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 “Madame Olivier! Impossible! Absurd! It is an insult what you say there!”

Poirot shook his head gently, but made no answer.

Desjardeaux looked at him in stupefaction for some moments. Then his face cleared, and he glanced at the Home Secretary and tapped his forehead significantly.

“M. Poirot is a great man,” he observed. “But even the great man—sometimes he has his little mania, does he not? And seeks in high places for fancied conspiracies. It is well known. You agree with me, do you not, Mr. Crowther?”

The Home Secretary did not answer for some minutes. Then he spoke slowly and heavily.

“Upon my soul, I don’t know,” he said at last. “I have always had and still have the utmost belief in M. Poirot, but—well, this takes a bit of believing.”

“This Li Chang Yen, too,” continued M. Desjardeaux. ”Who has ever heard of him?”

“I have,” said the unexpected voice of Mr. Ingles.

The Frenchman stared at him, and he stared placidly back again, looking more like a Chinese idol than ever “Mr. Ingles,” explained the Home Secretary, “is the greatest authority we have on the interior of China.”