Смерть на Ниле / Death on the Nile

‘Figure to yourself,’ said Poirot, ‘a person A who has grievously wronged a person B. The person B desires the revenge. The person B makes the threats.’

‘A and B being both on this boat?’

Poirot nodded.

‘Precisely.’

‘And B, I gather, being a woman?’

‘Exactly.’

Race lit a cigarette.

‘I shouldn’t worry. People who go about talking of what they are going to do don’t usually do it.’

‘And particularly is that the case with les femmes, you would say!

‘Yes, that is true.’

But he still did not look happy.

‘Anything else?’ asked Race.

‘Yes, there is something. Yesterday the person A had a very near escape from death. The kind of death that might very conveniently be called an accident.’

‘Engineered by B?’

‘No, that is just the point. B could have had nothing to do with it.’

‘Then it was an accident.’

‘I suppose so – but I do not like such accidents.’

‘You’re quite sure B could have had no hand in it?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Oh, well, coincidences do happen.

‘On the contrary. A is a charming, rich, and beautiful young lady.’

Race grinned.

‘Sounds quite like a novelette.’

‘Peut-?tre. But I tell you, I am not happy, my friend. If I am right, and after all I am constantly in the habit of being right’-Race smiled into his moustache at this typical utterance-‘then there is matter for grave inquietude. And now, you come to add yet another complication. You tell me that there is a man on the Karnak who kills.

‘He doesn’t usually kill charming young ladies.’

Poirot shook his head in a dissatisfied manner.

‘I am afraid, my friend,’ he said. ‘I am afraid… Today, I advised this lady, Madame Doyle, to go with her husband to Khartoum, not to return on this boat. But they would not agree. I pray to Heaven that we may arrive at Shellal without catastrophe.’

‘Aren’t you taking rather a gloomy view?’

Poirot shook his head.

‘I am afraid,’ he said simply.

Chapter 11

Cornelia Robson stood inside the temple of Abu Simbel. It was the evening of the following day – a hot still evening. The Karnak was anchored once more at Abu Simbel to permit a second visit to be made to the temple, this time by artificial light. The difference this made was considerable, and Cornelia commented wonderingly on the fact to Mr Ferguson, who was standing by her side.