pounds? Do you enjoy giving up your diamonds meekly
to a set of ruffians?"
"Well, of course, if you put it like that!" The woman
of spirit in Mrs. Peters wrestled with the mother. "How
I'd like to get even with them--the cowardly brutes! The
very minute I get my boy back, Mr. Pyne, I shall set the
whole police of the neighborhood on them. And if
necessary I shall hire an armored car to take Willard and
myself to the railway station!" Mrs. Peters was flushed
and vindictive.
"Ye-es," said Mr. Parker Pyne. "You see, my dear
madam, I'm afraid they will be prepared for that move
on your part. They know that once Willard is restored
to you nothing will keep you from setting the whole
neighborhood on the alert. Which leads one to suppose
that they have prepared for that move."
"Well, what do you want to do?"
Mr. Parker Pyne smiled. "I want to try a little plan of
my own." He looked round the dining room. It was
empty and the doors at both ends were closed. "Mrs.
Peters, there is a man I know in Athens--a jeweler.
He specializes in good artificial diamonds--first-class
stuff." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I'll get him by
telephone. He can get here this afternoon, bringing a
good selection of stones with him."
"You mean?"
THE ORACLE AT DELPHI
"He'll extract the real diamonds and replace th
with paste replicas."
"Why, if that isn't the cutest thing I've ever he
of!" Mrs. Peters gazed at him with admiration.
"Sh! Not so loud. Will you do something for me?"
"Surely."
"See that nobody comes within earshot of the t¢
phone."
Mrs. Peters nodded.
The telephone was in the manager's office, i
vacated it obligingly, after having helped Mr. Parl
Pyne to obtain the number. When he emerged, he fou
Mrs. Peters outside.
"I'm just waiting for Mr. Parker Pyne," she sai
"We're going for a walk."
"Oh, yes, Madam."
Mr. Thompson was also in the hall. He came towar
them and engaged the manager in conversation. We
there any villas to be let in Delphi? No? But surely the
was one above the hotel.
"That belongs to a Greek gentleman, Monsieur. 1
does not let it."
"And there are no other villas?"
"There is one belonging to an American lady. That
the other side of the village. It is shut up now. And the
is one belonging to an English gentleman, an artist-that
is on the cliff edge looking down to Ita."
Mrs. Peters broke in. Nature had given her a lot
voice and she purposely made it louder. "Why," sl
said, "I'd just adore to have a villa here! So unspo:
and natural. I'm simply crazy about the place, aren
you, Mr. Thompson? But of course you must be if yo
want a villa. Is it your first visit here? You don't sa
SO.'
She ran on determinedly till Mr. Parker Py
194
Agatha Christie
emerged from the office. He gave her just the faintest
smile of approval.
Mr. Thompson walked slowly down the steps and out
into the road, where he joined the highbrow mother and
daughter, who seemed to be feeling the wind cold on
their exposed arms.
All went well. The jeweler arrived just before dinner
with a car full of other tourists. Mrs. Peters took her
necklace to his room. He grunted approval. Then he
spoke in French.
"Madame peut ttre tranquille. Je reussirai." He ex-tracted
some tools from his little bag and began work.
At eleven o'clock, Mr. Parker Pyne tapped on Mrs.
Peters' door. "Here you are!"
He handed her a little chamois bag. She glanced
inside.
"My diamonds!"
"Hush. Here is the necklace with the paste replacing
the diamonds. Pretty good, don't you think?"
"Simply wonderful."
"Aristopoulos is a clever fellow."
"You don't think they'll suspect?"
"How should they? They know you have the necklace
with you. You hand it over. How can they suspect the
trick?"
"Well, I think it's wonderful," Mrs. Peters reiter-ated,
handing the necklace back to him. "Will you take
it to them? Or is that asking too much of you?"
"Certainly I will take it. Just give me the letter, so
that I have the directions clear. Thank you. Now, good
night and bon courage. Your boy will be with you
tomorrow for breakfast."
"Oh, if only that's true!"
"Now, don't worry. Leave everything in my hands."
