But there the bottle had been found, and in her
evidence, evidently given very clearly and simply, Mrs. Crofton had
explained that, during the war, while in Egypt, she had palpitations of
the heart, and so many drops of diluted strychnine had been ordered her.
When asked why there was so large a bottle full of the deadly stuff, she
had answered that it had come from the Army Stores, where they always did
things in a big and generous way. At that there had been laughter in
Court.
Mrs. Crofton had further explained that, as a matter of fact, she had
brought the bottle back to England without really knowing that she had
done so; and that she had never given it a thought till it had been
found, as described, after her husband's death, by the doctor who had
been called in to attend Colonel Crofton in his agonizing seizure.
One thing stated by Mrs. Crofton much surprised Radmore. She had
asserted, quite definitely, that her husband had suffered from
shell-shock. That Radmore believed to be quite untrue.
With quickened, painful interest he read her account of how odd and how
cranky Colonel Crofton had become when wholly absorbed in his hobby of
breeding wire-haired terriers.
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