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Environmental Systems and Societies for the IB Diploma Second Edition © Andrew Davis and Garrett Nagle 2017
Answers
Topic 1 Foundations
of environmental
systems and societies
Quick check questions (p. 2)
1 Any four from, for example:
■ Minamata – raised awareness of threats posed by
industrialisation.
■ Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring – raised awareness of
the threat of the pesticide DDT to organisms high
up food chains.
■ Save the Whale campaign – direct action
to prevent whaling, and raised the profile of
environmental issues.
■ Bhopal – showed people how dangerous factories
can be.
■ Chernobyl – reinforced negative perceptions of
nuclear power in society.
■ UN Rio Earth Summit – led to the adoption
of Agenda 21, a blueprint for action to achieve
sustainable development worldwide.
■ The film of Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Truth
– made the arguments about global warming
very accessible to a wider audience, and changed
peoples’ attitudes and raised awareness about
climate change.
2 Result in the creation of environmental pressure
groups, both local and global; promote the concept
of stewardship; increase media coverage, which raises
public awareness.
3 ■
When a new resource or product is first developed,
people are more likely to see benefits than
potential problems, which emerge later, for
example the car.
■ Key events prompt change, such as the Rio Earth
summit, which led to the adoption of Agenda 21.
■ Environmental pressure groups help to raise
awareness by distributing leaflets and staging
events, for example Greenpeace and the Save the
Whale campaign.
■ Environmental attitudes can become politically
mainstream when economic consequences of
pollution are seen, for example the Stern report
on global warming.
■ School curricula can reflect and promote
changing attitudes, for example the IB
Environmental Systems and Societies course.
■ Changing technologies can help to spread new
attitudes, for example the internet.
■ International organisations, such as the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
can raise the profile of global issues through
conferences; these can set targets that take effect
through national government strategies, for
example Millennium Development Goals.
4 A particular worldview that shapes the way an
individual or group of people perceives and evaluates
environmental issues.
5 ■
Both social systems and ecosystems exist at
different scales and have common features, such as
feedback and equilibrium.
■ Social systems have flows of information, ideas
and people, whereas ecosystems have flows of
energy and matter.
■ Social systems have storages of environmental
value systems/philosophies, whereas ecosystems
have storages of, for example, biomass, soils, the
atmosphere, seas, lakes and rivers.
■ Social systems have social levels, whereas
ecosystems have trophic/feeding levels.
■ Social systems have people responsible for new
input as producers, whereas ecosystems have
plants, algae and some bacteria.
■ Consumers in social systems absorb new
input, such as material possessions, whereas in
ecosystems they consume other organisms.
6 They range from ecocentrism, through
anthropocentrism, to technocentrism.
7 ■ Believes that economic growth and resource
exploitation can continue if carefully managed.
■ Believes that laws and regulation can manage
natural resources.
■ Appreciates that preserving biodiversity can have
economic and ecological advantages.
■ Believes in compensation for those who
experience adverse environmental or social
effects.
8 ■
Deep ecologists see humans as subject to nature,
not in control of it, whereas cornucopians
899737_Ans_ESS_IB_Diploma_001-031.indd 1 21/06/17 3:34 pm

