Jean read the paragraph again and again. Then she called out, “Rachel, come here, and tell me what this means?”
Rachel North hurried into the room. She knelt down by the girl’s side and read the paragraph.
“It means,” she said in a quiet, matter-of-fact voice, “that if this paper is to be believed the prosecution have found where the arsenic was purchased. The implication is that it was purchased by Mr. Garlett; hence those words, ‘The situation is unchanged. No further arrests are contemplated.’”
And then something happened which, though it terrified Rachel North, gave a few moments of merciful oblivion to Jean Bower. The supple, rounded figure, full of the strength of living life, suddenly sagged. She would have fallen on the floor had not the other caught hold of her. But Rachel North’s hospital training stood her in good stead. She laid the unconscious form flat on the floor, and rushing off to her bedroom, came back with some sal-volatile which she forced through Jean’s lips. And at last, with a low moan the girl regained consciousness.
After a few moments she struggled up on to her knees. Then she looked round her, dazed, forgetting where she was, and what had happened. But all too soon everything rushed back into her mind.
Painfully she lifted herself up again on to the chair.
“I want to read that paragraph again,” she said in a trembling voice. “I want to understand exactly what it means.”
“I don’t think you will be able to do that, dear. It’s put in that odd, uncertain way on purpose; but honestly, Jean, I don’t think you need attach much importance to it!”
And then, for the first time since her arrival, Jean Bower had a heart-to-heart talk with Rachel North over the whole mysterious story. They discussed every alternative possibility, and, as so often happens, Jean began to feel happier, more self-controlled, as a result of that long talk. One thing which greatly comforted her was that after hearing all she had to say Rachel North suddenly exclaimed:
“I think I was wrong as to what I said to you—I mean as to the prosecution having found the place where Mr. Garlett may have purchased arsenic. What I think has happened is that they have found something in the Thatched House from which arsenic can be extracted. Now apparently arsenic can be extracted from almost anything! That being so, it would be strange indeed if nothing of the sort had been found.”