"Very nice. But how did George get the drug?"
"I know, that's the first difficulty."
"And how did he happen to have it on him just at that time? He couldn't possibly have known that General Fentiman would run across him just at that moment. Even if he'd known of his being at Lady Dormer's, he couldn't be expecting him to go from there to Harley Street."
"He might have been carrying the stuff about with him, waiting for a good opportunity to use it. And when the old man called him up and started jawing him about his conduct and all that, he thought he'd better do the job quick, before he was cut out of the will."
"Um!—but why should George be such a fool, then, as to admit he'd never heard about Lady Dormer's will? If he had heard of it, we couldn't possibly suspect him. He'd only to say the General told him about it in the taxi."
"I suppose it hadn't struck him in that light."
"Then George is a bigger ass than I took him for."
"Possibly he is," said Parker, dryly. "At any rate, I have put a man on to make inquiries at his home."
"Oh! have you? I say, do you know, I wish I'd left this case alone. What the deuce did it matter if old Fentiman was pushed painlessly off a bit before his time? He was simply indecently ancient."
"We'll see if you say that in sixty years' time," said Parker.