Page:Christie - The Mysterious Affair at Styles.djvu/269

 it for what it was—a piece torn from a green land armlet."

There was a little stir of excitement.

"Now there was only one person at Styles who worked on the land—Mrs. Cavendish. Therefore it must have been Mrs. Cavendish who entered the deceased's room through the door communicating with Mademoiselle Cynthia's room."

"But that door was bolted on the inside!" I cried.

"When I examined the room, yes. But in the first place we have only her word for it, since it was she who tried that particular door and reported it fastened.  In the ensuing confusion she would have had ample opportunity to shoot the bolt across.  I took an early opportunity of verifying my conjectures.  To begin with, the fragment corresponds exactly with a tear in Mrs. Cavendish's armlet.  Also, at the inquest, Mrs. Cavendish declared that she had heard, from her own room, the fall of thetable by the bed.  I took an early opportunity of testing that statement by stationing my friend Monsieur Hastings in the left wing of the building, just outside Mrs. Cavendish's door.  I myself, in company with the police, went to the deceased's room, and whilst there I, apparently accidentally, knocked over the table in question, but found that, as I had expected, Monsieur Hastings had heard no sound at all.