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Tuppence was quick in her mental processes. All these reflections passed through
her mind in a flash, and she saw where a chance, a very problematical chance,
lay, and she determined to risk all in one supreme effort.
Accordingly, she lurched suddenly off the bed and fell on her knees before Mrs.
Vandemeyer, clutching her skirts frantically.
"I don't believe it," she moaned. "It's poison--I know it's poison. Oh, don't make
me drink it"--her voice rose to a shriek--"don't make me drink it!"
Mrs. Vandemeyer, glass in hand, looked down with a curling lip at this sudden
collapse.
"
Get up, you little idiot! Don't go on drivelling there. How you ever had the nerve
to play your part as you did I can't think." She stamped her foot. "Get up, I say."
But Tuppence continued to cling and sob, interjecting her sobs with incoherent
appeals for mercy. Every minute gained was to the good. Moreover, as she
grovelled, she moved imperceptibly nearer to her objective.
Mrs. Vandemeyer gave a sharp impatient exclamation, and jerked the girl to her
knees.
"
Drink it at once!" Imperiously she pressed the glass to the girl's lips.
Tuppence gave one last despairing moan.
"
"
"
"
You swear it won't hurt me?" she temporized.
Of course it won't hurt you. Don't be a fool."
Will you swear it?"
Yes, yes," said the other impatiently. "I swear it."
Tuppence raised a trembling left hand to the glass.
"Very well." Her mouth opened meekly.
Mrs. Vandemeyer gave a sigh of relief, off her guard for the moment. Then, quick
as a flash, Tuppence jerked the glass upward as hard as she could. The fluid in it
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