“N⁠—o⁠—I am sure I didn’t.”

“Then how do you account for the fact that you left the unmistakable impress of your fingerprints on it?”

The bullying manner was highly efficacious with a nervous disposition.

“I⁠—I suppose I must have taken up the bottle.”

“I suppose so too! Did you abstract any of the contents of the bottle?”

“Certainly not.”

“Then why did you take it up?”

“I once studied to be a doctor. Such things naturally interest me.”

“Ah! So poisons ‘naturally interest’ you, do they? Still, you waited to be alone before gratifying that ‘interest’ of yours?”