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Page 53
Mitchington shook his head.
"What's it look like?" he answered, almost appealingly. "I
put it to you, now!--what does it look like? Here's this man
been poisoned without a doubt--I'm certain of it. And--there
were those rumours--it's idle to deny that they centred in
Ransford. And--this morning Ransford had the chance!"
"That's arguing that Ransford purposely carried a dose of
poison to put into Collishaw's tin bottle!" said Bryce
half-sneeringly. "Not very probable, you know, Mitchington."
Mitchington spread out his hands.
"Well, there it is!" he said. "As I say, there's no denying
the suspicious look of it. If I were only certain that those
rumours about what Collishaw hinted he could say had got to
Ransford's ears!--why, then--"
"What's being done about that post-mortem?" asked Bryce.
"Dr. Coates and Dr. Everest are going to do it this
afternoon," replied Mitchington. "The Coroner went to them at
once, as soon as I told him."
"They'll probably have to call in an expert from London," said
Bryce. "However, you can't do anything definite, you know,
until the result's known. Don't say anything of this to
anybody. I'll drop in at your place later and hear if Coates
can say anything really certain."
Mitchington went away, and Bryce spent the rest of the
afternoon wondering, speculating and scheming. If Ransford
had really got rid of this man who knew something--why, then,
it was certainly Ransford who killed Braden.
He went round to the police-station at five o'clock.
Mitchington drew him aside.
"Coates says there's no doubt about it!" he whispered.
"Poisoned! Hydrocyanic acid!"
CHAPTER XIII
BRYCE IS ASKED A QUESTION
Mitchington stepped aside into a private room, motioning Bryce
to follow him. He carefully closed the door, and looking
significantly at his companion, repeated his last words, with
a shake of the head.
"Poisoned!--without the very least doubt," he whispered.
"Hydrocyanic acid--which, I understand, is the same thing as
what's commonly called prussic acid. They say then hadn't the
least difficulty in finding that out! so there you are."
"That's what Coates has told you, of course?" asked Bryce.
"After the autopsy?"
"Both of 'em told me--Coates, and Everest, who helped him,"
replied Mitchington. "They said it was obvious from the very
start. And--I say!"
"Well?" said Bryce.
"It wasn't in that tin bottle, anyway," remarked Mitchington,
who was evidently greatly weighted with mystery.
"No!--of course it wasn't!" affirmed Bryce. "Good Heavens,
man--I know that!"
"How do you know?" asked Mitchington.
"Because I poured a few drops from that bottle into my hand
when I first found Collishaw and tasted the stuff," answered
Bryce readily. "Cold tea! with too much sugar in it. There
was no H.C.N. in that besides, wherever it is, there's always
a smell stronger or fainter--of bitter almonds. There was
none about that bottle."
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