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The Capsule
From a Collection of Crowley's Plays and Scenarios
Simeon Sloan, 50 years of age, A Country Squire type, a Wardle of Pickwick Papers, a hearty, robust, fox hunting gentleman, who loves his horse, is President of the Twenty-fifth National Bank. He is shown in deep mourning, riding horse-back into the country breaking his journey, if need be, at a way-side inn — and paying a visit to one of his local branches. It is evidently his habit to drop in and inspect the books without warning. The scenes shewn include the park, promontory, stream and ford between Chipscross and Gattsburg.
His sister, Emeline Eames, is a widow who lives in a large country house on the outskirts of the small town of Chipscross — in the old days a country resort, now a flourishing little business centre.
With Mrs. Eames lives her son, Edgar, a handsome lad of 25 and manager of the new Tramway Company. She is absolutely devoted to him, and almost morbidly anxious about him. She goes so far as to worry him by her solicitude. He is introduced in the act of settling a dispute involving a claim against a conductor. Edgar acquits the man on the evidence of the tickets themselves; their colour and the position of the holes punched in them serving to elucidate the facts of the case. Eames then walks over to the club for lunch and finds a letter for him in the rack. Eames is in slight mourning. He gives his order — a hearty meal — and reads his letter.
While Eames is reading, Finchley Fogg, president of the local branch, enters the club and anxiously consults the tape of the ticker. He enters the lunch-room and lightens up on seeing Eames, but checks his approach, on noticing that the young man is occupied.
Fogg is a man of 50, with bald head, bulging eyes, clean shaven mouth and Piccadilly weepers. He is very nervous and pale and in evident poor health.
Edgar puts away his letter, Fogg crosses and shakes hands. Asked to sit down, he shows Eames a telegram, which reads:
They shake hands again, very cordially; and lunch together. Edgar treats Fogg with deference, real respect, and even tentative affection.
The house of Finchley Fogg.
Fogg is a prosperous citizen and lives well, though not ostentatiously. His house is managed by his ward, Geraldine Grant, a girl of twenty, of extremely ingenuous manners. They are devoted to each other, and she is shown soothing him on his return home, distressed, anxious, and irritable, as well as tired and out of sorts. Telegrams in cipher arrive for him; their contents distress him still more. Eames calls. There is evidently an affection between the young people which Fogg encourages.
Some days after Eames' acceptance of his new post; at the Bank.
Eames tells Fogg that Sloan is riding over the next day. This news throws Fogg into consternation. He remains in the Bank after close of business, takes out a supply of special inks and pens from a locked drawer, and proceeds to manipulate the figures in the ledger. He seems dissatisfied with his work, and goes home. There he finds two telegrams awaiting him. The first tells him that a certain stock which he has been playing has risen, according to his hopes, and that the operation of taking the profits will be carried through that afternoon. Fogg is overjoyed; but the second telegram reads: “Small bear flurry this afternoon; must postpone coup till to-morrow.”
Fogg is in an agony of despair. He is apprehensive lest Sloan's visit should mean investigation. He could replace the securities he has embezzled if he had time to realize the proceeds of the speculation referred to in the telegrams. He has a sort of fainting fit, his heart being weak. He goes out and calls on Hapgood Holliday, an elderly physician of distinguished bearing and sympathetic expression. The Doctor mixes him a draught, and he feels better. Their manner is that of old friends. The Doctor notices that Fogg's physic relief leaves him mentally worried, and questions him. Fogg parries the attack; but sinks into a state of brooding. He seems to take a sudden resolution; stands up and gives a complicated gesture, which is the “signal of distress” among members of a secret Orders to which they both belong. Holliday rises ceremonially and makes the proper gesture in acknowledgement. His manner becomes intensely serious. To him the bonds of the Order are absolutely sacred.
Fogg makes a confession of his frauds. The Doctor is appalled. Fogg says that, if caught, he will not endure imprisonment, and asks for poison. The Doctor refuses. Fogg says: “I am heavily insured. My death would enable me to square myself with the Bank; and my innocent ward need never know of the disgrace.”
