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magistrate, 'had you any idea what it was for which the assassins were searching?'
    'None whatever, monsieur.'
    'Had you any knowledge that your husband feared something?'
    'Yes. I had seen the change in him.'
    'How long ago was that?'
    Mrs Renauld reflected.
    'Ten days, perhaps.'
    'Not longer?'
    'Possibly. I only noticed it then.'
    'Did you question your husband at all as to the cause?'
    'Once. He put me off evasively. Nevertheless, I was convinced that he was suffering some terrible anxiety. However, since he evidently wished to conceal the fact from me, I tried to pretend that I had noticed nothing.'
    'Were you aware that he had called in the services of a detective?'
    'A detective?' exclaimed Mrs Renauld, very much surprised.
    'Yes, this gentleman - Monsieur Hercule Poirot.' Poirot bowed. 'He arrived today in response to a summons from your husband.' And taking the letter written by M. Renauld from his pocket he handed it to the lady.
    She read it with apparently genuine astonishment.
    'I had no idea of this. Evidently he was fully cognizant of the danger.'
    'Now, madame I will beg of you to be frank with me. Is there any incident in your husband's past life in South America which might throw light on his murder?'
    Mm. Renauld reflected deeply, but at last shook her head.
    'I can think of none. Certainly my husband had many enemies, people he had got the better of in some way or another, but I can think of no one distinctive case. I do not say there is no such incident - only that I am not aware of it.'
    The examining magistrate stroked his beard disconsolately. 'And you can fix the time of this outrage?'
    'Yes, I distinctly remember hearing the clock on the mantelpiece strike two.' She nodded towards an eight-day travelling clock in a leather case which stood in the centre of the chimney-piece.
    Poirot rose from his seat, scrutinized the clock carefully, and nodded, satisfied.
    'And here too,' exclaimed M. Bex, 'is a wristwatch, knocked off the dressing-table by the assassins, without doubt, and smashed to atoms. Little did they know it would testify against them.'
    Gently he picked away the fragments of broken glass.
    Suddenly his face changed to one of utter stupefaction.
    'Mon Dieu!' he ejaculated.
    'What is it?'
    'The hands of the watch point to seven o'clock!'
    'What?' cried the examining magistrate, astonished.
    But Poirot, deft as ever, took the broken trinket from the startled commissary, and held it to his ear. Then he smiled.
    'The glass is broken, yes but the watch itself is still going.'
    The explanation of the mystery was greeted with a relieved smile. But the magistrate bethought himself of another point.
    'But surely it is not seven o'clock now?'
    'No,' said Poirot gently, 'it is a few minutes after five. Possibly the watch gains, is that so, madame?'
    Mrs Renauld was frowning perplexedly.
    'It does gain,' she admitted. 'But I've never known it gain quite so much as that.'
    With a gesture of impatience the magistrate left the matter of the watch and proceeded with his interrogatory.
    'Madame, the front door was found ajar. It seems almost certain that the murderers entered that way, yet it has not been forced at all. Can you suggest any explanation?'
    'Possibly my husband went out for a stroll the last thing, and forgot to latch it when he came in.'
    'Is that a likely thing to happen?'
    'Very. My husband was the most absent-minded of men.'
    There was a slight frown on her brow as she spoke as though this trait in the dead man's character had at times vexed her.
    'There is one inference I think we might draw,' remarked the commissary suddenly. 'Since the men insisted on Monsieur Renauld dressing himself, it looks as though the place they were taking him to, the place where “the secret” was concealed, lay some distance away.'
    The magistrate nodded.
    'Yes, far, and yet not too far, since he spoke of being back by morning.'
    'What time does the last train leave the station of Merlinville?' asked