fact, the old girl took a cachet before meals. You
HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?
67
know, not a pill or a tablet; one of those rice-paper
things with a powder inside. Some perfectly
harmless thing for the digestion."
"Admirable. Nothing is easier than to fill a
cachet with strychnine and substitute it for one of
the others. It slips down the throat with a drink of
water and is not tasted."
"That's all right. The trouble is, the girl gave it
to her."
"The Russian girl?"
"Yes. Katrina Rieger. She was a kind of lady-help,
nurse-companion to Miss Barrowby. Fairly
ordered about by her, too, I gather. Fetch this,
fetch that, fetch the other, rub my back, pour out
my medicine, run round to the chemist--all that
sort of business. You know how it is with these old
women--they mean to be kind, but what they
need is a sort of black slave!"
Poirot smiled.
"And there you are, you see," continued In-spector
Sims. "It doesn't fit in what you might
call nicely. Why should the girl poison her? Miss
Barrowby dies and now the girl will be out of a
job, and jobs aren't so easy to findshe's not
trained or anything."
"Still," suggested Poirot, "if the box of cachets
was left about, anyone in the house might
