The Seven Dials mystery

The Seven Dials Mystery

                            Agatha Christie

                           PRINTING HISTORY
               _Dodd, Mead edition published March 1929_
          _Grosset & Dunlap edition published February 1930_
           _American Mercury edition published October 1942_
                     _Bantam edition/January 1964_
                    _New Bantam edition/March 1976_
        _The Agatha Christie Mystery Collection/September 1986_

                        _All rights reserved._
            _Copyright 1929 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc._
        _Copyright renewed © 1957 by Agatha Christie Mallowan._

                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




                               CONTENTS


                      I ON EARLY RISING

                     II CONCERNING ALARUM CLOCKS

                    III THE JOKE THAT FAILED

                     IV A LETTER

                      V THE MAN IN THE ROAD

                     VI SEVEN DIALS AGAIN

                    VII BUNDLE PAYS A CALL

                   VIII VISITORS FOR JIMMY

                     IX PLANS

                      X BUNDLE VISITS SCOTLAND YARD

                     XI DINNER WITH BILL

                    XII INQUIRIES AT CHIMNEYS

                   XIII THE SEVEN DIALS CLUB

                    XIV THE MEETING OF THE SEVEN DIALS

                     XV THE INQUEST

                    XVI THE HOUSE PARTY AT THE ABBEY

                   XVII AFTER DINNER

                  XVIII JIMMY'S ADVENTURES

                    XIX BUNDLE'S ADVENTURES

                     XX LORAINE'S ADVENTURES

                    XXI THE RECOVERY OF THE FORMULA

                   XXII THE COUNTESS RADZKY'S STORY

                    XXIII SUPERINTENDENT BATTLE IN CHARGE

                    XXIV BUNDLE WONDERS

                    XXV JIMMY LAYS HIS PLANS

                    XXVI MAINLY ABOUT GOLF

                    XXVII NOCTURNAL ADVENTURE

                    XXVIII SUSPICIONS

                    XXIX SINGULAR BEHAVIOUR OF GEORGE LOMAX

                    XXX AN URGENT SUMMONS

                    XXXI THE SEVEN DIALS

                    XXXII BUNDLE IS DUMFOUNDED

                    XXXIII BATTLE EXPLAINS

                    XXXIV LORD CATERHAM APPROVES




                        THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY




                               CHAPTER I

                            ON EARLY RISING


That amiable youth, Jimmy Thesiger, came racing down the big staircase
at Chimneys two steps at a time. So precipitate was his descent that
he collided with Tredwell, the stately butler, just as the latter
was crossing the hall bearing a fresh supply of hot coffee. Owing to
the marvellous presence of mind and masterly agility of Tredwell, no
casualty occurred.

"Sorry," apologized Jimmy. "I say, Tredwell, am I the last down?"

"No, sir, Mr. Wade has not come down yet."

"Good," said Jimmy, and entered the breakfast-room.

The room was empty save for his hostess, and her reproachful gaze gave
Jimmy the same feeling of discomfort he always experienced on catching
the eye of a defunct codfish exposed on a fishmonger's slab. Yet, hang
it all, why should the woman look at him like that? To come down at
a punctual nine-thirty when staying in a country house simply wasn't
done. To be sure, it was now a quarter past eleven which was, perhaps,
the outside limit, but even then--

"Afraid I'm a bit late, Lady Coote. What?"

"Oh! it doesn't matter," said Lady Coote in a melancholy voice.

As a matter of fact, people being late for breakfast worried her very
much. For the first ten years of her married life, Sir Oswald Coote
(then plain Mr.) had, to put it baldly, raised hell if his morning
meal were even a half minute later than eight o'clock. Lady Coote had
been disciplined to regard unpunctuality as a deadly sin of the most
unpardonable nature. And habit dies hard. Also, she was an earnest
woman, and she could not help asking herself what possible good these
young people would ever do in the world without early rising. As Sir
Oswald so often said, to reporters and others: "I attribute my success
entirely to my habits of early rising, frugal living, and methodical
habits."

Lady Coote was a big, handsome woman in a tragic sort of fashion. She
had large, dark, mournful eyes and a deep voice. An artist looking
for a model for "Rachel mourning for her children" would have hailed
Lady Coote with delight. She would have done well, too, in melodrama,
staggering through the falling snow as the deeply wronged wife of the
villain.

She looked as though she had some terrible secret sorrow in her life,
and yet if the truth be told, Lady Coote had had no trouble in her
life whatever, except the meteoric rise to prosperity of Sir Oswald.
As a young girl she had been a jolly flamboyant creature, very much
in love with Oswald Coote, the aspiring young man in the bicycle shop
next to her father's hardware store.