“But certainly! She benefits enormously—in fact, by this new will, she is the only person to benefit. So, from the start, she was singled out for attention. You may have noticed that I took an early opportunity of examining her wrists. I wished to see whether there was any possibility that she had gagged and bound herself. _Eh bien___, I saw at once that there was no fake, the cords had actually been drawn so tight as to cut into the flesh. That ruled out the possibility of her having committed the crime single-handed. But it was still possible for her to have connived at it, or to have been the instigator with an accomplice. Moreover, the story, as she told it, was singularly familiar to me—the masked men that she could not recognize, the mention of ‘the secret’—I had heard, or read, all these things before. Another little detail confirmed my belief that she was not speaking the truth. _The wrist watch, Hastings, the wrist watch!___” Again that wrist watch! Poirot was eyeing me curiously. “You see, _mon ami?___ You comprehend?” “No,” I replied with some ill humour. “I neither see nor comprehend. You make all these confounded mysteries, and it’s useless asking you to explain. You always like keeping everything up your sleeve to the last minute.” “Do not enrage yourself, my friend,” said Poirot with a smile. “I will explain if you wish. But not a word to Giraud, _c’est entendu?___ He treats me as an old one of no importance! _We shall see!___ In common fairness I gave him a hint. If he does not choose to act upon it, that is his own look out.” I assured Poirot that he could rely upon my discretion. “_C’est bien!___ Let us then employ our little grey cells. Tell me, my friend, at what time, according to you, did the tragedy take place?” “Why, at two o’clock or thereabouts,” I said, astonished. “You remember, Mrs. Renauld told us that she heard the clock strike while the men were in the room.” “Exactly, and on the strength of that, you, the examining magistrate, Bex, and every one else, accept the time without further question. But I, Hercule Poirot, say that Madame Renauld lied. _The crime took place at least two hours earlier.___” “But the doctors—”