“Your memory must be unusually short!”
“No, but we were both angry, and, I think, said more than we meant. I paid very little attention to my mother’s actual words.”
Mr. Philips’ incredulous sniff was a triumph of forensic skill. He passed on to the subject of the note.
“You have produced this note very opportunely. Tell me, is there nothing familiar about the hand-writing of it?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Do you not think that it bears a marked resemblance to your own hand-writing—carelessly disguised?”
“No, I do not think so.”
“I put it to you that it is your own hand-writing!”
“No.”
“I put it to you that, anxious to prove an alibi, you conceived the idea of a fictitious and rather incredible appointment, and wrote this note yourself in order to bear out your statement!”
“No.”
“Is it not a fact that, at the time you claim to have been waiting about at a solitary and unfrequented spot, you were really in the chemist’s shop in Styles St. Mary, where you purchased strychnine in the name of Alfred Inglethorp?”
“No, that is a lie.”
“I put it to you that, wearing a suit of Mr. Inglethorp’s clothes, with a black beard trimmed to resemble his, you were there—and signed the register in his name!”
“That is absolutely untrue.”
“Then I will leave the remarkable similarity of hand-writing between the note, the register, and your own, to the consideration of the jury,” said Mr. Philips, and sat down with the air of a man who has done his duty, but who was nevertheless horrified by such deliberate perjury.
After this, as it was growing late, the case was adjourned till Monday.
Poirot, I noticed, was looking profoundly discouraged. He had that little frown between the eyes that I knew so well.
“What is it, Poirot?” I inquired.
“Ah, mon ami, things are going badly, badly.”
In spite of myself, my heart gave a leap of relief. Evidently there was a likelihood of John Cavendish being acquitted.
When we reached the house, my little friend waved aside Mary’s offer of tea.
“No, I thank you, madame. I will mount to my room.”
I followed him. Still frowning, he went across to the desk and took out a small pack of patience cards. Then he drew up a chair to the table, and, to my utter amazement, began solemnly to build card houses!
My jaw dropped involuntarily, and he said at once:
“No, mon ami, I am not in my second childhood! I steady my nerves, that is all. This employment requires precision of the fingers. With precision of the fingers goes precision of the brain. And never have I needed that more than now!”
“What is the trouble?” I asked.
With a great thump on the table, Poirot demolished his carefully built up edifice.
“It is this, mon ami! That I can build card houses seven stories high, but I cannot”—thump—“find”—thump—“ that last link of which I spoke to you.”
I could not quite tell what to say, so I held my peace, and he began slowly building up the cards again, speaking in jerks as he did so.
“It is done—so! By placing—one card—on another—with mathematical—precision!”
I watched the card house rising under his hands, story by story. He never hesitated or faltered. It was really almost like a conjuring trick.
“What a steady hand you’ve got,” I remarked. “I believe I’ve only seen your hand shake once.”
“On an occasion when I was enraged, without doubt,” observed Poirot, with great placidity.
“Yes indeed! You were in a towering rage. Do you remember? It was when you discovered that the lock of the despatch-case in Mrs. Inglethorp’s bedroom had been forced. You stood by the mantelpiece, twiddling the things on it in your usual fashion, and your hand shook like a leaf! I must say——”
But I stopped suddenly. For Poirot, uttering a hoarse and inarticulate cry, again annihilated his masterpiece of cards, and putting his hands over his eyes swayed backwards and forwards, apparently suffering the keenest agony.
“Good heavens, Poirot!” I cried. “What is the matter? Are you taken ill?”
“No, no,” he gasped. “It is—it is—that I have an idea!”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, much relieved. “One of your ‘little ideas’?”
“Ah, ma foi, no!” replied Poirot frankly. “This time it is an idea gigantic! Stupendous! And you—you, my friend, have given it to me!”
