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 picture his thoughts. He enjoys himself as the professor at that match. I doubt not he has visited the chess tourneys to study his part. He sits and frowns in thought; he gives the impression that he is thinking great plans, and all the time he laughs in himself. He is aware that two moves are all that he knows—and all that he need know. Again, it would appeal to his mind to foresee the events and to make the man his own executioner at the exact time that suits Number Four… Oh, yes, Hastings, I begin to understand our friend and his psychology.”

I shrugged.

“Well, I suppose you're right, but I can’t understand any one running a risk he could so easily avoid.”

“Risk!” Poirot snorted. “Where then lay the risk ? Would Japp have solved the problem? No; if Number Four had not made one small mistake he would have run no risk.”

“And his mistake?” I asked, although I suspected the answer.

“Mon ami, he overlooked the little gray cells of Hercule Poirot.”

Poirot has his virtues, but modesty is not one of them.