WHO’S WHO IN KING’S ABBOT
“Drugs do a lot of harm. Look at the cocaine habit.”
“Well, as far as that goes———"
“It’s very prevalent in high society.”
I'm sure Miss Russell knows far more about high society than I do. I didn’t attempt to argue with her.
“Just tell me this, doctor,” said Miss Russell. “Suppose you are really a slave of the drug habit. Is there any cure?”
One cannot answer a question like that offhand. I gave her a short lecture on the subject, and she listened with close attention. I still suspected her of seeking information about Mrs. Ferrars.
“Now, veronal, for instance———" I proceeded.
But, strangely enough, she didn’t seem interested in veronal. Instead she changed the subject, and asked me if it was true that there were certain poisons so rare as to baffle detection.”
“Ah!” I said. “You’ve been reading detective stories.”
She admitted that she had.
“The essence of a detective story,” I said, “is to have a rare poison—if possible something from South America, that nobody has ever heard of—something that one obscure tribe of savages use to poison their arrows with. Death is instantaneous, and Western science is powerless to detect it. That is the kind of thing you mean?”
“Yes. Is there really such a thing?”
I shook my head regretfully.
“I'm afraid there isn’t. There’s cuare, of course.”
I told her a good deal about cuare, but she seemed to
[15]