2
believe that nature is there to be made use of by
humanity.
■ Deep ecologists place more value on nature than
on humanity, whereas cornucopians believe
that humans have the ability to improve the
conditions of the Earth’s peoples and that they
have the ingenuity to overcome any difficulties.
■ Deep ecologists believe in the inherent right
to life and intrinsic value of species, whereas
cornucopians see biodiversity as a resource to be
exploited for economic gain.
■ Deep ecologists place most value on biorights,
whereas cornucopians have less concern for
intrinsic or ethical rights of biodiversity.
■ Deep ecologists believe that nature is more
important than material gain for its own sake,
whereas cornucopians believe that resources are
there to be exploited and to generate income.
■ Deep ecologists distrust modern technology,
whereas cornucopians see it as the solution to
humanity’s problems.
■ Deep ecologists believe that economic growth
should not occur at the expense of natural
resources and the environment, and should be
geared to providing the needs of the poorest
people, whereas cornucopians believe it should
form the basis of all projects and policies.
■ Deep ecologists believe that environmental
problems should be prevented in the first place,
whereas cornucopians believe that humans can
always find solutions to political, scientific or
technological difficulties.
9 Example used: indigenous farmers using shifting
cultivation in the Amazonian rainforest in Brazil, and
city-dwellers in Brasilia.
Indigenous farmers:
■ Natural resources are used in a way that
minimises impact on the environment.
■ Attitudes can broadly be termed ‘ecocentric’.
■ Lifestyles and practices are compatible with the
forest in which they live – using forest materials to
make their homes, canoes, and for medicines.
■ They use farming methods that mimic forest
structure, for example by maintaining the layered
structure of rainforest to protect ground crops
from the Sun and heavy downpours.
■ Only return to farmed sites after around 50 years
to allow soil fertility to be restored.
■ Are animists and recognise the spiritual role of
the forest, which leads to respect for trees and
other species.
■ Overall, they are less destructive and have a closer
connection between social systems and ecological
systems.
City-dwellers from Brasilia:
■ They see rainforest as a resource to be exploited
for economic gain, and underestimate the true
value of pristine rainforest.
■ Attitudes can broadly be termed ‘technocentric’.
■ Have a lack of understanding about how natural
systems work, which means they may support
decisions that lead to damaging actions
(e.g. construction of dams, which then become
silted up).
■ They may migrate to make use of deforested land,
but are unsuccessful as the soil lacks fertility.
10 Social influences, personal characteristics, knowledge
and habits; the EVS of an individual will be shaped
by the cultural, economic and socio-political context.
Exam practice (p. 7)
1 Up to 3 marks for each of three valid landmarks:
For example, the publication of The Limits to Growth.
Justification [3 max.]: the Club of Rome – a global
think-tank of academics, civil servants, diplomats and
industrialists that first met in Rome – published The
Limits to Growth in 1972; the report examined the
consequences of a rapidly growing world population
on finite natural resources; it claimed that, within
a century, a mixture of man-made pollution and
resource depletion would cause widespread population
decline; it has sold 30 million copies in more than
30 translations and has become the best-selling
environmental book in history.
For example, the publication of Our Common Future.
Justification [3 max.]: Our Common Future was a
report published in 1987; it developed the ideas
from the Stockholm Declaration; it was produced
by the UN World Commission on Environment
and Development (WCED), linking environmental
concerns to development and seeking to promote
sustainable development through international
collaboration; it also placed environmental issues
firmly on the political agenda; Our Common Future
is also known as The Brundtland Report after the
Chair of the WCED, former Norwegian Prime
Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland; the publication
of Our Common Future and the work of the WCED
provided the groundwork for the UN’s Earth Summit
in Rio in 1992.
For example, the film An Inconvenient Truth based on
the book by Al Gore.
Justification [3 max.]: big publicity meant that many
people heard about global warming; the message was
spread widely and rapidly through modern media, for

3
example the internet; marked a sea-change in public
opinion in the USA; for the first time a mainstream
political figure championed environmental issues; the
film made the arguments about global warming very
accessible to a wider audience; the film was supported
by hard scientific evidence recorded in the book.
Other possible landmarks could include: publication
of Gaia by James Lovelock, publication of the IPCC
findings on climate change, Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring, the Minamata disaster, the Bhopal disaster, the
sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (Greenpeace’s Save the
Whale campaign). [any three examples for 9 marks]
2 5 marks for any five of the following points. For full
marks, answers should show both similarities and
differences.
Systems are assemblages of parts and the relationships
between those parts, which together constitute
the entity or whole; both types of system will have
common features such as inputs, outputs, flows and
storages; social systems are more general, however, in
that there will be lots of different types, for example
a transport system/economic system/farming system/
class system; energy and matter will flow through
ecosystems, whereas social systems will have flows of,
for example, information/ideas/people; both types of
system will exist at different scales; and have common
features such as feedback and equilibrium; trophic
levels and levels in society; there are consumers and
producers in both. [5 max.]
3 Any five from the following points. Answers must
compare the view of a deep ecologist to that of a
cornucopian for full marks.
Deep ecologists and cornucopians are at opposite
ends of the environmental values system continuum;
deep ecologists would probably be opposed to the
exploitation of oil reserves/cornucopians are likely to
support it; deep ecologists would be concerned that
nature will be damaged, and that it is more important
than material gain for its own sake; cornucopians
feel that resources are there to be exploited or to
generate income; and that with sufficient technical
expertise, potential environmental obstacles could
be overcome, i.e. a technocentric approach; deep
ecologists would favour the rights of species to remain
unmolested over the rights of humans who wish to
exploit resources for economic gain; deep ecologists
distrust modern, large-scale technology; and its
associated demands on restricted expertise (which
would be required for coal exploitation). [5 max.]
4 2 marks available for each EVS.
Deep ecologist [2 max.]:
Biorights/the rights of living things to exist
unmolested; intrinsic value of biodiversity; all species
have an inherent right to life.
Environmental manager [2 max.]:
Believes that economic growth and resource
exploitation can continue if carefully managed;
believes that legislation and laws/regulation can
manage biodiversity; appreciates that preserving
biodiversity can have economic/ecological
advantages; those who experience adversity from loss
of biodiversity can be compensated.
Answers such as ‘because it is our duty’ will not be
credited, and receive no marks.
5 Any personal value system is valid as long as it is
appropriately justified. Viewpoints can be expected to
be, for example, either broadly ecocentric or broadly
technocentric, although a mix of opinions may be
given. 6 marks for any of the following points:
For example, a broadly ecocentric approach:
rainforests have an economic value to humans; may
contain food/medicines/materials for human use;
intrinsic value of the rainforest; life support function
for water cycles/carbon sink/oxygen provider;
contains high biodiversity; aesthetic value; tourism
function can bring income; indigenous peoples’
home; regeneration rate is slow; spiritual/cultural/
religious value to local communities; stewardship
value of having rainforests for future generations.
For example, a broadly technocentric approach:
rainforests contain valuable timber, which
can provide valuable income; foresters can use
technologies such as reduced-impact logging, which
can minimise adverse effects on the remaining forest,
so it can regenerate quickly; forest can be replanted,
so that it can be sustainably managed; MEDCs have
used their forests to provide income and to become
fully developed, so LEDCs should have the right to
follow the same path; indigenous people who live in
the forest can be relocated and enjoy an improved
way of life (e.g. better health care) in towns and
cities; as long as around 10% of the natural forest
of a country is preserved, the rest can be utilised
for humanity’s benefit; logging forest is better than
clear-cutting and replacement with monocultures, for
example oil palm.
11 ■ Allows a system to be divided into parts, or
components, which can each be studied separately
(reductionist approach).
■ Allows a system to be studied as a whole, and
patterns and processes described for the whole
system (holistic approach).
■ Allows different subjects to be approached in
the same way and cross-linkages between them
explored.
■ Can be applied equally to ecological, economic,
social and value systems.
12 ■ Transfers are processes involving a change in
location within the system but no change in state,
for example water flowing from groundwater into a
river.

