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ds If I am able to declare myself absolutely satisfied that the overdose was taken accidentally, an inquest ht be dispensed with' 'And are you absolutely satisfied?' asked my sister shrewdly

I did not answer, but got up from the table

Chapter 2 Who's Who in King's Abbot

Before I proceed further hat I said to Caroline and what Caroline said to ive soraphy

Our village King's Abbot, is, I i town is Cranchester, nine miles away

We have a large railway station, a small post office, and two rival 'General Stores' Able-bodied men are apt to leave the place early in life, but we are rich in unmarried ladies and retired military officers Our hobbies and recreations can be suossip' There are only two houses of any i's Paddock, left to Mrs Ferrars by her late husband The other, Fernly Park, is owned by Roger Ackroyd Ackroyd has always interesteda man more impossibly like a country squire than any country squire could really be He reminds one of the red-faced sportsmen who always appeared early in the first act of an old-fashioned reen They usually sang a song about going up to London

Nowadays we have revues, and the country squire has died out of musical fashion

Of course, Ackroyd is not really a country squire He is an ion wheels He is a enial of love with the vicar, subscribes liberally to parish funds (though rumour has it that he is extrees cricket matches, Lads' Clubs, and Disabled Soldiers' Institutes He is, in fact, the life and soul of our peaceful village of King's Abbot

Nohen Roger Ackroyd was a lad of twenty-one, he fell in love with, and married, a beautiful woman some five or six years his senior Her name was Paton, and she was a ith one child The history of the e was short and painful To put it bluntly, Mrs Ackroyd was a dipsorave four years after her e

In the years that followed, Ackroyd showed no disposition to make a second e was only seven years old when his arded hily, but he has been a wild lad and a continual source of worry and trouble to his stepfather Nevertheless we are all very fond of Ralph Paton in King's Abbot He is such a good-looking youngster for one thing

As I said before, we are ready enough to gossip in our village Everybody noticed froether After her husband's death, the intiether, and it was freely conjectured that at the end of her period of er Ackroyd It was felt, indeed, that there was a certain fitness in the thing Roger Ackroyd's wife had admittedly died of drink Ashley Ferrars had been a drunkard forthat these two victims of alcoholic excess should make up to each other for all that they had previously endured at the hands of their former spouses

The Ferrars only caossip has surrounded Ackroyd forup to manhood a series of lady housekeepers presided over Ackroyd's establisharded with lively suspicion by Caroline and her cronies It is not too e has confidently expected Ackroyd to marry one of his housekeepers The last of thened undisputed for five years, twice as long as any of her predecessors It is felt that but for the advent of Mrs Ferrars, Ackroyd could hardly have escaped That - and one other factor - the unexpected arrival of a ed sister-in-laith her daughter from Canada Mrs Cecil Ackroyd,of Ackroyd's ne'er-do-well younger brother, has taken up her residence at Fernley Park, and has succeeded, according to Caroline, in putting Miss Russell in her proper place

I don't know exactly what a 'proper place' constitutes - it sounds chilly and unpleasant - but I know that Miss Russell goes about with pinched lips, and what I can only describe as an acid smile, and that she professes the utmost sympathy for 'poor Mrs Ackroyd - dependent on the charity of her husband's brother The bread of charity is so bitter, is it not? I should be quite ' I don't knohat Mrs Cecil Ackroyd thought of the Ferrars affair when it cae that Ackroyd should reushing - to Mrs Ferrars when they

Such have been our preoccupations in King's Abbot for the last few years We have discussed Ackroyd and his affairs from every standpoint Mrs Ferrars has fitted into her place in the scheme

Now there has been a rearrangement of the kaleidoscope

Fro presents, we had been jerked into the edy

Revolving these and sundry other matters in my mind, I went mechanically on my round I had no cases of special interest to attend, which was, perhaps, as well, for ain to the mystery of Mrs Ferrars's death Had she taken her own life? Surely, if she had done so, she would have left so? Women, in my experience, if they once reach the determination to commit suicide, usually wish to reveal the state of ht

When had I last seen her? Not for over a week Her- well considering everything

Then I suddenly reh not to speak to, only yesterday She had been walking with Ralph Paton, and I had been surprised because I had had no idea that he was likely to be in King's Abbot I thought, indeed, that he had quarrelled finally with his stepfather

Nothing had been seen of hi, side by side, their heads close together, and she had been talking very earnestly

I think I can safely say that it was at thisof the future first swept over ue pre That earnest tete-a-tete between Ralph Paton and Mrs Ferrars the day before struck reeably

I was still thinking of it when I caer Ackroyd

'Sheppard!' he exclaiet hold of This is a terrible business' 'You've heard then?' He nodded He had felt the blow keenly, I could see His big red cheeks seemed to have fallen in, and he looked a positive wreck of his usual jolly, healthy self

'It's worse than you know,' he said quietly 'Look here, Sheppard, I've got to talk to you Can you coot three patients to see still, and I ery patients' 'Then this afternoon - no, better still, dine tonight At 730 Will that suit you?' 'Yes, I can ? Is it Ralph?' I hardly knehy I said that - except, perhaps, that it had so often been Ralph

Ackroyd stared blankly at h he hardly understood

I began to realize that therevery I'h society than I do I didn't atteue with her

'Just tell me this, doctor,' said Miss Russell 'Suppose you are really a slave of the drug habit, is there any cure?' One cannot answer a question like that off-hand I gave her a short lecture on the subject, and she listened with close attention I still suspected her of seeking information about Mrs Ferrars

'Now, veronal, for instance -' I proceeded

But, strangely enough, she didn't seem i

nterested in veronal Instead she changed the subject, and asked me if it was true that there were certain poisons so rare as to baffle detection

'Ah!' I said 'You've been reading detective stories' She admitted that she had

'The essence of a detective story,' I said, 'is to have a rare poison - if possible so fro that one obscure tribe of savages use to poison their arroith Death is instantaneous, and Western science is powerless to detect it

Is that the kind of thing you ?' I shook retfully

'I'm afraid there isn't There's curare, of course' I told her a good deal about curare, but she seemed to have lost interest once more She asked me if I had any in ative I fancy I fell in her estimation

She said she ery door just as the luncheon gong went

I should never have suspected Miss Russell of a fondness for detective stories It pleasesout of the housekeeper's roo to a comfortable perusal of The Mystery of the Seventh Death, or so of the kind

Chapter 3 The Man Who Grew Vegetable Marrows

I told Caroline at lunch that I should be dining at Fernly She expressed no objection - on the contrary

'Excellent,' she said 'You'll hear all about it By the hat is the trouble with Ralph?' 'With Ralph?' I said, surprised; 'there isn't any' 'Then why is he staying at the Three Boars instead of at Fernly Park?' I did not for a minute question Caroline's state at the local inn That Caroline said so was enough for me

'Ackroyd told me he was in London,' I said In the surprise of thewith information