ecessarily come
forward with the facts. Bah! do not ask me to believe that any man could
be so idiotic! Only a lunatic, who wished to commit suicide by causing
himself to be hanged, would act so!"

"Still--I do not see--" I began.

"Neither do I see. I tell you, mon ami, it puzzles me. Me--Hercule
Poirot!"

"But if you believe him innocent, how do you explain his buying the
strychnine?"

"Very simply. He did _not_ buy it."

"But Mace recognized him!"

"I beg your pardon, he saw a man with a black beard like Mr.
Inglethorp's, and wearing glasses like Mr. Inglethorp, and dressed in
Mr. Inglethorp's rather noticeable clothes. He could not recognize a man
whom he had probably only seen in the distance, since, you remember, he
himself had only been in the village a fortnight, and Mrs. Inglethorp
dealt principally with Coot's in Tadminster."

"Then you think----"

"Mon ami, do you remember the two points I laid stress upon? Leave the
first one for the moment, what was the second?"

"The important fact that Alfred Inglethorp wears peculiar clothes, has a
black beard, and uses glasses," I quoted.

"Exactly. Now suppose anyone wished to pass himself off as John or
Lawrence Cavendish. Would it be easy?"

"No," I said thoughtfully. "Of course an actor----"

But Poirot cut me short ruthlessly.

"And why would it not be easy? I will tell you, my friend: Because they
are both clean-shaven men. To make up successfully as one of these
two in broad daylight, it would need an actor of genius, and a certain
initial facial resemblance. But in the case of Alfred Inglethorp, all
that is changed. His clothes, his beard, the glasses which hide his
eyes--those are the salient points about his personal appearance. Now,
what is the first instinct of the criminal? To divert suspicion from
himself, is it not so? And how can he best do that? By throwing it on
some one else. In this instance, there was a man ready to his hand.
Everybody was predisposed to believe in Mr. Inglethorp's guilt. It was
a foregone conclusion that he would be suspected; but, to make it a sure
thing there must be tangible proof--such as the actual buying of
the poison, and that, with a man of the peculiar appearance of Mr.
Inglethorp, was not difficult. Remember, this young Mace had never
actually spoken to Mr. Inglethorp. How should he doubt that the man in
his clothes, with his beard and his glasses, was not Alfred Inglethorp?"

"It may be so," I said, fa