Text Hobbyist
'I heard a rumor,'Sangstrom said,
'that you'He turned his head and looked about him to make absolutely sure that he
and the druggist were alone in the tiny drugstore.
The druggist was a little man who could have been any age from fifty to a hundred.
They were alone,but Sangstrom dropped his voice just the same.
'that you have a completely undetectable poison.'
The druggist nodded.
He came around the counter and locked the front door of the shop,
then walked toward a doorway behind the counter.
'I was about to take a coffee break,'he said.
'Come with me and have a cup.'
Sangstrom followed him around the counter
and through the doorway to a back room
ringed by shelves of bottles from floor to ceiling.
The druggist plugged in an electric coffee pot,
found two cups and put them on a table that had a chair on either side of it.
He motioned Sangstrom to one of the chairs and took the other himself.
'Now,'he said.'Tell me.Whom do you want to kill,and why?
'Does it matter?'Sangstrom asked.'Isn't it enough that I pay for'
The druggist interrupted him with an upraised hand.
'Yes,it matters.
I must be convinced that you deserve what I can give you.
Otherwise'he shrugged.
'All right,'Sangstrom said.
'The whom is my wife.The why'he started the long story.
Before he had quite finished,the coffee pot had finished its task
and the druggist briefly interrupted to get the coffee for them.
Sangs trom finished his story.The little druggist nodded.
'Yes,I occasionally give out an undetectable poison.
I do so freely;I do not charge for it,if I think the case is deserving.
I have helped many murderers.'
'Fine,'Sangstrom said.'Please give it to me,then.
'The druggist smiled at him.'I already have.
By the time the coffee was ready I had decided that you deserved it.
It was,as I said,free.But there is a price for the antidote.'
Sangstrom turned pale.
But he had expected not this,but the possibility of a double-cross
some form of blackmail.
He pulled a pistol from his pocker.
The little druggist chuckled.
'You daren't use that.Can you find the antidote'
he waved at the shelves'among those thousands of bottles?
You'll know the answer within three hours when the poison starts to work.
'How much for the antidote?'Sangstrom growled.
'Quite reasonable.A thousand dollars.After all,a man must live.
Even if his hobby is preventing murders,
there's no reason why he shouldn't make money at it,is there?'
Sangstrom growled and put the pistol down,but within reach,
and took out his wallet.
Maybe after he had the antidote,he'd still use that pistol.
He counted out a thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills
and put them on the table.
The druggist made no immediate move to pick them up.
He said:'And one other thing for your wife's safety and mine.
You will write a confession of your intention your former intention,
I hope to murder your wife.
Then you will wait till I go out and mail it to a friend of mine in the police.
He'll keep it as evidence in case you ever do decide to kill your wife.
Or me,for that matter.
'When that is in the mail it
will be safe for me to return here and give you the antidote.
I'll get you paper and pen...
'Oh,one other thing although I do not absolutely insist on it.
Please help spread the word about my undetectable poison,will you?
One never knows,Mr.Sangstrom.
The life you save,if you have any enemies,just might be your own.'
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