Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [84]
‘Isaac. I’ve seen ’im do it often. You turn them upside down and then you begin to swing the top round. It’s stiff sometimes. You pour a little oil round all the cracks and when it’s soaked in a bit you can turn it round.’ ‘Oh.’
‘The easiest way is to put it upside down.’
‘Everything here always seems to have to be turned upside down,’ said Tuppence. ‘We had to do that to Mathilde before we could operate.’
For the moment Cambridge seemed to be entirely obstreperous, when quite suddenly the china began to revolve and very shortly afterwards they managed to unscrew it completely and lift it off.
‘Lot of rubbish in here, I should think,’ said Clarence.
Hannibal came to assist. He was a dog who liked helping in anything that was going on. Nothing, he thought, was complete unless he took a hand or a paw in it. But with him it was usually a nose in the investigation. He stuck his nose down, growled gently, retired an inch or two and sat down.
‘Doesn’t like it much, does he?’ said Tuppence, and looked down into the somewhat unpleasant mass inside.
‘Ow!’ said Clarence.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘Scratched myself. There’s something hanging down from a nail on the side here. I don’t know if it’s a nail or what it is. It’s something. Ow!’
‘Wuff, wuff!’ said Hannibal, joining in.
‘There’s something hung on a nail just inside. Yes, I’ve got it. No, it’s slipping. Yes, here I am. I’ve got it.’
Clarence lifted out a dark tarpaulin package.
Hannibal came and sat at Tuppence’s feet. He growled.
‘What’s the matter, Hannibal?’ said Tuppence.
Hannibal growled again. Tuppence bent down and smoothed the top of his head and ears.
‘What’s the matter, Hannibal?’ said Tuppence. ‘Did you want Oxford to win and now Cambridge have won, you see. Do you remember,’ said Tuppence to Tommy, ‘how we let him watch the boat race once on television?’
‘Yes,’ said Tommy, ‘he got very angry towards the end and started barking so that we couldn’t hear anything at all.’
‘Well, we could still see things,’ said Tuppence, ‘that was something. But if you remember, he didn’t like Cambridge winning.’
‘Obviously,’ said Tommy, ‘he studied at the Oxford Dogs’ University.’
Hannibal left Tuppence and came to Tommy and wagged his tail appreciatively.
‘He likes your saying that,’ said Tuppence, ‘it must be true. I myself,’ she added, ‘think he has been educated at the Dogs’ Open University.’
‘What were his principal studies there?’ asked Tommy, laughing.
‘Bone disposal.’
‘You know what he’s like.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Tuppence. ‘Very unwisely, you know, Albert gave him the whole bone of a leg of mutton once. First of all I found him in the drawing-room putting it under a cushion, then I forced him out through the garden door and shut it. And I looked out of the window and he went into the flower-bed where I’d got gladioli, and buried it very carefully there. He’s very tidy with his bones, you know. He never tries to eat them. He always puts them away for a rainy day.’
‘Does he ever dig them up again?’ asked Clarence, assisting on this point of dog lore.
‘I think so,’ said Tuppence. ‘Sometimes when they’re very, very old and would have been better if they had been left buried.’
‘Our dog doesn’t like dog biscuits,’ said Clarence.
‘He leaves them on the plate, I suppose,’ said Tuppence, ‘and eats the meat first.’
‘He likes sponge cake, though, our dog does,’ said Clarence.’
Hannibal sniffed at the trophy just disinterred from the inside of Cambridge. He wheeled round suddenly then and barked.
‘See if there’s anyone outside,’ said Tuppence. ‘It might be a gardener. Somebody told me the other day, Mrs Herring, I think it was, that she knew of an elderly man who’d been a very good gardener in his time and who did jobbing.’
Tommy opened the door and went outside. Hannibal accompanied him.
‘Nobody here,’ said Tommy.
Hannibal barked. First he growled again, then he barked and barked more loudly.
‘He thinks there’s someone or something in that great clump of pampas grass,’ said Tommy. ‘Perhaps someone is