"
"You locked the box afterwards?"
"Immediately. I hung the key in its accustomed place, too."
"You have no idea when the soap was dropped into the soup kettle?"
"No. But wait! Just before I came into the cook tent to sit down I tasted
the soup, as I had done a dozen times before while in the kitchen to make
sure that it was exactly as it should be."
"Did you taste it just before you came in to dinner? Did you detect
anything wrong with it, Miss Burrell?"
"There was nothing wrong with it then. I mean--you know what I mean.
There was none of this soapy taste in it at all. To me it tasted
delicious. The first I realized that something had happened to the
consomme, was when I took a spoonful of it at the table here. Then I knew
something was wrong with it. That is all I can tell you. But you must know
that I would not do a thing like that, Mrs. Livingston. Please don't say
that you think I might be guilty of any such thing. Do you think I would
spoil my chance of winning an 'honor' for the sake of playing a
contemptible trick?"
"No, Harriet, I do not think you would," decided Mrs. Livingston after
gazing steadily into the troubled eyes of Harriet Burrell for a moment.
Harriet caught her breath sharply.
"It ith a mean thhame," declared Tommy in a voice that reached every
person in the tent.
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