THE BIG FOUR

                            AGATHA CHRISTIE

                              A DELL BOOK

                             Published by
                       DELL PUBLISHING CO., INC.
                           750 Third Avenue
                       New York, New York 10017
             Copyright 1927 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc.
          Copyright renewed 1955 by Agatha Christie Mallowan
             All rights reserved. For information contact
                         Dodd, Mead & Company.
              Dell ® TM 681510, Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
                     Reprinted by arrangement with
                         Dodd, Mead & Company
                       New York, New York 10016
                Printed in the United States of America
                      Previous Dell Edition #0562
                           New Dell Edition
                       First printing--June 1972




                               CONTENTS


                        1. THE UNEXPECTED GUEST

                        2. THE MAN FROM THE ASYLUM

                        3. WE HEAR MORE ABOUT LI CHANG YEN

                        4. THE IMPORTANCE OF A LEG OF MUTTON

                        5. DISAPPEARANCE OF A SCIENTIST

                        6. THE WOMAN ON THE STAIRS

                        7. THE RADIUM THIEVES

                        8. IN THE HOUSE OF THE ENEMY

                        9. THE YELLOW JASMINE MYSTERY

                       10. WE INVESTIGATE AT CROFTLANDS

                       11. A CHESS PROBLEM

                       12. THE BAITED TRAP

                       13. THE MOUSE WALKS IN

                       14. THE PEROXIDE BLONDE

                       15. THE TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE

                       16. THE DYING CHINAMAN

                       17. NUMBER FOUR WINS A TRICK

                       18. IN THE FELSENLABYRYNTH





                             THE BIG FOUR




                        1. THE UNEXPECTED GUEST


I have met people who enjoy a channel crossing; men who can sit calmly
in their deck-chairs and, on arrival, wait until the boat is moored,
then gather their belongings together without fuss and disembark.
Personally, I can never manage this. From the moment I get on board I
feel that the time is too short to settle down to anything. I move my
suit-cases from one spot to another, and if I go down to the saloon
for a meal, I bolt my food with an uneasy feeling that the boat may
arrive unexpectedly whilst I am below. Perhaps all this is merely a
legacy from one's short leaves in the war, when it seemed a matter of
such importance to secure a place near the gangway, and to be amongst
the first to disembark lest one should waste precious minutes of one's
three or five days' leave.

On this particular July morning, as I stood by the rail and watched the
white cliffs of Dover drawing nearer, I marvelled at the passengers
who could sit calmly in their chairs and never even raise their eyes
for the first sight of their native land. Yet perhaps their case was
different from mine. Doubtless many of them had only crossed to Paris
for the week-end, whereas I had spent the last year and a half on a
ranch in the Argentine. I had prospered there, and my wife and I had
both enjoyed the free and easy life of the South American continent,
nevertheless it was with a lump in my throat that I watched the
familiar shore draw nearer and nearer.

I had landed in France two days before, transacted some necessary
business, and was now _en route_ for London. I should be there
some months--time enough to look up old friends, and one old friend
in particular. A little man with an egg-shaped head and green
eyes--Hercule Poirot! I proposed to take him completely by surprise.
My last letter from the Argentine had given no hint of my intended
voyage--indeed, that had been decided upon hurriedly as a result
of certain business complications--and I spent many amused moments
picturing to myself his delight and stupefaction on beholding me.

He, I knew, was not likely to be far from his headquarters. The time
when his cases had drawn him from one end of England to the other was
past. His fame had spread, and no longer would he allow one case to
absorb all his time. He aimed more and more, as time went on, at being
considered a "consulting detective"--as much a specialist as a Harley
Street physician. He had always scoffed at the popular idea of the
human bloodhound who assumed wonderful disguises to track criminals,
and who paused at every footprint to measure it.

"No, my friend Hastings," he would say; "we leave that to Giraud and
his friends. Hercule Poirot's methods are his own. Order and method,
and 'the little gray cells.' Sitting at ease in our own arm-chairs we
see the things that these others overlook, and we do not jump to the
conclusion like the worthy Japp."

No; there was little fear of finding Hercule Poirot far afield.

On arrival in London, I deposited my luggage at an hotel and drove
straight on to the old address. What poignant memories it brought back
to me! I hardly waited to greet my old landlady, but hurried up the
stairs two at a time and rapped on Poirot's door.

"Enter, then," cried a familiar voice from within.

I strode in. Poirot stood facing me. In his arms he carried a small
valise, which he dropped with a crash on beholding me.

"_Mon ami_, Hastings!" he cried. "_Mon ami_, Hastings!"

And, rushing forward, he enveloped me in a capacious embrace. Our
conversation was incoherent and inconsequent. Ejaculations, eager
questions, incomplete answers, messages from my wife, explanations as
to my journey, were all jumbled up together.

"I suppose there's some one in my old rooms?" I asked at last, when we
had calmed down somewhat. "I'd love to put up here again with you."

Poirot's face changed with startling suddenness.

"_Mon Dieu!_ but what a _chance épouvantable_. Regard around
you, my friend."

For the first time I took note of my surroundings. Against the wall
stood a vast ark of a trunk of prehistoric design. Near to it were
placed a number of suit-cases, ranged neatly in order of size from
large to small. The inference was unmistakable.

"You are going away?"

"Yes."

"Where to?"

"South America."

"_What?_"

"Yes, it is a droll farce, is it not? It is to Rio I go, and every
day I say to myself, I will write nothing in my letters--but oh! the
surprise of the good Hastings when he beholds me!"

"But when are you going?"

Poirot looked at his watch.

"In an hour's time."

"I thought you always said nothing would induce you to make a long sea
voyage?"

Poirot closed his eyes and shuddered.

"Speak not of it to me, my friend. My doctor, he assures me that one
dies not of it--and it is for the one time only; you understand, that
never--never shall I return."

He pushed me into a chair.

"Come, I will tell you how it all came about. Do you know who is the
richest man in the world? Richer even than Rockefeller? Abe Ryland."

"The American Soap King?"

"Precisely. One of his secretaries approached me. There is some very
considerable, as you would call it, hocus-pocus going on in connection
with a big company in Rio. He wished me to investigate matters on the
spot. I refused. I told him that if the facts were laid before me,
I would give him my expert opinion. But that he professed himself
unable to do. I was to be put in possession of the facts only on my
arrival out there. Normally, that would have closed the matter. To
dictate to Hercule Poirot is sheer impertinence. But the sum offered
was so stupendous that for the first time in my life I was tempted by
mere money. It was a competence--a fortune! And there was a second
attraction--_you_, my friend. For this last year and a half I
have been a very lonely old man. I thought to myself, Why not? I am
beginning to weary of this unending solving of foolish problems. I
have achieved sufficient fame. Let me take this money and settle down
somewhere near my old friend."

I was quite affected by this token of Poirot's regard.

"So I accepted," he continued, "and in an hour's time I must leave to
catch the boat train. One of life's little ironies, is it not? But I
will admit to you, Hastings, that had not the money offered been so
big, I might have hesitated, for just lately I have begun a little
investigation of my own. Tell me, what is commonly meant by the phrase,
'The Big Four'?"

"I suppose it had its origin at the Versailles Conference, and then
there's the famous 'Big Four' in the film world, and the term is used
by hosts of smaller fry."

"I see," said Poirot thoughtfully. "I have come across the phrase,
you understand, under certain circumstances where none of those
explanations would apply. It seems to refer to a gang of international
criminals or something of that kind; only--"

"Only what?" I asked, as he hesitated.

"Only that I fancy that it is something on a large scale. Just a little
idea of mine, nothing more. Ah, but I must complete my packing. The
time advances."

"Don't go," I urged. "Cancel your passage and come out on the same boat
with me."

Poirot drew himself up and glanced at me reproachfully.

"Ah, it is that you do not understand! I have passed my word, you
comprehend--the word of Hercule Poirot. Nothing but a matter of life or
death could detain me now."

"And that's not likely to occur," I murmured ruefully. "Unless at the
eleventh hour 'the door opens and the unexpected guest comes in.'"

I quoted the old saw with a slight laugh, and then, in the pause that
succeeded it, we both started as a sound came from the inner room.

"What's that?" I cried.

"_Ma foi!_" retorted Poirot. "It sounds very like your 'unexpected
guest' in my bedroom."

"But how can any one be in there? There's no door except into this
room."

"Your memory is excellent, Hastings. Now for the deductions."

"The window! But it's a burglar then? He must have had a stiff climb of
it--I should say it was almost impossible."

I had risen to my feet and was striding in the direction of the door
when the sound of a fumbling at the handle from the other side arrested
me.

The door swung slowly open. Framed in the doorway stood a man. He was
coated from head to foot with dust and mud; his face was thin and
emaciated. He stared at us for a moment, and then swayed and fell.
Poirot hurried to his side, then he looked up and spoke to me.

"Brandy--quickly."

I dashed some brandy into a glass and brought it. Poirot managed to
administer a little, and together we raised him and carried him to the
couch. In a few minutes he opened his eyes and looked round him with an
almost vacant stare.

"What is it you want, monsieur?" said Poirot.

The man opened his lips and spoke in a queer mechanical voice.

"M. Hercule Poirot, 14 Farraway Street."

"Yes, yes; I am he."

The man did not seem to understand, and merely repeated in exactly the
same tone:--

"M. Hercule Poirot, 14 Farraway Street."

Poirot tried him with several questions. Sometimes the man did not
answer at all; sometimes he repeated the same phrase. Poirot made a
sign to me to ring up on the telephone.

"Get Dr. Ridgeway to come round."

The doctor was in luckily; and as his house was only just round the
corner, few minutes elapsed before he came bustling in.

"What's all this, eh?"

Poirot gave a brief explanation, and the doctor started examining our
strange visitor, who seemed quite unconscious of his presence or ours.

"H'm!" said Dr. Ridgeway, when he had finished. "Curious case."

"Brain fever?" I suggested.

The doctor immediately snorted with contempt.

"Brain fever! Brain fever! No such thing as brain fever. An invention
of novelists. No; the man's had a shock of some kind. He's come here
under the force of a persistent idea--to find M. Hercule Poirot, 14
Farraway Street--and he repeats those words mechanically without in the
least knowing what they mean."

"Aphasia?" I said eagerly.

This suggestion did not cause the doctor to snort quite as violently as
my last one had done. He made no answer, but handed the man a sheet of
paper and a pencil.

"Let's see what he'll do with that," he remarked.

The man did nothing with it for some moments, then he suddenly began to
write feverishly. With equal suddenness he stopped and let both paper
and pencil fall to the ground. The doctor picked it up, and shook his
head.

"Nothing here. Only the figure 4 scrawled a dozen times, each one
bigger than the last. Wants to write 14 Farraway Street, I expect.
It's an interesting case--very interesting. Can you possibly keep him
here until this afternoon? I'm due at the hospital now, but I'll come
back this afternoon and make all arrangements about him. It's too
interesting a case to be lost sight of."

I explained Poirot's departure and the fact that I proposed to
accompany him to Southampton.

"That's all right. Leave the man here. He won't get into mischief. He's
suffering from complete exhaustion. Will probably sleep for eight hours
on end. I'll have a word with that excellent Mrs. Funnyface of yours,
and tell her to keep an eye on him."

And Dr. Ridgeway bustled out with his usual celerity. Poirot hastily
completed his packing, with one eye on the clock.

"The time, it marches with a rapidity unbelievable. Come now, Hastings,
you cannot say that I have left you with nothing to do. A most
sensational problem. The man from the unknown. Who is he? What is he?
Ah, _sapristi_, but I would give two years of my life to have
this boat go to-morrow instead of to-day. There is something here very
curious--very interesting. But one must have time--_time_. It may
be days--or even months--before he will be able to tell us what he came
to tell."

"I'll do my best, Poirot," I assured him. "I'll try to be an efficient
substitute."

"Ye-es."

His rejoinder struck me as being a shade doubtful. I picked up the
sheet of paper.

"If I were writing a story," I said lightly, "I should weave this in
with your latest idiosyncrasy and call it _The Mystery of the Big
Four_." I tapped the pencilled figures as I spoke.

And then I started, for our invalid, roused suddenly from his stupor,
sat up in his chair and said clearly and distinctly:

"Li Chang Yen."

He had the look of a man suddenly awakened from sleep. Poirot made a
sign to me not to speak. The man went on. He spoke in a clear, high
voice, and something in his enunciation made me feel that he was
quoting from some written report or lecture.

"Li Chang Yen may be regarded as representing the brains of the Big
Four. He is the controlling and motive force. I have designated him,
therefore, as Number One. Number Two is seldom mentioned by name. He is
represented by an 'S' with two lines through it--the sign for a dollar;
also by two stripes and a star. It may be conjectured, therefore, that
he is an American subject, and that he represents the power of wealth.
There seems no doubt that Number Three is a woman, and her nationality
French. It is possible that she may be one of the sirens of the
_demi-monde_ but nothing is known definitely. Number Four--"

His voice faltered and broke. Poirot leant forward.

"Yes," he prompted eagerly. "Number Four?"

His eyes were fastened on the man's face. Some overmastering terror
seemed to be gaining the day; the features were distorted and twisted.

"_The destroyer_," gasped the man. Then, with a final convulsive
movement, he fell back in a dead faint.

"_Mon Dieu!_" whispered Poirot, "I was right then. I was right."

"You think--?"

He interrupted me.

"Carry him on to the bed in my room. I have not a minute to lose if I
would catch my train. Not that I want to catch it. Oh, that I could
miss it with a clear conscience! But I gave my word. Come, Hastings!"

Leaving our mysterious visitor in the charge of Mrs. Pearson, we drove
away, and duly caught the train by the skin of our teeth. Poirot was
alternately silent and loquacious. He would sit staring out of the
window like a man lost in a dream, apparently not hearing a word that
I said to him. Then, reverting to animation suddenly, he would shower
injunctions and commands upon me, and urge the necessity of constant
marconigrams.

We had a long fit of silence just after we passed Woking. The train,
of course, did not stop anywhere until Southampton; but just here it
happened to be held up by a signal.

"Ah! _Sacré mille tonnerres!_" cried Poirot suddenly. "But I have
been an imbecile. I see clearly at last. It is undoubtedly the blessed
saints who stopped the train. Jump, Hastings, but jump, I tell you."

In an instant he had unfastened the carriage door, and jumped out on
the line.

"Throw out the suit-cases and jump yourself."

I obeyed him. Just in time. As I alighted beside him, the train moved
on.

"And now Poirot," I said, in some exasperation, "perhaps you will tell
me what all this is about."

"It is, my friend, that I have seen the light."

"That," I said, "is very illuminating to me."

"It should be," said Poirot, "but I fear--I very much fear that it is
not. If you can carry two of these valises, I think I can manage the
rest."




                      2. THE MAN FROM THE ASYLUM


Fortunately the train had stopped near a station. A short walk brought
us to a garage where we were able to obtain a car, and half an hour
later we were spinning rapidly back to London. Then, and not till then,
did Poirot deign to satisfy my curiosity.

"You do not see? No more did I. But I see now. Hastings, _I was being
got out of the way_."

"What!"

"Yes. Very cleverly. Both the place and the method were chosen with
great knowledge and acumen. They were afraid of me."

"Who were?"

"Those four geniuses who have banded themselves together to work
outside the law. A Chinaman, an American, a Frenchwoman, and--another.
Pray the good God we arrive back in time, Hastings."

"You think there is danger to our visitor?"

"I am sure of it."

Mrs. Pearson greeted us on arrival. Brushing aside her ecstasies of
astonishment on beholding Poirot, we asked for information. It was
reassuring. No one had called, and our guest had not made any sign.

With a sigh of relief we went up to the rooms. Poirot crossed the outer
one and went through to the inner one. Then he called me, his voice
strangely agitated.

"Hastings, he's dead."

I came running to join him. The man was lying as we had left him, but
he was dead, and had been dead some time. I rushed out for a doctor.
Ridgeway, I knew, would not have returned yet. I found one almost
immediately, and brought him back with me.

"He's dead right enough, poor chap. Tramp you've been befriending, eh?"

"Something of the kind," said Poirot evasively. "What was the cause of
death, doctor?"

"Hard to say. Might have been some kind of fit. There are signs of
asphyxiation. No gas laid on, is there?"

"No, electric light--nothing else."

"And both windows wide open, too. Been dead about two hours, I should
say. You'll notify the proper people, won't you?"

He took his departure. Poirot did some necessary telephoning. Finally,
somewhat to my surprise, he rang up our old friend Inspector Japp, and
asked him if he could possibly come round.

No sooner were these proceedings completed than Mrs. Pearson appeared,
her eyes as round as saucers.

"There's a man here from 'Anwell--from the 'Sylum. Did you ever? Shall
I show him up?"

We signified assent, and a big burly man in uniform was ushered in.

"'Morning, gentlemen," he said cheerfully. "I've got reason to believe
you've got one of my birds here. Escaped last night, he did."

"He was here," said Poirot quietly.

"Not got away again, has he?" asked the keeper, with some concern.

"He is dead."

The man looked more relieved than otherwise.

"You don't say so. Well, I dare say it's best for all parties."

"Was he--dangerous?"

"'Omicidal, d'you mean? Oh, no. 'Armless enough. Persecution mania very
acute. Full of secret societies from China that had got him shut up.
They're all the same."

I shuddered.

"How long had he been shut up?" asked Poirot.

"A matter of two years now."

"I see," said Poirot quietly. "It never occurred to anybody that he
might--be sane?"

The keeper permitted himself to laugh.

"If he was sane, what would he be doing in a lunatic asylum? They all
_say_ they're sane, you know."

Poirot said no more. He took the man in to see the body. The
identification came immediately.

"That's him--right enough," said the keeper callously; "funny sort
of bloke, ain't he? Well, gentlemen, I had best go off now and make
arrangements under the circumstances. We won't trouble you with the
corpse much longer. If there's a hinquest, you will have to appear at
it, I dare say. Good morning, sir."

With a rather uncouth bow he shambled out of the room.

A few minutes later Japp arrived. The Scotland Yard Inspector was
jaunty and dapper as usual.

"Here I am Moosior Poirot. What can I do for you? Thought you were off
to the coral strands of somewhere or other to-day?"

"My good Japp, I want to know if you have ever seen this man before."

He led Japp into the bedroom. The inspector stared down at the figure
on the bed with a puzzled face.

"Let me see now--he seems sort of familiar--and I pride myself on my
memory, too. Why, God bless my soul, it's Mayerling!"

"And who is--or was--Mayerling?"

"Secret Service chap--not one of our people. Went to Russia five years
ago. Never heard of again. Always thought the Bolshies had done him in."

"It all fits in," said Poirot, when Japp had taken his leave, "except
for the fact that he seems to have died a natural death."

He stood looking down on the motionless figure with a dissatisfied
frown. A puff of wind set the window-curtains flying out, and he looked
up sharply.

"I suppose you opened the windows when you laid him down on the bed,
Hastings?"

"No, I didn't," I replied. "As far as I remember, they were shut."

Poirot lifted his head suddenly.

"Shut--and now they are open. What can that mean?"

"Somebody came in that way," I suggested.

"Possibly," agreed Poirot, but he spoke absently and without
conviction. After a minute or two he said:

"That is not exactly the point I had in mind, Hastings. If only one
window was open it would not intrigue me so much. It is both windows
being open that strikes me as curious."

He hurried into the other room.

"The sitting-room window is open, too. That also we left shut. Ah!"

He bent over the dead man, examining the corners of the mouth minutely.
Then he looked up suddenly.

"He has been gagged, Hastings. Gagged and then poisoned."

"Good heavens!" I exclaimed, shocked. "I suppose we shall find out all
about it from the post-mortem."

"We shall find out nothing. He was killed by inhaling strong prussic
acid. It was jammed right under his nose. Then the murderer went away
again, first opening all the windows. Hydrocyanic acid is exceedingly
volatile, but it has a pronounced smell of bitter almonds. With no
trace of the smell to guide them, and no suspicion of foul play, death
would be put down to some natural cause by the doctors. So this man was
in the Secret Service, Hastings. And five years ago he disappeared in
Russia."

"The last two years he's been in the Asylum," I said. "But what of the
three years before that?"

Poirot shook his head, and then caught my arm.

"The clock, Hastings, look at the clock."

I followed his gaze to the mantelpiece. The clock had stopped at four
o'clock.

"_Mon ami_, some one has tampered with it. It had still three days
to run. It is an eight-day clock, you comprehend?"

"But what should they want to do that for? Some idea of a false scent
by making the crime appear to have taken place at four o'clock?"

"No, no; rearrange your ideas, mon ami. Exercise your little gray
cells. You are Mayerling. You hear something, perhaps--and you know
well enough that your doom is sealed. You have just time to leave a
sign. _Four_ o'clock, Hastings. Number Four, the _destroyer_.
Ah! an idea!"

He rushed into the other room and seized the telephone. He asked for
Hanwell.

"You are the Asylum, yes? I understand there has been an escape to-day?
What is that you say? A little moment, if you please. Will you repeat
that? Ah! _parfaitement_."

He hung up the receiver, and turned to me.

"You heard, Hastings? _There has been no escape._"

"But the man who came--the keeper?" I said.

"I wonder--I very much wonder."

"You mean--?"

"Number Four--the destroyer."

I gazed at Poirot dumbfounded. A minute or two after, on recovering my
voice, I said:--

"We shall know him again, anywhere, that's one thing. He was a man of
very pronounced personality."

"Was he, _mon ami_? I think not. He was burly and bluff and
red-faced, with a thick moustache and a hoarse voice. He will
be none of those things by this time, and for the rest, he has
nondescript eyes, nondescript ears, and a perfect set of false teeth.
Identification is not such an easy matter as you seem to think. Next
time--"

"You think there will be a next time?" I interrupted.

Poirot's face grew very grave.

"It is a duel to the death, _mon ami_. You and I on the one side,
the Big Four on the other. They have won the first trick; but they have
failed in their plan to get me out of the way, and in the future they
have to reckon with Hercule Poirot!"




                  3. WE HEAR MORE ABOUT LI CHANG YEN


For a day or two after our visit from the fake Asylum attendant I was
in some hopes that he might return, and I refused to leave the flat
even for a moment. As far as I could see, he had no reason to suspect
that we had penetrated his disguise. He might, I thought, return and
try to remove the body, but Poirot scoffed at my reasoning.

"_Mon ami_," he said, "if you wish you may wait in to put salt on
the little bird's tail, but for me I do not waste my time so."

"Well then, Poirot," I argued, "why did he run the risk of coming
at all. If he intended to return later for the body, I can see some
point in his visit. He would at least be removing the evidence against
himself; as it is, he does not seem to have gained anything."

Poirot shrugged his most Gallic shrug. "But you do not see with the
eyes of Number Four, Hastings," he said. "You talk of evidence, but
what evidence have we against him? True, we have a body, but we have
no proof even that the man was murdered--prussic acid, when inhaled,
leaves no trace. Again, we can find no one who saw any one enter the
flat during our absence, and we have found out nothing about the
movements of our late friend, Mayerling....

"No, Hastings, Number Four has left no trace, and he knows it. His
visit we may call a reconnaissance. Perhaps he wanted to make quite
sure that Mayerling was dead, but more likely, I think, he came to see
Hercule Poirot, and to have speech with the adversary whom alone he
must fear."

Poirot's reasoning appeared to me typically egotistical, but I forbore
to argue.

"And what about the inquest?" I asked. "I suppose you will explain
things clearly there, and let the police have a full description of
Number Four."

"And to what end? Can we produce anything to impress a coroner's jury
of your solid Britishers? Is our description of Number Four of any
value? No; we shall allow them to call it 'Accidental Death,' and may
be, although I have not much hope, our clever murderer will pat himself
on the back that he deceived Hercule Poirot in the first round."

Poirot was right as usual. We saw no more of the man from the asylum,
and the inquest, at which I gave evidence, but which Poirot did not
even attend, aroused no public interest.

As, in view of his intended trip to South America, Poirot had wound up
his affairs before my arrival, he had at this time no cases on hand,
but although he spent most of his time in the flat I could get little
out of him. He remained buried in an arm-chair, and discouraged my
attempts at conversation.

And then one morning, about a week after the murder, he asked me if
I would care to accompany him on a visit he wished to make. I was
pleased, for I felt he was making a mistake in trying to work things
out so entirely on his own, and I wished to discuss the case with him.
But I found he was not communicative. Even when I asked where we were
going, he would not answer.

Poirot loves being mysterious. He will never part with a piece
of information until the last possible moment. In this instance,
having taken successively a 'bus and two trains, and arrived in the
neighbourhood of one of London's most depressing southern suburbs, he
consented at last to explain matters.

"We go, Hastings, to see the one man in England who knows most of the
underground life of China."

"Indeed! Who is he?"

"A man you have never heard of--a Mr. John Ingles. To all intents and
purposes, he is a retired Civil Servant of mediocre intellect, with
a house full of Chinese curios with which he bores his friends and
acquaintances. Nevertheless, I am assured by those who should know that
the only man capable of giving me the information I seek is this same
John Ingles."

A few moments more saw us ascending the steps of The Laurels, as Mr.
Ingles's residence was called. Personally, I did not notice a laurel
bush of any kind, so deduced that it had been named according to the
usual obscure nomenclature of the suburbs.

We were admitted by an impassive-faced Chinese servant and ushered
into the presence of his master. Mr. Ingles was a squarely-built man,
somewhat yellow of countenance, with deep-set eyes that were oddly
reflective in character. He rose to greet us, setting aside an open
letter which he had held in his hand. He referred to it after his
greeting.

"Sit down, won't you? Halsey tells me that you want some information
and that I may be useful to you in the matter."

"That is so, monsieur. I ask of you if you have any knowledge of a man
named Li Chang Yen?"

"That's rum--very rum indeed. How did you come to hear about the man?"

"You know him, then?"

"I've met him once. And I know something of him--not quite as much as I
should like to. But it surprises me that any one else in England should
even have heard of him. He's a great man in his way--mandarin class and
all that, you know--but that's not the crux of the matter. There's good
reason to suppose that he's the man behind it all."

"Behind what?"

"Everything. The world-wide unrest, the labour troubles that beset
every nation, and the revolutions that break out in some. There are
people, not scaremongers, who know what they are talking about, and
they say that there is a force behind the scenes which aims at nothing
less than the disintegration of civilisation. In Russia, you know,
there were many signs that Lenin and Trotsky were mere puppets whose
every action was dictated by another's brain. I have no definite proof
that would count with you, but I am quite convinced that this brain
was Li Chang Yen's."

"Oh, come," I protested, "isn't that a bit farfetched? How would a
Chinaman cut any ice in Russia?"

Poirot frowned at me irritably.

"For you, Hastings," he said, "everything is farfetched that comes not
from your own imagination; for me, I agree with this gentleman. But
continue, I pray, monsieur."

"What exactly he hopes to get out of it all I cannot pretend to say
for certain," went on Mr. Ingles; "but I assume his disease is one
that has attacked great brains from the time of Akbar and Alexander to
Napoleon--a lust for power and personal supremacy. Up to modern times
armed force was necessary for conquest, but in this century of unrest
a man like Li Chang Yen can use other means. I have evidence that he
has unlimited money behind him for bribery and propaganda, and there
are signs that he controls some scientific force more powerful than the
world has dreamed of."

Poirot was following Mr. Ingles's words with the closest attention.

"And in China?" he asked. "He moves there too?"

The other nodded in emphatic assent.

"There," he said, "although I can produce no proof that would count in
a court of law, I speak from my own knowledge. I know personally every
man who counts for anything in China to-day, and this I can tell you:
the men who loom most largely in the public eye are men of little or
no personality. They are marionettes who dance to the wires pulled by
a master hand, and that hand is Li Chang Yen's. His is the controlling
brain of the East to-day. We don't understand the East--we never shall;
but Li Chang Yen is its moving spirit. Not that he comes out into the
limelight--oh, not at all; he never moves from his palace in Pekin. But
he pulls strings--that's it, pulls strings--and things happen far away."

"And is there no one to oppose him?" asked Poirot.

Mr. Ingles leant forward in his chair.

"Four men have tried in the last four years," he said slowly; "men of
character, and honesty, and brain power. Any one of them might in time
have interfered with his plans." He paused.

"Well?" I queried.

"Well, they are dead. One wrote an article, and mentioned Li Chang
Yen's name in connection with the riots in Pekin, and within two days
he was stabbed in the street. His murderer was never caught. The
offences of the other two were similar. In a speech or an article,
or in conversation, each linked Li Chang Yen's name with rioting or
revolution, and within a week of his indiscretion each was dead. One
was poisoned; one died of cholera, an isolated case--not part of an
epidemic; and one was found dead in his bed. The cause of the last
death was never determined, but I was told by a doctor who saw the
corpse that it was burnt and shrivelled as though a wave of electrical
energy of incredible power had passed through it."

"And Li Chang Yen?" inquired Poirot. "Naturally nothing is traced to
him, but there are signs, eh?"

Mr. Ingles shrugged.

"Oh, signs--yes, certainly. And once I found a man who would talk, a
brilliant young Chinese chemist who was a protégé of Li Chang Yen's.
He came to me one day, this chemist, and I could see that he was on
the verge of a nervous breakdown. He hinted to me of experiments on
which he'd been engaged in Li Chang Yen's palace under the mandarin's
direction--experiments on coolies in which the most revolting disregard
for human life and suffering had been shown. His nerve had completely
broken, and he was in the most pitiable state of terror. I put him to
bed in a top room of my own house, intending to question him the next
day--and that, of course, was stupid of me."

"How did they get him?" demanded Poirot.

"That I shall never know. I woke that night to find my house in flames,
and was lucky to escape with my life. Investigation showed that a fire
of amazing intensity had broken out on the top floor, and the remains
of my young chemist friend were charred to a cinder."

I could see from the earnestness with which he had been speaking that
Mr. Ingles was a man mounted on his hobby horse, and evidently he, too,
realised that he had been carried away, for he laughed apologetically.

"But, of course," he said, "I have no proofs, and you, like the others,
will merely tell me that I have a bee in my bonnet."

"On the contrary," said Poirot quietly, "we have every reason to
believe your story. We ourselves are more than a little interested in
Li Chang Yen."

"Very odd your knowing about him. Didn't fancy a soul in England had
ever heard of him. I'd rather like to know how you did come to hear of
him--if it's not indiscreet."

"Not in the least, monsieur. A man took refuge in my rooms. He was
suffering badly from shock, but he managed to tell us enough to
interest us in this Li Chang Yen. He described four people--the Big
Four--an organisation hitherto undreamed of. Number One is Li Chang
Yen, Number Two is an unknown American, Number Three an equally
unknown Frenchwoman, Number Four may be called the executive of the
organisation--_the destroyer_. My informant died. Tell me,
monsieur, is that phrase known to you at all? The Big Four."

"Not in connection with Li Chang Yen. No, I can't say it is. But I've
heard it, or read it, just lately--and in some unusual connection too.
Ah, I've got it."

He rose and went across to an inlaid lacquer cabinet--an exquisite
thing, as even I could see. He returned with a letter in his hand.

"Here you are. Note from an old sea-faring man I ran against once in
Shanghai. Hoary old reprobate--maudlin with drink by now, I should say.
I took this to be the ravings of alcoholism."

He read it aloud:--

    "DEAR SIR,--You may not remember me, but you did me a good
    turn once in Shanghai. Do me another now. I must have money to get
    out of the country. I'm well hid here, I hope, but any day they may
    get me. The Big Four, I mean. It's life or death. I've plenty of
    money, but I daren't get at it, for fear of putting them wise. Send
    me a couple of hundred in notes. I'll repay it faithful--I swear to
    that.--Your servant, sir,

                                                    "JONATHAN WHALLEY."

"Dated from Granite Bungalow, Hoppaton, Dartmoor. I'm afraid I regarded
it as rather a crude method of relieving me of a couple of hundred
which I can ill spare. If it's any use to you--" He held it out.

"_Je vous remercie_, monsieur. I start for Hoppaton _à l'heure
même._"

"Dear me, this is very interesting. Supposing I come along too? Any
objection?"

"I should be charmed to have your company, but we must start at once.
We shall not reach Dartmoor until close on nightfall, as it is."

John Ingles did not delay us more than a couple of minutes, and soon
we were in the train moving out of Paddington bound for the West
Country. Hoppaton was a small village clustering in a hollow right on
the fringe of the moorland. It was reached by a nine-mile drive from
Moretonhamstead. It was about eight o'clock when we arrived; but as the
month was July, the daylight was still abundant.

We drove into the narrow street of the village and then stopped to ask
our way of an old rustic.

"Granite Bungalow," said the old man reflectively, "it be Granite
Bungalow you do want? Eh?"

We assured him that this was what we did want.

The old man pointed to a small gray cottage at the end of the street.

"There be t'Bungalow. Do yee want to see t'Inspector?"

"What Inspector?" asked Poirot sharply; "what do you mean?"

"Haven't yee heard about t'murder, then? A shocking business t'was
seemingly. Pools of blood, they do say."

"_Mon Dieu!_" murmured Poirot. "This Inspector of yours, I must
see him at once."

Five minutes later we were closeted with Inspector Meadows. The
Inspector was inclined to be stiff at first, but at the magic name of
Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard, he unbent.

