- -
- 100%
- +
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head 1925
Copyright © 1925 Agatha Christie Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cover by www.juliejenkinsdesign.com © HarperCollins/Agatha Christie Ltd 2008
www.agathachristie.com
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007122585
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2010 ISBN: 9780007422784
Version: 2019-02-04
To my nephew
In memory of an inscription
at Compton Castle and a day
at the zoo
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Anthony Cade Signs On
Chapter 2
A Lady in Distress
Chapter 3
Anxiety in High Places
Chapter 4
Introducing a Very Charming Lady
Chapter 5
First Night in London
Chapter 6
The Gentle Art of Blackmail
Chapter 7
Mr McGrath Refuses an Invitation
Chapter 8
A Dead Man
Chapter 9
Anthony Disposes of a Body
Chapter 10
Chimneys
Chapter 11
Superintendent Battle Arrives
Chapter 12
Anthony Tells his Story
Chapter 13
The American Visitor
Chapter 14
Mainly Political and Financial
Chapter 15
The French Stranger
Chapter 16
Tea in the Schoolroom
Chapter 17
A Midnight Adventure
Chapter 18
Second Midnight Adventure
Chapter 19
Secret History
Chapter 20
Battle and Anthony Confer
Chapter 21
Mr Isaacstein’s Suitcase
Chapter 22
The Red Signal
Chapter 23
Encounter in the Rose Garden
Chapter 24
The House at Dover
Chapter 25
Tuesday Night at Chimneys
Chapter 26
The 13th of October
Chapter 27
The 13th of October (contd)
Chapter 28
King Victor
Chapter 29
Further Explanations
Chapter 30
Anthony Signs On for a New Job
Chapter 31
Sundry Details
Keep Reading
About the Author
Also by Agatha Christie
About the Publisher
Chapter 1
Anthony Cade Signs On
‘Gentleman Joe!’
‘Why, if it isn’t old Jimmy McGrath,’
Castle’s Select Tour, represented by seven depressed-looking females and three perspiring males, looked on with considerable interest. Evidently their Mr Cade had met an old friend. They all admired Mr Cade so much, his tall lean figure, his sun-tanned face, the light-hearted manner with which he settled disputes and cajoled them all into good temper. This friend of his now–surely rather a peculiar-looking man. About the same height as Mr Cade, but thickset and not nearly so good-looking. The sort of man one read about in books, who probably kept a saloon. Interesting though. After all, that was what one came abroad for–to see all these peculiar things one read about in books. Up to now they had been rather bored with Bulawayo. The sun was unbearably hot, the hotel was uncomfortable, there seemed to be nowhere particular to go until the moment should arrive to motor to the Matoppos. Very fortunately, Mr Cade had suggested picture postcards. There was an excellent supply of picture postcards.
Anthony Cade and his friend had stepped a little apart.
‘What the hell are you doing with this pack of females?’ demanded McGrath. ‘Starting a harem?’
‘Not with this little lot,’ grinned Anthony. ‘Have you taken a good look at them?’
‘I have that. Thought maybe you were losing your eyesight.’
‘My eyesight’s as good as ever it was. No, this is a Castle’s Select Tour. I’m Castle–the local Castle, I mean.’
‘What the hell made you take on a job like that?’
‘A regrettable necessity for cash. I can assure you it doesn’t suit my temperament.’
Jimmy grinned.
‘Never a hog for regular work, were you?’
Anthony ignored this aspersion.
‘However, something will turn up soon, I expect,’ he remarked hopefully. ‘It usually does.’
Jimmy chuckled.
‘If there’s any trouble brewing, Anthony Cade is sure to be in it sooner or later, I know that,’ he said. ‘You’ve an absolute instinct for rows–and the nine lives of a cat. When can we have a yarn together?’
Anthony sighed.
‘I’ve got to take these cackling hens to see Rhodes’ grave.’
‘That’s the stuff,’ said Jimmy approvingly. ‘They’ll come back bumped black and blue with the ruts in the road, and clamouring for bed to rest the bruises on. Then you and I will have a spot or two and exchange the news.’
‘Right. So long, Jimmy.’
