Miss Entwhistle was tart.

She tapped at her brother's door and went in.

"Those Abernethies again I" She said bitterly.

"Eh I The Abernethies ?"

"Mrs. Leo Abernethie. Ringing up before seven in the

morning I Really t"

"Mrs. Leo, is at } Dear me. How remarkable. Where is

my dressing-gown ? Ah, thank you."

Presently he was saying:

"Entwhistle speaking. Is that you, Helen ?"

"Yes. I'm terribly sorry to get you out of bed like this.

But you did tell me once to rtng you up at once if I remembered

what it was that struck me as having been wrong somehow

on the day of the funeral when Cora electrified us all by sug gesting that Richard had been murdered."

"Ah [ You have remembered ?"

Helen said in a puzzled voice: , "

rise Yes, but tt doesnt make se .

I55

"You must allow me to be the judge of that.

Was it so,m, ethin, q you noticed about one of the people ?

Yes.

"Tell me."

"It seems absurd." Helen's voice sounded apologetic.

"But I'm quite sure of it. It came to me when I was looking at myself in the gla.s.s last night. Oh ..."

The little startled half c.ry was succeeded by a sound that came oddly through the wres--a dull heavy sound that Mr.

Entwhistle couldn't place at all.

He said urgently:

"Hallohallo--are you there ? Helen, are you there ?...

Helen..

CHAPTER XXI

IT wss sot until nearly an hour later that Mr. Entwhistle, after a great deal of conversation with supervisors and others, found himself at last speaking to Hercule Poirot.

"Thank heaven!" said Mr. Entwhistle with pardonable exasperation. "The Exchange seems to have had the greatest difficulty in getting the number."

"That is not surprising. The receiver was off the hook."

There was a grim quality in Poirot's voice which carried through to the listener.

Mr. Entwhistle said sharply:

"Has something happened ? '

"Yes. Mrs. Leo Abernethie was found by the housemaid about twenty minutes ago lying by the telephone in the study.

She was unconscious. A serious concussion."

"Do you mean she was struck on the head ?"

"I think so. It is just possible that she fell and struck her head on a marble doorstop, but me I do not think so, and the doctor, he does not think so either."

"She was telephoning to me at the time. I wondered when

W

e were cut off so suddenly.

"So it was to you she was telephoning ? What did she say?"

"She mentioned to me some time ago that on the occasion when Cora Lansquenet suggested her brother had been murdered, she herself had a feeling of something being wrong --odd--she did not quite know how to put it--unfortunately she could not remember uhy she had that impression."

"And suddenly, she did remember ?"

x56

"Yes."

"And rang you up to tell you ? '

"Yes."

"Eh bien ?"

"There's no eh bien about it," said Mr. Entwhistle testily.

"She started to te me, but was terrupted.' "How much had she said ?" "Nothing pertinent." "You will excuse me, mort ami, but I am the judge of that, no, you. What exactly did she say ?"

She reminded me that I had asked her to let me ow at once if she remembered what it was that had stck her culiar. She said she had rememberedbut that it ' di't make sense.'

"I asked her if it w something about one of the people who were there that day, and she said, yes, it w. She said it had come to her when she was lookg the gls "