"Yes, sir; murdered this morning. A shocking business. They 'phoned to
Moreton, and I came out at once. Looked a mysterious thing to begin
with. The old man--he was about seventy, you know, and fond of his
glass, from all I hear--was lying on the floor of the living-room.
There was a bruise on his head and his throat was cut from ear to ear.
Blood all over the place, as you can understand. The woman who cooks
for him, Betsy Andrews, she told us that her master had several little
Chinese jade figures, that he'd told her were very valuable, and these
had disappeared. That, of course, looked like assault and robbery;
but there were all sorts of difficulties in the way of that solution.
The old fellow had two people in the house; Betsy Andrews, who is a
Hoppaton woman, and a rough kind of man-servant, Robert Grant. Grant
had gone to the farm to fetch the milk, which he does every day, and
Betsy had stepped out to have a chat with a neighbour. She was only
away twenty minutes--between ten and half-past--and the crime must
have been done then. Grant returned to the house first. He went in by
the back door, which was open--no one locks up doors round here--not
in broad daylight, at all events--put the milk in the larder, and went
into his own room to read the paper and have a smoke. Had no idea
anything unusual had occurred--at least, that's what he says. Then
Betsy comes in, goes into the living-room, sees what's happened, and
lets out a screech to wake the dead. That's all fair and square. Some
one got in whilst those two were out, and did the poor old man in. But
it struck me at once that he must be a pretty cool customer. He'd have
to come right up the village street, or creep through some one's back
yard. Granite Bungalow has got houses all round it, as you can see. How
was it that no one had seen him?"

The Inspector paused with a flourish.

"Aha, I perceive your point," said Poirot. "To continue?"

"Well, sir, fishy, I said to myself--fishy. And I began to look about
me. Those jade figures, now. Would a common tramp ever suspect that
they were valuable? Anyway, it was madness to try such a thing in
broad daylight. Suppose the old man had yelled for help?"

"I suppose, Inspector," said Mr. Ingles, "that the bruise on the head
was inflicted before death?"

"Quite right, sir. First knocked him silly, the murderer did, and then
cut his throat. That's clear enough. But how the dickens did he come
or go? They notice strangers quick enough in a little place like this.
It came to me all at once--nobody did come. I took a good look round.
It had rained the night before, and there were footprints clear enough
going in and out of the kitchen. In the living-room there were two sets
of footprints only (Betsy Andrews' stopped at the door)---Mr. Whalley's
(he was wearing carpet slippers) and another man's. The other man had
stepped in the blood-stains, and I traced his bloody footprints--I beg
your pardon, sir."

"Not at all," said Mr. Ingles, with a faint smile; "the adjective is
perfectly understood."

"I traced them to the kitchen--but not beyond. Point Number One. On
the lintel of Robert Grant's door was a faint smear--a smear of blood.
That's point Number Two. Point Number Three was when I got hold of
Grant's boots--which he had taken off--and fitted them to the marks.
That settled it. It was an inside job. I warned Grant and took him into
custody; and what do you think I found packed away in his portmanteau?
The little jade figures and a ticket-of-leave. Robert Grant was also
Abraham Biggs, convicted for felony and housebreaking five years ago."

The Inspector paused triumphantly.

"What do you think of that, gentlemen?"

"I think," said Poirot, "that it appears a very clear case--of a
surprising clearness, in fact. This Biggs, or Grant, he must be a man
very foolish and uneducated, eh?"

"Oh, he is that--a rough, common sort of fellow. No idea of what a
footprint may mean."

"Clearly he reads not the detective fiction! Well, Inspector, I
congratulate you. We may look at the scene of the crime. Yes?"

"I'll take you there myself this minute. I'd like you to see those
footprints."

"I, too, should like to see them. Yes, yes, very interesting, very
ingenious."

We set out forthwith. Mr. Ingles and the Inspector forged ahead. I
drew Poirot back a little so as to be able to speak to him out of the
Inspector's hearing.

"What do you really think, Poirot. Is there more in this than meets the
eye?"

"That is just the question, _mon ami_. Whalley says plainly enough
in his letter that the Big Four are on his track, and we know, you
and I, that the Big Four is no bogey for the children. Yet everything
seems to say that this man Grant committed the crime. Why did he do so?
For the sake of the little jade figures? Or is he an agent of the Big
Four? I confess that this last seems more likely. However valuable the
jade, a man of that class was not likely to realise the fact--at any
rate, not to the point of committing murder for them. (That, _par
exemple_, ought to have struck the Inspector.) He could have stolen
the jade and made off with it instead of committing a brutal and quite
purposeless murder. Ah, yes; I fear our Devonshire friend has not used
his little gray cells. He has measured footprints, and has omitted to
reflect and arrange his ideas with the necessary order and method."




                 4. THE IMPORTANCE OF A LEG OF MUTTON


The inspector drew a key from his pocket and unlocked the door of
Granite Bungalow. The day had been fine and dry, so our feet were not
likely to leave any prints; nevertheless, we wiped them carefully on
the mat before entering.

A woman came up out of the gloom and spoke to the Inspector, and he
turned aside. Then he spoke over his shoulder.

"Have a good look round, Mr. Poirot, and see all there is to be seen.
I'll be back in about ten minutes. By the way, here's Grant's boot. I
brought it along with me for you to compare the impressions."

We went into the living-room, and the sound of the Inspector's
footsteps died away outside. Ingles was attracted immediately by some
Chinese curios on a table in the corner, and went over to examine them.
He seemed to take no interest in Poirot's doings. I, on the other
hand, watched him with breathless interest. The floor was covered with
a dark-green linoleum which was ideal for showing up footprints. A
door at the farther end led into the small kitchen. From there another
door led into the scullery (where the back door was situated), and
another into the bedroom which had been occupied by Robert Grant.
Having explored the ground, Poirot commented upon it in a low running
monologue.

"Here is where the body lay; that big dark stain and the splashes all
around mark the spot. Traces of carpet slippers and 'number nine'
boots, you observe, but all very confused. Then two sets of tracks
leading to and from the kitchen; whoever the murderer was, he came in
that way. You have the boot, Hastings? Give it to me." He compared it
carefully with the prints. "Yes, both made by the same man, Robert
Grant. He came in that way, killed the old man, and went back to the
kitchen. He had stepped in the blood; see the stains he left as he
went out? Nothing to be seen in the kitchen--all the village has been
walking about in it. He went into his own room--no, first he went
back again to the scene of the crime--was that to get the little jade
figures? Or had he forgotten something that might incriminate him?"

"Perhaps he killed the old man the second time he went in?" I suggested.

"_Mais non_, you do not observe. On one of the outgoing footmarks
stained with blood there is superimposed an ingoing one. I wonder what
he went back for--the little jade figures as an afterthought? It is
all ridiculous--stupid."

"Well, he's given himself away pretty hopelessly."

"_N'est-ce pas?_ I tell you, Hastings, it goes against reason.
It offends my little gray cells. Let us go into his bedroom--ah,
yes; there is the smear of blood on the lintel and just a trace of
footmarks--the blood-stained. Robert Grant's footmarks, and his only,
near the body--Robert Grant the only man who went near the house. Yes,
it must be so."

"What about the old woman?" I said suddenly. "She was in the house
alone after Grant had gone for the milk. She might have killed him
and then gone out. Her feet would leave no prints if she hadn't been
outside."

"Very good, Hastings. I wondered whether that hypothesis would occur
to you. I had already thought of it and rejected it. Betsy Andrews is
a local woman, well-known hereabouts. She can have no connection with
the Big Four; and, besides, old Whalley was a powerful fellow, by all
accounts. This is a man's work--not a woman's."

"I suppose the Big Four couldn't have had some diabolical contrivance
concealed in the ceiling--something which descended automatically and
cut the old man's throat and was afterwards drawn up again?"

"Like Jacob's ladder? I know, Hastings, that you have an imagination of
the most fertile--but I implore of you to keep it within bounds."

I subsided, abashed. Poirot continued to wander about, poking into
rooms and cupboards with a profoundly dissatisfied expression on his
face. Suddenly he uttered an excited yelp, reminiscent of a Pomeranian
dog. I rushed to join him. He was standing in the larder in a dramatic
attitude. In his hand he was brandishing a leg of mutton!

"My dear Poirot!" I cried. "What is the matter? Have you suddenly gone
mad?"

"Regard, I pray you, this mutton. But regard it closely!"

I regarded it as closely as I could, but could see nothing unusual
about it. It seemed to me a very ordinary leg of mutton. I said as
much. Poirot threw me a withering glance.

"But do you not see this--and this--and this--"

He illustrated each "this" with a jab at the unoffending joint,
dislodging small icicles as he did so.

Poirot had just accused me of being imaginative, but I now felt that
he was far more wildly so than I had ever been. Did he seriously think
these slivers of ice were crystals of a deadly poison? That was the
only construction I could put upon his extraordinary agitation.

"It's frozen meat," I explained gently. "Imported, you know. New
Zealand."

He stared at me for a moment or two and then broke into a strange laugh.

"How marvellous is my friend Hastings! He knows everything--but
everything! How do they say--Inquire Within Upon Everything. That is my
friend Hastings."

He flung down the leg of mutton onto its dish again and left the
larder. Then he looked through the window.

"Here comes our friend the Inspector. It is well. I have seen all I
want to see here." He drummed on the table absent-mindedly, as though
absorbed in calculation, and then asked suddenly, "What is the day of
the week, _mon ami_?"

"Monday," I said, rather astonished. "What--?"

"Ah! Monday, is it? A bad day of the week. To commit a murder on a
Monday is a mistake."

Passing back to the living-room, he tapped the glass on the wall and
glanced at the thermometer.

"Set fair, and seventy degrees Fahrenheit. An orthodox English summer's
day."

Ingles was still examining various pieces of Chinese pottery.

"You do not take much interest in this inquiry, monsieur?" said Poirot.

The other gave a slow smile.

"It's not my job, you see. I'm a connoisseur of some things, but not
of this. So I just stand back and keep out of the way. I've learnt
patience in the East."

The Inspector came bustling in, apologising for having been so long
away. He insisted on taking us over most of the ground again, but
finally we got away.

"I must appreciate your thousand politenesses, Inspector," said Poirot,
as we were walking down the village street again. "There is just one
more request I should like to put to you."

"You want to see the body, perhaps, sir?"

"Oh, dear me, no! I have not the least interest in the body. I want to
see Robert Grant."

"You'll have to drive back with me to Moreton to see him, sir."

"Very well, I will do so. But I must see him and be able to speak to
him alone."

The Inspector caressed his upper lip.

"Well, I don't know about that, sir."

"I assure you that if you can get through to Scotland Yard you will
receive full authority."

"I've heard of you, of course, sir, and I know you've done us a good
turn now and again. But it's very irregular."

"Nevertheless, it is necessary," said Poirot calmly. "It is necessary
for this reason--Grant is not the murderer."

"What? Who is, then?"

"The murderer was, I should fancy, a youngish man. He drove up
to Granite Bungalow in a trap, which he left outside. He went
in, committed the murder, came out, and drove away again. He was
bare-headed, and his clothing was slightly blood-stained."

"But--but the whole village would have seen him!"

"Not under certain circumstances."

"Not if it was dark, perhaps; but the crime was committed in broad
daylight."

Poirot merely smiled.

"And the horse and trap, sir--how could you tell that? Any amount of
wheeled vehicles have passed along outside. There's no mark of one in
particular to be seen."

"Not with the eyes of the body, perhaps; but with the eyes of the mind,
yes."

The Inspector touched his forehead significantly with a grin at me. I
was utterly bewildered, but I had faith in Poirot. Further discussion
ended in our all driving back to Moreton with the Inspector. Poirot
and I were taken to Grant, but a constable was to be present during the
interview. Poirot went straight to the point.

"Grant, I know you to be innocent of this crime. Relate to me in your
own words exactly what happened."

The prisoner was a man of medium height, with a somewhat unpleasing
cast of features. He looked a jail-bird if ever a man did.

"Honest to God, I never did it," he whined. "Some one put those little
glass figures amongst my traps. It was a frame-up, that's what it was.
I went straight to my rooms when I came in, like I said. I never knew a
thing till Betsy screeched out. S'welp me, God, I didn't."

Poirot rose.

"If you can't tell me the truth, that is the end of it."

"But, guv'nor--"

"You _did_ go into the room--you _did_ know your master was
dead; and you were just preparing to make a bolt of it when the good
Betsy made her terrible discovery."

The man stared at Poirot with a dropped jaw.

"Come now, is it not so? I tell you solemnly--on my word of
honour--that to be frank now is your only chance."

"I'll risk it," said the man suddenly. "It was just as you say. I came
in, and went straight to the master--and there he was, dead on the
floor and blood all round. Then I got the wind up proper. They'd ferret
out my record, and for a certainty they'd say it was me as had done him
in. My only thought was to get away--at once--before he was found--"

"And the jade figures?"

The man hesitated.

"You see--"

"You took them by a kind of reversion to instinct, as it were? You had
heard your master say that they were valuable, and you felt you might
as well go the whole hog. That, I understand. Now, answer me this.
Was it the second time that you went into the room that you took the
figures?"

"I didn't go in a second time. Once was enough for me."

"You are sure of that?"

"Absolutely certain."

"Good. Now, when did you come out of prison?"

"Two months ago."

"How did you obtain this job?"

"Through one of them Prisoners' Help Societies. Bloke met me when I
came out."

"What was he like?"

"Not exactly a parson, but looked like one. Soft black hat and mincing
way of talking. Got a broken front tooth. Spectacled chap. Saunders his
name was. Said he hoped I was repentant, and that he'd find me a good
post. I went to old Whalley on his recommendation."

Poirot rose once more.

"I thank you. I know all now. Have patience." He paused in the doorway
and added: "Saunders gave you a pair of boots, didn't he?"

Grant looked very astonished.

"Why, yes, he did. But how did you know?"

"It is my business to know things," said Poirot gravely.

After a word or two to the Inspector, the three of us went to the White
Hart and discussed eggs and bacon and Devonshire cider.

"Any elucidations yet?" asked Ingles, with a smile.

"Yes, the case is clear enough now; but, see you, I shall have a good
deal of difficulty in proving it. Whalley was killed by order of the
Big Four--but not by Grant. A very clever man got Grant the post
and deliberately planned to make him the scapegoat--an easy matter
with Grant's prison record. He gave him a pair of boots, one of two
duplicate pairs. The other he kept himself. It was all so simple. When
Grant is out of the house, and Betsy is chatting in the village (which
she probably did every day of her life), he drives up wearing the
duplicate boots, enters the kitchen, goes through into the living-room,
fells the old man with a blow, and then cuts his throat. Then he
returns to the kitchen, removes the boots, puts on another pair, and,
carrying the first pair, goes out to his trap and drives off again."

Ingles looked steadily at Poirot.

"There's a catch in it still. Why did nobody see him?"

"Ah! That is where the cleverness of Number Four, I am convinced, comes
in. Everybody saw him--and yet nobody saw him. You see, he drove up in
a butcher's cart!"

I uttered an exclamation.

"The leg of mutton?"

"Exactly, Hastings, the leg of mutton. Everybody swore that no one had
been to Granite Bungalow that morning, but, nevertheless, I found in
the larder a leg of mutton, still frozen. It was Monday, so the meat
must have been delivered that morning; for if on Saturday, in this hot
weather, it would not have remained frozen over Sunday. So some one
_had_ been to the Bungalow, and a man on whom a trace of blood
here and there would attract no attention."

"Damned ingenious!" cried Ingles approvingly.

"Yes, he is clever, Number Four."

"As clever as Hercule Poirot?" I murmured.

My friend threw me a glance of dignified reproach.

"There are some jests that you should not permit yourself, Hastings,"
he said sententiously. "Have I not saved an innocent man from being
sent to the gallows? That is enough for one day."




                    5. DISAPPEARANCE OF A SCIENTIST


Personally, I don't think that, even when a jury had acquitted Robert
Grant, alias Biggs, of the murder of Jonathan Whalley, Inspector
Meadows was entirely convinced of his innocence. The case which he
had built up against Grant--the man's record, the jade which he had
stolen, the boots which fitted the footprints so exactly--was to his
matter-of-fact mind too complete to be easily upset; but Poirot,
compelled much against his inclination to give evidence, convinced
the jury. Two witnesses were produced who had seen a butcher's cart
drive up to the bungalow on that Monday morning, and the local butcher
testified that his cart only called there on Wednesdays and Fridays.

A woman was actually found who, when questioned, remembered seeing the
butcher's man leaving the bungalow, but she could furnish no useful
description of him. The only impression he seemed to have left on her
mind was that he was clean-shaven, of medium height, and looked exactly
like a butcher's man. At this description Poirot shrugged his shoulders
philosophically.

"It is as I tell you, Hastings," he said to me, after the trial. "He is
an artist, this one. He disguises himself not with the false beard and
the blue spectacles. He alters his features, yes; but that is the least
part. For the time being he _is_ the man he would be. He lives in
his part."

Certainly I was compelled to admit that the man who had visited us from
Hanwell had fitted in exactly with my idea of what an Asylum attendant
should look like. I should never for a moment have dreamt of doubting
that he was genuine.

It was all a little discouraging, and our experience on Dartmoor did
not seem to have helped us at all. I said as much to Poirot, but he
would not admit that we had gained nothing.

"We progress," he said; "we progress. At every contact with this man
we learn a little of his mind and his methods. Of us and our plans he
knows nothing."

"And there, Poirot," I protested, "he and I seem to be in the same
boat. You don't seem to me to have any plans, you seem to sit and wait
for him to do something."

Poirot smiled.

"_Mon ami_, you do not change. Always the same Hastings, who would
be up and at their throats. Perhaps," he added, as a knock sounded on
the door, "you have here your chance; it may be our friend who enters."
And he laughed at my disappointment when Inspector Japp and another man
entered the room.

"Good-evening, moosior," said the Inspector. "Allow me to introduce
Captain Kent of the United States Secret Service."

Captain Kent was a tall, lean American, with a singularly impassive
face which looked as though it had been carved out of wood.

"Pleased to meet you, gentlemen," he murmured, as he shook hands
jerkily.

Poirot threw an extra log on the fire, and brought forward more
easy-chairs. I brought out glasses and the whisky and soda. The captain
took a deep draught, and expressed appreciation.

"Legislation in your country is still sound," he observed.

"And now to business," said Japp. "Moosior Poirot here made a certain
request to me. He was interested in some concern that went by the name
of the Big Four, and he asked me to let him know at any time if I came
across a mention of it in my official line of business. I didn't take
much stock in the matter, but I remembered what he said, and when the
captain here came over with rather a curious story, I said at once,
'We'll go round to Moosior Poirot's.'"

Poirot looked across at Captain Kent, and the American took up the tale.

"You may remember reading, M. Poirot, that a number of torpedo
boats and destroyers were sunk by being dashed upon the rocks off
the American coast. It was just after the Japanese earthquake, and
the explanation given was that the disaster was the result of a
tidal wave. Now, a short time ago, a round-up was made of certain
crooks and gunmen, and with them were captured some papers which
put an entirely new face upon the matter. They appeared to refer
to some organisation called the 'Big Four,' and gave an incomplete
description of some powerful wireless installation--a concentration
of wireless energy far beyond anything so far attempted, and capable
of focusing a beam of great intensity upon some given spot. The
claims made for this invention seemed manifestly absurd, but I turned
them in to headquarters for what they were worth, and one of our
highbrow professors got busy on them. Now it appears that one of your
British scientists read a paper upon the subject before the British
Association. His colleagues didn't think great shakes of it, by all
accounts, thought it farfetched and fanciful, but your scientist stuck
to his guns, and declared that he himself was on the eve of success in
his experiments."

"_Eh, bien?_" demanded Poirot, with interest.

"It was suggested that I should come over here and get an interview
with this gentleman. Quite a young fellow, he is, Halliday by name.
He is the leading authority on the subject, and I was to get from him
whether the thing suggested was anyway possible."

"And was it?" I asked eagerly.

"That's just what I don't know. I haven't seen Mr. Halliday--and I'm
not likely to, by all accounts."

"The truth of the matter is," said Japp, shortly, "Halliday's
disappeared."

"When?"

"Two months ago."

"Was his disappearance reported?"

"Of course it was. His wife came to us in a great state. We did what we
could, but I knew all along it would be no good."

"Why not?"

"Never is--when a man disappears that way." Japp winked.

"What way?"

"Paris."

"So Halliday disappeared in Paris?"

"Yes. Went over there on scientific work--so he said. Of course, he'd
have to say something like that. But you know what it means when a man
disappears over there. Either it's Apache work, and that's the end
of it--or else it's voluntary disappearance--and that's a great deal
the commoner of the two, I can tell you. Gay Paree and all that, you
know. Sick of home life. Halliday and his wife had had a tiff before he
started, which all helps to make it a pretty clear case."

"I wonder," said Poirot thoughtfully.

The American was looking at him curiously.

"Say, mister," he drawled, "what's this Big Four idea?"

"The Big Four," said Poirot, "is an international organisation which
has at its head a Chinaman. He is known as Number One. Number Two is an
American. Number Three is a Frenchwoman. Number Four, the 'Destroyer,'
is an Englishman."

"A Frenchwoman, eh?" The American whistled. "And Halliday disappeared
in France. Maybe there's something in this. What's her name?"

"I don't know. I know nothing about her."

"But it's a mighty big proposition, eh?" suggested the other.

Poirot nodded, as he arranged the glasses in a neat row on the tray.
His love of order was as great as ever.

"What was the idea in sinking those boats? Are the Big Four a German
stunt?"

"The Big Four are for themselves--and for themselves only, M. le
Capitaine. Their aim is world domination."

The American burst out laughing, but broke off at the sight of Poirot's
serious face.

"You laugh, monsieur," said Poirot, shaking a finger at him. "You
reflect not--you use not the little gray cells of the brain. Who are
these men who send a portion of your navy to destruction simply as a
trial of their power? For that was all it was, Monsieur, a test of this
new force of magnetical attraction which they hold."

"Go on with you, moosior," said Japp good-humouredly. "I've read of
super criminals many a time, but I've never come across them. Well,
you've heard Captain Kent's story. Anything further I can do for you?"

"Yes, my good friend. You can give me the address of Mrs. Halliday--and
also a few words of introduction to her if you will be so kind."

Thus it was that the following day saw us bound for Chetwynd Lodge,
near the village of Chobham in Surrey.

Mrs. Halliday received us at once, a tall, fair woman, nervous and
eager in manner. With her was her little girl, a beautiful child of
five.

Poirot explained the purpose of our visit.

"Oh! Monsieur Poirot, I am so glad, so thankful. I have heard of you,
of course. You will not be like these Scotland Yard people, who will
not listen or try to understand. And the French Police are just as
bad--worse, I think. They are all convinced that my husband has gone
off with some other woman. But he wasn't like that! All he thought of
in life was his work. Half our quarrels came from that. He cared for it
more than he did for me."

"Englishmen, they are like that," said Poirot soothingly. "And if it is
not work, it is the games, the sport. All those things they take _au
grand sérieux. Now, madame, recount to me exactly, in detail, and
as methodically as you can, the exact circumstances of your husband's
disappearance."

"My husband went to Paris on Thursday, the 20th of July. He was to meet
and visit various people there connected with his work, amongst them
Madame Olivier."

Poirot nodded at the mention of the famous French woman chemist, who
had eclipsed even Madame Curie in the brilliance of her achievements.
She had been decorated by the French Government, and was one of the
most prominent personalities of the day.

"He arrived there in the evening and went at once to the Hotel
Castiglione in the Rue de Castiglione. On the following morning, he had
an appointment with Professor Bourgoneau, which he kept. His manner was
normal and pleasant. The two men had a most interesting conversation,
and it was arranged that he should witness some experiments in the
professor's laboratory on the following day. He lunched alone at the
Café Royal, went for a walk in the Bois, and then visited Madame
Olivier at her house at Passy. There, also, his manner was perfectly
normal. He left about six. Where he dined is not known, probably alone
at some restaurant. He returned to the hotel about eleven o'clock and
went straight up to his room, after inquiring if any letters had come
for him. On the following morning, he walked out of the hotel, and has
not been seen again."

"At what time did he leave the hotel? At the hour when he would
normally leave it to keep his appointment at Professor Bourgoneau's
laboratory?"

"We do not know. He was not remarked leaving the hotel. But no
_petit déjeuner_ was served to him, which seems to indicate that
he went out early."

"Or he might, in fact, have gone out again after he came in the night
before?"

"I do not think so. His bed had been slept in, and the night porter
would have remembered any one going out at that hour."

"A very just observation, madame. We may take it, then, that he left
early on the following morning--and that is reassuring from one point
of view. He is not likely to have fallen a victim to any Apache assault
at that hour. His baggage, now, was it all left behind?"

Mrs. Halliday seemed rather reluctant to answer, but at last she
said:---

"No--he must have taken one small suit-case with him."

"H'm," said Poirot thoughtfully, "I wonder where he was that evening.
If we knew that, we should know a great deal. Whom did he meet?--there
lies the mystery. Madame, myself I do not of necessity accept the view
of the police; with them is it always '_Cherchez la femme_.' Yet
it is clear that something occurred that night to alter your husband's
plans. You say he asked for letters on returning to the hotel. Did he
receive any?"

"One only, and that must have been the one I wrote him on the day he
left England."

Poirot remained sunk in thought for a full minute, then he rose briskly
to his feet.

"Well, madame, the solution of the mystery lies in Paris, and to find
it I myself journey to Paris on the instant."

"It is all a long time ago, monsieur."

"Yes, yes. Nevertheless, it is there that we must seek."

He turned to leave the room, but paused with his hand on the door.

"Tell me, madame, do you ever remember your husband mentioning the
phrase, 'The Big Four'?"

"The Big Four," she repeated thoughtfully. "No, I can't say I do."




                      6. THE WOMAN ON THE STAIRS


That was all that could be elicited from Mrs. Halliday. We hurried
back to London, and the following day saw us _en route_ for the
Continent. With rather a rueful smile, Poirot observed:---

"This Big Four, they make me to bestir myself, _mon ami_. I run
up and down, all over the ground, like our old friend 'the human
foxhound.'"

"Perhaps you'll meet him in Paris," I said, knowing that he referred
to a certain Giraud, one of the most trusted detectives of the Sureté,
whom he had met on a previous occasion.

Poirot made a grimace. "I devoutly hope not. He loved me not, that one."

"Won't it be a very difficult task?" I asked. "To find out what an
unknown Englishman did on an evening two months ago?"

"Very difficult, _mon ami_. But, as you know well, difficulties
rejoice the heart of Hercule Poirot."

"You think the Big Four kidnapped him?"

Poirot nodded.

Our inquiries necessarily went over old ground, and we learnt little
to add to what Mrs. Halliday had already told us. Poirot had a lengthy
interview with Professor Bourgoneau, during which he sought to elicit
whether Halliday had mentioned any plan of his own for the evening, but
we drew a complete blank.

Our next source of information was the famous Madame Olivier. I was
quite excited as we mounted the steps of her villa at Passy. It has
always seemed to me extraordinary that a woman should go so far in the
scientific world. I should have thought a purely masculine brain was
needed for such work.

The door was opened by a young lad of seventeen or thereabouts, who
reminded me vaguely of an acolyte, so ritualistic was his manner.
Poirot had taken the trouble to arrange our interview beforehand, as
he knew Madame Olivier never received any one without an appointment,
being immersed in research work most of the day.

We were shown into a small _salon_, and presently the mistress
of the house came to us there. Madame Olivier was a very tall woman,
her tallness accentuated by the long white overall she wore, and a
coif like a nun's that shrouded her head. She had a long pale face,
and wonderful dark eyes that burnt with a light almost fanatical. She
looked more like a priestess of old than a modern Frenchwoman. One
cheek was disfigured by a scar, and I remembered that her husband and
co-worker had been killed in an explosion in the laboratory three years
before, and that she herself had been terribly burned. Ever since
then she had shut herself away from the world, and plunged with fiery
energy into the work of scientific research. She received us with cold
politeness.

"I have been interviewed by the police many times, messieurs. I think
it hardly likely that I can help you, since I have not been able to
help them."

"Madame, it is possible that I shall not ask you quite the same
questions. To begin with, of what did you talk together, you and M.
Halliday?"

She looked a trifle surprised.

"But of his work! His work--and also mine."

"Did he mention to you the theories he had embodied recently in his
paper read before the British Association?"

"Certainly he did. It was chiefly of those we spoke."

"His ideas were somewhat fantastic, were they not?" asked Poirot
carelessly.

"Some people have thought so. I do not agree."

"You considered them practicable?"

"Perfectly practicable. My own line of research has been somewhat
similar, though not undertaken with the same end in view. I have been
investigating the _gamma_ rays emitted by the substance usually
known as Radium C., a product of Radium emanation, and in doing so I
have come across some very interesting magnetical phenomena. Indeed, I
have a theory as to the actual nature of the force we call magnetism,
but it is not yet time for my discoveries to be given to the world. Mr.
Halliday's experiments and views were exceedingly interesting to me."

Poirot nodded. Then he asked a question which surprised me.

"Madame, where did you converse on these topics. In here?"

"No, monsieur. In the laboratory."

"May I see it?"

"Certainly."

She led the way to the door from which she had entered. It opened on a
small passage. We passed through two doors and found ourselves in the
big laboratory, with its array of beakers and crucibles and a hundred
appliances of which I did not even know the names. There were two
occupants, both busy with some experiment. Madame Olivier introduced
them.

"Mademoiselle Claude, one of my assistants." A tall, serious-faced
young girl bowed to us. "Monsieur Henri, an old and trusted friend."

The young man, short and dark, bowed jerkily.

Poirot looked round him. There were two other doors besides the one by
which we had entered. One, madame explained, led into the garden, the
other into a smaller chamber also devoted to research. Poirot took all
this in, then declared himself ready to return to the salon.

"Madame, were you alone with M. Halliday during your interview?"

"Yes, monsieur. My two assistants were in the smaller room next door."

"Could your conversation be overheard--by them or any one else?"

Madame reflected, then shook her head.

"I do not think so. I am almost sure it could not. The doors were all
shut."

"Could any one have been concealed in the room?"

"There is the big cupboard in the corner--but the idea is absurd."

"_Pas tout à fait_, madame. One thing more: did M. Halliday make
any mention of his plans for the evening?"

"He said nothing whatever, monsieur."

"I thank you, madame, and I apologise for disturbing you. Pray do not
trouble--we can find our way out."

We stepped out into the hall. A lady was just entering the front door
as we did so. She ran quickly up the stairs, and I was left with an
impression of the heavy mourning that denotes a French widow.

"A most unusual type of woman, that," remarked Poirot, as we walked
away.

"Madame Olivier? Yes, she--"

"_Mais non_, not Madame Olivier. _Cela va sans dire!_ There
are not many geniuses of her stamp in the world. No, I referred to the
other lady--the lady on the stairs."

"I didn't see her face," I said, staring. "And I hardly see how you
could have done. She never looked at us."

"That is why I said she was an unusual type," said Poirot placidly.
"A woman who enters her home--for I presume that it is her home
since she enters with a key--and runs straight upstairs without even
looking at two strange visitors in the hall to see who they are, is a
_very_ unusual type of woman--quite unnatural, in fact. _Mille
tonnerres!_ what is that?"

He dragged me back--just in time. A tree had crashed down on to the
side walk, just missing us. Poirot stared at it, pale and upset.

"It was a near thing that! But clumsy, all the same--for I had no
suspicion--at least hardly any suspicion. Yes, but for my quick
eyes, the eyes of a cat, Hercule Poirot might now be crushed out of
existence--a terrible calamity for the world. And you, too, _mon
ami_--though that would not be such a national catastrophe."

"Thank you," I said coldly. "And what are we going to do now?"

"Do?" cried Poirot. "We are going to think. Yes, here and now, we are
going to exercise our little gray cells. This M. Halliday now, was he
really in Paris? Yes, for Professor Bourgoneau, who knows him, saw and
spoke to him."

"What on earth are you driving at?" I cried.

"That was Friday morning. He was last seen at eleven Friday night--but
_was_ he seen then?"

"The porter--"

"A night porter--who had not previously seen Halliday. A man comes in,
sufficiently like Halliday---we may trust Number Four for that--asks
for letters, goes upstairs, packs a small suit-case, and slips out the
next morning. Nobody saw Halliday all that evening--no, because he
was already in the hands of his enemies. Was it Halliday whom Madame
Olivier received? Yes, for though she did not know him by sight, an
imposter could hardly deceive her on her own special subject. He came
here, he had his interview, he left. What happened next?"

Seizing me by the arm, Poirot was fairly dragging me back to the villa.

"Now, _mon ami_, imagine that it is the day after the
disappearance, and that we are tracking footprints. You love
footprints, do you not? See--here they go, a man's, Mr. Halliday's....
He turns to the right as we did, he walks briskly--ah! other footsteps
following behind--very quickly--small footsteps, a woman's. See,
she catches him up--a slim young woman, in a widow's veil. 'Pardon,
monsieur, Madame Olivier desires that I recall you.' He stops, he
turns. Now where would the young woman take him? She does not wish to
be seen walking with him. Is it coincidence that she catches up with
him just where a narrow alleyway opens, dividing two gardens? She leads
him down it. 'It is shorter this way, monsieur.' On the right is the
garden of Madame Olivier's villa, on the left the garden of another
villa--and from that garden, mark you, the tree fell--so nearly on us.
Garden doors from both open on the alley. The ambush is there. Men pour
out, overpower him, and carry him into the strange villa."

