CHAPTER 6 Third Murderer?

"Didn't get any extra change out of her," commented Battle. "Put me in my place, too. She's the old-fashioned kind, full of consideration for others, but arrogant¹ as the devil! I can't believe she did it, but you never know! She's got plenty of resolution. What's the idea of the bridge scores, M. Poirot?" Poirot spread them out on the table. "They are illuminating², do you not think? What do we want in this case? A clue to character. And a clue not to one character, but to four characters. And this is where we are most likely to find it--in these scribbled³ figures. Here is the first rubber, you see a tame business, soon over. Small neai figures-careful addition and subtraction--that is Miss Meredith's score. She was playing with Mrs. Lorrimer. They had the cards, and they won. "In this next one it is not so easy to follow the play, since it is kept in the cancellation⁴ style. But it tells us perhaps something about Major Desparda man who likes the whole time to know at a glance where he stands. The figures are small and full character. "This next score is Mrs. Lorrimer's--she and Dr. Roberts against the other two--a Homeric combat--figures mounting up above the line each side. Overcalling on the doctor's part, and they go down; but, since they are both first-class players, they never go down very much. If the doctor's overcalling induces rash bidding on the other side there is the chance seized of doubling. See--these figures here are doubled tricks gone down. A characteristic handwriting, graceful⁵, very legible, firm. "Here is the last scorethe unfinished rubber. I collected one score in each person's handwriting, you see. Figures rather flamboyant⁶. Not such high scores as the preceding rubber. That is probably because the doctor was playing with Miss Meredith, and she is a timid player. His calling would make her more so! "You think, perhaps, that they are foolish, these questions that I ask? But it is not so. I want to get at the characters of these four players, and when it is only about bridge I ask, every one is.ready and willing to speak." "I never think your questions foolish, M. Poirot," said Battle. "I've seen too much of your work. Every one's ggt their own ways of working. I know that. I give my

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