The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot 21)

pretend to go and return. Whatever it is, Clayton

will know. Anything is preferable to the ghastly

torment of suspicion he is enduring."

"Then you mean that Rich killed him after the

others had gone? But the doctor said that was im-possible.''

"Exactly. So you see, Hastings, he must have

been killed during the evening."

"But everyone was in the room!"

"Precisely," said Poirot gravely. "You see the

beauty of that? 'Everyone was in the room.' What

an alibi! What sangfroid--what nerve--what au-dacity!''

"I still don't understand." .

"Who went behind that screen to wind up the

phonograph and change the records? The phono-graph

and the chest were side by side, remember.

The others are dancing--the phonograph is play-ing.

And the man who does not dance lifts the lid

of the chest and thrusts the knife he has just

.slipped into his sleeve deep into the body of the

man who was hiding there."

"Impossible! The man would cry out."

"Not if he were drugged first?"

"Drugged?"

"Yes. Who did Clayton have a drink with at

THE MYSTERY OF THE BAGDAD CHEST

seven-thirty? Ah! Now you see. Curtiss! Curtiss

has inflamed Clayton's mind with suspicions

against his wife and Rich. Curtiss suggests this

plan--the visit to Scotland, the concealment in the