"These are not aconitine pills," he stated positively. "They are
nitro-glycerine. How did they get in this box?"
Kent rubbed his chin in bewilderment. The box bearing the aconitine
label and the pills had all rolled out of the china umbrella stand,
and he had taken it for granted that the pills belonged in the box.
"I found them loose in the same receptacle," he explained. "And
concluded they were what remained of the aconitine pills which
Grimes, the McIntyre butler, said he left on the hall table Sunday
afternoon."
Stone smiled with what Kent, who was watching him closely, judged
to be an odd mixture of relief and apprehension.
"You could not have found more dissimilar medicine to go in this
pill box, although the two kinds of pills are identical in color
and size," he said. "Aconitine depresses the heart action while
the other stimulates it."
The physician's statement fell on deaf ears. Raising his head after
contemplating the pills, Kent had looked across the room and his
glance had fallen on a wing chair, standing just inside the doorway
of the living room, and thrown partly in shadow by the portieres.
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