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"Still--I do not see--" I began

"Neither do I see I tell you, mon ami, it puzzles me Me --Hercule Poirot!"

"But if you believe hi the strychnine?"

"Very sinized hi your pardon, he saw a lasses like Mr Inglethorp, and dressed in Mr Inglethorp's rather noticeable clothes He could not recognize a man whom he had probably only seen in the distance, since, you reht, and Mrs Inglethorp dealt principally with Coot's in Tadminster"

"Then you think----"

"Mon ami, do you remember the two points I laid stress upon? Leave the first one for the moment, as the second?"

"The ilethorp wears peculiar clothes, has a black beard, and uses glasses," I quoted

"Exactly Now suppose anyone wished to pass himself off as John or Lawrence Cavendish Would it be easy?"

"No," I said thoughtfully "Of course an actor----"

But Poirot cut me short ruthlessly

"And ould it not be easy? I will tell you, my friend: Because they are both clean-shaven men To ht, it would need an actor of genius, and a certain initial facial reselethorp, all that is changed His clothes, his beard, the glasses which hide his eyes--those are the salient points about his personal appearance Nohat is the first instinct of the criminal? To divert suspicion from hi it on some one else In this instance, there was a man ready to his hand Everybody was predisposed to believe in Mr Inglethorp's guilt It was a foregone conclusion that he would be suspected; but, to ible proof--such as the actual buying of the poison, and that, with a lethorp, was not difficult Relethorp How should he doubt that the lasses, was not Alfred Inglethorp?"

"It may be so," I said, fascinated by Poirot's eloquence "But, if that was the case, why does he not say where he was at six o'clock on Monday evening?"