Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [82]
‘Lo and behold,’ said Tommy, ‘but it doesn’t seem to make sense.’
Tuppence spoke rapidly. ‘Mrs Henley, Apple Tree Lodge–I haven’t done her yet, she’s in Meadowside.’ Tuppence recited quickly: ‘Now, where are we? Mrs Griffin, Oxford and Cambridge, bet on a boat race, census, Cheshire cat, Henny-Penny, the story where the Hen went to the Dovrefell–Hans Andersen or something like that–and Lo. I suppose Lo means when they got there. Got to the Dovrefell, I mean.
‘I don’t think there’s much else,’ said Tuppence. ‘There’s the Oxford and Cambridge boat race or the bet.’
‘I should think the odds are on our being rather silly. But I think if we go on being silly long enough, some gem of great price might come out of it, concealed among the rubbish, as you might say. Just as we found one significant book on the bookshelves upstairs.’
‘Oxford and Cambridge,’ said Tuppence thoughtfully. ‘That makes me think of something. It makes me remember something. Now what could it be?’
‘Mathilde?’
‘No, it wasn’t Mathilde, but–’
‘Truelove,’ suggested Tommy. He grinned from ear to ear. ‘True love. Where can I my true love find?’
‘Stop grinning, you ape,’ said Tuppence. ‘You’ve got that last thing on your brain. Grin-hen-lo. Doesn’t make sense. And yet–I have a kind of feeling–Oh!’
‘What’s the Oh about?’
‘Oh! Tommy, I’ve got an idea. Of course.’
‘What’s of course?’
‘Lo,’ said Tuppence. ‘Lo. Grin is what made me think of it. You grinning like a Cheshire cat. Grin. Hen and then Lo. Of course. That must be it somehow.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’
‘Oxford and Cambridge boat race.’
‘Why does grin hen Lo make you think of Oxford and Cambridge boat race?’
‘I’ll give you three guesses,’ said Tuppence.
‘Well, I give up at once because I don’t think it could possibly make sense.’
‘It does really.’
‘What, the boat race?’
‘No, nothing to do with the boat race. The colour. Colours, I mean.’
‘What do you mean, Tuppence?’
‘Grin hen Lo. We’ve been reading it the wrong way round. It’s meant to be read the other way round.’
‘What do you mean? Ol, then n-e-h–it doesn’t make sense. You couldn’t go on n-i-r-g. Nirg or some word like that.’
‘No. Just take the three words. A little bit, you know, like what Alexander did in the book–the first book that we looked at. Read those three words the other way round. Lo-hen-grin.’
Tommy scowled.
‘Still haven’t got it?’ said Tuppence. ‘Lohengrin, of course. The swan. The opera. You know, Lohengrin, Wagner.’
‘Well, there’s nothing to do with a swan.’
‘Yes, there is. Those two pieces of china we found. Stools for the garden. You remember? One was a dark blue and one was a light blue, and old Isaac said to us, at least I think it was Isaac, he said, “That’s Oxford, you see, and that’s Cambridge.”’
‘Well, we smashed the Oxford one, didn’t we?’
‘Yes. But the Cambridge one is still there. The light blue one. Don’t you see? Lohengrin. Something was hidden in one of those two swans. Tommy, the next thing we have to do is to go and look at the Cambridge one. The light blue one, it’s still in KK. Shall we go now?’
‘What–at eleven o’clock at night–no.’
‘We’ll go tomorrow. You haven’t got to go to London tomorrow?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, we’ll go tomorrow and we’ll see.’
III
‘I don’t know what you’re doing about the garden,’ said Albert. ‘I did a spell once in a garden for a short time, but I’m not up in vegetables very much. There’s a boy here that wants to see you, by the way, madam.’
‘Oh, a boy,’ said Tuppence. ‘Do you mean the red-haired one?’
‘No. I mean the other one, the one with a lot of messy yellow hair half down his back. Got rather a silly name. Like a hotel. You know, the Royal Clarence. That’s his name. Clarence.’
‘Clarence, but not Royal Clarence.’
‘Not likely,’ said Albert. ‘He’s waiting in the front door. He says, madam, as he might be able to assist you in some way.’
‘I see. I gather he used to assist old Isaac occasionally.’
She found Clarence sitting on a decayed basket chair on the veranda or loggia, whichever you liked to call it. He appeared to be