Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

We live peacefully in the Arden Forest Plateau region, watching the affairs of the world unfold.Every day we received several newspapers, and Pallo received a flood of letters, apparently including reports.He never showed me the reports, but usually I could tell by his attitude whether he was happy with them.He believes that our current plan is one that the Commissioners can win, and his confidence in it has never wavered. "Although, this is not the most important thing at present, Hastings," he said one day, "I have been afraid that your death will be my fault. That fear makes my nerves--as you say Yes, it seems to be on standby at any time, and I can't relax for a moment. However, now, I am very sure, even if they find out that Captain Hastings who landed in South America is a fake (I don't think they will find out, they don't Maybe send a minion there who knows you), they will only believe that you use your own intelligence to pre-empt the strike, they will not bother to find out where you are. They think I am dead, which is the most important thing The fact is, they fully believe in it. They're going to go ahead with their plan."

"And then?" I asked anxiously. "And then, the great resurrection of my friend, Hercule Poirot! At the last critical moment, I reappeared, disturbed everything, and won the supreme victory in my unique way." Poirot's ego is capricious, unfeeling, able to withstand any blow.I reminded him once or twice that our enemies always have the edge over us.But I knew that this did nothing to lessen Poirot's confidence and enthusiasm for his own project. "You know, Hastings, it's like your little trick at bridge. No doubt you'll understand? You take four jacks, and divide them, one on top and one jack on the bottom, Separate them like this - you split the deck in two, shuffle the deck, and they end up together again. That's my goal. I'm satisfied so far, we occasionally attack one of the Big Four One, and occasionally attacking the other. But, in the end, I'll round them up, like four Jacks in a deck, and catch them all."

"How are you going to bring them together?" I asked. "Waiting for the perfect moment. Retiring until they're ready to move." "That may take a long time." I grumbled. "Always impatient, good Hastings! No, not long. The man they feared—I—is no longer there. I'll give them two or three months at most." He said someone was gone, and it made me think of Ingalls and his tragic death.Besides, I don't recall that I hadn't told Poirot about the dying Chinese at St. Giles'. He listened to me very attentively. "Ingels' servant, eh? He spoke some Italian? Strange."

"That's why I suspect that this is a conspiracy by the Four Great Devils." "Your reasoning is wrong, Hastings. Use your little gray cells. If the enemy really wanted to deceive you, they'd want the Chinese to speak clear pidgin English. You're not thinking right, message It's true. Tell me again what you heard, okay?" "First he mentions Handel's slow tune, and then he says something like 'Carosa'—that's a passenger train, isn't it?" "Didn't you say anything else?" "Well, only at the end he whispered something like 'Kara'—a woman's name. And 'Jinya', I think. Still. I don't think the sounds worked out afterwards."

"You don't think it's more than enough, Hastings, Kara Jinya is very important, really important." "I don't think—" "My dear friend—you never feel—that the English don't know geography anyway." "Geography?" I called, "what does geography have to do with this? "I dare say Thomas Cook would have explained it better." As usual.Poirot refused to answer--his most irritating habit.However, I noticed that he was ecstatic, as if he had hit some point or something. The days passed day by day, except that the singing was a bit monotonous, everything else was good.There are plenty of books in the villa, and I can wander around, but sometimes I find it annoying to have to be immobile.I wondered how Poirot could be so calm.Nothing happened and our lives were peaceful and serene.By the end of June, within the deadline Poirot had given them, we had news of the Big Four.

One morning, a car drove to the villa, which was quite unusual in our peaceful life, so I rushed out to see what happened.I saw Poirot talking to a friendly-looking young man, about my own age. Poirot introduced me. "This is Captain Harvey, Hastings, a man of the hour in your intelligence agency." "I think it's just the opposite. Nobodies," said the young man, smiling happily. "I should say that for those who knew the truth, he was a man of the hour. However, most of his friends and those who knew him thought he was a kind, but dull young man--only enthusiastic to jig and every dance that can be named."

We all laughed. "Well, let's get down to business," said Poirot. "You think the time has come." "We're sure of it, sir. China has been completely isolated politically since yesterday. No one knows what's going on there. No news, radio, or other communications equipment of any kind to communicate with them—just a total blockade." — and silence." "Li Changyan has already expressed his intention. What about the others?" "Abel Ryland arrived in England a week ago. On the Continent yesterday." "Where is Madame Olivier?"

