Смерть на Ниле / Death on the Nile

The eyes rolled, the heads moved rhythmically from side to side, the lips chanted a new invocation:

‘Hip, hip hurray! Hip, hip hurray! Very good, very nice. Thank you very much.’

‘How absurd! How do they do it? Are they really buried very deep?’

Simon produced some small change.

‘Very good, very nice, very expensive,’ he mimicked.

Two small boys in charge of the ‘show’ picked up the coins neatly.

Linnet and Simon passed on. They had no wish to return to the boat, and they were weary of sightseeing.

They settled themselves with their backs to the cliff and let the warm sun bake them through.

‘How lovely the sun is,’ thought Linnet. ‘How warm – how safe… How lovely it is to be happy… How lovely to be me – me – me – Linnet-’

Her eyes closed. She was half asleep, half awake, drifting in the midst of thought that was like the sand drifting and blowing.

Simon’s eyes were open. They too held contentment. What a fool he’d been to be rattled that first night… There was nothing to be rattled about… Everything was all right… After all, one could trust Jackie-

There was a shout – people running towards him waving their arms – shouting…

Simon stared stupidly for a moment.

Then he sprang to his feet and dragged Linnet with him.

Not a minute too soon. A big boulder hurtling down the cliff crashed past them. If Linnet had remained where she was she would have been crushed to atoms.

White-faced they clung together. Hercule Poirot and Tim Allerton ran up to them.

‘Ma foi, Madame, that was a near thing.’

All four instinctively looked up at the cliff. There was nothing to be seen. But there was a path along the top. Poirot remembered seeing some locals walking along there when they had first come ashore.

He looked at the husband and wife. Linnet looked dazed still – bewildered. Simon, however, was inarticulate with rage.

‘God damn her!’ he ejaculated. He checked himself with a quick glance at Tim Allerton.

The latter said:

‘Phew, that was near! Did some fool bowl that thing over, or did it get detached on its own?’

Linnet was very pale.

She said with difficulty:

‘I think – some fool must have done it.’

‘Might have crushed you like an eggshell. Sure you haven’t got an enemy, Linnet?’

Linnet swallowed twice and found difficulty in answering the light-hearted raillery.

Poirot said quickly: ‘Come back to the boat, Madame. You must have a restorative.