Mrs. Peters did not spend a good night. When she
THE ORACLE AT DELPHI
slept, she had terrible dreams. Dreams where arml
bandits in armored cars fired off a fusillade at Willar
who was running down the mountain in his pajama
She was thankful to wake. At last came the first glil
ruer of dawn. Mrs. Peters got up and dressed. She sat.
waiting.
At seven o'clock there came a tap on her door. H
throat was so dry she could hardly speak.
"Come in," she said.
The door opened and Mr. Thompson entered. Si
stared at him. Words failed her. She had a sinis!
presentiment of disaster. And yet his voice when
spoke was completely natural and matter-of-fact. It w
a rich, bland voice.
"Good morning, Mrs. Peters," he said.
"How dare you, sir! How dare you--"
"You must excuse my unconventional visit at so ear
an hour," said Mr. Thompson. "But you see, I have
matter of business to transact."
Mrs. Peters leaned forward with accusing eyes. "So
was you who kidnaped my boy! It wasn't bandits:
all!"
"It certainly wasn't bandits. Most unconvincing
done, that part of it, I thought. Inartistic, to say ti
least of it."
Mrs. Peters was a woman of a single idea. "Where
my boy?" she demanded, with the eyes of an ang.
tigress.
"As a matter of fact," said Mr. Thompson, "he
just outside the door."
"Willard!"
The door was flung open. Willard, sallow and spe
tacled and distinctly unshaven, was clasped to h
mother's heart. Mr. Thompson stood looking benign'.
on. ·
196
Agatha Christie
"All the same," said Mrs. Peters, suddenly reco'ver-lng
herself and turning on him, "I'll have the lav on
you for this. Yes, I will."
"You've got it all wrong, Mother," said Will,rd.
"This gentleman rescued me."
"Where were you?"
"In a house on the cliff point. Just a mile from here."
"And allow me, Mrs. Peters," said Mr. Thompson,
"to restore your property."
He handed her a small packet loosely wrapped in
tissue paper. The paper fell away and revealed the ,dia-mond
necklace.
"You need not treasure that other little bag of stones,
Mrs. Peters," said Mr. Thompson, smi
ling. "The real
stones are still in the necklace. The chamois bag con-tains
some excellent imitation stones. As your 'friend
said, Aristopoulos is quite a genius."
"I just don't understand a word of all this," said
Mrs. Peters faintly.
"You must look at the case from my point of view,"
said Mr. Thompson. "My attention was caught by the
use of a certain name. I took the liberty of following
you and your fat friend out of doors and I listened--I
admit it frankly--to your exceedingly interesting con-versation.
I found it remarkably suggestive, so much so
that I took the manager into my confidence. He took a
note of the number to which your plausible friend
telephoned, and he also arranged that a waiter should
listen to your conversation in the dining room this
morning.
"The whole scheme worked out very clearly. You
were being made the victim of a couple of clever jewel
thieves. They know all about your diamond necklace;
they follow you here; they kidnap your son, and write
the rather comic 'bandit' letter, and they arrange that
THEORACLEATDELPHI
197
you shall confide in the chief instigator of the plot.
"After that, all is simple. The good gentleman hands
you a bag of imitation diamonds and--clears out with
his pal. This morning, when your son did not appear,
you would be frantic. The absence of your friend would
lead you to believe that he had been kidnaped, too. I
gather that they had arranged for someone to go to the
villa tomorrow. That person would have discovered
your son, and by the time you and he had put your
heads together you might have got an inkling of the
plot. But by that time the villains would have got an ex-cellent
start."
"And now?"
"Oh, now they are safely under lock and key. I
arranged for that."
"The villain," said Mrs. Peters, wrathfully remem-bering
her own trustful confidences. "The oily, plausi-ble
villain."
"Not at all a nice fellow," agreed Mr. Thompson.
"It beats me how you got on to it," said Willard
admiringly. "Pretty smart of you."
The other shook his head deprecatingly. "No, no,"
he said. "When you are traveling incognito and hear
your own name being taken in vain--"
Mrs. Peters stared at him. "Who are you.9'' she
demanded abruptly.
"I am Mr. Parker Pyne, " explained that gentleman.
"One of the most Imaginative and fertile
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