He also explains that is chance delays Sloan, he may be able to put things right that week. The Doctor considers the problem deeply; then he makes Fogg swear in the special position prescribed by the Order, that in either event he will act honestly; he will give him the poison on that consideration. Fogg swears.
The Doctor goes to a cupboard and takes a chemical apparatus, of which a sketch is appended. It consists of a stand, supporting a flask fitted with a thistle funnel and an exit tube. This tube conducts a U-tube, which is immersed in a freezing mixture and then to another receptacle filled with an absorbent liquid. There is a lamp to heat the flask.
The Doctor puts a powder into the flask and pours acid into the funnel. He then heats the flask. A few drops of the liquid condense in the U-tube.
The Doctor then fits himself and Fogg with gas-masks and fills a thin glass capsule with the contents of the U-tube, sealing the capsule in the flame of the lamp. He gives this to Fogg, telling him “if the need comes, crush this and drink it!” He adds: “Enough to kill six men.” Fogg puts it in his pocket and goes.
The following morning Edgar horrifies Fogg by asking him to inspect his books — this indicating that he (Edgar) expects his uncle to go over the books, and is afraid that his (Edgar's) own work may not be up to the mark, technically.
Fogg becomes desperate. He has wired to his broker, and heard in reply that the critical operation must be once more postponed. At the close of the day, instead of going home, he repairs to a hut where drink is secretly sold. In this hut lives Jin Jamrach, an old hunter and poacher, with his son, a boy of 16, who is used to look out for possible detectives, in search of the ‘joint’.
Fogg drinks himself into a state bordering on insanity. Presently his eye caught by the hunter's carbine hanging on the wall.
The tramway of the town runs some distance beyond the houses, in order to serve a park, about a mile from the town, lying on a promontory and affording a magnificent view of stream and valley and the surrounding mountains. About half a mile away is the Chipscross Ford, by which an ill-made road leads across the mountains to Gattsburg, being the shortest and pleasantest way for a man on horseback. There is a good deal of cover for a man among the swamps approaching the ford.
That morning Mrs. Eames has been shown in tears, at breakfast. Edgar inquires the cause; and is reminded that it is the anniversary of his father's death. Edgar cheers her, promises to return for lunch. During lunch-hour drives with her to park, and takes her to a favourite seat commanding a view of the valley. Mrs. Eames drops a valuable brooch there. She leaves her son at the bank, drives home, misses the brooch and hunts for it. When Edgar returns after business hours, he suggests that she may have dropped it in the park, and she asks him to go and look for it. He changes into walking costume, and goes out on foot.
Fogg has several times hesitated between the capsule and the carbine; but decides on the latter, intending to meet Sloan by the ford. He bribes Jim heavily, and hides the weapon under his long old-fashioned frock coat. He goes in the tram as far as the park, passing Edgar without seeing him. There is no one else in the car. Fogg pretends to visit the park; but as soon as the car has started back, he returns furtively to the road, and plunges back into the undergrowth, finally taking up a position commanding the ford.
It is nearly sunset. Edgar comes up — finds the brooch — and then notices the beauty of the western sky. He decides to walk out to the ford and perhaps meet his uncle as well as enjoy the reflection on the water. He is not certain that his uncle will arrive; the old man has said: “If business permits,” etc. Fogg's “certainty” is simply due to the fears of his bad conscience.
Sloan begins to cross the ford, just as Edgar comes up from the other side. Fogg is intent on his quarry, and has no reason to suspect the neighbourhood of a third person. A shaft of sunlight falls on him as he kneels amid the bushes, and Edgar sees him quite plainly as kneels and fires. Edgar runs forward to the top of a slight rise in the ground, and sees his uncle struggling in the water. Fogg has taken to his heels; running distresses him acutely. Edgar drags Sloan to dry land, and tries to restore him; but the old man is dead. The boy catches and mounts the horse, and gallops for the police.
