Sir George Carrington was fidgeting with his watch, opening and shutting it. He was a maniac for punctuality.
‘They’re cutting it fine,’ he murmured. ‘Very fine. Unless they’re careful, they’ll miss the train—’
His wife said irritably:
‘Oh, don’t fuss, George. After all, it’s their train, not ours!’
He looked at her reproachfully.
The Rolls drove off.
Reggie drew up at the front door in the Carringtons’ Morris.
‘All ready, Father,’ he said.
The servants began bringing out the Carringtons’ luggage. Reggie supervised its disposal in the dickey.
Poirot moved out of the front door, watching the proceedings.
Suddenly he felt a hand on his arm. Lady Julia’s voice spoke in an agitated whisper.
‘M. Poirot. I must speak to you—at once.’
He yielded to her insistent hand. She drew him into a small morning-room and closed the door. She came close to him.
‘Is it true what you said—that the discovery of the papers is what matters most to Lord Mayfield?’
Poirot looked at her curiously.
‘It is quite true, madame.’
‘If—if those papers were returned to you, would you undertake that they should be given back to Mayfield, and no questions asked?’
‘I am not sure that I understand you.’
‘You must! I am sure that you do! I am suggesting that the—the thief should remain anonymous if the papers are returned.’
Poirot asked:
‘How soon would that be, madame?’
‘Definitely within twelve hours.’
‘You can promise that?’
‘I can promise it.’
As he did not answer, she repeated urgently:
‘Will you guarantee that there will be no publicity?’
He answered then—very gravely:
‘Yes, madame, I will guarantee that.’
‘Then everything can be arranged.’
She passed abruptly from the room. A moment later Poirot heard the car drive away.
He crossed the hall and went along the passage to the study. Lord Mayfield was there. He looked up as Poirot entered.
‘Well?’ he said.
Poirot spread out his hands.
‘The case is ended, Lord Mayfield.’
‘What?’
Poirot repeated word for word the scene between himself and Lady Julia.
Lord Mayfield looked at him with a stupefied expression.
‘But what does it mean? I don’t understand.’
‘It is very clear, is it not? Lady Julia knows who stole the plans.’
‘You don’t mean she took them herself?’
‘Certainly not. Lady Julia may be a gambler. She is not a thief. But if she offers to return the plans, it means that they were taken by her husband or her son. Now Sir George Carrington was out on the terrace with you. That leaves us the son. I think I can reconstruct the happenings of last night fairly accurately. Lady Julia went to her son’s room last night and found it empty. She came downstairs to look for him, but did not find him. This morning she hears of the theft, and she also hears that her son declares that he went straight to his room and never left it. That, she knows, is not true. And she knows something else about her son. She knows that he is weak, that he is desperately hard-up for money. She has observed his infatuation for Mrs Vanderlyn. The whole thing is clear to her. Mrs Vanderlyn has persuaded Reggie to steal the plans. But she determines to play her part also. She will tackle Reggie, get hold of the papers and return them.’
‘But the whole thing is quite impossible,’ cried Lord Mayfield.
‘Yes, it is impossible, but Lady Julia does not know that. She does not know what I, Hercule Poirot, know, that young Reggie Carrington was not stealing papers last night, but instead was philandering with Mrs Vanderlyn’s French maid.’
‘The whole thing is a mare’s nest!’
‘Exactly.’
‘And the case is not ended at all!’
‘Yes, it is ended. I, Hercule Poirot, know the truth. You do not believe me? You did not believe me yesterday when I said I knew where the plans were. But I did know. They were very close at hand.’
‘Where?’
‘They were in your pocket, my lord.’
There was a pause, then Lord Mayfield said:
‘Do you really know what you are saying, M. Poirot?’
‘Yes, I know. I know that I am speaking to a very clever man. From the first it worried me that you, who were admittedly short-sighted, should be so positive about the figure you had seen leaving the window. You wanted that solution—the convenient solution—to be accepted. Why? Later, one by one, I eliminated everyone else. Mrs Vanderlyn was upstairs, Sir George was with you on the terrace, Reggie Carrington was with the French girl on the stairs, Mrs Macatta was blamelessly in her bedroom. (It is next to the housekeeper’s room, and Mrs Macatta snores!) Lady Julia clearly believed her son guilty. So there remained only two possibilities. Either Carlile did not put the papers on the desk but into his own pocket (and that is not reasonable, because, as you pointed out, he could have taken a tracing of them), or else—or else the plans were there when you walked over to the desk, and the only place they could have gone was into your pocket. In that case everything was clear. Your insistence on the figure you had seen, your insistence on Carlile’s innocence, your disinclination to have me summoned.
