Meredith Blake said slowly, "I can take you over there right away.
But, of course, it's a good deal changed."
"It has not been built over?"
"No, thank goodness - not quite so bad as that.
But it's a kind of hostel now - it was bought by some society.
Hordes of young people come down to it in the summer, and, of course, all the rooms have been cut up and partitioned into cubicles, and the grounds have been altered a good deal."
"You must reconstruct it for me by your explanations."
"I'll do my best.
I wish you could have seen it in the old days.
It was one of the loveliest properties I know."
He led the way out and began walking down a slope of lawn.
"Who was responsible for selling it?"
"The executors on behalf of the child.
Everything Crale had came to her.
He hadn't made a will, so I imagine that it would be divided automatically between his wife and the child.
Caroline's will left what she had to the child, also."
"Nothing to her half sister?"
"Angela had a certain amount of money of her own left her by her father."
Poirot nodded.
"I see." Then he uttered an exclamation. "But where is it that you take me?
This is the seashore ahead of us!"
"Ah, I must explain our geography to you. You'll see for yourself in a minute.
There's a creek, you see, Camel Creek, they call it, runs right inland - looks almost like a river mouth, but it isn't - it's just sea.
To get to Alderbury by land, you have to go right inland and around the creek, but the shortest way from one house to the other is to row across this narrow bit of the creek.
Alderbury is just opposite - there, you can see the house through the trees."
They had come out on a little beach.
Opposite them was a wooded headland, and a white house could just be distinguished high up among the trees.
Two boats were drawn up on the beach.
Meredith Blake, with Poirot's somewhat awkward assistance, dragged one of them down to the water and presently they were rowing across to the other side.
"We always went this way in the old days," Meredith explained.
"Unless there was a storm or it was raining, and then we'd take the car.
But it's nearly three miles if you'go around that way."
He ran the boat neatly alongside a stone quay on the other side. He cast a disparaging eye on a collection of wooden huts and some concrete terraces.
"All new, this.
Used to be a boathouse - tumble-down old place, and nothing else.
And one walked along the shore and bathed off those rocks over there."
He assisted his guest to alight, made fast the boat, and led the way up a steep path.
"Don't suppose we'll meet anyone," he said over his shoulder. "Nobody here in April - except for Easter.
Doesnt matter if we do.
I'm on good terms with my neighbors.
Sun's glorious today. Might be summer.
It was a wonderful day then.
More like July than September.
Brilliant sun, but a chilly little wind."
The path came out of the trees and skirted an outcrop of rock.
Meredith pointed up with his hand.
"That s what they called the Battery.
We're underneath it now - skirting round it."
They plunged into trees again and then the path took another sharp turn and they emerged by a door set in a high wall.
The path itself continued to zigzag upward, but Meredith opened the door and the two men passed through it.