and radium are
quite one and the same. Radium possesses this advantage, however,
that no elaborate apparatus is necessary for its use. And, in
addition, the emanation from radium is steady and constant,
whereas the X-ray at best varies slightly with changing
conditions of the current and vacuum in the X-ray tube. Still,
the effects on the body are much the same.
"A few days before this order was placed I recall the following
despatch which appeared in the New York papers.
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