The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-12
.nAr l-en fORTY-TWO


The Inspector was developing
his grievance.
Take the gun now Christow
was understanding to the medi-
cal evidence - only a minute or
two before your arrival. Lady
Angkatell had that egg basket,
Miss Savernake had 4 gardening
basket full Of dead flower heads,
and Edward Angkatell was wear,
ing a loose shooting coat with
large pockets stuffed with cart
ridges. Any one Of them could
have carried the revolver away
with them. 1t wasn't hidden any
where near the pool my men
have raked the place, 80 that's
definitely out"
Poirot nodded. Grange went on:
"Gerda Christow vas framed
by whom? That's where every
clew I follow seems to vanish into
thin air."
Their stories Of how they spent
the morning are satisfactory"
THE stories are all right. Miss
Savernake was gardening. Lady
Angkatell was collecting eggs.
Edward Angkatell and Sir Henry
were shooting and separated at
the end Of the morning-Sir Henry
coming back to the house and Ed
ward Angkatell coming down here
through the woods. The young fel-
low was up in his bedroom read
ing. (Funny place to read on a
nice day, but he's the indoor book
ish kind Miss Hardcastle took a
book down to the orchard. All
sounds very natural and likely,
and there's no means Of checking
up on it. Gudgeon took a tray Of
glasses out to the pavilion about
twelve o'clock. He can't say
where any Of the house party
were or what they were doing. In
a way, you know, there's some
thing against almost all Of them
"Really?"
"Of course, the most obvious
person is Veronica Cray; she had
q%uarrelled with Christow, she hat
ed his CUTS, she's quite likely to
have shot him-but 1 can't find
the least iota OF proof that she
did shoot him. No evidence as to
her having had any opportunity to
pinch the revolvers from Sir
Henry's collection, no one who
saw her going to or from the pool
that day. And the missing revol-
yer definitely isn't in her posses
sion now"
"Ah, you have made sure of
that?"
What do you think? The evil
dence would have justified a
search warrant, but there was no
need. She was quite gracious
about it. It's not anywhere in that
tin-pot bungalow. After the in
quest vas adjourned, we made a
show of letting up on Miss Cray
and Miss ~Savernake, and we've
had a tail on them to see where
they went and what they'd do.
We've had a man on at film studi-
os, watching Veronica-no sign Of
her trying to ditch the gun there"
and Henrietta Savernake?'
Nothing there either. She went
straight back to Chelsea and
kept an eye or her ever
The revolver isn't in her
or in her possession. She
quite pleasant about the
search-seemed amused. Some of
her fancy stuff gave our man
quite a turn. He said it beat him
why people wanted to do that kind
Of thing-statues all humps a n d
bits Of brass and alum
mum twisted into fancy shapes,
that you wouldn't know
horses"
Poirot stirred a little.
Horses, you say?"
"Well, a horse. If you'd call it a
horse! If people want to model a
horse why don't they 60 and look
at a horse?"
"a horse repeated Poirot. !
Grange turned his head.
What is there about that that
interests you so, M. Poirot? 1
don't get it."
"Association - a point OF the
osychology.'
."Word association? Horse and
cart. Rocking horse? Clothes
horse. No, 1 don't get it. Anyway,
affnr q dav or two Miss Saver.