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Ann’s, and that, having accepted the promise of payment,
you afterwards attempted to induce me to take her life.”
“Lies—all of it.”
“We shall see. You tried to take my life. Revenge is now
mine,” I added in a hard, distinct voice.
It may have been only my fancy, yet I could not help
noticing that the word revenge caused him to shrink, and
regard me with some misgiving.
“How?” he inquired.
“No,” I responded firmly; “we are enemies. That is
sufficient. I have discovered the whole plot, therefore rest
assured that those who victimised both Beryl and myself,
and have made dastardly attempts upon our lives, shall not
go unpunished.”
I had altered my tactics, deeming it best to assume a
deeper knowledge of the affair than that which I really
possessed. It was a delicate matter; this accusation must
be dealt with diplomatically.
“My private opinion of you, sir, is that you are a confounded
fool,” he said.
“I may be,” I responded. “But I intend that you, who
enmeshed into your plot a defenceless woman, and who
abducted me aboard so cleverly, in order to gain time, shall
bear the exposure and punishment that you merit.”
He nodded slowly as though perfectly comprehending my
meaning.

“Then I take it that Beryl is aware of your actual alliance
with her?” he asked, his small eyes flashing at me.
But I made no satisfactory answer. I was wary of him, for I
knew him to be a clever miscreant. His tone betrayed an
anxiety to know the exact extent of Beryl’s knowledge.
“Beryl is my wife, and my interests are hers,” I replied. “It
is sufficient that I am aware of the whole truth.”
“You think so,” he laughed with sarcasm. “Well, you are at
liberty to hold your own opinion.”
“The fact is,” I said, “that you accepted Sir Henry’s
invitation here, never dreaming that you would come face
to face with me. I am the last person in the world you
desired to meet.”
“The encounter has given me the utmost pleasure, I assure
you,” he replied with a sneer.
“Just as it will not only to yourself but to a certain other.”
“Who?”
“A person whom you know well—an intimate friend of
yours.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“It is a woman. Think of your female friends.”
“What is her name?”
“La Gioia.”
“La Gioia?” he gasped glaring at me.

His face was livid and his surprise apparent. I saw that he
had never dreamt that I knew of her existence.
“You see, I may be a confounded fool, as you have
declared,” I said. “But I have not been idle during these
past months. La Gioia’s revenge is mine also.”
He made no response. My words had, as I intended,
produced an overwhelming effect upon him. He saw, that if
La Gioia’s secret was out he stood in deadliest peril. I had
impressed him with an intimate knowledge of the whole
affair.
It was at that moment he showed himself full of resourceful
villainy.
“The vengeance of La Gioia will fall upon the woman who is
your wife—not upon yourself.”
“And through whom?” I cried. “Why, through yourself and
your accomplice, Tattersett, who betrayed Beryl into her
hands. The mystery of Whitton is to me no mystery, for I
know the truth.”
He glared at me as though I were some evil vision, and I
knew that by these words I was slowly thrusting home the
truth.
“What have I to do with the affair at Whitton?” he cried. “I
know nothing of it?”
“I may, perhaps, be enabled to prove differently,” I said.
“Do you then allege that I am implicated in the Colonel’s
death?” he exclaimed furiously.

