Poirot investigates - Agatha Christie [4]
‘I really don’t think I need wait for Monsieur Poirot. You can tell him all this, can’t you? Thank you so much Mr–’
She hesitated, her hand outstretched.
‘Captain Hastings.’
‘Of course! How stupid of me. You’re a friend of the Cavendishes, aren’t you? It was Mary Cavendish who sent me to Monsieur Poirot.’
When my friend returned, I enjoyed telling him the tale of what had occurred during his absence. He cross-questioned me rather sharply over the details of our conversation and I could read between the lines that he was not best pleased to have been absent. I also fancied that the dear old fellow was just the least inclined to be jealous. It had become rather a pose with him to consistently belittle my abilities, and I think he was chagrined at finding no loophole for criticism. I was secretly rather pleased with myself, though I tried to conceal the fact for fear of irritating him. In spite of his idiosyncrasies, I was deeply attached to my quaint little friend.
‘Bien!’ he said at length, with a curious look on his face. ‘The plot develops. Pass me, I pray you, that Peerage on the top shelf there.’ He turned the leaves. ‘Ah, here we are! “Yardly…10th viscount, served South African War”…tout ça n’a pas d’importance…“mar. 1907 Hon. Maude Stopperton, fourth daughter of 3rd Baron Cotteril”…um, um, um…“has iss. two daughters, born 1908, 1910…Clubs, residences”…Voilà, that does not tell us much. But tomorrow morning we see this milord!’
‘What?’
‘Yes. I telephoned to him.’
‘I thought you had washed your hands of the case?’
‘I am not acting for Miss Marvell since she refuses to be guided by my advice. What I do now is for my own satisfaction–the satisfaction of Hercule Poirot! Decidedly, I must have a finger in this pie.’
‘And you calmly wire Lord Yardly to dash up to town just to suit your convenience. He won’t be pleased.’
‘Au contraire, if I preserve for him his family diamond, he ought to be very grateful.’
‘Then you really think there is any chance of it being stolen?’ I asked eagerly.
‘Almost a certainty,’ replied Poirot placidly. ‘Everything points that way.’
‘But how–’
Poirot stopped my eager questions with an airy gesture of the hand.
‘Not now, I pray you. Let us not confuse the mind. And observe that Peerage–how you have replaced him! See you not that the tallest books go in the top shelf, the next tallest in the row beneath, and so on. Thus we have order, method, which, as I have often told you, Hastings–’
‘Exactly,’ I said hastily, and put the offending volume in its proper place.
II
Lord Yardly turned out to be a cheery, loud-voiced sportsman with a rather red face, but with a good-humoured bonhomie about him that was distinctly attractive and made up for any lack of mentality.
‘Extraordinary business this, Monsieur Poirot. Can’t make head or tail of it. Seems my wife’s been getting odd kind of letters, and that Miss Marvell’s had ’em too. What does it all mean?’
Poirot handed him the copy of Society Gossip.
‘First, milord, I would ask you if these facts are substantially correct?’
The peer took it. His face darkened with anger as he read.
‘Damned nonsense!’ he spluttered. ‘There’s never been any romantic story attaching to the diamond. It came from India originally, I believe. I never heard of all this Chinese god stuff.’
‘Still, the stone is known as “The Star of the East”.’
‘Well, what if it is?’ he demanded wrathfully.
Poirot smiled a little, but made no direct reply.
‘What I would ask you to do, milord, is to place yourself in my hands. If you do so unreservedly, I have great hopes of averting the catastrophe.’
‘Then you think there’s actually something in these wildcat tales?’
‘Will you do as I ask you?’
‘Of course I will, but–’
‘Bien! Then permit that I ask you a few questions. This affair of Yardly Chase, is it, as you say, all fixed up between you and Mr Rolf ?’
‘Oh, he told you about it, did he? No, there’s nothing settled.’ He hesitated, the brick-red colour of his face deepening. ‘Might as well get the thing straight. I’ve made rather an