Appointment With Death - Agatha Christie [42]
‘You could point the man out among the camp servants?’
‘I doubt it. We didn’t see his face—it was too far away. And, as Miss Pierce says, really these Arabs look all alike.’
‘I wonder,’ said Poirot thoughtfully, ‘what it was he did to make Mrs Boynton so angry?’
‘They are very trying to the patience sometimes,’ said Lady Westholme. ‘One of them took my shoes away, though I had expressly told him—by pantomime too—that I preferred to clean my shoes myself.’
‘Always I do that, too,’ said Poirot, diverted for a moment from his interrogation. ‘I take everywhere my little shoe-cleaning outfit. Also, I take a duster.’
‘So do I.’ Lady Westholme sounded quite human.
‘Because these Arabs they do not remove the dust from one’s belongings—’
‘Never! Of course one has to dust one’s things three or four times a day—’
‘But it is well worth it.’
‘Yes, indeed. I cannot STAND dirt!’
Lady Westholme looked positively militant.
She added with feeling:
‘The flies—in the bazaars—terrible!’
‘Well, well,’ said Poirot, looking slightly guilty. ‘We can soon inquire from this man what it was that irritated Mrs Boynton. To continue with your story?’
‘We strolled along slowly,’ said Lady Westholme. ‘And then we met Dr Gerard. He was staggering along and looked very ill. I could see at once he had fever.’
‘He was shaking,’ put in Miss Pierce. ‘Shaking all over.’
‘I saw at once he had an attack of malaria coming on,’ said Lady Westholme. ‘I offered to come back with him and get him some quinine, but he said he had his own supply with him.’
‘Poor man,’ said Miss Pierce. ‘You know it always seems so dreadful to me to see a doctor ill. It seems all wrong somehow.’
‘We strolled on,’ continued Lady Westholme. ‘And then we sat down on a rock.’
Miss Pierce murmured: ‘Really—so tired after the morning’s exertion—the climbing—’
‘I never feel fatigue,’ said Lady Westholme firmly. ‘But there was no point in going farther. We had a very good view of all the surrounding scenery.’
‘Were you out of sight of the camp?’
‘No, we were sitting facing towards it.’
‘So romantic,’ murmured Miss Pierce. ‘A camp pitched in the middle of a wilderness of rose-red rocks.’
She sighed and shook her head.
‘That camp could be much better run than it is,’ said Lady Westholme. Her rocking-horse nostrils dilated. ‘I shall take up the matter with Castle’s. I am not at all sure that the drinking water is boiled as well as filtered. It should be. I shall point that out to them.’
Poirot coughed and led the conversation quickly away from the subject of drinking water.
‘Did you see any other members of the party?’ he inquired.
‘Yes. The elder Mr Boynton and his wife passed us on their way back to the camp.’
‘Were they together?’
‘No, Mr Boynton came first. He looked a little as though he had had a touch of the sun. He was walking as though he were slightly dizzy.’
‘The back of the neck,’ said Miss Pierce. ‘One must protect the back of the neck! I always wear a thick silk handkerchief.’
‘What did Mr Lennox Boynton do on his return to the camp?’ asked Poirot.
For once Miss Pierce managed to get in first before Lady Westholme could speak.
‘He went right up to his mother, but he didn’t stay long with her.’
‘How long?’
‘Just a minute or two.’
‘I should put it at just over a minute myself,’ said Lady Westholme. ‘Then he went on into his cave and after that he went down to the marquee.’
‘And his wife?’
‘She came along about a quarter of an hour later. She stopped a minute and spoke to us—quite civilly.’
‘I think she’s very nice,’ said Miss Pierce. ‘Very nice indeed.’
‘She is not so impossible as the rest of the family,’ allowed Lady Westholme.
‘You watched her return to the camp?’
‘Yes. She went up and spoke to her mother-in-law. Then she went into her cave and brought out a chair, and sat by her talking for some time—about ten minutes, I should say.’
‘And then?’
‘Then she took the chair back to the cave and went down to the marquee where her husband was.’
‘What happened next?’
‘That very peculiar American came along,’ said Lady Westholme.