chapter 28 poirot asks a few questions

we had a curious walk home.

poirot was clearly following out some train of thought in his own mind. occasionally he murmured a word under his breath. i heard one or two of them. once he said, ‘candles’, and another time he said something that sounded like ‘douzaine’. i suppose if i had been really bright i should have seen the line his thoughts were taking. it was really such a clear trail. however, at the time, it sounded to me mere gibberish.

no sooner were we at home than he flew to the telephone. he rang up the savoy and asked to speak to lady edgware.

‘not a hope, old boy,’ i said with some amusement.

poirot, as i have often told him, is one of the worst-informed men in the world.

‘don’t you know?’ i went on. ‘she’s in a new play. she’ll be at the theatre. it’s only half-past ten.’

poirot paid no attention to me. he was speaking to the hotel clerk, who was evidently telling him exactly what i had just told him.

‘ah! is that so? i should like then to speak to lady edgware’s maid.’

in a few minutes the connection was made.

‘is that lady edgware’s maid? this is m. poirot speaking. m. hercule poirot. you remember me, do you not?’

‘.........’

‘três bien. now, you understand, something of importance has arisen. i would like you to come and see me at once.’

‘.........’

‘but yes, very important. i will give you the address. listen carefully.’

he repeated it twice, then hung up the receiver with a thoughtful face.

‘what is the idea?’ i asked curiously. ‘have you really got a piece of information?’

‘no, hastings, it is she who will give me the information.’

‘what information?’

‘information about a certain person.’

‘jane wilkinson?’

‘oh! as to her, i have all the information i need. i know her back side before, as you say.’

‘who, then?’

poirot gave me one of his supremely irritating smiles and told me to wait and see.

he then busied himself in tidying up the room in a fussy manner.

ten minutes later the maid arrived. she seemed a little nervous and uncertain. a small neat figure dressed in black, she peered about her doubtfully.

poirot bustled forward.

‘ah! you have come. that is most kind. sit here, will you now, mademoiselle – ellis, i think?’

‘yes, sir. ellis.’

she sat down on the chair poirot had drawn forward for her.

she sat with her hands folded on her lap looking from one to the other of us. her small bloodless face was quite composed and her thin lips were pinched together.

‘to begin with, miss ellis, you have been with lady edgware how long?’

‘three years, sir.’

‘that is as i thought. you know her affairs well.’

ellis did not reply. she looked disapproving.

‘what i mean is, you should have a good idea of who her enemies are likely to be.’

ellis compressed her lips more tightly.

‘most women have tried to do her a spiteful turn, sir. yes, they’ve all been against her, nasty jealousy.’

‘her own sex did not like her?’

‘no, sir. she’s too good looking. and she always gets what she wants. there’s a lot of nasty jealousy in the theatrical profession.’

‘what about men?’

ellis allowed a sour smile to appear on her withered countenance.

‘she can do what she likes with the gentlemen, sir, and that’s a fact.’

‘i agree with you,’ said poirot, smiling. ‘yet, even allowing for that, i can imagine circumstances arising –’ he broke off.

then he said in a different voice:

‘you know mr bryan martin, the film actor?’

‘oh! yes, sir.’

‘very well?’

‘very well, indeed.’

‘i believe i am not mistaken in saying that a little less than a year ago mr bryan martin was very deeply in love with your mistress.’

‘head over ears, sir. and it’s “is” not “was”, if you ask me.’

‘he believed at that time she would marry him – eh?’

‘yes, sir.’

‘did she ever seriously consider marrying him?’

‘she thought of it, sir. if she could have got her freedom from his lordship, i believe she would have married him.’

‘and then, i suppose, the duke of merton appeared on the scene?’

‘yes, sir. he was doing a tour through the states. love at first sight it was with him.’

‘and so goodbye to bryan martin’s chances?’

ellis nodded.

‘of course mr martin made an enormous amount of money,’ she explained. ‘but the duke of merton had position as well. and her ladyship is very keen on position. married to the duke, she’d have been one of the first ladies in the land.’

the maid’s voice held a smug complacency. it amused me.

‘so mr bryan martin was – how do you say – turned down? did he take it badly?’

‘he carried on something awful, sir.’

‘ah!’

‘he threatened her with a revolver once. and the scenes he made. it frightened me, it did. he was drinking a lot, too. he went all to pieces.’

‘but in the end he calmed down.’

‘so it seemed, sir. but he still hung about. and i didn’t like the look in his eye. i’ve warned her ladyship about it, but she only laughed. she’s one who enjoys feeling her power, if you know what i mean.’

‘yes,’ said poirot thoughtfully. ‘i think i know what you mean.’

‘we’ve not seen so much of him just lately, sir. a good thing in my opinion. he’s beginning to get over it, i hope.’

