assure you that behind my madness there is--as
you English say--a method."
His eyes met those of Miss Henderson for just a
minute. He began unwrapping the bulky object.
"I have here, Messieurs and Mesdames, an im-portant
witness to the truth of who killed Mrs.
Clapperton." With a deft hand he whisked away
the last enveloping cloth, and the object it con-cealed
was revealed--an almost life-sized wooden
doll, dressed in a velvet suit and lace collar.
"Now, Arthur," said Poirot and his voice
changed subtly--it was no longer foreign--it had
instead a confident English, a slightly Cockney in-flection.
"Can you tell me--I repeatmcan you tell
me--anything at all about the death of Mrs. Clap-perton?"
The doll's neck oscillated a little, its wooden
lower jaw dropped and wavered and a shrill high-pitched
woman's voice spoke:
"What is it, John? The door's locked. I don't
want to be disturbed by the stewards .... "
There was a cryman overturned chair--a man
stood swaying, his hand to his throat--trying to
speak--trying . . . Then suddenly, his figure
seemed to crumple up. He pitched headlong.
It was Colonel Clapperton.
Poirot and the ship's doctor rose from their
knees by the prostrate figure.
"All over, I'm afraid. Heart," said the doctor
briefly.
Poirot nodded. "The shock of having his trick
seen through," he said.
PROBLEM AT SEA
213
He turned to General Forbes. "It was you,
General, who gave me a valuable hint with your
mention of the music hall stage. I puzzle--I
think--and then it comes to me. Supposing that
before the war Clapperton was a ventriloquist. In
that case, it would be perfectly possible for three
people to hear Mrs. Clapperton speak from inside
her cabin when she was already dead .... "
Ellie Henderson was beside him. Her eyes were
dark and full of pain. "Did you know his heart
was weak?" she asked.
"I guessed it .... Mrs. Clapperton talked of her
own heart being affected, but she struck me as the
type of woman who likes to be thought ill. Then I
picked up a torn prescription with a very strong
dose of digitalin in it. Digitalin is a heart mdicine
but it couldn't be Mrs. Clapperton's because
digitalin dilates the pupils of the eyes. I had never
noticed such a phenomenon with hei'--but when I
looked at his eyes I saw the signs at once."
Ellie murmured: "So you thought--it might
end--this way?"
"The best way, don't you think, Mademoi-selle?''
he said gently.
He saw the tears rise in her eyes. She said:
"You've known. You've kno?n all along. : . .
That I cared .... But he didn't do it for me .... It
was those girlsmyouthmit made him feel his
slavery. He wanted to be free before it was too
late .... Yes, I'm sure that's how it was ....
When did you guessmthat it was he?"
"His self-control was too perfect," said Poirot
simply. "No matter how galling his wife's con-duct,
it never seemed to touch him. That meant
either that he was so used to it that it no longer
214
Agatha Christie
stung him, or else--eh bien--I decided on the
latter alternative .... And I was right ....
"And then there was his insistence on his con-juring
ability--the evening before the crime. He
pretended to give himself away. But a man like
Clapperton doesn't give himself away. There must
be a reason. So long as people thought he had
been a conjuror they weren't likely to think of his
having been a ventriloquist."
"And the voice we heard--Mrs. Clapperton's
voice?"
"One of the stewardesses had a voice not unlike
hers. I induced her to hide behind the stage and
taught her the words to say."
"It was a trick--a cruel trick," cried out Ellie.
"I do not approve of murder," said Hercule
Poirot.
"One of the most Imaginative and fertile
plot creators of all time!"-Ellery Queen
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