>> looks just like a patchwork quilt, doesn't it? >> no! >> well, it does to me. it does to everybody else. >> not to poirot. >> well, i suppose you don't think that looks like a great mass of cotton wool. >> no! >> i don't think you've got any imagination at all, poirot. >> that is true, mon ami. but, fortunately, you have enough for both of us. it is extremely valuable to me.

[honking] >> good morning, sir. >> good morning.

ah, c'est magnifique. just the place for a restful vacation. the food will be inedible. >> what do you think, poirot? down to the beach this afternoon? or shall i have a round at golf? tennis court's pretty good, i understand. >> waiter! >> still no news of captain seaton. >> comment? >> the round the world flight. >> ah.

>> they haven't given up hope yet though apparently. he may have made it to one of the pacific islands. >> cannibals. >> i say. it makes you proud to be an englishman then. oh, i'm sorry. >> do not be sorry, hastings. it is not a tragedy for me that i was born on the wrong side of the channel. oh, this is terrible! i'm going to find the waiter. ah, mon dieu. garcon! waiter! ow! >> you all right?

>> oh, i say. >> do not perturb yourself, hastings. a turned ankle, that is all. >> i wish you'd let it be seen to. >> ah, in the pleasure of your company, mademoiselle, the pain is already past. ah, pardon. this is captain hastings. hastings, imagine, the house over there on the point, it belongs to mademoiselle buckley. >> really? >> it's called end house. i love it, but it's going to rack and ruin, i'm afraid. >> oh, that is sad. >> it's a big house. do you live there all by yourself? >> oh, i'm away a good deal. when i'm at home there's usually a rather rowdy crowd coming and going. >> i was beginning to imagine you in a dark, mysterious mansion, haunted by a family curse. >> well, if it is haunted, the ghost must be sent to protect me. i've had three escapes from sudden death in the last three days. >> escapes from death? >> oh, just accidents, you know.

oh, curse these bees. i hate the way they come right past your face. >> ah. >> hey! hey! >> here, george! here i am! >> come on, girl. freddie's frantic for a drink. hello. >> this is commander challenger. he's in the navy. >> i have a great regard for the royal navy. >> oh, well done, well done. >> all right, george, don't get over excited. come on, let's go find freddie and jim. i hope the ankle will be all right. >> merci. >> nice girl.

>> is commander challenger what you might call a good chap, yes? >> oh, absolutely. oh, good dive. >> has he the tendresse for her? what do you think, hastings? >> my dear poirot, how on earth should i know? this is miss buckley's hat, isn't it? >> yes, we are going to return it to end house. thus we shall have the opportunity to see again the charming mademoiselle nick. >> do you know, i do believe you've fallen for her. >> oh, no, no, no, no. you are under a misapprehension, mon ami. the young lady, she is very charming, yes. but i am more interested in her hat. >> i don't see why you'd be interested in her hat. there's a hole in it. >> yes, indeed.

>> did you do that? >> hastings, did you notice the way mademoiselle nick flinched as a bee flew past? a bee in the bonnet, a hole in the hat. >> a bee couldn't make a hole like this. >> but the bullet could, my friend. a bullet like this. mademoiselle nick has three escapes from death in as many days, now a fourth. these are not mere accidents, mon ami. >> you'd have to be a madman to try and shoot someone in a hotel garden in broad daylight. >> ah. thank you. >> good day. >> good morning. >> good day.

>> quite impressive. it looks as if it could do with a bit of work. i say. >> yes? [music playing] >> it's all exactly a curse of miss lazarus to ignore us like this, what? >> jim is far too good a dancer to be a gentleman, aren't you, darling? >> oh, say, freddie. an awful waste of an expensive education otherwise.

>> there are some men to see you, miss. >> oh, hello again. >> pardon, mademoiselle, commander. we have come to return your hat. >> my hat. i'd wondered what had happened to it. >> this is for you, george. [music playing] [man singing] >> there is a matter of the greatest urgency i must discuss with you, mademoiselle. >> don't say you're selling something. no, with that moustache and staying at the majestic, can't be.

now, what's all the mystery? >> mademoiselle, it was not a bee that flew past your face this morning. it was this. >> what is it? >> it is a bullet. >> i am damned.

>> ah, miss buckley very kindly helped my friend when he twisted his ankle this morning. >> ah, yes, so he'd said. i am glad she didn't invent the whole thing. she's the most brazen liar that ever existed, you know. oh, it's quite a gift. she had a marvelous story the other day about the brakes on her car failing and her nearly being killed. all nonsense, jim says. jim knows about cars. >> is that your chevrolet fanta outside? >> yes. pretty, isn't she? >> oh, i say, there's two watches on the table exactly the same. >> oh, we've all got one of those. >> don't touch, old boy.

