“Yes; thereabouts. It is not possible to fix these hours precisely, but the poison was administered positively between one and two.”
“Administered? You do not think then, that she took it herself?”
“Most certainly not! Miss Carrington has been in my care, professionally, for many years. I knew her very well, and I know nobody more opposed to medicine in any form or drugs of any sort. It was a most difficult task to persuade her to take even the simplest remedy, and then she had to be assured over and over again that it was harmless. No, Mr. Stone, nothing could have made her take that dose of her own accord, nor could any one have persuaded her to take it, consciously. It was, without doubt, given to her secretly, by the clever ruse of the murderer. Of course it could not have been an accident. The marvelous part is, to my mind, how any one secured the poison. It is not an easy matter to buy aconitine.”
“Then that ought to make it easier to trace. If the public could easily procure it at will, there would be greater difficulty in running down the purchaser.”
“That is so; and yet, I think your search will be a hard one. How shall you go about it?”
“By canvassing the drug shops of the city, and of the small towns as well.”
“It may be you can trace the sale. But if it was bought under promise of secrecy, and if that secrecy were well paid for——?”
“True, there is the difficulty. But what’s a detective for if not to find out secrets?”
“Quite right. May your quest succeed.”
“And now, a little more about the action of this poison. What are the immediate effects of a fatal dose?”