inspector glen was looking rather gloomy. he had, i gathered, spentthe afternoon trying to get a complete list of persons who had beennoticed

entering the tobacco shop.

"and nobody has seen any one?" poirot inquired.

"oh, yes, they have. three tall men with furtive expressions fourshort men with black moustaches--two beards---three fat men--allstrangers--and all, if i' m to believe witnesses, with sinisterexpressions!

i wonder somebody didn' t see a gang of masked men with revolverswhile they were about it! "

poirot smiled sympathetically.

"does anybody claim to have seen the man aschert'

"no, they don' t. and that' s another point in his favour. i' ve j ust toldthe chief constable that i think this is a j ob for scotland yard. idon' t

believe it' s a local crime. "

poirot said gravely:

"i agree with you. "

the inspector said:

"you know, monsieur poirot, it' s a nasty business--a nastybusiness. . . i don' t like it . . . . "

we had two more interviews before returning to london.

the first was with mr. james partridge. mr. partridge was the lastperson known to have seen mrs. ascher alive. he had made a purclasefrom her at 5: 30. mr. partridge was a small, spare man, a bank clerk by profession. hewore pince-nez, was very dry and spare-looking and extremely precisein all his utterances. he lived in a small house as neat and trim ashimself.

"mr. --er--poirot, " he said, glancing at the card my friend hadhanded to him. "from inspector glen? what can i do for you, mr.

poirot?"

"i understand, mr. partridge, that you were the last person to seemrs. ascher alive. "

mr. partridge placed his finger-tips together and looked at poirot asthough he were a doubtful cheque.

"that is a very debatable point, mr. poiro, " he said. "many peoplemay have made purchases from mrs. ascher after i did so. ""if so, they have not come forward to say so. "mr. partridge coughed.

"some people, mr. poirot, have no sense of public duty. "he looked at us owlishly through his spectacles.

"exceedingly true, " murmured poirot. "you, i understand, went tothe police of your own accord?"

"certainly i did. as soon as i heard of the shocking occurrence iperceived that my statement might be helpful and came forwardaccordingly. ' '

"a very proper spirit, " said poirot solemnly. "perhaps you will beso kind as to repeat your story to me. "

"by all means. i was returning to this house and at 5: 30precisely--"pardon,

how was it that you knew the time so accurately?"mr, partridge looked a little annoyed at being interrupted.

"the church clock chimed. i looked at my watch and found i was aminute slow. that was j ust before i entered mrs. ascher' s shop. ""were you in the habit of making purchases there?""fairly frequently. it was on my way home. about once or twice aweek i was in the habit of purchasing two ounces of john ce! tnmild. "

"did you know mrs. ascber at all? anything of her circumsta: cesor her history?"

"nothing whatever. beyond my purchase and an occasional reias to the state of the weather, i had never spoken to her. ""did you know she had a drunken husband who was in the habit ofthreatening her life?"

"no, i knew nothing whatever about her. "

"you knew her by sight, however. did anything about her appear ance strike you as unusual yesterday evening? did she appear flurriedor put out in any way?"

mr. partridge considered.

"as far as i noticed, she seemed exactly as usual, " he said.

poirot rose.

"thank you, mr. partridge, for answering these questions. haveyou, by any chance, an a. b. c. in the house? i want to look up my re-turntrain to london. "

"on the shelf j ust behind you, " said mr. partridge.

on the shelf in question were an a. b. c. , a bradshaw, the stockexchange year book, kelly' s directory, a who' s who and a localdi-rectory.

poirot took down the a. b. c. , pretended to look up a train, thenthanked mr. partridge and took his leave.

our next interview was with mr. albert riddell and was of a highlydifferent character. mr. albert riddell was a plate-layer and ourcon-versation

took place to the accompaniment of the clattering of platesand dishes by mr. riddell' s obviously nervous wife, the growling ofmr. riddell' s dog and the undisguised hostility of mr. riddell himself.

he was a big clumsy giant of a man with a broad face and small sus-piciouseyes. he was in the act of eating meatpie, washed down by ex-ceedinglyblack tea. he peered at us angrily over the rim of his cup.

"told all i' ve got to tell once, haven' t i?" he growled. "what' s itto

do with me, anyway? told it to the blarsted police, i ' ave, and nowi' ve

got to spit it all out again to a couple of blarsted foreigners. "poirot gave a quick amused glance in my direction and then said:

"in truth i sympathize with you, but what will you? it is a questionof murder, is it not? one has to be very, very careful. ""best tell the gentleman what he wants, bert, " said the woman nerv-ously.

"you shut your blarsted mouth, " roared the giant.

"you did not, i think, go to the police of your own accord. " poirotslipped the remark in neatly.

"why the hell should i? it were no business of mine. ""a matter of opinion, " said poirot indifferently. "there has been amurder--the police want to know who has been in the shopi myselfthink it would have--what shall i say?--looked more natural if youhad come forward. "

"i' ve got my work to do. don' t say i shouldn' t have come forwardin my own time--"

"but as it was, the police were given your name as that of a person^atha

, seen to go into mrs. ascher' s and they had to come to you. were theysatisfied with your account?"

"why shouldn' t they be?" demanded bert truculently.

poirot merely shrugged his shoulders.

"what are you getting at, mister? nobody' s got anything againstme! every one knows who did the old girl in, that b---- of a husbandof hers. "

"but he was not in the street that evening and you were. ""trying to fasten it on me are you? well, you won' t succeed. whatreason had i got to do a thing like that? think i wanted to pinch atin of

her bloody tobacco? tmnk i' m a bloody homicidal maniac as they callit? think i--?"

he rose threateningly from his seat. his wife bleated out:

"bert, bert--don' t say such things. bert--they' ll think--""calm yourself, monsieur, " said poirot. "i demand only your ac-countof your visit. that you refuse it seems to me--what shall wesay--a little odd?"

"who said i refused anything?" mr. riddell sank back again into hisseat. "i don' t mind. "

"it was six o' clock when you entered the shop?""that' s right--a minute or two after, as a matter of fact. wanted apacket of gold hake. i pushed open the door--""it was closed, then?"

' ' that' s fight. i thought shop was shut, maybe. but it wasn' t. i wentin, there wasn' t any one about. i hammered on the counter and waitedabit. nobody came, so i went out again. that' s all, and you can put itin

your pipe and smoke it. "

"you didn' t see the body fallen down behind the counter?""no, no more would you have done--unless you was looking for it,maybe. "

"was there a railway guide lying about?"

"yes, there was--face downwards. it crossed my mind like that theold woman might have had to go off sudden by train and forgot to lockshop up. "

"perhaps you picked up the railway guide or moved it along thecounter?"

"didn' t touch the b------ thing. i did j ust what i said. ""and you did not see any one leaving the shop before you yourselfgot there?"

"didn' t see any such thing. what i say is, why pitch onpoirot rose.

"nobody is pitching upon you--yet. bon soir, monsieur. "he left the man with his mouth open and i followed him.

in the street he consulted his watch.

"with great haste, my friend, we might manage to catch the '

let us dispatch ourselves quickly. "