14. DINNER FOR TWO
With a grave face Paradise served the tea, passed sandwiches and cakes, and then silently withdrew. Barry Kirk paused with his cup at his lips, an inquiring look in his eyes. Inspector Duff saw it and smiled.
“I may tell you,” he said, “that hydrocyanic acid has a quite distinctive odor. A pungent odor of peach blossoms.”
“That’s very good of you,” answered Kirk. “I shall remember what you say. And you, Charlie—you’d better do the same. At the first intimation that we are in a peach orchard, we call up the employment agency and engage a new butler.”
“I have made a note,” Chan told him.
“At any rate,” Kirk continued, “life’s going to be rather a sporting proposition from now on. ‘To be, or not to be: that is the question.’”
“We must treat Paradise with kindly consid