"She left Paris last night." "To Italy?" "To Italy, sir. As far as we can tell, they're all going where you point out—but how do you know—" "Oh, it's not my fault! It's the work of this Hastings. He's a fool, you know, but, nonetheless, that's enough information." Harvey looked at me appreciatively, and I felt uncomfortable. "Well, everything is ready," said Poirot, now pale and serious. "The time has come. Is everything arranged?" "Everything you ordered was done. The Italian government, the French government and the British government have your back and, moreover, they work very well with each other."

"As a matter of fact, this is a new negotiation," said Poirot flatly. "I am very glad that Diardo finally believed it. Well, we shall proceed—or rather, I shall proceed. You, Hastings, stay here—yes, please, really, my friend, I mean it." I'm sure he meant it, but I'm not happy with being left like this.Our debate was short, but decisive. It wasn't until we were on the train to Paris that he admitted that he was actually happy with my decision. "Because you have a task to do, Hastings. A very important one! Without you I might fail. However, I feel it is my duty to keep you there."

"Dangerous, eh?" "My friend, as long as there are four big devils, there will be danger." After arriving, we drove to the east gate, and Poirot finally announced our destination, we were going to Borzano and Tyrol in Italy. When Harvey was not in our compartment, I took the opportunity to ask Poirot why he said it was my fault for discovering the meeting place. "Because, that's the truth, my friend. I don't know how Ingalls got the information. He did, however, ask his servant to send us the information. We're going to Carisi, the new Italy, my friend. The name is Karosa Lake. Now you know how your 'Kara Jinya', 'Karosa' and 'Slow Song' came about - Handel came up with your own ideas. Perhaps, some information is Mr. Ingalls got it out a little bit wrong."

