Page:The Big Four (Christie).pdf/231

 “They were passing remarks. And then one day I happened to see them together myself—in the garden”

It was left at that. Our client was in such an agony of outraged propriety that no one could feel it necessary to ask exactly what she had seen in the garden. She had evidently seen quite enough to make up her own mind on the situation.

“The attacks got worse and worse. Dr. Treves said it was all perfectly natural and to be expected, and that Mr. Templeton could not possibly live long, but I’ve never seen anything like it before myself—not in all my long experience of nursing. It seemed to me much more like some form of”

She paused, hesitating.

“Arsenical poisoning?” said Poirot helpfully.

She nodded.

“And then, too, he, the patient, I mean, said something queer. ‘They’ll do for me, the four of them. They'll do for me yet.’”

“Eh?” said Poirot quickly.

“Those were his very words, M. Poirot. He was in great pain at the time, of course, and hardly knew what he was saying.”

“‘They'll do for me, the four of them,’”