>> keep good time, do they? >> they keep the best time in the world. [laughs] [upbeat music playing] >> oh, i can't dance to that. >> of course you can, freddie. [laughter] [women singing] [laughter] >> the first accident was that picture. i should think the painter might have set that when he finished it, don't you? anyway, it came down--crash--in the middle of the night. luckily for me i'd been sleeping badly lately and i'd got up to make myself a cup of tea. otherwise, it might have bashed my head in. >> and the other accidents? >> the brakes on my car went

west as i was going down the hill into saint lou. and the next day a boulder detached itself from the cliff at the end of the garden while i was on the rocks underneath. it's jolly nice of you and all that, but why are you so interested? >> you do not understand, mademoiselle? you are in grave danger. >> oh, come off it. >> oh, no, no, no, no. i tell it to you, i. you do know who i am? >> no, i don't. >> i forget you are but a child. allors, my friend here, captain hastings, he will tell it to you. >> well, monsieur poirot is a detective. >> oh. >> uh, uh, a great detective. >> my friend, is that all you can find to say? mais dit-on, say that to mademoiselle that i am the detective unique, unsurpassed, the greatest that ever lived. >> well, there doesn't seem

much point now. you've told her yourself. >> ah, yes, but it is more agreeable to preserve the modesty. >> no, but seriously, these were just accidents. >> you are as obstinate as the devil. >> aren't you clever? that's where i got my name. my grandfather was popularly supposed to have sold his soul to the devil. i lived here with him so they called us old nick and young nick. my real name's magdala. >> that's unusual. >> yes, it's a kind of family name. there's been a lot of magdalas in the buckley family. that's it. that's where i was standing. >> and the boulder only just missed you? could someone have pushed it from above? >> no, i tell you it was just another accident. >> do you have any enemies, mademoiselle?

>> i'm afraid i don't. no, sorry. >> is there anyone who would profit by your death? >> no, that's why it all seems such nonsense. there's only the house, but it's mortgaged up to the hilt and the roof leaks. there's only the one bedroom that's usable, you know. my friends stay at the majestic. >> who is your nearest relation? >> my cousin, charles vyse. he's a local lawyer. he gives me good advice and tries to restrain my extravagances. he arranged the mortgage for me and made me let a large about a year ago. >> we saw someone gardening there. >> mr. croft. very australian. you know, hearty and that sort of thing. i mean, terribly kind, but--mrs. croft's a cripple, poor dear. >> have you ever made a will? >> yes, i did, about six months ago, the day before my op for appendicitis. >> and what were the terms of that will? >> i left end house to charles. i hadn't much else left to leave, but what there was i left to freddie. >> tell me about your friends.

>> well, freddie rice is practically my greatest friend. she left her husband about a year or two ago. she just won't give her a divorce. >> and commander challenger? he wishes you to marry him, n'est-ce pas? >> he does mention it now and again, after the second glass of port. >> and you remain hard-hearted? >> well, what would be the use of george and i marrying one another? neither of us have got a bean. >> tres bien. apart from madame rice, is there any other friend you can trust, mademoiselle? >> there's maggie, i suppose. >> aha, who is maggie? >> she's a distant cousin, lives in yorkshire. i usually have her to stay sometime in the summer. she's no fun though. >> ah, the person ideal. telegraph her to come tomorrow. >> oh. >> ah. >> jim lazarus, mrs. rice's friend, has he anything to do with lazarus art galleries? >> that's the chap. >> oh, i was in there the other day. >> oh? >> the legander overheated just outside, so i went in to ask-- >> hastings, this morning

somebody shot at mademoiselle buckley with a mauser pistol. >> mauser? >> why, do you know anyone who has a mauser? >> yes, i have. it was dad's. he brought it back from the war. it's gone. >> you know, poirot, that mrs. rice says that miss buckley's accident in her car was all my eye. she says miss buckley's a terrific liar. >> really? that is most interesting, hastings. it is interesting for itself, and it is interesting that madame rice has said it. but why should she say it, even if it were true? ah, these are curious things. i like to see them appear. they point the way.

ah. >> this is all very well, poirot, but what we're trying to do is impossible. we're trying to detect a murderer before he's committed the crime. >> well said, hastings. >> i don't know where to start. i don't know that there were friends very much, except commander challenger, of course, he's obviously a pakisar. >> you know, hastings, you have the most extraordinary effect on me. >> really? >> yes, you have so strongly the flair in the wrong direction, that i am almost tempted to doubt the commander.

>> who's there? >> it is i. poirot. >> the office isn't open. >> ah, mais oui. i pushed the door downstairs, it was not locked. you are monsieur vyse? >> yes. >> it is very good of you to see me at the weekend. hercule poirot. >> poirot? >> poirot. what kind of a place is this? tell me, monsieur vyse, if i may ask--and i have said nothing about this to your

cousin, mademoiselle buckley, you understand--is there any chance of end house being on the market? >> oh, no. miss buckley is absolutely devoted to the place. nothing would induce her to sell end house. >> but i do not ask idly. i myself am in search of just such a property. >> it's out of the question, i'm afraid. she's fanatically devoted to the house. [music playing] >> why should charles vyse say that mademoiselle buckley had a fanatical devotion to the house?

did it seem like a fanatical devotion to you, hastings? >> no. >> no. nor to me. what did the garage say? >> well, whatever i tell you you'll believe just the opposite. >> oh, come now, hastings. >> oh, very well then. the garage said that the valve on the back of the brake drum had definitely been loosened. >> truly? then why did madame rice say that the car accident was all an invention by mademoiselle buckley? permit?

madame, i do not know if your friend has told you, but today her life has been attempted. >> what do you mean? >> mademoiselle buckley was shot at in the gardens of this hotel. >> did nick tell you that? >> yes, but it is no fantasy of mademoiselle's imagination, you understand. i happen to see it with my own eyes. here's the bullet. you see, madame, several very curious accidents have occurred during the last few days. ah, but you arrived here only-- >> ah, yesterday. >> and before that you were in london? >> no, i was staying with friends in tavistock. >> ah, i wonder, what were the names of your friends with whom you were staying? >> is there any reason why i should tell you that? >> no, no, no. mille pardons.