“You must forgave my acting without consulting you, Philip,” she said. “Let me introduce you to Monsieur Hercule Poirot, of whom you must often have heard, and his friend, Captain Hastings." Ridgeway looked very astonished.
“Of course I have heard of you, Monsieur Poirot,” he said, as he shook hands. "But I had no idea that Esmee was thinking of consulting you about my—our trouble.’、
“I was afraid you would not let me do it, Philip,” said Miss Farquhar meekly.
“So you took care to be on the safe side,” he observed,with a smile. “I hope Monsieur Poirot will be able to throw some light on this extraordinary puzzle, for I confess frankly that I am nearly out of my mind with worry and anxiety about it.”
Indeed, his face looked drawn and haggard and showed only too clearly the strain under which he was laboring.
“Well, well,” said Poirot. “Let us lunch, and over lunch we will put our heads together and see what can be done. I want to hear Mr. Ridgeway’s story from his own lips.”
While we discussed the excellent steak and kidney pudding of the establishment, Philip Ridgeway narrated the circumstances leading to the disappearance of the bonds. His story agreed with that of Miss Farquhar in every particular. When he had finished, Poirot took up the thread with a question.
“What exactly led you to discover that the bonds had been stolen, Mr. Ridgeway?’
He laughed rather biterly.
“The thing stared me in the face, Monsieur Poirot, I couldn’t have missed it. My cabin trunk was half out from under the bunk and all scratched and cut about where they’d tried to force the lock”’
“But I understood that it had been opened with a key?”
“That’s so. They tried to force it, but couldn’t. And,in the end, they must have got it unlocked somehow or other.”
“Curious,” said Poirot, his eyes beginning to flicker with the green
light I knew so well.” Very curious! They waste much, much time trying to prise it open, and then—sapristi! they find that they have the key all the time—for each of Hubbs’s locks are unique”’
“That’s just why they couldn’t have had the key. It never left me day or night.”
“You are sure of that?”
can swear to it, and besides, if they had had the key or a duplicate, why should they waste time trying to force an obviously unforcible lock”,
“Ah! there is exactly the question we are asking ourselves! I venture to prophesy that the solution, if we ever find it, will hinge on that curious fact. I beg of you not to assault me if I ask you one more question： Are you perfectly certain you did not leave the trunk un- locked?”
Philip Ridgeway merely looked at him, and Poirot gesticulated apologetically,
“Ah,but these things can happen, I assure you! Very well, the bonds were stolen from the trunk. What did the thief do with them? How did he manage to get ashore with them?”
“Ah!” cried Ridgeway. “That’s just it. How? Word was passed to the Customs authorities, and every soul that left the ship was gone over with a toothcomb!”
“And the bonds, I gather, made a bulky package?”
“Certainly they did. They could hardly have been hidden on board— and anyway we know they weren’t because they were offered for sale within half an hour of the Olympia's arrival, long before I got the cables going and the numbers sent out. One broker swears he bought some of them even before the Olympia got in. But you can’t “send bonds by wireless.”
“Not by wireless, but did any tug come alongside?”
“Only the official ones, and that was after the alarm was gaven when everyone was on the lookout. I was watching out myself for their being passed over to someone that way. My God, Monsieur Poirot, this thing will drI have me mad! People are beginning to say I stole them myself.” “But you also were searched on landing, weren’t you?” asked Poirot gently.
“Yes.”
The young man stared at him in a puzzled manner.
“You do not catch my meaning, I see” said Poirot, smiling enigmatically. “Now I should like to make a few inquiries at the bank” Ridgeway produced a card and scribbled a few words on it.
“Send this in and my uncle will see you at once.”
Poirot thanked him, bade farewell to Miss Farquhar, and together we started out for Threadneedle Street and the head office of the
London and Scottish Bank. On production of Ridgeway” card, we were led through the labyrinth of counters and desks, skirting paying- in clerks and paying-out clerks and up to a small office on the first floor where the joint general managers received us. They were two grave gentlemen, who had grown gray in the service of the bank. Mr. Vavasour had a short white beard, Mr. Shaw was cleanshaven.
‘I understand you are strictly a private inquiry agent?’ said Mr. Vavasour. “Quite so, quite so. We have, of course, placed ourselves in the hands of Scotland Yard. Inspector McNeil has charge of the case. A very able officer, I believe”
“I am sure of it” said Poirot politely. “You will permit a few questions, on your nephew's behalf? About this lock, who ordered it from Hubbs’s?”
“I ordered it myself,” said Mr. Shaw. “I would not trust to any clerk in the matter. As to the keys, Mr. Ridgeway had one, and the other two are held by my colleague and myself”
“And no clerk has had access to them?”
Mr. Shaw turned inquiringly to Mr. Vavasour.
“I think I am correct in saying that they have remained in the safe where we placed them on the 23rd,” said Mr. Vavasour. “My colleague was unfortunately taken ill a fortnight ago—in fact on the very day that Philip left us. He has only just recovered”
“Severe bronchitis is no joke to a man of my age,” said Mr. Shaw ruefully. “But I am afraid Mr. Vavasour has suffered from the hard work entailed by my absence, especially with this unexpected worry coming on top of everything.”
Poirot asked a few more questions. I judged that he was endeavoring to gauge the exact amount of intimacy between uncle and nephew. Mr. Vavasour’s answers were brief and punctilious. His nephew was a trusted official of the bank,and had no debts or money difficulties that he knew of. He had been entrusted with similar missions in the past. Finally we were politely bowed out.
“I am disappointed,” said Poirot,as we emerged into the street. “You hoped to discover more? They are such stodgy old men.”
“t is not their stodginess which disappoints me, mon ami. I do not expect to find in a bank manager a ‘keen financier with an eagle glance’ as your favorite works of fiction put it. No, I am disappointed in the case一it is too easy!”
“Easy?”
“Yes, do you not find it almost childishly simple?”
“You know who stole the bonds?”
“I do.”
“But then—we must一why—”
“Do not confuse and fluster yourself, Hastings. We are not going to do anything at present.”
“But why? What are you waiting for?”
‘4For the Olympia. She is due on her return trip from New York on Tuesday.”
4”But if you know who stole the bonds, why wait? He may escape”
“o a South Sea island where there is no extradition? No, mon ami, he would find life very uncongenial there. As to why I wait—eh