As he enters the town, he is stopped by seeing Geraldine. The horror of the situation dizzies him. He cannot denounce her guardian without breaking her heart. She says that she is just going over to Doctor Holliday's to fetch Fogg home to dinner. Her confidence that her guardian must be there shakes Edgar's identification. It is incredible that Fogg should have shot Sloan! Edgar has no idea of Fogg's troubles. He thinks that a resemblance must have misled him in the failing light, and by the time he arrives at the police station is quite bewildered and merely reports the fact of the shooting without denouncing Fogg as the murderer.
The following day Fogg, paying a visit of condolence at the Eames home, is almost like a new man. He has had a telegram from his broker: the financial operation has been immensely successful. His manner finally quiets the suspicion of Edgar.
A notorious poacher is suspected, and the police arrest him. They fear that they cannot prove their case, though the chief confides to Eames and Holliday that the police have no doubt of the man's guilt. The routine of business is resumed, but Edgar becomes increasingly uneasy. He has a scene with Geraldine, is passionately anxious to propose to her and dares not do so while the matter is not cleared up. She is bewildered and distressed by his attitude, and he goes away for a long walk in a savage mood. His nerves are completely shaken. He goes home and changes into an old Norfolk jacket, rather shabby, and seeks the solace of his pipe; but he cannot settle himself. He therefore returns to Fogg's house, and asks for a private interview. Fogg judges from Edgar's unconventional dress that he must be very upset. He tells Fogg what he saw at the ford. Fogg is staggered, but recovers himself, thinking that he can persuade Holliday to swear an alibi by using the “sign of distress.” He says to Eames that, to make everything fair, Eames should ask the physician where he, Holliday, was at the time of the murder. They go round together to the doctor's house.
Holliday offers cigarettes, which Eames declines. Holliday says: “I thought you smoked?” Eames replies: “My nerves are all wrong; I've just quit smoking. Good-bye for a month.” Taking out and kissing his old briar pipe, and noting the day of the Doctor's calendars on the wall.
Eames puts his question with very bad grace — “By the way, where were you the afternoon of the shooting?” His presumption and awkwardness, and his careless dress, annoy the doctor. He hastily thumbs an appointment book, and says: (from routine, not lying consciously) he does not realize the importance of the question, only considering his own doings) “Thursday — that's our day for chess. Why, I was in this very room with Mr. Fogg here.”
Edgar accepts this, which Fogg of course confirms, and Edgar and Fogg go out together. Fogg takes a paternal tone, and clinches his victory by discussing Geraldine; he sanctions the engagement.
“Let's wet it,” says Fogg; and they turn aside to Jim's hut. The boy signals that “it's all right,” and they enter. Jim brings whiskey, and they drink.
Fogg fumbles in his ticket pocket for money to pay for the drink and out of it drops a used tram ticket, which Edgar mechanically picks up. The boy suddenly signals danger. Two plain-clothes men are seen approaching. Jim hastily hides the liquor and the three men pretend to be eagerly discussing a newspaper before them. The detectives enter without warning, but seeing no trace of liquor, and reassured by the nonchalance of Fogg and Edgar, go off.
In the distraction caused by this interruption Edgar has put the ticket in the pocket where his pipe is, and forgets all about it. He walks home with Fogg, and becomes formally engaged to Geraldine.
A month later.
Jim is blackmailing Fogg about the carbine. With this easy money, he goes on drunken sprees which get him into trouble. He insists upon Fogg's using his personal influence to get him out of his scrapes. There being no ostensible reason for the protection people begin to wonder what is up. Edgar begins to suspect that the alibi is somehow a fake. Fogg makes this worse; knowing that Edgar saw him, he cannot feel safe, and develops what is almost persecution-mania. He takes to following Edgar about; and when the latter notices him, he has to make some lame excuse.
Mrs. [Eames] is in the habit of giving parties of a small and select character. They are connected with local politics and charities; so continue despite her bereavement. Geraldine and Fogg are invited to one such in the evening after dinner. Edgar is dining out that night with friends. He returns home, somewhat weary, and changes his swallow-tail for the old Norfolk-jacket, for a short rest before joining the party.
