CHAPTER XXII
THE HORSFORD CASE
Towards the close of the year 1897, a Mrs. Holmes, a widow, was living with her three children at Stoneley, near Kimbolton. She had a cousin named Walter Horsford, a well-to-do young farmer who occupied a farm at Spaldwick about twelve miles away, and who frequently came to Stoneley to visit her.
A romantic attachment eventually sprang up between them, which resulted in a too intimate acquaintance.
After a while Horsford's affection began to wane, and in the end he married another lady.
Shortly afterwards Mrs. Holmes left Stoneley and took up her residence at St. Neots.
About December of the same year she wrote a letter to Horsford, informing him of her condition, a piece of news which appears to have greatly upset him, as he was in fear the information might reach his wife.
On December 28 he called at a chemist's shop in Thrapstone, a neighbouring town, and asked for a shilling's worth of strychnine, some prussic acid, arsenic, and carbolic acid, which he stated he required for poisoning rats. The chemist, to whom he was a stranger, requested him to bring a witness, which he did, and the chemist's poison register was duly signed by Horsford and a man who introduced him. He took the poisons, which consisted of ninety grains of strychnine, one pound of arsenic, and some prussic acid and carbolic acid, away with him.
About a week afterwards Mrs. Holmes received a letter from Horsford. It was taken in by her daughter, who recognised his handwriting, and the envelope is also supposed to have contained two packets of strychnine.