Page:Murder on the Links - 1985.djvu/171

 long eluded overtakes him. An unknown hand stabs him in the back.... Now, Hastings, you understand what I mean when I talk of two crimes. The first crime, the crime that M. Renauld, in his arrogance, asked us to investigate (Ah, but he made a famous mistake there! He misjudged Hercule Poirot!) is solved. But behind it lies a deeper riddle. And to solve that will be difficultsince the criminal, in his wisdom, has been content to avail himself of the devices prepared by M. Renauld. It has been a particularly perplexing and baffling mystery to solve. A young hand, like Giraud, who does not place any reliance on the psychology, is almost certain to fail.”

“You're marvelous, Poirot,” I said with admiration. “Absolutely marvelous. No one on earth but you could have done it!”

I think my praise pleased him. For once in his life, he looked almost embarrassed.

“Ah, then you no longer despise poor old Papa Poirot? You shift your allegiance back from the human foxhound?”

His term for Giraud never failed to make me smile.

“Rather. You've scored over him handsomely.”

“That poor Giraud,” said Poirot, trying unsuccessfully to look modest. “Without doubt it is not all stupidity. He has had la mauvaise chance once or twice. That dark hair coiled round the dagger, for instance. To say the least, it was misleading.”

“To tell you the truth, Poirot," I said slowly, "even now I don’t quite see—whose hair was it?”

“Madame Renauld’s of course. That is where la mauvaise chance came in. Her hair, dark originally, is almost completely silvered. It might just as easily have been a gray hairand then by no conceivable effort could Giraud have persuaded himself it came from the head of Jack Renauld! But it is all of a piece. Always the facts must be twisted to fit the theory! Did not Giraud find the traces of two persons, a man and a woman, in the shed? And how does that fit in with his reconstruction of the case? I will tell youit does not fit in, and so we shall hear no more of them! I ask you, is that a methodical way of working? The great Giraud! The great