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"What happened next is lethorp picked up the broken cup and placed it on the table by the bed Feeling in need of a stimulant of some kind, she heated up her coco, and drank it off then and there Noe are faced with a new problem We know the coco contained no strychnine The coffee was never drunk Yet the strychnine must have been ad What thirdthe taste of strychnine that it is extraordinary no one has thought of it?" Poirot looked round the room, and then answered himself impressively "Her medicine!"
"Do you mean that the murderer introduced the strychnine into her tonic?" I cried
"There was no need to introduce it It was already there-- in the lethorp was the identical strychnine prescribed by Dr Wilkins To make that clear to you, I will read you an extract fro which I found in the Dispensary of the Red Cross Hospital at Tad prescription has becorI Potass Bromide3vi Aqua ad3viii Fiat Mistura This solution deposits in a few hours the greater part of the strychnine salt as an insoluble broland lost her life by taking a similar mixture: the precipitated strychnine collected at the botto the last dose she sed nearly all of it!"
"Now there was, of course, no bromide in Dr Wilkins' prescription, but you will remember that I mentioned an empty box of bromide powders One or two of those powders introduced into the full bottle of medicine would effectually precipitate the strychnine, as the book describes, and cause it to be taken in the last dose You will learn later that the person who usually poured out Mrs Inglethorp's medicine was always extremely careful not to shake the bottle, but to leave the sedihout the case, there have been evidences that the tragedy was intended to take place on Monday evening On that day, Mrs Inglethorp's bell as neatly cut, and on Monday evening Madeht with friends, so that Mrs Inglethorp would have been quite alone in the right wing, completely shut off from help of any kind, and would have died, in all probability, before medical aid could have been sue entertainot to take her medicine, and the next day she lunched away from home, so that the last--and fatal--dose was actually taken twenty-four hours later than had been anticipated by theto that delay that the final proof-- the last link of the chain--is now in my hands"