“I have my own opinion,” I responded. “Remember that you
once made a desperate and dastardly, attempt to kill me,
fearing lest I should denounce you as having tried to bribe
me to commit murder.”
His eyes glittered, and I saw that his anger was unbounded.
We stood there in the calm sunset near the lakeside, and I
could see that he would rid himself of me, if such a course
was possible. But I thought of Beryl. Ah! how I loved her.
That she had fallen a victim of the cleverly contrived
conspiracy incensed me, and I resolved to show the
scoundrel no quarter.
“Well,” he said at last, in a tone of defiance, “and after all
these wild allegations, what can you do? Surely you do not
think that I fear any statement that you can make?”
“You may not fear any statement of mine, but I do not
anticipate that you will invite La Gioia to reveal all she
knows. The latter might place you in enforced confinement
for a few years.”
“La Gioia is at liberty to say whatever she likes,” he
answered. “If she is actually a friend of Beryl’s she will, no
doubt, assist you; but at present she is her deadliest
antagonist. Therefore, if you take my advice, you’ll just
calm yourself and await another opportunity for revenge at
a latter date.”
His cool words caused my blood to boil.
“You treat this affair as though it were a matter of little
importance, sir!” I cried. “Let me tell you, however, that I
have been your victim, and I intend to probe the matter to
the bottom and ascertain your motives.”
“That you’ll never do,” he laughed.

“I tell you I will!” I cried. “I am Beryl’s husband, and she is
no longer defenceless. You have to answer to me!”
“I have answered you by saying that in future you are at
liberty to act as you think fit. I merely warn you that La
Gioia is no more your friend than she is your wife’s.”
“You contrived to entrap me into marriage. Why? Answer
me that question,” I demanded.
“I refuse. You have threatened me with all sorts of pains
and penalties, but I defy you!”
From his silver case he took a cigar, and, biting off the end,
leisurely lit it. His countenance had changed. Again it was
the same grey sinister face that had so long haunted me in
my dream—the face of the Tempter.
“Have you finished?” he asked, with mock politeness.
“For the moment, yes,” I answered. “But yours is an ill-
advised defiance, as you will very soon see.”
He burst forth into a peal of strained, unnatural laughter,
whereat I turned upon my heel and left him standing there
a dark silhouette in the crimson sunset. Blindly I walked on
to the house, dressed mechanically, and descended late for
dinner. But the Tempter was not in his place; he had been
called away to London, it was said, and had been compelled
to catch the 07:30 train from Corsham.
I glanced at my watch; it was already 07:35. I had
blundered, and had allowed him to slip through my fingers.
I bit my lip in mad vexation.
Beryl’s beautiful eyes were fixed upon me, and in her face I
detected deep anxiety. She looked perfectly charming in a

gown of pale pink crêpe-de-chine. Had he sought her before
departure, I wondered?
“It’s an awful disappointment that he has had to leave,” said
the baronet’s wife. “I endeavoured to persuade him to
remain until the morning, but he received a letter by the
afternoon post making it imperative that he should return to
London. But he says he will be back again either on Monday
or Tuesday.”
“I do hope he will return,” observed some one at the end of
the table, and then the subject dropped. When the ladies
had left the room Sir Henry remarked—“Queer fellow,
Ashwicke—a bit eccentric, I always think. His movements
are most erratic—a regular rolling stone.”
I embraced that opportunity to inquire regarding his
antecedents, but my host appeared to know very little
beyond the fact that he was wealthy, good company, a keen
sportsman, and moved in a very smart set in town.
“I’ve known him a couple of years or so; he’s a member of
my club,” he added. “My wife declares that none of the
parties are complete without him.”
“Do you know his friend, Tattersett—Major Tattersett?”
“No,” responded Sir Henry; “never met him.” With the
others I went along to the drawing-room and found Beryl
alone in a cozy corner, obviously awaiting me. She twisted a
lace scarf about her shoulders and we strolled out upon the
terrace, as was our habit each evening if fine and starlight.
When we had gained the further end she suddenly halted,
and turning to me said, in a low, husky voice that trembled
with emotion—
“Doctor Colkirk, you have deceived me!”

“Deceived you, Miss Wynd?” I exclaimed, taken completely
aback by her allegation. “How?”
“I know the truth—a truth that you cannot deny. I—I am
your wife.”
“I do not seek to deny it,” I answered in deep, solemn
earnestness, taking her small white hand in mine. “It is
true, Beryl, that you are my wife—true also that I love you.”
“But it cannot be possible!” she gasped. “I knew that I was
a wife, but never dreamed that you were actually my
husband.”
“And how did you discover it?”
“I was down by the waterside this evening, before dinner,
and overheard your conversation with Mr Ashwicke.”
“All of it?”
“Yes, all of it. I know that I am your wife;” and she sighed,
while her little hand trembled within mine.
“I love you, Beryl,” I said, simply and earnestly. “I have
known all along that you are my wife, yet I dared not tell
you so, being unable to offer sufficient proof of it and
unable to convince you of my affection. Yet, in these few
weeks that have passed, you have surely seen that I am
devoted to you—that I love you with a strange and deeper
love than ever man has borne within his heart. A thousand
times I have longed to tell you this, but have always feared
to do so. The truth is that you are my wife—my adored.”
Her hand tightened upon mine, and unable to restrain her
emotions further, she burst into tears.

