Читать книгу Agatha Christie: The Collection. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot Investigates, The Murder on the Links, The Secret Adversary, The Man in the Brown Suit онлайн

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“Then,” I said, “what do you deduce?”

To which my friend only made a rather irritating reply, urging me to use my own natural faculties.

“And the sixth point?” I asked. “I suppose it is the sample of cocoa.”

“No,” said Poirot thoughtfully. “I might have included that in the six, but I did not. No, the sixth point I will keep to myself for the present.”

He looked quickly round the room. “There is nothing more to be done here, I think, unless” — he stared earnestly and long at the dead ashes in the grate. “The fire burns — and it destroys. But by chance — there might be — let us see!”

Deftly, on hands and knees, he began to sort the ashes from the grate into the fender, handling them with the greatest caution. Suddenly, he gave a faint exclamation.

“The forceps, Hastings!”

I quickly handed them to him, and with skill he extracted a small piece of half charred paper.

“There, mon ami!” he cried. “What do you think of that?”

I scrutinized the fragment. This is an exact reproduction of it: —