30 MISS MARPLE - Agatha Christie - short stories

persons' account of the same thing will differ so widely as to be almost incredible." Mr. Petherick coughed. "But in all these theories we seem to be overlooking one essential fact," he remarked. "What became of the weapon? Miss Ashley could hardly get rid of a javelin standing as she was in the middle of an open space; and if a hidden murderer had thrown a dagger, then the dagger would still have been in the wound when the man was turned over. We must, I think, discard all far-fetched theories and confine ourselves to sober fact." "And where does sober fact lead us?" "Well, one thing seems quite clear. No one was near the man when he was stricken down, so the only person who could have stabbed him was he himself. Suicide, in fact." "But why on earth should he wish to commit suicide?" asked Raymond West incredulously. The lawyer coughed again. "Ah, that is the question of theory once more," he said. "At the moment I am not concerned with theories. It seems to me, excluding the supernatural in which I do not for one moment believe, that that was the only way things could have happened. He stabbed himself, and as he fell his arms flew out, wrenching the dagger from the wound and flinging it far into the zone of the trees. That is, I think, although somewhat unlikely, a possible happening." "I don't like to say, I am sure," said Miss Marple. "It all perplexes me very much, indeed. But curious things do ha?-pen. At Lady Sharpley's garden party last year the man who was arranging the clock golf tripped over one of the num-bers---cluite unconscious he wasand didn't come round for about five minutes." "Yes, dear Aunt," said Raymond gently, "but he wasn't stabbed, was he?"