"You see, Innes," he began, suddenly, "Sir Charles had taken no
refreshment of any kind at Mr. Wilson's house nor before leaving
his own. Neither had he smoked. No one had approached him.
Therefore, if he was poisoned, he was poisoned at his own table.
Since he was never out of my observation from the moment of
entering the library up to that of his death, we are reduced to
the only two possible mediums--the soup or the water. He had
touched nothing else."
"No wine?"
"Wine was on the table but none had been poured out. Let us see
what evidence, capable of being put into writing, exists to
support my theory that Sir Charles was poisoned. In the first
place, he clearly went in fear of some such death. It was because
of this that he consulted me. What was the origin of his fear?
Something associated with the term Fire-Tongue. So much is clear
from Sir Charles's dying words, and his questioning Nicol Brinn
on the point some weeks earlier.
"He was afraid, then, of something or someone linked in his mind
with the word Fire-Tongue. What do we know about Fire-Tongue? One
thing only: that it had to do with some episode which took place
in India. This item we owe to Nicol Brinn.
"Very well. Sir Charles believed himself to be in danger from
some thing or person unknown, associated with India and with the
term Fire-Tongue. What else? His house was entered during the
night under circumstances suggesting that burglary was not the
object of the entrance.
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