“Tell me, darling,” I whispered into her car—“tell me that
you will try to love me now that you know the truth. Tell me
that you forgive me for keeping the secret until now, for, as
I will show you, it was entirely in our mutual interests. We
have both been victims of a vile and widespread conspiracy,
therefore we must unite our efforts to combat the
vengeance of our enemies. Tell me that you will try and love
me—nay, that you do love me a little. Give me hope,
darling, and let us act together as man and wife.”
“But it is so sudden,” she faltered. “I hardly know my own
feelings.”
“You know whether you love me, or whether you hate me,”
I said, placing my hand around her slim waist and drawing
her towards me.
“No,” she responded in a low voice, “I do not hate you. How
could I?”
“Then you love me—you really love me, after all!” I cried
joyously.
For answer she burst again into a flood of tears, and I, with
mad passion, covered her white brow with hot kisses while
she clung to me—my love, my wife.
Ah! when I reflect upon the ecstasy of those moments—how
I kissed her sweet lips, and she, in return, responded to my
tender caresses, how she clung to me as though shrinking
in fear from the world about her, how her heart beat quickly
in unison with my own, I feel that I cannot properly convey
here a sufficient sense of my wild delight. It is enough to
say that in those tender moments I knew that I had won
the most beautiful and graceful woman I had ever beheld—
a woman who was peerless above all—and that she was
already my wife. The man who reads this narrative, and

whose own love has been reciprocated after long waiting, as
mine has been, can alone understand the blissful happiness
that came to me and the complete joy that filled my heart.
We stood lost in the ecstasies of each other’s love, heedless
of time, heedless of those who might discover us, heedless
of everything. The remembrance of that hour remains with
me to-day like a pleasant dream, a foretaste of the bliss of
paradise.
Many were the questions that I asked and answered, many
our declarations of affection and of fidelity. Our marriage
had been made by false contract on that fateful day,
months before, but that night, beneath the shining stars,
we exchanged solemn vows before God as man and wife.
I endeavoured to obtain from her some facts regarding
Ashwicke and his accomplice, Tattersett, but what she knew
seemed very unsatisfactory. I related to her the whole of
the curious circumstances of our marriage, just as I have
recounted it in the opening chapters of my narrative,
seeking neither to suppress nor exaggerate any of the
singular incidents.
Then, at last, she made confession—a strange amazing
confession which held me dumb.

Chapter Twenty Nine.
Put to the Test.
“I remember very little of the events of that day,” my love
said, with some reluctance. “I know Ashwicke, he having
been a guest here last year, and a frequent visitor at
Gloucester Square. With Nora and Sir Henry I returned to
London in early May, after wintering in Florence, and one
morning at the end of June I met Major Tattersett
unexpectedly in the Burlington. He told me that his sister
and niece from Scotland were visiting him at his house in
Queen’s-gate Gardens, and invited me to call and make
their acquaintance.”
“Had you never been to his house previously?”
“Never. He, however, gave me an invitation to luncheon for
the twenty-fourth of July, which I accepted. On arrival I
found the Major; his sister and his niece were out shopping,
therefore I sat alone awaiting them in the drawing-room,
when of a sudden I experienced for the first time that
curious sensation of being frozen. I tried to move, but was
unable. I cried out for help, but no one came. My limbs
were stiff and rigid as though I were struck by paralysis,
while the pain was excruciating. I fought against
unconsciousness, but my last clear recollection of those
agonising moments was of an indistinct, sinister face
peering into mine. All then became strangely distorted. The
balance of my brain became inverted and I lost my will-
power, being absolutely helpless in the hands of those who
directed my movements. I could not hold back, for all my
actions were mechanical, obeying those around me. I
remember being dressed for the wedding, the journey to

