natural at a distance. I didn’t know as there was a beard up there at all. It must have been got quite lately, I think. There was a red wig, I know, but nothing else in the way of hair. Burnt corks they use mostly—though ‘tis messy getting it off again. Miss Cynthia was a nigger once, and, oh, the trouble she had.”
“So Dorcas knows nothing about that black beard,” said Poirot thoughtfully, as we walked out into the hall again.
“Do you think it is the one?” I whispered eagerly.
Poirot nodded.
“Did you ever make up Mrs. Inglethorp’s medicines?”
A slight flush rose in her face, as she answered rather constrainedly:
“No.”
“Only her powders?”
The flush deepened as Cynthia replied:
“Oh, yes, I did make up some sleeping powders for her once.”
“These?”
Poirot produced the empty box which had contained powders.