His bedroom and sitting-room form one wing of the Eames house. The sitting-room has double glass doors opening on to a covered terrace, below which is a lawn well stocked with trees and flowering shrubs. The window is some thirty feet from the road. The glass doors are open, but the opening is filled by Japanese curtains of bamboo. Just within the window is a large basket chair; between it and the curtain is a small occasional table, on which stands a tray with a large jog of ice water and an empty tumbler. On the shelf underneath the table are a tobacco jar and a match box.
Edgar throws himself down on the chair. His eye catches a tear-off calendar on the wall. He recognizes gleefully that he can smoke again. He takes his briar pipe from his pocket, and knocks out the ashes on the tray with one hand while with the other he pours himself a glass of water. He reaches for the tobacco jar, and then notices that an old tram-ticket has fallen out of the bowl of the pipe. He expresses great astonishment. He cannot remember that he has ever taken a ticket in the tram (as manager he had a pass), so he wonders how it came there. Eventually memory reminds him of the scene in Jim's drinking den. He laughs and dismisses the incident. Then his old professional habits come back to him. He picks up the ticket again, and examines it like an entomologist with a new species of insect. He scrutinizes the marks on the ticket and perceives that it was issued during the two-hour period when Fogg was supposed to be playing chess with Holliday.
Edgar puts two and two together, and once again is convinced that Fogg committed the murder.
(In his bewilderment scene following the murder, he has had flash-backs to the shooting, and the image of Fogg was seen each time increasingly blurred and indistinct. On this occasion he gets another flash-back which shows Fogg's face luminous and unmistakable.)
Meanwhile Mrs. Eames is with her guests, who include Geraldine and Doctor Holliday. She becomes uneasy at the continued absence of her son, who had entered the house by the open sitting-room window. She comes to his room to look for him, and finds him in a state of extreme agitation.
Fogg has been prevented from attending the party by a heart attack. He ward has with difficulty been persuaded to leave him. But he promises to come on after twenty minutes or so for repose. Left to himself, Fogg's agitation increases. He wanders into the streets, and hangs about the house where Edgar is dining. He sees [. . . unreadable . . . ] and follows him home in an irresolute manner. He now hesitates outside the house, but finally seeing Edgar, through the curtains, decides to enter the house by the window. He is on the terrace when he is stopped by the appearance of Mrs. Eames. He observes the scene intently.
Mrs. Eames attempts to calm her son, who, though devoted to her, is just now, impatient of her importunity. She tackles him authoritatively. He refuses to explain, and paces the room in agonised irresolution. His mother breaks down; this pulls him together, and he attempts to put the matter aside lightly; but she returns to the charge, and he sees that he can only satisfy her by some sort of explanation. He asks her to suppose that he had a brother, and that he knew his brother to be guilty of a serious offence against society. He asks her to understand that the exposure would break her heart. Suppose that were the case, how would she act?
She replies that duties to society over-ride all individual interests. Her words distress him; but after a fight with himself, he says: “Oh well, mother dear, if you say so!” He takes the tram ticket from the table; and, after conducting her to the door of the drawing room, and bidding her not to let her guests suspect that anything is wrong, he leaves the house.
Fogg has watched this scene with extravagant apprehension, and picks up the trail of Eames, who goes straight to the Police station, outside of which Fogg waits, a prey to the most acute fears. His heart goes back on him, and he has an attack, from which he nearly collapses.
Inside the Police station, Eames tells his story to the inspector on duty. The boy's evident distraction makes the inspector inwardly incredulous; but he decides that he will humour the young man. He calls in a detective and gives the man orders to go to Fogg's house, accompanying the same with a secret wink, as if to say: “This isn't serious. Make a few polite inquiries, and vanish.”
Eames goes off, believing that Fogg's arrest is imminent, and returns to his house, where he sits down again in his chair, and tries to find solace in tobacco.