Anthony rejoined his flock of sheep. Miss Taylor, the youngest and most skittish of the party, instantly attacked him.
‘Oh, Mr Cade, was that an old friend of yours?’
‘It was, Miss Taylor. One of the friends of my blameless youth.’
Miss Taylor giggled.
‘I thought he was such an interesting-looking man.’
‘I’ll tell him you said so.’
‘Oh, Mr Cade, how can you be so naughty! The very idea! What was that name he called you?’
‘Gentleman Joe?’
‘Yes. Is your name Joe?’
‘I thought you knew it was Anthony, Miss Taylor.’
‘Oh, go on with you!’ cried Miss Taylor coquettishly.
Anthony had by now well mastered his duties. In addition to making the necessary arrangements of travel, they included soothing down irritable old gentlemen when their dignity was ruffled, seeing that elderly matrons had ample opportunities to buy picture postcards, and flirting with everything under a catholic forty years of age. The last task was rendered easier for him by the extreme readiness of the ladies in question to read a tender meaning into his most innocent remarks.
Miss Taylor returned to the attack.
‘Why does he call you Joe, then?’
‘Oh, just because it isn’t my name.’
‘And why Gentleman Joe?’
‘The same kind of reason.’
‘Oh, Mr Cade,’ protested Miss Taylor, much distressed, ‘I’m sure you shouldn’t say that. Papa was only saying last night what gentlemanly manners you had.’
‘Very kind of your father, I’m sure, Miss Taylor.’
‘And we are all agreed that you are quite the gentleman.’
‘I’m overwhelmed.’
‘No, really, I mean it.’
‘Kind hearts are more than coronets,’ said Anthony vaguely, without a notion of what he meant by the remark, and wishing fervently it was lunchtime.
‘That’s such a beautiful poem, I always think. Do you know much poetry, Mr Cade?’
‘I might recite “The boy stood on the burning deck” at a pinch. “The boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but he had fled.” That’s all I know, but I can do that bit with action if you like. “The boy stood on the burning deck”–whoosh–whoosh–whoosh–(the flames, you see) “Whence all but he had fled”–for that bit I run to and fro like a dog.’
Miss Taylor screamed with laughter.
‘Oh, do look at Mr Cade! Isn’t he funny?’
‘Time for morning tea,’ said Anthony briskly. ‘Come this way. There is an excellent café in the next street.’
‘I presume,’ said Mrs Caldicott in her deep voice, ‘that the expense is included in the Tour?’
‘Morning tea, Mrs Caldicott,’ said Anthony, assuming his professional manner, ‘is an extra.’
‘Disgraceful.’
‘Life is full of trials, isn’t it?’ said Anthony cheerfully.
Mrs Caldicott’s eyes gleamed, and she remarked with the air of one springing a mine:
‘I suspected as much, and in anticipation I poured off some tea into a jug at breakfast this morning! I can heat that up on the spirit-lamp. Come, Father.’
Mr and Mrs Caldicott sailed off triumphantly to the hotel, the lady’s back complacent with successful forethought.
‘Oh, Lord,’ muttered Anthony, ‘what a lot of funny people it does take to make a world.’
He marshalled the rest of the party in the direction of the café. Miss Taylor kept by his side, and resumed her catechism.
‘Is it a long time since you saw your friend?’
‘Just over seven years.’
‘Was it in Africa you knew him?’
‘Yes, not this part, though. The first time I ever saw Jimmy McGrath he was all trussed up ready for the cooking pot. Some of the tribes in the interior are cannibals, you know. We got there just in time.’
‘What happened?’
‘Very nice little shindy. We potted some of the beggars, and the rest took to their heels.’
‘Oh, Mr Cade, what an adventurous life you must have led.’
‘Very peaceful, I assure you.’
But it was clear that the lady did not believe him.
It was about ten o’clock that night when Anthony Cade walked into the small room where Jimmy McGrath was busy manipulating various bottles.
‘Make it strong, James,’ he implored. ‘I can tell you, I need it.’
‘I should think you did, my boy. I wouldn’t take on that job of yours for anything.’
