“A lady?”

I jumped up. Poirot followed me down the narrow stairs. Mary Cavendish was standing in the doorway.

“I have been visiting an old woman in the village,” she explained, “and as Lawrence told me you were with Monsieur Poirot I thought I would call for you.”

“Alas, madame,” said Poirot, “I thought you had come to honour me with a visit!”

“I will some day, if you ask me,” she promised him, smiling.

“That is well. If you should need a father confessor, madame” —she started ever so slightly—“remember,


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I stared at the two men intently. There was certainly nothing of the policeman about them. I should never have suspected them of being official personages.

I was still staring, when I was startled and recalled by the verdict being given:

“Wilful Murder against some person or persons unknown.”

CHAPTER VII.


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