“It didn’t taste as it did when I left it. Of course this may have been imagination.”
“But you don’t think so?” Stuyvesant rejoined. “In fact, you suspect the wine was doped after we went out?”
“No,” said Dick with a puzzled frown; “I imagine any doping stuff would make it sour. The curious thing is that it tasted better than usual but stronger.”
Stuyvesant picked up the glass and smelt it, for a little of the liquor remained in the bottom.
“It’s a pity you threw it out, because there’s a scent mine hasn’t got. Like bad brandy or what the Spaniards call madre de vino and use for bringing light wine up to strength.”
Then Bethune took the glass from him and drained the last drops. “I think it is madre de vino. Pretty heady stuff and that glass would hold a lot.”
Stuyvesant nodded, for it was not a wineglass but a small tumbler.
“Doping’s not an unusual trick, but I can’t see why anybody should want to make Brandon drunk.”
“It isn’t very plain and I may have made a fuss about nothing,” Dick replied, and began to talk about something else with Jake’s support.
The others indulged them, and after a time the party broke up. The moon had risen when Dick and Jake walked back along the dam, but the latter stopped when they reached the gap.