Page 120 - Demo

Agatha Christie MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
“No. By the way, did you notice that Count Andrenyi keeps his handkerchief in his right-hand breast pocket?”
M. Bouc shook his head. His mind reverted to the astonishing revelations of the last half-hour. He murmured:
“Lies—and again lies. It amazes me, the number of lies we had told to us this morning.” “There are more still to discover,” said Poirot cheerfully.
“You think so?”
“I shall be very much disappointed if it is not so.”
“Such duplicity is terrible,” said M. Bouc. “But it seems to please you,” he added reproachfully.
“It has this advantage,” said Poirot. “If you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, he will usually admit it—often out of sheer surprise. It is only necessary to guess right to produce your effect.
“That is the only way to conduct this case. I select each passenger in turn, consider his or her evidence, and say to myself, ‘If so and so is lying, on what point is he lying, and what is the reason for the lie?’ And I answer, ‘If he is lying—if, you mark—it could only be for such a reason and on such a point.’ We have done that once very successfully with Countess Andrenyi. We shall now proceed to try the same method on several other persons.”
“And supposing, my friend, that your guess happens to be wrong?” “Then one person, at any rate, will be completely freed from suspicion.” “Ah!—a process of elimination.”
“Exactly.”
“And whom do we tackle next?”
“We are going to tackle that pukka sahib, Colonel Arbuthnot.”
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