the church, my meeting with my future husband—whose
face, however, I was unable to afterwards recall—the
service, and the return. Then came a perfect blank.”
“And afterwards?”
“Night had fallen when I returned to my senses, and the
strange sensation of intense cold generally left me. I looked
around, and, to my amazement, saw the pale moon high in
the sky. My head was resting upon something hard, which I
gradually made out to be a wooden seat. Then, when I sat
up, I became aware of the bewildering truth—that I was
lying upon one of the seats in Hyde Park.”
“In Hyde Park? And you had been placed there while in a
state of unconsciousness?”
“Yes. Upon my finger I found a wedding-ring. Was it
possible, I wondered, that I was actually married to some
unknown man?”
“You saw nothing of Ashwicke?”
“I saw no one except the maid-servant who showed me into
the drawing-room, and cannot in the least account for the
strange sensation which held me helpless in the hands of
my enemies. I saw the man I married at the church, but so
mistily that I did not recognise you when we met again.”
“But you knew the house in Queen’s-gate Gardens. Did you
not afterwards return there, and seek an explanation of
Tattersett?”
“On discovering my whereabouts I rose and walked across
the park to Gloucester Square. It was then nearly one
o’clock in the morning, but Nora was sitting up in anxiety as
to what had become of me. I had, however, taken the ring

from my finger, and to her told a fictitious story to account
for my tardy return. Two days later I returned to the house
to which Tattersett had invited me, but on inquiry found, to
my amazement, that it was really occupied by a lady named
Stentiford, who was abroad, while the man left in charge
knew nothing whatever either of the Major or of his sister
and niece. I told him how I had visited there two days
previously, but he laughed incredulously; and when I asked
for the maid-servant who had admitted me, he said that no
maid had been left there by Mrs Stentiford. In prosecution
of my inquiries I sought to discover the register of my
marriage, but, not knowing the parish in which it had taken
place, my search at Somerset House was fruitless. They told
me that the registers were not made up there until six
months or so after the ceremony.”
“You did not apply at Doctors’ Commons?”
“No,” she responded; “I thought the entry would be at
Somerset House.”
“What previous knowledge had you of the Major?”
“He was a friend of Ashwicke’s, who had been introduced to
us one night in the stalls at Daly’s. He afterwards dined
several times at Gloucester Square.”
“But Sir Henry does not know him.”
“It was while he was away at the Cape.”
“Then you have not the faintest idea of the reason of our
extraordinary marriage, darling?” I asked, holding her hand.
“I have told you all that actually occurred. Can you form no
conclusion whatever as to the motive?”

“Absolutely none,” she answered. “I am as utterly in the
dark as yourself. I cannot understand why you were
selected as my husband.”
“But you do not regret?” I asked tenderly.
“Regret? No,” she repeated, raising her beautiful face to
mine, perfect in its loveliness and purity. “I do not regret
now, Richard—because I love you.” And our lips met again
in fervent tenderness.
“It is still an absolute mystery,” I observed at last. “We
know that we are wedded, but there our knowledge ends.”
“We have both been victims of a plot,” she responded. “If
we could but discern the motive, then we might find some
clue to lead us to the truth.”
“But there is a woman called La Gioia,” I said; and,
continuing, explained my presence in the park at Whitton,
and the conversation I had overheard between herself and
Tattersett.
Her hand, still in mine, trembled perceptibly, and I saw that
I had approached a subject distasteful to her.
“Yes,” she admitted at last, in a hard, strange voice, “it is
true that he wrote making an appointment to meet me in
the park that night. I kept it because I wished to ascertain
the truth regarding my marriage. But he would tell me
nothing; he only urged me to secure my own safety
because La Gioia had returned.”
“And who is La Gioia?”
“My enemy—my bitterest enemy.”

“Can you tell me nothing else?” I asked in a tone of slight
reproach.
“I know nothing else. I do not know who or what she is, or
where she lives. I only know that she is my unseen evil
genius.”
“But you have seen her. She called upon you on that
evening at Gloucester Square when she assumed the
character of your dressmaker, and a few nights ago she was
here—in this house.”
“Here?” she echoed in alarm. “Impossible!”
Then I related how I had seen her, and how her evil
influence had fallen upon me when afterwards I had entered
my room.
“The thing is actually beyond belief,” she declared. “Do you
really think you were not mistaken?”
“Most assuredly I was not. It was the woman who called
upon you in London. But you have not told me the reason
you were absent from your room that night.” She was silent
for a few moments, then answered, “I met Tattersett. He
demanded that I should meet him, as he wished to speak
with me secretly. I did so.”
“Why did he wish to see you?”
“In order to prove to me that he had no hand in the tragic
affair at Whitton. I had suspected all along that he was
responsible for the Colonel’s death, and my opinion has not
altered. I begged him to tell me the reason of the plot
against me, the motive of my marriage, and the identity of
my husband. But he refused point-blank, telling me to ask
La Gioia, who knew everything.”

