“Yes. I telegraphed to him.”

 

“I thought you had washed your hands of the case?”

 

“I am not acting for Miss Marvell since she refuses to be guided by my advice.

What I do now is for my own satisfaction—the satisfaction of Hercule Poirot!

Decidedly, I must have a finger in this pie.”

 

“And you calmly wire Lord Yardly to dash up to town just to suit your

convenience. He won’t be pleased.”

 

“_Au contraire_, if I preserve for him his family diamond, he ought to be very

grateful.”

 

“Then you really think there is a chance of it being stolen?” I asked eagerly.

 

“Almost a certainty,” replied Poirot placidly. “Everything points that way.”

 

“But how——”

 

Poirot stopped my eager questions with an airy gesture of the hand.

 

“Not now, I pray you. Let us not confuse the mind. And observe that

‘Peerage’—how you have replaced him! See you not that the tallest books go in