itself? Here it is--brush me down, I pray you, my

friend, and then I will perform the same service for

you."

"Yes," said Poirot thoughtfully, as he put away the brush, " one must not permit oneself to be obsessed by one idea. I have been in danger of that. Figure to yourself, my friend, that even here, in this case, I am in

danger of it. Those two lines you mentioned, a downstroke and a line at right angles to it, what are they but

the beginning of a 4? "

THE BIG FOUR 95

"Good gracious, Poirot," I cried, laughing.

"Is it not absurd? I see the hand of the Big Four

everywhere. It is well to employ one's wits in a totally different milieu. Ah! there is Japp come to meet us." 7fX«<«^

">>? ">>><

10

"We Investigate

at Crofilands

The Scotland Yard Inspector was, indeed, waiting on

the platform, and greeted us warmly.

"Well, Moosior Poirot, this is good. Thought you'd

like to be let in on this. Tip-top mystery, isn't it?" I read this aright as showing Japp to be completely

puzzled and hoping to pick up a pointer from Poirot.

Japp had a car waiting, and we drove up in it to

Croftlands. It was a square, white house, quite unpretentious, and covered with creepers, including the starry

yellow jasmine. Japp looked up at it as we did.

"Must have been balmy to go writing that, poor old

cove," he remarked. "Hallucinations, perhaps, and thought he was outside."

Poirot was smiling at him.

"Which was it, my good Japp?" he asked; "accident or murder?"

98 Agatha Christie

The Inspector seemed a little embarrassed by the

question.

"Well/if it weren't for that curry business, I'd be for accident every time. There's no sense in holding a live

man's head in the fire--why, he'd scream the house

down."

"Ah!" said Poirot in a low voice. "Fool that I have been. Triple imbecile! You are a cleverer man than I am, Japp."

Japp was rather taken aback by the compliment-Poirot being usually given to exclusive self-praise. He reddened and muttered something about there being a

lot of doubt about that.

He led the way through the house to the room where

the tragedy had occurred--Mr. Paynter's study. It was a

wide, low room, with book-lined walls and big leather

armchairs.

Poirot looked across at once to the window which

gave upon a gravelled terrace.

"The window, it was unlatched?" he asked.

"That's the whole point, of course. When the doctor left this room, he merely closed the door behind him.

The next morning it was found locked. Who locked it?

Mr. Paynter? Ah Ling declares that the window was

closed and bolted. Dr. Quentin, on the other hand, has

an impression that it was closed, but not fastened, but

he won't swear either way. If he could, it would make a

great difference. If the man was murdered, some one

entered the room either through the door or the window