"Good Lord! The man's fainted!" exclaimed Badger.
In a moment he was down on his hands and knees, trembling with
excitement, groping under the table. He dragged the unconscious lawyer
out into the light and knelt over him, staring into his face.
"What's the matter with him, Doctor?" he asked, looking up at Thorndyke.
"Is it apoplexy? Or is it a heart attack, think you?"
Thorndyke shook his head, though he stooped and put his fingers on the
unconscious man's wrist. "Prussic acid or potassium cyanide is what the
appearances suggest," he replied.
"But can't you do anything?" demanded the inspector.
Thorndyke dropped the arm, which fell limply to the floor.
"You can't do much for a dead man," he said.
"Dead! Then he has slipped through our fingers after all!"
"He has anticipated the sentence. That is all." Thorndyke spoke in an
even, impassive tone which struck me as rather strange, considering the
suddenness of the tragedy, as did also the complete absence of surprise
in his manner. He seemed to treat the occurrence as a perfectly natural
one.
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