"Good gracious, Poirot," I cried, "are you pretending to see all this?"

"I see it with the eyes of the mind, _mon ami_. So, and only so,
could it have happened. Come, let us go back to the house."

"You want to see Madame Olivier again?"

Poirot gave a curious smile.

"No, Hastings, I want to see the face of the lady on the stairs."

"Who do you think she is, a relation of Madame Olivier's?"

"More probably a secretary--and a secretary engaged not very long ago."

The same gentle acolyte opened the door to us.

"Can you tell me," said Poirot, "the name of the lady, the widow lady,
who came in just now?"

"Madame Veroneau? Madame's secretary?"

"That is the lady. Would you be so kind as to ask her to speak to us
for a moment."

The youth disappeared. He soon reappeared.

"I am sorry. Madame Veroneau must have gone out again."

"I think not," said Poirot quietly. "Will you give her my name, M.
Hercule Poirot, and say that it is important I should see her at once,
as I am just going to the Prefecture."

Again our messenger departed. This time the lady descended. She walked
into the salon. We followed her. She turned and raised her veil. To my
astonishment I recognised our old antagonist, the Countess Rossakoff, a
Russian countess, who had engineered a particularly smart jewel robbery
in London.

"As soon as I caught sight of you in the hall, I feared the worst," she
observed plaintively.

"My dear Countess Rossakoff--"

She shook her head.

"Inez Veroneau now," she murmured. "A Spaniard, married to a Frenchman.
What do you want of me, M. Poirot? You are a terrible man. You hunted
me from London. Now, I suppose, you will tell our wonderful Madame
Olivier about me, and hunt me from Paris? We poor Russians, we must
live, you know."

"It is more serious than that, madame," said Poirot, watching her. "I
propose to enter the villa next door, and release M. Halliday, if he
is still alive. I know everything, you see."

I saw her sudden pallor. She bit her lip. Then she spoke with her usual
decision.

"He is still alive--but he is not at the villa. Come, monsieur, I will
make a bargain with you. Freedom for me--and M. Halliday, alive and
well, for you."

"I accept," said Poirot. "I was about to propose the same bargain
myself. By the way, are the Big Four your employers, madame?"

Again I saw that deathly pallor creep over her face, but she left his
question unanswered.

Instead, "You permit me to telephone?" she asked, and crossing to
the instrument she rang up a number. "The number of the villa," she
explained, "where our friend is now imprisoned. You may give it to the
police--the nest will be empty when they arrive. Ah! I am through. Is
that you, André? It is I, Inez. The little Belgian knows all. Send
Halliday to the hotel, and clear out."

She replaced the receiver, and came towards us, smiling.

"You will accompany us to the hotel, madame."

"Naturally. I expected that."

I got a taxi, and we drove off together. I could see by Poirot's face
that he was perplexed. The thing was almost too easy. We arrived at the
hotel. The porter came up to us.

"A gentleman has arrived. He is in your rooms. He seems very ill. A
nurse came with him, but she has left."

"That is all right," said Poirot, "he is a friend of mine."

We went upstairs together. Sitting in a chair by the window was a
haggard young fellow who looked in the last stages of exhaustion.
Poirot went over to him.

"Are you John Halliday?" The man nodded. "Show me your left arm. John
Halliday has a mole just below the left elbow."

The man stretched out his arm. The mole was there. Poirot bowed to the
countess. She turned and left the room.

A glass of brandy revived Halliday somewhat.

"My God!" he muttered. "I have been through hell--hell.... Those fiends
are devils incarnate. My wife, where is she? What does she think? They
told me that she would believe--would believe--"

"She does not," said Poirot firmly. "Her faith in you has never
wavered. She is waiting for you--she and the child."

"Thank God for that. I can hardly believe that I am free once more."

"Now that you are a little recovered, monsieur, I should like to hear
the whole story from the beginning."

Halliday looked at him with an indescribable expression.

"I remember--nothing," he said.

"What?"

"Have you ever heard of the Big Four?"

"Something of them," said Poirot dryly.

"You do not know what I know. They have unlimited power. If I remain
silent, I shall be safe--if I say one word--not only I, but my nearest
and dearest will suffer unspeakable things. It is no good arguing with
me. _I know_.... I remember--nothing."

And, getting up, he walked from the room.

       *       *       *       *       *

Poirot's face wore a baffled expression.

"So it is like that, is it?" he muttered. "The Big Four win again. What
is that you are holding in your hand, Hastings?"

I handed it to him.

"The countess scribbled it before she left," I explained.

He read it.

"Au revoir.--I.V."

"Signed with her initials--I.V. Just a coincidence, perhaps, that they
also stand for _Four_. I wonder, Hastings, I wonder."




                         7. THE RADIUM THIEVES


On the night of his release, Halliday slept in the room next to ours at
the hotel, and all night long I heard him moaning and protesting in his
sleep. Undoubtedly his experience in the villa had broken his nerve,
and in the morning we failed completely to extract any information from
him. He would only repeat his statement about the unlimited power at
the disposal of the Big Four, and his assurance of the vengeance which
would follow if he talked.

After lunch he departed to rejoin his wife in England, but Poirot and I
remained behind in Paris. I was all for energetic proceedings of some
kind or other, and Poirot's quiescence annoyed me.

"For Heaven's sake, Poirot," I urged, "let us be up and at them."

"Admirable, _mon ami_, admirable! Up where, and at whom? Be
precise, I beg of you."

"At the Big Four, of course."

"_Cela va sans dire._ But how would you set about it?"

"The police," I hazarded doubtfully.

Poirot smiled.

"They would accuse us of romancing. We have nothing to go upon--nothing
whatever. We must wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Wait for them to make a move. See now, in England you all comprehend
and adore _la boxe_. If one man does not make a move, the other
must, and by permitting the adversary to make the attack one learns
something about him. That is our part--to let the other side make the
attack."

"You think they will?" I said doubtfully.

"I have no doubt whatever of it. To begin with, see, they try to get me
out of England. That fails. Then, in the Dartmoor affair, we step in
and save their victim from the gallows. And yesterday, once again, we
interfere with their plans. Assuredly, they will not leave the matter
there."

As I reflected on this, there was a knock on the door. Without waiting
for a reply, a man stepped into the room and closed the door behind
him. He was a tall, thin man, with a slightly hooked nose and a sallow
complexion. He wore an overcoat buttoned up to his chin, and a soft hat
well pulled down over his eyes.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, for my somewhat unceremonious entry," he said in
a soft voice, "but my business is of a rather unorthodox nature."

Smiling, he advanced to the table and sat down by it. I was about to
spring up, but Poirot restrained me with a gesture.

"As you say, Monsieur, your entry is somewhat unceremonious. Will you
kindly state your business?"

"My dear M. Poirot, it is very simple. You have been annoying my
friends."

"In what way?"

"Come, come, Monsieur Poirot. You do not seriously ask me that? You
know as well as I do."

"It depends, monsieur, upon who these friends of yours are."

Without a word, the man drew from his pocket a cigarette case, and,
opening it, took out four cigarettes and tossed them on the table. Then
he picked them up and returned them to his case, which he replaced in
his pocket.

"Aha!" said Poirot, "so it is like that, is it? And what do your
friends suggest?"

"They suggest, monsieur, that you should employ your talents--your very
considerable talents--in the detection of legitimate crime--return
to your former avocations, and solve the problems of London society
ladies."

"A peaceful programme," said Poirot. "And supposing I do not agree?"

The man made an eloquent gesture.

"We should regret it, of course, exceedingly," he said. "So would all
the friends and admirers of the great M. Hercule Poirot. But regrets,
however poignant, do not bring a man to life again."

"Put very delicately," said Poirot, nodding his head. "And supposing
I--accept?"

"In that case I am empowered to offer you--compensation."

He drew out a pocket-book, and threw ten notes on the table. They were
for ten thousand francs each.

"That is merely as a guarantee of our good faith," he said. "Ten times
that amount will be paid you."

"Good God," I cried, springing up, "you dare to think--!"

"Sit down, Hastings," said Poirot autocratically. "Subdue your so
beautiful and honest nature and sit down. To you, monsieur, I will say
this. What is to prevent me ringing up the police and giving you into
their custody, whilst my friend here prevents you from escaping?"

"By all means do so if you think it advisable," said our visitor calmly.

"Oh! look here, Poirot," I cried. "I can't stand this. Ring up the
police and have done with it."

Rising swiftly, I strode to the door and stood with my back against it.

"It seems the obvious course," murmured Poirot, as though debating with
himself.

"But you distrust the obvious, eh?" said our visitor, smiling.

"Go on, Poirot," I urged.

"It will be your responsibility, _mon ami_."

As he lifted the receiver, the man made a sudden, cat-like jump at
me. I was ready for him. In another minute we were locked together,
staggering round the room. Suddenly I felt him slip and falter. I
pressed my advantage. He went down before me. And then, in the very
flush of victory, an extraordinary thing happened. I felt myself flying
forwards. Head first, I crashed into the wall in a complicated heap.
I was up in a minute, but the door was already closing behind my late
adversary. I rushed to it and shook it, it was locked on the outside. I
seized the telephone from Poirot.

"Is that the bureau? Stop a man who is coming out. A tall man, with a
buttoned-up overcoat and a soft hat. He is wanted by the police."

Very few minutes elapsed before we heard a noise in the corridor
outside. The key was turned and the door flung open. The manager
himself stood in the doorway.

"The man--you have got him?" I cried.

"No, monsieur. No one has descended."

"You must have passed him."

"We have passed no one, monsieur. It is incredible that he can have
escaped."

"You have passed some one, I think," said Poirot, in his gentle voice.
"One of the hotel staff, perhaps?"

"Only a waiter carrying a tray, monsieur."

"Ah!" said Poirot, in a tone that spoke infinities.

"So that was why he wore his overcoat buttoned up to his chin," mused
Poirot, when we had finally got rid of the excited hotel officials.

"I'm awfully sorry, Poirot," I murmured, rather crestfallen. "I thought
I'd downed him all right."

"Yes, that was a Japanese trick, I fancy. Do not distress yourself,
_mon ami_. All went according to plan--his plan. That is what I
wanted."

"What's this?" I cried, pouncing on a brown object that lay on the
floor.

It was a slim pocket-book of brown leather, and had evidently fallen
from our visitor's pocket during his struggle with me. It contained
two receipted bills in the name of M. Felix Laon, and a folded-up
piece of paper which made my heart beat faster. It was a half sheet of
note-paper on which a few words were scrawled in pencil but they were
words of supreme importance.

"The next meeting of the council will be on Friday at 34 Rue des
Echelles at 11 a.m."

It was signed with a big figure 4.

And to-day was Friday, and the clock on the mantelpiece showed the hour
to be 10:30.

"My God, what a chance!" I cried. "Fate is playing into our hands. We
must start at once--though. What stupendous luck."

"So that was why he came," murmured Poirot. "I see it all now."

"See what? Come on, Poirot, don't stay daydreaming there."

Poirot looked at me, and slowly shook his head, smiling as he did so.

"'Will you walk into my parlour, said the spider to the fly?' That
is your little English nursery rhyme, is it not? No, no--they are
subtle--but not so subtle as Hercule Poirot."

"What on earth are you driving at, Poirot?"

"My friend, I have been asking myself the reason of this morning's
visit. Did our visitor really hope to succeed in bribing me? Or,
alternatively, in frightening me into abandoning my task? It seemed
hardly credible. Why, then, did he come? And now I see the whole
plan--very neat--very pretty--the ostensible reason to bribe or
frighten me--the necessary struggle which he took no pains to
avoid, and which should make the dropped pocket-book natural and
reasonable--and finally--the pitfall! Rue des Echelles, 11 a.m.? I
think not, _mon ami_! One does not catch Hercule Poirot as easily
as that."

"Good heavens," I gasped.

Poirot was frowning to himself.

"There is still one thing I do not understand."

"What is that?"

"The time, Hastings--the time. If they wanted to decoy me away, surely
night time would be better? Why this early hour? Is it possible that
something is about to happen this morning? Something which they are
anxious Hercule Poirot should not know about?"

He shook his head.

"We shall see. Here I sit, _mon ami_. We do not stir out this
morning. We await events here."

It was at half-past eleven exactly that the summons came. A _petit
bleu_. Poirot tore it open, then handed it to me. It was from Madame
Olivier, the world-famous scientist, whom we had visited yesterday in
connection with the Halliday case. It asked us to come out to Passy at
once.

We obeyed the summons without an instant's delay. Madame Olivier
received us in the same small salon. I was struck anew with the
wonderful power of this woman, with her long nun's face and burning
eyes--this brilliant successor of Becquerel and the Curies. She came to
the point at once.

"Messieurs, you interviewed me yesterday about the disappearance of M.
Halliday. I now learn that you returned to the house a second time, and
asked to see my secretary, Inez Veroneau. She left the house with you,
and has not returned here since."

"Is that all, madame?"

"No, monsieur, it is not. Last night the laboratory was broken into,
and several valuable papers and memoranda were stolen. The thieves had
a try for something more precious still, but luckily they failed to
open the big safe."

"Madame, these are the facts of the case. Your late secretary, Madame
Veroneau, was really the Countess Rossakoff, an expert thief, and it
was she who was responsible for the disappearance of M. Halliday. How
long had she been with you?"

"Five months, monsieur. What you say amazes me."

"It is true, nevertheless. These papers, were they easy to find? Or do
you think an inside knowledge was shown?"

"It is rather curious that the thieves knew exactly where to look. You
think Inez--"

"Yes, I have no doubt that it was upon her information that they acted.
But what is this precious thing that the thieves failed to find?
Jewels?"

Madame Olivier shook her head with a faint smile.

"Something much more precious than that, monsieur." She looked round
her, then bent forward, lowering her voice. "Radium, monsieur."

"Radium?"

"Yes, monsieur. I am now at the crux of my experiments. I possess
a small portion of radium myself--more has been lent to me for the
process I am at work upon. Small though the actual quantity is, it
comprises a large amount of the world's stock and represents a value of
millions of francs."

"And where is it?"

"In its leaden case in the big safe--the safe purposely appears to
be of an old and worn-out pattern, but it is really a triumph of the
safe-maker's art. That is probably why the thieves were unable to open
it."

"How long are you keeping this radium in your possession?"

"Only for two days more, monsieur. Then my experiments will be
concluded."

Poirot's eyes brightened.

"And Inez Veroneau is aware of the fact? Good--then our friends will
come back. Not a word of me to any one, madame. But rest assured, I
will save your radium for you. You have a key of the door leading from
the laboratory to the garden?"

"Yes, monsieur. Here it is. I have a duplicate for myself. And here is
the key of the garden door leading out into the alleyway between this
villa and the next one."

"I thank you, madame. To-night, go to bed as usual, have no fears,
and leave all to me. But not a word to any one--not to your
two assistants--Mademoiselle Claude and Monsieur Henri, is it
not?--particularly not a word to them."

Poirot left the villa rubbing his hands in great satisfaction.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked.

"Now, Hastings, we are about to leave Paris--for England."

"What?"

"We will pack our effects, have lunch, and drive to the Gare du Nord."

"But the radium?"

"I said we were going to leave for England--I did not say we were going
to arrive there. Reflect a moment, Hastings. It is quite certain that
we are being watched and followed. Our enemies must believe that we are
going back to England, and they certainly will not believe that unless
they see us get on board the train and start."

"Do you mean we are to slip off again at the last minute?"

"No, Hastings. Our enemies will be satisfied with nothing less than a
_bona fide_ departure."

"But the train doesn't stop until Calais?"

"It will stop if it is paid to do so."

"Oh, come now, Poirot--surely you can't pay an express to stop--they'd
refuse."

"My dear friend, have you never remarked the little handle--the
_signal d'arrêt_--penalty for improper use, 100 francs, I think?"

"Oh! you are going to pull that?"

"Or rather a friend of mine, Pierre Combeau, will do so. Then, while he
is arguing with the guard, and making a big scene, and all the train is
agog with interest, you and I will fade quietly away."

We duly carried out Poirot's plan. Pierre Combeau, an old crony of
Poirot's, and who evidently knew my little friend's methods pretty
well, fell in with the arrangements. The communication cord was pulled
just as we got to the outskirts of Paris. Combeau "made a scene" in
the most approved French fashion and Poirot and I were able to leave
the train without any one being interested in our departure. Our
first proceeding was to make a considerable change in our appearance.
Poirot had brought the materials for this with him in a small case.
Two loafers in dirty blue blouses were the result. We had dinner in an
obscure hostelry, and started back to Paris afterwards.

It was close on eleven o'clock when we found ourselves once more in
the neighbourhood of Madame Olivier's villa. We looked up and down the
road before slipping into the alleyway. The whole place appeared to be
perfectly deserted. One thing we could be quite certain of, no one was
following us.

"I do not expect them to be here yet," whispered Poirot to me.
"Possibly they may not come until to-morrow night, but they know
perfectly well that there are only two nights on which the radium will
be there."

Very cautiously we turned the key in the garden door. It opened
noiselessly and we stepped into the garden.

And then, with complete unexpectedness, the blow fell. In a minute we
were surrounded, gagged and bound. At least ten men must have been
waiting for us. Resistance was useless. Like two helpless bundles we
were lifted up and carried along. To my intense astonishment, they
took us _towards_ the house and not away from it. With a key they
opened the door into the laboratory and carried us into it. One of the
men stooped down before the big safe. The door of it swung open. I felt
an unpleasant sensation down my spine. Were they going to bundle us
into it, and leave us there to asphyxiate slowly?

However, to my amazement, I saw that from the inside of the safe
steps led down beneath the floor. We were thrust down this narrow
way and eventually came out into a big subterranean chamber. A woman
stood there, tall and imposing, with a black velvet mask covering her
face. She was clearly in command of the situation by her gestures of
authority. The men slung us down on the floor and left us--alone with
the mysterious creature in the mask. I had no doubt who she was. This
was the unknown Frenchwoman--Number Three of the Big Four.

She knelt down beside us and removed the gags, but left us bound, then
rising and facing us, with a sudden swift gesture she removed her mask.

It was Madame Olivier!

"M. Poirot," she said, in a low mocking tone. "The great, the
wonderful, the unique M. Poirot. I sent a warning to you yesterday
morning. You chose to disregard it--you thought you could pit your wits
against US. And now, you are here!"

There was a cold malignity about her that froze me to the marrow.
It was so at variance with the burning fire of her eyes. She was
mad--mad--with the madness of genius!

Poirot said nothing. His jaw had dropped, and he was staring at her.

"Well," she said softly, "this is the end. WE cannot permit our plans
to be interfered with. Have you any last request to make?"

Never before, or since, have I felt so near death. Poirot was
magnificent. He neither flinched nor paled, just stared at her with
unabated interest.

"Your psychology interests me enormously, madame," he said quietly. "It
is a pity that I have so short a time to devote to studying it. Yes, I
have a request to make. A condemned man is always allowed a last smoke,
I believe. I have my cigarette case on me. If you would permit--" He
looked down at his bonds.

"Ah, yes!" she laughed. "You would like me to untie your hands, would
you not? You are clever, M. Hercule Poirot, I know that. I shall not
untie your hands--but I will find you a cigarette."

She knelt down by him, extracted his cigarette case, took out a
cigarette, and placed it between his lips.

"And now a match," she said, rising.

"It is not necessary, madame." Something in his voice startled me. She,
too, was arrested.

"Do not move, I pray of you, madame. You will regret it if you do. Are
you acquainted at all with the properties of cuare? The South American
Indians use it as an arrow poison. A scratch with it means death.
Some tribes use a little blow-pipe--I, too, have a little blow-pipe
constructed so as to look exactly like a cigarette. I have only to
blow.... Ah! you start. Do not move, madame. The mechanism of this
cigarette is most ingenious. One blows--and a tiny dart resembling a
fishbone flies through the air--to find its mark. You do not wish to
die, madame. Therefore, I beg of you, release my friend Hastings from
his bonds. I cannot use my hands, but I can turn my head--so--you are
still covered, madame. Make no mistake, I beg of you."

Slowly, with shaking hands, and rage and hate convulsing her face,
she bent down and did his bidding. I was free. Poirot's voice gave me
instructions.

"Your bonds will now do for the lady, Hastings. That is right. Is she
securely fastened? Then release me, I pray of you. It is a fortunate
circumstance she sent away her henchmen. With a little luck we may hope
to find the way out unobstructed."

In another minute, Poirot stood by my side. He bowed to the lady.

"Hercule Poirot is not killed so easily, madame. I wish you
good-night."

The gag prevented her from replying, but the murderous gleam in her
eyes frightened me. I hoped devoutly that we should never fall into her
power again.

Three minutes later we were outside the villa, and hurriedly traversing
the garden. The road outside was deserted, and we were soon clear of
the neighbourhood.

Then Poirot broke out.

"I deserve all that that woman said to me. I am a triple imbecile,
a miserable animal, thirty-six times an idiot. I was proud of
myself for not falling into their trap. And it was not even meant
as a trap--except exactly in the way in which I fell into it. They
knew I would see through it--they counted on my seeing through
it. This explains all--the ease with which they surrendered
Halliday--everything. Madame Olivier was the ruling spirit---Vera
Rossakoff only her lieutenant. Madame needed Halliday's ideas--she
herself had the necessary genius to supply the gaps that perplexed
him. Yes, Hastings, we know now who Number Three is--the woman who is
probably the greatest scientist in the world! Think of it. The brain
of the East, the science of the West--and two others whose identities
we do not yet know. But we must find out. To-morrow we will return to
London and set about it."

"You are not going to denounce Madame Olivier to the police?"

"I should not be believed. That woman is one of the idols of France.
And we can prove nothing. We are lucky if she does not denounce
_us_."

"What?"

"Think of it. We are found at night upon the premises with keys in our
possession which she will swear she never gave us. She surprises us at
the safe, and we gag and bind her and make away. Have no illusions,
Hastings. The boot is not upon the right leg--is that how you say it?"




                     8. IN THE HOUSE OF THE ENEMY


After our adventure in the villa at Passy we returned post haste to
London. Several letters were awaiting Poirot. He read one of them with
a curious smile, and then handed it to me.

"Read this, _mon ami_."

I turned first to the signature, "Abe Ryland," and recalled Poirot's
words: "the richest man in the world." Mr. Ryland's letter was curt
and incisive. He expressed himself as profoundly dissatisfied with
the reasons Poirot had given for withdrawing from the South American
proposition at the last moment.

"This gives one furiously to think, does it not?" said Poirot.

"I suppose it's only natural he should be a bit ratty."

"No, no, you comprehend not. Remember the words of Mayerling, the man
who took refuge here--only to die by the hands of his enemies. 'Number
Two is represented by an S with two lines through it--the sign for a
dollar, also by two stripes and a star. It may be conjectured therefore
that he is an American subject, and that he represents the power of
wealth.' Add to those words the fact that Ryland offered me a huge sum
to tempt me out of England--and--and what about it, Hastings?"

"You mean," I said, staring, "that you suspect Abe Ryland, the
multi-millionaire, of being Number Two of the Big Four."

"Your bright intellect has grasped the idea, Hastings. Yes, I do.
The tone in which you said multi-millionaire was eloquent--but let
me impress upon you one fact--this thing is being run by men at the
top--and Mr. Ryland has the reputation of being no beauty in his
business dealings. An able, unscrupulous man, a man who has all the
wealth that he needs, and is out for unlimited power."

There was undoubtedly something to be said for Poirot's view. I asked
him when he had made up his mind definitely upon the point.

"That is just it. I am not sure. I cannot be sure. _Mon ami_,
I would give anything to _know_. Let me but place Number Two
definitely as Abe Ryland, and we draw nearer to our goal."

"He has just arrived in London, I see by this," I said, tapping the
letter. "Shall you call upon him, and make your apologies in person?"

"I might do so."

Two days later, Poirot returned to our rooms in a state of boundless
excitement. He grasped me by both hands in his most impulsive manner.

"My friend, an occasion stupendous, unprecedented, never to be
repeated, has presented itself! But there is danger, grave danger. I
should not even ask you to attempt it."

If Poirot was trying to frighten me, he was going the wrong way to
work, and so I told him. Becoming less incoherent, he unfolded his plan.

It seemed that Ryland was looking for an English secretary, one with
a good social manner and presence. It was Poirot's suggestion that I
should apply for the post.

"I would do it, myself, _mon ami_," he explained apologetically.
"But, see you, it is almost impossible for me to disguise myself in
the needful manner. I speak the English very well--except when I am
excited--but hardly so as to deceive the ear; and even though I were
to sacrifice my moustaches, I doubt not but that I should still be
recognisable as Hercule Poirot."

I doubted it also, and declared myself ready and willing to take up the
part and penetrate into Ryland's household.

"Ten to one he won't engage me anyway," I remarked.

"Oh, yes, he will. I will arrange for you such testimonials as shall
make him lick his lips. The Home Secretary himself shall recommend
you."

This seemed to be carrying things a bit far, but Poirot waved aside my
remonstrances.

"Oh, yes, he will do it. I investigated for him a little matter which
might have caused a grave scandal. All was solved with discretion and
delicacy, and now, as you would say, he perches upon my hand like the
little bird and pecks the crumbs."

Our first step was to engage the services of an artist in "make up." He
was a little man, with a quaint bird-like turn of the head, not unlike
Poirot's own. He considered me some time in silence, and then fell to
work. When I looked at myself in the glass half an hour afterwards,
I was amazed. Special shoes caused me to stand at least two inches
taller, and the coat I wore was arranged so as to give me a long, lank,
weedy look. My eyebrows had been cunningly altered, giving a totally
different expression to my face, I wore pads in my cheeks, and the deep
tan of my face was a thing of the past. My moustache had gone, and a
gold tooth was prominent on one side of my mouth.

"Your name," said Poirot, "is Arthur Neville. God guard you, my
friend--for I fear that you go into perilous places."

It was with a beating heart that I presented myself at the Savoy, at an
hour named by Mr. Ryland, and asked to see the great man.

After being kept waiting a minute or two, I was shown upstairs to his
suite.

Ryland was sitting at a table. Spread out in front of him was a letter
which I could see out of the tail of my eye was in the Home Secretary's
handwriting. It was my first sight of the American millionaire, and, in
spite of myself, I was impressed. He was tall and lean, with a jutting
out chin and slightly hooked nose. His eyes glittered cold and gray
behind penthouse brows. He had thick grizzled hair, and a long black
cigar (without which, I learned later, he was never seen) protruded
rakishly from the corner of his mouth.

"Siddown," he grunted.

I sat. He tapped the letter in front of him.

"According to this piece here, you're the goods all right, and I don't
need to look further. Say, are you well up in the social matters?"

I said that I thought I could satisfy him in that respect.

"I mean to say, if I have a lot of dooks and earls and viscounts and
suchlike down to the country place I've gotten, you'll be able to sort
them out all right and put them where they should be round the dining
table?"

"Oh! quite easily," I replied, smiling.

We exchanged a few more preliminaries, and then I found myself engaged.
What Mr. Ryland wanted was a secretary conversant with English society,
as he already had an American secretary and a stenographer with him.

Two days later I went down to Hatton Chase, the seat of the Duke of
Loamshire, which the American millionaire had rented for a period of
six months.

My duties gave me no difficulty whatever. At one period of my life I
had been private secretary to a busy member of Parliament, so I was
not called upon to assume a role unfamiliar to me. Mr. Ryland usually
entertained a large party over the week-end, but the middle of the week
was comparatively quiet. I saw very little of Mr. Appleby, the American
secretary, but he seemed a pleasant, normal young American, very
efficient in his work. Of Miss Martin, the stenographer, I saw rather
more. She was a pretty girl of about twenty-three or four, with auburn
hair and brown eyes that could look mischievous enough upon occasion,
though they were usually cast demurely down. I had an idea that she
both disliked and distrusted her employer, though, of course, she was
careful never to hint at anything of the kind, but the time came when I
was unexpectedly taken into her confidence.

I had, of course, carefully scrutinised all the members of the
household. One or two of the servants had been newly engaged, one of
the footmen, I think, and some of the housemaids. The butler, the
housekeeper, and the chef were the duke's own staff, who had consented
to remain on in the establishment. The housemaids I dismissed as
unimportant; I scrutinised James, the second footman, very carefully;
but it was clear that he was an under-footman and an under-footman
only. He had, indeed, been engaged by the butler. A person of whom
I was far more suspicious was Deaves, Ryland's valet, whom he had
brought over from New York with him. An Englishman by birth, with an
irreproachable manner, I yet harboured vague suspicions about him.

I had been at Hatton Chase three weeks, and not an incident of any kind
had arisen which I could lay my finger on in support of our theory.
There was no trace of the activities of the Big Four. Mr. Ryland was a
man of overpowering force and personality, but I was coming to believe
that Poirot had made a mistake when he associated him with that dread
organisation. I even heard him mention Poirot in a casual way at dinner
one night.

"Wonderful little man, they say. But he's a quitter. How do I know?
I put him on a deal, and he turned me down the last minute. I'm not
taking any more of your Monsieur Hercule Poirot."

It was at moments such as these that I felt my cheek pads most
wearisome!

And then Miss Martin told me a rather curious story. Ryland had gone
to London for the day, taking Appleby with him. Miss Martin and I were
strolling together in the garden after tea. I liked the girl very
much, she was so unaffected and so natural. I could see that there was
something on her mind, and at last out it came.

"Do you know, Major Neville," she said, "I am really thinking of
resigning my post here."

I looked somewhat astonished, and she went on hurriedly.

"Oh! I know it's a wonderful job to have got, in a way. I suppose most
people would think me a fool to throw it up. But I can't stand abuse,
Major Neville. To be sworn at like a trooper is more than I can bear.
No gentleman would do such a thing."

"Has Ryland been swearing at you?"

She nodded.

"Of course, he's always rather irritable and short tempered. That one
expects. It's all in the day's work. But to fly into such an absolute
fury--over nothing at all. He really looked as though he could have
murdered me! And, as I say, over nothing at all!"

"Tell me about it?" I said, keenly interested.

"As you know, I open all Mr. Ryland's letters. Some I hand on to Mr.
Appleby, others I deal with myself, but I do all the preliminary
sorting. Now there are certain letters that come, written on blue
paper, and with a tiny 4 marked on the corner--I beg your pardon, did
you speak?"

I had been unable to repress a stifled exclamation, but I hurriedly
shook my head, and begged her to continue.

"Well, as I was saying, these letters come, and there are strict orders
that they are never to be opened, but to be handed over to Mr. Ryland
intact. And, of course, I always do so. But there was an unusually
heavy mail yesterday morning, and I was opening the letters in a
terrific hurry. By mistake I opened one of these letters. As soon as I
saw what I had done, I took it to Mr. Ryland and explained. To my utter
amazement he flew into the most awful rage. As I tell you, I was quite
frightened."

"What was there in the letter, I wonder, to upset him so?"

"Absolutely nothing--that's just the curious part of it. I had read
it before I discovered my mistake. It was quite short. I can still
remember it word for word, and there was nothing in it that could
possibly upset any one."

"You can repeat it, you say?" I encouraged her.

"Yes." She paused a minute and then repeated slowly, whilst I noted
down the words unobtrusively, the following:--

    "DEAR SIR,--The essential thing now, I should say, is to
    see the property. If you insist on the quarry being included, then
    seventeen thousand seems reasonable. 11% commission too much, 4% is
    ample.

                                                          "Yours truly,
                                                    "ARTHUR LEVERSHAM."

Miss Martin went on:--

"Evidently about some property Mr. Ryland was thinking of buying. But
really, I do feel that a man who can get into a rage over such a trifle
is, well, dangerous. What do you think I ought to do, Major Neville?
You've more experience of the world than I have."

I soothed the girl down, pointed out to her that Mr. Ryland had
probably been suffering from the enemy of his race--dyspepsia. In
the end I sent her away quite comforted. But I was not so easily
satisfied myself. When the girl had gone, and I was alone, I took out
my notebook, and ran over the letter which I had jotted down. What did
it mean--this apparently innocent-sounding missive? Did it concern some
business deal which Ryland was undertaking, and was he anxious that no
details about it should leak out until it was carried through? That was
a possible explanation. But I remembered the small figure 4 with which
the envelopes were marked, and I felt that, at last, I was on the track
of the thing we were seeking.

I puzzled over the letter all that evening, and most of the next
day--and then suddenly the solution came to me. It was so simple, too.
The figure 4 was the clue. Read every fourth word in the letter, and an
entirely different message appeared. "Essential should see you quarry
seventeen eleven four."

The solution of the figures was easy. Seventeen stood for the
seventeenth of October--which was to-morrow, eleven was the time, and
four was the signature--either referring to the mysterious Number Four
himself--or else it was the "trade-mark" so to speak, of the Big Four.
The quarry was also intelligible. There was a big disused quarry on the
estate about half a mile from the house--a lonely spot, ideal for a
secret meeting.

For a moment or two I was tempted to run the show myself. It would be
such a feather in my cap, for once, to have the pleasure of crowing
over Poirot.

