Katrina murmured:

"The stricken deer. ..." and her voice

was the voice of one without hope.

Poirot said:

"All along Ted Williamson's description

has worried me --it brought something to

my mind --that something was you, dancing

on your twinkling bronze feet through

the forest. Shall I tell you what / think, Mademoiselle? I think there was a week when you had no maid, when you went

down alone to Grasslawn, for Bianca

Valetta had returned to Italy and you had

not yet engaged a new maid. Already you

were feeling the illness which has since

overtaken you, and you stayed in the house

one day when the others went on an all day

excursion on the river. There was a ring at

the door and you went to it and you saw --shall I tell you what you saw ? You saw a young man who was as simple as a child

and as handsome as a god! And you invented

for him a girl --v^otJuanita --but Incognita--and for a few hours you walked with him in Arcady. . . .3'

i3i

There was a long pause. Then Katrina

said in a low hoarse voice:

"In one thing at least I have told you the

truth. I have given you the right end to the

story. Nita will die young."

"Ah non!" Hercule Poirot was transformed.

He struck his hand on the table.

He was suddenly prosaic, mundane, practical.

He said:

"It is quite unnecessary! You need not

die. You can fight for your life, can you not, as well as another ?" She shook her head--sadly, hopelessly

- "What life is there for me ?"

"Not the life of the stage, bien entendu \ But think, there is another life. Come now, Mademoiselle, be honest, was your father

really a Prince or a Grand Duke, or even

a General ?"

She laughed suddenly. She said:

"He drove a lorry in Leningrad!"

"Very good! And why should you not be

the wife of a garage hand in a country

village ? And have children as beautiful as

gods, and with feet, perhaps, that will dance

as you once danced."

132

Katrina caught her breath.

^But the whole idea is fantastic!"

Nevertheless," said Hercule Poirot with

great self-satisfaction,cc! believe it is going

to come true!"

133

4

THE ERYMANTHIAN BOAR

^ | ^HE accomplishment of the third

| Labour of Hercules having brought

JL him to Switzerland, Hercule Poirot

decided that being there, he might take

advantage of the fact and visit certain

places which were up to now unknown to him.

He passed an agreeable couple of days at

Chamonix, lingered a day or two at

Montreux and then went on to Aldermatt,

a spot which he had heard various friends

praise highly.

Aldermatt, however, affected him unpleasantly.

It was at the end of a valley

with towering snow-peaked mountains

shutting it in. He felt, unreasonably, that

it was difficult to breathe.

"Impossible to remain here," said

Hercule Poirot to himself. It was at that