‘perhaps.’

something in poirot’s utterance of the word seem to strike her. she asked anxiously:

‘you don’t think she’s in danger, sir?’

‘yes,’ said poirot gravely. ‘i think she is in great danger. but she has brought it on herself.’

his hand, running aimlessly along the mantelshelf, caught a vase of roses and it toppled over. the water fell on ellis’s face and head. i had seldom known poirot clumsy, and i could deduce from it that he was in a great state of mental perturbation. he was very upset – rushed for a towel – tenderly assisted the maid to dry her face and neck and was profuse in apologies.

finally a treasury note changed hands and he escorted her towards the door, thanking her for her goodness in coming.

‘but it is still early,’ he said, glancing at the clock. ‘you will be back before your mistress returns.’

‘oh! that is quite all right, sir. she is going out to supper, i think, and anyway, she never expects me to sit up for her unless she says so special.’

suddenly poirot flew off at a tangent. ‘mademoiselle, pardon me, but you are limping.’

‘that’s nothing, sir. my feet are a little painful.’

‘the corns?’ murmured poirot in the confidential voice of one sufferer to another.

corns, apparently, it was. poirot expatiated upon a certain remedy which, according to him, worked wonders.

finally ellis departed.

i was full of curiosity.

‘well, poirot?’ i said. ‘well?’

he smiled at my eagerness.

‘nothing more this evening, my friend. tomorrow morning early, we will ring up japp. we will ask him to come round. we will also ring up mr bryan martin. i think he will be able to tell us something interesting. also, i wish to pay him a debt that i owe him.’

‘really?’

i looked at poirot sideways. he was smiling to himself in a curious way.

‘at any rate,’ i said, ‘you can’t suspect him of killing lord edgware. especially after what we’ve heard of tonight. that would be playing jane’s game with a vengeance. to kill off the husband so as to let the lady marry someone else is a little too disinterested for any man.’

‘what profound judgement!’

‘now don’t be sarcastic,’ i said with some annoyance. ‘and what on earth are you fiddling with all the time?’

poirot held the object in question up.

‘with the pince-nez of the good ellis, my friend. she left them behind.’

‘nonsense! she had them on her nose when she went out.’

he shook his head gently.

‘wrong! absolutely wrong! what she had on, my dear hastings, were the pair of pince-nez we found in carlotta adams’ handbag.’

i gasped.

第二十八章 波洛发问

我们回家这一路怪怪的。

波洛脑袋里在很清晰地考虑着一连串问题。偶尔他会低声说出一两个字来。我也听到几个字。一次听他说“蜡烛”，另一次听他说“一打”一类的字。我想，要是我脑袋聪明一点，我该明白他的思路如何。事实上他所想的是一串清晰的思路。但在那个时候，我只觉得是一堆笑料。

我们一到家，他就跑到电话机旁。他叫了萨伏依饭店，要与埃奇韦尔夫人说话。

“没希望的，老伙计。”我打趣地说。

我曾一再对波洛说，他是世上消息最不灵通的人。

“你不知道吗？”我接着说道，“她在演一部新戏。她在戏院里。现在只有一点半钟。”

波洛不理会我。他在同旅店的职员讲话，而且那一边也一定在讲我刚才告诉他的话。

“啊！是吗？我要和埃奇韦尔夫人的女仆讲话。”

几分钟以后，电话接通了。

“是埃奇韦尔夫人的女仆吗？我是波洛先生。赫尔克里·波洛。你记得我吗？”“……”

“很好。现在”知道，生了些重要的事。我需要你立即来见我。”……”

“是的，重要。我给你地址，听好。”

他重复了两遍，后心事重重地挂上电话。

“什么主意？”我好奇地问，你真的得到了一条重要消息？）”

“没有，黑斯廷斯。是她要告诉我一些重要消息。”

“什么消息？”

“关于一个人的消息。”

“简·威尔金森？”

“噢！关于她，我有足够我要知道的消息。正如你所说的，我已看穿了她的一切。”

“那个人是谁呢？”

波洛又露出那种令人生气的笑容叫我等着瞧。

然后他又小题大做地开始整理房间。

十分钟以后，女仆到了。她看起来很紧张不安。她个子矮小。穿着一件黑衣，用疑惑的目光看着四周。

波洛急忙迎上去。

“啊！你来了。这太好了。坐这吧，埃利斯女士，是吧？”

“是的，先生。我是叫埃利斯。”

她坐在波洛搬过去的那把椅子上。

她两手交叉放在膝上。望望我，又望望波洛。她那毫无血色、小小的脸上露出镇定的样子。她的双唇绷得很紧。

“首先，埃利斯小姐，你同埃奇韦尔夫人在一起多久了？”

“三年。先生。”

“我是这么想的。你对她的事相当了解了？”

埃利斯没有回答。她露出不以为然的样子。

“我的意思是，你应该知道她的仇人可能会是谁吧？”