But in the end I overcame the temptation. This was a big business--I
had no right to play a lone hand, and perhaps jeopardise our chances of
success. For the first time, we had stolen a march upon our enemies. We
must make good this time--and, disguise the fact as I might, Poirot had
the better brain of the two.

I wrote off post haste to him, laying the facts before him, and
explaining how urgent it was that we should overhear what went on at
the interview. If he liked to leave it to me, well and good, but I gave
him detailed instructions how to reach the quarry from the station in
case he should deem it wise to be present himself.

I took the letter down to the village and posted it myself. I had been
able to communicate with Poirot throughout my stay, by the simple
expedient of posting my letters myself, but we had agreed that he
should not attempt to communicate with me in case my letters should be
tampered with.

I was in a glow of excitement the following evening. No guests were
staying in the house, and I was busy with Mr. Ryland in his study all
the evening. I had foreseen that this would be the case, which was why
I had had no hope of being able to meet Poirot at the station. I was,
however, confident that I would be dismissed well before eleven o'clock.

Sure enough, just after ten-thirty, Mr. Ryland glanced at the clock,
and announced that he was "through." I took the hint and retired
discreetly. I went upstairs as though going to bed, but slipped quietly
down a side staircase and let myself out into the garden, having taken
the precaution to don a dark overcoat to hide my white shirt-front.

I had gone some way down the garden when I chanced to look over my
shoulder. Mr. Ryland was just stepping out from his study window into
the garden. He was starting to keep the appointment. I redoubled my
pace, so as to get a clear start. I arrived at the quarry somewhat out
of breath. There seemed no one about, and I crawled into a thick tangle
of bushes and awaited developments.

Ten minutes later, just on the stroke of eleven, Ryland stalked up,
his hat over his eyes and the inevitable cigar in his mouth. He
gave a quick look round, and then plunged into the hollows of the
quarry below. Presently I heard a low murmur of voices come up to me.
Evidently the other man--or men--whoever they were, had arrived first
at the rendezvous. I crawled cautiously out of the bushes, and inch
by inch, using the utmost precaution against noise, I wormed myself
down the steep path. Only a boulder now separated me from the talking
men. Secure in the blackness, I peeped round the edge of it and found
myself facing the muzzle of a black, murderous-looking automatic!

"Hands up!" said Mr. Ryland succinctly. "I've been waiting for you."

He was seated in the shadow of the rock, so that I could not see his
face, but the menace in his voice was unpleasant. Then I felt a ring of
cold steel on the back of my neck, and Ryland lowered his own automatic.

"That's right, George," he drawled. "March him around here."

Raging inwardly, I was conducted to a spot in the shadows, where the
unseen George (whom I suspected of being the impeccable Deaves), gagged
and bound me securely.

Ryland spoke again in a tone which I had difficulty in recognising, so
cold and menacing was it.

"This is going to be the end of you two. You've got in the way of the
Big Four once too often. Ever heard of land slides? There was one about
here two years ago. There's going to be another to-night. I've fixed
that good and square. Say, that friend of yours doesn't keep his dates
very punctually."

A wave of horror swept over me. Poirot! In another minute he would
walk straight into the trap. And I was powerless to warn him. I could
only pray that he had elected to leave the matter in my hands, and had
remained in London. Surely, if he had been coming, he would have been
here by now.

With every minute that passed, my hopes rose.

Suddenly they were dashed to pieces. I heard footsteps--cautious
footsteps, but footsteps nevertheless. I writhed in impotent agony.
They came down the path, paused, and then Poirot himself appeared, his
head a little on one side, peering into the shadows.

I heard the growl of satisfaction Ryland gave as he raised the big
automatic and shouted "Hands up." Deaves sprang forward as he did so,
and took Poirot in the rear. The ambush was complete.

"Please to meet you, Mr. Hercule Poirot," said the American grimly.

Poirot's self-possession was marvellous. He did not turn a hair. But I
saw his eyes searching in the shadows.

"My friend? He is here?"

"Yes, you are both in the trap--the trap of the Big Four."

He laughed.

"A trap?" queried Poirot.

"Say, haven't you tumbled to it yet?"

"I comprehend that there is a trap--yes," said Poirot gently. "But you
are in error, monsieur. It is _you_ who are in it--not I and my
friend."

"What?" Ryland raised the big automatic, but I saw his gaze falter.

"If you fire, you commit murder watched by ten pairs of eyes, and you
will be hanged for it. This place is surrounded--has been for the last
hour--by Scotland Yard men. It is checkmate, Mr. Abe Ryland."

He uttered a curious whistle, and as though by magic, the place was
alive with men. They seized Ryland and the valet and disarmed them.
After speaking a few words to the officer in charge, Poirot took me by
the arm, and led me away.

Once clear of the quarry he embraced me with vigour.

"You are alive--you are unhurt. It is magnificent. Often have I blamed
myself for letting you go."

"I'm perfectly all right," I said, disengaging myself. "But I'm just a
bit fogged. You tumbled to their little scheme, did you?"

"But I was waiting for it! For what else did I permit you to go there?
Your false name, your disguise, not for a moment was it intended to
deceive!"

"What?" I cried. "You never told me."

"As I have frequently told you, Hastings, you have a nature so
beautiful and so honest that unless you are yourself deceived, it is
impossible for you to deceive others. Good, then, you are spotted
from the first, and they do what I had counted on their doing--a
mathematical certainty to any one who uses his gray cells properly--use
you as a decoy. They set the girl on--By the way, _mon ami_, as an
interesting fact psychologically, has she got red hair?"

"If you mean Miss Martin," I said coldly. "Her hair is a delicate shade
of auburn, but--"

"They are _épatant_--these people! They have even studied your
psychology. Oh! yes, my friend, Miss Martin was in the plot--very
much so. She repeats the letter to you, together with her tale of Mr.
Ryland's wrath, you write it down, you puzzle your brains--the cipher
is nicely arranged, difficult, but not too difficult--you solve it, and
you send for me."

"But what they do not know is that I am waiting for just this very
thing to happen. I go post haste to Japp and arrange things. And so, as
you see, all is triumph!"

I was not particularly pleased with Poirot, and I told him so. We went
back to London on a milk train in the early hours of the morning, and a
most uncomfortable journey it was.

I was just out of my bath and indulging in pleasurable thoughts of
breakfast when I heard Japp's voice in the sitting-room. I threw on a
bathrobe and hurried in.

"A pretty mare's nest you've got us into this time," Japp was saying.
"It's too bad of you, M. Poirot. First time I've ever known you take a
toss."

Poirot's face was a study. Japp went on.

"There were we, taking all this Black Hand stuff seriously--and all the
time it was the footman."

"The footman?" I gasped.

"Yes, James, or whatever his name is. Seems he laid 'em a wager in
the servants' hall that he could get taken for the old man by his
nibs--that's you, Captain Hastings--and would hand him out a lot of spy
stuff about a Big Four gang."

"Impossible!" I cried.

"Don't you believe it. I marched our gentleman straight to Hatton
Chase, and there was the real Ryland in bed and asleep, and the butler
and the cook and God knows how many of them to swear to the wager. Just
a silly hoax--that's all it was--and the valet is with him."

"So that was why he kept in the shadow," murmured Poirot.

After Japp had gone we looked at each other.

"We _know_, Hastings," said Poirot at last. "Number Two of the Big
Four is Abe Ryland. The masquerading on the part of the footman was to
ensure a way of retreat in case of emergencies. And the footman--"

"Yes," I breathed.

"_Number Four_," said Poirot gravely.




                     9. THE YELLOW JASMINE MYSTERY


It was all very well for Poirot to say that we were acquiring
information all the time and gaining an insight into our adversaries'
minds--I felt myself that I required some more tangible success than
this.

Since we had come into contact with the Big Four, they had committed
two murders, abducted Halliday, and had been within an ace of killing
Poirot and myself; whereas so far we had hardly scored a point in the
game.

Poirot treated my complaints lightly.

"So far, Hastings," he said, "they laugh. That is true, but you have a
proverb, have you not: 'He laughs best who laughs at the end'? And at
the end, _mon ami_, you shall see.

"You must remember, too," he added, "that we deal with no ordinary
criminal, but with the second greatest brain in the world."

I forbore to pander to his conceit by asking the obvious question. I
knew the answer, at least I knew what Poirot's answer would be, and
instead I tried without success to elicit some information as to what
steps he was taking to track down the enemy. As usual he had kept me
completely in the dark as to his movements, but I gathered that he was
in touch with secret service agents in India, China, and Russia, and,
from his occasional bursts of self-glorification, that he was at least
progressing in his favourite game of gauging his enemy's mind.

He had abandoned his private practice almost entirely, and I know that
at this time he refused some remarkably handsome fees. True, he would
sometimes investigate cases which intrigued him, but he usually dropped
them the moment he was convinced that they had no connection with the
activities of the Big Four.

This attitude of his was remarkably profitable to our friend, Inspector
Japp. Undeniably he gained much kudos for solving several problems
in which his success was really due to a half-contemptuous hint from
Poirot.

In return for such service Japp supplied full details of any case which
he thought might interest the little Belgian, and when he was put in
charge of what the newspaper called "The Yellow Jasmine Mystery," he
wired Poirot, asking him whether he would care to come down and look
into the case.

It was in response to this wire that, about a month after my adventure
in Abe Ryland's house, we found ourselves alone in a railway
compartment whirling away from the smoke and dust of London, bound for
the little town of Market Handford in Worcestershire, the seat of the
mystery.

Poirot leant back in his corner.

"And what exactly is your opinion of the affair, Hastings?"

I did not at once reply to his question; I felt the need of going
warily.

"It all seems so complicated," I said cautiously.

"Does it not?" said Poirot delightedly.

"I suppose our rushing off like this is a pretty clear sign that you
consider Mr. Paynter's death to be murder--not suicide or the result of
an accident?"

"No, no; you misunderstand me, Hastings. Granting that Mr. Paynter died
as the result of a particularly terrible accident, there are still a
number of mysterious circumstances to be explained."

"That was what I meant when I said it was all so complicated."

"Let us go over all the main facts quietly and methodically. Recount
them to me, Hastings, in an orderly and lucid fashion."

I started forthwith, endeavouring to be as orderly and lucid as I could.

"We start," I said, "with Mr. Paynter. A man of fifty-five, rich,
cultured, and somewhat of a globetrotter. For the last twelve years
he has been little in England, but suddenly tiring of incessant
travelling, he bought a small place in Worcestershire, near Market
Handford, and prepared to settle down. His first action was to write
to his only relative, a nephew, Gerald Paynter, the son of his younger
brother, and to suggest to him that he should come and make his home
at Croftlands (as the place is called) with his uncle. Gerald Paynter,
who is an impecunious young artist, was glad enough to fall in with the
arrangement, and had been living with his uncle for about seven months
when the tragedy occurred."

"Your narrative style is masterly," murmured Poirot. "I say to myself,
it is a book that talks, not my friend Hastings."

Paying no attention to Poirot, I went on, warming to the story.

"Mr. Paynter kept up a fair staff at Croftlands--six servants as well
as his own Chinese body servant--Ah Ling."

"His Chinese servant, Ah Ling," murmured Poirot.

"On Tuesday last, Mr. Paynter complained of feeling unwell after
dinner, and one of the servants was despatched to fetch the doctor. Mr.
Paynter received the doctor in his study, having refused to go to bed.
What passed between them was not then known, but before Doctor Quentin
left, he asked to see the housekeeper, and mentioned that he had given
Mr. Paynter a hypodermic injection as his heart was in a very weak
state, recommended that he should not be disturbed, and then proceeded
to ask some rather curious questions about the servants--how long they
had been there, from whom they had come, etc.

"The housekeeper answered these questions as best she could, but was
rather puzzled as to their purport. A terrible discovery was made on
the following morning. One of the housemaids, on descending, was met
by a sickening odour of burned flesh which seemed to come from her
master's study. She tried the door, but it was locked on the inside.
With the assistance of Gerald Paynter and the Chinaman that was soon
broken in, but a terrible sight greeted them. Mr. Paynter had fallen
forward into the gas fire, and his face and head were charred beyond
recognition.

"Of course, at the moment, no suspicion was aroused as to its being
anything but a ghastly accident. If blame attached to any one, it was
to Doctor Quentin for giving his patient a narcotic and leaving him in
such a dangerous position. And then a rather curious discovery was made.

"There was a newspaper on the floor, lying where it had slipped from
the old man's knees. On turning it over, words were found to be
scrawled across it, feebly traced in ink. A writing-table stood close
to the chair in which Mr. Paynter had been sitting, and the forefinger
of the victim's right hand was ink-stained up to the second joint. It
was clear that, too weak to hold a pen, Mr. Paynter had dipped his
finger in the ink-pot and managed to scrawl these two words across
the surface of the newspaper he held--but the words themselves seemed
utterly fantastic: _Yellow Jasmine_--just that and nothing more.

"Croftlands has a large quantity of yellow jasmine growing up its
walls, and it was thought that this dying message had some reference to
them, showing that the poor old man's mind was wandering. Of course,
the newspapers, agog for anything out of the common, took up the story
hotly, calling it the Mystery of the Yellow Jasmine--though in all
probability the words are completely unimportant."

"They are unimportant, you say?" said Poirot. "Well, doubtless, since
you say so, it must be so."

I regarded him dubiously, but I could detect no mockery in his eye.

"And then," I continued, "there came the excitements of the inquest."

"This is where you lick your lips, I perceive."

"There was a certain amount of feeling evidenced against Dr. Quentin.
To begin with, he was not the regular doctor, only a locum, putting in
a month's work, whilst Dr. Bolitho was away on a well-earned holiday.
Then it was felt that his carelessness was the direct cause of the
accident. But his evidence was little short of sensational. Mr. Paynter
had been ailing in health ever since his arrival at Croftlands. Dr.
Bolitho had attended him for some time, but when Dr. Quentin first saw
his patient, he was mystified by some of the symptoms. He had only
attended him once before the night when he was sent for after dinner.
As soon as he was alone with Mr. Paynter, the latter had unfolded a
surprising tale. To begin with, he was not feeling ill at all, he
explained, but the taste of some curry that he had been eating at
dinner had struck him as peculiar. Making an excuse to get rid of Ah
Ling for a few minutes, he had turned the contents of his plate into a
bowl, and he now handed it over to the doctor with injunctions to find
out if there were really anything wrong with it.

"In spite of his statement that he was not feeling ill, the doctor
noted that the shock of his suspicions had evidently affected him,
and that his heart was feeling it. Accordingly he administered an
injection--not of a narcotic, but of strychnine.

"That, I think, completes the case--except for _the_ crux of the
whole thing--the fact that the uneaten curry, duly analysed, was found
to contain enough powdered opium to have killed two men!"

I paused.

"And your conclusions, Hastings?" asked Poirot quietly.

"It's difficult to say. It _might_ be an accident--the fact that
some one attempted to poison him the same night might be merely a
coincidence."

"But you don't think so? You prefer to believe it--murder!"

"Don't you?"

"_Mon ami_, you and I do not reason in the same way. I am not
trying to make up my mind between two opposite solutions--murder or
accident--that will come when we have solved the other problem--the
mystery of the 'Yellow Jasmine.' By the way, you have left out
something there."

"You mean the two lines at right angles to each other faintly indicated
under the words? I did not think they could be of any possible
importance."

"What you think is always so important to yourself, Hastings. But let
us pass from the mystery of the Yellow Jasmine to the Mystery of the
Curry."

"I know. Who poisoned it? Why? There are a hundred questions one can
ask. Ah Ling, of course, prepared it. But why should he wish to kill
his master? Is he a member of a _tong_, or something like that.
One reads of such things. The _tong_ of the Yellow Jasmine,
perhaps. Then there is Gerald Paynter."

I came to an abrupt pause.

"Yes," said Poirot, nodding his head. "There is Gerald Paynter, as you
say. He is his uncle's heir. He was dining out that night, though."

"He might have got at some of the ingredients of the curry," I
suggested. "And he would take care to be out, so as not to have to
partake of the dish."

I think my reasoning rather impressed Poirot. He looked at me with a
more respectful attention than he had given me so far.

"He returns late," I mused, pursuing a hypothetical case. "Sees the
light in his uncle's study, enters, and, finding his plan has failed,
thrusts the old man down into the fire."

"Mr. Paynter, who was a fairly hearty man of fifty-five, would not
permit himself to be burnt to death without a struggle, Hastings. Such
a reconstruction is not feasible."

"Well, Poirot," I cried, "we're nearly there, I fancy. Let us hear what
you think?"

Poirot threw me a smile, swelled out his chest, and began in a pompous
manner.

"Assuming murder, the question at once arises, why choose that
particular method? I can think of only one reason--to confuse identity,
the face being charred beyond recognition."

"What?" I cried. "You think--"

"A moment's patience, Hastings. I was going on to say that I examine
that theory. Is there any ground for believing that the body is not
that of Mr. Paynter? Is there any one else whose body it possibly could
be? I examine these two questions and finally I answer them both in the
negative."

"Oh!" I said, rather disappointed. "And then?"

Poirot's eyes twinkled a little.

"And then I say to myself, 'since there is here something that I do not
understand, it would be well that I should investigate the matter. I
must not permit myself to be wholly engrossed by the Big Four.' Ah! we
are just arriving. My little clothes brush, where does it hide itself?
Here it is--brush me down, I pray you, my friend, and then I will
perform the same service for you."

"Yes," said Poirot thoughtfully, as he put away the brush, "one must
not permit oneself to be obsessed by one idea. I have been in danger of
that. Figure to yourself, my friend, that even here, in this case, I am
in danger of it. Those two lines you mentioned, a downstroke and a line
at right angles to it, what are they but the beginning of a 4?"

"Good gracious, Poirot," I cried, laughing.

"Is it not absurd? I see the hand of the Big Four everywhere. It is
well to employ one's wits in a totally different _milieu_. Ah!
there is Japp come to meet us."




                   10. WE INVESTIGATE AT CROFTLANDS


The Scotland Yard Inspector was, indeed, waiting on the platform, and
greeted us warmly.

"Well, Moosior Poirot, this is good. Thought you'd like to be let in on
this. Tip-top mystery, isn't it?"

I read this aright as showing Japp to be completely puzzled and hoping
to pick up a pointer from Poirot.

Japp had a car waiting, and we drove up in it to Croftlands. It was a
square, white house, quite unpretentious, and covered with creepers,
including the starry yellow jasmine. Japp looked up at it as we did.

"Must have been balmy to go writing that, poor old cove," he remarked.
"Hallucinations, perhaps, and thought he was outside."

Poirot was smiling at him.

"Which was it, my good Japp?" he asked; "accident or murder?"

The Inspector seemed a little embarrassed by the question.

"Well, if it weren't for that curry business, I'd be for accident every
time. There's no sense in holding a live man's head in the fire--why,
he'd scream the house down."

"Ah!" said Poirot in a low voice. "Fool that I have been. Triple
imbecile! You are a cleverer man than I am, Japp."

Japp was rather taken aback by the compliment--Poirot being usually
given to exclusive self praise. He reddened and muttered something
about there being a lot of doubt about that.

He led the way through the house to the room where the tragedy had
occurred--Mr. Paynter's study. It was a wide, low room, with book-lined
walls and big leather arm-chairs.

Poirot looked across at once to the window which gave upon a gravelled
terrace.

"The window, it was unlatched?" he asked.

"That's the whole point, of course. When the doctor left this room,
he merely closed the door behind him. The next morning it was found
locked. Who locked it? Mr. Paynter? Ah Ling declares that the window
was closed and bolted. Dr. Quentin, on the other hand, has an
impression that it was closed, but not fastened, but he won't swear
either way. If he could, it would make a great difference. If the man
_was_ murdered, some one entered the room either through the door
or the window--if through the door, it was an inside job; if through
the window, it might have been any one. First thing when they had
broken the door down, they flung the window open, and the housemaid
who did it thinks that it wasn't fastened, but she's a precious bad
witness--will remember anything you ask her to!"

"What about the key?"

"There you are again. It was on the floor among the wreckage of the
door. Might have fallen from the keyhole, might have been dropped there
by one of the people who entered, might have been slipped underneath
the door from the outside."

"In fact everything is 'might have been'?"

"You've hit it, Moosior Poirot. That's just what it is."

Poirot was looking round him, frowning unhappily.

"I cannot see light," he murmured. "Just now---yes, I got a gleam, but
now all is darkness once more. I have not the clue--the motive."

"Young Gerald Paynter had a pretty good motive," remarked Japp grimly.
"He's been wild enough in his time, I can tell you. _And_
extravagant. You know what artists are, too--no morals at all."

Poirot did not pay much attention to Japp's sweeping strictures on the
artistic temperament. Instead he smiled knowingly.

"My good Japp, is it possible that you throw the mud in my eyes? I know
well enough that it is the Chinaman you suspect. But you are so artful.
You want me to help you--and yet you drag the red kipper across the
trail."

Japp burst out laughing.

"That's you all over, Mr. Poirot. Yes, I'd bet on the Chink, I'll admit
it now. It stands to reason that it was he who doctored the curry, and
if he'd try once in an evening to get his master out of the way, he'd
try twice."

"I wonder if he would," said Poirot softly.

"But it's the motive that beats me. Some heathen revenge or other, I
suppose."

"I wonder," said Poirot again. "There has been no robbery? Nothing has
disappeared? No jewellery, or money, or papers?"

"No--that is, not exactly."

I pricked up my ears; so did Poirot.

"There's been no robbery, I mean," explained Japp. "But the old
boy was writing a book of some sort. We only knew about it this
morning when there was a letter from the publishers asking about the
manuscript. It was just completed, it seems. Young Paynter and I have
searched high and low, but can't find a trace of it--he must have
hidden it away somewhere."

Poirot's eyes were shining with the green light I knew so well.

"How was it called, this book?" he asked.

"_The Hidden Hand in China_, I think it was called."

"Aha!" said Poirot, with almost a gasp. Then he said quickly, "Let me
see the Chinaman, Ah Ling."

The Chinaman was sent for and appeared, shuffling along, with his eyes
cast down, and his pigtail swinging. His impassive face showed no trace
of any kind of emotion.

"Ah Ling," said Poirot, "are you sorry your master is dead?"

"I welly sorry. He good master."

"You know who kill him?"

"I not know. I tell pleeceman if I know."

The questions and answers went on. With the same impassive face, Ah
Ling described how he had made the curry. The cook had had nothing to
do with it, he declared, no hand had touched it but his own. I wondered
if he saw where his admission was leading him. He stuck to it too,
that the window to the garden was bolted that evening. If it was open
in the morning, his master must have opened it himself. At last Poirot
dismissed him.

"That will do, Ah Ling." Just as the Chinaman had got to the door,
Poirot recalled him. "And you know nothing, you say, of the Yellow
Jasmine?"

"No, what should I know?"

"Nor yet of the sign that was written underneath it?"

Poirot leant forward as he spoke, and quickly traced something on the
dust of a little table. I was near enough to see it before he rubbed it
out. A down stroke, a line at right angles, and then a second line down
which completed a big 4. The effect on the Chinaman was electrical. For
one moment his face was a mask of terror. Then, as suddenly, it was
impassive again, and repeating his grave disclaimer, he withdrew.

Japp departed in search of young Paynter, and Poirot and I were left
alone together.

"The Big Four, Hastings," cried Poirot. "Once again, the Big Four.
Paynter was a great traveller. In his book there was doubtless some
vital information concerning the doings of Number One, Li Chang Yen,
the head and brains of the Big Four."

"But who--how--"

"Hush, here they come."

Gerald Paynter was an amiable, rather weak-looking young man. He had
a soft brown beard, and a peculiar flowing tie. He answered Poirot's
questions readily enough.

"I dined out with some neighbours of ours, the Wycherlys," he
explained. "What time did I get home? Oh, about eleven. I had a
latch-key, you know. All the servants had gone to bed, and I naturally
thought my uncle had done the same. As a matter of fact, I did think I
caught sight of that soft-footed Chinese beggar Ah Ling just whisking
round the corner of the hall, but I fancy I was mistaken."

"When did you last see your uncle, Mr. Paynter? I mean before you came
to live with him."

"Oh! not since I was a kid of ten. He and his brother (my father)
quarrelled, you know."

"But he found you again with very little trouble, did he not? In spite
of all the years that had passed?"

"Yes, it was quite a bit of luck my seeing the lawyer's advertisement."

Poirot asked no more questions.

Our next move was to visit Dr. Quentin. His story was substantially
the same as he had told at the inquest, and he had little to add to
it. He received us in his surgery, having just come to the end of his
consulting patients. He seemed an intelligent man. A certain primness
of manner went well with his pince-nez, but I fancied that he would be
thoroughly modern in his methods.

"I wish I could remember about the window," he said frankly. "But it's
dangerous to think back, one becomes quite positive about something
that never existed. That's psychology, isn't it, M. Poirot? You see,
I've read all about your methods, and I may say I'm an enormous admirer
of yours. No, I suppose it's pretty certain that the Chinaman put the
powdered opium in the curry, but he'll never admit it, and we shall
never know why. But holding a man down in a fire--that's not in keeping
with our Chinese friend's character, it seems to me."

I commented on this last point to Poirot as we walked down the main
street of Market Handford.

"Do you think he let a confederate in?" I asked. "By the way, I suppose
Japp can be trusted to keep an eye on him?" (The Inspector had passed
into the police station on some business or other.) "The emissaries of
the Big Four are pretty spry."

"Japp is keeping an eye on both of them," said Poirot grimly. "They
have been closely shadowed ever since the body was discovered."

"Well, at any rate _we_ know that Gerald Paynter had nothing to do
with it."

"You always know so much more than I do, Hastings, that it becomes
quite fatiguing."

"You old fox," I laughed. "You never will commit yourself."

"To be honest, Hastings, the case is now quite clear to me--all but the
words, _Yellow Jasmine_--and I am coming to agree with you that
they have no bearing on the crime. In a case of this kind, you have got
to make up your mind who is lying. I have done that. And yet--"

He suddenly darted from my side and entered an adjacent bookshop. He
emerged a few minutes later, hugging a parcel. Then Japp rejoined us,
and we all sought quarters at the inn.

I slept late the next morning. When I descended to the sitting-room
reserved for us, I found Poirot already there, pacing up and down, his
face contorted with agony.

"Do not converse with me," he cried, waving an agitated hand. "Not
until I know that all is well--that the arrest is made. Ah! but my
psychology has been weak. Hastings, if a man writes a dying message, it
is because it is important. Every one has said--'Yellow Jasmine? There
is yellow jasmine growing up the house--it means nothing.'"

"Well, what does it mean? Just what it says. Listen." He held up a
little book he was holding.

"My friend, it struck me that it would be well to inquire into the
subject. What exactly is yellow jasmine? This little book has told me.
Listen."

He read.

"'_Gelsemini Radix._ Yellow Jasmine. Composition: Alkaloids
_gelseminine_ C_{22}H_{26}N_{2}O_{3}, a potent poison acting like
coniine; _gelsemine_ C_{12}H_{14}NO_{2}, acting like strychnine;
_gelsemic acid_, etc. Gelsemium is a powerful depressant to the
central nervous system. At a late stage in its action it paralyses the
motor nerve endings, and in large doses causes giddiness and loss of
muscular power. Death is due to paralysis of the respiratory centre.'

"You see, Hastings? At the beginning I had an inkling of the truth when
Japp made his remark about a live man being forced into the fire. I
realised then that it was a dead man who was burned."

"But why? What was the point?"

"My friend, if you were to shoot a man, or stab a man after he were
dead, or even knock him on the head, it would be apparent that the
injuries were inflicted after death. But with his head charred to a
cinder, no one is going to hunt about for obscure causes of death, and
a man who has apparently just escaped being poisoned at dinner, is not
likely to be poisoned just afterwards. _Who_ is lying, that is
always the question? I decided to believe Ah Ling--"

"What!" I exclaimed.

"You are surprised, Hastings? Ah Ling knew of the existence of the
Big Four, that was evident--so evident that it was clear he knew
nothing of their association with the crime until that moment. Had he
been the murderer, he would have been able to retain his impassive
face perfectly. So I decided then, to believe Ah Ling, and I fixed my
suspicions on Gerald Paynter. It seemed to me that Number Four would
have found an impersonation of a long lost nephew very easy."

"What!" I cried. "Number Four?"

"No, Hastings, _not_ Number Four. As soon as I had read up the
subject of yellow jasmine, I saw the truth. In fact, it leapt to the
eye."

"As always," I said coldly, "it doesn't leap to mine."

"Because you will not use your little gray cells. Who had a chance to
tamper with the curry?"

"Ah Ling. No one else."

"No one else? _What about the doctor?_"

"But that was _afterwards_."

"Of course it was afterwards. There was no trace of powdered opium
in the curry served to Mr. Paynter, but acting in obedience to the
suspicions Dr. Quentin had aroused, the old man eats none of it,
and preserves it to give to his medical attendant, whom he summons
according to plan. Dr. Quentin arrives, takes charge of the curry,
_and gives Mr. Paynter an injection_--of strychnine, he says,
but really of yellow jasmine--a poisonous dose. When the drug begins
to take effect, he departs, after unlatching the window. Then, in the
night, he returns by the window, finds the manuscript, and shoves Mr.
Paynter into the fire. He does not heed the newspaper that drops to the
floor and is covered by the old man's body. Paynter knew what drug he
had been given, and strove to accuse the Big Four of his murder. It is
easy for Quentin to mix powdered opium with the curry before handing it
over to be analysed. He gives his version of the conversation with the
old man, and mentions the strychnine injection casually, in case the
mark of the hypodermic needle is noticed. Suspicion at once is divided
between accident and the guilt of Ah Ling owing to the poison in the
curry."

"But Dr. Quentin cannot be Number Four?"

"I fancy he can. There is undoubtedly a real Dr. Quentin who is
probably abroad somewhere. Number Four has simply masqueraded as him
for a short time. The arrangements with Dr. Bolitho were all carried
out by correspondence, the man who was to do locum originally having
been taken ill at the last minute."

At that minute, Japp burst in, very red in the face.

"You have got him?" cried Poirot anxiously.

Japp shook his head, very out of breath.

"Bolitho came back from his holiday this morning--recalled by
telegram. No one knows who sent it. The other man left last night.
We'll catch him yet, though."

Poirot shook his head quietly.

"I think not," he said, and absent-mindedly he drew a big 4 on the
table with a fork.




                          11. A CHESS PROBLEM


Poirot and I often dined at a small restaurant in Soho. We were there
one evening, when we observed a friend at an adjacent table. It was
Inspector Japp, and as there was room at our table, he came and joined
us. It was some time since either of us had seen him.

"Never do you stop in to see us nowadays," declared Poirot
reproachfully. "Not since the affair of the Yellow Jasmine have we met,
and that is nearly a month ago."

"I've been up north--that's why. How are things with you? Big Four
still going strong--eh?"

Poirot shook a finger at him reproachfully.

"Ah! you mock yourself at me--but the Big Four--they exist."

"Oh! I don't doubt that--but they're not the hub of the universe, as
you make out."

"My friend, you are very much mistaken. The greatest power for evil in
the world to-day is this 'Big Four.' To what end they are tending, no
one knows, but there has never been another such criminal organisation.
The finest brain in China at the head of it, an American millionaire,
and a French woman scientist as members, and for the fourth--"

Japp interrupted.

"I know--I know. Regular bee in your bonnet over it all. It's becoming
your little mania, Moosior Poirot. Let's talk of something else for a
change. Take any interest in chess?"

"I have played it, yes."

"Did you see that curious business yesterday? Match between two players
of world-wide reputation, and one died during the game?"

"I saw a mention of it. Dr. Savaronoff, the Russian champion, was one
of the players, and the other, who succumbed to heart failure, was the
brilliant young American, Gilmour Wilson."

"Quite right. Savaronoff beat Rubenstein and became Russian champion
some years ago. Wilson is said to be a second Capablanca."

"A very curious occurrence," mused Poirot. "If I mistake not, you have
a particular interest in the matter?"

Japp gave a rather embarrassed laugh.

"You've hit it, Moosior Poirot. I'm puzzled. Wilson was sound as a
bell--no trace of heart trouble. His death is quite inexplicable."

"You suspect Dr. Savaronoff of putting him out of the way?" I cried.

"Hardly that," said Japp dryly. "I don't think even a Russian would
murder another man in order not to be beaten at chess--and anyway, from
all I can make out, the boot was likely to be on the other leg. The
doctor is supposed to be very hot stuff--second to Lasker they say he
is."

Poirot nodded thoughtfully.

"Then what exactly is your little idea?" he asked. "Why should Wilson
be poisoned? For, I assume, of course, that it is poison you suspect."

"Naturally. Heart failure means your heart stops beating--that's all
there is to that. That's what a doctor says officially at the moment,
but privately he tips us the wink that he's not satisfied."

"When is the autopsy to take place?"

"To-night. Wilson's death was extraordinarily sudden. He seemed quite
as usual and was actually moving one of the pieces when he suddenly
fell forward--dead!"

"There are very few poisons would act in such a fashion," objected
Poirot.