‘One thing did puzzle me—the motive. You were, I was convinced, an honest man, a man of integrity. That showed in your anxiety that no innocent person should be suspected. It was also obvious that the theft of the plans might easily affect your career unfavourably. Why, then, this wholly unreasonable theft? And at last the answer came to me. The crisis in your career, some years ago, the assurances given to the world by the Prime Minister that you had had no negotiations with the power in question. Suppose that that was not strictly true, that there remained some record—a letter, perhaps—showing that in actual fact you had done what you had publicly denied. Such a denial was necessary in the interests of public policy. But it is doubtful if the man in the street would see it that way. It might mean that at the moment when supreme power might be given into your hands, some stupid echo from the past would undo everything.
‘I suspect that that letter has been preserved in the hands of a certain government, that that government offered to trade with you—the letter in exchange for the plans of the new bomber. Some men would have refused. You—did not! You agreed. Mrs Vanderlyn was the agent in the matter. She came here by arrangement to make the exchange. You gave yourself away when you admitted that you had formed no definite stratagem for entrapping her. That admission made your reason for inviting her here incredibly weak.
‘You arranged the robbery. Pretended to see the thief on the terrace—thereby clearing Carlile of suspicion. Even if he had not left the room, the desk was so near the window that a thief might have taken the plans while Carlile was busy at the safe with his back turned. You walked over to the desk, took the plans and kept them on your own person until the moment when, by prearranged plan, you slipped them into Mrs Vanderlyn’s dressing-case. In return she handed you the fatal letter disguised as an unposted letter of her own.’
Poirot stopped.
Lord Mayfield said:
‘Your knowledge is very complete, M. Poirot. You must think me an unutterable skunk.’
Poirot made a quick gesture.
‘No, no, Lord Mayfield. I think, as I said, that you are a very clever man. It came to me suddenly as we talked here last night. You are a first-class engineer. There will be, I think, some subtle alterations in the specifications of that bomber, alterations done so skilfully that it will be difficult to grasp why the machine is not the success it ought to be. A certain foreign power will find the type a failure … It will be a disappointment to them, I am sure …’
Again there was a silen
ce—then Lord Mayfield said:
‘You are much too clever, M. Poirot. I will only ask you to believe one thing. I have faith in myself. I believe that I am the man to guide England through the days of crisis that I see coming. If I did not honestly believe that I am needed by my country to steer the ship of state, I would not have done what I have done—made the best of both worlds—saved myself from disaster by a clever trick.’
‘My lord,’ said Poirot, ‘if you could not make the best of both worlds, you could not be a politician!’
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Agatha Christie’s short stories typically appeared first in magazines and then in her short story books, which tended to be different collections in the UK and the US. This list attempts to catalogue the first publication of each, and gives alternative story titles when used.
Summer in the Pyrenees
Excerpted from An Autobiography (1977).
The Blood-Stained Pavement
First published in the UK in Royal Magazine No. 353, March 1928, and in the US as ‘Drip! Drip!’ in Detective Story Magazine, 23 June 1928. Reprinted in The Thirteen Problems (UK, 1932) and The Tuesday Night Club (US, 1933).
The Double Clue
First published in the UK in The Sketch No. 1610, 5 December 1923, and in the US in Blue Book Magazine Vol. 41, No. 4, August 1925. Reprinted in Poirot’s Early Cases (UK, 1974) and Double Sin (US, 1961).
Death on the Nile
First published in the UK in Nash’s Pall Mall Vol. 91, No. 482, July 1923, and in the US in Cosmopolitan, April 1923. Reprinted in Parker Pyne Investigates (UK, 1934) and Mr Parker Pyne, Detective (US, 1934).
Harlequin’s Lane
First published in the UK in Storyteller No. 241, May 1927, and in the US in The Magic of Mr Quin No. 5, May 1927. Reprinted in The Mysterious Mr Quin (1930).
The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman
First published in the UK in The Sketch No. 1604, 24 October 1923, and in the US as ‘The Italian Nobleman’ in Blue Book Magazine Vol. 40, No. 2, December 1924. Reprinted in Poirot Investigates (UK, 1924; US, 1925).
