Complete Short Stories of Miss Marple by Agatha Christie Page A

suspicion. She was devoted to her young master and mistress and detested the Spraggs. She would, I feel sure, have been quite equal to attempting the substitution if she had thought of it. But although she actually handled the envelope when she picked it up from the floor and handed it to me, she certainly had no opportunity of tampering with its contents and she could not have substituted another envelope by some sleight of hand (of which anyway she would not be capable) because the envelope in question was brought into the house by me and no one there would be likely to have a duplicate.'
    He looked round, beaming on the assembly.
    'Now, there is my little problem. I have, I hope, stated it clearly. I should be interested to hear your views.'
    To everyone's astonishment Miss Marple gave vent to a long and prolonged chuckle. Something seemed to be amusing her immensely.
    'What is the matter, Aunt Jane? Can't we share the joke?' said Raymond.
    'Mr. Petherick's story is a catch. So like a lawyer! Ah, my dear old friend!' She shook a reproving head at him.
    'I wonder if you really know,' said the lawyer with a twinkle.
    Miss Marple wrote a few words on a piece of paper, folded them up and passed them across to him.
    Mr. Petherick unfolded the paper, read what was written on it and looked across at her appreciatively.
    'My dear friend,' he said, 'is there anything you do not know?'
    'I knew that as a child,' said Miss Marple. 'Played with it too. '
    ' I feel rather out of this, ' said Sir Henry. 'I feel sure that Mr. Petherick has some clever legal legerdemain up his sleeve. '
    'Not at all,' said Mr. Petherick. 'Not at all. It is a perfectly fair straightforward proposition. You must not pay any attention to Miss Marple. She has her own way of looking at things.'
    The lawyer shook his head.
    'I will go on where I left off. I was dumbfounded and quite as much at sea as all of you are. I don't think I should ever have guessed the truth probably not – but I was enlightened. It was cleverly done too.
    'I went and dined with Philip Garrod about a month later, and in the course of our after dinner conversation, he mentioned an interesting case that had recently come to his notice.
    'I should like to tell you about it, Petherick, in confidence, of course.'
    'Quite so,' I replied.
    'A friend of mine who had expectations from one of his relatives was greatly distressed to find that that relative had thoughts of benefiting a totally unworthy person. My friend, I am afraid, is a trifle unscrupulous in his methods. There was a maid in the house who was greatly devoted to the interests of what I may call the legitimate party. My friend gave her very simple instructions. He gave her a fountain pen, duly filled. She was to place this in a drawer in the writing-table in her master's room, but not the usual drawer where the pen was generally kept. If her master asked her to witness his signature to any document and asked her to bring him his pen, she was to bring him not the right one, but this one which was an exact duplicate of it. That was all she had to do. He gave her no other information. She was a devoted creature and she carried out his instructions faithfully.'
    'He broke off and said, 'I hope I am not boring you, Petherick.'
    'Not at all,' I said. 'I am keenly interested.' Our eyes met.
    'My friend is, of course, not known to you,' he said.
    'Of course not,' I replied.
    'Then that is all right,' said Philip Garrod.
    'He paused then said smilingly, 'You see the point? The pen was filled with what is commonly known as Evanescent Ink – a solution of starch in water to which a few drops of iodine has been added. This makes a deep blue-black fluid, but the writing disappears entirely in four or five days.'
    Miss Marple chuckled.
    'Disappearing ink,' she said. 'I know it. Many is the time I have played with it as a child.'
    And she beamed round on them all, pausing to shake a finger once more at Mr. Petherick.
    'But all the same it's a