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‘Sooner or later Mrs Boynton takes a dose and dies—and even if the digitalis is discovered inthe bottle it may be set down as a mistake of the chemist who made it up. Certainly nothing can beproved!

‘Why, then, the theft of the hypodermic needle?

‘There can be only two explanations of that—either Dr Gerard overlooked the syringe and itwas never stolen, or else the syringe was taken because the murderer had not got access to themedicine—that is to say the murderer was not a member of the Boynton family. Those two firstfacts point overwhelmingly to an outsider as having committed the crime!

‘I saw that—but I was puzzled, as I say, by the strong evidences of guilt¹ displayed by theBoynton family. Was it possible that, in spite of that consciousness of guilt, the Boynton familywere innocent? I set out to prove—not the guilt—but the innocence² of those people!

‘That is where we stand now. The murder was committed by an outsider—that is, by someonewho was not sufficiently³ intimate with Mrs Boynton to enter her tent or to handle her medicinebottle.’

He paused.

‘There are three people in this room who are, technically⁴, outsiders, but who have a definiteconnection with the case.

‘Mr Cope, whom we will consider first, has been closely associated with the Boynton family forsome time. Can we discover motive⁵ and opportunity on his part? It seems not. Mrs Boynton’sdeath has affected⁶ him adversely—since it has brought about the frustration⁷ of certain hopes.

Unless Mr Cope’s motive was an almost fanatical desire to benefit others, we can find no reasonfor his desiring Mrs Boynton’s death. (Unless, of course, there is a motive about which we areentirely in the dark. We do not know what Mr Cope’s dealings with the Boynton family havebeen.)’

Mr Cope said with dignity: ‘This seems to me a little farfetched, M. Poirot. You must rememberI had absolutely no opportunity for committing this deed and, in any case I hold very strong viewsas to the sanctity of human life.’

‘Your position certainly seems impeccable,’ said Poirot with gravity. ‘In a work of fiction youwould be strongly suspected on that account.’

He turned a little in his chair. ‘We now come to Miss King. Miss King had a certain amount ofmotive and she had the necessary medical knowledge and is a person of character anddetermination, but since she left the camp before three-thirty with the others and did not return toit until six o’clock, it seems difficult to see where she could have got her opportunity.

‘Next we must consider Dr Gerard. Now here we must take into account the actual time that themurder was committed. According to Mr Lennox Boynton’s last statement, his mother was dead atfour thirty-five. According to Lady Westholme and Miss Pierce, she was alive at four-sixteenwhen they started on their walk. That leaves exactly twenty minutes unaccounted for.