Question

the search partys find
by grant allen (excerpt)
in this excerpt from the beckoning hand and other stories, the
narrator, a surgeon, joins an arctic expedition to escape a broken
engagement. one of the expeditions members is a man by the
name of lemarchant, who quickly becomes one of the teams
most despised members. to the narrators horror, he learns that
lemarchant is now engaged to his former love. when
lemarchant learns this, he sets in motion a plan that has a
trrible consequence for both men.
(1) presently, i heard a noise again, and woke up quietly, without
starting, but just opened my eyes and peered about as well as
the dim light of the little oil-lamp would allow me.
(2) to my great surprise, i could make out somehow that
lemarchant was meddling with the bottles in the medicine-chest.
(3) at four i woke, as i always did, and proceeded to take one of
my powders. curiously enough, before i tasted it, the grain
appeared to me to be rather coarser and more granular than the
quinine\\(^1\\) i had originally put there i took a pinch between my
finger and thumb, and placed it on my tongue by way of testing it.
instead of being bitter, the powder, i found, was insipid\\(^2\\) and
almost tasteless ...
(4) glancing accidentally to his place that moment, i was vaguely
2
select the correct text in the passage.
which detail from the text confirms that the narrator is correct in suspecting lemarchant in poisoning him?
(14)
ot a bit of it, lemarchant,\ i said, with some devilish malice, \ive given you one of my own packets, that was lying here
beside my pillow\
(15) he turned as white as a sheet the moment he heard that, and gasped out horribly, \that—that—why, that was arsenic?\ but
he never explained in a single word how he knew it, or where it came from i knew ...
(16) then i knew that i was really a murderer

Explanation:

When the narrator mentions giving Lemarchant one of his own packets, Lemarchant's extreme physical reaction (turning white as a sheet and gasping horribly) without any rational explanation for knowing about the arsenic - like substance in that packet strongly implies guilt. This reaction is an involuntary response that can be seen as a confirmation of the narrator's suspicion.

Answer:

(15) He turned as white as a sheet the moment he heard that, and gasped out horribly. "That—that—why, that was arsenic!" But he never explained in a single word how he knew it, or where it came from. I knew