a small and odoriferous man with a red

nose. He spoke in an anxious, husky

whisper.

"I'm 'ere guv'nor. Time for me to do my

stuff?"

"Yes. Go on."

"There's a nawful lot of coppers about!"

"That is all right. They've been told

about you."

"I 'ope they won't interfere, that's all ?"

"They will not interfere. You're sure

you can accomplish what you have set out

to do ? The animal in question is both large

and fierce."

" 'E won't be fierce to me," said the

little man confidently. "Not with what

I've got 'ere! Any dog'll follow me to Hell

fork!"

"In this case," murmured Hercule

LOH30

455

Poirot, "he has to follow you out of

Hell!3'

In the small hours of the morning the

telephone rang. Poirot picked up the

receiver.

Japp's voice said:

"You asked me to ring you."

"Yes, indeed. Eh bien ?39

"No dope --we got the emeralds.55

"Where ?"

"In Professor Liskeard's pocket."

"Professor Liskeard ?"

"Surprises you, too? Frankly I don't

know what to think! He looked as

astonished as a baby, stared at them, said

he hadn't the faintest idea how they got

in his pocket, and dammit I believe he was

speaking the truth! Varesco could have

slipped them into his pocket easily enough

in the black out. I can't see a man like old

Liskeard being mixed up in this sort

of business. He belongs to all these highfalutin'

societies, why he's even connected

with the British Museum! The only thing

he ever spends money on is books, and

musty old second-hand books at that.

No, he doesn't fit. I'm beginning to think

456

we're wrong about the whole thing - there never has been any dope in that Club."

"Oh, yes there has, my friend, it was

there tonight. Tell me, did no one come out

through your secret way ?"

"Yes, Prince Henry of Scandenberg and

his equerry --he only arrived in England

yesterday. Vitamian Evans, the Cabinet

Minister (devil of a job being a Labour

Minister, you have to be so careful!

Nobody minds a Tory politician spending

money on riotous living because the taxpayers

think it's his own money--but

when it's a Labour man the public feel

it's their money he's spending! And so it

is in a manner of speaking.) Lady Beatrice

Viner was the last --she's getting married

the day after tomorrow to the priggish

young Duke of Leominster. I don't believe

any of that lot were mixed up in this."

"You believe rightly. Nevertheless, the

dope was in the Club and someone took

it out of the Club."

"Who did ?"

"I did, won ami," said Poirot softly.

He replaced the receiver, cutting off Japp's spluttering noises, as a bell trilled 457

out. He went and opened the front door.

The Countess Rossakoff sailed in.

"If it were not that we are, alas, too

old, how compromising this would be!"

she exclaimed. "You see, I have come as

you told me to do in your note. There is,