"I know. The autopsy will help us, I expect. But why should any one
want Gilmour Wilson out of the way--that's what I'd like to know?
Harmless unassuming young fellow. Just come over here from the States,
and apparently hadn't an enemy in the world."

"It seems incredible," I mused.

"Not at all," said Poirot, smiling. "Japp has his theory, I can see."

"I have, Moosior Poirot. I don't believe the poison was meant for
Wilson--it was meant for the other man."

"Savaronoff?"

"Yes. Savaronoff fell foul of the Bolsheviks at the outbreak of the
Revolution. He was even reported killed. In reality he escaped, and
for three years endured incredible hardships in the wilds of Siberia.
His sufferings were so great that he is now a changed man. His friends
and acquaintances declare they would hardly have recognised him. His
hair is white, and his whole aspect that of a man terribly aged. He is
a semi-invalid, and seldom goes out, living alone with a niece, Sonia
Daviloff, and a Russian man-servant in a flat down Westminster way. It
is possible that he still considers himself a marked man. Certainly he
was very unwilling to agree to this chess contest. He refused several
times point blank, and it was only when the newspapers took it up
and began making a fuss about the 'unsportsmanlike refusal' that he
gave in. Gilmour Wilson had gone on challenging him with real Yankee
pertinacity, and in the end he got his way. Now I ask you, Moosior
Poirot, why wasn't he willing? Because he didn't want attention drawn
to him. Didn't want somebody or other to get on his track. That's my
solution--Gilmour Wilson got pipped by mistake."

"There is no one who has any private reason to gain by Savaronoff's
death?"

"Well, his niece, I suppose. He's recently come into an immense
fortune. Left him by Madame Gospoja whose husband was a sugar profiteer
under the old regime. They had an affair together once, I believe, and
she refused steadfastly to credit the reports of his death."

"Where did the match take place?"

"In Savaronoff's own flat. He's an invalid, as I told you."

"Many people there to watch it?"

"At least a dozen--probably more."

Poirot made an expressive grimace.

"My poor Japp, your task is not an easy one."

"Once I know definitely that Wilson was poisoned, I can get on."

"Has it occurred to you that, in the meantime, supposing your
assumption that Savaronoff was the intended victim to be correct, the
murderer may try again?"

"Of course it has. Two men are watching Savaronoff's flat."

"That will be very useful if any one should call with a bomb under his
arm," said Poirot dryly.

"You're getting interested, Moosior Poirot," said Japp, with a twinkle.
"Care to come round to the mortuary and see Wilson's body before the
doctors start on it? Who knows, his tie-pin may be askew, and that may
give you a valuable clue that will solve the mystery."

"My dear Japp, all through dinner my fingers have been itching to
rearrange your own tie-pin. You permit, yes? Ah! that is much more
pleasing to the eye. Yes, by all means, let us go to the mortuary."

I could see that Poirot's attention was completely captivated by this
new problem. It was so long since he had shown any interest over any
outside case that I was quite rejoiced to see him back in his old form.

For my own part, I felt a deep pity as I looked down upon the
motionless form and convulsed face of the hapless young American who
had come by his death in such a strange way. Poirot examined the body
attentively. There was no mark on it anywhere, except a small scar on
the left hand.

"And the doctor says that's a burn, not a cut," explained Japp.

Poirot's attention shifted to the contents of the dead man's pockets
which a constable spread out for our inspection. There was nothing
much--a handkerchief, keys, notecase filled with notes, and some
unimportant letters. But one object standing by itself filled Poirot
with interest.

"A chessman!" he exclaimed. "A white bishop. Was that in his pocket?"

"No, clasped in his hand. We had quite a difficulty to get it out of
his fingers. It must be returned to Dr. Savaronoff sometime. It's part
of a very beautiful set of carved ivory chessmen."

"Permit me to return it to him. It will make an excuse for my going
there."

"Aha!" cried Japp. "So you want to come in on this case?"

"I admit it. So skilfully have you aroused my interest."

"That's fine. Got you away from your brooding. Captain Hastings is
pleased, too, I can see."

"Quite right," I said, laughing.

Poirot turned back towards the body.

"No other little detail you can tell me about--him?" he asked.

"I don't think so."

"Not even--that he was left-handed?"

"You're a wizard, Moosior Poirot. How did you know that? He _was_
left-handed. Not that it's anything to do with the case."

"Nothing whatever," agreed Poirot hastily, seeing that Japp was
slightly ruffled. "My little joke--that was all. I like to play you the
trick, see you."

We went out upon an amicable understanding.

The following morning saw us wending our way to Dr. Savaronoff's flat
in Westminster.

"Sonia Daviloff," I mused. "It's a pretty name."

Poirot stopped, and threw me a look of despair.

"Always looking for romance! You are incorrigible. It would serve you
right if Sonia Daviloff turned out to be our friend and enemy the
Countess Vera Rossakoff."

At the mention of the countess, my face clouded over.

"Surely, Poirot, you don't suspect--"

"But, no, no. It was a joke! I have not the Big Four on the brain to
that extent, whatever Japp may say."

The door of the flat was opened to us by a man-servant with a
peculiarly wooden face. It seemed impossible to believe that that
impassive countenance could ever display emotion.

Poirot presented a card on which Japp had scribbled a few words of
introduction, and we were shown into a low, long room furnished with
rich hangings and curios. One or two wonderful ikons hung upon the
walls, and exquisite Persian rugs lay upon the floor. A samovar stood
upon a table.

I was examining one of the ikons which I judged to be of considerable
value, and turned to see Poirot prone upon the floor. Beautiful as the
rug was, it hardly seemed to me to necessitate such close attention.

"Is it such a very wonderful specimen?" I asked.

"Eh? Oh! the rug? But no, it was not the rug I was remarking. But it
_is_ a beautiful specimen, far too beautiful to have a large nail
wantonly driven through the middle of it. No, Hastings," as I came
forward, "the nail is not there now. But the hole remains."

A sudden sound behind us made me spin round, and Poirot spring nimbly
to his feet. A girl was standing in the doorway. Her eyes, full
upon us, were dark with suspicion. She was of medium height, with a
beautiful, rather sullen face, dark blue eyes, and very black hair
which was cut short. Her voice, when she spoke, was rich and sonorous,
and completely un-English.

"I fear my uncle will be unable to see you. He is a great invalid."

"That is a pity, but perhaps you will kindly help me instead. You are
Mademoiselle Daviloff, are you not?"

"Yes, I am Sonia Daviloff. What is it you want to know?"

"I am making some inquiries about that sad affair the night before
last--the death of M. Gilmour Wilson. What can you tell me about it?"

The girl's eyes opened wide.

"He died of heart failure--as he was playing chess."

"The police are not so sure that it was--heart failure, mademoiselle."

The girl gave a terrified gesture.

"It was true then," she cried. "Ivan was right."

"Who is Ivan, and why do you say he was right?"

"It was Ivan who opened the door to you--and he has already said to me
that in his opinion Gilmour Wilson did not die a natural death--that he
was poisoned by mistake."

"By mistake."

"Yes, the poison was meant for my uncle."

She had quite forgotten her first distrust now, and was speaking
eagerly.

"Why do you say that, mademoiselle. Who should wish to poison Dr.
Savaronoff?"

She shook her head.

"I do not know. I am all in the dark. And my uncle, he will not trust
me. It is natural, perhaps. You see, he hardly knows me. He saw me as
a child, and not since till I came to live with him here in London.
But this much I do know, he is in fear of something. We have many
secret societies in Russia, and one day I overheard something which
made me think it was of just such a society he went in fear. Tell me,
monsieur"--she came a step nearer, and dropped her voice--"have you
ever heard of a society called the 'Big Four'?"

Poirot jumped nearly out of his skin. His eyes positively bulged with
astonishment.

"Why do you--what do you know of the Big Four, mademoiselle?"

"There is such an association, then! I overheard a reference to them,
and asked my uncle about it afterwards. Never have I seen a man so
afraid. He turned all white and shaking. He was in fear of them,
monsieur, in great fear, I am sure of it. And, by mistake, they killed
the American, Wilson."

"The Big Four," murmured Poirot. "Always the Big Four! An astonishing
coincidence, mademoiselle, your uncle is still in danger. I must save
him. Now recount to me exactly the events of that fatal evening. Show
me the chess-board, the table, how the two men sat--everything."

She went to the side of the room and brought out a small table. The
top of it was exquisite, inlaid with squares of silver and black to
represent a chess-board.

"This was sent to my uncle a few weeks ago as a present, with the
request that he would use it in the next match he played. It was in the
middle of the room--so."

Poirot examined the table with what seemed to me quite unnecessary
attention. He was not conducting the inquiry at all as I would have
done. Many of his questions seemed to me pointless, and upon really
vital matters he seemed to have no questions to ask. I concluded that
the unexpected mention of the Big Four had thrown him completely off
his balance.

After a minute examination of the table and the exact position it had
occupied, he asked to see the chessmen. Sonia Daviloff brought them to
him in a box. He examined one or two of them in a perfunctory manner.

"An exquisite set," he murmured absent-mindedly.

Still not a question as to what refreshments there had been, or what
people had been present.

I cleared my throat significantly.

"Don't you think, Poirot, that--"

He interrupted me peremptorily.

"Do not think, my friend. Leave all to me. Mademoiselle, is it quite
impossible that I should see your uncle?"

A faint smile showed itself on her face.

"He will see you, yes. You understand, it is my part to interview all
strangers first."

She disappeared. I heard a murmur of voices in the next room, and a
minute later she came back and motioned us to pass into the adjoining
room.

The man who lay there on a couch was an imposing figure. Tall, gaunt,
with huge bushy eyebrows and white beard, and a face haggard as the
result of starvation and hardships. Dr. Savaronoff was a distinct
personality. I noted the peculiar formation of his head, its unusual
height. A great chess player must have a great brain, I knew. I could
easily understand Dr. Savaronoff being the second greatest player in
the world.

Poirot bowed.

"M. le Docteur, may I speak to you alone?"

Savaronoff turned to his niece.

"Leave us, Sonia."

She disappeared obediently.

"Now, sir, what is it?"

"Dr. Savaronoff, you have recently come into an enormous fortune. If
you should--die unexpectedly, who inherits it?"

"I have made a will leaving everything to my niece, Sonia Daviloff. You
do not suggest--"

"I suggest nothing, but you have not seen your niece since she was a
child. It would have been easy for any one to impersonate her."

Savaronoff seemed thunderstruck by the suggestion. Poirot went on
easily.

"Enough as to that. I give you the word of warning, that is all. What
I want you to do now is to describe to me the game of chess the other
evening."

"How do you mean--describe it?"

"Well, I do not play the chess myself, but I understand that there are
various regular ways of beginning--the gambit, do they not call it?"

Dr. Savaronoff smiled a little.

"Ah! I comprehend you now. Wilson opened Ruy Lopez--one of the soundest
openings there is, and one frequently adopted in tournaments and
matches."

"And how long had you been playing when the tragedy happened?"

"It must have been about the third or fourth move when Wilson suddenly
fell forward over the table, stone dead."

Poirot rose to depart. He flung out his last question as though it was
of absolutely no importance, but I knew better.

"Had he had anything to eat or drink?"

"A whisky and soda, I think."

"Thank you, Dr. Savaronoff. I will disturb you no longer."

Ivan was in the hall to show us out. Poirot lingered on the threshold.

"The flat below this, do you know who lives there?"

"Sir Charles Kingwell, a member of Parliament, sir. It has been let
furnished lately, though."

"Thank you."

We went out into the bright winter sunlight.

"Well, really, Poirot," I burst out. "I don't think you've
distinguished yourself this time. Surely your questions were very
inadequate."

"You think so, Hastings?" Poirot looked at me appealingly. "I was
_bouleversé_, yes. What would you have asked?"

I considered the question carefully, and then outlined my scheme to
Poirot. He listened with what seemed to be close interest. My monologue
lasted until we had nearly reached home.

"Very excellent, very searching, Hastings," said Poirot, as he
inserted his key in the door and preceded me up the stairs. "But quite
unnecessary."

"Unnecessary!" I cried, amazed. "If the man was poisoned--"

"Aha," cried Poirot, pouncing upon a note which lay on the table. "From
Japp. Just as I thought." He flung it over to me. It was brief and to
the point. No traces of poison had been found, and there was nothing to
show how the man came by his death.

"You see," said Poirot, "our questions would have been quite
unnecessary."

"You guessed this beforehand?"

"'Forecast the probable result of the deal,'" quoted Poirot from a
recent Bridge problem on which I had spent much time. "_Mon ami_,
when you do that successfully, you do not call it guessing."

"Don't let's split hairs," I said impatiently. "You foresaw this?"

"I did."

"Why?"

Poirot put his hand into his pocket and pulled out--a white bishop.

"Why," I cried, "you forgot to give it back to Dr. Savaronoff."

"You are in error, my friend. That bishop still reposes in my left-hand
pocket. I took its fellow from the box of chessmen Mademoiselle
Daviloff kindly permitted me to examine. The plural of one bishop is
two bishops."

He sounded the final "s" with a great hiss. I was completely mystified.

"But why did you take it?"

"_Parbleu_, I wanted to see if they were exactly alike."

He stood them on the table side by side.

"Well, they are, of course," I said, "exactly alike."

Poirot looked at them with his head on one side.

"They seem so, I admit. But one should take no fact for granted until
it is proved. Bring me, I pray you, my little scales."

With infinite care he weighed the two chessmen, then turned to me with
a face alight with triumph.

"I was right. See you, I was right. Impossible to deceive Hercule
Poirot!"

He rushed to the telephone--waited impatiently.

"Is that Japp? Ah! Japp, it is you. Hercule Poirot speaks. Watch the
man-servant, Ivan. On no account let him slip through your fingers.
Yes, yes, it is as I say."

He dashed down the receiver and turned to me.

"You see it not, Hastings? I will explain. Wilson was not poisoned,
he was electrocuted. A thin metal rod passes up the middle of one
of those chessmen. The table was prepared beforehand and set upon a
certain spot on the floor. When the bishop was placed upon one of the
silver squares, the current passed through Wilson's body, killing him
instantly. The only mark was the electric burn upon his hand--his left
hand, because he was left-handed. The 'special table' was an extremely
cunning piece of mechanism. The table I examined was a duplicate,
perfectly innocent. It was substituted for the other immediately
after the murder. The thing was worked from the flat below, which, if
you remember, was let furnished. But one accomplice at least was in
Savaronoff's flat. The girl is an agent of the Big Four, working to
inherit Savaronoff's money."

"And Ivan?"

"I strongly suspect that Ivan is none other than the famous Number
Four."

"_What?_"

"Yes. The man is a marvellous character actor. He can assume any part
he pleases."

I thought back over past adventures, the lunatic asylum keeper, the
butcher's young man, the suave doctor, all the same man, and all
totally unlike each other.

"It's amazing," I said at last. "Everything fits in. Savaronoff had an
inkling of the plot, and that's why he was so averse to playing the
match."

Poirot looked at me without speaking. Then he turned abruptly away, and
began pacing up and down.

"Have you a book on chess by any chance, _mon ami_?" he asked
suddenly.

"I believe I have somewhere."

It took me some time to ferret it out, but I found it at last, and
brought it to Poirot, who sank down in a chair and started reading it
with the greatest attention.

In about a quarter of an hour the telephone rang. I answered it. It was
Japp. Ivan had left the flat, carrying a large bundle. He had sprung
into a waiting taxi, and the chase had begun. He was evidently trying
to lose his pursuers. In the end he seemed to fancy that he had done
so, and had then driven to a big empty house at Hampstead. The house
was surrounded.

I recounted all this to Poirot. He merely stared at me as though he
scarcely took in what I was saying. He held out the chess book.

"Listen to this, my friend. This is the Ruy Lopez Opening. 1 P-K4,
P-K4; 2 Kt-KB3, Kt-QB3; 3B-Kt5;? Then there comes a question as to
Black's best third move. He has the choice of various defences. It was
White's third move that killed Gilmour Wilson, 3B-Kt5. Only the third
move--does that say nothing to you?"

I hadn't the least idea what he meant, and told him so.

"I suppose, Hastings, that while you were sitting in this chair, you
heard the front door being opened and shut, what would you think?"

"I should think some one had gone out, I suppose."

"Yes--but there are always two ways of looking at things. Some one gone
out--some one come _in_--two totally different things, Hastings.
But if you assumed the wrong one, presently some little discrepancy
would creep in and show you that you were on the wrong track."

"What does all this mean, Poirot?"

Poirot sprang to his feet with sudden energy.

"It means that I have been a triple imbecile. Quick, quick, to the flat
in Westminster. We may yet be in time."

We tore off in a taxi. Poirot returned no answer to my excited
questions. We raced up the stairs. Repeated rings and knocks brought no
reply, but listening closely I could distinguish a hollow groan coming
from within.

The hall porter proved to have a master key, and after a few
difficulties he consented to use it.

Poirot went straight to the inner room. A whiff of chloroform met us.
On the floor was Sonia Daviloff, gagged and bound, with a great wad of
saturated cotton wool over her nose and mouth. Poirot tore it off and
began to take measures to restore her. Presently a doctor arrived, and
Poirot handed her over to his charge and drew aside with me. There was
no sign of Dr. Savaronoff.

"What does it all mean?" I asked, bewildered.

"It means that before two equal deductions I chose the wrong one. You
heard me say that it would be easy for any one to impersonate Sonia
Daviloff because her uncle had not seen her for so many years?"

"Yes?"

"Well, precisely the opposite held good also. It was equally easy for
any one to impersonate the uncle."

"What?"

"Savaronoff _did_ die at the outbreak of the Revolution. The man
who pretended to have escaped with such terrible hardships, the man so
changed 'that his own friends could hardly recognise him,' the man who
successfully laid claim to an enormous fortune--"

"Yes. Who was he?"

"_Number Four._ No wonder he was frightened when Sonia let him
know she had overheard one of his private conversations about the 'Big
Four.' Again he has slipped through my fingers. He guessed I should
get on the right track in the end, so he sent off the honest Ivan
on a tortuous wild goose chase, chloroformed the girl, and got out,
having by now doubtless realised most of the securities left by Madame
Gospoja."

"But--but who tried to kill him then?"

"Nobody tried to kill _him_. Wilson was the intended victim all
along."

"But why?"

"My friend, Savaronoff was the second greatest chess player in the
world. In all probability Number Four did not even know the rudiments
of the game. Certainly he could not sustain the fiction of a match.
He tried all he knew to avoid the contest. When that failed, Wilson's
doom was sealed. At all costs he must be prevented from discovering
that the great Savaronoff did not even know how to play chess. Wilson
was fond of the Ruy Lopez opening, and was certain to use it. Number
Four arranged for death to come with the third move, before any
complications of defence set in."

"But, my dear Poirot," I persisted, "are we dealing with a lunatic? I
quite follow your reasoning, and admit that you must be right, but to
kill a man just to sustain his rôle! Surely there were simpler ways out
of the difficulty than that? He could have said that his doctor forbade
the strain of a match."

Poirot wrinkled his forehead.

"_Certainement_, Hastings," he said, "there were other ways, but
none so convincing. Besides, you are assuming that to kill a man is a
thing to avoid, are you not? Number Four's mind, it does not act that
way. I put myself in his place, a thing impossible for you. I picture
his thoughts. He enjoys himself as the professor at that match. I doubt
not he has visited the chess tourneys to study his part. He sits and
frowns in thought; he gives the impression that he is thinking great
plans, and all the time he laughs in himself. He is aware that two
moves are all that he knows--and all that he _need know_. Again,
it would appeal to his mind to foresee the events and to make the man
his own executioner at the exact time that suits Number Four.... Oh,
yes, Hastings, I begin to understand our friend and his psychology."

I shrugged.

"Well, I suppose you're right, but I can't understand any one running a
risk he could so easily avoid."

"Risk!" Poirot snorted. "Where then lay the risk? Would Japp have
solved the problem? No; if Number Four had not made one small mistake
he would have run no risk."

"And his mistake?" I asked, although I suspected the answer.

"_Mon ami_, he overlooked the little gray cells of Hercule Poirot."

Poirot has his virtues, but modesty is not one of them.




                          12. THE BAITED TRAP


It was mid-January--a typical English winter day in London, damp and
dirty. Poirot and I were sitting in two chairs well drawn up to the
fire. I was aware of my friend looking at me with a quizzical smile,
the meaning of which I could not fathom.

"A penny for your thoughts," I said lightly.

"I was thinking, my friend, that at midsummer, when you first arrived,
you told me that you proposed to be in this country for a couple of
months only."

"Did I say that?" I asked, rather awkwardly. "I don't remember."

Poirot's smile broadened.

"You did, _mon ami_. Since then, you have changed your plan, is it
not so?"

"Er--yes, I have."

"And why is that?"

"Dash it all, Poirot, you don't think I'm going to leave you all alone
when you're up against a thing like the 'Big Four,' do you?"

Poirot nodded gently.

"Just as I thought. You are a staunch friend, Hastings. It is to serve
me that you remain on here. And your wife--little Cinderella as you
call her, what does she say?"

"I haven't gone into details, of course, but she understands. She'd be
the last one to wish me to turn my back on a pal."

"Yes, yes, she, too, is a loyal friend. But it is going to be a long
business, perhaps."

I nodded, rather discouraged.

"Six months already," I mused, "and where are we? You know, Poirot, I
can't help thinking that we ought to--well, to do something."

"Always so energetic, Hastings! And what precisely would you have me
do?"

This was somewhat of a poser, but I was not going to withdraw from my
position.

"We ought to take the offensive," I urged. "What have we done all this
time?"

"More than you think, my friend. After all, we have established the
identity of Number Two and Number Three, and we have learnt more than a
little about the ways and methods of Number Four."

I brightened up a little. As Poirot put it, things didn't sound so bad.

"Oh! Yes, Hastings, we have done a great deal. It is true that I am
not in a position to accuse either Ryland or Madame Olivier--who would
believe me? You remember I thought once I had Ryland successfully
cornered? Nevertheless I have made my suspicions known in certain
quarters--the highest--Lord Aldington, who enlisted my help in the
matter of the stolen submarine plans, is fully cognisant of all my
information respecting the Big Four--and while others may doubt, he
believes. Ryland and Madame Olivier, and Li Chang Yen himself may go
their ways, but there is a searchlight turned on all their movements."

"And Number Four?" I asked.

"As I said just now--I am beginning to know and understand his methods.
You may smile, Hastings--but to penetrate a man's personality, to
know exactly what he will do under any given circumstances--that is
the beginning of success. It is a duel between us, and whilst he is
constantly giving away his mentality to me, I endeavour to let him
know little or nothing of mine. He is in the light, I in the shade. I
tell you, Hastings, that every day they fear me the more for my chosen
inactivity."

"They've let us alone, anyway," I observed. "There have been no more
attempts on your life, and no ambushes of any kind."

"No," said Poirot thoughtfully. "On the whole, that rather surprises
me. Especially as there are one or two fairly obvious ways of getting
at us which I should have thought certain to have occurred to them. You
catch my meaning, perhaps?"

"An infernal machine of some kind?" I hazarded.

Poirot made a sharp click with his tongue expressive of impatience.

"But no! I appeal to your imagination, and you can suggest nothing
more subtle than bombs in the fireplace. Well, well, I have need of
some matches, I will promenade myself despite the weather. Pardon,
my friend, but is it possible that you read _The Future of the
Argentine_, _Mirror of Society_, _Cattle Breeding_, _The
Clue of Crimson_ and _Sport in the Rockies_ at one and the same
time?"

I laughed, and admitted that _The Clue of Crimson_ was at present
engaging my sole attention. Poirot shook his head sadly.

"But replace then the others on the bookshelf! Never, never shall I
see you embrace the order and the method. Mon Dieu, what then is a
bookshelf for?"

I apologised humbly, and Poirot, after replacing the offending volumes,
each in its appointed place, went out and left me to uninterrupted
enjoyment of my selected book.

I must admit, however, that I was half asleep when Mrs. Pearson's knock
at the door aroused me.

"A telegram for you, captain."

I tore the orange envelope open without much interest.

Then I sat as though turned to stone.

It was a cable from Bronsen, my manager out at the South American
ranch, and it ran as follows:--

    "Mrs. Hastings disappeared yesterday, feared been kidnapped by some
    gang calling itself big four cable instructions have notified police
    but no clue as yet."

                                                               BRONSEN.

I waved Mrs. Pearson out of the room, and sat as though stunned,
reading the words over and over again. Cinderella--kidnapped! In the
hands of the infamous Big Four! God, what could I do?

Poirot! I must have Poirot. He would advise me. He would checkmate them
somehow. In a few minutes now, he would be back. I must wait patiently
until then. But Cinderella--in the hands of the Big Four!

Another knock. Mrs. Pearson put her head in once more.

"A note for you, captain--brought by a heathen Chinaman. He's a-waiting
downstairs."

I seized it from her. It was brief and to the point.

"If you ever wish to see your wife again, go with the bearer of this
note immediately. Leave no message for your friend or she will suffer."

It was signed with a big 4.

What ought I to have done? What would you who read have done in my
place?

I had no time to think. I saw only one thing--Cinderella in the power
of those devils. I must obey--I dare not risk a hair of her head. I
must go with this Chinaman and follow whither he led. It was a trap,
yes, and it meant certain capture and possible death, but it was baited
with the person dearest to me in the whole world, and I dared not
hesitate.

What irked me most was to leave no word for Poirot. Once set him on
my track, and all might yet be well? Dare I risk it? Apparently I was
under no supervision, but yet I hesitated. It would have been so easy
for the Chinaman to come up and assure himself that I was keeping to
the letter of the command. Why didn't he? His very abstention made me
more suspicious. I had seen so much of the omnipotence of the Big Four
that I credited them with almost super-human powers. For all I know,
even the little bedraggled servant girl might be one of their agents.

No, I dared not risk it. But one thing I could do, leave the telegram.
He would know then that Cinderella had disappeared, and who was
responsible for her disappearance.

All this passed through my head in less time than it takes to tell, and
I had clapped my hat on my head and was descending the stairs to where
my guide waited, in a little over a minute.

The bearer of the message was a tall impassive Chinaman, neatly but
rather shabbily dressed. He bowed and spoke to me. His English was
perfect, but he spoke with a slight sing-song intonation.

"You Captain Hastings?"

"Yes," I said.

"You give me note, please."

I had foreseen the request, and handed him over the scrap of paper
without a word. But that was not all.

"You have telegram to-day, yes? Come along just now? From South
America, yes?"

I realised anew the excellence of their espionage system--or it might
have been a shrewd guess. Bronsen was bound to cable me. They would
wait until the cable was delivered and would strike hard upon it.

No good could come of denying what was palpably true.

"Yes," I said. "I did get a telegram."

"You fetch him, yes? Fetch him now."

I ground my teeth, but what could I do. I ran upstairs again. As I
did so, I thought of confiding in Mrs. Pearson, at any rate as far as
Cinderella's disappearance went. She was on the landing, but close
behind her was the little maid-servant, and I hesitated. If she
_was_ a spy--the words of the note danced before my eyes. "... she
will suffer...." I passed into the sitting-room without speaking.

I took up the telegram and was about to pass out again when an idea
struck me. Could I not leave some sign which would mean nothing
to my enemies but which Poirot himself would find significant. I
hurried across to the bookcase and tumbled out four books on to the
floor. No fear of Poirot's not seeing them. They would outrage his
eyes immediately--and coming on top of his little lecture, surely
he would find them unusual. Next I put a shovelful of coal on the
fire and managed to spill four knobs into the grate. I had done all I
could--pray Heaven Poirot would read the sign aright.

I hurried down again. The Chinaman took the telegram from me, read it,
then placed it in his pocket and with a nod beckoned me to follow him.

It was a long weary march that he led me. Once we took a bus and once
we went for some considerable way in a train, and always our route led
us steadily eastward. We went through strange districts, the existence
of which I had never dreamed of. We were down by the docks now, I knew,
and I realised that I was being taken into the heart of Chinatown.

In spite of myself I shivered. Still my guide plodded on, turning and
twisting through mean streets and byways, until at last he stopped at a
dilapidated house and rapped four times upon the door.

It was opened immediately by another Chinaman who stood aside to let us
pass in. The clanging to of the door behind me was the knell of my last
hopes. I was indeed in the hands of the enemy.

I was now handed over to the second Chinaman. He led me down some
rickety stairs and into a cellar which was filled with bales and casks
and which exhaled a pungent odour, as of Eastern spices. I felt wrapped
all round with the atmosphere of the East, tortuous, cunning, sinister--

Suddenly my guide rolled aside two of the casks, and I saw a low
tunnel-like opening in the wall. He motioned me to go ahead. The tunnel
was of some length, and it was just too low for me to stand upright. At
last, however, it broadened out into a passage, and a few minutes later
we stood in another cellar.

My Chinaman went forward, and rapped four times on one of the walls. A
whole section of the wall swung out, leaving a narrow doorway. I passed
through, and to my utter astonishment found myself in a kind of Arabian
Nights' palace. A low long subterranean chamber hung with rich oriental
silks, brilliantly lighted and fragrant with perfumes and spices.
There five or six silk covered divans, and exquisite carpets of Chinese
workmanship covered the ground. At the end of the room was a curtained
recess. From behind these curtains came a voice.

"You have brought our honoured guest?"

"Excellency, he is here," replied my guide.

"Let our guest enter," was the answer.

At the same moment, the curtains were drawn aside by an unseen hand,
and I was facing an immense cushioned divan on which sat a tall thin
Oriental dressed in wonderfully embroidered robes, and clearly, by the
length of his finger nails, a great man.

"Be seated, I pray you, Captain Hastings," he said, with a wave of his
hand. "You acceded to my request to come immediately, I am glad to see."

"Who are you?" I asked. "Li Chang Yen?"

"Indeed no, I am but the humblest of the master's servants. I carry
out his behests, that is all--as do other of his servants in other
countries--in South America, for instance."

I advanced a step.

"Where is she? What have you done with her out there?"

"She is in a place of safety--where none will find her. As yet, she is
unharmed. You observe that I say--_as yet_!"

Cold shivers ran down my spine as I confronted this smiling devil.

"What do you want?" I cried. "Money?"

"My dear Captain Hastings. We have no designs on your small savings, I
can assure you. Not--pardon me--a very intelligent suggestion on your
part. Your colleague would not have made it, I fancy."

"I suppose," I said heavily, "you wanted to get me into your toils.
Well, you have succeeded. I have come here with my eyes open. Do what
you like with me, and let her go. She knows nothing, and she can be no
possible use to you. You've used her to get hold of me--you've got me
all right, and that settles it."

The smiling Oriental caressed his smooth cheek, watching me obliquely
out of his narrow eyes.

"You go too fast," he said purringly. "That does not quite--settle it.
In fact, to 'get hold of you' as you express it, is not really our
objective. But through you, we hope to get hold of your friend, M.
Hercule Poirot."

"I'm afraid you won't do that," I said, with a short laugh.

"What I suggest is this," continued the other, his words running on as
though he had not heard me.

"You will write M. Hercule Poirot a letter, such a letter as will
induce him to hasten hither and join you."

"I shall do no such thing," I said angrily.

"The consequences of refusal will be disagreeable."

"Damn your consequences."

"The alternative might be death!"

A nasty shiver ran down my spine, but I endeavoured to put a bold face
upon it.

"It's no good threatening me, and bullying me. Keep your threats for
Chinese cowards."

"My threats are very real ones, Captain Hastings. I ask you again, will
you write this letter?"

"I will not, and what's more, you daren't kill me. You'd have the
police on your tracks in no time."

My interlocutor clapped his hands swiftly. Two Chinese attendants
appeared as it were out of the blue, and pinioned me by both arms.
Their master said something rapidly to them in Chinese, and they
dragged me across the floor to a spot in one corner of the big chamber.
One of them stooped, and suddenly, without the least warning, the
flooring gave beneath my feet. But for the restraining hand of the
other man I should have gone down the yawning gap beneath me. It was
inky black, and I could hear the rushing of water.

"The river," said my questioner from his place on the divan. "Think
well, Captain Hastings. If you refuse again, you go headlong to
eternity, to meet your death in the dark waters below. For the last
time, will you write that letter?"

I'm not braver than most men. I admit frankly that I was scared to
death, and in a blue funk. That Chinese devil meant business, I was
sure of that. It was good-bye to the good old world. In spite of
myself, my voice wobbled a little as I answered.

"For the last time, no! To hell with your letter!"

Then involuntarily I closed my eyes and breathed a short prayer.




                        13. THE MOUSE WALKS IN


Not often in a life-time does a man stand on the edge of eternity,
but when I spoke those words in that East End cellar I was perfectly
certain that they were my last words on earth. I braced myself for
the shock of those black, rushing waters beneath, and experienced in
advance the horror of that breath-choking fall.

But to my surprise a low laugh fell on my ears. I opened my eyes.
Obeying a sign from the man on the divan, my two jailers brought me
back to my old seat facing him.

"You are a brave man, Captain Hastings," he said. "We of the East
appreciate bravery. I may say that I expected you to act as you have
done. That brings us to the appointed second act of our little drama.
Death for yourself you have faced--will you face death for another?"

"What do you mean?" I asked hoarsely, a horrible fear creeping over me.

"Surely you have not forgotten the lady who is in our power--the Rose
of the Garden."

