Forewarned is forearmed, you
know, Mr. Dale. The hidden hand of the secret poisoner is about its
fatal work; it is for you and me to discover to whom the hand belongs.
Is there any one about you whom you can suspect of such hideous guilt?"
"No one--no one. I repeat that such a thing is impossible."
"Who is the person most interested in your death?" asked Dr. Westbrook,
calmly.
"My first cousin, Sir Reginald Eversleigh, who would succeed to a very
handsome income in that event. But I have not met him, or, at any rate,
broke bread with him, for the last two months. Nor can I for a moment
believe him capable of such infamy."
"If you have not been in intimate association with him for the last two
months, you may absolve him from all suspicion," answered Dr.
Westbrook. "You spoke to me the other day of dining very frequently
with one particular friend; forgive me if I ask an unpleasant question.
Is that friend a person whom you can trust?"
"That friend I could trust with a hundred lives, if I had them to
lose," Douglas replied, warmly.
The doctor looked at his patient thoughtfully. He was a man of the
world, and the warmth of Mr. Dale's manner told him that the friend in
question was a woman.
"Has the person whom you trust so implicitly any beneficial interest in
your death?" he asked.
"To some amount; but that person would gain much more by my continuing
to live.
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