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By Root 610 0

not be identified. He had no wallet, no papers, the tailor’s marks were removed from his clothes. But that would not be enough. The printed card of Curry, Insurance Agent, was only a temporary measure. If the man’s identity was to be concealed permanently, he must be given a false identity. Sooner or later, I was sure, somebody would turn up, recognize him positively and that would be that. A brother, a sister, a wife. It was a wife. Mrs. Rival—and the name alone might have aroused suspicion. There is a village in Somerset—I have stayed near there with friends—the village of Curry Rival—Subconsciously, without knowing why those two names suggested themselves, they were chosen. Mr. Curry—Mrs. Rival.

“So far—the plan is obvious, but what puzzled me was why our murderer took for granted that there would be no real identification. If the man had no family, there are at least landladies, servants, business associates. That led me to the next assumption—this man was not known to be missing. A further assumption was that he was not English, and was only visiting this country. That would tie in with the fact that the dental work done on his teeth did not correspond with any dental records here.

“I began to have a shadowy picture both of the victim and of the murderer. No more than that. The crime was well-planned and intelligently carried out—but now there came that one piece of sheer bad luck that no murderer can foresee.”

“And what was that?” asked Hardcastle.

Unexpectedly, Poirot threw his head back, and recited dramatically:

“For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe the horse was lost,

For want of a horse the battle was lost,

For want of a battle the Kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horse shoe nail.”

He leaned forward.

“A good many people could have killed Mr. Curry. But only one person could have killed, or could have had reason to kill, the girl Edna.”

We both stared at him.

“Let us consider the Cavendish Secretarial Bureau. Eight girls work there. On the 9th of September, four of those girls were out on assignments some little distance away—that is, they were provided with lunch by the clients to whom they had gone. They were the four who normally took the first lunch period from 12:30 to 1:30. The remaining four, Sheila Webb, Edna Brent and two girls, Janet and Maureen, took the second period, 1:30 to 2:30. But on that day Edna Brent had an accident quite soon after leaving the office. She tore the heel off her shoe in the grating. She could not walk like that. She bought some buns and came back to the office.”

Poirot shook an emphatic finger at us.

“We have been told that Edna Brent was worried about something. She tried to see Sheila Webb out of the office, but failed. It has been assumed that that something was connected with Sheila Webb, but there is no evidence of that. She might only have wanted to consult Sheila Webb about something that had puzzled her—but if so one thing was clear. She wanted to talk to Sheila Webb away from the bureau.

“Her words to the constable at the inquest are the only clue we have as to what was worrying her: She said something like: ‘I don’t see how what she said can have been true.’ Three women had given evidence that morning. Edna could have been referring to Miss Pebmarsh. Or, as it has been generally assumed, she could have been referring to Sheila Webb. But there is a third possibility—she could have been referring to Miss Martindale.”

“Miss Martindale? But her evidence only lasted a few minutes.”

“Exactly. It consisted only of the telephone call she had received purporting to be from Miss Pebmarsh.”

“Do you mean that Edna knew that it wasn’t from Miss Pebmarsh?”

“I think it was simpler than that. I am suggesting that there was no telephone call at all.”

He went on:

“The heel of Edna’s shoe came off. The grating was quite close to the office. She came back to the bureau. But Miss Martindale, in her private office, did not know that Edna had come back. As far as she knew there was nobody but herself in the bureau. All she need