安博appe wasword perfect. Then

Marvellous,” said Patrick.

“And then I got her to agree to do her part. I rehearsed her till she wasword perfect. Then I told her to go upstairs to her room and not comedown until Inspector Craddock came. The worst of these excitable peopleis that they’re apt to go off half-cocked and start the whole thing beforethe time.”

“She did it very well,” said Julia.

“I don’t quite see the point,” said Bunch. “Of course, I wasn’t there—”

she added apologetically.

“The point was a little complicated—and rather touch and go. The ideawas that Mitzi whilst admitting, as though casually, that blackmail hadbeen in her mind, was now so worked up and terrified that she was will-ing to come out with the truth. She’d seen, through the keyhole of the din-ing room, Miss Blacklock in the hall with a revolver behind Rudi Scherz.

She’d seen, that is, what had actually taken place. Now the only danger wasthat Charlotte Blacklock might have realized that, as the key was in thekeyhole, Mitzi couldn’t possibly have seen anything at all. But I banked onthe fact that you don’t think of things like that when you’ve just had a badshock. All she could take in was that Mitzi had seen her.”

Craddock took over the story.