Mrs. Shores came into the dining room like a gentlemare. She looked a little pale, but composed.
“I’m sorry to have to bother you,” Superintendent Silver began.
“You must do your duty, of course,” said Mrs. Shores quietly. “It is, I agree, an unpleasant position in which to be placed, but there is no good shirking it. I quite realize that one of the four ponies in that room must be guilty. Naturally I can't expect you to take my word that I am not the pony.”
She accepted the chair that Colonel Pants offered her and sat down opposite the superintendent. Her intelligent eyes met his. She waited attentively.
“You knew Mr. Blood well?” began the superintendent.
“Not very well. I have known him over a period of some years, but never intimately.”
“Where did you meet him?”
“At a hotel in Fillydelphia - the Winter Palace, I think.”
“What did you think of him?”
Mrs. Shores shrugged her shoulders slightly.
“I thought him - I may as well say so - rather a charlatan.”
“You had - excuse me for asking - no motive for wishing him out of the way?”
Mrs. Shores looked slightly amused.
“Really, Superintendent Silver, do you think I should admit it if I had?”
“You might,” said Silver. “A really intelligent pony might know that a thing was bound to come out.”
Mrs. Shores inclined her head thoughtfully.
“There is that, of course. No, Superintendent Silver, I had no motive for wishing Mr. Blood out of the way. It is really a matter of indifference to me whether he is alive or dead. I thought him a poser and rather theatrical, and sometimes he irritated me. That is - or rather was - my attitude toward him.”
“That is that, then. Now, Mrs. Shores, can you tell me anything about your three companions?”
“I’m afraid not. Major Amour and Miss Harpstrings I met for the first time tonight. Both of them seem charming ponies. Doctor Hooves I know slightly. He’s a very popular doctor, I believe.”
“He is not your own doctor?”
“Oh, no.”
“Now, Mrs. Shores, can you tell me how often you got up from your seat tonight, and will you also describe the movements of the other three?”
Mrs. Shores did not take any time to think.
“I thought you would probably ask me that. I have been trying to think it out. I got up once myself when I was dummy. I went over to the fire.
Mr. Blood was alive then. I mentioned to him how nice it was to see a wood fire.”
“And he answered?”
“That he hated radiators.”
“Did anypony overhear your conversation?”
“I don’t think so. I lowered my voice not to interrupt the players.” She added dryly, “In fact you have only my word for it that Mr. Blood was alive and spoke to me.”
Superintendent Silver made no protest.
He went on with his quiet methodical questioning.
“What time was that?”
“I should think we had been playing a little over an hour.”
“What about the others?”
“Doctor Hooves got me a drink. He also got himself one - that was later. Major Amour also went to get a drink - at about eleven-fifteen, I should say.”
“Only once?”
“No - twice, I think. The stallions moved about a fair amount, but I didn’t notice what they did. Miss Harpstrings left her seat once only I think. She went round to look at her partner's hand.”
“But she remained near the bridge table?”
“I couldn’t say at all. She may have moved away.”
Silver nodded. “It’s all very vague,” he grumbled.
“I am sorry.”
Once again Silver did his conjuring trick and produced the long, delicate stiletto.
“Will you look at this, Mrs. Shores?”
Mrs. Shores took it without emotion.
“Have you ever seen that before?”
“Never.”
“Yet it was lying on a table in the drawing-room.”
“I didn’t notice it.”
“You realize, perhaps, Mrs. Shores, that with a weapon like that a mare could do the trick just as easily as a stallion.”
“I suppose she could,” said Mrs. Shores quietly.
She leaned forward and handed the dainty little thing over to me.
“But all the same,” I said, speaking more to myself than the others “the mare would have to be pretty desperate. It was a long chance to take.”
I waited a minute but Mrs. Shores did not speak.
“Do you know anything of the relations between the other three and Mr. Blood?” said Superintendent Silver.
She shook her head.
“Nothing at all.”
“Would you care to give me an opinion as to which of them you consider the most likely pony to have committed the crime?”
Mrs. Shores drew herself up stiffly.
“I should not care to do anything of the kind, Superintendent. I consider that a most improper question. I’m surprised you should have the temerity to ask it.”
The poor superintendent looked like an abashed little colt that had been reprimanded by his grandmother.
“Address, please,” he mumbled, drawing his notebook toward him.
“One eleven Bridle Lane, Ponyville.”
“Telephone number?”
“Ponyville four-five-six-three-two.” Mrs. Shores rose.
“Anything you want to ask, Octavia?” said Silver hurriedly.
Mrs. Shores paused, her head slightly inclined.
“Would it be a proper question, Mrs. Shores, to ask you your opinion of your companions not as potential murderers but as bridge players?” I asked, looking into her eyes.
Mrs. Shores answered coldly, “I have no objection to answering that - if it bears upon the matter at issue in any way, though I fail to see how it can.”
I said bluntly, “I will be the judge of that. Your answer, if you please, Mrs. Shores.”
In the tone of an impatient adult humoring an idiot child Mrs. Shores replied, “Major Amour is a good sound player. Doctor Hooves overbids but plays his hand brilliantly. Miss Harpstrings is quite a nice little player but a bit too cautious. Anything more?”
In my turn doing a conjuring trick, I produced four crumpled bridge scores.
“These scores, Mrs. Shores, is one of these yours?” I asked, holding out the score paper to her.
She examined them. “This is my writing. It is the score of the third rubber.”
“And this score?”
“That must be Major Amour's. He cancels as he goes.”
“And this one?”
“Miss Harpstrings’. The first rubber.”
“So this unfinished one is Doctor Hooves’?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Shores. I think that is all.” I said, pocketing the paper.
Mrs. Shores turned to Mrs. Cherry.
“Good night, Mrs. Cherry. Good night, Colonel Pants.”
Then, having bit us all goodnight with all four of us, she went out.