Chapter 4 Summary

As Hastings dress for dinner, he ponders how sound Poirot's mind is. On the way into dinner, Hastings meets two other guests, Miss Cole and Major Allerton. As they sit down to dinner, Hastings looks over the group to try to deduce which is the mystery kill Poirot has name "X." One by one, Hastings dismisses the possibilities, deciding only that Miss Cole or Major Allerton could be the killer. As Hastings looks out the dining room window, he remembers a child paying on the front lawn.

Judith interrupts her father's thoughts. When she asks him why he was acting strange at dinner, staring at everyone, he says he was remembering the past. She mentions that an old woman was murdered in the home when he was living there before, and he concurs that she was poisoned.

Judith mentions a scenario that sounds...