I stared at him in dumb agony.

"I think, Captain Hastings, that you will write that letter. See, I
have a cable form here. The message I shall write on it depends on you,
and means life or death for your wife."

The sweat broke out on my brow. My tormentor continued, smiling
amiably, and speaking with perfect sangfroid:--

"There, captain, the pen is ready to your hand. You have only to write.
If not--"

"If not?" I echoed.

"If not, that lady that you love dies--and dies slowly. My master,
Li Chang Yen, amuses himself in his spare hours by devising new and
ingenious methods of tortures--"

"My God!" I cried. "You fiend! Not that--you wouldn't do that--"

"Shall I recount to you some of his devices?"

Without heeding my cry of protest, his speech flowed on--evenly,
serenely--till with a cry of horror I clapped my hands to my ears.

"It is enough, I see. Take up the pen and write."

"You would not dare--"

"Your speech is foolishness, and you know it. Take up the pen and
write."

"If I do?"

"Your wife goes free. The cable shall be despatched immediately."

"How do I know that you will keep faith with me?"

"I swear it to you on the sacred tombs of my ancestors. Moreover, judge
for yourself--why should I wish to do her harm? Her detention will have
answered its purpose."

"And--and Poirot?"

"We will keep him in safe custody until we have concluded our
operations. Then we will let him go."

"Will you swear that also on the tombs of your ancestors?"

"I have sworn one oath to you. That should be sufficient."

My heart sank. I was betraying my friend--to what? For a moment I
hesitated--then the terrible alternative rose like a nightmare before
my eyes. Cinderella--in the hands of these Chinese devils, dying by
slow torture--

A groan rose to my lips. I seized the pen. Perhaps by careful wording
of the letter, I could convey a warning, and Poirot would be enabled to
avoid the trap. It was the only hope.

But even that hope was not to remain. The Chinaman's voice rose, suave
and courteous.

"Permit me to dictate to you."

He paused, consulted a sheaf of notes that lay by his side, and then
dictated as follows:--

    "Dear Poirot, I think I'm on the track of Number Four. A Chinaman
    came this afternoon and lured me down here with a bogus message.
    Luckily I saw through his little game in time, and gave him the
    slip. Then I turned the tables on him, and managed to do a bit of
    shadowing on my own account--rather neatly too, I flatter myself.
    I'm getting a bright young lad to carry this to you. Give him a
    half a crown, will you? That's what I promised him if it was
    delivered safely. I'm watching the house, and daren't leave. I
    shall wait for you until six o'clock, and if you haven't come then,
    I'll have a try at getting into the house on my own. It's too good
    a chance to miss, and, of course, the boy mightn't find you. But
    if he does, get him to bring you down here right away. And cover
    up those precious moustaches of yours in case any one's watching
    out from the house and might recognise you.

                                                       "Yours in haste,
                                                                "A. H."

Every word that I wrote plunged me deeper in despair. The thing was
diabolically clever. I realised how closely every detail of our life
must be known. It was just such an epistle as I might have penned
myself. The acknowledgment that the Chinaman who had called that
afternoon had endeavoured to "lure me away" discounted any good I might
have done by leaving my "sign" of four books. It _had_ been a
trap, and I had seen through it, that was what Poirot would think. The
time, too, was cleverly planned. Poirot, on receiving the note, would
have just time to rush off with his innocent-looking guide, and that
he would do so, I knew. My determination to make my way into the house
would bring him post haste. He always displayed a ridiculous distrust
of my capacities. He would be convinced that I was running into danger
without being equal to the situation, and would rush down to take
command of the situation.

But there was nothing to be done. I wrote as bidden. My captor took the
note from me, read it, then nodded his head approvingly and handed it
to one of the silent attendants who disappeared with it behind one of
the silken hangings on the wall which masked a doorway.

With a smile the man opposite to me picked up a cable form and wrote.
He handed it to me.

It read: "Release the white bird with all despatch."

I gave a sigh of relief.

"You will send it at once?" I urged.

He smiled, and shook his head.

"When M. Hercule Poirot is in my hands it shall be sent. Not until
then."

"But you promised--"

"If this device fails, I may have need of our white bird--to persuade
you to further efforts."

I grew white with anger.

"My God! If you--"

He waved a long slim yellow hand.

"Be reassured, I do not think it will fail. And the moment M. Poirot is
in our hands, I will keep my oath."

"If you play me false."

"I have sworn it by my honoured ancestors. Have no fear. Rest here
awhile. My servants will see to your needs whilst I am absent."

I was left alone in this strange underground nest of luxury. The second
Chinese attendant had reappeared. One of them brought food and drink
and offered it to me, but I waved them aside. I was sick--sick--at
heart--

And then suddenly the master reappeared tall and stately in his silken
robes. He directed operations. By his orders I was hustled back through
the cellar and tunnel into the original house I had entered. There they
took me into a ground floor room. The windows were shuttered, but one
could see through the cracks into the street. An old ragged man was
shuffling along the opposite side of the road, and when I saw him make
a sign to the window, I understood that he was one of the gang on watch.

"It is well," said my Chinese friend. "Hercule Poirot has fallen into
the trap. He approaches now--and alone except for the boy who guides
him. Now, Captain Hastings, you have still one more part to play.
Unless you show yourself he will not enter the house. When he arrives
opposite, you must go out on the step and beckon him in."

"What?" I cried, revolted.

"You play that part alone. Remember the price of failure. If Hercule
Poirot suspects anything is amiss and does not enter the house, your
wife dies by the Seventy lingering Deaths! Ah! Here he is."

With a beating heart, and a feeling of deathly sickness, I looked
through the crack in the shutters. In the figure walking along the
opposite side of the street I recognised my friend at once, though his
coat collar was turned up and an immense yellow muffler hid the bottom
part of his face. But there was no mistaking that walk, and the poise
of that egg-shaped head.

It was Poirot, coming to my aid in all good faith, suspecting nothing
amiss. By his side ran a typical London urchin, grimy of face and
ragged of apparel.

Poirot paused, looking across at the house, whilst the boy spoke to him
eagerly and pointed. It was the time for me to act. I went out in the
hall. At a sign from the tall Chinaman, one of the servants unlatched
the door.

"Remember the price of failure," said my enemy in a low voice.

I was outside on the steps. I beckoned to Poirot. He hastened across.

"Aha! So all is well with you, my friend. I was beginning to be
anxious. You managed to get inside? Is the house empty, then?"

"Yes," I said, in a voice I strove to make natural. "There must be a
secret way out of it somewhere. Come in and let us look for it."

I stepped back across the threshold. In all innocence Poirot prepared
to follow me.

And then something seemed to snap in my head. I saw only too clearly
the part I was playing--the part of Judas.

"Back, Poirot!" I cried. "Back for your life. It's a trap. Never mind
me. Get away at once."

Even as I spoke--or rather shouted my warning hands gripped me like a
vice. One of the Chinese servants sprang past me to grab Poirot.

I saw the latter spring back, his arm raised, then suddenly a dense
volume of smoke was rising round me, choking me--killing me--

I felt myself falling--suffocating--this was death--

       *       *       *       *       *

I came to myself slowly and painfully--all my senses dazed. The first
thing I saw was Poirot's face. He was sitting opposite me watching me
with an anxious face. He gave a cry of joy when he saw me looking at
him.

"Ah, you revive--you return to yourself. All is well! My friend--my
poor friend!"

"Where am I?" I said painfully.

"Where? But _chez vous_!"

I looked round me. True enough, I was in the old familiar surroundings.
And in the grate were the identical four knobs of coal I had carefully
spilt there.

Poirot had followed my glance.

"But yes, that was a famous idea of yours--that and the books. See
you, if they should say to me any time. 'That friend of yours, that
Hastings, he has not the great brain, is it not so?' I shall reply to
them: 'You are in error.' It was an idea magnificent and superb that
occurred to you there."

"You understood their meaning then?"

"Am I an imbecile? Of course I understood. It gave me just the warning
I needed, and the time to mature my plans. Somehow or other the Big
Four had carried you off. With what object? Clearly not for your
_beaux yeux_--equally clearly not because they feared you and
wanted to get you out of the way. No, their object was plain. You would
be used as a decoy to get the great Hercule Poirot into their clutches.
I have long been prepared for something of the kind. I make my little
preparations, and presently, sure enough, the messenger arrives--such
an innocent little street urchin. Me, I swallow everything, and hasten
away with him, and, very fortunately, they permit you to come out on
the doorstep. That was my one fear, that I should have to dispose of
them before I had reached the place where you were concealed, and that
I should have to search for you--perhaps in vain--afterwards."

"Dispose of them, did you say?" I asked feebly. "Single-handed."

"Oh, there is nothing very clever about that. If one is prepared in
advance all is simple--the motto of the Boy Scout, is it not? And
a very fine one. Me, I was prepared. Not so long ago, I rendered a
service to a very famous chemist, who did a lot of work in connection
with poison gas during the war. He devised for me a little bomb--simple
and easy to carry about--one has but to throw it and poof, the
smoke--and then the unconsciousness. Immediately I blow a little
whistle and straightway some of Japp's clever fellows who were watching
the house here long before the boy arrived, and who managed to follow
us all the way to Limehouse, came flying up and took charge of the
situation."

"But how was it you weren't unconscious too?"

"Another piece of luck. Our friend Number Four (who certainly
composed that ingenious letter) permitted himself a little jest at
my moustaches, which rendered it extremely easy for me to adjust my
respirator under the guise of a yellow muffler."

"I remember," I cried eagerly, and then with the word "Remember" all
the ghastly horror that I had temporarily forgotten came back to me.
_Cinderella_--

I fell back with a groan.

I must have lost consciousness again for a minute or two. I awoke to
find Poirot forcing some brandy between my lips.

"What is it, _mon ami_? But what is it--then? Tell me." Word by
word, I got the thing told, shuddering as I did so. Poirot uttered a
cry.

"My friend! My friend! But what you must have suffered! And I who knew
nothing of all this! But reassure yourself! All is well!"

"You will find her, you mean? But she is in South America. And by the
time we get there--long before, she will be dead--and God knows how and
in what horrible way she will have died."

"No, no, you do not understand. She is safe and well. She has never
been in their hands for one instant."

"But I got a cable from Bronsen?"

"No, no, you did not. You may have got a cable from South America
signed Bronsen--that is a very different matter. Tell me, has it never
occurred to you that an organisation of this kind, with ramifications
all over the world, might easily strike at us through that little girl,
Cinderella, whom you love so well?"

"No, never," I replied.

"Well, it did to me. I said nothing to you because I did not want to
upset you unnecessarily--but I took measures of my own. Your wife's
letters all seem to have been written from the ranch, but in reality
she has been in a place of safety devised by me for over three months."

I looked at him for a long time.

"You are sure of that?"

"_Parbleu!_ I know it. They tortured you with a lie!"

I turned my head aside. Poirot put his hand on my shoulder. There was
something in his voice that I had never heard there before.

"You like not that I should embrace you or display the emotion, I know
well. I will be very British. I will say nothing--but nothing at all.
Only this--that in this last adventure of ours, the honours are all
with you, and happy is the man who has such a friend as I have!"




                        14. THE PEROXIDE BLONDE


I was very disappointed with the results of Poirot's bomb attack on
the premises in Chinatown. To begin with, the leader of the gang had
escaped. When Japp's men rushed up in response to Poirot's whistle
they found four Chinamen unconscious in the hall, but the man who had
threatened me with death was not among them. I remembered afterwards
that when I was forced out on to the doorstep, to decoy Poirot into the
house, this man had kept well in the background. Presumably he was out
of the danger zone of the gas bomb, and made good his escape by one of
the many exits which we afterwards discovered.

From the four who remained in our hands we learnt nothing. The fullest
investigation by the police failed to bring to light anything to
connect them with the Big Four. They were ordinary low-class residents
of the district, and they professed bland ignorance of the name Li
Chang Yen. A Chinese gentleman had hired them for service in the house
by the waterside, and they knew nothing whatever of his private affairs.

By the next day I had, except for a slight headache, completely
recovered from the effects of Poirot's gas bomb. We went down together
to Chinatown and searched the house from which I had been rescued.
The premises consisted of two ramshackle houses joined together by an
underground passage. The ground floors and the upper stories of each
were unfurnished and deserted, the broken windows covered by decaying
shutters. Japp had already been prying about in the cellars, and had
discovered the secret of the entrance to the subterranean chamber
where I had spent such an unpleasant half-hour. Closer investigation
confirmed the impression that it had made on me the night before. The
silks on the walls and divan and the carpets on the floors were of
exquisite workmanship. Although I know very little about Chinese art, I
could appreciate that every article in the room was perfect of its kind.

With the aid of Japp and some of his men we conducted a most thorough
search of the apartment. I had cherished high hopes that we would
find documents of importance. A list, perhaps, of some of the more
important agents of the Big Four, or cipher notes of some of their
plans, but we discovered nothing of the kind. The only papers we found
in the whole place were the notes which the Chinaman had consulted
whilst he was dictating the letter to Poirot. These consisted of a very
complete record of each of our careers, and estimate of our characters,
and suggestions about the weaknesses through which we might best be
attacked.

Poirot was most childishly delighted with this discovery. Personally I
could not see that it was of any value whatever, especially as whoever
compiled the notes was ludicrously mistaken in some of his opinions. I
pointed this out to my friend when we were back in our rooms.

"My dear Poirot," I said, "you know now what the enemy thinks of us. He
appears to have a grossly exaggerated idea of your brain power, and to
have absurdly underrated mine, but I do not see how we are better off
for knowing this."

Poirot chuckled in rather an offensive way.

"You do not see, Hastings, no? But surely now we can prepare ourselves
for some of their methods of attack now that we are warned of some
of our faults. For instance my friend, we know that you should think
before you act. Again, if you meet a red-haired young woman in trouble
you should eye her--what you say--askance, is it not?"

Their notes had contained some absurd references to my supposed
impulsiveness, and had suggested that I was susceptible to the charms
of young women with hair of a certain shade. I thought Poirot's
reference to be in the worst of taste, but fortunately I was able to
counter him.

"And what about you?" I demanded. "Are you going to try to cure your
'overweening vanity?' Your 'finicky tidiness?'"

I was quoting, and I could see that he was not pleased with my retort.

"Oh, without doubt, Hastings, in some things they deceive
themselves--_tant mieux_! They will learn in due time. Meanwhile
we have learnt something, and to know is to be prepared."

This last was a favourite axiom of his lately; so much so that I had
begun to hate the sound of it.

"We know something, Hastings," he continued. "Yes, we know
something--and that is to the good--but we do not know nearly enough.
We must know more."

"In what way?"

Poirot settled himself back in his chair, straightened a box of matches
which I had thrown carelessly down on the table, and assumed an
attitude that I knew only too well. I saw that he was prepared to hold
forth at some length.

"See you, Hastings, we have to contend against four adversaries; that
is, against four different personalities. With Number One we have
never come into personal contact--we know him, as it were, only by
the impress of his mind--and in passing, Hastings, I will tell you
that I begin to understand that mind very well--a mind most subtle and
Oriental--every scheme and plot that we have encountered have emanated
from the brain of Li Chang Yen. Number Two and Number Three are so
powerful, so high up, that they are for the present immune from our
attacks. Nevertheless what is their safeguard is, by a perverse chance,
our safeguard also. They are so much in the limelight that their
movements must be carefully ordered. And so we come to the last member
of the gang--we come to the man known as Number Four."

Poirot's voice altered a little, as it always did when speaking of this
particular individual.

"Number Two and Number Three are able to succeed, to go on their
way unscathed, owing to their notoriety and their assured position.
Number Four succeeds for the opposite reason--he succeeds by the way
of obscurity. Who is he? Nobody knows. What does he look like? Again
nobody knows. How many times have we seen him, you and I? Five times,
is it not? And could either of us say truthfully that we could be sure
of recognising him again?"

I was forced to shake my head, as I ran back in my mind over those
five different people who, incredible as it seemed, were one and the
same man. The burly lunatic asylum keeper, the man in the buttoned up
overcoat in Paris, James, the footman, the quiet young medical man in
the Yellow Jasmine case, and the Russian Professor. In no way did any
two of these people resemble each other.

"No," I said hopelessly. "We've nothing to go by whatsoever."

Poirot smiled.

"Do not, I pray of you, give way to such enthusiastic despair. We know
one or two things."

"What kind of things?" I asked sceptically.

"We know that he is a man of medium height, and of medium or fair
colouring. If he were a tall man of swarthy complexion he could never
have passed himself off as the fair stocky doctor. It is child's play,
of course, to put on an additional inch or so for the part of James,
or the Professor. In the same way he must have a short straight nose.
Additions can be built on to a nose by skilful make up, but a large
nose cannot be successfully reduced at a moment's notice. Then again,
he must be a fairly young man, certainly not over thirty-five. You see,
we are getting somewhere. A man between thirty and thirty-five, of
medium height and colouring, an adept in the art of make up, and with
very few or any teeth of his own."

"What?"

"Surely, Hastings. As the keeper, his teeth were broken and
discoloured, in Paris they were even and white, as the doctor they
protruded slightly, and as Savaronoff they had unusually long canines.
Nothing alters the face so completely as a different set of teeth. You
see where all this is leading us?"

"Not exactly," I said cautiously.

"A man carries his profession written in his face, they say."

"He's a criminal," I cried.

"He is an adept in the art of making up."

"It's the same thing."

"Rather a sweeping statement, Hastings, and one which would hardly be
appreciated by the theatrical world. Do you not see that the man is, or
has been, at one time or another, an actor?"

"An actor?"

"But certainly. He has the whole technique at his fingertips. Now there
are two classes of actors, the one who sinks himself in his part, and
the one who manages to impress his personality upon it. It is from the
latter class that actor managers usually spring. They seize a part and
mould it to their own personality. The former class is quite likely
to spend its days doing Mr. Lloyd George at different music halls, or
impersonating old men with beards in repertory plays. It is among that
former class that we must look for our Number Four. He is a supreme
artist in the way he sinks himself in each part he plays."

I was growing interested.

"So you fancy you may be able to trace his identity through his
connection with the stage?"

"Your reasoning is always brilliant, Hastings."

"It might have been better," I said coldly, "if the idea had come to
you sooner. We have wasted a lot of time."

"You are in error, _mon ami_. No more time has been wasted
than was unavoidable. For some months now my agents have been
engaged on the task. Joseph Aarons is one of them. You remember him?
They have compiled a list for me of men fulfilling the necessary
qualifications--young men round about the age of thirty, of more or
less nondescript appearance, and with a gift for playing character
parts--men, moreover, who have definitely left the stage within the
last three years."

"Well?" I said, deeply interested.

"The list was, necessarily, rather a long one. For some time now, we
have been engaged on the task of elimination. And finally we have
boiled the whole thing down to four names. Here they are, my friend."

He tossed me over a sheet of paper. I read its contents aloud.

"Ernest Luttrell. Son of a North Country parson. Always had a kink of
some kind in his moral make-up. Was expelled from his public school.
Went on the stage at the age of twenty-three. (There followed a list
of parts he had played, with dates and places.) Addicted to drugs.
Supposed to have gone to Australia four years ago. Cannot be traced
after leaving England. Age 32, height 5 ft. 10-1/2 in., clean-shaven,
hair brown, nose straight, complexion fair, eyes gray.

"John St. Maur. Assumed name. Real name not known. Believed to be
of cockney extraction. On stage since quite a child. Did music hall
impersonations. Not been heard of for three years. Age, about 33,
height 5 ft. 10 in., slim build, blue eyes, fair colouring.

"Austen Lee. Assumed name. Real name Austen Foly. Good family. Always
had taste for acting and distinguished himself in that way at Oxford.
Brilliant war record. Acted in--(The usual list followed. It included
many Repertory plays.) An enthusiast on criminology. Had bad nervous
breakdown as the result of a motor accident three and a half years
ago, and has not appeared on the stage since. No clue to his present
whereabouts. Age 35, height 5 ft. 9-1/2 in., complexion fair, eyes
blue, hair brown.

"Claud Darrell. Supposed to be real name. Some mystery about his
origin. Played at music halls, and also in Repertory plays. Seems to
have had no intimate friends. Was in China in 1919. Returned by way of
America. Played a few parts in New York. Did not appear on the stage
one night, and has never been heard of since. New York police say most
mysterious disappearance. Age about 33, hair brown, fair complexion,
gray eyes. Height 5 ft. 10-1/2 in.

"Most interesting," I said, as I laid down the paper. "And so this is
the result of the investigation of months? These four names. Which of
them are you inclined to suspect?"

Poirot made an eloquent gesture.

"_Mon ami_, for the moment it is an open question. I would just
point out to you that Claud Darrell has been in China and America--a
fact not without significance, perhaps, but we must not allow ourselves
to be unduly biased by that point. It may be a mere coincidence."

"And the next step?" I asked eagerly.

"Affairs are already in train. Every day cautiously worded
advertisements will appear. Friends and relatives of one or the other
will be asked to communicate with my solicitor at his office. Even
to-day we might--Aha, the telephone! Probably it is, as usual, the
wrong number, and they will regret to have troubled us, but it may
be--yes, it may be--that something has arisen."

I crossed the room and picked up the receiver.

"Yes, yes. M. Poirot's rooms. Yes, Captain Hastings speaking. Oh, it's
you, Mr. McNeil! (McNeil and Hodgson were Poirot's solicitors.) I'll
tell him. Yes, we'll come round at once."

I replaced the receiver and turned to Poirot, my eyes dancing with
excitement.

"I say, Poirot, there's a woman there. Friend of Claud Darrell's. Miss
Flossie Monro. McNeil wants you to come round."

"At the instant!" cried Poirot, disappearing into his bedroom, and
reappearing with a hat.

A taxi soon took us to our destination, and we were ushered into Mr.
McNeil's private office. Sitting in the arm-chair facing the solicitor
was a somewhat lurid looking lady no longer in her first youth. Her
hair was of an impossible yellow, and was prolific in curls over each
ear, her eyelids were heavily blackened, and she had by no means
forgotten the rouge and the lip salve.

"Ah, here is M. Poirot!" said Mr. McNeil. "M. Poirot, this is
Miss--er---Monro, who has very kindly called to give us some
information."

"Ah, but that is most kind!" cried Poirot.

He came forward with great empressement, and shook the lady warmly by
the hand.

"Mademoiselle blooms like a flower in this dry-as-dust old office," he
added, careless of the feelings of Mr. McNeil.

This outrageous flattery was not without effect. Miss Monro blushed and
simpered.

"Oh, go on now, Mr. Poirot!" she exclaimed. "I know what you Frenchmen
are like."

"Mademoiselle, we are not mute like Englishmen before beauty. Not that
I am a Frenchman--I am a Belgian, you see."

"I've been to Ostend myself," said Miss Monro.

The whole affair, as Poirot would have said, was marching splendidly.

"And so you can tell us something about Mr. Claud Darrell?" continued
Poirot.

"I knew Mr. Darrell very well at one time," explained the lady. "And
I saw your advertisement, being out of a shop for the moment, and my
time being my own, I said to myself: There, they want to know about
poor old Claudie--lawyers, too--maybe it's a fortune looking for the
rightful heir, I'd better go round at once."

Mr. McNeil rose.

"Well, Monsieur Poirot, shall I leave you for a little conversation
with Miss Monro?"

"You are too amiable. But stay--a little idea presents itself to me.
The hour of the _déjeuner_ approaches. Mademoiselle will perhaps
honour me by coming out to luncheon with me?"

Miss Monro's eyes glistened. It struck me that she was in exceedingly
low water, and that the chance of a square meal was not to be despised.

A few minutes later saw us all in a taxi, bound for one of London's
most expensive restaurants. Once arrived there, Poirot ordered a most
delectable lunch, and then turned to his guest.

"And for wine, mademoiselle? What do you say to champagne?"

Miss Monro said nothing--or everything.

The meal started pleasantly. Poirot replenished the lady's glass with
thoughtful assiduity, and gradually slid on to the topic nearest his
heart.

"The poor Mr. Darrell. What a pity he is not with us."

"Yes, indeed," sighed Miss Monro. "Poor boy, I do wonder what's become
of him."

"It is a long time since you have seen him, yes?"

"Oh, simply ages--not since the war. He was a funny boy, Claudie,
very close about things, never told you a word about himself. But, of
course, that all fits in if he's a missing heir. Is it a title, Mr.
Poirot?"

"Alas, a mere heritage," said Poirot unblushingly. "But you see, it may
be a question of identification. That is why it is necessary for us to
find some one who knew him very well indeed. You knew him very well,
did you not, mademoiselle."

"I don't mind telling you, Mr. Poirot. You're a gentleman. You know
how to order a lunch for a lady--which is more than some of these
young whippersnappers do nowadays. Downright mean, I call it. As I
was saying, you being a Frenchman won't be shocked. Ah, you Frenchmen!
Naughty, naughty!" She wagged her finger at him in an excess of
archness. "Well, there it was, me and Claudie, two young things--what
else could you expect? And I've still a kindly feeling for him. Though,
mind you, he didn't treat me well--no, he didn't--he didn't treat me
well at all. Not as a lady should be treated. They're all the same when
it comes to a question of money."

"No, no, mademoiselle, do not say that," protested Poirot, filling up
her glass once more. "Could you now describe this Mr. Darrell to me?"

"He wasn't anything so very much to look at," said Flossie Monro
dreamily. "Neither tall nor short, you know, but quite well set up.
Spruce looking. Eyes a sort of blue-gray. And more or less fair-haired,
I suppose. But oh, what an artist! _I_ never saw any one to touch
him in the profession! He'd have made his name before now if it hadn't
been for jealousy. Ah, Mr. Poirot, jealousy--you wouldn't believe it,
you really wouldn't, what we artists have to suffer through jealousy.
Why, I remember once at Manchester--"

We displayed what patience we could in listening to a long complicated
story about a pantomime, and the infamous conduct of the principal boy.
Then Poirot led her gently back to the subject of Claud Darrell.

"It is very interesting, all this that you are able to tell
us, mademoiselle, about Mr. Darrell. Women are such wonderful
observers--they see everything, they notice the little detail that
escapes the mere man. I have seen a woman identify one man out of a
dozen others--and why, do you think? She had observed that he had a
trick of stroking his nose when he was agitated. Now would a man ever
have thought of noticing a thing like that?"

"Did you ever!" cried Miss Monro. "I suppose we do notice things. I
remember Claudie, now I come to think of it, always fiddling with his
bread at table. He'd get a little piece between his fingers and then
dab it round to pick up crumbs. I've seen him do it a hundred times.
Why, I'd know him anywhere by that one trick of his."

"Is not that just what I say? The marvellous observation of a woman.
And did you ever speak to him about this little habit of his,
mademoiselle?"

"No, I didn't, Mr. Poirot. You know what men are! They don't like you
to notice things especially if it should seem you were telling them off
about it. I never said a word--but many's the time I smiled to myself.
Bless you, he never knew he was doing it even."

Poirot nodded gently. I noticed that his own hand was shaking a little
as he stretched it out to his glass.

"Then there is always handwriting as a means of establishing identity,"
he remarked. "Without doubt you have preserved a letter written by Mr.
Darrell?"

Flossie Monro shook her head regretfully.

"He was never one for writing. Never wrote me a line in his life."

"That is a pity," said Poirot.

"I tell you what, though," said Miss Monro suddenly. "I've got a
photograph if that would be any good?"

"You have a photograph?"

Poirot almost sprang from his seat with excitement.

"It's quite an old one--eight years old at least."

"_Ça ne fait rien!_ No matter how old and faded! Ah, _ma
foi_, but what stupendous luck! You will permit me to inspect that
photograph, mademoiselle?"

"Why, of course."

"Perhaps you will even permit me to have a copy made? It would not take
long."

"Certainly if you like."

Miss Monro rose.

"Well, I must run away," she declared archly. "Very glad to have met
you and your friend, Mr. Poirot."

"And the photograph? When may I have it?"

"I'll look it out to-night. I think I know where to lay my hand upon
it. And I'll send it to you right away."

"A thousand thanks, mademoiselle. You are all that is of the most
amiable. I hope that we shall soon be able to arrange another little
lunch together."

"As soon as you like," said Miss Monro. "I'm willing."

"Let me see, I do not think that I have your address?"

With a grand air, Miss Monro drew a card from her hand-bag, and handed
it to him. It was a somewhat dirty card, and the original address had
been scratched out and another substituted in pencil.

Then, with a good many bows and gesticulations on Poirot's part, we
bade farewell to the lady and got away.

"Do you really think this photograph so important?" I asked Poirot.

"Yes, _mon ami_. The camera does not lie. One can magnify a
photograph, seize salient points that otherwise would remain unnoticed.
And then there are a thousand details--such as the structure of the
ears, which no one could ever describe to you in words. Oh, yes, it is
a great chance, this which has come our way! That is why I propose to
take precautions."

He went across to the telephone as he finished speaking, and gave a
number which I knew to be that of a private detective agency which he
sometimes employed. His instructions were clear and definite. Two men
were to go to the address he gave, and, in general terms, were to watch
over the safety of Miss Monro. They were to follow her wherever she
went.

Poirot hung up the receiver and came back to me.

"Do you really think that necessary, Poirot?" I asked.

"It may be. There is no doubt that we are watched, you and I, and since
that is so, they will soon know with whom we were lunching to-day. And
it is possible that Number Four will scent danger."

About twenty minutes later the telephone bell rang. I answered it. A
curt voice spoke into the phone.

"Is that Mr. Poirot? St. James Hospital speaking. A young woman was
brought in ten minutes ago. Street accident. Miss Flossie Monro. She
is asking very urgently for Mr. Poirot. But he must come at once. She
can't possibly last long."

I repeated the words to Poirot. His face went white.

"Quick, Hastings. We must go like the wind."

A taxi took us to the hospital in less than ten minutes. We asked for
Miss Monro, and were taken immediately to the accident ward. But a
white-capped sister met us in the doorway.

Poirot read the news in her face.

"It is over, eh?"

"She died six minutes ago."

Poirot stood as though stunned.

The nurse, mistaking his emotion, began speaking gently.

"She did not suffer, and she was unconscious towards the last. She was
run over by a motor, you know--and the driver of the car did not even
stop. Wicked, isn't it? I hope some one took the number."

"The stars fight against us," said Poirot, in a low voice.

"You would like to see her?"

The nurse led the way, and we followed.

Poor Flossie Monro, with her rouge and her dyed hair. She lay there
very peacefully, with a little smile on her lips.

"Yes," murmured Poirot. "The stars fight against us--but is it the
stars?" He lifted his head as though struck by a sudden idea. "Is it
the stars, Hastings? If it is not--if it is not.... Oh, I swear to you,
my friend, standing here by this poor woman's body, that I will have no
mercy when the time comes!"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

But Poirot had turned to the nurse and was eagerly demanding
information. A list of the articles found in her hand-bag was finally
obtained. Poirot gave a suppressed cry as he read it over.

"You see, Hastings, you see?"

"See what?"

"There is no mention of a latch-key. But she must have had a latch-key
with her. No, she was run down in cold blood, and the first person who
bent over her took the key from her bag. But we may yet be in time. He
may not have been able to find at once what he sought."

Another taxi took us to the address Flossie Monro had given us, a
squalid block of Mansions in an unsavoury neighbourhood. It was some
time before we could gain admission to Miss Monro's flat, but we had at
least the satisfaction of knowing that no one could leave it whilst we
were on guard outside.

Eventually we got in. It was plain that some one had been before us.
The contents of drawers and cupboards were strewn all over the floor.
Locks had been forced, and small tables had even been overthrown, so
violent had been the searcher's haste.

Poirot began to hunt through the débris. Suddenly he stood erect with
a cry, holding out something. It was an old fashioned photograph
frame--empty.

He turned it slowly over. Affixed to the back was a small round
label--a price label.

"It cost four shillings," I commented.

"_Mon Dieu!_ Hastings, use your eyes. That is a new clean label.
It was stuck there by the man who took out the photograph, the man who
was here before us, but knew that we should come, and so left this for
us--Claud Darrell--alias Number Four!"




                     15. THE TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE


It was after the tragic death of Miss Flossie Monro that I began to
be aware of a change in Poirot. Up to now, his invincible confidence
in himself had stood the test. But it seemed as though, at last, the
long strain was beginning to tell. His manner was grave and brooding,
and his nerves were on edge. In these days he was as jumpy as a cat.
He avoided all discussion of the Big Four as far as possible, and
seemed to throw himself into his ordinary work with almost his old
ardour. Nevertheless, I knew that he was secretly active in the big
matter. Extraordinary-looking Slavs were constantly calling to see
him, and though he vouchsafed no explanation as to these mysterious
activities, I realised that he was building some new defence or
weapon of opposition with the help of these somewhat repulsive-looking
foreigners. Once, purely by chance, I happened to see the entries in
his pass-book--he had asked me to verify some small item--and I noticed
the paying out of a huge sum--a huge sum even for Poirot who was
coining money nowadays--to some Russian with apparently every letter of
the alphabet in his name.

But he gave no clue as to the line on which he proposed to operate.
Only over and over again he gave utterance to one phrase. "It is the
greatest mistake to underestimate your adversary. Remember that, _mon
ami_." And I realised that that was the pitfall he was striving at
all costs to avoid.

