Then I put the bottle back in
its place and went on with my work. In the morning I heard Mr. Withey
was dead."
"But the arsenic--the arsenic," interposed the doctor. "How did it get
there?"
"Heaven knows; you remember Jacob used to get it once in a while to
keep his horses in condition. I presume he got a fresh bottle of it
about the same time I got some more Epsom salts, and they were both
put up there on the top shelf together. It is all too plain. I got the
bottles mixed and opened the wrong one."
"And so Jacob was innocent?"
"Yes, and I could have saved him if I had known in time. Oh, Jacob,
Jacob," she moaned, compressing a world of remorse into the words.
"And it was my mistake--my mistake!"
"Then Mrs. Withey is innocent, too," said Doctor McMurray. "Don't you
make it out so?"
Mrs. Trent looked up sharply. It seemed as though she had for the
moment forgotten her lesser trouble in the new consciousness of the
greater. The mention of the other woman's name brought back all the
profound sense of wrong which she knew she had suffered at her hands.
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