‘Show me another, and I’ll jump out of it fast enough.’
McGrath poured out his own drink, tossed it off with a practised hand and mixed a second one. Then he said slowly:
‘Are you in earnest about that, old son?’
‘About what?’
‘Chucking this job of yours if you could get another?’
‘Why? You don’t mean to say that you’ve got a job going begging? Why don’t you grab it yourself?’
‘I have grabbed it–but I don’t much fancy it, that’s why I’m trying to pass it on to you.’
Anthony became suspicious.
‘What’s wrong with it? They haven’t engaged you to teach in a Sunday school, have they?’
‘Do you think anyone would choose me to teach in a Sunday school?’
‘Not if they knew you well, certainly.’
‘It’s a perfectly good job–nothing wrong with it whatsoever.’
‘Not in South America by any lucky chance? I’ve rather got my eye on South America. There’s a very tidy little revolution coming off in one of those little republics soon.
McGrath grinned.
‘You always were keen on revolutions–anything to be mixed up in a really good row.’
‘I feel my talents might be appreciated out there. I tell you, Jimmy, I can be jolly useful in a revolution –to one side or the other. It’s better than making an honest living any day.’
‘I think I’ve heard that sentiment from you before, my son. No, the job isn’t in South America–it’s in England.’
‘England? Return of hero to his native land after many long years. They can’t dun you for bills after seven years, can they, Jimmy?’
‘I don’t think so. Well, are you on for hearing more about it?’
‘I’m on all right. The thing that worries me is why you’re not taking it on yourself.’
‘I’ll tell you. I’m after gold, Anthony–far up in the interior.’
Anthony whistled and looked at him.
‘You’ve always been after gold, Jimmy, ever since I knew you. It’s your weak spot–your own particular little hobby. You’ve followed up more wild-cat trails than anyone I know.’
‘And in the end I’ll strike it. You’ll see.’
‘Well, every one his own hobby. Mine’s rows, yours is gold.’
‘I’ll tell you the whole story. I suppose you know all about Herzoslovakia?’
Anthony looked up sharply.
‘Herzoslovakia?’ he said, with a curious ring in his voice.
‘Yes. Know anything about it?’
There was quite an appreciable pause before Anthony answered. Then he said slowly:
‘Only what everyone knows. It’s one of the Balkan States, isn’t it? Principal rivers, unknown. Principal mountains, also unknown, but fairly numerous. Capital, Ekarest. Population, chiefly brigands. Hobby, assassinating kings and having revolutions. Last king, Nicholas IV, assassinated about seven years ago. Since then it’s been a republic. Altogether a very likely spot. You might have mentioned before that Herzoslovakia came into it.’
‘It doesn’t except indirectly.’
Anthony gazed at him more in sorrow than in anger.
‘You ought to do something about this, James,’ he said. ‘Take a correspondence course, or something. If you’d told a story like this in the good old Eastern days, you’d have been hung up by the heels and bastinadoed or something equally unpleasant.’
Jimmy pursued this course quite unmoved by these strictures.
‘Ever heard of Count Stylptitch?’
‘Now you’re talking,’ said Anthony. ‘Many people who have never heard of Herzoslovakia would brighten at the mention of Count Stylptitch. The Grand Old Man of the Balkans. The Greatest Statesman of Modern Times. The biggest villain unhung. The point of view all depends on which newspaper you take in. But be sure of this, Count Stylptitch will be remembered long after you and I are dust and ashes, James. Every move and counter-move in the Near East for the last twenty years has had Count Stylptitch at the bottom of it. He’s been a dictator and a patriot and a statesman–and nobody knows exactly what he has been, except that he’s been a perfect king of intrigue. Well, what about him?’
‘He was Prime Minister of Herzoslovakia–that’s why I mentioned it first.’
‘You’ve no sense of proportion, Jimmy. Herzoslovakia is of no importance at all compared to Stylptitch. It just provided him with a birthplace and a post in public affairs. But I thought he was dead?’
‘So he is. He died in Paris about two months ago. What I’m telling you about happened some years ago.’
‘The question is,’ said Anthony, ‘what are you telling me about?’