“Have you no idea of her whereabouts?”
“None whatever.”
“If we could but find her,” I said, “she might tell us
something. Ah! if we could but find her.”
My love was trembling. Her heart was filled to overflowing
with the mystery of it all. Yet I knew that she loved me—
yes, she loved me.
How long we lingered there upon the terrace I know not,
but it was late ere we re-entered the drawing-room. Who
among those assembled guests would have dreamt the
truth—we were man and wife!
As I went upstairs I found a letter lying upon the hall table
in the place where the guests’ letters were placed. Barton
had, I suppose, driven into Corsham and brought with him
the mail which would, in the usual course, have been
delivered on the following morning. The note was from
Hoefer, a couple of awkwardly scribbled lines asking me to
come and see him without a moment’s delay.
Eager to hear whether the queer old fellow had made any
discovery, I departed next morning by the eight o’clock
express for London, having left a note with Beryl’s maid
explaining the cause of my sudden journey, and soon after
eleven was seated with the old German in his lofty
laboratory. The table was, as usual, filled with various
contrivances—bottles of liquids and test-tubes containing
fluids of various hues—while before him, as I entered, a
small tube containing a bright blue liquid was bubbling over
the spirit-lamp, the heat causing the colour to gradually
fade.

“Ah, my frient,” he said, with his strong accent, holding out
his big fat hand encased in a stout leather glove, “I am glad
you have come—very glad. It has been a long search, but I
haf discovered something, after all. You see these?”—and
he indicated his formidable array of retorts and test-tubes.
“Well, I have been investigating at Gloucester Square, and
have found the affair much more extraordinary than I
believed.”
“And you have discovered the truth?” I demanded.
“Yes,” he responded, turning down the flame of the lamp
and bending attentively to the bubbling fluid from which all
colour had disappeared while I had been watching. “Shall I
relate to you the course of my investigations?”
“Do. I am all attention.”
“Well,” he said, leaning both elbows upon the table and
resting his chin upon his hands, while the tame brown rat
ran along the table and scrambled into his pocket, “on the
first evening you sought my assistance I knew, from the
remote effects which both of us experienced, that the evil
influence of that mysterious visitor in black, was due to
some unknown neurotic poison. It was for that reason that I
was enabled to administer an antidote without making an
exact diagnosis. Now, as you are well aware, toxicology is a
very strange study. Even common table-salt is a poison,
and has caused death. But my own experiments have
proved that, although the various narcotic poisons produce
but little local change, their remote effects are very
remarkable. Certain substances affect certain organs in
particular. The remote action of a poison may be said to be
due, in every instance, to its absorption into the veins or
lymphatics, except when there is a direct continuity of effect
traceable from the point where the poison was applied to

the point where the remote effect is shown. It is remarkable
that the agents which most affect the nervous system do
not act at all when applied to the brain or trunks of nerves.
Poisonous effects result from absorption of the poisoning
body, and absorption implies solution; the more soluble,
therefore, the compound is, the more speedy are its effects.
Do you follow me?”
“Quite clearly.”
“The rapid, remote effect produced on leaving that room
made it plain that I must look for some powerful neurotic
poison that may be absorbed through the skin,” he went on.
“With this object I searched microscopically various objects
within and without the room, but for a long time was
unsuccessful, when, one morning, I made a discovery that
upon the white porcelain handle of the door a little
colourless liquid had been applied. Greater part of it had
disappeared by constant handling, but there was still some
remaining on the shaft of the handle, and the microscope
showed distinct prism-shaped crystals. All these I secured,
and with them have since been experimenting. I found
them to be a more deadly poison than any of the known
paralysants or hyposthenisants, with an effect of muscular
paralysis very similar to that produced by curare, combined
with the stiffness about the neck and inability to move the
jaws so apparent in symptoms provoked by strychnia. The
unknown substance—a most deadly, secret poison, and, as I
have since proved, one of those known to the ancients—had
been applied to the door-handle on the inside, so that any
person in pulling open the door to go out must absorb it in
sufficient quantity to prove fatal. Indeed, had it not been for
the antidote of chlorine and the mixed oxides of iron which I
fortunately hit upon, death must have ensued in the case of
each of us.

“To determine exactly what was the poison used was an
almost insurmountable task, for I had never met with the
substance before; but, after working diligently all this time,
I have found that by treating it with sulphuric acid it
underwent no change, yet by adding a fragment of
bichromate of potassium a series of blue, violet, purple, and
red tints were produced, very similar to those seen in the
tests for strychnia. The same results were brought about,
also, by peroxide of lead and black oxide of manganese. I
dried the skin of a frog and touched it with a drop of
solution containing a single one of the tiny crystals, when
strong tetantic convulsions ensued and the animal died in
ten seconds. At last, however, after many other
experiments, the idea occurred to me that it was an alkaloid
of some plant unknown in modern toxicology. I was, of
course, aware of the action of the calabar bean of the West
Coast of Africa, the akazga, the datura seeds of India, and
such-like poisons, but this was certainly none of these. It
was a substance terribly deadly—the only substance that
could strike death through the cuticle—utterly unknown to
us, yet the most potent of all secret poisons.”
“And how did you determine it at last?”
“By a reference I discovered in an ancient Latin treatise on
poisons from the old monastery at Pavia, now in the British
Museum. It gave me a clue which ultimately led me to
establish it as the alkaloid of the vayana bean. This bean, it
appears, was used in the tenth and eleventh centuries by a
sect of the despotic Arab mystics called the Fatimites, who
had made Cairo their capital, and held rule over Syria as
well as the northern coast of Africa. The last Fatimite was,
at a later date, dethroned by Saladin, conqueror of the
Koords, and who opposed Richard the First of England. The
poison, introduced from Egypt into Italy, was known to the
old alchemists as the most secret means of ridding one of

