Spotted Hemlock
A 3S digital back-up edition 1.0
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Contents
chapter one: rhubarb
chapter two: phantom horseman
chapter three: posted as missing
chapter four: echoes of highpepper
chapter five: the corpse speaks in riddles
chapter six: case history
chapter seven: machinations of a paternal aunt
chapter eight: a lamb to the slaughter
chapter nine: discrepancies
chapter ten: phantom holiday
chapter eleven: identification of a lady-killer
chapter twelve: see naples and die
chapter thirteen: nobody asked for bloodhounds
chapter fourteen: the counterfeit patient
chapter fifteen: piggy comes cleanish
chapter sixteen: a confusion of students
chapter seventeen: the gentlemen raise their voices
chapter eighteen: squeak, piggy, squeak
chapter nineteen: the grey mare’s ghost
chapter twenty: painter’s colic
St. Martin’s Press New York
spotted hemlock. Copyright © 1958 by Gladys Mitchell. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Mitchell, Gladys, 1901-1983 Spotted hemlock.
I. Title.
PR6025.I832S6 1985 823'.9I2 85-12513
ISBN 0-312-75350-0
First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph Ltd.
First U.S. Edition
10 987654321
SPOTTED HEMLOCK
chapter one
Rhubarb
‘Nothing has ever moved me more than the sight of this splendid vegetation.’
^ »
Rhubarb?’ repeated Lord Robert. ‘I hardly think so. I could enquire, of course.’
The occasion was the summer dance given by the students of Highpepper Hall, a place recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries as an approved institution for the training of gentlemen-farmers. Lord Robert, the younger son of a duke, whose inheritance consisted largely of piggeries and tillage, was in residence at the Hall for thirty weeks of the year, and spent most of this time as a gentleman and what he could spare of it as a farmer.