“He says so. But he must have had a second dose, or why was the vial found on the ground by his seat?” asked the Chief, thoughtfully, as much of himself as of the others.
“I cannot believe in a second dose. How was it administered—by whom? It was laudanum, and could only be given in a drink. He says he had no second drink. And by whom? The maid? He says he did not see the maid again.”
“Pardon me, M. le Juge, but do you not give too much credibility to the porter? For me, his evidence is tainted, and I hardly believe a word of it. Did he not tell me at first he had not seen this maid after Amberieux at 8 P.M.? Now he admits that he was drinking with her at the buffet at Laroche. It is all a tissue of lies, his losing the pocket-book and his papers too. There is something to conceal. Even his sleepiness, his stupidity, are likely to have been assumed.”
“I do not think he is acting; he has not the ability to deceive us like that.”
“Well, then, what if the Countess took him the second drink?”
“Oh! oh! That is the purest conjecture. There is nothing whatever to suggest or support that.”
“Then how explain the finding of the vial near the porter’s seat?”
“May it not have been dropped there on purpose?” put in the Commissary, with another flash of intelligence.
“On purpose?” queried the detective, crossly, foreseeing an answer that would not please him.
“On purpose to bring suspicion on the lady?”