Holmes sat silent and unseen beside me, tense with thought.
'Russell, do your eyes pick up anything from that tower?'
I looked so hard at the black tower rising against the black night that my eyes began to quiver. I looked away slightly, and my eyes caught the faintest of changes in the air above the darkness. I let out a soft exclamation, and Holmes was up at once.
'Quick, Russell, up in the tree. Here we sit, blind as moles, while he's so far back from the edge we can't see him. Up, Russell. What do you see?'
As I climbed in the dark I watched the tower, and fifteen feet up the beam suddenly appeared — an intermittent flash from the back corner of the folly, pointing over our heads at the low hills and the sea beyond.
'It's there!' I scrambled down the branches, losing flesh. 'He's up there with a light — ' but they were already off up the hill, their hand torches waving wildly in the darkness. I went after them, plunging across flower beds and around a fountain, and suddenly ahead of me the night exploded. Seventeen throats opened at the invaders, yaps and bays and blood-chilling snarls split the air, and the shouts of men, and then a tinkle of glass. I heard Holmes shouting to his companions, dogs began to yelp and howl, two voices coughed and cursed, a larger breakage of glass, and the sound of a door flung open. Electrical lights began to go on in the house, and I could see dogs fleeing in every direction. The first whiff of stink made me hold my breath until I got inside the door. Inside was all lights now, the main kitchen switches all on, the tower next to me blazing with light. I ran in that direction, hearing heavy feet above me on the stairs. They and the voices faded suddenly, and I pictured them on the roof.
A sudden thought occurred to me. There had been a good twenty seconds between the first alarm of the dogs and the time Holmes hit the steps. What if — 1 On the first-floor landing I ducked silently under the open stairway and waited, just in case. Suddenly a noise came from above, hushed, silent footsteps, hurrying down. I put my hand ready between the treads, caught sight of an unfamiliar shoe, and, praying it did not belong to Smith, Jones, or Barker, grabbed at it. A scream and a crashing fall that continued down the next flight of stairs were followed by shouts and steps from above. I unfolded myself slowly from my hiding place and went to see what I had done.
I stood at the top of the flight, looking down at the crumpled figure of Terrence Howell and feeling my stomach wanting to rise up our of my throat. Then Holmes stood beside me, and I turned to him, and his arm wentaround my shoulders as the two men pushed past us. I was shaking.
'Oh God, Holmes, I killed him. I didn't think he'd fall that hard, oh God, how could I have done it?' I could feel the texture of the shoe leather impressed on my fingertips and see the tumble of limbs glimpsed through the steps. A voice came up to us.
'Ring for a doctor, would you please, Mrs. Barker? He's got a bad bang on his head and a few broken bones, but he's alive.'
Sweet, sweet relief flooded in, and my head suddenly felt light.
'I need to sit down for a minute, Holmes.'
He pushed me onto the top step and shoved my head down to my knees. His rucksack plopped down next to me, and I vaguely saw him pull a little bottle out of it. There was the pop of a small cork, and the concentrated reek of the morning's experiment exploded into my nasal passages. I jerked back, and my head smacked hard onto the stone wall. Tears came to my eyes and my vision swam. When it cleared I saw Holmes, a stricken expression on his face.
'Are you all right, Russell?'
I felt my head delicately.
'Yes, no thanks to your smelling salts, Holmes. I can't see much point in reviving someone quite so dramatically, though it does make a fine weapon against a pack of dogs.' Relief edged into his eyes, and his normal sardonic expression reappeared.
'When you're up to it, Russell, we should see to Mr. Barker.'
I reached for his hand and pulled myself up, and we walked slowly up to the old man's room. A fug of sweat and illness met us at his door, and the light revealed the pale, wet skin and unfocussed eyes of high fever.
'You sponge his face for a bit, Russell, until Mrs.
Barker comes. I'm going to see what I can find in Howell's room. Ah, there you are, Mrs. Barker. Your husband needs you. Come, Russell.' He swept past her anxious questions.
'What are we looking for?' I asked in his wake.
'A packet of powder or a bottle of liquid, one or the other. I'll start with the wardrobe, you take the bathroom.' The bedroom was soon filled with mutters and flying articles of clothing, and the bathroom was awash with odours as I opened one after another of the multitude of scents, after-shave lotions, and bath soaps I found in the drawers. My poor nose was a bit numb, but I eventually found a bottle that did not smell right. I took it into the next room, where Holmes stood calf-deep in clothing, upended drawers, and bedclothes.
'Have you found anything, Holmes?'
'Cigarettes from Fraser's of Portsmouth, boots with scratches over the arches. What have you there?'
'I don't know, I can't smell a thing anymore. Does this smell like Eau d'Arabe to you?' A quick sniff and he waded out of the room, the bottle held high.
'You've found it, Russell. Now to figure how much to give him.' He went to the stairs and poked his head over. 'I say, Jones, is he awake yet?'
'Not a chance. It'll be hours.'
'Ah well,' he said to me, 'we'll just have to experiment. Mrs. Barker.' She looked up as we came into the room, wet cloth in her hand. 'Mrs. Barker, have you a small spoon? Yes, that will do. Russell, you pour, your hands are steady. Two drops to begin with. We'll repeat it every twenty minutes until we see some results. Just slip it in between his teeth, that's right. Will he take some water? Good. Now we wait.'
'Mr. Holmes, what was that?'
'It was the antidote to the poison which is affecting your husband, Madam. It is sure to be quite concentrated, and I don't want to harm him by giving too much, too fast. He will have to take it for the rest of his life, but with it he will never be ill like this again.'
'But, I told you he's not being poisoned. I should be ill too, if he were.'
'Oh no, he's not received any poison for over a year. He receives the antidote regularly, as do you, without harm. You told me that his manservant had been with him for many years. Did that include his time in New Guinea?'
'Yes, I believe so. Why do you ask?'
'Madam, one of my hobbies is poisons. There is a small number of very rare poisons that, once administered, reside permanently in the nervous system. They are never got rid of, but can be effectively blocked by the regular ingestion of the antidote. One of these poisons is popular with a tribe in the Sepik River area of New Guinea. It is manufactured from a very odd variety of shellfish native to the area. In an interesting serendipity, the antidote comes from a plant which is also found only in that area. Obviously, while your husband was there, his servant conducted his own research on the side. I suppose he will tell us eventually why he chose to turn traitor, but turn traitor he did, and made use of the poison last year. Your husband made telephone calls generally on market day, did he not?'
'Why, yes, how did you know? The Woodses were always driven to town by Ron, and I would either walk or go for a drive. And Howell — '
'Howell would take the dogs for a walk, would he not?'
'Why, yes. How — '
'They would go down to the woods; he would climb up to the telephone line and listen in on your husband's conversations while the dogs gnawed bones. On the next clear night he would fail to administer the antidote, cloister himself up with his master, and slip up to the roof to signal the results of his spying to a confederate on the coast. Ah, I think it is beginning to work already.'
Two dazed eyes looked out of a pale face and fastened onto those of Mrs. Barker.
'My dear,' he whispered, 'what are these people doing here?'
'Russell,' Holmes said quietly, 'I believe we should see if we can help with moving Mr. Howell and leave these two good people. Mrs. Barker, I suggest that you guard this bottle most carefully until it can be analysed and
