All his children agreed that Sir Rudri Hopkinson was a most unaccountable man; and when he had yet another of his crack-brained ideas and decided to find out what the Mysteries at Eleusis really were, they thought the expedition would be a ‘fearful rag.’ With the help of his elder son Gelert, a far sounder if less imaginative archaeologist than Sir Rudri himself, and his hot-tempered rival Alexander Currie, he planned to re-enact the ritual practised by the ancient Greeks at Eleusis, Epidaurus, and Mycenae.  As his wife said to Mrs Bradley, ‘If they were going to do a bit of honest digging, I shouldn’t worry so much.  It’s all this classical philandering that I find so tiresome and upsetting.’  So Mrs Bradley accompanied the expedition, ostensibly to keep an eye on the three little boys and two attractive young girls, but actually to watch Sir Rudri’s eccentric behaviour, and it was no surprise to her to discover a human head in the box which had previously held the snakes representing the god Aesculapius.

“Mrs. Bradley est conseillere en psychologie aupres de Scotland Yard; mais cette vieille excentrique est surtout passionnee par l’occulte et le paranormal, ce qui lui donne de curieux atouts pour debroullier les plus sombres affaires.” Gerard Meudal, Le Monde