have let himself in without the valet hearing him,
opened the door of the sitting room, called his
man and told him to go out and get some cigarettes.
On his return the man brought them to his
master, who was then alone in the sitting room.
32
Agatha Christie
The man naturally conclnded that Mr. Clayton
had left.
The guests arrived shortly afterwards. They
comprised Mrs. Clayton, Major Curtiss and a Mr.
and Mrs. Spence. The evening was spent dancing
to the phonograph and playing poker. The guests
left shortly after midnight.
The following morning, on coming to do the sit-ting
room, the valet was startled to find a deep
stain discoloring the carpet below and in front of a
piece of furniture which Major Rich had brought
from the East and which was called the Bagdad
Chest.
Instinctively the valet lifted the lid of the chest
and was horrified to find inside the doubled-up
body of a man who had been stabbed to the heart.
Terrified, the man ran out of the flat and
fetched the nearest policeman. The dead man
proved to be Mr. Clayton. The arrest of Major
Rich followed very shortly afterward. The major's
defense, it was understood, consisted of a sturdy
denial of everything. He had not seen Mr. Clayton
the preceding evening and the first he had heard of