They were very like the tablets of my poison in size
and shape. Corbario stole into my room when I was sound asleep, took one
of mine, and dropped in one of hers. Then he put mine amongst the
phenacetine ones. She took it, slept, and died."
Marcello gasped for breath, his eyes starting from his head.
"You see," Kalmon went on, "it was long before I found that my tablets
had been tampered with. There had been seven in the tube. I knew that,
and when I glanced at the tube next day there were seven still. The tube
was of rather thick blue glass, if you remember, so that the very small
difference between the one tablet and the rest could not be seen through
it. I went to Milan almost immediately, and when I got home I locked up
the tube in a strong-box. It was not until long afterwards, when I
wanted to make an experiment, that I opened the tube and emptied the
contents into a glass dish. Then I saw that one tablet was unlike the
rest. I saw that it had been made by a chemist and not by myself. I
analysed it and found five grains of phenacetine."
Marcello leaned back, listening intently, and still deadly pale.
"You did not know that I was trying to find out how you had been hurt,
that I was in communication with the police from the first, that I came
to Rome and visited you in the hospital before you recovered your
memory. The Contessa was very anxious to know the truth about her old
friend's son, and I did what I could.
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