埃利斯双唇绷得更紧了。

“很多女人都想对付她。是的，她们都反对她，都有很重的嫉妒心。”

“同性的朋友不喜欢她。是吗？”

“是的，先生。她太好看了。而且她一向想要什么就有什么。干戏剧这一行的，有很多人嫉妒呢。”

“男性呢？”

“先生，对于男人，她想怎么着，就怎么着。这倒是真的。”

埃利斯干瘪的面容上露出一种苦笑。

“我同意你的话。”波洛笑着说，“不过，即使这是事实，我想情况也有可能变化——”他停下不说了。

然后他换一种语调说起话来。

“你认识布赖恩·马丁，那个电影明星吗？”

“噢！是的，先生。”

“相当认识？”

“确实很熟。”

“我想。差不多一年以前。布赖恩·马丁曾非常爱你的女主人。”

“爱得不顾一切，先生。而且不只是以前‘曾经’，现在也如此，如果您问我的话。”

“他曾以为她会嫁给他。是吗？”

“是的，先生。”

“她认真考虑过要嫁他吗？”

“她考虑过的，先生。如果她能摆脱男爵，我想她会嫁给他的。”

“后来，我想是默顿公爵出现了。”

“是的。先生。他正在美国游览。她一见他就爱上了他。”

“那么布赖恩·马丁就无望了。”

埃利斯点点头。

“当然，马丁先生赚了不少钱。”她解释道，“但是默顿公爵还有地位。女主人很爱地位的。要是嫁给公爵，她就是国内头等的贵妇了。”

女仆的声音中有一种沾沾自喜的昧道，令我觉得好笑。

“所以布赖恩·马丁先生一你怎么说好——被拒绝了。”

“先生，他表现得很可怕呢。”

“啊！”

“他用手枪威吓她。那情形让我很害怕。他还喝了好多酒。他完全崩渍了。”

“但是，末了，他还是镇定下来了。”

“先生，看起来是这样。但他还缠着她。我很怕他的眼神。我己经警告过太太了，要她小心，但她大笑。她喜欢享受自己魅力的力量，先生如果您知道我的意思的话。”

“是的。”波洛深思地说，“我想，我明白你的意思。”

“我们最近不常见到他，先生。我觉得是件好事，我希望，；他已经忘了这事儿了。”

“大概吧。”

波洛的语调可能有令她惊奇的地方。她担心地问∶

“先生，您不是以为她有危险吧？”

“是的。”波洛严肃地说，“我认为她有很大危险。但她是自找的。”

他的手浸无目的地在壁炉架上搜索着，突然碰倒了一ve个攻瑰花瓶，花瓶便掉了下来。水洒到埃利斯的脸上和头上。我从未看到波洛如此笨手笨脚的。我想，大概是他大脑中太忙乱了吧。他很不安——赶紧拿来毛巾——很亲切地帮助女仆揩干她脸上和颈上的水，并连声道歉。

最后，给了她一些钱后，他送她到门旁，感谢她的到来。

“天还早呢，”他看了一眼钟说。“你会在女主人回来前到家的。”

“噢！没关系的，先生。她出去吃晚饭了。我想，不管怎样，如果不特别关照，她从不让我熬夜等她的。”

突然波洛出乎意料地说了句话。

“女士，对不起，可你走路有点跛。”

“没关系的，先生，我的脚有一点疼。”

“是鸡眼吧？”波洛带着一种同病相怜的感情低声说道。

很明显，是鸡眼。波洛又根据他的经验，详细地给她讲一种疗法，据他的经验是很见效的。

最后，埃利斯走了。

我十分好奇。

“怎么回事，波洛？”我说，“怎么回事？”

波洛对我的心急只是笑笑。

“今天晚上到此为止，我的朋友。明天早晨，我们打电话给贾普，让他来——趟。我们还要叫上布赖恩·马丁。我想他会告诉我们一些有趣的事。另外我还想补偿一下我欠他的债。”

“真的？”

我瞟了一眼波洛。他正奇怪地自已笑呢。

“不管怎么说”我说，你不能怀疑是他杀了埃奇韦尔男爵吧。特别是听了今晚她讲的。那可是为简报仇了。将自己情人的丈夫杀死，让她去嫁另一个男人好像有点离谱，何男人都不会这样大公无私的。”

“多么精辟的论断。”

“得了，讽刺了，我懊恼地说，你一直在弄什么？”

“我的朋友，在看埃利斯的眼镜。她把她的眼镜掉下来了。”

“胡说。她出去时，鼻梁上还架着眼镜呢。”

他轻轻地摇着头。

“错了！完全错了！她戴的那副，我的朋友，是我在卡洛塔·亚当斯那里找到的那副夹鼻眼镜。”

我大吃一惊。