The Jewel Casket

The Jewel Casket
The Kitchen Maid
The Lady of Shalott
the night watch by rembrandt
Now there," said the doctor, "you have got something odd. It is exactly that fact that leads to believe that I have been, as old Morris puts it, a damned fool. You see, it's obviously not a case of small doses of arsenic administered regularly – which is what you might call the classic method of arsenic poisoning. Crackenthorpe has never had any chronic gastric trouble. In a way, that's what makes these sudden violent attacks seem unlikely. So, assuming they are not due to natural causes, it looks as though the poisoner is muffing it every time – which hardly makes sense."
"Giving an inadequate dose, you mean?"
"Yes. On the other hand, Crackenthorpe's got a strong constitution and what might do in another man, doesn't do him in. there's always personal idiosyncrasy to be reckoned with. But you'd think that by now the poisoner – unless he's unusually timid – would have stepped up the dose. Why hasn't he?"
"That is," he added, “if there is a poisoner which there probably isn't! Probably all my ruddy imagination from start to finish."
"It's an odd problem, the inspector agreed. It doesn't seem to make sense."