The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot 21)

over his signature. It now read (with difficulty)

Christopher Pyne.

If Mrs. R. Chester was unhappy in Pollensa

Bay, it was not going to be made easy for her to

consult Mr. Parker Pyne.

Already it had been a source of abiding wonder

to that gentleman that so many people he had

come across abroad should know his name and

have noted his advertisements. In England many

thousands of people read the Times every day and

could have answered quite truthfully that they had

never heard such a name in their lives. Abroad, he

reflected, they read their newspapers more thor-oughly.

No item, not even the advertisement col-umns,

escaped them.

Already his holidays had been interrupted on

several occasions. He had dealt with a whole series

of problems from murder to attempted blackmail.

He was determined in Majorca to have peace. He

felt instinctively that a distressed mother might

trouble that peace considerably.

Mr. Parker Pyne settled down at the Pino d'Oro

very happily. There was a larger hotel not far off,

the Mariposa, where a good many English people

Agatha Christie

stayed. Fire was also-quite an artist colony living

all round. You could walk along by the sea to the

fishing village where there was a cocktail bar

where peolle met--there were a few shops. It was