'
Vandeloup smiled.
'So logical you are,' he murmured, 'you want a reason for
everything.'
'Naturally,' retorted Felix, fixing in his eyeglass, 'there is no
effect without a cause.'
'It couldn't have been Miss Marchurst,' said Bellthorp, 'they say
that the poison was poured out of a bottle held by a hand which came
through the window--it's quite true,' defiantly looking at the
disbelieving faces round him; 'one of Mrs Villiers' servants heard
it in the house and told Mrs Killer's maid.'
'From whence,' said Vandeloup, politely, 'it was transmitted to you-
-precisely.'
Bellthorp reddened slightly, and turned away as he saw the other
smiling, for his relations with Mrs Killer were well known.
'That hand business is all bosh,' observed Felix Rolleston,
authoritatively; 'it's in a play called "The Hidden Hand".'
'Perhaps the person who poisoned Miss Sprotts, got the idea from
it?' suggested Jarper.
'Pshaw, my dear fellow,' said Vandeloup, languidly; 'people don't go
to melodrama for ideas. Everyone has got their own version of this
story; the best thing to do is to await the result of the inquest.'
'Is there to be an inquest?' cried all.
'So I've heard,' replied the Frenchman, coolly; 'sounds as if there
was something wrong, doesn't it?'
'It's a curious poisoning case,' observed Bellthorp.
'Ah, but it isn't proved that there is any poisoning about it,' said
Vandeloup, looking keenly at him; 'you jump to conclusions.
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