Jane in Search of a Job
First published in the UK in Grand Magazine No. 234, August 1924. Reprinted in The Listerdale Mystery (UK, 1934) and The Golden Ball (US, 1971).
The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim
First published in the UK in The Sketch No. 1574, 28 March 1923, and in the US as ‘Mr Davenby Disappears’ in Blue Book Magazine Vol. 38, No. 2, December 1923. Reprinted in Poirot Investigates (UK, 1924; US, 1925).
The Idol House of Astarte
First published in the UK in Royal Magazine No. 351, January 1928, and in the US as ‘The Solving Six and the Evil Hour’ in Detective Story Magazine, 9 June 1928. Reprinted in The Thirteen Problems (UK, 1932) and The Tuesday Night Club (US, 1933).
The Rajah’s Emerald
First published in the UK in Red Magazine, 30 July 1926. Reprinted in The Listerdale Mystery (UK, 1934) and The Golden Ball (US, 1971).
The Oracle at Delphi
First published in the UK in Nash’s Pall Mall Vol. 91, No. 482, July 1933, and in the US in Cosmopolitan, April 1933. Reprinted in Parker Pyne Investigates (UK, 1934) and Mr Parker Pyne, Detective (US, 1934).
The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger
First published in the UK in The Sketch No. 1656, 22 October 1929. Reprinted in Partners in Crime (1929).
The Incredible Theft
First published in the UK as ‘The Submarine Plans’, 1923, and later expanded in the Daily Express, 6-12 April 1937. Reprinted as Murder in the Mews (UK, 1937) and Dead Man’s Mirror (US, 1937).
Keep Reading …
Also available
Midwinter Murder
Fireside Mysteries from the Queen of Crime
There’s a chill in the air and the days are growing shorter … It’s the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fireplace with this winter-themed collection from legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This compendium of short stories, some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect gift for mystery lovers.
INCLUDES THE STORIES:
The Chocolate Box
A Christmas Tragedy
The Coming of Mr Quin
The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest
The Clergyman’s Daughter
The Plymouth Express
Problem at Pollensa Bay
Sanctuary
The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge
The World’s End
The Manhood of Edward Robinson
Christmas Adventure
Available to buy here
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Mysteries
The Man in the Brown Suit
The Secret of Chimneys
The Seven Dials Mystery
The Mysterious Mr Quin
The Sittaford Mystery
The Hound of Death
The Listerdale Mystery
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Parker Pyne Investigates
Murder Is Easy
And Then There Were None
Towards Zero
Death Comes as the End
Sparkling Cyanide
Crooked House
They Came to Baghdad
Destination Unknown
Spider’s Web *
The Unexpected Guest *
Ordeal by Innocence
The Pale Horse
Endless Night
Passenger To Frankfurt
Problem at Pollensa Bay
While the Light Lasts
Poirot
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Murder on the Links
Poirot Investigates
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Big Four
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Black Coffee *
Peril at End House
Lord Edgware Dies
Murder on the Orient Express
Three-Act Tragedy
Death in the Clouds
The ABC Murders
Murder in Mesopotamia
Cards on the Table
Murder in the Mews
Dumb Witness
Death on the Nile
Appointment with Death
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Sad Cypress
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Evil Under the Sun
Five Little Pigs
The Hollow
The Labours of Hercules
Taken at the Flood
Mrs McGinty’s Dead
After the Funeral
Hickory Dickory Dock
Dead Man’s Folly
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
The Clocks
Third Girl
Hallowe’en Party
Elephants Can Remember
Poirot’s Early Cases
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
Marple
The Murder at the Vicarage
The Thirteen Problems
The Body in the Library
The Moving Finger
A Murder Is Announced
They Do It with Mirrors
A Pocket Full of Rye
4.50 from Paddington
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
A Caribbean Mystery
At Bertram’s Hotel
Nemesis
Sleeping Murder
Miss Marple’s Final Cases
Tommy & Tuppence
The Secret Adversary
Partners in Crime
N or M?
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Postern of Fate
Published as Mary Westmacott
Giant’s Bread
Unfinished Portrait
Absent in the Spring
The Rose and the Y
ew Tree
A Daughter’s a Daughter
The Burden
Memoirs
An Autobiography
Come, Tell Me How You Live
The Grand Tour
Plays and Stories
Akhnaton
The Floating Admiral (contributor)
Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly
Star Over Bethlehem
* novelized by Charles Osborne
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Midsummer Mysteries Page 23