Jimmy accepted the rebuke and hastened on.
‘It was like this. I was in Paris–just four years ago, to be exact. I was walking along one night in rather a lonely part, when I saw half a dozen French toughs beating up a respectable-looking old gentleman. I hate a one-sided show, so I promptly butted in and proceeded to beat up the toughs. I guess they’d never been hit really hard before. They melted like snow!’
‘Good for you, James,’ said Anthony softly. ‘I’d like to have seen that scrap.’
‘Oh, it was nothing much,’ said Jimmy modestly. ‘But the old boy was no end grateful. He’d had a couple, no doubt about that, but he was sober enough to get my name and address out of me, and he came along and thanked me next day. Did the thing in style, too. It was then that I found out it was Count Stylptitch I’d rescued. He’d got a house up by the Bois.’
Anthony nodded.
‘Yes, Stylptitch went to live in Paris after the assassination of King Nicholas. They wanted him to come back and be president later, but he wasn’t taking any. He remained sound to his monarchical principles, though he was reported to have his finger in all the backstairs pies that went on in the Balkans. Very deep, the late Count Stylptitch.’
‘Nicholas IV was the man who had a funny taste in wives, wasn’t he?’ said Jimmy suddenly.
‘Yes,’ said Anthony. ‘And it did for him, too, poor beggar. She was some little guttersnipe of a music-hall artiste in Paris–not even suitable for a morganatic alliance. But Nicholas had a frightful crush on her, and she was all out for being a queen. Sounds fantastic, but they managed it somehow. Called her the Countess Popoffsky, or something, and pretended she had Romanoff blood in her veins. Nicholas married her in the cathedral at Ekarest with a couple of unwilling archbishops to do the job, and she was crowned as Queen Varaga. Nicholas squared his ministers, and I suppose he thought that was all that mattered–but he forgot to reckon with the populace. They’re very aristocratic and reactionary in Herzoslovakia. They like their kings and queens to be the genuine article. There were mutterings and discontent, and the usual ruthless suppressions, and the final uprising which stormed the palace, murdered the King and Queen, and proclaimed a republic. It’s been a republic ever since–but things still manage to be pretty lively there, so I’ve heard. They’ve assassinated a president or two, just to keep their hand in. But revenons à nos moutons. You had got to where Count Stylptitch was hailing you as his preserver.’
‘Yes. Well, that was the end of that business. I came back to Africa and never thought of it again until about two weeks ago I got a queer-looking parcel which had been following me all over the place for the Lord knows how long. I’d seen in a paper that Count Stylptitch had recently died in Paris. Well, this parcel contained his memoirs–or reminiscences, or whatever you call the things. There was a note enclosed to the effect that if I delivered the manuscript at a certain firm of publishers in London on or before October 13th, they were instructed to hand me a thousand pounds.’
‘A thousand pounds? Did you say a thousand pounds, Jimmy?’
‘I did, my son. I hope to God it’s not a hoax. Put not your trust in princes or politicians, as the saying goes. Well, there it is. Owing to the way the manuscript had been following me around, I had no time to lose. It was a pity, all the same. I’d just fixed up this trip to the interior, and I’d set my heart on going. I shan’t get such a good chance again.’
‘You’re incurable, Jimmy. A thousand pounds in the hand is worth a lot of mythical gold.’
‘And supposing it’s all a hoax? Anyway, here I am, passage booked and everything, on the way to Cape Town–and then you blow along!’
Anthony got up and lit a cigarette.
‘I begin to perceive your drift, James. You go gold-hunting as planned, and I collect the thousand pounds for you. How much do I get out of it?’
‘What do you say to a quarter?’
‘Two hundred and fifty pounds free of income tax, as the saying goes?’
‘That’s it.’
‘Done, and just to make you gnash your teeth I’ll tell you that I would have gone for a hundred! Let me tell you, James McGrath, you won’t die in your bed counting up your bank balance.’
‘Anyway, it’s a deal?’
‘It’s a deal all right. I’m on. And confusion to Castle’s Select Tours.’
They drank the toast solemnly.
