The Big Four

He laughs best who laughs at the end.

He dragged me back - just in time. A tree had crashed down on to the side walk, just missing us. Poirot stared at it, pale and upset. "It was a near thing that! But clumsy, all the same - for I had no suspicion - at least hardly any suspicion. Yes, but for my quick eyes, the eyes of a cat, Hercule Poirot might now be crushed out of existence - a terrible calamity for the world. And you, too, mon ami - though that would not be such a national catastrophe." "Thank you," I said coldly.

You surprise me, Hastings. Do you not know that all celebrated detectives have brothers who would be even more celebrated than they are were it not for constitutional indolence?

If one man does not make a move, the other must, and by permitting the adversary to make the attack one learns something about him.

Poirot was standing in the larder in a dramtic attitude. In his hand he was brandishing a leg of mutton. 'My dear Poirot! What is the matter? have you gone mad?' 'Regard i pray you this mutton! But regard it closely!

You must remember, too," he added, "that we deal with no ordinary criminal, but with the second greatest brain in the world." I forbore to pander to his conceit by asking the obvious question.

My good Japp, is it possible that you throw the mud in my eyes? I know well enough that it is the Chinaman you suspect. But you are so artful. You want me to help you—and yet you drag the red kipper across the trail.

Only in England is the coffee so atrocious,’ he remarked. ‘On the continent, they understand how important it is for the digestion that it should be properly made.