then photographed in various compromising situations. Mrs Ferrier wins her libel case easily and in doing so makes the public assume the rumours about Hammett were also fabricated. Poirot reveals to an astonished Ferrier that the idea to use Thelma Anderson was his and that Dagmar was in on the plan. The idea came from Alexandre Dumas, père's book, The Queen's Necklace, but the real inspiration was "The Augean Stables" when Hercules uses a force of nature – in his case a river – to clean the stables out. Poirot used sex as the force of nature, first blackening Mrs Ferrier's name and then clearing her in a public fashion, resulting in a wave of sympathy which also reflected well on her father and destroyed The X-Ray News. The Stymphalean Birds Harold Waring, an under-secretary of state at age 30, is enjoying a holiday in the country of Herzoslovakia at a hotel by the side of Lake Stempka. The only other English people there are an elderly woman, Mrs Rice, and her married daughter, Mrs Elsie Clayton. Two other women cause Harold a moment of disquiet. He first sees them as they come up a path from the lake to the hotel. They are dressed in flapping cloaks, have hooked noses and long fingernails and bring to Harold's mind an image of evil birds of prey. Chatting to Mrs Rice, Harold finds out that her daughter is not widowed, as he supposed, but is in an abusive marriage. Her husband, Philip, drinks, is insanely jealous and has a vicious temper. Her daughter's character is slowly being destroyed by this relationship. Mrs Rice has also found out from the hotel concierge that the two evil looking women are Polish sisters. One morning, Harold finds Elsie sitting on a log in the woods, crying about the state of her life. He comforts her and, as he escorts her back to the hotel, they come across one of the Polish women. He wonders how much she saw. That evening, Elsie bursts into Harold's room. Her husband has arrived at the hotel unexpectedly and is in a terrible rage. At that moment, Philip Clayton runs in. He is carrying a spanner and screams at Elsie, accusing her of having an affair just as one of the Polish women had told him. He chases Elsie out of Harold's room and back to her own. Harold