M. Hautet signifying that he had finished with him, the old man withdrew, grumbling to the last. Remembering Poirot’s unaccountable insistence on the footprints in the flowerbeds, I scrutinized him narrowly as he gave his evidence.
Either he had nothing to do with the crime or he was a consummate actor. Suddenly just as he was going out of the door an idea struck me.
‘Pardon, Monsieur Hautet,’ I cried, ‘but will you permit me to ask him one question?’
‘But certainly monsieur.’
Thus encouraged, I turned to Auguste. ‘Where do you keep your boots?’
‘On my feet,’ growled the old man. ‘Where else?’
‘But when you go to bed at night?’
‘Under my bed.’
‘But who cleans them?’
‘Nobody. Why should they be cleaned? Is it that I promenade myself on the front like a young man? On Sunday I wear the Sunday boots, but otherwise—’ He shrugged his shoulders.
I shook my head, discouraged.
‘Well, well,’ said the magistrate, ‘we do not advance very much. Undoubtedly we are held up until we get the return cable from Santiago. Has anyone seen Giraud? In verity that one lacks politeness! I have a very good mind to send for him and [missing].
‘You will not have to send far.’
The quiet voice startled us. Giraud was standing outside looking in through the open window.
He leapt lightly into the room and advanced to the table. ‘Here I am, at your service. Accept my excuses for not presenting myself sooner.’
‘Not at all—not at all!’ said the magistrate, rather confused.
‘Of course I am only a detective,’ continued the other. ‘I know nothing of interrogatories. Were I conducting one, I should be inclined to do so without an open window. Anyone standing outside can so easily hear all that passes. But no matter.’
M. Hautet flushed angrily. There was evidently going to be no love lost between the examining magistrate and the detective in charge of the case. They had fallen foul of each ether at the start. Perhaps in any event it would have been much the same. To Giraud, all examining magistrates were fools, and to M. Hautet, who took himself seriously, the casual manner of the Paris detective could not fail to give offence.
‘Et bien, Monsieur Giraud,’ said the magistrate rather sharply. ‘Without doubt you have been employing your time to a marvel! You have the names of the assassins for us, have you not? And also the precise spot where they find themselves now?’
Unmoved by this irony, M. Giraud replied: ‘I know at least where they have come from.’
Giraud took two small objects from his pocket and laid them down on the table. We crowded round. The objects were very simple ones: the stub of a cigarette and an unlighted match. The detective wheeled round on Poirot.
‘What do you see there?’ he asked.
There was something almost brutal in his tone. It made my cheeks flush. But Poirot remained unmoved. He shrugged his shoulders.
‘A cigarette end and a match.’
‘And what does that tell you?’
Poirot spread out his hands. ‘It tells me—nothing.’
‘Ah!’ said Giraud, in a satisfied voice. ‘You haven’t made a study of these things. That’s not an ordinary match—not in this country at least. It’s common enough in South America. Luckily it’s unlighted. I mightn’t have recognized it otherwise. Evidently one of the men threw away his cigarette and lit another, spilling one match out of the box as he did so.’
‘And the other match?’ asked Poirot.
‘Which match?’
‘The one he did light his cigarette with. You have found that also?’
‘No.’
‘Perhaps you didn’t search very thoroughly.’
‘Not search thoroughly—’ For a moment it seemed as though the detective was going to break out angrily, but with an effort he controlled himself. ‘I see you love a joke, Monsieur Poirot. But in any case, match or no match, the cigarette end would be sufficient. It is a South American cigarette with liquorice pectoral paper.’
Poirot bowed. The commissary spoke: ‘The cigarette end and match might have belonged to Monsieur Renauld. Remember, it is only two years since he returned from South America.’
‘No,’ replied the other confidently. ‘I have already searched among the effects of Monsieur Renauld. The cigarettes he smoked and the matches he used are quite different.’