CHAPTER XXIV

 

RALPH PATON’S STORY

 

It was a very uncomfortable minute for _me_. I hardly took in what happened

next, but there were exclamations and cries of surprise! When I was sufficiently

master of myself to be able to realize what was going on, Ralph Paton was

standing by his wife, her hand in his, and he was smiling across the room at me.

 

Poirot, too, was smiling, and at the same time shaking an eloquent finger at me.

 

“Have I not told you at least thirty-six times that it is useless to conceal

things from Hercule Poirot?” he demanded. “That in such a case he finds out?”

 

He turned to the others.

 

“One day, you remember, we held a little séance about a table—just the six of

us. I accused the other five persons present of concealing something from me.

Four of them gave up their secret. Dr. Sheppard did not give up his. But all

along I have had my suspicions. Dr. Sheppard went to the Three Boars that night

hoping to find Ralph. He did not find him there; but supposing, I said to

myself, that he met him in the street on his way home? Dr. Sheppard was a friend

of Captain Paton’s, and he had come straight from the scene of the crime. He

must know that things looked very black against him. Perhaps he knew more than