That leaves us as a possibility, Raymond, or—well—Major Blunt.”

 

“Surely not Raymond,” I objected. “Since we know that he was desperately hard up

for a matter of five hundred pounds.”

 

“That is what he says, yes.”

 

“And as to Hector Blunt——”

 

“I will tell you something as to the good Major Blunt,” interrupted Poirot. “It

is my business to make inquiries. I make them. _Eh bien_—that legacy of which he

speaks, I have discovered that the amount of it was close upon twenty thousand

pounds. What do you think of that?”

 

I was so taken aback that I could hardly speak.

 

“It’s impossible,” I said at last. “A well-known man like Hector Blunt.”

 

Poirot shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Who knows? At least he is a man with big ideas. I confess that I hardly see him

as a blackmailer, but there is another possibility that you have not even

considered.”

 

“What is that?”