Dedicated to two distinguished members of the O.F.D. Carlotta and Peter...

It was close on midnight when a man crossed the Place de la Concorde. In spite of the handsome fur coat which garbed his meagre form, there was something essentially weak and paltry about him. A littl...

The man with the white hair continued on his course, unhurried, and seemingly indifferent to his surroundings. He took a side turning to the right and another one to the left. Now and then he hummed a...

Rufus Van Aldin passed through the revolving doors of the Savoy, and walked to the reception desk. The desk clerk smiled a respectful greeting. “Pleased to see you back again, Mr. Van Aldin,” he said....

The Hon. Mrs. Derek Kettering lived in Curzon Street. The butler who opened the door recognised Rufus Van Aldin at once and permitted himself a discreet smile of greeting. He led the way upstairs to t...

Rufus Van Aldin had just finished the sparse breakfast of coffee and dry toast, which was all he ever allowed himself, when Knighton entered the room. “Mr. Goby is below, sir, waiting to see you.” The...

Derek Kettering emerged from Van Aldin’s suite so precipitantly that he collided with a lady passing across the corridor. He apologised, and she accepted his apologies with a smiling reassurance and p...

“Mrs. Samuel Harfield presents her compliments to Miss Katherine Grey and wishes to point out that under the circumstances Miss Grey may not be aware⁠—” Mrs. Harfield, having written so far fluently, ...

“Well,” said Lady Tamplin, “well.” She laid down the continental Daily Mail and stared out across the blue waters of the Mediterranean. A branch of golden mimosa, hanging just above her head, made an ...

It was rarely that Derek Kettering allowed his temper to get the better of him. An easygoing insouciance was his chief characteristic, and it had stood him in good stead in more than one tight corner....

“Dad!” Mrs. Kettering started violently. Her nerves were not completely under control this morning. Very perfectly dressed in a long mink coat and a little hat of Chinese lacquer red, she had been wal...

Katherine wakened the next morning to brilliant sunshine. She went along to breakfast early, but met none of her acquaintances of the day before. When she returned to her compartment it had just been ...

“Then you were really in the thick of it all!” said Lady Tamplin enviously. “My dear, how thrilling!” She opened her china blue eyes very wide and gave a little sigh. “A real murder,” said Mr. Evans g...

On the afternoon of the fifteenth February a thick yellow fog had settled down on London. Rufus Van Aldin was in his suite at the Savoy and was making the most of the atmospheric conditions by working...

“I cannot repeat to you often enough, Monsieur, our horror, our consternation, and the deep sympathy we feel for you.” Thus M. Carrège, the Juge d’Instruction, addressed Van Aldin. M. Caux, the Commis...

Van Aldin read the letter through in silence. His face turned a dull angry crimson. The men watching him saw the veins start out on his forehead, and his big hands clench themselves unconsciously. He ...

Everybody looked respectfully at Poirot. Undoubtedly the little man had scored heavily. The Commissary laughed⁠—on a rather hollow note. “You teach us all our business,” he cried. “M. Poirot knows mor...

“You have been to the Riviera before, Georges?” said Poirot to his valet the following morning. George was an intensely English, rather wooden-faced individual. “Yes, sir. I was here two years ago whe...

Derek Kettering went straight to the Negresco, where he ordered a couple of cocktails and disposed of them rapidly; then he stared moodily out over the dazzling blue sea. He noted the passersby mechan...

The Comte de la Roche had just finished déjeuner, consisting of an omelette fines herbes, an entrecôte Bearnaise, and a Savarin au Rhum. Wiping his fine black moustache delicately with his table napki...

On the following morning Katherine and Lenox were sitting on the terrace of the Villa Marguerite. Something in the nature of a friendship was springing up between them, despite the difference in age. ...

Several days had elapsed. Katherine had been for a walk by herself one morning, and came back to find Lenox grinning at her expectantly. “Your young man has been ringing you up, Katherine!” “Who do yo...

M. Papopolous was at breakfast. Opposite him sat his daughter, Zia. There was a knock at the sitting-room door, and a chasseur entered with a card which he brought to M. Papopolous. The latter scrutin...

It was exactly eleven o’clock when Poirot presented himself at Van Aldin’s hotel. He found the millionaire alone. “You are punctual, M. Poirot,” he said, with a smile, as he rose to greet the detectiv...

It took the millionaire some few minutes to take the thing in. He stared at Poirot as though dumbfounded. The little Belgian nodded at him gently. “Yes,” he said, “it alters the position, does it not?...

As Derek Kettering passed the car, Mirelle leant out. “Dereek⁠—I must speak to you for a moment⁠—” But, lifting his hat, Derek passed straight on without stopping. When he got back to his hotel, the c...

“And so it is,” said Poirot, “that we are the good friends and have no secrets from each other.” Katherine turned her head to look at him. There was something in his voice, some undercurrent of seriou...

When Knighton left Katherine he went in search of Hercule Poirot, whom he found in the Rooms, jauntily placing the minimum stake on the even numbers. As Knighton joined him, the number thirty-three tu...

Poirot started to keep his dinner appointment with a margin of three-quarters of an hour to spare. He had an object in this. The car took him, not straight to Monte Carlo, but to Lady Tamplin’s house ...

Dear Katherine⁠—Living among grand friends as you are doing now, I don’t suppose you will care to hear any of our news; but as I always thought you were a sensible girl, perhaps you are a trifle less ...

Katherine looked out of Miss Viner’s bedroom window. It was raining, not violently, but with a quiet, well-bred persistence. The window looked out on a strip of front garden with a path down to the ga...

“Ah!” said Mr. Joseph Aarons appreciatively. He took a long draught from his tankard, set it down with a sigh, wiped the froth from his lips, and beamed across the table at his host, Monsieur Hercule ...

“You have changed, Mademoiselle,” said Poirot suddenly. He and Katherine were seated opposite each other at a small table at the Savoy. “Yes, you have changed,” he continued. “In what way?” “Mademoise...

“Monsieur Poirot wants to see you, sir.” “Damn the fellow!” said Van Aldin. Knighton remained sympathetically silent. Van Aldin got up from his chair and paced up and down. “I suppose you have seen th...

“The Millionaires’ Train,” as it is sometimes called, swung round a curve of line at what seemed a dangerous speed. Van Aldin, Knighton, and Poirot sat together in silence. Knighton and Van Aldin had ...

“Explanations?” Poirot smiled. He was sitting opposite the millionaire at a luncheon table in the latter’s private suite at the Negresco. Facing him was a relieved but very puzzled man. Poirot leant b...

The mimosa was nearly over. The scent of it in the air was faintly unpleasant. There were pink geraniums twining along the balustrade of Lady Tamplin’s villa, and masses of carnations below sent up a ...