Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [26]
‘Thank you very much,’ said Tuppence.
‘And I’ll just see to that there Truelove so it won’t break down under you. It’s very old but you’d be surprised the way some old things work. Why, I knew a cousin of mine the other day and he got out an old bicycle. You wouldn’t think it would go–nobody had ridden it for about forty years. But it went all right with a bit of oil. Ah, it’s wonderful what a bit of oil can do.’
Chapter 3
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
‘What on earth–’ said Tommy.
He was used to finding Tuppence in unlikely spots when he returned to the house, but on this occasion he was more startled than usual.
Inside the house there was no trace of her, although outside there was a very slight patter of rain. It occurred to him that she might be engrossed in some portion of the garden, and he went out to see if this might be the case. And it was then that he remarked, ‘What on earth–’
‘Hullo, Tommy,’ said Tuppence, ‘you’re back a bit earlier than I thought you would be.’
‘What is that thing?’
‘You mean Truelove?’
‘What did you say?’
‘I said Truelove,’ said Tuppence, ‘that’s the name of it.’
‘Are you trying to go for a ride on it–it’s much too small for you.’
‘Well, of course it is. It’s a child’s sort of thing–what you had, I suppose, before you had fairy-cycles, or whatever one had in my youth.’
‘It doesn’t really go, does it?’ asked Tommy.
‘Well, not exactly,’ said Tuppence, ‘but you see, you take it up to the top of the hill and then it–well, its wheels turn of their own accord, you see, and because of the hill you go down.’
‘And crash at the bottom, I suppose. Is that what you’ve been doing?’
‘Not at all,’ said Tuppence. ‘You brake it with your feet. Would you like me to give you a demonstration?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Tommy. ‘It’s beginning to rain rather harder. I just wanted to know why you–well, why you’re doing it. I mean, it can’t be very enjoyable, can it?’
‘Actually,’ said Tuppence, ‘it’s rather frightening. But you see I just wanted to find out and–’
‘And are you asking this tree? What is this tree, anyway? A monkey puzzle, isn’t it?’
‘That’s right,’ said Tuppence. ‘How clever of you to know.’
‘Of course I know,’ said Tommy. ‘I know its other name, too.’
‘So do I,’ said Tuppence.
They looked at each other.
‘Only at the moment I’ve forgotten it,’ said Tommy. ‘Is it an arti–’
‘Well, it’s something very like that,’ said Tuppence. ‘I think that’s good enough, don’t you?’
‘What are you doing inside a prickly thing like that?’
‘Well, because when you get to the end of the hill, I mean, if you didn’t put your feet down to stop completely you could be in the arti–or whatever it is.’
‘Do I mean arti–? What about urticaria? No, that’s nettles, isn’t it? Oh well,’ said Tommy, ‘everyone to their own kind of amusement.’
‘I was just doing a little investigation, you know, of our latest problem.’
‘Your problem? My problem? Whose problem?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Tuppence. ‘Both our problems, I hope.’
‘But not one of Beatrice’s problems, or anything like that?’
‘Oh no. It’s just that I wondered what other things there might be hidden in this house, so I went and looked at a lot of toys that seem to have been shoved away in a sort of queer old greenhouse probably years and years ago and there was this creature and there was Mathilde, which is a rocking-horse with a hole in its stomach.’
‘A hole in its stomach?’
‘Well, yes. People, I suppose, used to shove things in there. Children–for fun–and lots of old leave sand dirty papers and bits of sort of queer dusters and flannel, oily stuff that had been used to clean things with.’
‘Come on, let’s go into the house,’ said Tommy.
II
‘Well, Tommy,’ said Tuppence, as she stretched out her feet to a pleasant wood fire which she had lit already for his return in the drawing-room, ‘let’s have your news. Did you go to the Ritz Hotel Gallery to see the show?’
‘No. As a matter of fact,