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Stephen said disarmingly:

‘Because I was a fool! I thought I could get away with it! I thought it would look fishy if I admitted to being here under a false name. If I hadn’t been a complete idiot I would have realized you were bound to cable to Jo’burg.’

Sugden said:

‘Well, Mr Farr—er—Grant—I’m not saying I disbelieve your story. It will be proved or disproved soon enough.’

He looked across inquiringly at Poirot. The latter said:

‘I think Miss Estravados has something to say.’

Pilar had gone very white. She said, in a breathless voice:

‘It is true. I would never have told you, but for Lydia and the money. To come here and pretend and cheat and act—that was fun, but when Lydia said the money was mine and that it was only justice, that was different; it was not fun any longer.’

Alfred Lee said with a puzzled face:

‘I do not understand, my dear, what you are talking about.’

Pilar said:

‘You think I am your niece, Pilar Estravados? But that is not so! Pilar was killed when I was travelling with her in a car in Spain. A bomb came and it hit the car and she was killed, but I was not touched. I did not know her very well, but she had told me all about herself and how her grandfather had sent for her to go to England and that he was very rich. And I had no money at all and I did not know where to go or what to do. And I thought suddenly: “Why should not I take Pilar’s passport and go to England and become very rich?” ’ Her face lit up with its sudden wide smile. ‘Oh, it was fun wondering if I could get away with it! Our faces on the photograph were not unlike. But when they wanted my passport here I opened the window and threw it out and ran down to get it, and then I rubbed some earth just over the face a little because at a barrier travelling they do not look very closely, but here they might—’

Alfred Lee said angrily:

‘Do you mean to say that you represented yourself to my father as his granddaughter, and played on his affection for you?’

Pilar nodded. She said complacently:

‘Yes, I saw at once I could make him like me very much.’

George Lee broke out:

‘Preposterous!’ he spluttered. ‘Criminal! Attempting to get money by false pretences.’

Harry Lee said:

‘She didn’t get any from you, old boy! Pilar, I’m on your side! I’ve got a profound admiration for your daring. And, thank goodness, I’m not your uncle any more! That gives me a much freer hand.’

Pilar said to Poirot: ‘You knew? When did you know?’

Poirot smiled:

‘Mademoiselle, if you have studied the laws of Mendel you would know that two blue-eyed people are not likely to have a brown-eyed child. Your mother was, I was sure, a most chaste and respectable lady. It followed, then, that you were not Pilar Estravados at all. When you did your trick with the passport, I was quite sure of it. It was ingenious, but not, you understand, quite ingenious enough.’

Superintendent Sugden said unpleasantly:

‘The whole thing’s not quite ingenious enough.’

Pilar stared at him. She said:

‘I don’t understand…’

Sugden said: ‘You’ve told us a story—but I think there’s a good deal more you haven’t told.’

Stephen said: ‘You leave her alone!’

Superintendent Sugden took no notice. He went on:

‘You’ve told us that you went up to your grandfather’s room after dinner. You said it was an impulse on your part. I’m going to suggest something else. It was you who stole those diamonds. You’d handled them. On occasion, perhaps, you’d put them away in the safe and the old man hadn’t watched you do it! When he found the stones were missing, he saw at once that only two people could have taken them. One was Horbury, who might have got to know the combination and have crept in and stolen them during the night. The other person was you.

‘Well, Mr Lee at once took measures. He rang me up and had me come to see him. Then he sent word to you to come and see him immediately after dinner. You did so and he accused you of the theft. You denied it; he pressed the charge. I don’t know what