"Yes," he prompted eagerly. "Number Four?"
His eyes were fastened on the man's face. Some over-mastering terror seemed to be gaining the day; the features were distorted and twisted.
"The destroyer," gasped the man. Then, with a final convulsive movement, he fell back in a dead faint.
"Mon Dieu!" whispered Poirot, "I was right then. I was right."
"You think -?"
He interrupted me.
"Carry him on to the bed in my room. I have not a minute to lose if I would catch my train. Not that I want to catch it. Oh, that I could miss it with a clear conscience! But I gave my word. Come, Hastings!"
Leaving our mysterious visitor in the charge of Mrs. Pearson, we drove away, and duly caught the train by the skin of our teeth. Poirot was alternately silent and loquacious. He would sit staring out of the window like a man lost in a dream, apparently not hearing a word that I said to him. Then, reverting to animation suddenly, he would shower injunctions and commands upon me, and urge the necessity of constant radiograms.
We had a long fit of silence just after we passed Woking. The train, of course, did not stop anywhere until Southhampton; but just here it happened to be held up by a signal.
"Ah! Sacrй mille tonnerres!" cried Poirot suddenly. "But I have been an imbecile. I see clearly at last. It is undoubtedly the blessed saints who stopped the train. Jump, Hastings, but jump, I tell you."
In an instant he had unfastened the carriage door, and jumped out on the line.
"Throw out the suit-cases and jump yourself."
I obeyed him. Just in time. As I alighted beside him, the train moved on.
"And now Poirot," I said, in some exasperation, "perhaps you will tell me what all this is about."
"It is, my friend, that I have seen the light."
"That," I said. "is very illuminating to me."
"It should be," said Poirot, "but I fear - I very much fear that it is not. If you can carry two of these valises, I think I can manage the rest."
Chapter 2
THE MAN FROM THE ASYLUM
Fortunately the train had stopped near a station. A short walk brought us to a garage where we were able to obtain a car, and half an hour later we were spinning rapidly back to London. Then, and not till then, did Poirot deign to satisfy my curiosity.
"You do not see? No more did I. But I see now. Hastings, I was being got out of the way."
"What!"
"Yes. Very cleverly. Both the place and the method were chosen with great knowledge and acumen. They were afraid of me."
"Who were?"
"Those four geniuses who have banded themselves together to work outside the law. A Chinaman, an American, a Frenchwoman, and - another. Pray the good God we arrive back in time, Hastings."
"You think there is danger to our visitor?"
"I am sure of it."
Mrs. Pearson greeted us on arrival. Brushing aside her ecstasies of astonishment on beholding Poirot, we asked for information. It was reassuring. No one had called, and our guest had not made any sign.
With a sigh of relief we went up to the rooms. Poirot crossed the outer one and went through to the inner one. Then he called me, his voice strangely agitated.
"Hastings, he's dead."
I came running to join him. The man was lying as we had left him, but he was dead, and had been dead some time. I rushed out for a doctor. Ridgeway, I knew, would not have returned yet. I found one almost immediately, and brought him back with me.
"He's dead right enough, poor chap. Tramp you've been befriending, eh?"
"Something of the kind," said Poirot evasively. "What was the cause of death, doctor?"
"Hard to say. Might have been some kind of fit. There are signs of asphyxiation. No gas laid on, is there?"
"No, electric light - nothing else."
"And both windows wide open, too. Been dead about two hours, I should say. You'll notify the proper people, won't you?"
He took his departure. Poirot did some necessary telephoning. Finally, somewhat to my surprise, he rang up our old friend Inspector Japp, and asked him if he could possibly come round.
No sooner were these proceedings completed than Mrs. Pearson appeared, her eyes as round as saucers.
"There's a man here from 'Anwell - from the 'Sylum. Did you ever? Shall I show him up?"
We signified assent, and a big burly man in uniform was ushered in.
"'Morning, gentlemen," he said cheerfully. "I've got reason to believe you've got one of my birds here. Escaped last night, he did."
"He was here," said Poirot quietly.
"Not got away again, has he?" asked the keeper, with some concern.
