taste. It can be detected in a solution of 1 in 70,000, and can only be disguised by some strongly flavoured substance. Coco would be quite powerless to mask it.”
One of the jury wanted to know if the same objection applied to coffee.
“No. Coffee has a bitter taste of its own which would probably cover the taste of strychnine.”
“Then you consider it more likely that the drug was administered in the coffee, but that for some unknown reason its action was delayed.”
“Yes, but, the cup being completely
course it did not take effect until the early morning, since the coco was only drunk in the middle of the night.”
“So you think that the coco—mark well what I say, Hastings, the coco—contained strychnine?”
“Of course! That salt on the tray, what else could it have been?”
“It might have been salt,” replied Poirot placidly.