The butler bowed and drew back. Hercule Poirot entered the house. The butler closed the door behind him.
But there was yet one more formality before the deft hands took hat and stick from the visitor.
"You will excuse me, sir. I was to ask for a letter."
With deliberation Poirot took from his pocket the folded letter and handed it to the butler. The latter gave it a mere glance, then returned it with a bow. Hercule Poirot returned it to his pocket. Its contents were simple.
Northway House, W.8.
M. Hercule Poirot.
Dear Sir, Mr Benedict Farley would like to have the benefit of your advice. If convenient to yourself he would be glad if you would call upon him at the above address at 9:30 tomorrow (Thursday) evening.
Yours truly, Hugo Cornworthy (Secretary).
P.S. - Please bring this letter with you.
Deftly the butler relieved Poirot of hat, stick, and overcoat. He said: "Will you please come up to Mr Cornworthy"s room?"
He led the way up the broad staircase. Poirot followed him, looking with appreciation at such objets d"art as were of an opulent and florid nature. His taste in art was always somewhat bourgeois.
On the first floor the butler knocked on a door.
Hercule Poirot"s eyebrows rose very slightly. It was the first jarring note. For the best butlers do not knock at doors - and yet indubitably this was a first-cla.s.s butler!
It was, so to speak, the first intimation of contact with the eccentricity of a millionaire.
A voice from within called out something. The butler threw open the door. He announced (and again Poirot sensed the deliberate departure from orthodoxy): "The gentleman you are expecting, sir."
Poirot pa.s.sed into the room. It was a fair-sized room, very plainly furnished in a workmanlike fashion. Filing cabinets, books of reference, a couple of easy chairs, and a large and imposing desk covered with neatly docketed papers. The corners of the room were dim, for the only light came from a big green-shaded reading-lamp which stood on a small table by the arm of one of the easy chairs. It was placed so as to cast its full light on anyone approaching from the door. Hercule Poirot blinked a little, realizing that the lamp bulb was at least 150 watts. In the armchair sat a thin figure in a patchwork dressing-gown - Benedict Farley. His head was stuck forward in a characteristic att.i.tude, his beaked nose projecting like that of a bird. A crest of white hair like that of a c.o.c.katoo rose above his forehead. His eyes glittered behind thick lenses as he peered suspiciously at his visitor.
"Hey," he said at last - and his voice was shrill and harsh, with a rasping note in it. "So you"re Hercule Poirot, hey?"
"At your service," said Poirot politely and bowed, one hand on the back of the chair.
"Sit down - sit down," said the old man testily.
Hercule Poirot sat down - in the full glare of the lamp. From behind it the old man seemed to be studying him attentively.
"How do I know you"re Hercule Poirot - hey?" he demanded fretfully. "Tell me that - hey?"
Once more Poirot drew the letter from his pocket and handed it to Farley.
"Yes," admitted the millionaire grudgingly. "That"s it. That"s what I got Cornworthy to write." He folded it up and tossed it back. "So you"re the fellow, are you?"
With a little wave of his hand Poirot said: "I a.s.sure you there is no deception!"
Benedict Farley chuckled suddenly.
"That"s what the conjuror says before he takes the goldfish out of the hat! Saying that is part of the trick, you know."
Poirot did not reply. Farley said suddenly: "Think I"m a suspicious old man, hey? So I am. Don"t trust anybody! That"s my motto. Can"t trust anybody when you"re rich. No, no, it doesn"t do."
"You wished," Poirot hinted gently, "to consult me?"
The old man nodded.
"That"s right. Always buy the best. That"s my motto. Go to the expert and don"t count the cost. You"ll notice, M. Poirot, I haven"t asked you your fee. I"m not going to! Send me in the bill later - shan"t cut up rough over it. d.a.m.ned fools at the dairy thought they could charge me two and nine for eggs when two and seven"s the market price - lot of swindlers! I won"t be swindled. But the man at the top"s different. He"s worth the money. I"m at the top myself - I know."
Hercule Poirot made no reply. He listened attentively, his head poised a little on one side.
Behind his impa.s.sive exterior he was conscious of a feeling of disappointment. He could not exactly put his finger on it. So far Benedict Farley had run true to type - that is, he had conformed to the popular idea of himself; and yet - Poirot was disappointed.
"The man," he said disgustedly to himself, "is a mountebank - nothing but a mountebank!"
He had known other millionaires, eccentric men too, but in nearly every case he had been conscious of a certain force, an inner energy that had commanded his respect. If they had worn a patchwork dressing-gown, it would have been because they liked wearing such a dressing-gown. But the dressing-gown of Benedict Farley, or so it seemed to Poirot, was essentially a stage property. And the man himself was essentially stagey. Every word he spoke was uttered, so Poirot felt a.s.sured, sheerly for effect.
He repeated again unemotionally, "You wished to consult me, Mr Farley?"
Abruptly the millionaire"s manner changed.
