IRENE WAS THE first to speak, coming to the point with an abruptness which the Frenchman would not have used. "What is it you want to know?"

"I want you to be kind enough to tell me all you can concerning M. Reynard's death."

"I can soon do that. I know nothing. I went out shopping, and when I came back there was a dead man on the floor."

"At what time was that?"

"Oh, during the afternoon. It was a good while after lunch."

"Can't you be more definite than that?"

"Not unless I guess. When anyone sees a dead man the next thing she does isn't to look at the clock. Not unless it's in books."

"You're not trying to be very helpful."

"I'm not trying either way. I 'm trying to make you understand that if you want to find out who did it you're wasting time asking us."

"Who was in the room when you entered?"

"No one except His Excellency. He'd just come in."

"What do you know about Mr. Kindell?"

"He's my cousin."

"Then you probably know the business that brought him over here at the same time as yourselves."

"I might guess, and be wrong. It mayn't have been business at all. He's not the sort who'd go about killing strange men in other people's rooms, if you mean that."

"I'm sorry to hear that you have so decided an opinion. Here is a homicide which appears to have been the act of either your father or this young man, and of which we should greatly prefer that His Excellency should be cleared. I hoped that you might be able to give us a pointer in the right direction."

"Well, I can't. They're both silly ideas. I've told you my father had only just come into the room."

"How do you know that?"

"He told me himself. I could see how angry he was that the man was there."

"Angry? Surely............