Those particular circumstances have passed away, you
now, deservedly, one of the most popular figures in politica
life. You are spoken of freely as the next Prime Minister whe
Mr Hunberly retires.'
'You think this is an attempt to discredit me? Nonsense!' 'Tout de mme, Lord Mayfield, it would not look well if i
were known that the plans of Britain's new bomber had beet
stolen during a weekend when a certain very charming lady ha¢
been your guest. Little hints in the newspapers as to you
relationship with that lady would create a feeling of distrust ix you.'
'Such a thing could not really be taken seriously.'
'My dear Lord Mayfield, you know perfectly well it could!
It takes so little to undermine public confidence in a man.'
'Yes, that's true,' said Lord Mayfield. He looked suddenlj
very worried. 'God! how desperately complicated this busines:
is becoming. Do you really think - but it's impossible impossible.'
'You know of nobody who is - iealous of you?'
'Absurd!'
'At any rate you will admit that my questions about yotn
personal relationships with the members of this house-part
are not totally irrelevant.'
'Oh, perhaps - perhaps. You asked me about Julia Carting-ton.
There's really not very much to say. I've never taken to he
very much, and I don't think she cares for me. She's one of
these restless, nervy women, recklessly extravagant and mad
about cards. She's old-fashioned enough, I think, to despise
me as being a self-made man.'
Poirot said:
'I looked you up in Who's Who before I came down. You
were the head of a famous engineering firm and you are
yourself a first-class engineer.'
'There's certainly nothing I don't know about the practical
side. I've worked my way up from the bottom.'
Lord Mayfield spoke rather grimly.
'Oh la la!' cried Poirot. 'I have been a fool - but a fool!'
3.
The other stared at him.
'I beg your pardon, M. Ioif°t' . .
.
' at
rtion of" uzzle nas oecome car to me
tism apo
tee
'
Something I did not see be£or··· But it all fits in. Yes - it
in' with beautiful precision.'
him in somewhat astonished
Lord Mayfield looked at
inquiry.
a slight smile P · at shook his head.
But with not now. I m]r'ange my ideas a little more
NO no
clearly.'
He rose.
'Goodnight, Lord MaYel/1' I think I know where those
plallS are.
LOrd Mayfield cried out:
'You know? Then let us gel hold of them at once!'
Poirot shook his head.
'No, no, that would not cio. recipitancy would be fatal. But
leave it all to Hercule Poirot,
He went out of the room. ord Mayfield raised his shoulders
in contempt.
, , o,,, t,
go,, ' hA -at;ttered. Then, putting
away
his
bed.
CHAPTER 6
'If there's been
a burul- - the devil doesn't
old Mayfield
1 a-W,
XvB
, · ' on
send for the
police?' demarlde."e,gg.e .,Cax,
..
.
.
He -ushed his chair sli-' "t}ac from me orearaast tao
e.
, ru
.
e wa
the
last down Hi u
st, Mrs Macatta and Sir George
................. 'ae
time
bef6re
His
and
had
finished
their
breakfasta
se
'
Mrs
Vanderlyn
were
breakt?as
fi g
in
bed.
Sir
George,
repeating
his
st
tement
on
the
lines
agreed
upon
4O
between Lord Mayfield and Hercule Poirot, had a feeling tha
he was not managing it as well as he might have done.
'To send for a queer foreigner like this seems very odd tl
me,' said Reggie. 'What has been taken, Father?'
'I don't know exactly, my boy.'
Reggie got up. He looked rather nervy and on edge this
morlling.
'Nothing - important? No - papers or anything like that?'
'To tell you the truth, Reggie, I can't tell you exactly.'
'Very hush-hush, is it? I see.'
Reggie ran up the stairs, paused for a moment haft-way with
a frown on his face, and then continued his ascent ami tapped
on his mother's door. Her voice bade him enter.
Lady Julia was sitting up in bed, scribbling figures on the
back of an envelope.
'Good morning, darling.' She looked up, then said sharply:
'Reggie, is anything the matter?'
'Nothing much, but it seems there was a burglary last night.'
'A burglary? What was taken?'
'Oh, I don't know. It's all very hush hush. There's some odd
kind of private-inquiry agent downstairs asking everybody
questions.'
'How extraordinary?
'It's rather unpleasant,' said Reggie slowly, 'staying in a
house when that kind of thing happens.'
'What did happen exactly?'
'Don't know. It was some time after we all went to bed. Look
out, Mother, you'll have that tray off.'
He rescued the breakfast-tray and carried it to a table by the
window.
