The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot 21)

there that I must not be allowed to see? I think,

THE DREAM

175

my friends, that there was--Benedict Farley himself!"

He smiled at the blank faces.

"Yes, yes, it is not nonsense what I say. Why

could the Mr. Farley to whom I had been talking

not realize the difference between two totally dissimilar

letters? Because, roes amis, he was a man

of normal sight wearing a pair of very powerful

glasses. Thoseglasses would render a man of normal

eyesight practically blind. Isn't that so, doctor?''

Stillingfleet murmured, "That's somof course."

"Why did I feel that in talking to Mr. Farley I

was talking to a mountebank, to an actor playing

a part? Because he was playing a part! Consider

the setting. The dim room, the green shaded light

turned blindingly away from the figure in the

chair. What did I seemthe famous patchwork

dressing-gown, the beaked nose (faked with that

useful substance, nose putty), the white crest of hair, the powerful lenses concealing the eyes.

What evidence is there that Mr. Farley ever had a

dream? Only the story I was told and the evidence

of Mrs. Farley. What evidence is there that

Benedict Farley kept a revolver in his desk? Again

only the story told me and the word of Mrs. Farley.

Two people carried this fraud throughJMrs.

Farley and Hugo Cornworthy. Cornworthy wrote

the letter to me, gave instructions to the butler,

went out ostensibly to the cinema, but let himself