the part of some third person to fix the crime on the prisoner. The prosecution had been unable to produce a shred of evidence in support of their contention that it was the prisoner who ordered the black beard from Parkson’s. The quarrel which had taken place between prisoner and his stepmother was freely admitted, but both it and his financial embarrassments had been grossly exaggerated.
His learned friend—Sir Ernest nodded carelessly at Mr. Philips—had stated that if the prisoner were an innocent
“Oh, come now, Poirot! I won’t cite Lawrence, or Mrs. Cavendish. But there’s John—and Miss Howard, surely they were speaking the truth?”
“Both of them, my friend? One, I grant you, but both–-!”
His words gave me an unpleasant shock. Miss Howard’s evidence, unimportant as it was, had been given in