In a few clear words, Poirot set forth the object of his mission. The Bakers were immediately sympathetic.
“Us don’t want to see Miss Violet done out of what’s hers,” declared the woman. “Cruel hard, ’twould be, for hospitals to get it all.”
Poirot proceeded with his questions. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Baker remembered perfectly witnessing the will. Baker had previously been sent into the neighboring town to get two printed will-forms.
“Two?” said Poirot sharply.
“Yes sir, for safety like, I suppose, in case he should spoil one—and sure enough, so he did do. Us had signed one—”
“What time of day was that?”
Baker scratched his head, but his wife was quicker.
“Why, to be sure, I’d just put the milk on for the cocoa at eleven. Don’t ee remember? It had all boiled over on the stove when us got back to kitchen.”
“And afterward?”
“’Twould be about an hour later. Us had to go in again. ‘I’ve made a mistake,’ says old Master, ‘—had to tear the whole thing up. I’ll trouble you to sign again.’ And us did. And afterward Master give us a tidy sum of money each. ‘I’ve left you nothing in my will,’ says he, ‘but each year I live, you’ll have this to be a nest-egg when I’m gone;’ and sure enough, so he did.”