'Was money taken?'
'I tell you I don't know.'
Lady Julia said slowly:
'I suppose this inquiry man is asking everybody questions?'
'I suppose so.'
'Where they were last night? All that kind of thing?'
41
'Probably. Well, I can't tell him much. I went straight up to
bed and was asleep in next to no time.'
Lady Julia did not answer.
'I say, Mother, I suppose you couldn't let me have a spot of
cash. I'm absolutely broke.'
'No, I couldn't,' his mother replied decisively. 'I've got the
most frightful overdraft myself. I don't know what your father
will say when he hears about it.'
There was a tap at the door and Sir George entered.
'Ah, there you are, Reggie. Will you go down to the library?
M. Hercule Poirot wants to see you.'
Poirot had just concluded an interview with the redoubtable
Mrs Macatta.
A few brief questions had elicited the information that Mm
Macatta had gone up to bed just before eleven, and had heard
or seen nothing helpful.
Poirot slid gently from the topic of the burglary to more
personal matters. He himself had a great admiration for Lord
Mayfield. As a member of the general public he felt that Lord
Mayfield was a truly great man. Of course, Mrs Macatta, being
in the know, would have a far better means of estimating that
than himself.
'Lord Mayfield has brains,' allowed Mrs Macatta. 'And he
has carved his career out entirely for himself. He owes nothing
to hereditary influence. He has a certain lack of vision, perhaps.
In that I find all men sadly alike. They lack the breadth of a
great force in government in ten years' time.'
Poirot said that he was sure of it.
He slid to the topic of Mrs Vanderlyn. Was it true, as he had
heard hinted, that she and Lord Mayfield were very dose
friends?
'Not in the least. To tell you the truth I was very surprised
to meet her here. Very surprised indeed.'
Poirot invited Mrs Macatta's opinion of Mrs Vanderlyn and got it.
'One of those absolutely useless women, M. Poirot. Women
42
that make one despair of one's own sex! A parasite, first and last
a parasite.'
Then admired her?'
Then? Mrs Macatta spoke the word with contempt. Then
are always taken in by those very Obvious good looks. That boy,
now, young Reggie Carrington, flushing up every time she
spoke to him, absurdly flattered by being taken notice of by
her. And the silly way she flattered him too. Praising his bridge
- which actually was far from brilliant.'
'He is not a good player?'
'He made all sorts of mistakes last night.'
'Lady Julia is a good player, is she not?'
'Much too good in my opinion,' said Mrs Macatta. 'It's
almost a profession with her. She plays morning, noon, and
night.'
'For high stakes?'
'Yes, indeed, much higher than I would care to play. Indeed
I shouldn't consider it right.'
'She makes a good deal of money at the game?'
Mrs.Macatta gave a loud and virtuous snort.
'She reckons on paying her debts that way. But she's been
having a run of bad luck lately, so I've heard. She looked last
night as though she had something on her mind. The evils of
gambling, M. Po[rot, are only slightly less than the evils caused
by drink. If I had my way this country should be purified -'
Poirot was forced to listen to a somewhat lengthy discussion
on the purification of England's morals. Then he closed the
conversation adroitly and sent for Reggie Carrington.
He summed the young man up carefully as he entered the
room, the weak mouth camouflaged by the rather charming
smile, the indecisive chin, the eyes set far apart, the rather
narrow head. He thought that he knew Reggie Carrington's
type fairly well.
'Mr Reggie Carrington?'
'Yes. Anything I can do?'
'Just tell me what you can about last night?'
43
'Well, let me see, we played bridge - in the drawing-room.
After that I went up to bed.'
'That was at what time?'
'Just before eleven. I suppose the robbery took place after
that?'
'Yes, after that. You did not hear or see anything?'
Reggie shook his head regretfully.
'I'm afraid not. I went straight to bed and I sleep pretty
soundly.'
'You went straight up from the drawing-room to your
bedroom and remained there until the morning?'
'That's right.'
'Curious,' said Poirot.
Reggie said sharply:
'What do you mean, curious?'
'You did not, for instance, hear a scream?'
'No, I didn't.'
'Ah, very curious.'
'Look here, I don't know what you mean.'
'You are, perhaps, slightly deaf?.'
'Certainly not.'
Poirot's lips moved. It was possible that he was repeating the
word curious for the third time. Then he said:
'Well, thank you, Mr Carrington, that is all.'
Reggie got up and stood rather irresolutely.
'You know,' he said, 'now you come to mention it, I believe
I did hear something of the kind.'
'Ah, you did hear something?'
