“But the man who personated the Prime Minister was seen by every- one!”
‘He was not seen by anyone who knew him privately or intimately.
And Daniels shielded him from contact with anyone as much as possible. Moreover, his face was bandaged up, and anything unusual in his manner would be put down to the fact that he was suffering from shock as a result of the attempt upon his life. Mr. MacAdam has a weak throat, and always spares his voice as much as possible before any great speech. The deception was perfectly easy to keep up as far as France. There it would be impracticable and impossible—so the Prime Minister disappears. The police of this country hurry across the Channel, and no one bothers to go into the details of the first attack. To sustain the illusion that the abduction has taken place in France, Daniels is gagged and chloroformed in a convincing manner”
“And the man who has enacted the part of the Prime Minister?”
“Rids himself of his disguise. He and the bogus chauffeur may be arrested as suspicious characters, but no one will dream of suspecting their real part in the drama, and they will eventually be released for lack of evidence.”
“And the real Prime Minister?”
"He and O”urphy were drI haven straight to the house of 'Mrs. Ever- ard/ at Hampstead, Daniels, so-called aunt. In reality, she is Frau Bertha Ebenthal, and the police have been looking for her for some time. It is a valuable little present that I have made to them—to say nothing of Daniels! Ah, it was a clever plan, but he did not reckon on the cleverness of Hercule Poirot!”
I think my friend might well be excused his moment of vanity.
“When did you first begin to suspect the truth of the matter?”
“When I began to work the right way—from within! I could not make that shooting affair fit in—but when I saw that the net result of it was that the Prime Minister went to France with his face bound up l began to comprehend! And when I visited all the cottage hospitals between Windsor and London, and found that no one answering to my description had had his face bound up and dressed that morning, I was sure! After that, it was child’s play for a mind like mine!”
The following morning, Poirot showed me a telegram he had just received. It had no place of origin, and was unsigned. It ran：
In time.
Later in the day the evening papers published an account of the Allied Conference. They laid particular stress on the magnificent ovation accorded to Mr. David MacAdam, whose inspiring speech had produced a deep and lasting impression
The Disappearance of Mr- Davenheim
than placing, on the table. He had also breathed heavily on the metal teapot, and polished it with a silk handkerchief. The kettle was on the boil, and a small enamel saucepan beside it contained some thick, sweet chocolate which was more to Poirot's palate than what he described as “your English poison.”
A sharp rat-tat sounded below, and a few minutes afterwards Japp entered briskly.
“Hope I’m not late,” he said as he greeted us. “To tell the truth, I was yarning with Miller,the man who’s in charge of the Davenheim
case.”
I pricked up my ears. For the last three days the papers had been full of the strange disappearance of Mr. Davenheim” senior partner of Davenheim and Salmon, the well-known bankers and financiers. On Saturday last he had walked out of his house, and had never been seen since. I looked forward to extracting some interesting details from Japp.
"I should have thought” I remarked, "that it would be almost impossible for anyone to disappear nowadays”
Poirot moved a plate of bread and butter the eighth of an inch, and said sharply：
4”Be exact, my friend. What do you mean by 'disappear? To which class of disappearance are you referring?’
“Are disappearances classified and labeled, then?” I laughed.
Japp smiled also. Poirot frowned at us both.
“But certainly they are! They fall into three categories: First, and most common, the voluntary disappearance. Second, the much abused “loss of memory’ case—rare, but occasionally genuine. Third, murder,and a more or less successful disposal of the body. Do you refer to all three as impossible of execution?’
“Very nearly so, I should think. You might lose your own memory, but some one would be sure to recognize you—especially in the case of a well-known man like Davenheim. Then 'bodies' can't be made to vanish into thin air. Sooner or later they turn up, concealed in lonely places, or in trunks. Murder will out. In the same way, the absconding clerk, or the domestic defaulter, is bound to be run down in these days of wireless telegraphy. He can be headed off from foreign countries； ports and railway stations are watched; and, as for concealment in this country, his features and appearance will be known to everyone who reads a daily newspaper. He’s up against civilization.’” flmi,” said Poirot, “you make one error. You do not allow for the fact that a man who had decided to make away with another man—or with himself in a figuratI have sense一might be that rare machine, a man of method. He might bring intelligence, talent, a careful calculation of detail to the task； and then I do not see why he should not be successful in baffling the police force."
“But not you, I suppose?” said Japp good-humoredly, winking at me. “He couldn’t ba扭e you,eh. Monsieur Poirot?”
Poirot endeavored, with a marked lack of success, to look modest. “Me,also! Why not? It is true that I approach such problems with an exact science, a mathematical precision, which seems, alas, only too rare in the new generation of detectI haves!”
Japp grinned more widely.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Miller,the man who’s on this case,is a smart chap. You may be very sure he wonft overlook a footprint, or a cigar ash, or a crumb even. Hes got eyes that see everything”
“So, mon ami” said Poirot,”has the London sparrow. But all the same, I should not ask the little brown bird to solve the problem of Mr. Davenheim”
“Come now, monsieur, you’re not going to run down the value of details as clues?’.
“By no means. These things are all good in their way. The danger is they may assume undue importance. Most details are insignificant; one or two are vital. It is the brain, the little gray cells”一he tapped his forehead一“on which one must rely. The senses mislead. One must seek the truth within—not without.”
“You don’t mean to say, Monsieur Poirot, that you would undertake to solve a case without moving from your chair,do you?”
“That is exactly what I do mean_granted the facts were placed before me. I regard myself as a consulting specialist”
Japp slapped his knee. “Hanged if I don’t take you at your word. Bet you a fI haver that you can’t lay your hand—or rather tell me where to lay my hand—on Mr. Davenheim, dead or alI have, before a week is out.”
Poirot considered. “Eh bieny mon ami, I accept. Le sport, it is the passion of you English. Now—the facts.”
“On Saturday last, as is his usual custom, Mr. Davenheim took the I2:40 train from Victoria to Chingside, where his palatial country place, the Cedars, is situated. After lunch, he strolled round the grounds, and gave various directions to the gardeners. Everybody agrees that his manner was absolutely normal and as usual. After tea he put his head into his wife’s boudoir, saying that he was going to stroll down to the village and post