Chance had stepped
in there too. It was not Mr. Smith who obtained the poison. It was the
Great de Barral. And it was not meant for the obscure, magnanimous
conqueror of Flora de Barral; it was meant for the notorious financier
whose enterprises had nothing to do with magnanimity. He had his
physician in his days of greatness. I even seem to remember that the man
was called at the trial on some small point or other. I can imagine that
de Barral went to him when he saw, as he could hardly help seeing, the
possibility of a "triumph of envious rivals"--a heavy sentence.
I doubt if for love or even for money, but I think possibly, from pity
that man provided him with what Mr. Powell called "strong stuff." From
what Powell saw of the very act I am fairly certain it must have been
contained in a capsule and that he had it about him on the last day of
his trial, perhaps secured by a stitch in his waistcoat pocket. He
didn't use it. Why? Did he think of his child at the last moment? Was
it want of courage? We can't tell. But he found it in his clothes when
he came out of jail.
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