Read "The Dumpling" by Coulson Kernahan online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Yesterday night -- so much has happened since then that it is difficult to believe it was so short a time ago -- yesterday night, after the rioters had disbanded and gone home, I returned to my rooms in Adelphi Terrace, and after I had had some supper, I stepped out on the balcony, to smoke and to listen if all was quiet.
"As I re-entered my room, someone, concealed behind one of the heavy curtains, seized me suddenly from behind, and as I turned angrily to free myself and to see who was my assailant, another man stepped out from behind the curtain on the other side of the window, and before I could prevent him, clapped a handkerchief saturated with chloroform over my nose and mouth.