Free Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie

Before the other lot. I dunno. I suppose it's all rusted up now.'
    Mathilde was a rather splendid-looking horse even m decay. Its length was quite the length of any horse or mare to be found nowadays. Only a few hairs were left of what must once have been a prolific mane. One ear was broken off. It had once been painted grey. Its front legs splayed out in front and its back legs at the back; it had a wispy tail.
    'It doesn't work like any rocking-horse I've ever seen before,' said Tuppence, interested.
    'No, it don't, do it?' said Isaac. 'You know, they go up and down, up and down, front to back. But this one here, you see - it sort of springs forwards. Once first, the front legs do it - whoop - and then the back legs do it. It's a very good action. Now if I was to get on it and show you -'
    'Do be careful,' said Tuppence. 'It might - there might be nails or something which would stick into you, or you might fall off.'
    'Ah, I've ridden on Mathilde, fifty or sixty years ago it must have been, but I remember. And it's still pretty solid, you know. It's not really falling to bits yet.'
    With a sudden, unexpected, acrobatic action he sprang upon Mathilde. The horse raced forwards, then raced backwards.
    'Got action, hasn't it?'
    'Yes, it's got action,' said Tuppence.
    'Ah, they loved that, you know. Miss Jenny, she used to ride it day after day.'
    'Who was Miss Jenny?'
    'Why, she was the eldest one, you know. She was the one that had the godfather as sent her this. Sent her Truelove, too,' he added.
    Tuppence looked at him enquiringly. The remark did not seem to apply to any of the other contents of Kay-Kay.
    'That's what they call it, you know. That little horse and cart what's there in the corner. Used to ride it down the hill. Miss Pamela did. Very serious, she was, Miss Pamela. She'd get in at the top of the hill and she'd put her feet on there - you see, it's meant to have pedals but they don't work, so she'd take it to the top of the hill and then she'd let it begin to go down the hill, and she'd put the brakes on, as it were, with her feet. Often she'd end up landing in the monkey puzzle, as a matter of fact.'
    'That sounds very uncomfortable,' said Tuppence. 'I mean, to land in the monkey puzzle.'
    'Ah well, she could stop herself a bit before that. Very serious, she was. She used to do that by the hour - three or four hours I've watched her. I was doing the Christmas rose bed very often, you know, and the pampas grass, and I'd see her going down. I didn't speak to her because she didn't like being spoken to. She wanted to go on with what she was doing or what she thought she was doing.'
    'What did she think she was doing?' said Tuppence, beginning suddenly to get more interested in Miss Pamela than she had been in Miss Jenny.
    'Well, I don't know. She used to say sometimes she was a princess, you know, escaping, or Mary, Queen of What-is-it - do I mean Ireland or Scotland?'
    'Mary Queen of Scots,' suggested Tuppence.
    'Yes, that's right. She went away or something, or escaped. Went into a castle. Lock something it was called. Not a real lock, you know, a piece of water, it was.'
    'Ah yes, I see. And Pamela thought she was Mary Queen of Scots escaping from her enemies?'
    'That's right. Going to throw herself into England on Queen Elizabeth's mercy, she said, but I don't think as Queen Elizabeth was very merciful.'
    'Well,' said Tuppence, masking any disappointment she felt, 'it's all very interesting, I'm sure. Who were these people, did you say?'
    'Oh, they were the Listers, they were.'
    'Did you ever know a Mary Jordan?'
    'Ah, I know who you mean. No, she was before my time a bit, I think. You mean the German spy girl, don't you?'
    'Everyone seems to know about her here,' said Tuppence.
    'Yes. They called her the Frow Line, or something. Sounds like a railway.'
    'It does rather,' said Tuppence.
    Isaac suddenly laughed. 'Ha, ha, ha,' he said. 'If it was a railway, a line a railway line, oh, it didn't run straight, did