Page:The Big Four (Christie).pdf/32

22 “I wonder—I very much wonder.”

“You mean?”

“Number Four—the destroyer.”

I gazed at Poirot dumbfounded. A minute or two after, on recovering my voice, I said:—

“We shall know him again, anywhere, that’s one thing. He was a man of very pronounced personality.”

“Was he, mon ami? I think not. He was burly and bluff and red-faced, with a thick moustache and a hoarse voice. He will be none of those things by this time, and for the rest, he has nondescript eyes, nondescript ears, and a perfect set of false teeth. Identification is not such an easy matter as you seem to think. Next time—”

“You think there will be a next time?” I interrupted.

Poirot’s face grew very grave.

“It is a duel to the death, mon ami. You and I on the one side, the Big Four on the other. They have won the first trick; but they have failed in their plan to get me out of the way, and in the future they have to reckon with Hercule Poirot!”