‘Yurr be doctor,’ Abel said, ‘and Nick Harper with police. And colonel’s on telephone roaring like proper grampus.’

‘O Lord!’ Alleyn ejaculated. ‘Abel, tell him what’s happened. He’ll probably want to come over here. Apologize for me. Where’s the doctor?’

‘Here,’ said Dr Shaw, and walked in. ‘What’s the trouble? Hallo!’

He went to Fox.

‘I’m better, doctor,’ said Fox. ‘I’ve vomited.’

Dr Shaw took his pulse, looked at his eyes, and nodded.

‘You’ll do,’ he said, ‘but we’ll make a job of it. Come into the bathroom. You’d better keep that matter in the basin, Alleyn.’

He opened his bag, took out a tube, and jerked his head at Fox.

‘Here!’ said Fox resentfully, eyeing the tube.

‘How did it happen?’ asked Dr Shaw.

Harper came in.

‘I’ve left Oates and another man downstairs,’ said Harper. ‘What’s up?’

‘Fox drank a glass of sherry,’ said Alleyn. ‘There’s the glass. We’ll detain all the crowd downstairs. You too, Mr Pomeroy. Go down and join them.’

‘Move along, Abel,’ said Harper.

‘I yurrd, I yurrd,’ grunted Abel irritably, and went out.

‘You’d better go down with them, Nick,’ said Alleyn. ‘Tell Oates to watch our man like a lynx. Abel will show you a decanter. Bring it up here. Here’s the key. Use my gloves. You’d better search them. You won’t find anything but you’d better do it. Leave Miss Darragh for the moment.’

Harper went out.

‘Did you take any sherry, Alleyn?’ asked Dr Shaw sharply.

‘I? No.’

‘Sure?’

‘Perfectly. Why?’

‘You look a bit dicky.’

‘I’m all right.’

‘Mr Alleyn has just saved my life for me,’ whispered Fox.

‘You come along,’ said Dr Shaw, and led him out.

Alleyn took an envelope from his pocket and put it over the glass from which Fox had drunk. He weighted the envelope with the saucer from his wash-hand stand. He got his bag and took out an empty bottle and a funnel. He smelt the sherry in his own glass and then poured it into the bottle, stoppered it, and wrote on the label. He was annoyed to find that his hands shook. His heart thumped intolerably. He grimaced and took another mouthful of brandy.

Harper came back.

‘Oates and my other chap are searching them,’ said Harper. ‘They made no objections.’

‘They wouldn’t. Sit down, Nick,’ said Alleyn, ‘and listen. Put Fox’s sick out of the way first, for the Lord’s sake. Give it to Shaw. I’ve got palsy or something.’

Harper performed this office and sat down.