夜雨聆风So that is what you thought, Hastings – that the shot was fired on pur-pose?’
‘Yes. I feel ashamed now –’
Poirot waved aside my present feelings.
‘Did the thought occur to you of your own accord, or did someone elsesuggest it to you?’
‘Allerton said something of the kind,’ I said resentfully. ‘He would, ofcourse.’
‘Anyone else?’
‘Boyd Carrington suggested it.’
‘Ah! Boyd Carrington.’
‘And after all, he’s a man of the world and has experience of thesethings.’
‘Oh, quite so, quite so. He did not see the thing happen, though?’
‘No, he’d gone for a walk. Bit of exercise before changing for dinner.’
‘I see.’
I said uneasily: ‘I don’t think I really believed that theory. It was only –’
Poirot interrupted me. ‘You need not be so remorseful about your suspi-cions, Hastings. It was an idea quite likely to occur to anyone given the cir-cumstances. Oh, yes, it was all quite natural.’
There was something in Poirot’s manner I did not quite understand. Areserve. His eyes were watching me with a curious expression.