a chair here, altering the position of a lamp there, occasionally stooping to straighten one of the mats that covered the floor. He was specially fussy over the lighting. The lamps were arranged in such a way as to throw a clear light on the side of the room where the chairs were grouped, at the same time leaving the other end of the room, where I presumed Poirot himself would sit, in a dim twilight.
Ursula and I watched him. Presently a bell was heard.
"They arrive," said Poirot. "Good, all is in readiness."
The door opened and the party from Fernly filed in. Poirot went forward and greeted Mrs. Ackroyd and Flora.
"It is most good of you to come," he said. "And Major Blunt and Mr. Raymond."
The secretary was debonair as ever.
"What's the great idea?" he said, laughing. "Some scientific machine? Do we have bands round our wrists which register guilty heart-beats? There is such an invention, isn’t there?"
"I have read of it, yes," admitted Poirot. "But me, I am old-fashioned. I use the old methods. I work only with the little gray cells. Now let us begin—but first I have an announcement to make to you all."
He took Ursula’s hand and drew her forward.
"This lady is Mrs. Ralph Paton. She was married to Captain Paton last March."
A little shriek burst from Mrs. Ackroyd.
"Ralph! Married! Last March! Oh! but it's absurd. How could he be?"
[274]
