head of a drugs ring, and the four young women push the drugs for him. He tells an astonished Michael that the "General" overdid his act, as gout is usually suffered by very old men, not the middle-aged fathers of young women. When Poirot tripped deliberately, he bumped Grant's "gouty" foot, but Grant did not notice. Hawker was not a pusher of drugs but a user. Pam and Sheila were trying to frame him on Grant's orders with the flask of cocaine. Poirot persuades Sheila to give evidence against Grant and thereby smash the ring. By doing so, she will copy the horses of the legend, who became normal after Hercules fed their master to them. Poirot tells an embarrassed Stoddart that Sheila is certain to lose her criminal tendencies with him to look after her. The Girdle of Hippolyta Alexander Simpson asks Poirot to help in the investigation of a painting by Rubens which was stolen from the gallery that he owns. A group of unemployed men were paid to carry out a demonstration in the gallery which, once it was cleared by the police, was found to have been a diversion to enable the picture to be cut out of its frame. Simpson knows the picture is being transported to France where it will be bought by a millionaire collector and he wants Poirot to assist as he thinks he will be better at dealing with an unscrupulous rich man than the police will be. Poirot reluctantly agrees to help. He is far more interested in a case that Japp has about Winnie King, a fifteen-year-old English girl who was being escorted to Paris as one of a party of such girls for the new term at Miss Pope's exclusive school there. On the way back from the dining car of the train, just after it left Amiens (the last stop before Paris), Winnie King went into the toilet and seemingly vanished. No body has been found by the side of the tracks and the train made no other stops, only slowing down for a signal. However, Winnie's hat was later recovered near the tracks. Poirot asks if her shoes have been found. Some time later, Japp phones Poirot and tells him Winnie has been found about from Amiens. She is in a daze, has been doped according to the doctor who examined her, and is unable to