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could be when roused! Give as good as she got any day. But there it was—the pitcher could go to the well once too often. Again and again, she, Mrs. Fowler, had said to her: “One of these days that man will do for you. Mark my words.” And he had done, hadn’t he? And there had she, Mrs. Fowler, been right next door and never heard a sound.
    In a pause Poirot managed to insert a question.
    Had Mrs. Ascher ever received any peculiar letters—letters without a proper signature—just something like A B C?
    Regretfully, Mrs. Fowler returned a negative answer.
    â€œI know the kind of thing you mean—anonymous letters they call them—mostly full of words you’d blush to say out loud. Well, I don’t know, I’m sure, if Franz Ascher ever took to writing those. Mrs. Ascher never let on to me if he did. What’s that? A railway guide, an A B C? No, I never saw such a thing about—and I’m sure if Mrs. Ascher had been sent one I’d have heard about it. I declare you could have knocked me down with a feather when I heard about this whole business. It was my girl Edie what came to me. ‘Mum,’ she says, ‘there’s ever so many policemen next door.’ Gave me quite a turn, it did. ‘Well,’ I said, when I heard about it, ‘it does show that she ought never to have been alone in the house—that niece of hers ought to have been with her. A man in drink can be like a ravening wolf,’ I said, ‘and in my opinion a wild beast is neither more nor less than what that old devil of a husband of hers is. I’ve warned her,’ I said, ‘many times and now my words have come true. He’ll do for you,’ I said. And he has done for her! You can’t rightly estimate what a man will do when he’s in drink and this murder’s a proof of it.”
    She wound up with a deep gasp.
    â€œNobody saw this man Ascher go into the shop, I believe?” said Poirot.
    Mrs. Fowler sniffed scornfully.
    â€œNaturally he wasn’t going to show himself,” she said.
    How Mr. Ascher had got there without showing himself she did not deign to explain.
    She agreed that there was no back way into the house and that Ascher was quite well known by sight in the district.
    â€œBut he didn’t want to swing for it and he kept himself well hid.”
    Poirot kept the conversational ball rolling some little time longer, but when it seemed certain that Mrs. Fowler had told all that she knew not once but many times over, he terminated the interview, first paying out the promised sum.
    â€œRather a dear five pounds’ worth, Poirot,” I ventured to remark when we were once more in the street.
    â€œSo far, yes.”
    â€œYou think she knows more than she has told?”
    â€œMy friend, we are in the peculiar position of not knowing what questions to ask . We are like little children playing cache-cache in the dark. We stretch out our hands and grope about. Mrs. Fowler has told us all that she thinks she knows—and has thrown in several conjectures for good measure! In the future, however, her evidence may be useful. It is for the future that I have invested that sum of five pounds.”
    I did not quite understand the point, but at this moment we ran into Inspector Glen.

Seven
M R . P ARTRIDGE AND M R . R IDDELL
    I nspector Glen was looking rather gloomy. He had, I gathered, spent the afternoon trying to get a complete list of persons who had been noticed entering the tobacco shop.
    â€œAnd nobody has seen anyone?” Poirot inquired.
    â€œOh, yes, they have. Three tall men with furtive expressions—four short men with black moustaches—two beards—three fat men—all strangers—and all, if I’m to believe witnesses, with sinister expressions! I wonder somebody didn’t see a gang of masked men with revolvers while they were about it!”
    Poirot smiled sympathetically.
    â€œDoes anybody