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"And the sixth point?" I asked "I suppose it is the saht have included that in the six, but I did not No, the sixth point I will keep to myself for the present"

He looked quickly round the roo more to be done here, I think, unless"--he stared earnestly and long at the dead ashes in the grate "The fire burns--and it destroys But by chance--there an to sort the ashes froreatest caution Suddenly, he gave a faint exclas!"

I quickly handed them to him, and with skill he extracted a small piece of half charred paper

"There, mon ami!" he cried "What do you think of that?"

I scrutinized the fragment This is an exact reproduction of it:-I was puzzled It was unusually thick, quite unlike ordinary notepaper Suddenly an idea struck ment of a will!"

"Exactly"

I looked up at hiravely, "I expected it"

I relinquished the piece of paper, and watched him put it away in his case, with the sa My brain was in a whirl What was this complication of a will? Who had destroyed it? The person who had left the candle grease on the floor? Obviously But how had anyone gained admission? All the doors had been bolted on the inside

"Now, o I should like to ask a few questions of the parlourh Alfred Inglethorp's rooh to make a brief but fairly coh that door, locking both it and that of Mrs Inglethorp's room as before

I took him down to the boudoir which he had expressed a wish to see, and went myself in search of Dorcas

When I returned with her, however, the boudoir was empty

"Poirot," I cried, "where are you?"

"I am here, my friend"

He had stepped outside the French , and was standing, apparently lost in admiration, before the various shaped flower beds

"Admirable!" he murmured "Admirable! What symmetry! Observe that crescent; and those dia of the plants, also, is perfect It has been recently done; is it not so?"