"He is dead."
The man looked more relieved than otherwise.
"You don't say so. Well, I dare say it's best for all parties."
"Was he - dangerous?"
"'Omicidal, d'you mean? Oh, no. 'Armless enough. Persecution mania very acute. Full of secret societies from China that had got him shut up. They're all the same."
I shuddered.
"How long had he been shut up?" asked Poirot.
"A matter of two years now."
"I see," said Poirot quietly. "It never occurred to anybody that he might - be sane?"
The keeper permitted himself to laugh.
"If he was sane, what would he be doing in a lunatic asylum? They all say they're sane, you know."
Poirot said no more. He took the man in to see the body. The identification came immediately.
"That's him - right enough," said the keeper callously; "funny sort of bloke, ain't he? Well, gentlemen, I had best go off now and make arrangements under the circumstances. We won't trouble you with the corpse much longer. If there's an inquest, you will have to appear at it, I dare say. Good morning, sir."
With a rather uncouth bow he shambled out of the room.
A few minutes later Japp arrived. The Scotland Yard Inspector was jaunty and dapper as usual.
"Here I am Moosior Poirot. What can I do for you? Thought you were off to the coral strands of somewhere or other today?"
"My good Japp, I want to know if you have ever seen this man before."
He led Japp into the bedroom. The inspector stared down at the figure on the bed with a puzzled face.
"Let me see now - he seems sort of familiar - and I pride myself on my memory, too. Why, God bless my soul, it's Mayerling!"
"And who is - or was - Mayerling?"
"Secret Service chap - not one of our people. Went to Russia five years ago. Never heard of again. Always thought the Bolshies had done him in."
"It all fits in," said Poirot, when Japp had taken his leave, "except for the fact that he seems to have died a natural death."
He stood looking down on the motionless figure with a dissatisfied frown. A puff of wind set the window-curtains flying out, and he looked up sharply.
"I suppose you opened the windows when you laid him down on the bed, Hastings?"
"No, I didn't," I replied. "As far as I remember, they were shut."
Poirot lifted his head suddenly.
"Shut - and now they are open. What can that mean?"
"Somebody came in that way," I suggested.
"Possibly," agreed Poirot, but he spoke absently and without conviction. After a minute or two he said:
"That is not exactly the point I had in mind, Hastings. If only one window was open it would not intrigue me so much. It is both windows being open that strikes me as curious."
He hurried into the other room.
"The sitting-room window is open, too. That also we left shut. Ah!"
He bent over the dead man, examining the corners of the mouth minutely. Then he looked up suddenly.
"He has been gagged, Hastings. Gagged and then poisoned."
"Good heavens!" I exclaimed, shocked. "I suppose we shall find out all about it from the postmortem."
"We shall find out nothing. He was killed by inhaling strong prussic acid. It was jammed right under his nose. Then the murderer went away again, first opening all the windows. Hydrocyanic acid is exceedingly volatile, but it has a pronounced smell of bitter almonds. With no trace of the smell to guide them, and no suspicion of foul play, death would be put down to some natural cause by the doctors. So this man was in the Secret Service, Hastings. And five years ago he disappeared in Russia."
"The last two years he's been in the Asylum," I said. "But what of the three years before that?"
Poirot shook his head, and then caught my arm.
"The clock, Hastings, look at the clock."
I followed his gaze to the mantelpiece. The clock had stopped at four o'clock.
"Mon ami, some one has tampered with it. It had still three days to run. It is an eight-day clock, you comprehend?"
"But what should they want to do that for? Some idea of a false scent by making the crime appear to have taken place at four o'clock?"
"No, no; rearrange your ideas, mon ami. Exercise your little gray cells. You are Mayerling. You hear something, perhaps - and you know well enough that your doom is sealed. You have just time to leave a sign. Four o'clock, Hastings. Number Four, the destroyer. Ah! an idea!"
He rushed into the other room and seized the telephone.
He asked for Hanwell.
"You are the Asylum, yes? I understand there has been an escape today? What is that you say? A little moment, if you please. Will you repeat that? Ah! parfaitement."
