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By Root 496 0

amused myself. I’d been out with that boy friend of mine three nights running, and was I getting tired of him! He was all out for seeing London—especially what he called the classy spots—and I will say for him he wasn’t mean. Champagne every time. We went to the Compradour and the Mille Fleurs and finally the Luxembourg, and I’ll say he enjoyed himself. In a way it was kind of pathetic. But his conversation wasn’t what you’d call interesting. Just long histories of business deals he’d put through in Mexico and most of those I heard three times—and going on to all the dames he’d known and how mad they were about him. A girl gets kind of tired listening after a while and you’ll admit that Pedro is nothing much to look at—so I just concentrated on the eats and let my eyes roam round.’

‘Well, that’s excellent from our point of view, Miss Shannon,’ said the chief inspector. ‘And I can only hope that you will have seen something that may help us solve our problem.’

Christine shook her blonde head.

‘I’ve no idea who bumped the old boy off—no idea at all. He just took a drink of champagne, went purple in the face and sort of collapsed.’

‘Do you remember when he had last drunk from his glass before that?’

The girl reflected.

‘Why—yes—it was just after the cabaret. The lights went up and he picked up his glass and said something and the others did it too. Seemed to me it was a toast of some kind.’

The chief inspector nodded.

‘And then?’

‘Then the music began and they all got up and went off to dance, pushing their chairs back and laughing. Seemed to get warmed up for the first time. Wonderful what champagne will do for the stickiest parties.’

‘They all went together—leaving the table empty?’

‘Yes.’

‘And no one touched Mr Barton’s glass.’

‘No one at all.’ Her reply came promptly. ‘I’m perfectly certain of that.’

‘And no one—no one at all came near the table while they were away.’

‘No one—except the waiter, of course.’

‘A waiter? Which waiter?’

‘One of the half-fledged ones with an apron, round about sixteen. Not the real waiter. He was an obliging little fellow rather like a monkey—Italian I guess he was.’

Chief Inspector Kemp acknowledged this description of Giuseppe Bolsano with a nod of the head.

‘And what did he do, this young waiter? He filled up the glasses?’

Christine shook her head.

‘Oh, no. He didn’t touch anything on the table. He just picked up an evening bag that one of the girls had dropped when they all got up.’

‘Whose bag was it?’

Christine took a minute or two to think. Then she said:

‘That’s right. It was the kid’s bag—a green and gold thing. The other two women had black bags.’

‘What did the waiter do with the bag?’

Christine looked surprised.

‘He just put it back on the table, that’s all.’

‘You’re quite sure he didn’t touch any of the glasses?’

‘Oh, no. He just dropped the bag down very quick and ran off because one of the real waiters was hissing at him to go somewhere or get something and everything was going to be his fault!’

‘And that’s the only time anyone went near the table?’

‘That’s right.’

‘But of course someone might have gone to the table without your noticing?’

But Christine shook her head very determinedly.

‘No, I’m quite sure they didn’t. You see Pedro had been called to the telephone and hadn’t got back yet, so I had nothing to do but look around and feel bored. I’m pretty good at noticing things and from where I was sitting there wasn’t much else to see but the empty table next to us.’

Race asked:

‘Who came back first to the table?’

‘The girl in green and the old boy. They sat down and then the fair man and the girl in black came back and after them the haughty piece of goods and the good-looking dark boy. Some dancer, he was. When they were all back and the waiter was warming up a dish like mad on the spirit lamp, the old boy leaned forward and made a kind of speech and then they all picked up their glasses again. And then it happened.’ Christine paused and added brightly, ‘Awful, wasn’t it? Of course I thought it was a stroke. My aunt had a stroke and she went