"Oh — that." She shuddered. "Yes. Yes, I'll tell you that, but I can't understand why you stand there like a mummy. What was I saying? Oh, yes. Well, when I discovered this evening that the bottles had been changed-"
"At what time was that?"
"At about a quarter to eight. Thereabouts. I was expecting Larry — Dr. Antrim-home at any minute. And I had given all that strychnine to Mr. Hogenauer. And I couldn't alarm Larry: I tell you I couldn't! The only thing to do was to try to get in touch with Mr. Hogenauer. I didn't think he'd taken the stuff already, or we should jolly well have beard of it. But I couldn't telephone him: I knew he didn't have a phone in the house. That was pretty ghastly, if you like. I knew I had to come over here at once. I looked out of the window; we live next door to Col-" She paused, and lifted a hand to shade her steady, rather large and shinylidded eyes. She seemed puzzled. "You said, didn't you, that you saw my husband at Colonel Charters's?"
"Yes, ma'am. Routine business," I said briskly. "Go on, please."
"Two men I didn't know, one of them in an outrageous-looking hat, were just driving up in an open car. The colonel's Hillman was in the drive, and I knew he wouldn't mind if I took that to come over here. So I hid the two bottles in my room; it was sheer panic really, because they couldn't do any damage now; and I ran over to the colonel's. But just as I was leaving our house, I saw someone — I think it was Mr. Serpos, the colonel's secretary — come out of the house and get into the Hillman and drive away. I hailed him, but he didn't stop. So I had to catch a bus. It's a roundabout way, and takes ages, and afterwards I had to walk here from the bus-stop. It was past nine o'clock when I got here…."
"Yes?"
She spoke now in a monotonous voice. "I banged on the door, but there wasn't any answer. Then I went round the house and tried the back door, and looked in at the windows. I knew it had happened. I knew it even before I looked in through the shutter and saw that red hat sticking up over the back of the chair. I called out, but it didn't move."
"How did you see it — the cap, I mean? How did you know what it was? You may as well know," I added quickly, "that we've been a good deal interested in what has been going on here."
"So?" she said with a curiously Teutonic inflection, and looked at me steadily. Then she spoke with quiet emphasis. "I think you are right. I think you would do vary well to investigate. That's what I was going to tell you. There will be trouble about this, but my husband is not going to be involved — or myself either, if I can help it… Well. I saw that hat because there was then a light in this room. But it wasn't a usual sort of light. I'll tell you about that in a second.
"I found out that the back door was open. So I came in. I had to know. The door to this room was locked, with the key on the inside. But you can see for yourself," she pointed, "it's an old-fashioned lock, with the key loose. You push a piece of paper under the door; then you push the key out from your side, and it drops on the paper, so that you can pull it through under the door. Oh, yes, I'm quite capable: thank you. I did that with a piece of newspaper I found in the scullery. Then I unlocked the door from the outside. Now look here."