My fellows are good scouts at scouring the countryside and investigating Arab blood feuds, but frankly, Leidner, this business of your wifes seems to me rather out of my class.
The whole thing looks confoundedly fishy.
Im more than willing to have the fellow take a look at the case.
You suggest that I should appeal to this man Poirot to help us? said Dr Leidner.
And suppose he refuses?
He wont refuse, said Dr Reilly.
How do you know?
Because Im a professional man myself.
If a really intricate case of, say, cerebro-spinal meningitis comes my way and Im invited to take a hand, I shouldnt be able to refuse.
This isnt an ordinary crime, Leidner.
No, said Dr Leidner.
His lips twitched with sudden pain.
Will you then, Reilly, approach this Hercule Poirot on my behalf?
I will.
Dr Leidner made a gesture of thanks.
Even now, he said slowly, I cant realize it that Louise is really dead.
I could bear it no longer.
Oh! Doctor Leidner, I burst out, I I cant tell you how badly I feel about this.
Ive failed so badly in my duty.
It was my job to watch over Mrs Leidner to keep her from harm.
Dr Leidner shook his head gravely.
No, no, nurse, youve nothing to reproach yourself with, he said slowly.
Its I, God forgive me, who am to blameI didnt believe all along I didnt believeI didnt dream for one moment that there was any real danger
He got up.
His face twitched.
I let her go to her deathYes, I let her go to her death not believing
He staggered out of the room.
Dr Reilly looked at me.
I feel pretty culpable too, he said.
I thought the good lady was playing on his nerves.
I didnt take it really seriously either, I confessed.
We were all three wrong, said Dr Reilly gravely.
So it seems, said Captain Maitland.
Chapter 13.
Hercule Poirot Arrives
I dont think I shall ever forget my first sight of Hercule Poirot.
Of course, I got used to him later on, but to begin with it was a shock, and I think everyone else must have felt the same!
I dont know what Id imagined something rather like Sherlock Holmes long and lean with a keen, clever face.
Of course, I knew he was a foreigner, but I hadnt expected him to bequite as foreign as he was, if you know what I mean.
When you saw him you just wanted to laugh!
He was like something on the stage or at the pictures.
To begin with, he wasnt above five-foot five, I should think an odd, plump little man, quite old, with an enormous moustache, and a head like an egg.
He looked like a hairdresser in a comic play!
And this was the man who was going to find out who killed Mrs Leidner!
I suppose something of my disgust must have shown in my face, for almost straightaway he said to me with a queer kind of twinkle:
You disapprove of me, ma soeur?
Remember, the pudding proves itself only when you eat it.
The proof of the puddings in the eating, I suppose he meant.
Well, thats a true enough saying, but I couldnt say I felt much confidence myself!
Dr Reilly brought him out in his car soon after lunch on Sunday, and his first procedure was to ask us all to assemble together.