“You think so?” inquired Mrs Laing, with eagerness. “You don’t believe, then, he has been a victim of foul play?”
“Not at all. Beyond the slight bruise on the forehead, evidently caused by the fall upon the gravel, there is no mark whatever,” the doctor answered. “Until I have made a thorough examination I cannot, of course, determine the nature of the fatal cause. By noon to-morrow we shall, I hope, know the truth.”
“He must have fallen and expired within ten minutes of leaving the house,” Beck exclaimed. “Yet when he shook hands with us he was in the highest possible spirits. How terribly sudden his end was.”
“Terrible!” I exclaimed, myself dazed by the peculiarly tragic and mysterious affair. “When he wished us adieu he could not have dreamed that his life had so nearly run its course.”
“He complained of no pain during the evening, I suppose?” the doctor inquired.
“Not to my knowledge,” Beck answered, and this statement I was compelled to endorse.
“He dined here?” Dr Allenby exclaimed, turning to Mrs Laing.
“Yes.”
“There are some remains of the food left, I presume?”
“No doubt,” she answered quickly. “But—but what do you suspect! Are the symptoms those of poisoning?” she gasped.