The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories

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by Agatha Christie


  assure you that behind my madness there is--as

  you English say--a method."

  His eyes met those of Miss Henderson for just a

  minute. He began unwrapping the bulky object.

  "I have here, Messieurs and Mesdames, an im-portant

  witness to the truth of who killed Mrs.

  Clapperton." With a deft hand he whisked away

  the last enveloping cloth, and the object it con-cealed

  was revealed--an almost life-sized wooden

  doll, dressed in a velvet suit and lace collar.

  "Now, Arthur," said Poirot and his voice

  changed subtly--it was no longer foreign--it had

  instead a confident English, a slightly Cockney in-flection.

  "Can you tell me--I repeatmcan you tell

  me--anything at all about the death of Mrs. Clap-perton?"

  The doll's neck oscillated a little, its wooden

  lower jaw dropped and wavered and a shrill high-pitched

  woman's voice spoke:

  "What is it, John? The door's locked. I don't

  want to be disturbed by the stewards .... "

  There was a cryman overturned chair--a man

  stood swaying, his hand to his throat--trying to

  speak--trying . . . Then suddenly, his figure

  seemed to crumple up. He pitched headlong.

  It was Colonel Clapperton.

  Poirot and the ship's doctor rose from their

  knees by the prostrate figure.

  "All over, I'm afraid. Heart," said the doctor

  briefly.

  Poirot nodded. "The shock of having his trick

  seen through," he said.

  PROBLEM AT SEA

  213

  He turned to General Forbes. "It was you,

  General, who gave me a valuable hint with your

  mention of the music hall stage. I puzzle--I

  think--and then it comes to me. Supposing that

  before the war Clapperton was a ventriloquist. In

  that case, it would be perfectly possible for three

  people to hear Mrs. Clapperton speak from inside

  her cabin when she was already dead .... "

  Ellie Henderson was beside him. Her eyes were

  dark and full of pain. "Did you know his heart

  was weak?" she asked.

  "I guessed it .... Mrs. Clapperton talked of her

  own heart being affected, but she struck me as the

  type of woman who likes to be thought ill. Then I

  picked up a torn prescription with a very strong

  dose of digitalin in it. Digitalin is a heart mdicine

  but it couldn't be Mrs. Clapperton's because

  digitalin dilates the pupils of the eyes. I had never

  noticed such a phenomenon with hei'--but when I

  looked at his eyes I saw the signs at once."

  Ellie murmured: "So you thought--it might

  end--this way?"

  "The best way, don't you think, Mademoi-selle?''

  he said gently.

  He saw the tears rise in her eyes. She said:

  "You've known. You've kno?n all along. : . .

  That I cared .... But he didn't do it for me .... It

  was those girlsmyouthmit made him feel his

  slavery. He wanted to be free before it was too

  late .... Yes, I'm sure that's how it was ....

  When did you guessmthat it was he?"

  "His self-control was too perfect," said Poirot

  simply. "No matter how galling his wife's con-duct,

  it never seemed to touch him. That meant

  either that he was so used to it that it no longer

  214

  Agatha Christie

  stung him, or else--eh bien--I decided on the

  latter alternative .... And I was right ....

  "And then there was his insistence on his con-juring

  ability--the evening before the crime. He

  pretended to give himself away. But a man like

  Clapperton doesn't give himself away. There must

  be a reason. So long as people thought he had

  been a conjuror they weren't likely to think of his

  having been a ventriloquist."

  "And the voice we heard--Mrs. Clapperton's

  voice?"

  "One of the stewardesses had a voice not unlike

  hers. I induced her to hide behind the stage and

  taught her the words to say."

  "It was a trick--a cruel trick," cried out Ellie.

  "I do not approve of murder," said Hercule

  Poirot.

  "One of the most Imaginative and fertile

  plot creators of all time!"-Ellery Queen

  Miss Marple

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  THE MURDER AT HAZELMOOR

  THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT

  THE GOLDEN BALL AND

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  THE BOOMERANG CLUE

  THEY CAME TO BAGHDAD

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  Agatha Christie, The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories

  (Series: Hercule Poirot # 21)

 

 

 

 


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