“My dear chap! Oh, my dear chap! I’m the kind of fellow who would always ought to have been something else. And so I’m doing sums in a laboratory which God knows I’m not fit for.” “Have you found out what it was?” “Oh, arsenic, of course. Quite a fair dose he must have had. It’s queer how they always will use arsenic.” Eden stared at him. “What are we to do?” he said in a low voice. “Fortune, I suppose it couldn’t have been accidental?” “What is a child likely to eat in which he would find grains of accidental arsenic?” “Yes, but then---- I mean, who could want to kill that child?” “That is the unknown quantity in the equation. But people do want to murder children, quite nice children.” Eden grew pale. “What do you mean? You know he’s not Warnham’s child. Warnham’s his step-father.” “Yes. Yes. Have you ever seen the two together?” Eden hesitated. “He--well, he didn’t seem to take to Warnham. But I’d have sworn Warnham was fond of him.” “And that’s all quite natural, isn’t it? Well, well. I hope he’s in.” “What do you mean to do?” “Tell Mrs. Warnham--with her husband listening.” Dr. Eden followed him out like a man going to be hanged. Mrs. Warnham indeed met them in her hall. “Mr. Fortune,”--she took his hand, she had won back her old calm, but her eyes grew dark as she looked at him--“Gerald has been asking for you. And I want to speak to you.” “I shall be glad to talk over the case with you and Captain Warnham,” said Reggie gravely. “I’ll see the small boy first, if you don’t mind.” And the small boy kept his Mr. Fortune a long time. Mrs. Warnham had her husband with her when the doctors came down. “I say, Fortune,” Captain Warnham started up, “awfully good of you to take so much trouble. I mean to say,”--he cleared his throat--“I feel it, you know. How is the little beggar?” “There’s no reason why he shouldn’t do well,” Reggie said slowly. “But it’s a strange case. Captain Warnham. Yes, a strange case. You may take it, there is no doubt the child was poisoned.” “Poisoned!” Warnham cried out in that queer hoarse voice. “You mean it was something Gerald shouldn’t have eaten?” Mrs. Warnham said gently. “It was arsenic, Captain Warnham. Not much more than an hour before the time he felt ill, perhaps less, he had swallowed enough arsenic to kill him.” “I say, are you certain of all that? I mean to say, no doubt about anything?” Warnham was flushed. “Arsenic--and the time--and the dose? It’s pretty thick, you know.” “There is no doubt. I have found arsenic. I can estimate the dose. And arsenic acts within that time.” “But I can’t believe it,” Mrs. Warnham said. “It would be too horribly cruel. Mr. Fortune, couldn’t it have been accident? Something in his food?” “It was certainly in his food or drink. But not accident, Mrs. Warnham. That is not possible.” “I say, let’s have it all out, Fortune,” Warnham growled. “Do you suspect anyone?” “That’s rather for you, isn’t it?” said Reggie.