"I noticed she was still in her chair up on the ridge."
"That did not strike you as odd, that she had not moved?"
"No, because I had seen her sitting there the night before when we arrived."
"I see.
Continuez."
"I went into the marquee.
The others were all there - except Dr. Gerard.
I washed and then came back.
They brought in dinner and one of the servants went to tell Mrs. Boynton. He came running back to say she was ill.
I hurried out.
She was sitting in her chair just as she had been, but as soon as I touched her I realized she was dead."
"You had no doubt at all as to her death being natural?"
"None whatever.
I had heard that she suffered from heart trouble, though no specified disease had been mentioned."
"You simply thought she had died sitting there in her chair?"
"Yes."
"Without calling out for assistance?"
"Yes. It happens that way sometimes.
She might even have died in her sleep.
She was quite likely to have dozed off.
In any case, all the camp was asleep most of the afternoon.
No one would have heard her unless she had called very loud."
"Did you form an opinion as to how long she had been dead?"
"Well, I didn't really think very much about it.
She had clearly been dead some time."
"What do you call some time?" asked Poirot.
"Well - over an hour.
It might have been much longer.
The refraction off the rock would keep her body from cooling quickly."
"Over an hour?
Are you aware, Mademoiselle King, that Mr. Raymond Boynton spoke to her only a little over half an hour earlier and that she was then alive and well?"
Now her eyes no longer met his. But she shook her head.
"He must have made a mistake.
It must have been earlier than that."
"No, Mademoiselle, it was not."
She looked at him point-blank. He noticed again the set of her mouth.
"Well," said Sarah. "I'm young and I haven't had much experience with dead bodies but I know enough to be quite sure of one thing: Mrs. Boynton had been dead at least an hour when I examined her body!"
"That," said Hercule Poirot unexpectedly, "is your story and you are going to stick to it!" "It's the truth," said Sarah.
"Then can you explain why Mr. Boynton should say his mother was alive when she was, in point of fact, dead?"
"I've no idea," said Sarah.
"They're probably rather vague about time, all of them!
They're a very nervous family."
"On how many occasions, Mademoiselle, have you spoken with them?"
Sarah was silent a moment, frowning a little.
"I can tell you exactly," she said.
"I talked to Raymond Boynton in the Wagon-Lit corridor coming to Jerusalem.
I had two conversations with Carol Boynton - one at the Mosque of Omar and one late that evening in my bedroom.
I had a conversation with Mrs. Lennox Boynton the following morning.
That's all, up to the afternoon of Mrs. Boynton's death, when we all went walking together."
"You did not have any conversation with Mrs. Boynton herself?"