"Excuse me, ma'am," I said, "but that's rather a lot of poison, isn't it? How much of the stuff have you got there?"
"Sometimes as much as two ounces. I–I don't, suppose I can make it clear to you, but my husband specializes in nervous and heart diseases. That's the reason for the strychnine formate.{"Strychninae Formas (C,H,2O2N2, H.COOH) occurs in the form of a white crystalline powder composed of small acicular crystals. It is soluble in water (about 1 in 5) and in alcohol. Strychnine formate is used as a nerve stimulant and muscular tonic with other formates in the preparation of compound syrups and elixirs. It has been administered hypodermically in doses of 0.001 gramme (%7 grain)"-British Pharmaceutical Codex (1934), p. 1019.} He does a tremendous lot of work with it; he's consultant for the Ken Hill Hospital, and he's very keen on handling their cases. Ordinarily, of course, a doctor hasn't time to make up his own strychnine solutions, but Larry insists on doing it. The-the bottle had the required red label. I don't want you to think
She looked round dazedly for a place to put the cigarette, and I took it out of her hand and threw it into the empty grate. She leaned her head quietly against the back of the chair, but the muscles of her throat were working. "I wonder," she said, "whether I could have some brandy? I've been locked up in this room "
"Sorry, ma'am," Bowers told her hoarsely, "but the poor old governor was a t.t. There's nothing in the house, only…" I could have sworn there was a tear in the corner of his eye. He nodded towards the glass and the bottle of mineral-water on the centre table. It was the "Eisenwasser" with the blue-and-red label, the same sort of bottle as those over which l; had stumbled at the back gate of the house.
"Don't touch that, you fool!" I said. "That's probably the glass be drank from. He mixed himself what he thought was a bromide in that mineral-water — "
"Yes, I thought of that," said Mrs. Antrim, sitting up, quickly, "but how was it he didn't know straightaway he wasn't taking bromide? He couldn't have been mistaken like that. I don't suppose you know what strychnine salts are. They're easily soluble, but they're the most horribly bitter-tasting stuff you could find. He must have known something was wrong at the first sip. But he drank over half a glassful."
"He wouldn't have known it if he drank it in the mineral-water. That's the point. It tastes worse. Here-" I brought Bowers into it. "Go out and get Mrs: Antrim some real water from the kitchen."
Even in her daze and uncertainty, I thought that she looked at me in a curious way, and Bowers scurried out. I asked her if she wished to go into another room, but she refused, holding tightly to the arms of the chair. One thing was clear: I was in a much worse mess than before. I couldn't go out of the house, which was sanctuary, and at the same time I couldn't stay in. If the police discovered me here — and, in Bowers's or Mrs. Antrim's panicky condition, betrayal seemed likely — it was not merely that I should be clapped back into the police station, for sooner or later I could telephone to H.M. and prove my identity. But now I should be held as a material witness for the inquest: and I was to be married the next morning. The best course was to duck out of the house, get rid of my policeman's uniform, and trust to luck. Yet if I made one suspicious move, Bowers would be after me. I looked towards the window. Something momentarily flickered on the shutter. Faintly beyond, past the open sashes, was a noise of footsteps and muffled voices in the alley to indicate that my pursuers were tolerably close at hand. My safety was this lighted house, since they would look in all the dark corners first…
"What's the matter with you?" asked Mrs. Antrim suddenly and sharply. "What are you going to do? Will you just stand there? Don't you have to inform your superiors or whatever it is? I can't stand this much longer."
"Just one moment, madam. I shall have to have your story first, if you please…. How did you come to be here?"