Chapter 2
A Lady in Distress
‘So that’s that,’ said Anthony, finishing off his glass and replacing it on the table. ‘What boat were you going on?’
‘Granarth Castle.’
‘Passage booked in your name, I suppose, so I’d better travel as James McGrath. We’ve outgrown the passport business, haven’t we.
‘No odds either way. You and I are totally unlike, but we’d probably have the same description on one of those blinking things. Height six feet, hair brown, eyes blue, nose ordinary, chin ordinary–’
‘Not so much of this “ordinary” stunt. Let me tell you that Castle’s selected me out of several applicants solely on account of my pleasing appearance and nice manners.’
Jimmy grinned.
‘I noticed your manners this morning.’
‘The devil you did.’
Anthony rose and paced up and down the room. His brow was slightly wrinkled, and it was some minutes before he spoke.
‘Jimmy,’ he said at last. ‘Stylptitch died in Paris. What’s the point of sending a manuscript from Paris to London via Africa?’
Jimmy shook his head helplessly.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Why not do it up in a nice little parcel and send it by post?’
‘Sounds a damn sight more sensible, I agree.’
‘Of course,’ continued Anthony, ‘I know that kings and queens and government officials are prevented by etiquette from doing anything in a simple, straightforward fashion. Hence King’s Messengers and all that. In medieval days you gave a fellow a signet ring as a sort of open sesame. “The King’s Ring! Pass, my lord!” And usually it was the other fellow who had stolen it. I always wonder why some bright lad never hit on the expedient of copying the ring–making a dozen or so, and selling them at a hundred ducats apiece. They seem to have had no initiative in the Middle Ages.’
Jimmy yawned.
‘My remarks on the Middle Ages don’t seem to amuse you. Let us get back to Count Stylptitch. From France to England via Africa seems a bit thick even for a diplomatic personage. If he merely wanted to ensure that you should get a thousand pounds he could have left it you in his will. Thank God neither you nor I are too proud to accept a legacy! Stylptitch must have been barmy.’
‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you?’
Anthony frowned and continued his pacing.
‘Have you read the thing at all?’ he asked suddenly.
‘Read what?’
‘The manuscript.’
‘Good Lord, no. What do you think I want to read a thing of that kind for?’
Anthony smiled.
‘I just wondered, that’s all. You know a lot of trouble has been caused by memoirs. Indiscreet revelations, that sort of thing. People who have been close as an oyster all their lives seem positively to relish causing trouble when they themselves shall be comfortably dead. It gives them a kind of malicious glee. Jimmy, what sort of a man was Count Stylptitch? You met him and talked to him, and you’re a pretty good judge of raw human nature. Could you imagine him being a vindictive old devil?’
Jimmy shook his head.
‘It’s difficult to tell. You see, that first night he was distinctly canned, and the next day he was just a high-toned old boy with the most beautiful manners overwhelming me with compliments till I didn’t know where to look.’
‘And he didn’t say anything interesting when he was drunk?’
Jimmy cast his mind back, wrinkling his brows as he did so.
‘He said he knew where the Koh-i-noor was,’ he volunteered doubtfully.
‘Oh, well,’ said Anthony, ‘we all know that. They keep it in the Tower, don’t they? Behind thick plate-glass and iron bars, with a lot of gentlemen in fancy dress standing round to see you don’t pinch anything.’
‘That’s right,’ agreed Jimmy.
‘Did Stylptitch say anything else of the same kind? That he knew which city the Wallace Collection was in, for instance?’
Jimmy shook his head.
‘Hm!’ said Anthony.
He lit another cigarette, and once more began pacing up and down the room.
‘You never read the papers, I suppose, you heathen?’ he threw out presently.
‘Not very often,’ said McGrath simply. ‘They’re not about anything that interests me as a rule.’
‘Thank heaven I’m more civilized. There have been several mentions of Herzoslovakia lately. Hints at a royalist restoration.’
‘Nicholas IV didn’t leave a son,’ said Jimmy. ‘But I don’t suppose for a minute that the Obolovitch dynasty is extinct. There are probably shoals of young ’uns knocking about, cousins and second cousins and third cousins once removed.’