Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-24
heMurder of Roger Ackroyd
By AGATHA CHRISTIE.


The are marvellous! They invent hap
hazard-and by miracle they are right.
Not that 1t IL that, really. Women
observe subconsciously a thousand
little details, without knowing that
they are doing 50. Their subcon-
scious mind adds these little things
| together-and they call the result in
tuition. Me, am very skilled in
psychology. I know these things"
He swelled his chest out important.
ly, looking SO ridiculous that I found
1t difficult not to burst out laughing.
Then he took a small sip OF his choco.
"I wish you'd tell me- burst out,
what you really think of it all?''
He put down his cup.
you wish that?"
II do"
you have seen what / have seen.
Should not our ideas be the same?"
I'm afraid you're laughing at me, :"
I said stiff1y. ''Of course. I've no ex.
perience Of matters Of this kind
PoirQt smiled at me indulgently.
You are like the little child who
wants to know the way the engine
works. You wish to see the affair, not
as the family doctor sees 1t, but with
the eye of q detective who knows and
all strangers and all equally liable to
suspicion"
You put it very WELL" I said.
so give you, then, a little lecture.
The first thing Is to get a clear history
OF what happened that evening
always bearing In mind that the per.
son who speaks may be lying"
raised my eyebrows.
Rather a suspicious attitude"
But necessary-I assure you, neces.
sary. Now flrst-Dr. Sheppard leaves
the house at 10 minutes to 9. How do
know that?''
because I told you so.''
But you might not Be speaking the
truth-or the watch you went by
might be wrong. But Parker also
says that you left the house at 10
minutes to 8. So we accept that state
| ment and pass on. At o'clock you
| run into man-and here we come to
| what we will call the Romance of the
Mysterious Stranger-just outside the
Park gates. How do know that that
Is SOP"
"I.told you So" I began again, but
Poirot interrupted me with q gesture
Of Impotence.
| All! but 1t is that you are a little
stupid tonight. my friend. You know
that 1t Is so--but how am 1 to know?
Eth bien, am able to tell you that
the Mysterious Stranger was not a
hallucfnation on your part, because
the maid of Miss Ganett met him a
few minutes before you did, and of
her, too, he inquired the way to FernIy
Park. We accept his presence, there.
fore. and we can be fairly sure of two
things about him--that he was d
stranger to the neighborhood, and that
whatever his object in going to Fern.
ly, there was no great secrecy about
It, since he twice asked the way
| there"
Yes" I said, IT see that
Now l have made it my business to
lind out more about this man. He
had a drink at the Three Bears. I
learn. and the barmaid there saws that
he spoke with an American accent and
mentioned having Just come over from
the States. Did 1t strike you that he
had an American accent?"
| Yes, I think he had" said, afte,
minute or two, during which cast
my mind back; but very Sigh,
one
''Precisement. There is also this
which. you will remember, I picked
Up in the summer house?"
He held out to me the little quill
I looked at II curiously. Then a mem
DRY of something I had read stirred
In me.
Poirot. who had been watching my
face. nodded.
Yes. heroin snow Drug.takers
carry it like this. and sniff it up the
tnose''
"Diamorphine hydrochloride," muir
INJURED mechanically.
This method OF taking the drus
is very common on the other side
Another proof. IL we wanted one. that
the man came from Canada or the
States
What first attracted your attention
to that Summer house?" I asked curl
ously
My friend the inspector took 1t for
granted that any one using that path
did SO as a short cut to the house
but AZ soon az saw the Summer
house I realized that the same patti
would Be taken by any one using the
Summer house Is q rendezvous. Now
ut seems fairly certain that the