young people from Mayfair--they get

tired of seeing their own kind round them

446

in the West End. They come here, they see

the criminals; the thief, the blackmailer,

the confidence trickster—perhaps, even,

the murderer — the man who will be in the

Sunday papers next week! It is exciting,

that—they think they are seeing life! So

does the prosperous man who all the week

sells the knickers, the stockings, the corsets!

What a change from his respectable life

and his respectable friends! And then, a

further thrill—there at a table, stroking

his moustache, is the Inspector from

Scotland Yard — an Inspector in tails!3'

"So you knew that ?" said Poirot softly.

Her eyes met his and he smiled.

"Mon cher ami, I am not so simple as you

seem to suppose!"

"Do you also deal in drugs here ?"

"Ah, 9a no!" The Countess spoke

sharply. "That would be an abomination!"

Poirot looked at her for a moment or

two, then he sighed.

"I believe you," he said. "But in that

case it is all the more necessary that you

tell me who really owns this place."

"I own it," she snapped.

"On paper, yes. But there is someone

behind you."

447

"Do you know, mon ami, I find you

altogether too curious ? Is he not much too

curious, Dou dou ?"

Her voice dropped to a coo as she spoke

the last words and she threw the duck bone

from her plate to the big black hound who

caught it with a ferocious snap of the jaws.

"What is it that you call that animal ?"

asked Poirot, diverted.

"C'est mon petit Dou dou /"

"But it is ridiculous, a name like that!"

"But he is adorable! He is a police dog!

He can do anything — anything— Wait!"

She rose, looked round her, and suddenly

snatched up a plate with a large succulent

steak which had just been deposited before

a diner at a nearby table. She crossed to the

marble niche and put the plate down in

front of the dog, at the same time uttering

a few words in Russian.

Cerberus gazed in front of him. The steak

might not have existed.

"You see? And it is not just a matter

ofminutes\ No, he will remain like that for

hours if need be!33

Then she murmured a word and like

lightning Cerberus bent his long neck and

the steak disappeared as though by magic.

448

Vera Rossakoff flung her arms round the

dog's neck and embraced him passionately, rising on tip-toe to do so.

"See how gentle he can be!" she cried.

"For me, for Alice, for his friends --they

can do what they like! But one has but

to give him the word and Presto! I can

assure you he would tear a --police

inspector, for instance --into little pieces!

Yes, into little pieces Is3

She burst out laughing.

"I would have but to say the word --"

Poirot interrupted hastily. He mistrusted