PROBLEM AT SEA
213
He turned to General Forbes. "It was you,
General, who gave me a valuable hint with your
mention of the music hall stage. I puzzle--I
think--and then it comes to me. Supposing that
before the war Clapperton was a ventriloquist. In
that case, it would be perfectly possible for three
people to hear Mrs. Clapperton speak from inside
her cabin when she was already dead .... "
Ellie Henderson was beside him. Her eyes were
dark and full of pain. "Did you know his heart
was weak?" she asked.
"I guessed it .... Mrs. Clapperton talked of her
own heart being affected, but she struck me as the
type of woman who likes to be thought ill. Then I
picked up a torn prescription with a very strong
dose of digitalin in it. Digitalin is a heart mdicine
but it couldn't be Mrs. Clapperton's because
digitalin dilates the pupils of the eyes. I had never
noticed such a phenomenon with hei'--but when I
looked at his eyes I saw the signs at once."
Ellie murmured: "So you thought--it might
end--this way?"
"The best way, don't you think, Mademoi-selle?''
he said gently.
He saw the tears rise in her eyes. She said:
"You've known. You've kno?n all along. : . .
That I cared .... But he didn't do it for me .... It
was those girlsmyouthmit made him feel his