“To-morrow!” said Miss Russell.
I hurried away, as it were drunk, overwhelmed with horror and amazement, and turning a corner so as to avoid discovery, reached the second floor by the staircase. I did not wish to meet Miss Russell in the lift.
My first thought was not one of alarm for Adelaide Spanton—of course, I knew I could prevent the murder—but of profound sorrow that Miss Russell should have proved to be a woman so unspeakably wicked. I swore never to trust a woman’s face again. I had liked her face. Then I dwelt on the chance, the mere chance, my careless pronunciation, a lift-boy’s error, which had saved the life of the poor millionaire girl. And lastly I marvelled at the combined simplicity and ingenuity of the plot. The scoundrel upstairs—possibly Samuel Grist himself—had taken the cleverest advantage of Miss Spanton’s tendency to pseudo-angina. What could be more clever than to poison with the physician’s own medicine? Very probably the girl’s present attack had been induced by an artful appeal to her appetite; young women afflicted as she was are frequently just a little greedy. And I perceived that the villain was correct in assuming that nitro-glycerine would never be traced at a post-mortem save in the smallest possible quantity—just such a quantity as I had myself prescribed. He was also right in his assumption that the pure drug would infallibly kill in half an hour.
I pulled myself together, and having surreptitiously watched Miss Russell into Suite No. 63, I followed her. When I arrived at the bedroom she was pouring medicine from a bottle; a maid stood at the foot of the bed.
“I am just giving the second dose,” said Miss Russell easily to me.
“What a nerve!” I said to myself, and aloud: “By all means.”
She measured the dose, and approached the bed without a tremor. Adelaide Spanton opened her mouth.
“Stop!” I cried firmly. “We’ll delay that dose for half an hour. Kindly give me the glass!” I took the glass from Miss Russell’s passive fingers. “And I would like to have a word with you now, Miss Russell!” I added.
The maid went swiftly from the room.