So matters went on until the end of March, and then one morning Poirot
made a remark which startled me considerably.

"This morning, my friend, I should recommend the best suit. We go to
call upon the Home Secretary."

"Indeed? That is very exciting. He has called you in to take up a case?"

"Not exactly. The interview is of my seeking. You may remember my
saying that I once did him some small service? He is inclined to be
foolishly enthusiastic over my capabilities in consequence, and I
am about to trade on this attitude of his. As you know, the French
Premier, M. Desjardeaux is over in London, and at my request the Home
Secretary had arranged for him to be present at our little conference
this morning."

The Right Honourable Sydney Crowther, His Majesty's Secretary of State
for Home Affairs, was a well-known and popular figure. A man of some
fifty years of age, with a quizzical expression and shrewd gray eyes,
he received us with that delightful bonhomie of manner which was well
known to be one of his principal assets.

Standing with his back to the fireplace was a tall thin man with a
pointed black beard and a sensitive face.

"M. Desjardeaux," said Crowther. "Allow me to introduce to you M.
Hercule Poirot of whom you may, perhaps, already have heard."

The Frenchman bowed and shook hands.

"I have indeed heard of M. Hercule Poirot," he said pleasantly. "Who
has not?"

"You are too amiable, monsieur," said Poirot, bowing, but his face
flushed with pleasure.

"Any word for an old friend?" asked a quiet voice, and a man came
forward from a corner by a tall bookcase.

It was our old acquaintance, Mr. Ingles.

Poirot shook him warmly by the hand.

"And now, M. Poirot," said Crowther. "We are at your service. I
understood you to say that you had a communication of the utmost
importance to make to us."

"That is so, monsieur. There is in the world to-day a vast
organisation--an organisation of crime. It is controlled by four
individuals, who are known and spoken of as the Big Four. Number One is
a Chinaman, Li Chang Yen; Number Two is the American multi-millionaire,
Abe Ryland; Number Three is a Frenchwoman; Number Four I have every
reason to believe is an obscure English actor called Claud Darrell.
These four are banded together to destroy the existing social order,
and to replace it with an anarchy in which they would reign as
dictators."

"Incredible," muttered the Frenchman. "Ryland, mixed up with a thing of
that kind? Surely the idea is too fantastic."

"Listen, monsieur, whilst I recount to you some of the doings of this
Big Four."

It was an enthralling narrative which Poirot unfolded. Familiar as I
was with all the details, they thrilled me anew as I heard the bald
recital of our adventures and escapes.

M. Desjardeaux looked mutely at Mr. Crowther as Poirot finished. The
other answered the look.

"Yes, M. Desjardeaux, I think we must admit the existence of a 'Big
Four.' Scotland Yard was inclined to jeer at first, but they have been
forced to admit that M. Poirot was right in many of his claims. The
only question is the extent of its aims. I cannot but feel that M.
Poirot--er--exaggerates a little."

For answer Poirot set forth ten salient points. I have been asked not
to give them to the public even now, and so I refrain from doing so,
but they included the extraordinary disasters to submarines which
occurred in a certain month, and also a series of aeroplane accidents
and forced landings. According to Poirot, these were all the work of
the Big Four, and bore witness to the fact that they were in possession
of various scientific secrets unknown to the world at large.

This brought us straight to the question which I had been waiting for
the French Premier to ask.

"You say that the third member of this organisation is a Frenchwoman.
Have you any idea of her name?"

"It is a well-known name, monsieur. An honoured name. Number Three is
no less than the famous Madame Olivier."

At the mention of the world-famous scientist, successor to the Curies,
M. Desjardeaux positively bounded from his chair, his face purple with
emotion.

"Madame Olivier! Impossible! Absurd! It is an insult what you say
there!"

Poirot shook his head gently, but made no answer.

Desjardeaux looked at him in stupefaction for some moments. Then his
face cleared, and he glanced at the Home Secretary and tapped his
forehead significantly.

"M. Poirot is a great man," he observed. "But even the great
man--sometimes he has his little mania, does he not? And seeks in high
places for fancied conspiracies. It is well known. You agree with me,
do you not, Mr. Crowther?"

The Home Secretary did not answer for some minutes. Then he spoke
slowly and heavily.

"Upon my soul, I don't know," he said at last. "I have always had and
still have the utmost belief in M. Poirot, but--well, this takes a bit
of believing."

"This Li Chang Yen, too," continued M. Desjardeaux. "Who has ever heard
of him?"

"I have," said the unexpected voice of Mr. Ingles.

The Frenchman stared at him, and he stared placidly back again, looking
more like a Chinese idol than ever. "Mr. Ingles," explained the Home
Secretary, "is the greatest authority we have on the interior of China."

"And you have heard of this Li Chang Yen?"

"Until M. Poirot here came to me, I imagined that I was the only man
in England who had. Make no mistake, M. Desjardeaux, there is only one
man in China who counts to-day--Li Chang Yen. He has, perhaps, I only
say perhaps, the finest brain in the world at the present time."

M. Desjardeaux sat as though stunned. Presently, however, he rallied.

"There may be something in what you say, M. Poirot," he said coldly.
"But as regards Madame Olivier, you are most certainly mistaken. She is
a true daughter of France, and devoted solely to the cause of science."

Poirot shrugged his shoulders and did not answer.

There was a minute or two's pause, and then my little friend rose to
his feet, with an air of dignity that sat rather oddly upon his quaint
personality.

"That is all I have to say, messieurs--to warn you. I thought it
likely that I should not be believed. But at least you will be on your
guard. My words will sink in, and each fresh event that comes along
will confirm your wavering faith. It was necessary for me to speak
now--later I might not have been able to do so."

"You mean--?" asked Crowther, impressed in spite of himself by the
gravity of Poirot's tone.

"I mean, monsieur, that since I have penetrated the identity of Number
Four, my life is not worth an hour's purchase. He will seek to destroy
me at all costs--and not for nothing is he named 'The Destroyer.'
Messieurs, I salute you. To you, M. Crowther, I deliver this key, and
this sealed envelope. I have got together all my notes on the case,
and my ideas as to how best to meet the menace that any day may break
upon the world, and have placed them in a certain safe deposit. In the
event of my death, M. Crowther, I authorise you to take charge of those
papers and make what use you can of them. And now, messieurs, I wish
you good day."

Desjardeaux merely bowed coldly, but Crowther sprang up and held out
his hand.

"You have converted me, M. Poirot. Fantastic as the whole thing seems,
I believe utterly in the truth of what you have told us."

Ingles left at the same time as we did.

"I am not disappointed with the interview," said Poirot, as we walked
along. "I did not expect to convince Desjardeaux, but I have at least
ensured that, if I die, my knowledge does not die with me. And I have
made one or two converts. _Pas si mal!_"

"I'm with you, as you know," said Ingles. "By the way, I'm going out to
China as soon as I can get off."

"Is that wise?"

"No," said Ingles dryly. "But it's necessary. One must do what one can."

"Ah, you are a brave man!" cried Poirot with emotion. "If we were not
in the street, I would embrace you."

I fancied that Ingles looked rather relieved.

"I don't suppose that I shall be in any more danger in China than you
are in London," he growled.

"That is possibly true enough," admitted Poirot. "I hope that they will
not succeed in massacring Hastings also, that is all. That would annoy
me greatly."

I interrupted this cheerful conversation to remark that I had no
intention of letting myself be massacred, and shortly afterwards Ingles
parted from us.

For some time we went along in silence, which Poirot at length broke by
uttering a totally unexpected remark.

"I think--I really think--that I shall have to bring my brother into
this."

"Your brother," I cried, astonished. "I never knew you had a brother?"

"You surprise me, Hastings. Do you not know that all celebrated
detectives have brothers who would be even more celebrated then they
are were it not for constitutional indolence?"

Poirot employs a peculiar manner sometimes which makes it wellnigh
impossible to know whether he is jesting or in earnest. That manner was
very evident at the moment.

"What is your brother's name?" I asked, trying to adjust myself to this
new idea.

"Achille Poirot," replied Poirot gravely. "He lives near Spa in
Belgium."

"What does he do?" I asked with some curiosity, putting aside a
half-formed wonder as to the character and disposition of the late
Madame Poirot, and her classical taste in Christian names.

"He does nothing. He is, as I tell, of a singularly indolent
disposition. But his abilities are hardly less than my own--which is
saying a great deal."

"Is he like you to look at?"

"Not unlike. But not nearly so handsome. And he wears no moustaches."

"Is he older than you, or younger?"

"He happens to have been born on the same day."

"A twin," I cried.

"Exactly, Hastings. You jump to the right conclusion with unfailing
accuracy. But here we are at home again. Let us at once get to work on
that little affair of the Duchess's necklace."

But the Duchess's necklace was doomed to wait awhile. A case of quite
another description was waiting for us.

Our landlady, Mrs. Pearson, at once informed us that a hospital nurse
had called and was waiting to see Poirot.

We found her sitting in the big arm-chair facing the window, a
pleasant-faced woman of middle age, in a dark blue uniform. She was a
little reluctant to come to the point, but Poirot soon put her at her
ease, and she embarked upon her story.

"You see, M. Poirot, I've never come across anything of the kind
before. I was sent for, from the Lark Sisterhood, to go down to a case
in Hertfordshire. An old gentleman, it is, Mr. Templeton. Quite a
pleasant house, and quite pleasant people. The wife, Mrs. Templeton, is
much younger than her husband, and he has a son by his first marriage
who lives there. I don't know that the young man and the step-mother
always get on together. He's not quite what you'd call normal--not
'wanting' exactly, but decidedly dull in the intellect. Well, this
illness of Mr. Templeton's seemed to me from the first to be very
mysterious. At times there seemed really nothing the matter with him,
and then he suddenly has one of these gastric attacks with pain and
vomiting. But the doctor seemed quite satisfied, and it wasn't for me
to say anything. But I couldn't help thinking about it. And then--"

She paused, and became rather red.

"Something happened which aroused your suspicions?" suggested Poirot.

"Yes."

But she still seemed to find it difficult to go on.

"I found the servants were passing remarks too."

"About Mr. Templeton's illness?"

"Oh, no! About--about this other thing--"

"Mrs. Templeton?"

"Yes."

"Mrs. Templeton and the doctor, perhaps?"

Poirot had an uncanny flair in these things. The nurse threw him a
grateful glance and went on.

"They _were_ passing remarks. And then one day I happened to see
them together myself--in the garden--"

It was left at that. Our client was in such an agony of outraged
propriety that no one could feel it necessary to ask exactly what she
had seen in the garden. She had evidently seen quite enough to make up
her own mind on the situation.

"The attacks got worse and worse. Dr. Treves said it was all perfectly
natural and to be expected, and that Mr. Templeton could not possibly
live long, but I've never seen anything like it before myself--not in
all my long experience of nursing. It seemed to me much more like some
form of--"

She paused, hesitating.

"Arsenical poisoning?" said Poirot helpfully.

She nodded.

"And then, too, he, the patient, I mean, said something queer. 'They'll
do for me, the four of them. They'll do for me yet.'"

"Eh?" said Poirot quickly.

"Those were his very words, M. Poirot. He was in great pain at the
time, of course, and hardly knew what he was saying."

"'They'll do for me, the four of them,'" repeated Poirot thoughtfully.
"What did he mean by 'the four of them,' do you think?"

"That I can't say, M. Poirot. I thought perhaps he meant his wife
and son, and the doctor, and perhaps Miss Clark, Mrs. Templeton's
companion. That would make four, wouldn't it? He might think they were
all in league against him."

"Quite so, quite so," said Poirot, in a preoccupied voice. "What about
food? Could you take no precautions about that?"

"I'm always doing what I can. But, of course, sometimes Mrs. Templeton
insists on bringing him his food herself, and then there are the times
when I am off duty."

"Exactly. And you are not sure enough of your ground to go to the
police?"

The nurse's face showed her horror at the mere idea.

"What I have done, M. Poirot, is this. Mr. Templeton had a very bad
attack after partaking of a bowl of soup. I took a little from the
bottom of the bowl afterwards, and have brought it up with me. I have
been spared for the day to visit a sick mother, as Mr. Templeton was
well enough to be left."

She drew out a little bottle of dark fluid and handed it to Poirot.

"Excellent, mademoiselle. We will have this analysed immediately. If
you will return here in, say, an hour's time I think that we shall be
able to dispose of your suspicions one way or another."

First extracting from our visitor her name and qualifications, he
ushered her out. Then he wrote a note and sent it off together with
the bottle of soup. Whilst we waited to hear the result, Poirot amused
himself by verifying the nurse's credentials, somewhat to my surprise.

"No, no, my friend," he declared. "I do well to be careful. Do not
forget the Big Four are on our track."

However, he soon elicited the information that a nurse of the name of
Mabel Palmer was a member of the Lark Institute and had been sent to
the case in question.

"So far, so good," he said, with a twinkle. "And now here comes Nurse
Palmer back again, and here also is our analyst's report."

Both the nurse and I waited anxiously whilst Poirot read the analyst's
report.

"Is there arsenic in it?" she asked breathlessly.

Poirot shook his head, refolding the paper.

"No."

We were both immeasurably surprised.

"There is no arsenic in it," continued Poirot. "But there is antimony.
And that being the case, we will start immediately for Hertfordshire.
Pray Heaven that we are not too late."

It was decided that the simplest plan was for Poirot to represent
himself truly as a detective, but that the ostensible reason of his
visit should be to question Mrs. Templeton about a servant formerly in
her employment whose name he obtained from Nurse Palmer, and who he
could represent as being concerned in a jewel robbery.

It was late when we arrived at Elmstead, as the house was called. We
had allowed Nurse Palmer to precede us by about twenty minutes, so that
there should be no question of our all arriving together.

Mrs. Templeton, a tall dark woman, with sinuous movements and uneasy
eyes, received us. I noticed that as Poirot announced his profession,
she drew in her breath with a sudden hiss, as though badly startled,
but she answered his question about the maid-servant readily enough.
And then, to test her, Poirot embarked upon a long history of a
poisoning case in which a guilty wife had figured. His eyes never left
her face as he talked, and try as she would, she could hardly conceal
her rising agitation. Suddenly, with an incoherent word of excuse, she
hurried from the room.

We were not long left alone. A squarely-built man with a small red
moustache and pince-nez came in.

"Dr. Treves," he introduced himself. "Mrs. Templeton asked me to make
her excuses to you. She's in a very bad state, you know. Nervous
strain. Worry over her husband and all that. I've prescribed bed and
bromide. But she hopes you'll stay and take pot luck, and I'm to do
host. We've heard of you down here, M. Poirot, and we mean to make the
most of you. Ah, here's Micky!"

A shambling young man entered the room. He had a very round face, and
foolish-looking eyebrows raised as though in perpetual surprise. He
grinned awkwardly as he shook hands. This was clearly the "wanting"
son.

Presently we all went in to dinner. Dr. Treves left the room--to open
some wine, I think---and suddenly the boy's physiognomy underwent a
startling change. He leant forward, staring at Poirot.

"You've come about father," he said, nodding his head. "_I_ know.
I know lots of things--but nobody thinks I do. Mother will be glad when
father's dead and she can marry Dr. Treves. She isn't my own mother,
you know. I don't like her. She wants father to die."

It was all rather horrible. Luckily, before Poirot had time to reply,
the doctor came back, and we had to carry on a forced conversation.

And then suddenly Poirot lay back in his chair with a hollow groan. His
face was contorted with pain.

"My dear sir, what's the matter?" cried the doctor.

"A sudden spasm. I am used to them. No, no, I require no assistance
from you, doctor. If I might lie down upstairs."

His request was instantly acceded to, and I accompanied him upstairs,
where he collapsed on the bed, groaning heavily.

For the first minute or two I had been taken in, but I had quickly
realised that Poirot was--as he would have put it--playing the comedy,
and that his object was to be left alone upstairs near the patient's
room.

Hence I was quite prepared when, the instant we were alone, he sprang
up.

"Quick, Hastings, the window. There is ivy outside. We can climb down
before they begin to suspect."

"Climb down?"

"Yes, we must get out of this house at once. You saw him at dinner?"

"The doctor?"

"No, young Templeton. His trick with his bread. Do you remember what
Flossie Monro told us before she died? That Claud Darrell had a
habit of dabbing his bread on the table to pick up crumbs. Hastings,
this is a vast plot, and that vacant-looking young man is our arch
enemy--Number Four! Hurry."

I did not wait to argue. Incredible as the whole thing seemed, it was
wiser not to delay. We scrambled down the ivy as quietly as we could
and made a bee-line for the small town and the railway station. We were
just able to catch the last train, the 8.34 which would land us in town
about eleven o'clock.

"A plot," said Poirot thoughtfully. "How many of them were in it, I
wonder? I suspect that the whole Templeton family are just so many
agents of the Big Four. Did they simply want to decoy us down there? Or
was it more subtle than that. Did they intend to play the comedy down
there and keep me interested until they had had time to do--what? I
wonder now."

He remained very thoughtful.

Arrived at our lodgings, he restrained me at the door of the
sitting-room.

"Attention, Hastings. I have my suspicions. Let me enter first."

He did so, and, to my slight amusement, took the precaution to press
on the electric switch with an old galosh. Then he went round the room
like a strange cat, cautiously, delicately, on the alert for danger. I
watched him for some time, remaining obediently where I had been put by
the wall.

"It's all right, Poirot," I said impatiently.

"It seems so, _mon ami_, it seems so. But let us make sure."

"Rot," I said. "I shall light the fire, anyway, and have a pipe. I've
caught you out for once. You had the matches last and you didn't put
them back in the holder as usual--the very thing you're always cursing
me for doing."

I stretched out my hand. I heard Poirot's warning cry--saw him leaping
towards me--my hand touched the match-box.

Then--a flash of blue flame--an ear-rending crash--and darkness--

I came to myself to find the familiar face of our old friend Dr.
Ridgeway bending over me. An expression of relief passed over his
features.

"Keep still," he said soothingly. "You're all right. There's been an
accident, you know."

"Poirot?" I murmured.

"You're in my digs. Everything's quite all right."

A cold fear clutched at my heart. His evasion woke a horrible fear.

"Poirot?" I reiterated. "What of Poirot."

He saw that I had to know and that further evasions were useless.

"By a miracle you escaped--Poirot--did not!"

A cry burst from my lips.

"Not dead? Not dead?"

Ridgeway bowed his head, his features working with emotion.

With desperate energy I pulled myself to a sitting position.

"Poirot may be dead," I said weakly. "But his spirit lives on. I will
carry on his work! Death to the Big Four!"

Then I fell back, fainting.




                        16. THE DYING CHINAMAN


Even now I can hardly bear to write of those days in March.

Poirot--the unique, the inimitable Hercule Poirot--dead! There was a
particularly diabolical touch in the disarranged match-box, which was
certain to catch his eye, and which he would hasten to rearrange--and
thereby touch off the explosion. That, as a matter of fact, it was I
who actually precipitated the catastrophe never ceased to fill me with
unavailing remorse. It was, as Doctor Ridgeway said, a perfect miracle
that I had not been killed, but had escaped with a slight concussion.

Although it had seemed to me as though I regained consciousness almost
immediately, it was in reality over twenty-four hours before I came
back to life. It was not until the evening of the day following that I
was able to stagger feebly into an adjoining room, and view with deep
emotion the plain elm coffin which held the remains of one of the most
marvellous men this world has ever known.

From the very first moment of regaining consciousness I had only one
purpose in mind--to avenge Poirot's death, and to hunt down the Big
Four remorselessly.

I had thought that Ridgeway would have been of one mind with me about
this, but to my surprise the good doctor seemed unaccountably lukewarm.

"Get back to South America" was his advice, tendered on every occasion.
Why attempt the impossible? Put as delicately as possible, his opinion
amounted to this:--If Poirot, the unique Poirot, had failed, was it
likely that I should succeed?

But I was obstinate. Putting aside any question as to whether I had the
necessary qualifications for the task (and I may say in passing that
I did not entirely agree with his views on this point), I had worked
so long with Poirot that I knew his methods by heart, and felt fully
capable of taking up the work where he had laid it down; it was, with
me, a question of feeling. My friend had been foully murdered. Was
I to go tamely back to South America without an effort to bring his
murderers to justice?

I said all this and more to Ridgeway, who listened attentively enough.

"All the same," he said when I had finished, "my advice does not vary.
I am earnestly convinced that Poirot himself, if he were here, would
urge you to return. In his name, I beg of you, Hastings, abandon these
wild ideas and go back to your ranch."

To that only one answer was possible, and, shaking his head sadly, he
said no more.

It was a month before I was fully restored to health. Towards the end
of April, I sought, and obtained, an interview with the Home Secretary.

Mr. Crowther's manner was reminiscent of that of Dr. Ridgeway. It was
soothing and negative. Whilst appreciating the offer of my services,
he gently and considerately declined them. The papers referred to by
Poirot had passed into his keeping, and he assured me that all possible
steps were being taken to deal with the approaching menace.

With that cold comfort I was forced to be satisfied. Mr. Crowther ended
the interview by urging me to return to South America. I found the
whole thing profoundly unsatisfactory.

I should, I suppose, in its proper place, have described Poirot's
funeral. It was a solemn and moving ceremony, and the extraordinary
number of floral tributes passed belief. They came from high and low
alike, and bore striking testimony to the place my friend had made
for himself in the country of his adoption. For myself, I was frankly
overcome by emotion as I stood by the grave side and thought of all our
varied experiences and the happy days we had passed together.

By the beginning of May I had mapped out a plan of campaign. I felt
that I could not do better than keep Poirot's scheme of advertising
for any information respecting Claud Darrell. I had an advertisement
to this effect inserted in a number of morning newspapers, and I was
sitting in a small restaurant in Soho, and judging of the effect of the
advertisement, when a small paragraph in another part of the paper gave
me a nasty shock.

Very briefly, it reported the mysterious disappearance of Mr. John
Ingles from the _S.S. Shanghai_ shortly after the latter had
left Marseilles. Although the weather was perfectly smooth, it was
feared that the unfortunate gentleman must have fallen overboard.
The paragraph ended with a brief reference to Mr. Ingles's long and
distinguished service in China.

The news was unpleasant. I read into Ingles's death a sinister motive.
Not for one moment did I believe the theory of an accident. Ingles had
been murdered, and his death was only too clearly the handiwork of that
accursed Big Four.

As I sat there, stunned by the blow, and turning the whole matter over
in my mind, I was startled by the remarkable behaviour of the man
sitting opposite me. So far I had not paid much attention to him. He
was a thin, dark man of middle age, sallow of complexion, with a small
pointed beard. He had sat down opposite me so quietly that I had hardly
noticed his arrival.

But his actions now were decidedly peculiar, to say the least of them.
Leaning forward, he deliberately helped me to salt, putting it in four
little heaps round the edge of my plate.

"You will excuse me," he said, in a melancholy voice. "To help a
stranger to salt is to help them to sorrow, they say. That may be an
unavoidable necessity. I hope not, though. I hope that you will be
reasonable."

Then, with a certain significance, he repeated his operations with
the salt on his own plate. The symbol 4 was too plain to be missed. I
looked at him searchingly. In no way that I could see did he resemble
young Templeton, or James the footman, or any other of the various
personalities we had come across. Nevertheless, I was convinced
that I had to do with no less than the redoubtable Number Four
himself. In his voice there was certainly a faint resemblance to the
buttoned-up-stranger who had called upon us in Paris.

I looked round, undecided as to my course of action. Reading my
thoughts, he smiled and gently shook his head.

"I should not advise it," he remarked. "Remember what came of your
hasty action in Paris. Let me assure you that my way of retreat is
well assured. Your ideas are inclined to be a little crude, Captain
Hastings, if I may say so."

"You devil," I said, choking with rage, "you incarnate devil!"

"Heated--just a trifle heated. Your late lamented friend would have
told you that a man who keeps calm has always a great advantage."

"You dare to speak of him," I cried. "The man you murdered so foully.
And you come here--"

He interrupted me.

"I came here for an excellent and peaceful purpose. To advise you to
return at once to South America. If you do so, that is the end of the
matter as far as the Big Four are concerned. You and yours will not be
molested in any way. I give you my word as to that."

I laughed scornfully.

"And if I refuse to obey your autocratic command?"

"It is hardly a command. Shall we say that it is--a warning?"

There was a cold menace in his tone.

"The first warning," he said softly. "You will be well advised not to
disregard it."

Then, before I had any hint of his intention, he rose and slipped
quickly away towards the door. I sprang to my feet and was after him
in a second, but by bad luck I cannoned straight into an enormously
fat man who blocked the way between me and the next table. By the time
I had disentangled myself, my quarry was just passing through the
doorway, and the next delay was from a waiter carrying a huge pile of
plates who crashed into me without the least warning. By the time I got
to the door there was no sign of the thin man with the dark beard.

The waiter was fulsome in apologies, the fat man was sitting placidly
at a table ordering his lunch. There was nothing to show that both
occurrences had not been a pure accident. Nevertheless, I had my own
opinion as to that. I knew well enough that the agents of the Big Four
were everywhere.

Needless to say, I paid no heed to the warning given me. I would do
or die in the good cause. I received in all only two answers to the
advertisements. Neither of them gave me any information of value. They
were both from actors who had played with Claud Darrell at one time or
another. Neither of them knew him at all intimately, and no new light
was thrown upon the problem of his identity and present whereabouts.

No further sign came from the Big Four until about ten days later. I
was crossing Hyde Park, lost in thought, when a voice, rich with a
persuasive foreign inflection, hailed me.

"Captain Hastings, is it not?"

A big limousine had just drawn up by the pavement. A woman was leaning
out. Exquisitely dressed in black, with wonderful pearls, I recognised
the lady first known to us as Countess Vera Rossakoff, and afterwards
under a different alias as an agent of the Big Four. Poirot, for some
reason or other, had always had a sneaking fondness for the countess.
Something in her very flamboyance attracted the little man. She was, he
was wont to declare in moments of enthusiasm, a woman in a thousand.
That she was arrayed against us, on the side of our bitterest enemies,
never seemed to weigh in his judgment. "Ah, do not pass on!" said the
countess. "I have something most important to say to you. And do not
try to have me arrested either, for that would be stupid. You were
always a little stupid--yes, yes, it is so. You are stupid now, when
you persist in disregarding the warning we sent you. It is the second
warning I bring you. Leave England at once. You can do no good here--I
tell you that frankly. You will never accomplish anything."

"In that case," I said stiffly, "it seems rather extraordinary that you
are all so anxious to get me out of the country."

The countess shrugged her shoulders--magnificent shoulders, and a
magnificent gesture.

"For my part, I think that, too, stupid. I would leave you here to play
about happily. But the chiefs, you see, are fearful that some word of
yours may give great help to those more intelligent than yourself.
Hence--you are to be banished."

The countess appeared to have a flattering idea of my abilities. I
concealed my annoyance. Doubtless this attitude of hers was assumed
expressly to annoy me and to give me the idea that I was unimportant.

"It would, of course, be quite easy to--remove you," she continued,
"but I am quite sentimental sometimes. I pleaded for you. You have a
nice little wife somewhere, have you not? And it would please the poor
little man who is dead to know that you were not to be killed. I always
liked him, you know. He was clever--but clever! Had it not been a case
of four against one I honestly believe he might have been too much for
us. I confess it frankly--he was my master! I sent a wreath to the
funeral as a token of my admiration--an enormous one of crimson roses.
Crimson roses express my temperament."

I listened in silence and a growing distaste.

"You have the look of a mule when it puts its ears back and kicks.
Well, I have delivered my warning. Remember this, the third warning
will come by the hand of the Destroyer--"

She made a sign, and the car whirled away rapidly. I noted the number
mechanically, but without the hope that it would lead to anything. The
Big Four were not apt to be careless in details.

I went home a little sobered. One fact had emerged from the countess's
flood of volubility. I was in real danger of my life. Though I had no
intention of abandoning the struggle, I saw that it behoved me to walk
warily and adopt every possible precaution.

Whilst I was reviewing all these facts and seeking for the best line of
action, the telephone bell rang. I crossed the room and picked up the
receiver.

"Yes. Hallo. Who's speaking?"

A crisp voice answered me.

"This is St. Giles' Hospital. We have a Chinaman here, knifed in the
street and brought in. He can't last long. We rang you up because we
found in his pocket a piece of paper with your name and address on it."

I was very much astonished. Nevertheless, after a moment's reflection I
said that I would come down at once. St. Giles' Hospital was, I knew,
down by the docks, and it occurred to me that the Chinaman might have
just come off some ship.

It was on my way down there that a sudden suspicion shot into my mind.
Was the whole thing a trap? Wherever a Chinaman was, there might be the
hand of Li Chang Yen. I remembered the adventure of the Baited Trap.
Was the whole thing a ruse on the part of my enemies?

A little reflection convinced me that at any rate a visit to the
hospital would do no harm. It was probable that the thing was not so
much a plot as what is vulgarly known as a "plant." The dying Chinaman
would make some revelation to me upon which I should act, and which
would have the result of leading me into the hands of the Big Four. The
thing to do was to preserve an open mind, and whilst feigning credulity
be secretly on my guard.

On arriving at St. Giles' Hospital, and making my business known, I
was taken at once to the accident ward, to the bedside of the man in
question. He lay absolutely still, his eyelids closed, and only a very
faint movement of the chest showed that he still breathed. A doctor
stood by the bed, his fingers on the Chinaman's pulse.

"He's almost gone," he whispered to me. "You know him, eh?"

I shook my head.

"I've never seen him before."

"Then what was he doing with your name and address in his pocket? You
are Captain Hastings, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I can't explain it any more than you can."

"Curious thing. From his papers he seems to have been the servant of a
man called Ingles--a retired Civil Servant. Ah, you know him, do you?"
he added quickly, as I started at the name.

Ingles's servant! Then I _had_ seen him before. Not that I had
ever succeeded in being able to distinguish one Chinaman from another.
He must have been with Ingles on his way to China, and after the
catastrophe he had returned to England with a message, possibly, for
me. It was vital, imperative that I should hear that message.

"Is he conscious?" I asked. "Can he speak? Mr. Ingles was an old friend
of mine, and I think it possible that this poor fellow has brought me a
message from him. Mr. Ingles is believed to have gone overboard about
ten days ago."

"He's just conscious, but I doubt if he has the force to speak. He lost
a terrible lot of blood, you know. I can administer a stimulant, of
course, but we've already done all that is possible in that direction."

Nevertheless, he administered a hypodermic injection, and I stayed by
the bed, hoping against hope for a word--a sign--that might be of the
utmost value to me in my work. But the minutes sped on and no sign
came.

And suddenly a baleful idea shot across my mind? Was I not already
falling into the trap? Suppose that this Chinaman had merely assumed
the part of Ingles's servant, that he was in reality an agent of the
Big Four? Had I not once read that certain Chinese priests were capable
of simulating death? Or, to go further still, Li Chang Yen might
command a little band of fanatics who would welcome death itself if it
came at the command of their master. I must be on my guard.

Even as these thoughts flashed across my mind, the man in the bed
stirred. His eyes opened. He murmured something incoherently. Then I
saw his glance fasten upon me. He made no sign of recognition, but I
was at once aware that he was trying to speak to me. Be he friend or
foe, I must hear what he had to say.

I leaned over the bed, but the broken sounds conveyed no sort of
meaning to me. I thought I caught the word "hand," but in what
connection it was used I could not tell. Then it came again, and this
time I heard another word, the word "Largo." I stared in amazement, as
the possible juxtaposition of the two suggested itself to me.

"Handel's Largo?" I queried.

The Chinaman's eyelids flickered rapidly, as though in assent, and he
added another Italian word, the word "_carrozza_." Two or three
more words of murmured Italian came to my ears, and then he fell back
abruptly.

The doctor pushed me aside. It was all over. The man was dead.

I went out into the air again thoroughly bewildered.

"Handel's Largo," and a "_carrozza_." If I remembered rightly, a
_carrozza_ was a carriage. What possible meaning could lie behind
those simple words. The man was a Chinaman, not an Italian, why should
he speak in Italian? Surely, if he were indeed Ingles's servant, he
must know English? The whole thing was profoundly mystifying. I puzzled
over it all the way home. Oh, if only Poirot had been there to solve
the problem with his lightning ingenuity!

I let myself in with my latch-key and went slowly up to my room. A
letter was lying on the table, and I tore it open carelessly enough.
But in a minute I stood rooted to the ground whilst I read.

It was a communication from a firm of solicitors.

    "DEAR SIR (it ran),--As instructed by our late client, M.
    Hercule Poirot, we forward you the enclosed letter. This letter was
    placed in our hands a week before his death, with instructions that
    in the event of his demise, it should be sent to you at a certain
    date after his death.

                                               "Yours faithfully, etc."

I turned the enclosed missive over and over. It was undoubtedly from
Poirot. I knew that familiar writing only too well. With a heavy heart,
yet a certain eagerness, I tore it open.

    "MON CHER AMI (it began),--When you receive this I shall be
    no more. Do not shed tears about me, but follow my orders.
    Immediately upon receipt of this, return to South America. Do
    not be pig-headed about this. It is not for sentimental reasons
    that I bid you undertake the journey. _It is necessary._ It is
    part of the plan of Hercule Poirot! To say more is unnecessary,
    to any one who has the acute intelligence of my friend Hastings.