He leaned forward. His voice dropped to a croak.
"Yes. Yes... I want to hear what you"ve got to say - what you think... Go to the top! That"s my way! The best doctor - the best detective - it"s between the two of them."
"As yet, Monsieur, I do not understand."
"Naturally," snapped Farley. "I haven"t begun to tell you."
He leaned forward once more and shot out an abrupt question.
"What do you know, M. Poirot, about dreams?"
The little man"s eyebrows rose. Whatever he had expected, it was not this.
"For that, Monsieur Farley, I should recommend Napoleon"s Book of Dreams - or the latest practicing psychologist from Harley Street."
Benedict Farley said soberly, "I"ve tried both..."
There was a pause, then the millionaire spoke, at first almost in a whisper, then with a voice growing higher and higher.
"It"s the same dream - night after night. And I"m afraid, I tell you - I"m afraid... It"s always the same. I"m sitting in my room next door to this. Sitting at my desk, writing. There"s a clock there and I glance at it and see the time - exactly twenty-eight minutes past three. Always the same time, you understand.
"And when I see the time, M. Poirot, I know I"ve got to do it. I don"t want to do it - I loathe doing it - but I"ve got to -"
His voice had risen shrilly.
Unperturbed, Poirot said, "And what is it that you have to do?"
"At twenty-eight minutes past three," Benedict Farley said hoa.r.s.ely, "I open the second drawer down on the right of my desk, take out the revolver that I keep there, load it and walk over to the window. And then - and then -"
"Yes?"
Benedict Farley said in a whisper: "Then I shoot myself..."
There was silence.
Then Poirot said, "That is your dream?"
"Yes."
"The same every night?"
"Yes."
"What happens after you shoot yourself?"
"I wake up."
Poirot nodded his head slowly and thoughtfully.
"As a matter of interest, do you keep a revolver in that particular drawer?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I have always done so. It is as well to be prepared."
"Prepared for what?"
Farley said irritably, "A man in my position has to be on his guard. All rich men have enemies."
Poirot did not pursue the subject. He remained silent for a moment or two, then he said: "Why exactly did you send for me?"
"I will tell you. First of all I consulted a doctor - three doctors to be exact."
"Yes?"
"The first told me it was all a question of diet. He was an elderly man. The second was a young man of the modern school. He a.s.sured me that it all hinged on a certain event that took place in infancy at that particular time of day - three twenty-eight. I am so determined, he says, not to remember that event, that I symbolize it by destroying myself. That is his explanation."
"And the third doctor?" asked Poirot.
Benedict Farley"s voice rose in shrill anger.
"He"s a young man too. He has a preposterous theory! He a.s.serts that I, myself, am tired of life, that my life is so unbearable to me that I deliberately want to end it! But since to acknowledge that fact would be to acknowledge that essentially I am a failure, I refuse in my waking moments to face the truth. But when I am asleep, all inhibitions are removed, and I proceed to do that which I really wish to do. I put an end to myself."
"His view is that you really wish, unknown to yourself, to commit suicide?" said Poirot.
Benedict Farley cried shrilly: "And that"s impossible - impossible! I"m perfectly happy! I"ve got everything I want - everything money can buy! It"s fantastic - unbelievable even to suggest a thing like that!"
Poirot looked at him with interest. Perhaps something in the shaking hands, the trembling shrillness of the voice, warned him that the denial was too vehement, that its very insistence was in itself suspect. He contented himself with saying: "And where do I come in, Monsieur?"
Benedict Farley calmed down suddenly. He tapped with an emphatic finger on the table beside him.
"There"s another possibility. And if it"s right, you"re the man to know about it! You"re famous, you"ve had hundreds of cases - fantastic, improbable cases! You"d know if anyone does."
"Know what?"
Farley"s voice dropped to a whisper.
"Supposing someone wants to kill me... Could they do it this way? Could they make me dream that dream night after night?"
"Hypnotism, you mean?"
"Yes."
Hercule Poirot considered the question.
"It would be possible, I suppose," he said at last. "It is more a question for a doctor."
"You don"t know of such a case in your experience?"
"Not precisely on those lines, no."
"You see what I"m driving at? I"m made to dream the same dream, night after night, night after night - and then - one day the suggestion is too much for me - and I act upon it. I do what I"ve dreamed of so often - kill myself!"
Slowly Hercule Poirot shook his head.
"You don"t think that is possible?" asked Farley.
"Possible?" Poirot shook his head. "That is not a word I care to meddle with."
"But you think it improbable?"
"Most improbable."
Benedict Farley murmured, "The doctor said so too..." Then his voice rising shrilly again, he cried out, "But why do I have this dream? Why? Why?"
Hercule Poirot shook his head. Benedict Farley said abruptly, "You"re sure you"ve never come across anything like this in your experience?"
"Never."
"That"s what I wanted to know."
Delicately, Poirot cleared his throat.
"You permit," he said, "a question?"