undesirable acquaintances. Its effect, it was stated, was the
most curious of any known drug, because, for the time
being, it completely altered the disposition of the individual
and caused him to give way to all sorts of curious notions
and delusions, while at the same time he would be entirely
obedient to the will of any second person. Afterwards came
fierce delirium, a sensation as though the lower limbs were
frozen, complete loss of power, exhaustion, and death. But
in modern toxicology even the name of the vayana was lost.
“My first step, therefore, was to seek assistance of the great
botanist who is curator of Kew Gardens, and, after
considerable difficulty and many experiments, we both
arrived at the conclusion that it was the bean of a small and
very rare plant peculiar to the oasis of the Ahir in the south
of the Great Sahara. At Kew there was a stunted specimen,
but it had never borne fruit, therefore we both searched for
any other specimen that might exist in England. We heard
of one in the wonderful gardens of La Mortola, near
Mentone, and, after diligent inquiries, discovered that a firm
of importers in Liverpool had sold a specimen with the
beans in pod, which was delivered to a person named
Turton, living in Bishop’s-wood Road, Highgate, and planted
in a small greenhouse there. I have not been idle,” he
added with a grin. Then, taking from a drawer in the table
before him a photograph, he handed it to me, saying, “I
have been able to obtain this photograph of Mrs Turton—the
lady who purchased the plant in question.”
He held it out to me, and in an instant I recognised the
face. It was that of the woman who had crept so silently
through the rooms at Atworth—La Gioia!
Briefly, I told him all that had transpired on that night, and
declared that I recognised her features, whereat he grunted
in satisfaction.

“You have asked me to try and solve the mystery, and I
have done so. You will find this woman living at a house
called ‘Fairmead’ in the road I have indicated. I have not
only established the cause of the phenomena, but I have, at
the same time, rediscovered the most extraordinary and
deadly substance known in toxicology. As far as the present
case is concerned, my work is finished—I have succeeded in
making some of the vayana alkaloid. Here it is?” and, taking
a small yellow glass tube, securely corked and sealed, he
handed it to me.
In the bottom I saw half a grain of tiny white crystals. I
knew now why he was wearing gloves in his laboratory.
“And have you seen this woman?” I asked the queer old
fellow, whose careful investigations had been crowned with
such success. “How did you know, on the following day, that
it was La Gioia who had come in the guise of a
dressmaker?”
“I have seen her, and I have seen the plant. It is from one
of the beans which I secured secretly that I have been able
to produce that substance. I knew her by overhearing a
conversation between Miss Wynd and her cousin on the
following morning.”
“And the woman is in ignorance that you know the truth?”
“Entirely. I have finished. It is for you now to act as you
think fit.”
I expressed admiration for his marvellous patience and
ingenuity in solving the mystery, and, when I left, it was
with the understanding that, if I required his further
assistance he would willingly render it.

Chapter Thirty.
“La Gioia.”
On the following afternoon, in response to a telegram I had
sent to Beryl, she accompanied me to Highgate to face La
Gioia. Now that I had such complete evidence of her
attempts to poison, I did not fear her, but was determined
to elucidate the mystery. Beryl accompanied me rather
reluctantly, declaring that, with such power as the woman
held, our lives were not safe; but I resolved to take her by
surprise, and to risk all. After leaving Hoefer I had sought
an interview with the detective Bullen, and he, by
appointment, was in the vicinity of the house in question,
accompanied by a couple of plain-clothes subordinates.
We stopped our cab in Hampstead Lane, and descending,
found that the Bishop’s-wood Road was a semicircular
thoroughfare of substantial detached houses, the garden of
each abutting upon a cricket-ground in the centre, and each
with its usual greenhouse where geraniums were potted and
stored in winter. On entering the quiet, highly-respectable
crescent, we were not long in discovering a house with the
name “Fairmead” inscribed in gilt letters upon the gate,
while a little further along my eyes caught sight of two
scavengers diligently sweeping the road, and, not far away,
Bullen himself was walking with his back turned towards
me.
On our summons being responded to I inquired for Mrs
Turton, and we were shown into the drawing-room—a rather
severely furnished apartment which ran through into the
greenhouse wherein stood the rare plant. Hoefer had
described it minutely, and while we waited, we both peered

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