swell laboratory.'
'They check these things, my friend,' objected Poirot. 'It would not be just like plucking a buttercup in a meadow.'
'Even if they do check 'em. A clever man could substitute something harmless – it could be done. Simply because a man like Bryant would be above suspicion.'
'There is much in what you say,' agreed Fournier.
'The only thing is: Why did he draw attention to the thing? Why not say the woman died from heart failure – natural death?'
Poirot coughed. The other two looked at him inquiringly.
'I fancy,' he said, 'that that was the doctor's first – well, shall we say, impression? After all, it looked very like natural death – possibly as the result of a wasp sting. There was a wasp, remember.'
'Not likely to forget that wasp,' put in Japp. 'You're always harping on it.'
'However,' continued Poirot, 'I happened to notice the fatal thorn on the ground and picked it up. Once we had found that, everything pointed to murder.'
'The thorn would be bound to be found anyway.'
Poirot shook his head.
'There is just a chance that the murderer might have been able to pick it up unobserved.'
'Bryant?'
'Bryant or another.'
'H'm, rather risky.'
Fournier disagreed.
'You think so now,' he said, 'because you know that it is murder. But when a lady dies suddenly of heart failure, if a man is to drop his handkerchief and stoop to pick it up, who will notice the action or think twice about it?'
'That's true,' agreed Japp. 'Well, I fancy Bryant is definitely on the list of suspects. He could lean his head round the corner of his seat and do the blowpipe act – again diagonally across the car. But why nobody saw him – However, I won't go into that again. Whoever did it wasn't seen!'
'And for that, I fancy, there must be a reason,' said Fournier. 'A reason that, by all I have heard -' he smiled – 'will appeal to M. Poirot. I mean a psychological reason.'
'Continue, my friend,' said Poirot. 'It is interesting, what you say there.'
'Supposing,' said Fournier, 'that when traveling in a train you were to pass a house in flames. Everyone's eyes would at once be drawn to the window. Everyone would have his attention fixed on a certain point. A man in such a moment might whip out a dagger and stab a man, and nobody would see him do it.'
'That is true,' said Poirot. 'I remember a case in which I was concerned – a case of poison where that very point arose. There was, as you call it, a psychological moment. If we discover that there was such a moment during the journey of the 'Prometheus' -'
'We ought to find that out by questioning the stewards and the passengers,' said Japp.
'True. But if there was such a psychological moment, it must follow logically that the cause of that moment must have originated with the murderer. He must have been able to produce the particular effect that caused that moment.'
'Perfectly, perfectly,' said the Frenchman.
'Well, we'll note down that as a point for questions,' said Japp. 'I'm coming now to Seat No. 8 – Daniel Michael Clancy.'
Japp spoke the name with a certain amount of relish.
'In my opinion, he's the most likely suspect we've got. What's easier than for a mystery author to fake up an interest in snake venom and get some unsuspecting scientific chemist to let him handle the stuff? Don't forget he went down past Giselle's seat – the only one of the passengers who did.'
'I assure you, my friend,' said Poirot, 'that I have not forgotten that point.'
He spoke with emphasis.
Japp went on:
'He could have used that blowpipe from fairly close quarters without any need of a psychological moment, as you call it. And he stood quite a respectable chance of getting away with it. Remember, he knows all about blowpipes; he said so.'
'Which makes one pause, perhaps.'
'Sheer artfulness,' said Japp. 'And as to this blowpipe he produced today – who is to say that it's the one he bought two years ago? The whole thing looks very fishy to me. I don't think it's healthy for a man to be always brooding over crime and detective stories. Reading up all sorts of cases. It puts ideas into his head.'
'It is certainly necessary for a writer to have ideas in his head,' agreed Poirot.
Japp returned to his plan of the plane.
'No. 4 was Ryder – the seat slap in front of the dead woman. Don't think he did it. But we can't leave him out. He went to the wash room, he could have taken a pot shot on the way back from fairly close quarters. The only thing is, he'd be right up against the archaeologist fellows when he did so. They'd notice it – couldn't help it.'
Poirot shook his head thoughtfully.
'You are not, perhaps, acquainted with many archaeologists? If these two were having a really absorbing discussion on some point at issue – eh bien, my friend, their concentration would be such that they could be quite blind and deaf to the outside world. They would be existing, you see, in 5000 or so b.c. Nineteen hundred and thirty-four a.d. would have been nonexistent for them.'
Japp looked a little skeptical.
'Well, we'll pass on to them. What can you tell us about the Duponts, Fournier?'
'M. Armand Dupont is one of the most distinguished archaeologists in France.'
'Then that doesn't get us anywhere much. Their position in the car is pretty good from my point of view – across the gangway, but slightly farther forward than Giselle. And I suppose that they've knocked about the world and dug things up in a lot of queer places; they might easily have got hold of some native snake poison.'
'It is possible, yes,' said Fournier.
'But you don't believe it's likely?'
Fournier shook his head doubtfully.
'M. Dupont lives for his profession. He is an enthusiast. He was formerly an antique dealer. He gave up a flourishing business to devote himself to excavation. Both he and his son are devoted heart and soul to their profession. It seems to me unlikely – I will not say impossible; since the ramifications of the Stavisky business, I will believe anything! – unlikely that they are mixed up in this business.'
'All right,' said Japp.
He picked up the sheet of paper on which he had been making notes and cleared his throat.
'This is where we stand: Jane Grey. Probability, poor. Possibility, practically nil. Gale. Probability, poor. Possibility, again practically nil. Miss Kerr. Very improbable. Possibility, doubtful. Lady Horbury. Probability, good. Possibility, practically nil. M. Poirot, almost certainly the criminal; the only man on board who could create a psychological moment.'
Japp enjoyed a good laugh over his little joke and Poirot smiled indulgently and Fournier a trifle diffidently. Then the detective resumed:
'Bryant. Probability and possibility, both good. Clancy. Motive doubtful, probability and possibility very good indeed. Ryder. Probability uncertain, possibility, quite fair. The two Duponts. Probability poor as regards motive, good as to means of obtaining poison. Possibility, good.
'That's a pretty fair summary, I think, as fair as we can go. We'll have to do a lot of routine inquiry. I shall take on Clancy and Bryant first; find out what they've been up to; if they've been hard up at any time in the past; if they've seemed worried or upset lately; their movement in the last year – all that sort of stuff. I'll do the same for Ryder. Then it won't do to neglect the others entirely. I'll get Wilson to nose round there. M. Fournier, here, will undertake the Duponts.'
The man from the Surete nodded.
'Be well assured, that will be attended to. I shall return to Paris tonight. There may be something to be got out of Elise, Giselle's maid, now that we know a little more about the case. Also, I will check up Giselle's
