Page:The Big Four (Christie).pdf/160

 height. A great chess player must have a great brain, I knew. I could easily understand Dr. Savaronoff being the second greatest player in the world.

Poirot bowed.

“M. le Docteur, may I speak to you alone?”

Savaronoff turned to his niece.

“Leave us, Sonia.”

She disappeared obediently.

“Now, sir, what is it?”

“Dr. Savaronoff, you have recently come into an enormous fortune. If you should—die unexpectedly, who inherits it?”

“I have made a will leaving everything to my niece, Sonia Daviloff. You do not suggest”

“I suggest nothing, but you have not seen your niece since she was a child. It would have been easy for any one to impersonate her.”

Savaronoff seemed thunderstruck by the suggestion. Poirot went on easily.

“Enough as to that. I give you the word of warning, that is all. What I want you to do now is to describe to me the game of chess the other evening.”

“How do you mean—describe it?”

“Well, I do not play the chess myself, but I understand that there are various regular ways