As Miss Pierce was following her, gazing down ruefully at her left leg, Poirot said:
"A little moment, please, Mademoiselle?"
"Yes?" Miss Pierce looked up, a slightly apprehensive look upon her face.
Poirot leaned forward confidentially.
"You see this bunch of wild flowers on the table here?"
"Yes," said Miss Pierce staring.
"And you noticed that, when you first came into the room, I sneezed once or twice?"
"Yes."
"Did you notice if I had just been sniffing those flowers?"
"Well - really - no - I couldn't say."
"But you remember my sneezing?"
"Oh, yes, I remember that!"
"Ah, well - no matter. I wondered, you see, if these flowers might induce the hay fever. No matter!"
"Hay fever!" cried Miss Pierce. "I remember a cousin of mine was a martyr to it!
She always said that if you sprayed your nose daily with a solution of boracic - "
With some difficulty Poirot shelved the cousin's nasal treatment and got rid of Miss Pierce.
He shut the door and came back into the room with his eyebrows raised. "But I did not sneeze," he murmured. "So much for that. No, I did not sneeze."
6
Lennox Boynton came into the room with a quick resolute step.
Had he been there, Dr. Gerard would have been surprised at the change in the man.
The apathy was gone.
His bearing was alert - although he was plainly nervous.
His eyes had a tendency to shift rapidly from point to point about the room.
"Good morning, M. Boynton." Poirot rose and bowed ceremoniously. Lennox responded somewhat awkwardly. "I much appreciate your giving me this interview."
Lennox Boynton said rather uncertainly: "Er - Colonel Carbury said it would be a good thing. Advised it. Some formalities he said."
"Please sit down, M. Boynton."
Lennox sat down on the chair lately vacated by Lady Westholme.
Poirot went on conversationally: "This has been a great shock to you, I am afraid."
"Yes, of course. Well, no, perhaps not... We always knew that my mother's heart was not strong."
"Was it wise, under those circumstances, to allow her to undertake such an arduous expedition?"
Lennox Boynton raised his head.
He spoke not without a certain sad dignity. "My mother, M. - er, Poirot, made her own decisions. If she had made up her mind to anything it was no good our opposing her." He drew in his breath sharply as he said the last words. His face suddenly grew rather white.
"I know well," admitted Poirot, "that elderly ladies are sometimes headstrong."
Lennox said irritably: "What is the purpose of all this? That is what I want to know. Why have all these formalities arisen?"
"Perhaps you do not realize, M. Boynton, that in cases of sudden and unexplained deaths, formalities must necessarily arise."
Lennox said sharply: "What do you mean by 'unexplained'?"
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
"There is always the question to be considered: Is a death natural or might it perhaps be suicide?"
"Suicide?" Lennox Boynton stared.
Poirot said lightly: "You, of course, would know best about such possibilities.
Colonel Carbury, naturally, is in the dark. It is necessary for him to decide whether to order an inquiry - an autopsy - all the rest of it.
As I was on the spot and as I have much experience of these matters, he suggested that I should make a few inquiries and advise him upon the matter.
Naturally, he does not wish to cause you inconvenience if it can be helped."
Lennox Boynton said angrily: "I shall wire to our Consul in Jerusalem."
Poirot said noncommittally: "You are quite within your rights in doing so, of course." There was a pause.
Then Poirot said, spreading out his hands: "If you object to answering my questions - "
Lennox Boynton said quickly: "Not at all. Only - it seems - all so unnecessary."
"I comprehend. I comprehend perfectly.
But it is all very simple, really. A matter, as they say, of routine.
Now, on the afternoon of your mother's death, M. Boynton, I believe you left the camp at Petra and went for a walk?"