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THE MILLION DOLLAR BOND ROBBERY

A Short Story

by Agatha Christie

This short story is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk

‘The Million Dollar Bond Robbery’ was first published in The Sketch, 2 May 1923.

This ePub edition published April 2012.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Version: 2017-04-18

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

The Million Dollar Bond Robbery

About the Publisher

The Million Dollar Bond Robbery

‘The Million Dollar Bond Robbery’ was first published in The Sketch, 2 May 1923.

‘What a number of bond robberies there have been lately!’ I observed one morning, laying aside the newspaper. ‘Poirot, let us forsake the science of detection, and take to crime instead!’

‘You are on the – how do you say it? – get-rich-quick tack, eh, mon ami?’

‘Well, look at this last coup, the million dollars’ worth of Liberty Bonds which the London and Scottish Bank were sending to New York, and which disappeared in such a remarkable manner on board the Olympia.’

‘If it were not for mal de mer, and the difficulty of practising the so excellent method of Laverguier for a longer time than the few hours of crossing the Channel, I should delight to voyage myself on one of these big liners,’ murmured Poirot dreamily.

‘Yes, indeed,’ I said enthusiastically. ‘Some of them must be perfect palaces; the swimming-baths, the lounges, the restaurant, the palm courts – really, it must be hard to believe that one is on the sea.’

‘Me, I always know when I am on the sea,’ said Poirot sadly. ‘And all those bagatelles that you enumerate, they say nothing to me; but, my friend, consider for a moment the geniuses that travel as it were incognito! On board these floating palaces, as you so justly call them, one would meet the élite, the haute noblesse of the criminal world!’

I laughed.

‘So that’s the way your enthusiasm runs! You would have liked to cross swords with the man who sneaked the Liberty Bonds?’

The landlady interrupted us.

‘A young lady as wants to see you, Mr Poirot. Here’s her card.’

The card bore the inscription: Miss Esmée Farquhar, and Poirot, after diving under the table to retrieve a stray crumb, and putting it carefully in the waste-paper basket, nodded to the landlady to admit her.

In another minute one of the most charming girls I have ever seen was ushered into the room. She was perhaps about five-and-twenty, with big brown eyes and a perfect figure. She was well-dressed and perfectly composed in manner.

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