The Problem of the Green Capsule by John Dickson Carr

any warning he flopped forward on his face.
    “No, no!” cried Marjorie, as there was a stir through the group. “That was only pretence: that was only a part of the show: it signified the end of the performance. For immediately after that Uncle Marcus got up smiling, and came over and closed the double-doors on us. That was the fall of the curtain.
    “We put the lights on in this room. Professor Ingram knocked on the double-doors, and asked Uncle Marcus to come out and take a curtain-call. Uncle Marcus pulled the doors open. He looked—glittering, you know, pleased with himself; but rather annoyed with something all the same. He had a folded paper stuck into the breast-pocket of his jacket, and he tapped it He said, “Now, my friends, get pencils and paper, and prepare to answer some questions.’ Professor Ingram said, ‘By the way, who was your hideous-looking colleague?’ Uncle Marcus said, ‘Oh, that was only Wilbur; he helped me plan the whole thing.’ And then he shouted out, ‘All right, Wilbur. You can come in now.!
    “But there wasn’t any answer.
    “Uncle Marcus shouted again; and there still wasn’t any answer.
    “Finally he got annoyed and went to the window. One of the windows in this room—you see?—had been left open, because it was such a warm night. The lights were on in both rooms now, and we could see out into that strip of grass between the house and the trees. All of this goblin’s trappings were lying there on the ground, top-hat and sunglasses and bag with that doctor’s name painted on it; but we couldn’t see Wilbur at first.
    “We found him in the shadow at the other side of a tree. He was lying on his face, unconscious. Blood had come out of his mouth and nose into the grass, and the back of his skull felt soft The poker he had been hit with was lying near him. He had been unconscious for quite some time.”
    She explained, her face screwing up in spite of herself: “You see, the man in the top-hat and sun-glasses hadn’t been Wilbur at all.”

Chapter V
LOCUM TENENS
    “Hadn’t been Wilbur at all?” Elliot repeated.
    He knew quite well what she meant. That curious figure in the ancient top-hat was beginning to move and stir in his imagination.
    “I haven’t finished, you see,” Marjorie told him, quietly but wretchedly. “I haven’t told you what happened to Uncle Marcus.
    “It was just after we found Wilbur lying there. How long the symptoms had been coming on I don’t know. But they were lifting Wilbur up, and I looked round, and I saw there was something wrong with Uncle Marcus.
    “Honestly, I felt physically sick. I know this has seemed all intuitions and inspirations of mine; but I can’t help it. I knew what it was at that minute. He was leaning against the side of a tree, half doubled up, and trying to get his breath. The light from the house was shining through the leaves behind him. I couldn’t see him very well, but the light was on the side of his face, and the skin looked roughish and lead-coloured. I said, ‘Uncle Marcus, what’s wrong? Is anything wrong?’ And I must have screamed it. He only shook his head violently, and made a gesture as though he were trying to push me away. Then he began to stamp on the ground with one foot; you could hear him breathe in a kind of whine and moan together. I ran to him, and so did Professor Ingram. But he struck Professor Ingram’s hand away, and——”
    She could not go on. She slapped her own hands against her face, covering the eyes, and slapped again.
    Major Crow came forward from the piano.
    “Steady,” he said gruffly.
    Superintendent Bostwick said nothing; he had folded his arms, and was looking at her curiously.
    “He began to run,” said Marjorie wildly. “That’s what I’ll always remember: he began to run. Back and forth, up and down, but only a few steps each way, because he couldn’t stand the pain. George and the professor tried to grab him and hold him down, but he broke away and ran