INSPECTOR RAGLAN IS CONFIDENT
There was something almost indescribable in the way he said those last words. I felt that he was looking at the case from some peculiar angle of his own, and what he saw I could not tell.
He went to the window and stood there, looking out.
"You say it was nine o'clock, Dr. Sheppard, when you met this stranger outside the gate?"
"He asked the question without turning round.
"Yes," I replied. "I heard the church clock chime the hour."
"How long would it take him to reach the house—to reach this window, for instance?"
"Five minutes at the outside. Two or three minutes only if he took the path at the right of the drive and came straight here."
"But to do that he would have to know the way. How can I explain myself?—it would mean that he had been here before—that he knew his surroundings."
"That is true," replied Colonel Melrose.
"We could find out, doubtless, if Mr. Ackroyd had received any strangers during the past week?"
"Young Raymond could tell us that," I said.
"Or Parker," suggested Colonel Melrose.
"Ou tous les deux," suggested Poirot, smiling.
Colonel Melrose went in search of Raymond, and I rang the bell once more for Parker.
Colonel Melrose returned almost immediately, accompanied by the young secretary, whom he introduced to Poirot. Geoffrey Raymond was fresh and debonair as
[93]
