already told all this to that pestilential inspector. He must have checked up on it by this time.'
'Ah!' said Poirot. 'But I ask for quite another reason. I desire to purchase such a thing and make a little experiment.'
'Oh, I see. But I don't know that you'll find one all the same. They don't keep sets of them, you know.'
'All the same, I can try… Perhaps, Miss Grey, you would be so obliging as to take down those two names?'
Jane opened her notebook and rapidly performed a series of – she hoped – professional-looking squiggles. Then she surreptitiously wrote the names in longhand on the reverse side of the sheet, in case these instructions of Poirot's should be genuine.
'And now,' said Poirot, 'I have trespassed on your time too long. I will take my departure with a thousand thanks for your amiability.'
'Not at all. Not at all,' said Mr Clancy. 'I wish you would have had a banana.'
'You are most amiable.'
'Not at all. As a matter of fact, I'm feeling rather happy tonight. I'd been held up in a short story I was writing – the thing wouldn't pan out properly, and I couldn't get a good name for the criminal. I wanted something with a flavor. Well, just a bit of luck I saw just the name I wanted over a butcher's shop. Pargiter. Just the name I was looking for. There's a sort of genuine sound to it – and about five minutes later I got the other thing. There's always the same snag in stories. Why won't the girl speak? The young man tries to make her and she says her lips are sealed. There's never any real reason, of course, why she shouldn't blurt out the whole thing at once, but you have to try and think of something that's not too definitely idiotic. Unfortunately, it has to be a different thing every time!'
He smiled gently at Jane.
'The trials of an author!'
He darted past her to a bookcase.
'One thing you must allow me to give you.'
He came back with a book in his hand.
''The Clue of the Scarlet Petal.' I think I mentioned at Croydon that that book of mine dealt with arrow poison and native darts.'
'A thousand thanks. You are too amiable.'
'Not at all. I see,' said Mr Clancy suddenly to Jane, 'that you don't use the Pitman system of shorthand.'
Jane flushed scarlet. Poirot came to her rescue:
'Miss Grey is very up-to-date. She uses the most recent system invented by a Czechoslovakian.'
'You don't say so? What an amazing place Czechoslovakia must be. Everything seems to come from there – shoes, glass, gloves, and now a shorthand system. Quite amazing.'
He shook hands with them both.
'I wish I could have been more helpful.'
They left him in the littered room smiling wistfully after them.
Chapter 16
From Mr Clancy's house they took a taxi to the Monseigneur, where they found Norman Gale awaiting them.
Poirot ordered some consomme and a chaud-froid of chicken.
'Well,' said Norman, 'how did you get on?'
'Miss Grey,' said Poirot, 'has proved herself the supersecretary.'
'I don't think I did so very well,' said Jane. 'He spotted my stuff when he passed behind me. You know, he must be very observant.'
'Ah, you noticed that? This good Mr Clancy is not quite so absent-minded as one might imagine.'
'Did you really want those addresses?' asked Jane.
'I think they might be useful, yes.'
'But if the police -'
'Ah, the police! I should not ask the same questions as the police have asked. Though, as a matter of fact, I doubt whether the police have asked any questions at all. You see, they know that the blow-pipe found in the plane was purchased in Paris by an American.'
'In Paris? An American? But there wasn't any American in the aeroplane.'
Poirot smiled kindly on her.
'Precisely. We have here an American just to make it more difficult. Voilа tout.'
'But it was bought by a man?' said Norman.
Poirot looked at him with rather an odd expression.
'Yes,' he said, 'it was bought by a man.'
Norman looked puzzled.
'Anyway,' said Jane, 'it wasn't Mr Clancy. He'd got one blowpipe already, so he wouldn't want to go about buying another.'
Poirot nodded his head.
'That is how one must proceed. Suspect everyone in turn and then wipe him or her off the list.'
'How many have you wiped off so far?' asked Jane.
'Not so many as you might think, mademoiselle,' said Poirot with a twinkle. 'It depends, you see, on the motive.'
'Has there been -' Norman Gale stopped, and then added apologetically: 'I don't want to butt in on official secrets, but is there no record of this woman's dealings?'
Poirot shook his head.
'All the records are burned.'
'That's unfortunate.'
'Evidemment! But it seems that Madame Giselle combined a little blackmailing with her profession of money lending, and that opens up a wider field. Supposing, for instance, that Madame Giselle had knowledge of a certain criminal offense – say, attempted murder on the part of someone.'
'Is there any reason to suppose such a thing?'
'Why, yes,' said Poirot slowly, 'there is. One of the few pieces of documentary evidence that we have in this case.'
He looked from one to the other of their interested faces and gave a little sigh.
'Ah, well,' he said. 'That is that. Let us talk of other matters – for instance, of how this tragedy has affected the lives of you two young people.'
'It sounds horrible to say so, but I've done well out of it,' said Jane.
She related her rise of salary.
'As you say, mademoiselle, you have done well, but probably only for the time being. Even a nine days' wonder does not last longer than nine days, remember.'
Jane laughed.
'That's very true.'
'I'm afraid it's going to last more than nine days in my case,' said Norman.
He explained the position. Poirot listened sympathetically.
'As you say,' he observed thoughtfully, 'it will take more than nine days, or nine weeks, or nine months. Sensationalism dies quickly, fear is long-lived.'
'Do you think I ought to stick it out?'
'Have you any other plan?'
'Yes. Chuck up the whole thing. Go out to Canada or somewhere and start again.'
'I'm sure that would be a pity,' said Jane firmly.
Norman looked at her.