'Yes, but you see, I was reading a book - a detective story as
a matter of fact - and I - well, I didn't really quite take it in.? 'Ah,' said Poirot, 'a most satisfying explanation.'
His face was quite impassive.
Reggie still hesitated, then he turned and walked slowly to
the door. There he paused and asked:
'I say, what was stolen?'
'Something of great value, Mr Carfington. That is all I am
at liberty to say.'
'Oh,' said Reggie rather blankly.
He went out.
Poirot nodded his head.
'It fits,' he murmured. 'It fits very nicely.'
He touched a bell and inquired courteously if Mrs Vanderlyn
was up yet.
CHAPTER 7
Mrs Vanderlyn swept into the room looking very handsome.
She was swearing an artfully-cut russet sports-suit that showed
up the warm lights of her hair. She swept to a chair and smiled
in a dazzling fashion at the little man in front of her.
For a moment something showed through the smile. It
might have been triumph, it might almost have been mockery.
It was gone almost immediately, but it had been there. Poirot
found the suggestion of it interesting.
'Burglars? Last night? But how dreadful! Why no, I never
heard a thing. What about the police? Can't they do anything?'
Again, just for a moment, the mockery showed in her eyes.
Hercule Poirot thought:
'It is very clear thatyou are not afraid of the police, my lady.
You know very well that they are not going to be called in.'
And from that followed - what?
He said soberly:
'You comprehend, madame, it is an affair of the most
discreet.'
'Why, naturally, M. - Poirot - isn't it? - I shouldn't dream
of breathing a word. I'm much too great an admirer of dear
Lord Mayfield's to do anything to cause him the least little bit
of worry.'
She crossed her knees. A highly-polished slipper of brown
leather dangled on the tip of her silk-shod foot.
45
She smiled, a warm, compelling smile of perfect health and
deep satisfaction.
'Do tell me if there's anything at all I can do?'
'I thank you, madame. You played bridge in the drawing
room last night?'
'Yes.'
'I understand that then all the ladies went up to bed?'
'That is right.'
'But someone came back to fetch a book. That was you, was
it not, Mrs Vanderlyn?'
'I was the first one to come back - yes.'
'What do you mean - the first one?' said Poirot sharply.
'I came back right away,' explained Mrs Vanderlyn. Then I
went up and rang for my maid. She was a long time in coming.
I rang again. Then I went out on the landing. I heard her voice
and I called her. After she had brushed my hair I sent her away,
she was in a nervous, upset state and tangled the brush in my
hair once or twice. It was then, just as I sent her away, that I saw
Lady Julia coming up the stairs. She told me she had been
down again for a book, too. Curious, wasn't it?'
Mrs Vanderlyn smiled as she finished, a wide
, rather feline
smile. Hercule Poirot thought to himself that Mrs Vanderlyn
did not like Lady Julia Carrington.
'As you say, madame. Tell me, did you hear your maid
scream?'
'Why, yes, I did hear something of that kind.'
'Did you ask her about it?'
'Yes. She told me she thought she had seen a floating figure
in white - such nonsense!'
'What was Lady Julia wearing last night?'
'Oh, you think perhaps - Yes, I see. She as wearing a white
evening-dress. Of course, that explains it. She must have
caught sight of her in the darkness just as a white figure. These
girls are so superstitious.'
'Your maid has been with you a long time, madame?'
'Oh, no.' Mrs Vanderlyn opened her eyes rather wide. 'Only
about five months.'
'I shou, ld like to see her presently, if you do not mind,
madame.
Mrs Vanderlyn raised her eyebrows.
'Oh, certainly, she said rather coldly.
'I should like, you understand, to question her.'
'Oh, yes.'
Again a flicker of amusement.
Poirot rose and bowed.
'Madame,' he said. 'You have my complete admiration.'
Mrs Vanderlyn for once seemed a trifle taken aback.
'Oh, M. Poirot, how nice of you, but why?'
'You are, madame, so perfectly armoured, so completely
sure of yourself.'
Mrs Vanderlyn laughed a little uncertainly.
'Now I wonder,' she said, 'if I am to take that as a
compliment?'
Poirot said:
'It is, perhaps, a warning - not to treat life with arrogance.'
Mrs Vanderlyn laughed with more assurance. She got up
and held out a hand.
'Dear M. Poirot, I do wish you all success. Thank you for all
the charming things you have said to me.'
She went out. Poirot murmured to himself:
'You wish me success, do you? Ah, but you are very sure I
am not going to meet with success! Yes, you are very sure