"Cremated - according to his own request."

"Yes, that is the law. And it means that a second doctor signed the certificate - but there would be no difficulty about that. So we come back to the essential point, what Cora Lansquenet said. You were there and you heard her. She said: 'But he was murdered, wasn't he?'"

"Yes."

"And the real point is - that you believe she was speaking the truth."

The lawyer hesitated for a moment, then he said: "Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Why?" Entwhistle repeated the word, slightly puzzled.

"But yes, why? Is it because, already, deep down, you had an uneasiness about the manner of Richard's death?"

The lawyer shook his head. "No, no, not in the least."

"Then it is because of her - of Cora herself. You knew her well?"

"I had not seen her for - oh - over twenty years."

"Would you have known her if you had met her in the street?"

Mr Entwhistle reflected.

"I might have passed her by in the street without recognising her. She was a thin slip of a girl when I saw her last and she had turned into a stout, shabby, middle-aged woman. But I think that the moment I spoke to her face to face I should have recognised her. She wore her hair in the same way, a bang cut straight across the forehead and she had a trick of peering up at you through her fringe like a rather shy animal, and she had a very characteristic, abrupt way of talking, and a way of putting her head on one side and then coming out with something quite outrageous. She had character, you see, and character is always highly individual."

"She was, in fact, the same Cora you had known years ago. And she still said outrageous things! The things, the outrageous things, she had said in the past - were they usually - justified?"

"That was always the awkward thing about Cora. When truth would have been better left unspoken, she spoke it."

"And that characteristic remained unchanged. Richard Abernethie was murdered - so Cora at once mentioned the fact."

Mr Entwhistle stirred.

"You think he was murdered?"

"Oh, no, no, my friend, we cannot go so fast. We agree on this - Cora thought he had been murdered. She was quite sure he had been murdered. It was, to her, more a certainty than a surmise. And so, we come to this, she must have had some reason for the belief. We agree, by your knowledge of her, that it was not just a bit of mischief making. Now tell me - when she said what she did, there was, at once, a kind of chorus of protest - that is right?"

"Quite right."

"And she then became confused, abashed, and retreated from the position - saying - as far as you can remember, something like 'But I thought from what he told me -'"

The lawyer nodded.