"And now it's my turn?"
"That was my meaning, yes."
Blunt said gently:
"But you are not happy about it, eh?"
"No, I am not at all happy."
Alistair Blunt said:
"I've killed three people. So presumably I ought to be hanged. But you've heard my defense."
"Which is - exactly?"
"That I believe, with all my heart and soul, that I am necessary to the continued peace and well-being of this country."
Hercule Poirot allowed:
"That may be - yes."
"You agree, don't you?"
"I agree, yes. You stand for all the things that to my mind are important. For sanity and balance and stability and honest dealing."
Alistair Blunt said quietly:
"Thanks."
He added:
"Well, what about it?"
"You suggest that I - retire from the case?"
"Yes."
"And your wife?"
"I've got a good deal of pull. Mistaken identity, that's the line to take."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then," said Alistair Blunt simply, "I'm for it."
He went on:
"It's in your hands, Poirot. It's up to you. But I tell you this - and it's not just self-preservation - I'm needed in the world. And do you know why? Because I'm an honest man. And because I've got common sense - and no particular axe of my own to grind."
Poirot nodded. Strangely enough, he believed all that.
He said:
"Yes, that is one side. You are the right man in the right place. You have sanity, judgment, balance. But there is the other side. Three human beings who are dead."
"Yes, but think of them! Mabelle Sainsbury Seale - You said yourself - a woman with the brains of a hen! Amberiotis - a crook and a blackmailer!"
"And Morley?"
"I've told you before. I'm sorry about Morley. But after all - he was a decent fellow and a good dentist - but there are other dentists."
"Yes," said Poirot, "there are other dentists. And Frank Carter? You would have let him die, too, without regret?"
Blunt said:
"I don't waste any pity on him. He's no good. An utter rotter."
Poirot said:
"But a human being "
"Oh, well, we're all human beings..."
"Yes, we are all human beings. That is what you have not remembered. You have said that Mabelle Sainsbury Seale was a foolish human being and Amberiotis an evil one, and Frank Carter a wastrel, and Morley - Morley was only a dentist and there are other dentists. That is where you and I, Mr. Blunt, do not see alike. For to me the lives of those four people were just as important as your life."
"You're wrong."
"No, I am not wrong. You are a man of great natural honesty and rectitude. You took one step aside - and outwardly it has not affected you. Publicly you have continued the same - upright, trustworthy, honest. But within you the love of power grew to overwhelming heights. So you sacrificed four human lives and thought them of no account."
"Don't you realize, Poirot, that the safety and happiness of the whole nation depends on me?"
"I am not concerned with nations, Monsieur. I am concerned with the lives of private individuals who have the right not to have their lives taken from them."
He got up.
"So that's your answer," said Alistair Blunt.
Hercule Poirot said in a tired voice:
"Yes - that is my answer..."
He went to the door and opened it. Two men came in.
II
Hercule Poirot went down to where a girl was waiting. Jane Olivera, her face white and strained, stood against the mantelpiece. Beside her was Howard Raikes.
She said:
"Well?"
Poirot said gently:
"It is all over."
Raikes said harshly:
"What do you mean?"
Poirot said:
"Mr. Alistair Blunt has been arrested for murder."
Raikes said:
"I thought he'd buy you off."
Jane said:
"No. I never thought that."
Poirot sighed. He said:
"The world is yours. The new heaven and the new earth. In your new world, my children, let there be freedom and let there be pity... That is all I ask."
Chapter 10
NINETEEN, TWENTY, MY PLATE'S EMPTY
Hercule Poirot walked home along the deserted streets.
An unobtrusive figure joined him.
"Well?" said Mr. Barnes.
Hercule Poirot shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands.
Barnes said:
"What line did he take?"
"He admitted everything and pleaded justification. He said that this country needs him."
"So it does," said Mr. Barnes.
He added after a minute or two, "Don't you think so?"
"Yes, I do."
"Well, then -"
"We may be wrong," said Hercule Poirot.
"I never thought of that," said Mr. Barnes. "So we may."
They walked on for a little way, then Barnes asked curiously:
"What are you thinking about?"
Hercule Poirot quoted:
"Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being King."
"Hm - I see -" said Mr. Barnes. "Saul - after the Amalekites. Yes, you could think of it that way."
They walked on a little further, then Barnes said:
"I take the tube here. Good-night, Poirot."
He paused, then said awkwardly:
"You know - there's something I'd like to tell you."
"Yes, mon ami?"
"Feel I owe it to you. Led you astray unintentionally. Fact of the matter is, Albert Chapman, Q.X.912."
"Yes?"
"I'm Albert Chapman. That's partly why I was so interested. I knew, you see, that I'd never had a wife."
He hurried away, chuckling.
Poirot stood stock still. Then his eye opened, his eyebrows rose.
He said to himself:
"Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty -"
And went home.
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