Now Timmy was well aware that it is not an honourable thing to read
other people's letters; on the other hand, his mother always left Miss
Pendarth's notes lying about on her writing table, and more than once she
had exclaimed: "Betty? Do read that note, and tell me what's in it!"
And so, after a short conflict between principle and curiosity, in which
curiosity won, he began to read the letter. As he did so, he realised
that it formed a key to the newspaper report he had just read, for Miss
Pendarth's letter ran:
My dear Janet,
I am longing to talk over the enclosed with you. I was lately in Essex,
and when we meet I will tell you all that was said and suspected there
at the time of Colonel Crofton's death.
_Someone we wot of got off very lightly._ You will realise from even
this rather confused report that _someone_ must have put the bottle of
strychnine into the unhappy man's bedroom--also that he absolutely
denied having touched it. No one connected with the household, save of
course Mrs. Crofton, had ever seen the bottle until after his death.
It is a strange and sinister story, but I remember my father used to
say that Dr.
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