Pilar nodded cheerfully.
‘Oh, yes, she said he was an old devil.’
Hercule Poirot smiled. He said:
‘And what did you think of him when you arrived, mademoiselle?’
Pilar said:
‘Of course he was very, very old. He had to sit in a chair—and his face was all dried up. But I liked him all the same. I think that when he was a young man, he must have been handsome—very handsome, like you,’ said Pilar to Superintendent Sugden. Her eyes dwelt with naïve pleasure on his handsome face, which had turned brick-red at the compliment.
Colonel Johnson stifled a chuckle. It was one of the few occasions when he had seen the stolid superintendent taken aback.
‘But of course,’ Pilar continued regretfully, ‘he could never have been so big as you.’
Hercule Poirot sighed.
‘You like, then, big men, señorita?’ he inquired.
Pilar agreed enthusiastically.
‘Oh, yes, I like a man to be very big, tall, and the shoulders broad, and very, very strong.’
Colonel Johnson said sharply:
‘Did you see much of your grandfather when you arrived here?’
Pilar said:
‘Oh, yes. I went to sit with him. He told me things—that he had been a very wicked man, and all the things he did in South Africa.’
‘Did he ever tell you that he had diamonds in the safe in his room?’
‘Yes, he showed them to me. But they were not like diamonds—they were just like pebbles—very ugly—very ugly indeed.’
Superintendent Sugden said shortly:
‘So he showed them to you, did he?’
‘Yes.’
‘He didn’t give you any of them?’
Pilar shook her head.
‘No, he did not. I thought that perhaps one day he would—if I were very nice to him and came often to sit with him. Because old gentlemen they like very much young girls.’
Colonel Johnson said:
‘Do you know that those diamonds have been stolen?’
Pilar opened her eyes very wide.
‘Stolen?’
‘Yes, have you any idea who might have taken them?’
Pilar nodded her head.