"Karishi?" I asked. "I've never heard of it." "I told you that the English don't understand geography. But, in fact, it is a famous and picturesque summer resort, 4,000 feet high, in the heart of the Dolomites." "Are the four big devils about to meet here?" "It should be said that their headquarters is here. The secret code has been notified. They want to disappear from the world and sign orders in their mountain walled in seclusion. I have done investigations - they collected stones and minerals, this matter Ostensibly mined by a small Italian company, in fact, controlled by Abel Ryland. I dare say that the middle of the mountain has been hollowed out to create a vast underground residence, hidden and inaccessible. There, The leaders of the organization can radio their orders to thousands of minions in every country. From the cliffs of the Dolomites, the dictators of the world will emerge. I mean - if there is no Hercule Poirot, they will appear." "Do you really believe in everything, Poirot? So what are the armies and general machinery of the civilized world for?" "What are those things doing in Russia, Hastings. It's going to be a Russia of infinite size - and this attendant threat - that Madame Olivier's experiment will go further than before. I Believing that to a certain extent, she has been able to make atomic energy work for her purposes, she has experimented with nitrogen in the air with remarkable results, and she has also tried to concentrate radio energy, so that a powerful directional radio wave You can focus on a specific point. So far, no one really knows how far her experiments have progressed, but one thing is certain, it must be more advanced than what she has published. She is a genius , that woman—the Curies are nothing compared to her. Her genius combined with Ryland's almost incalculable financial resources, and Li Changyan's brains, the best criminal brains ever to direct the plan— —Alas, as you say, these cannot all be obstacles to civilization." His words made me think deeply.Although Poirot sometimes likes to exaggerate, he is not a worrying type of person.For the first time I realized what a daunting struggle we were engaged in. Harvey returned quickly, and the trip continued. Around noon, we arrived in Bolsano.We change cars there.Several large cars were waiting in the central square of the town, and the three of us got into one of them.In spite of the heat that day, Poirot was covered from the eyes down with heavy coats and scarves, so that all he could see were his eyes and the tops of his ears. I don't know if he's being careful with what he's wearing, or just because he's particularly afraid of catching cold.We sat in the car for hours.It's a beautiful ride.We first turned and turned between tall cliffs with a waterfall flowing slowly on one side.Then came the fertile valley, which lasted for several miles, and then, as we wound steadily upward, appeared the bare top of the hill with dense pine trees beneath.The whole area is naturally lovely.Finally, there were a few sharp turns, the road was lined with pine trees, and in a blink of an eye we were in front of a big hotel, our destination. We have already booked the room first, and Harvey took us directly up.From the room, you can see the top of the mountain and the pine trees leading to the top.Poirot pointed there. "Is there?" he asked quietly. "Yes," Harvey answered, "there's a place called Füssenrabitz--a strange pile of big rocks beside it--and a path winds through them. The quarry is to the right of that place. , however, we speculate that the entrance may be in Füssenrabitz." Poirot nodded. "Come, my friend," he said to me, "let's come down and sit on the verandah to catch a cold and catch the sun." "You want to do this?" I asked. He shrugged. The sun is good--in fact, I think it's stronger.We skipped the tea and had some coffee with creamer.Then, we went upstairs to unpack our bags.Poirot didn't know what he was thinking, and he was lost in thought. At this time, he was the most difficult to get close to.Once or twice, I saw him shake his head and sigh. A man who got off at Borzano and met later in a private car caught my attention.He was small, but what attracted my attention to him was that he was almost as closely clothed as Poirot.Even worse than Poirot. Yes, he wore a pair of big blue sun eyes in addition to his heavy coat and scarf.Poirot didn't seem to care much about my opinion, but he admitted that there was something strange about it when I poked my head out of the bedroom and told him that the suspicious man was strolling around the hotel. I asked my friend not to go down for dinner, but he insisted.We entered the restaurant very late and the waiter pointed us to a table by the window.As we sat down, our attention was drawn to the shattering of falling china and the shouting.A plate of undercooked beans was spilled onto the man at the table next to us. The head waiter came and apologized loudly. A short time later, when the errant waiter brought us soup, Poirot said to him: "It was really bad luck that happened. It wasn't your fault, though." "Did you see that, sir? No, it wasn't really my fault. The man almost jumped out of his chair—I thought he was having a fit. There was nothing I could do to prevent it from happening." I saw that familiar green gleam in Poirot's eyes.When the waiter left, he whispered to me: "You see, Hastings, Hercule Poirot's eyesight--the real one." "Do you think--" I don't have time to finish this sentence.I felt Poirot's hand on my knee, and he whispered excitedly: "Look, Hastings, look. His bread habits! Number Four!" Indeed, the man sitting at the table next to us, his face was very pale, was pressing the bread unconsciously. I studied him carefully.His face is a bit fat, without a beard, and his face is a bit unhealthy pale like a meat bun. There are dark circles around the eyes, and deep wrinkles from the nose to the corner of the mouth.He was probably between thirty-five and forty-five years of age.There's nothing about him like the role No. 4 once played.Indeed, if it hadn't been for his bread-eating habits--a habit of which he himself was evidently unaware, I would certainly say with certainty that I had never seen the man sitting there. "He knows you," I muttered. "You shouldn't have come down." "My good Hastings, that's why I pretended to be dead for three months!" "To startle Number Four?" "Scare him when he has to decide to move fast or not. We have this big advantage, he doesn't know we've identified him. He thinks his new disguise is foolproof. I'm so grateful to Flossie Monroe Tell us about his little habit." "What now?" I asked. "What can be done? He recognized the only person he was afraid of, who was miraculously resurrected just as the plan of the Four Devils was about to succeed. Madame Olivier and Abel Ryland had lunch here today , people thought they were going to Kotina, only we knew they had retired to their hiding place. How much do we really know? This is what Number Four is asking himself right now. He dare not take risks. We must restrain ourselves as much as possible .Well, let him try to overpower Hercule Poirot! I'm ready." When he finished speaking, the man at the next table stood up and walked out. "He's gone out to arrange everything," said Poirot quietly. "Let's have coffee on the balcony, shall we, my friend? It will be very pleasant, I think. I'll go upstairs and put on my overcoat." I stepped out of the balcony feeling a little uneasy.Poirot's assurances were not very satisfactory to me.We've been playing it safe for a while, though, and nothing is going to happen to us.I resolved to be vigilant. Minutes later Poirot returned.Just like his usual outfit to prevent catching a cold, his whole body was wrapped extremely tightly, all the way to the ears.He sat next to me, sipping his coffee. "Only in England is coffee so strong," he said. "Earlier on the Continent, people knew the importance of coffee for digestion, so it was cooked just right." After he finished speaking, the man at the next table suddenly appeared on the balcony.He walked straight up and dragged a chair over to our table. "I hope you don't mind my table with you," he said in English. "I don't mind, sir," said Poirot. I feel very uncomfortable.Although, we were on the balcony of the hotel and there were many people next to us, but I am not satisfied here.I feel a crisis. "At this point, Number Four's demeanor chatted with us in such a natural way that it was hard to believe he wasn't really a tourist. He talked about adventures and car trips, and pretended to be familiar with the neighborhood. .” He took a pipe from his pocket and began to light it.Poirot produced his small cigarette case.As he put one between his lips, the stranger leaned forward with a match in his hand. "I'll help you light the fire." As he spoke, without warning, all the lights went out.There was the tinkling of glasses, something pungent was put under my nose, and I couldn't breathe—