“That’s a bargain,” said Japp heartily. “And, on behalf of the Yard, I’m much obliged to you, though I’m bound to confess I can’t at present see the faintest possible loophole in the evidence, but you always were a marvel! So long, then, moosier.”

The two detectives strode away, Summerhaye with an incredulous grin on his face.

“Well, my friend,” cried Poirot, before I could get in a word, “what do you think? Mon Dieu! I had some warm moments in that court; I did not figure to myself that the man would be so pigheaded as to refuse to say anything at all. Decidedly, it was the policy of an imbecile.”

“H’m! There are other explanations besides that of imbecility,” I remarked. “For, if the case against him is true, how could he defend himself except by silence?”