Fogg has noticed the businesslike exit of the detective, and followed him. He sees the man knock at the door of his house which is opened to admit him. Fogg believes that the man has come to arrest him, and determines on flight. He staggers, gasping and gesticulating through the streets, almost beside himself with fear; and then is pulled up short by recognising that he is once more outside the Eames home. (He has not gone there of conscious purpose.) His whole being becomes transformed. He is once more the desperate, reckless madman who shot Sloan. He thinks “Edgar is the only witness against me,” and registers thought of desire to kill him.
Eames is visible through the Japanese curtains. He hears approaching footsteps: This frightens Fogg still more, and he hides in the shrubbery. He has a revulsion of despair. The thought comes to him, that in the pocket of his waistcoat there is a capsule containing “enough to kill six men,” and he takes it out. As the passer-by approaches, he braces himself to crush and swallow it; but the man goes on his way, unconscious of Fogg's presence.
Fogg is left with the capsule in his hand, and again the murderous mood overwhelms him. He thinks again — more clearly and emphatically — that Edgar is the only witness against him.
At this moment the telephone in Edgar's room rings. He has just poured himself another glass of ice water. He jumps up and answers the call. While Edgar is talking at the telephone, Fogg steal to the window, puts his hand through the curtains, and crushes the Capsule into the glass of water. He remains outside the curtain in the shadow watching. Edgar returns to his chair, and lifts the glass.
Meanwhile Geraldine, who has been playing the piano for the company in the drawing room, has become uneasy about her guardian's health. “He ought top have been here before now: he must be worse.” She excuses herself to Mrs. Eames for her early departure. Mrs. Eames takes her into the retiring room, and helps her on with her wrap. She then says: “I will get Edgar to see you home.” She leaves Geraldine and enters Edgar's apartments. Edgar, startled, put down the glass, untasted.
Mrs. Eames explains that she has come to ask Edgar to take his fiancée home. Edgar, convinced that Fogg has already been arrested, decides that she must not go home. He tells his mother the circumstances. She reacts bravely to the seriousness of the crisis — she would have been badly upset, by a trivial annoyance — and agrees that the news must be broken to Geraldine, and they go together to the retiring room. Geraldine is thunderstruck by the revelation, and acts like a blind person does when alarmed, sawing her way passionately out of the room. She finds herself (undesignedly in Edgar's sanctum, and sinks into the basket chair. Edgar makes a movement to follow her, but his mother holds him back, almost as if to say: “Let her have a minute to recover herself.” You, the immediate instrument of the tragedy — the last person in the world to go near her just now!
Fogg startled by an approaching auto, has withdrawn from the window and hidden himself once more in the shrubbery. When he recovers his sang-froid he is astounded to see his ward in the chair by the window. This changes into horror as she, in her faintness, raises the glass and drinks. He rushes forward, and bursts through the curtain, crying “Stop!”
Just at that moment, exactly, Edgar and Mrs. Eames follow Geraldine into the sanctum. The mother and son are naturally appalled at the tableau, which is utterly [un]intelligible to them; but Fogg, who by this time is beyond all control, points to the glass, which Geraldine has put down, half full, and gasps: “Poison!”
At the same time, he attempts to apply restorative measures to Geraldine, who manifests acute symptoms of physical distress.
(These are not true symptoms of poisoning, but of hysteria caused by the fear of being poisoned. The actress must not confuse this.)
Edgar rushes to the drawing-room and summons Holliday. The old Doctor tears the frantic Fogg away from his ward, and examines the latter. The girl's condition puzzles him; and he turns to Fogg, who is still gesticulating wildly, for an explanation.
Fogg points to the glass, and tells the Doctor that he has crushed into it the capsule “with enough poison to kill six men.”
The Doctor realizes that enough minutes must have elapsed since the capsule was put into the water. His face broadens into a grim smile. He slowly drinks the remainder of the mixture, and then says: “That stuff decomposes and becomes harmless after a very few minutes in water.”
The Doctor notices a swift change in Fogg's face, and rushes at him; but the man has already collapsed, and is dead (from his heart disease) almost before the Doctor reaches him.
Geraldine sinks half swooning into the arms of her lover.
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