‘Absolutely, M. Poirot. I will answer confidently for my secretary. It is quite impossible that he should be concerned in the matter in any way.’ ‘Everything seems to be impossible,’ remarked Poirot rather drily. ‘Possibly the plans attached to themselves a little pair of wings, and flew away – comme fa!’ He blew his lips out like a comical cherub.
‘The whole thing is impossible,’ declared Lord Alloway impatiently. ‘But I beg, M. Poirot, that you will not dream of suspecting Fitzroy. Consider for one moment – had he wished to take the plans, what could have been easier for him than to take a tracing of them without going to the trouble of stealing them?’ ‘There, milor’,’ said Poirot with approval, ‘you make a remark &n juste – I see that you have a mind orderly and methodical. L’Angleterre is happy in possessing you.’ Lord Alloway looked rather embarrassed by this sudden burst of praise. Poirot returned to the matter in hand.
‘The room in which you had been sitting all the evening – ‘ ‘The drawing-room? Yes?’
‘That also has a window on the terrace, since I remember your saying you went out that way. Would it not be possible for someone to come out by the drawing-room window and in by this one while Mr Fitzroy was out of the room, and return the same way?’ ‘But we’d have seen them,’ objected the Admiral.
‘Not if you had your backs turned, walking the other way.’
‘Fitzroy was only out of the room a few minutes, the time it would take us to walk to the end and back.’
‘No matter – it is a possibility – in fact, the only one as things stand.’
‘But there was no one in the drawing-room when we went out,’ said the Admiral.
‘They may have come there afterwards.’
‘You mean,’ said Lord Alloway slowly, ‘that when Fitzroy heard the maid scream and went out, someone was already con-cealed in the drawing-room, that they darted in and out through the windows, and only left the drawing-room when Fitzroy had returned to this room?’
‘The methodical mind again,’ said Poirot, bowing.
‘You express the matter perfectly.’ ‘One of the servants, perhaps?’
‘Or a guest. It was Mrs Conrad’s maid who screamed. What exactly can you tell me of Mrs Conrad?’
Lord Alloway considered for a minute.
‘I told you that she is a lady well known in society. That is true in the sense that she gives large parties, and goes everywhere.
But very little is known as to where she really comes from, and what her past life has been. She is a lady who frequents diplomatic and Foreign Office circles as much as possible. The Secret Service is inclined to ask – why?’
‘I see,’ said Poirot. ‘And she was asked here this week-end – ‘ ‘So that – shall we say? – we might observe her at close quarter.’
‘Parfaitemenfl It is possible that she has turned the tables on you rather neatly.’
Lord Alloway looked discomfited, and Poirot continued: ‘Tell me, milor’, was any reference made in her hearing to the subjects you and the Admiral were going to discuss together?’ that grass could not avoid leaving footmarks. But there are none none at all.’ His eyes went from one man’s face to the other’s. Lord Alloway looked bewildered and unconvinced; the Admiral expressed a noisy gratification.
‘Knew I couldn’t be wrong,’ he declared. ‘Trust my eyes anywhere.’ He was such a picture of an honest old sea-dog that I could not help smiling.
‘So that brings us to the people in the house,’ said Poirot smoothly. ‘Let us come inside again. Now, milor’, while Mr Fitzroy was speaking to the maid on the stairs, could anyone have seized the opportunity to enter the study from the hall?’ Lord Alloway shook his head.
‘Quite impossible – they would have had to pass him in order to do so.’ ‘And Mr Fitzroy himself – you are sure of him, eh?’ Lord Alloway flushed.
‘Absolutely, M. Poirot. I will answer confidently for my secretary. It is quite impossible that he should be concerned in the matter in any way.’ ‘Everything seems to be impossible,’ remarked Poirot rather drily. ‘Possibly the plans attached to themselves a little pair of wings, and flew away – comme la!’ He blew his lips out like a comical cherub.