"So he did. But by killing the General then, he made sure of getting nothing at all."
"That's the awkwardness. Unless he thought Lady Dormer was already dead. But I don't see how he could have thought that. Or unless——"
"Well?"
"Unless he gave his grandfather a pill or something to be taken at some future time, and the old boy took it too soon by mistake."
"That idea of a delayed-action pill is the most tiresome thing about this case. It makes almost anything possible."
"Including, of course, the theory of its being given to him by Miss Dorland."
"That's what I'm going to interview the nurse about, the minute I can get hold of her. But we've got away from George."
"You're right. Let's face George. I don't want to, though. Like the lady in Maeterlinck who's running round the table while her husband tries to polish her off with a hatchet, I am not gay. George is the nearest in point of time. In fact he fits very well in point of time. He parted from General Fentiman at about half-past six, and Robert found Fentiman dead at about eight o'clock. So allowing that the stuff was given in a pill——"
"Which it would have to be in a taxi," interjected Parker.
"As you say—in a pill, which would take a bit longer to get working than the same stuff taken in solution—why then the General might quite well have been able to get to the Bellona and see Robert before collapsing."