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"Well, et in a word, "what do you think? Mon Dieu! I had soure to -headed as to refuse to say anything at all Decidedly, it was the policy of an imbecile"

"H'm! There are other explanations besides that of iainst him is true, how could he defend hienious ways," cried Poirot "See; say that it is I who have committed this murder, I can think of seven lethorp's stony denials!"

I could not help laughing

"My dear Poirot, I a of seventy! But, seriously, in spite of what I heard you say to the detectives, you surely cannot still believe in the possibility of Alfred Inglethorp's innocence?"

"Why not now as ed"

"But the evidence is so conclusive"

"Yes, too conclusive"

We turned in at the gate of Leastways Cottage, and proceeded up the now familiar stairs

"Yes, yes, too conclusive," continued Poirot, alue and unsatisfactory It has to be exa is cut and dried No, my friend, this evidence has been very cleverly manufactured--so cleverly that it has defeated its own ends"

"How do you ainst hiible, it was very hard to disprove But, in his anxiety, the crilethorp free"

I was silent And in a minute or two, Poirot continued: "Let us look at the matter like this Here is a man, let us say, who sets out to poison his wife He has lived by his wits as the saying goes Presuether a fool Well, how does he set about it? He goes boldly to the village chemist's and purchases strychnine under his own na which is bound to be proved absurd He does not eht No, he waits until he has had a violent quarrel with her, of which the whole household is cognisant, and which naturally directs their suspicions upon him He prepares no defence--no shadow of an alibi, yet he knows the chemist's assistant must necessarily come forith the facts Bah! do not ask me to believe that any man could be so idiotic! Only a lunatic, ished to coed, would act so!"