He hung up the receiver, and turned to me.
"You heard, Hastings? There has been no escape."
"But the man who came - the keeper?" I said.
"I wonder - I very much wonder."
"You mean -?"
"Number Four - the destroyer."
I gazed at Poirot dumbfounded. A minute or two after, on recovering my voice, I said:
"We shall know him again, anywhere, that's one thing. He was a man of very pronounced personality."
"Was he, mon ami? I think not. He was burly and bluff and red-faced, with a thick moustache and a hoarse voice. He will be none of those things by this time, and for the rest, he has nondescript eyes, nondescript ears, and a perfect set of false teeth. Identification is not such an easy matter as you seem to think. Next time -"
"You think there will be a next time?" I interrupted. Poirot's face grew very grave.
"It is a duel to the death, won ami. You and I on the one side, the Big Four on the other. They have won the first trick; but they have failed in their plan to get me out of the way, and in the future they have to reckon with Hercule Poirot!"
Chapter 3
WE HEAR MORE ABOUT LI CHANG YEN
For a day or two after our visit from the fake Asylum attendant I was in some hopes that he might return, and I refused to leave the flat even for a moment. As far as I could see, he had no reason to suspect that we had penetrated his disguise. He might, I thought, return and try to remove the body, but Poirot scoffed at my reasoning.
"Mon ami," he said, "if you wish you may wait in to put salt on the little bird's tail, but for me I do not waste my time so."
"Well then, Poirot," I argued, "why did he run the risk of coming at all. If he intended to return later for the body, I can see some point in his visit. He would at least be removing the evidence against himself; as it is, he does not seem to have gained anything."
Poirot shrugged his most Gallic shrug. "But you do not see with the eyes of Number Four, Hastings," he said. "You talk of evidence, but what evidence have we against him? True, we have a body, but we have no proof even that the man was murdered - prussic acid, when inhaled, leaves no trace. Again, we can find no one who saw any one enter the flat during our absence, and we have found out nothing about the movements of our late friend, Mayerling...
"No, Hastings, Number Four has left no trace, and he knows it. His visit we may call a reconnaissance. Perhaps he wanted to make quite sure that Mayerling was dead, but more likely, I think, he came to see Hercule Poirot, and to have speech with the adversary whom alone he must fear."
Poirot's reasoning appeared to me typically egotistical, but I forbore to argue.
"And what about the inquest?" I asked. "I suppose you will explain things clearly there, and let the police have a full description of Number Four."
"And to what end? Can we produce anything to impress a coroner's jury of your solid Britishers? Is our description of Number Four of any value? No; we shall allow them to call it 'Accidental Death,' and maybe, although I have not much hope, our clever murderer will pat himself on the back that he deceived Hercule Poirot in the first round."
Poirot was right as usual. We saw no more of the man from the asylum, and the inquest, at which I gave evidence, but which Poirot did not even attend, aroused no public interest.
As, in view of his intended trip to South America, Poirot had wound up his affairs before my arrival, he had at this time no cases on hand, but although he spent most of his time in the flat I could get little out of him. He remained buried in an arm-chair, and discouraged my attempts at conversation.
And then one morning, about a week after the murder, he asked me if I would care to accompany him on a visit he wished to make. I was pleased, for I felt he was making a mistake in trying to work things out so entirely on his own, and I wished to discuss the case with him. But I found he was not communicative. Even when I asked where we were going, he would not answer.
Poirot loves being mysterious. He will never part with a piece of information until the last possible moment. In this instance, having taken successively a bus and two trains, and arrived in the neighbourhood of one of London's most depressing southern suburbs, he consented at last to explain matters.
"We go, Hastings, to see the one man in England who knows most of the underground life of China."
"Indeed! Who is he?"
"A man you have never heard of - a Mr. John Ingles. To all intents and purposes, he is a retired Civil Servant of mediocre intellect, with a house full of Chinese curios with which he bores his friends and acquaintances. Nevertheless, I am assured by those who should know that the only man capable of giving me the information I seek is this same John Ingles."
