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Next, he exa himself that the bolt had really been shot Then he went to the door opposite leading into Cynthia's room That door was also bolted, as I had stated However, he went to the length of unbolting it, and opening and shutting it several ti any noise Suddenly so in the bolt itself seemed to rivet his attention He exa out a pair of small forceps from his case, he drew out some minute particle which he carefully sealed up in a tiny envelope

On the chest of drawers there was a tray with a spirit lamp and a small saucepan on it A small quantity of a dark fluid remained in the saucepan, and an empty cup and saucer that had been drunk out of stood near it

I wondered how I could have been so unobservant as to overlook this Here was a clue worth having Poirot delicately dipped his finger into liquid, and tasted it gingerly He rimace

"Coco--with--I think--rum in it"

He passed on to the debris on the floor, where the table by the bed had been overturned A reading-laments of a coffee-cup lay scattered about

"Ah, this is curious," said Poirot

"Iparticularly curious about it"

"You do not? Observe the lamp--the chimney is broken in two places; they lie there as they fell But see, the coffee-cup is absolutely smashed to powder"

"Well," I said wearily, "I suppose some one must have stepped on it"

"Exactly," said Poirot, in an odd voice "Some one stepped on it"

He rose from his knees, and walked slowly across to thethe ornaitated

"Mon arinding it to powder, and the reason they did so was either because it contained strychnine or--which is far more serious--because it did not contain strychnine!"

I ood asking him to explain In a ations He picked up the bunch of keys froers finally selected one, very bright and shining, which he tried in the lock of the purple despatch-case It fitted, and he opened the box, but after a moment's hesitation, closed and relocked it, and slipped the bunch of keys, as well as the key that had originally stood in the lock, into his own pocket