of pain she exclaimed excitedly:

"Why, of course! So that's why you're

down here! You nasty, deceitful creature,

I insist on your telling me all about it."

"But what is it I am to tell you all

about?"

Lady Carmichael aimed another playful

blow which Poirot avoided deftly.

"Don't be an oyster, Hercule Poirot! I

can see your moustaches quivering. Of

course, it's crime brings you down here —

and you're just pumping me shamelessly!

Now let me see, can it be murder ? Who's

305

died lately ? Only old Louisa Gilmore and

she was eighty-five and had dropsy too.

Can't be her. Poor Leo Staverton broke

his neck in the hunting-field and he's all

done up in plaster --that can't be it. Perhaps

it isn't murder. What a pity! I can't

remember any special jewel robberies

lately.... Perhaps it's just a criminal you're

tracking down. ... Is it Beryl Larkin? Did she poison her husband ? Perhaps it's remorse that makes her so vague."

"Madame, Madame," cried Hercule

Poirot. "You go too fast."

"Nonsense. You're up to something, Hercule Poirot."

"Are you acquainted with the classics, Madame ?"

"What have the classics to do with it ?"

"They have this to do with it. I emulate

my great predecessor Hercules. One of

the Labours of Hercules was the taming

of the wild horses ofDiomedes."

"Don't tell me you came down here to

train horses --at your age --and always

wearing patent-leather shoes! You don't

look to me as though you'd ever been on a

horse in your life!"

"The horses, Madame, are symbolic.

306

They were the wild horses who ate human

flesh."

"How very unpleasant of them. I always

do think these ancient Greeks and Romans

are very unpleasant. I can't think why

clergymen are so fond of quoting from the

classics --for one thing one never understands

what they mean and it always seems

to me that the whole subject matter of the

classics is very unsuitable for clergymen.

So much incest, and all those statues with

nothing on --not that I mind that myself

but you know what clergymen are --quite

upset if girls come to church with no

stockings on --let me see, where was I ?"

cc! am not quite sure.53

"I suppose, you wretch, you just won't

tell me if Mrs. Larkin murdered her husband

? Or perhaps Anthony Hawker is the

Brighton trunk murderer ?"

She looked at him hopefully, but Hercule

Poirot's face remained impassive.

"It might be forgery," speculated Lady

Carmichael. cc! did see Mrs. Larkin in the

bank the other morning and she'd just

cashed a fifty pound cheque to self--it

seemed to me at the time a lot of money to

want in cash. Oh no, that's the wrong way

307

round --if she was a forger she would be

paying it in, wouldn't she ? Hercule Poirot, if you sit there looking like an owl and saying nothing, I shall throw something

at you."

"You must have a little patience," said