Seventeen
T HE A LBUM
S tanding by the Vicarage gate, well wrapped up, Miss Marple took the note from Bunch’s hand.
“Tell Miss Blacklock,” said Bunch, “that Julian is terribly sorry he can’t come up himself. He’s got a parishionerdying out at Locke Hamlet. He’ll come up after lunch if Miss Blacklock would like to see him. The note’s about thearrangements for the funeral. He suggests Wednesday if the inquest’s on Tuesday. Poor old Bunny. It’s so typical ofher, somehow, to get hold of poisoned aspirin¹ meant for someone else. Goodbye, darling. I hope the walk won’t be toomuch for you. But I’ve simply got to get that child to hospital at once.”
Miss Marple said the walk wouldn’t be too much for her, and Bunch rushed off.
Whilst waiting for Miss Blacklock, Miss Marple looked round the drawing room, and wondered just exactly whatDora Bunner had meant that morning in the Bluebird by saying that she believed Patrick had “tampered with thelamp” to “make the lights go out.” What lamp? And how had he “tampered” with it?
She must, Miss Marple decided², have meant the small lamp that stood on the table by the archway. She had saidsomething about a shepherdess or a shepherd—and this was actually a delicate piece of Dresden china, a shepherd in ablue coat and pink breeches holding what had originally been a candlestick and had now been adapted to electricity.
The shade was of plain vellum and a little too big so that it almost masked the figure. What else was it that DoraBunner had said? “I remember distinctly that it was the shepherdess. And the next day—” Certainly it was a shepherdnow.
Miss Marple remembered that when she and Bunch had come to tea, Dora Bunner had said something about thelamp being one of a pair. Of course—a shepherd and a shepherdess. And it had been the shepherdess on the day of thehold-up—and the next morning it had been the other lamp—the lamp that was here now, the shepherd. The lamps hadbeen changed over during the night. And Dora Bunner had had reason to believe (or had believed without reason) thatit was Patrick who had changed them.
Why? Because, if the original lamp were examined, it would show just how Patrick had managed to “make thelights go out.” How had he managed? Miss Marple looked earnestly at the lamp in front of her. The flex³ ran along thetable over the edge and was plugged into the wall. There was a small pear-shaped switch

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