different. Now that the advantage lies in keeping Innes alive.'
'By golly,' said Fred.
Alice began to laugh.
'So if we can't catch the murderer amurdering,' said Duff, 'we still have a chance to catch her in the act of un-murdering.'
'It isn't a crime to unmurder anybody.''
'No, but at least we'll know.'
'How will we know? Shall Fred and I take turns watching the pillbox?'
'Maybe we can set a trap,' said Duff. 'We shall now visit the doctor and get ourselves some equipment. We'll have a try. But when we get back to the house we must act dumb. We never suspected poison. We aren't pill- conscious. Try to remember that.'
Alice said, with horror in her eyes, 'It's a good thing you were, though, Mr. Duff. I might have given him the wrong pill any time. It was just luck that I didn't. Can't we catch the one . ..?'
'Or the two,' said Fred.
'Or three,' said Alice. 'Can't we? It's so damned wicked!'
Duff said gently, 'Once we know, perhaps something can be done. To the doctor's, Fred.'
'Yes, sir.'
Dr. Follett took the biggest pill in his clean fingers. He smelled it and touched it to his tongue. His trembling left hand caught his glasses before they fell.
'My fault,' he gasped. 'I should never carry such a thing. Never. I never meant to. This is a dispensLng pill. It . . . it's deadly. No drugstore in Ogaunee, Mr. Duff, you see? I do a great deal of my own prescription work. People have to go several miles. I ... I... A doctor shouldn't carry a fatal dose, in one pill. I have no excuse.'
'How the heck did she know it was deadly?' demanded Fred. 'Who knows, offhand, how many grains it takes?
For God's sake, did one of them ever study poisons?'
Duff said, with a gleam, 'Who knows? Perhaps. Then again, perhaps she only hoped . . . This is a chancey murderess.'
Alice took hold of her own hair, in the back, and pulled it, hard. The pain was steadying.
'How do you carry these?'
'In a bottle, sir.'
'May I see?'
'Yes . . . yes.'
'It's marked, of course?'
'Oh yes, plainly. And it's blue glass, not white. Besides that, the bottle—here it is—is ridged, you see. So that one can't make a mistake in the dark.'
'Oh,' said Alice. 'Oh.'
Duff took the botde and pressed his fingers on the ridges.
'The phenobarbital?'
'Another bottle.'' EVuff took the smooth white glass botde in his other hand and sniffed at the top.
The doctor was badly shaken. 'I must have filled the pillbox and never noticed that odd one tumble in with the rest. Mr. Duff ... I... I should have been ruined.'
'What a chance that was to take,' said Fred in awe. 'That the bad pill would tumble in.'
'It was on topj' said Duff. 'But she's chancey. Oh, she's chancey.'
He looked down at the two botdes in his hands. His long face was grave and sad. 'Not easy,' he said. Then, 'Doctor, I should like to make off with one or two things you can give me, if you will?'
The doctor was willing to do anything at all for Mr. Duff. Anything.
22
The haughty face of the Whidock house was indifferent to their return. Duff twisted the bell, and Josephine came to let them in. Alice walked through the open door first, with Duff behind her, and Fred last. They were all three still in
single file, and Josephine still stood with her hand on the doorknob when they heard it.
An odd httle sound, a scraping in the throat, the rusty unconscious stirring of a voice, a caw, a crow, of delighted malice, of secret rejoicing.
Alice turned swiftly around and looked up at Duff. Fred stepped closer and gripped Duffs arm. Josephine's round eyes rolled to and fro, with recognition and fear.
Duff read, in their three faces, confirmation that this was the sound. Were they going to catch her? Now? As easily as this?
In a body, the four of them moved opposite the arch. They looked past the velvet drapes into the parlor.