    "_A bas_ the Big Four! I salute you, my friend, from beyond the
    grave.

                                                           "Ever thine,
                                                      "HERCULE POIROT."

I read and re-read this astonishing communication. One thing was
evident. This amazing man had so provided for every eventuality that
even his own death did not upset the sequence of his plans! Mine was
to be the active part--his the directing genius. Doubtless I should
find full instructions awaiting me beyond the seas. In the meantime my
enemies, convinced that I was obeying their warning, would cease to
trouble their heads about me. I could return, unsuspected, and work
havoc in their midst.

There was now nothing to hinder my immediate departure. I sent off
cables, booked my passage, and one week later found me embarking in
the _Ansonia_ en route for Buenos Ayres.

Just as the boat left the quay, a steward brought me a note. It had
been given him, so he explained, by a big gentleman in a fur coat who
had left the boat last thing before the gangway planks were lifted.

I opened it. It was terse and to the point.

"You are wise," it ran. It was signed with a big figure 4.

I could afford to smile to myself!

The sea was not too choppy. I enjoyed a passable dinner, made up my
mind as to the majority of my fellow passengers, and had a rubber or
two of Bridge. Then I turned in and slept like a log as I always do on
board ship.

I was awakened by feeling myself persistently shaken. Dazed and
bewildered, I saw that one of the ship's officers was standing over me.
He gave a sigh of relief as I sat up.

"Thank the Lord I've got you awake at last. I've had no end of a job.
Do you always sleep like that?"

"What's the matter?" I asked, still bewildered and not fully awake. "Is
there anything wrong with the ship?"

"I expect you know what's the matter better than I do," he replied
dryly. "Special instructions from the Admiralty. There's a destroyer
waiting to take you off."

"What?" I cried. "In mid-ocean?"

"It seems a most mysterious affair, but that's not my business. They've
sent a young fellow aboard who is to take your place, and we are all
sworn to secrecy. Will you get up and dress?"

Utterly unable to conceal my amazement I did as I was told. A boat
was lowered, and I was conveyed aboard the destroyer. There I was
received courteously, but got no further information. The commander's
instructions were to land me at a certain spot on the Belgian coast.
There his knowledge and responsibility ended.

The whole thing was like a dream. The one idea I held to firmly was
that all this must be part of Poirot's plan. I must simply go forward
blindly, trusting in my dead friend.

I was duly landed at the spot indicated. There a motor was waiting,
and soon I was rapidly whirling along across the flat Flemish plains.
I slept that night at a small hotel in Brussels. The next day we went
on again. The country became wooded and hilly. I realised that we were
penetrating into the Ardennes, and I suddenly remembered Poirot's
saying that he had a brother who lived at Spa.

But we did not go to Spa itself. We left the main road and wound into
the leafy fastnesses of the hills, till we reached a little hamlet, and
an isolated white villa high on the hill-side. Here the car stopped in
front of the green door of the villa.

The door opened as I alighted. An elderly man-servant stood in the
doorway bowing.

"M. le Capitaine Hastings?" he said in French. "Monsieur le Capitaine
is expected. If he will follow me."

He led the way across the hall, and flung open a door at the back,
standing aside to let me pass in.

I blinked a little, for the room faced west and the afternoon sun
was pouring in. Then my vision cleared and I saw a figure waiting to
welcome me with outstretched hands.

It was--oh, impossible, it couldn't be--but yes!

"Poirot!" I cried, and for once did not attempt to evade the embrace
with which he overwhelmed me.

"But yes, but yes, it is indeed I! Not so easy to kill Hercule Poirot!"

"But Poirot--_why_?"

"A _ruse de guerre_, my friend, a _ruse de guerre_. All is
now ready for our grand coup."

"But you might have told _me_!"

"No, Hastings, I could not. Never, never, in a thousand years, could
you have acted the part at the funeral. As it was, it was perfect. It
could not fail to carry conviction to the Big Four."

"But what I've been through--"

"Do not think me too unfeeling. I carried out the deception partly for
your sake. I was willing to risk my own life, but I had qualms about
continually risking yours. So, after the explosion, I have an idea of
great brilliancy. The good Ridgeway, he enables me to carry it out. I
am dead, you will return to South America. But, _mon ami_, that is
just what you would not do. In the end I have to arrange a solicitor's
letter, and a long rigmarole. But, at all events, here you are--that
is the great thing. And now we lie here--_perdu_--till the moment
comes for the last grand coup--the final overthrowing of the Big Four."




                     17. NUMBER FOUR WINS A TRICK


From our quiet retreat in the Ardennes we watched the progress
of affairs in the great world. We were plentifully supplied with
newspapers, and every day Poirot received a bulky envelope, evidently
containing some kind of report. He never showed these reports to me,
but I could usually tell from his manner whether its contents had been
satisfactory or otherwise. He never wavered in his belief that our
present plan was the only one likely to be crowned by success.

"As a minor point, Hastings," he remarked one day, "I was in continual
fear of your death lying at my door. And that rendered me nervous--like
a cat upon the jumps, as you say. But now I am well satisfied. Even if
they discover that the Captain Hastings who landed in South America is
an imposter (and I do not think they will discover it, they are not
likely to send an agent out there who knows you personally), they will
only believe that you are trying to circumvent them in some clever
manner of your own, and will pay no serious attention to discovering
your whereabouts. Of the one vital fact, my supposed death, they are
thoroughly convinced. They will go ahead and mature their plans."

"And then?" I asked eagerly.

"And then, _mon ami_, grand resurrection of Hercule Poirot! At the
eleventh hour I reappear, throw all into confusion, and achieve the
supreme victory in my own unique manner!"

I realised that Poirot's vanity was of the case-hardened variety which
could withstand all attacks. I reminded him that once or twice the
honours of the game had lain with our adversaries. But I might have
known that it was impossible to diminish Hercule Poirot's enthusiasm
for his own methods.

"See you, Hastings, it is like the little trick that you play with the
cards. You have seen it without doubt? You take the four knaves, you
divide them, one on top of the pack, one underneath, and so on--you
cut and you shuffle, and there they are all together again. That is my
object. So far I have been contending, now against one of the Big Four,
now against another. But let me get them all together, like the four
knaves in the pack of cards, and then, with one coup, I destroy them
all!"

"And how do you propose to get them all together?" I asked.

"By awaiting the supreme moment. By lying _perdu_ until they are
ready to strike."

"That may mean a long wait," I grumbled.

"Always impatient, the good Hastings! But no, it will not be so long.
The one man they were afraid of--myself--is out of the way. I give them
two or three months at most."

His speaking of some one being got out of the way reminded me of Ingles
and his tragic death, and I remembered that I had never told Poirot
about the dying Chinaman in St. Giles' Hospital.

He listened with keen attention to my story.

"Ingles's servant, eh? And the few words he uttered were in Italian?
Curious."

"That's why I suspected it might have been a plant on the part of the
Big Four."

"Your reasoning is at fault, Hastings. Employ the little gray cells. If
your enemies wished to deceive you they would assuredly have seen to it
that the Chinaman spoke in intelligible pigeon English. No, the message
was genuine. Tell me again all that you heard?"

"First of all he made a reference to Handel's Largo, and then he said
something that sounded like '_carrozzo_'--that's a carriage, isn't
it?"

"Nothing else?"

"Well, just at the end he murmured something like 'Cara' somebody or
other--some woman's name. Zia, I think. But I don't suppose that that
had any bearing on the rest of it."

"You would not suppose so, Hastings. Cara Zia is very important, very
important indeed."

"I don't see--"

"My dear friend, you _never_ see--and anyway the English know no
geography."

"Geography?" I cried. "What has geography got to do with it?"

"I dare say M. Thomas Cook would be more to the point."

As usual, Poirot refused to say anything more--a most irritating trick
of his. But I noticed that his manner became extremely cheerful, as
though he had scored some point or other.

The days went on, pleasant if a trifle monotonous. There were plenty
of books in the villa, and delightful rambles all around, but I chafed
sometimes at the forced inactivity of our life, and marvelled at
Poirot's state of placid content. Nothing occurred to ruffle our quiet
existence, and it was not until the end of June, well within the limit
that Poirot had given them, that we had our news of the Big Four.

A car drove up to the villa early one morning, such an unusual event in
our peaceful life that I hurried down to satisfy my curiosity. I found
Poirot talking to a pleasant-faced young fellow of about my own age.

He introduced me.

"This is Captain Harvey, Hastings, one of the most famous members of
your Intelligence Service."

"Not famous at all, I'm afraid," said the young man, laughing
pleasantly.

"Not famous except to those in the know, I should have said. Most of
Captain Harvey's friends and acquaintances consider him an amiable but
brainless young man--devoted only to the trot of the fox or whatever
the dance is called."

We both laughed.

"Well, well, to business," said Poirot. "You are of opinion the time
has come, then?"

"We are sure of it, sir. China was isolated politically yesterday. What
is going on out there, nobody knows. No news of any kind, wireless or
otherwise, has come through--just a complete break--and silence!"

"Li Chang Yen has shown his hand. And the others?"

"Abe Ryland arrived in England a week ago, and left for the Continent
yesterday."

"And Madame Olivier?"

"Madame Olivier left Paris last night."

"For Italy?"

"For Italy, sir. As far as we can judge, they are both making for the
resort you indicated--though how you knew that--"

"Ah, that is not the cap with the feather for me! That was the work of
Hastings here. He conceals his intelligence, you comprehend, but it is
profound for all that."

Harvey looked at me with due appreciation, and I felt rather
uncomfortable.

"All is in train, then," said Poirot. He was pale now, and completely
serious. "The time has come. The arrangements are all made?"

"Everything you ordered has been carried out. The governments of Italy,
France and England are behind you, and are all working harmoniously
together."

"It is, in fact, a new Entente," observed Poirot dryly. "I am glad
that Desjardeaux is convinced at last. _Eh bien_, then, we will
start--or rather, I will start. You, Hastings, will remain here--yes, I
pray of you. In verity, my friend, I am serious."

I believed him, but it was not likely that I should consent to being
left behind in that fashion. Our argument was short but decisive.

It was not until we were in the train, speeding towards Paris that he
admitted that he was secretly glad of my decision.

"For you have a part to play, Hastings. An important part! Without you,
I might well fail. Nevertheless, I felt that it was my duty to urge
you to remain behind."

"There is danger, then?"

"_Mon ami_, where there is the Big Four there is always danger."

On arrival in Paris, we drove across to the Gare de l'Est, and Poirot
at last announced our destination. We were bound for Bolzano and
Italian Tyrol.

During Harvey's absence from our carriage I took the opportunity of
asking Poirot why he had said that the discovery of the rendezvous was
my work.

"Because it was, my friend. How Ingles managed to get hold of the
information I do not know, but he did, and he sent it to us by his
servant. We are bound, _mon ami_ for Karersee, the new Italian
name for which is Lago di Carezza. You see now where your 'Cara Zia'
comes in and also your 'Carrozza' and 'Largo'--the Handel was supplied
by your own imagination. Possibly some reference to the information
coming from the 'hand' of M. Ingles started the train of association."

"Karersee?" I queried. "I never heard of it."

"I always tell you that the English know no geography. But as a matter
of fact it is a well-known and very beautiful summer resort, four
thousand feet up, in the heart of the Dolomites."

"And it is in this out of the way spot that the Big Four have their
rendezvous?"

"Say rather their headquarters. The signal has been given and it is
their intention to disappear from the world and issue orders from their
mountain fastness. I have made the inquiries--a lot of quarrying of
stone and mineral deposits is done there, and the company, apparently
a small Italian firm, is in reality controlled by Abe Ryland. I am
prepared to swear that a vast subterranean dwelling has been hollowed
out in the very heart of the mountain, secret and inaccessible. From
there the leaders of the organisation will issue by wireless their
orders to their followers who are numbered by thousands in every
country. And from that crag in the Dolomites the dictators of the world
will emerge. That is to say--they would emerge were it not for Hercule
Poirot."

"Do you seriously believe all this, Poirot? What about the armies and
general machinery of civilisation?"

"What about it in Russia, Hastings? This will be Russia on an
infinitely larger scale--and with this additional menace--that Madame
Olivier's experiments have proceeded further than she has ever
given out. I believe that she has, to a certain extent, succeeded
in liberating atomic energy and harnessing it to her purpose. Her
experiments with the nitrogen of the air have been very remarkable,
and she has also experimented in the concentration of wireless energy,
so that a beam of great intensity can be focused upon some given
spot. Exactly how far she has progressed, nobody knows, but it is
certain that it is much farther than has ever been given out. She is
a genius, that woman--the Curies were as nothing to her. Add to her
genius the powers of Ryland's almost unlimited wealth, and, with the
brain of Li Chang Yen, the finest criminal brain ever known, to direct
and plan--_eh bien_, it will not be, as you say, all jam for
civilisation."

His words made me very thoughtful. Although Poirot was given at times
to exaggeration of language, he was not really an alarmist. For the
first time I realised what a desperate struggle it was upon which we
were engaged.

Harvey soon rejoined us and the journey went on.

We arrived at Bolzano about midday. From there the journey on was by
motor. Several big blue motor-cars were waiting in the central square
of the town, and we three got into one of them. Poirot, notwithstanding
the heat of the day, was muffled to the eyes in greatcoat and scarf.
His eyes and the tips of his ears were all that could be seen of him.

I did not know whether this was due to precaution or merely his
exaggerated fear of catching a chill. The motor journey took a couple
of hours. It was a really wonderful drive. For the first part of the
way we wound in and out of huge cliffs, with a trickling waterfall on
one hand. Then we emerged into a fertile valley, which continued for
some miles, and then, still winding steadily upwards, the bare rocky
peaks began to show with dense clustering pine woods at their base. The
whole place was wild and lovely. Finally a series of abrupt curves,
with the road running through the pine woods on either side, and we
came suddenly upon a big hotel and found that we had arrived.

Our rooms had been reserved for us, and under Harvey's guidance we went
straight up to them. They looked straight out over the rocky peaks and
the long slopes of pine woods leading up to them. Poirot made a gesture
towards them.

"It is there?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yes," replied Harvey. "There is a place called the
Felsenlabyrynth--all big boulders piled about in a most fantastic
way--a path winds through them. The quarrying is to the right of that,
but we think that the entrance is probably in the Felsenlabyrynth."

Poirot nodded.

"Come, _mon ami_," he said to me. "Let us go down and sit upon the
terrace and enjoy the sunlight."

"You think that wise?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders.

The sunlight was marvellous--in fact the glare was almost too great
for me. We had some creamy coffee instead of tea, then went upstairs
and unpacked our few belongings. Poirot was in his most unapproachable
mood, lost in a kind of reverie. Once or twice he shook his head and
sighed.

I had been rather intrigued by a man who had got out of our train at
Bolzano, and had been met by a private car. He was a small man, and the
thing about him that had attracted my attention was that he was almost
as much muffled up as Poirot had been. More so, indeed, for in addition
to greatcoat and muffler, he was wearing huge blue spectacles. I was
convinced that here we had an emissary of the Big Four. Poirot did not
seem very impressed by my idea, but when, leaning out of my bedroom
window, I reported that the man in question was strolling about in the
vicinity of the hotel, he admitted that there might be something in it.

I urged my friend not to go down to dinner, but he insisted on doing
so. We entered the dining-room rather late, and were shown to a
table by the window. As we sat down, our attention was attracted by
an exclamation and a crash of falling china. A dish of _haricots
verts_ had been upset over a man who was sitting at the table next
to ours.

The head waiter came up and was vociferous in apologies.

Presently, when the offending waiter was serving us with soup, Poirot
spoke to him.

"An unfortunate accident, that. But it was not your fault."

"Monsieur saw that? No, indeed it was not my fault. The gentleman half
sprung up from his chair--I thought he was going to have an attack of
some kind. I could not save the catastrophe."

I saw Poirot's eyes shining with the green light I knew so well, and as
the waiter departed he said to me in a low voice:--

"You see, Hastings, the effect of Hercule Poirot--alive and in the
flesh?"

"You think--"

I had not time to continue. I felt Poirot's hand on my knee, as he
whispered excitedly:

"Look, Hastings, look. _His trick with the bread!_ Number Four!"

Sure enough, the man at the next table to ours, his face unusually
pale, was dabbing a small piece of bread mechanically about the table.

I studied him carefully. His face, clean-shaven and puffily fat, was
of a pasty, unhealthy sallowness, with heavy pouches under the eyes
and deep lines running from his nose to the corners of his mouth. His
age might have been anything from thirty-five to forty-five. In no
particular did he resemble any one of the characters which Number Four
had previously assumed. Indeed, had it not been for his little trick
with the bread, of which he was evidently quite unaware, I would have
sworn readily enough that the man sitting there was some one whom I had
never seen before.

"He has recognised you," I murmured. "You should not have come down."

"My excellent Hastings, I have feigned death for three months for this
one purpose."

"To startle Number Four?"

"To startle him at a moment when he must act quickly or not at all.
And we have this great advantage--he does not know that we recognise
him. He thinks that he is safe in his new disguise. How I bless Flossie
Monro for telling us of that little habit of his."

"What will happen now?" I asked.

"What can happen? He recognises the only man he fears, miraculously
resurrected from the dead, at the very minute when the plans of the Big
Four are in the balance. Madame Olivier and Abe Ryland lunched here
to-day, and it is thought that they went to Cortina. Only we know that
they have retired to their hiding place. How much do we know? That is
what Number Four is asking himself at this minute. He dare take no
risks. I must be suppressed at all costs. _Eh bien_, let him try
to suppress Hercule Poirot! I shall be ready for him."

As he finished speaking, the man at the next table got up and went out.

"He has gone to make his little arrangements," said Poirot placidly.
"Shall we have our coffee on the terrace, my friend? It would be
pleasanter, I think. I will just go up and get a coat."

I went out on to the terrace, a little disturbed in mind. Poirot's
assurance did not quite content me. However, so long as we were on our
guard, nothing could happen to us. I resolved to keep thoroughly on the
alert.

It was quite five minutes before Poirot joined me. With his usual
precautions against cold, he was muffled up to the ears. He sat down
beside me and sipped his coffee appreciatively.

"Only in England is the coffee so atrocious," he remarked. "On the
continent they understand how important it is for the digestion that it
should be properly made."

As he finished speaking, the man from the next table suddenly appeared
on the terrace. Without any hesitation, he came over and drew up a
third chair to our table.

"You do not mind my joining you, I hope," he said in English.

"Not at all, monsieur," said Poirot.

I felt very uneasy. It is true that we were on the terrace of the
hotel, with people all round us, but nevertheless I was not satisfied.
I sensed the presence of danger.

Meanwhile Number Four chatted away in a perfectly natural manner.
It seemed impossible to believe that he was anything but a _bona
fide_ tourist. He described excursions and motor trips, and posed as
quite an authority on the neighbourhood.

He took a pipe from his pocket and began to light it. Poirot drew out
his case of tiny cigarettes. As he placed one between his lips, the
stranger leant forward with a match.

"Let me give you a light."

As he spoke, without the least warning, all the lights went out. There
was a chink of glass, and something pungent under my nose, suffocating
me--




                      18. IN THE FELSENLABYRYNTH


I could not have been unconscious more than a minute. I came to myself
being hustled along between two men. They had me under each arm,
supporting my weight, and there was a gag in my mouth. It was pitch
dark, but I gathered that we were not outside, but passing through the
hotel. All round I could hear people shouting and demanding in every
known language what had happened to the lights. My captors swung me
down some stairs. We passed along a basement passage, then through a
door and out into the open again through a glass door at the back of
the hotel. In another moment we had gained the shelter of the pine
trees.

I had caught a glimpse of another figure in a similar plight to myself,
and realised that Poirot, too, was a victim of this bold coup.

By sheer audacity, Number Four had won the day. He had employed, I
gathered, an instant æsthetic, probably ethyl chloride--breaking
a small bulb of it under our noses. Then, in the confusion of the
darkness, his accomplices, who had probably been guests sitting at the
next table, had thrust gags in our mouths and hurried us away, taking
us through the hotel to baffle pursuit.

I cannot describe the hour that followed. We were hurried through the
woods at a break-neck pace, going uphill the whole time. At last we
emerged in the open, on the mountain-side, and I saw just in front of
us an extraordinary conglomeration of fantastic rocks and boulders.

This must be the Felsenlabyrynth of which Harvey had spoken. Soon we
were winding in and out of its recesses. The place was like a maze
devised by some evil genie.

Suddenly we stopped. An enormous rock barred our path. One of the men
stooped and seemed to push on something when, without a sound, the huge
mass of rock turned on itself and disclosed a small tunnel-like opening
leading into the mountain-side.

Into this we were hurried. For some time the tunnel was narrow, but
presently it widened, and before very long we came out into a wide
rocky chamber lighted by electricity. There the gags were removed. At a
sign from Number Four, who stood facing us with mocking triumph in his
face, we were searched and every article was removed from our pockets,
including Poirot's little automatic pistol.

A pang smote me as it was tossed down on the table. We were
defeated--hopelessly defeated and outnumbered. It was the end.

"Welcome to the headquarters of the Big Four, M. Hercule Poirot," said
Number Four in a mocking tone. "To meet you again is an unexpected
pleasure. But was it worth while returning from the grave only for
this?"

Poirot did not reply. I dared not look at him.

"Come this way," continued Number Four. "Your arrival will be somewhat
of a surprise to my colleagues."

He indicated a narrow doorway in the wall. We passed through and found
ourselves in another chamber. At the very end of it was a table behind
which four chairs were placed. The end chair was empty, but was draped
with a mandarin's cape. On the second, smoking a cigar, sat Mr. Abe
Ryland. Leaning back in the third chair, with her burning eyes and her
nun's face, was Madame Olivier. Number Four took his seat on the fourth
chair.

We were in the presence of the Big Four.

Never before had I felt so fully the reality and the presence of Li
Chang Yen as I did now when confronting his empty seat. Far away in
China, he yet controlled and directed this malign organisation.

Madame Olivier gave a faint cry on seeing us. Ryland, more
self-controlled, only shifted his cigar, and raised his grizzled
eyebrows.

"M. Hercule Poirot," said Ryland slowly. "This is a pleasant surprise.
You put it over on us all right. We thought you were good and buried.
No matter, the game is up now."

There was a ring as of steel in his voice. Madame Olivier said nothing,
but her eyes burned, and I disliked the slow way she smiled.

"Madame and messieurs, I wish you good-evening," said Poirot quietly.

Something unexpected, something I had not been prepared to hear in his
voice made me look at him. He seemed quite composed. Yet there was
something about his whole appearance that was different.

Then there was a stir of draperies behind us, and the Countess Vera
Rossakoff came in.

"Ah!" said Number Four. "Our valued and trusted lieutenant. An old
friend of yours is here, my dear lady."

The countess whirled round with her usual vehemence of movement.

"God in Heaven!" she cried. "It is the little man! Ah! but he has
the nine lives of a cat! Oh, little man, little man! Why did you mix
yourself up in this?"

"Madame," said Poirot, with a bow. "Me, like the great Napoleon, I am
on the side of the big battalions."

As he spoke I saw a sudden suspicion flash into her eyes, and at the
same moment I knew the truth which subconsciously I already sensed.

The man beside me was not Hercule Poirot.

He was very like him, extraordinarily like him. There was the same
egg-shaped head, the same strutting figure, delicately plump. But the
voice was different, and the eyes instead of being green were dark, and
surely the moustaches--those famous moustaches--?

My reflections were cut short by the countess's voice. She stepped
forward, her voice ringing with excitement.

"You have been deceived. That man is not Hercule Poirot!"

Number Four uttered an incredulous exclamation, but the countess leant
forward and snatched at Poirot's moustaches. They came off in her hand,
and then, indeed, the truth was plain. For this man's upper lip was
disfigured by a small scar which completely altered the expression of
the face.

"Not Hercule Poirot," muttered Number Four. "But who can he be then?"

"I know," I cried suddenly, and then stopped dead, afraid I had ruined
everything.

But the man I will still refer to as Poirot had turned to me
encouragingly.

"Say it if you will. It makes no matter now. The trick has succeeded."

"This is Achille Poirot," I said slowly. "Hercule Poirot's twin
brother."

"Impossible," said Ryland sharply, but he was shaken.

"Hercule's plan has succeeded to a marvel," said Achille placidly.

Number Four leapt forward, his voice harsh and menacing.

"Succeeded, has it?" he snarled. "Do you realise that before many
minutes have passed you will be dead--dead?"

"Yes," said Achille Poirot gravely. "I realise that. It is you who do
not realise that a man may be willing to purchase success by his life.
There were men who laid down their lives for their country in the war.
I am prepared to lay down mine in the same way for the world."

It struck me just then that although perfectly willing to lay down my
life I might have been consulted in the matter. Then I remembered how
Poirot had urged me to stay behind, and I felt appeased.

"And in what way will your laying down your life benefit the world?"
asked Ryland sardonically.

"I see that you do not perceive the true inwardness of Hercule's
plan. To begin with, your place of retreat was known some months
ago, and practically all the visitors, hotel assistants and others
are detectives or Secret Service men. A cordon has been drawn round
the mountain. You may have more than one means of egress, but even
so you cannot escape. Poirot himself is directing the operations
outside. My boots were smeared with a preparation of aniseed to-night,
before I came down to the terrace in my brother's place. Hounds are
following the trail. It will lead them infallibly to the rock in the
Felsenlabyrynth where the entrance is situated. You see, do what you
will to us, the net is drawn tightly round you. You cannot escape."

Madame Olivier laughed suddenly.

"You are wrong. There is one way we can escape, and, like Samson of
old, destroy our enemies at the same time. What do you say, my friends?"

Ryland was staring at Achille Poirot.

"Suppose he's lying," he said hoarsely.

The other shrugged his shoulders.

"In an hour it will be dawn. Then you can see for yourself the truth
of my words. Already they should have traced me to the entrance in the
Felsenlabyrynth."

Even as he spoke, there was a far off reverberation, and a man ran in
shouting incoherently. Ryland sprang up and went out. Madame Olivier
moved to the end of the room and opened a door that I had not noticed.
Inside I caught a glimpse of a perfectly equipped laboratory which
reminded me of the one in Paris. Number Four also sprang up and went
out. He returned with Poirot's revolver which he gave to the countess.

"There is no danger of their escaping," he said grimly. "But still you
had better have this."

Then he went out again.

The countess came over to us and surveyed my companion attentively for
some time. Suddenly she laughed.

"You are very clever, M. Achille Poirot," she said mockingly.

"Madame, let us talk business. It is fortunate that they have left us
alone together. What is your price?"

"I do not understand. What price?"

"Madame, you can aid us to escape. You know the secret ways out of this
retreat. I ask you, what is your price?"

She laughed again.

"More than you could pay, little man! Why, all the money in the world
would not buy me!"

"Madame, I did not speak of money. I am a man of intelligence.
Nevertheless, this is a true fact--_everyone has his price_. In
exchange for life and liberty, I offer you your heart's desire."

"So you are a magician!"

"You can call me so if you like."

The countess suddenly dropped her jesting manner. She spoke with
passionate bitterness.

"Fool! My heart's desire! Can you give me revenge upon my enemies? Can
you give me back youth and beauty and a gay heart? Can you bring the
dead to life again?"

Achille Poirot was watching her very curiously.

"Which of the three, Madame? Make your choice."

She laughed sardonically.

"You will sell me the Elixir of Life, perhaps? Come, I will make a
bargain with you. Once, I had a child. Find my child for me--and you
shall go free."

"Madame, I agree. It is a bargain. Your child shall be restored to you.
On the faith of--on the faith of Hercule Poirot himself."

Again that strange woman laughed--this time long and unrestrainedly.

"My dear M. Poirot, I am afraid I laid a little trap for you. It is
very kind of you to promise to find my child for me, but, you see, I
happen to know that you would not succeed, and so that would be a very
one-sided bargain, would it not?"

"Madame, I swear to you by the Holy Angels that I will restore your
child to you."

"I asked you before, M. Poirot, could you restore the dead to life?"

"Then the child is--"

"Dead? Yes."

He stepped forward and took her wrist.

"Madame, I--I who speak to you, swear once more. _I will bring the
dead to life._"

She stared at him as though fascinated.

"You do not believe me. I will prove my words. Get my pocket-book which
they took from me."

She went out of the room, and returned with it in her hand. Throughout
all she retained her grip on the revolver. I felt that Achille Poirot's
chances of bluffing her were very slight. The Countess Vera Rossakoff
was no fool.

"Open it, madame. The flap on the left-hand side. That is right. Now
take out that photograph and look at it."

Wonderingly, she took out what seemed to be a small snapshot. No sooner
had she looked at it than she uttered a cry and swayed as though about
to fall. Then she almost flew at my companion.

"Where? Where? You shall tell me. Where?"

"Remember your bargain, madame."

"Yes, yes, I will trust you. Quick, before they come back."

Catching him by the hand, she drew him quickly and silently out of
the room. I followed. From the outer room she led us into the tunnel
by which we had first entered, but a short way along this forked, and
she turned off to the right. Again and again the passage divided, but
she led us on, never faltering or seeming to doubt her way, and with
increasing speed.

"If only we are in time," she panted. "We must be out in the open
before the explosion occurs."

Still we went on. I understood that this tunnel led right through the
mountain and that we should finally emerge on the other side, facing a
different valley. The sweat streamed down my face, but I raced on.

And then, far away, I saw a gleam of daylight. Nearer and nearer. I saw
green bushes growing. We forced them aside, pushed our way through. We
were in the open again, with the faint light of dawn making everything
rosy.

Poirot's cordon was a reality. Even as we emerged, three men fell upon
us, but released us again with a cry of astonishment.

"Quick," cried my companion. "Quick--there is no time to lose--"

But he was not destined to finish. The earth shook and trembled under
our feet, there was a terrific roar and the whole mountain seemed to
dissolve. We were flung headlong through the air.

       *       *       *       *       *

I came to myself at last. I was in a strange bed and a strange room.
Some one was sitting by the window. He turned and came and stood by me.

It was Achille Poirot--or, stay, was it--

The well-known ironical voice dispelled any doubts I might have had.

"But yes, my friend, it is I. Brother Achille has gone home again--to
the land of myths. It was I all the time. It is not only Number Four
who can act a part. Belladona in the eyes, the sacrifice of the
moustaches, and a real scar the inflicting of which caused me much pain
two months ago--but I could not risk a fake beneath the eagle eyes of
Number Four. And the final touch, your own knowledge and belief that
there was such a person as Achille Poirot! It was invaluable, the
assistance you rendered me, half the success of the coup is due to you!
The whole crux of the affair was to make them believe that Hercule
Poirot was still at large directing operations. Otherwise, everything
was true, the aniseed, the cordon, etc."

"But why not really send a substitute?"

"And let you go into danger without me by your side? You have a pretty
idea of me there! Besides, I always had a hope of finding a way out
through the countess."

"How on earth did you manage to convince her? It was a pretty thin
story to make her swallow--all that about a dead child."

"The countess has a great deal more perspicacity than you have, my dear
Hastings. She was taken in at first by my disguise; but she soon saw
through it. When she said, 'You are very clever, M. Achille Poirot,' I
knew that she had guessed the truth. It was then or never to play my
trump card."

"All that rigmarole about bringing the dead to life?"

"Exactly--but then, you see, I had the child all along."

"_What?_"

"But yes! You know my motto--Be prepared. As soon as I found that the
Countess Rossakoff was mixed up with the Big Four, I had every possible
inquiry made as to her antecedents. I learnt that she had had a child
who was reported to have been killed, and I also found that there were
discrepancies in the story which led me to wonder whether it might not,
after all, be alive. In the end, I succeeded in tracing the boy, and
by paying out a big sum I obtained possession of the child's person.
The poor little fellow was nearly dead of starvation. I placed him in a
safe place, with kindly people, and took a snapshot of him in his new
surroundings. And so, when the time came, I had my little _coup de
théâtre_ all ready!"

"You are wonderful, Poirot; absolutely wonderful!"

"I was glad to do it, too. For I had admired the countess. I should
have been sorry if she had perished in the explosion."

"I've been half afraid to ask you--what of the Big Four?"

"All the bodies have now been recovered. That of Number Four was quite
unrecognisable, the head blown to pieces. I wish--I rather wish it had
not been so. I should have liked to be _sure_--but no more of
that. Look at this."

He handed me a newspaper in which a paragraph was marked. It reported
the death, by suicide, of Li Chang Yen, who had engineered the recent
revolution which had failed so disastrously.

"My great opponent," said Poirot gravely. "It was fated that he and
I should never meet in the flesh. When he received the news of the
disaster here, he took the simplest way out. A great brain, my friend,
a great brain. But I wish I had seen the face of the man who was Number
Four.... Supposing that, after all--but I romance. He is dead. Yes,
_mon ami_, together we have faced and routed the Big Four; and now
you will return to your charming wife, and I--I shall retire. The great
case of my life is over. Anything else will seem tame after this. No,
I shall retire. Possibly I shall grow vegetable marrows! I might even
marry and range myself!"

He laughed heartily at the idea, but with a touch of embarrassment. I
hope ... small men always admire big, flamboyant women--

"Marry and range myself," he said again. "Who knows?"