Problem at Sea

On a sea voyage to Egypt, Hercule Poirot converses with his fellow passengers. Two of them are a married couple, John and Adeline Clapperton; another, General Forbes, is angrily dismissive of John's military experience. According to him, John had previously been a music hall performer before entering the service, and had been sent to a hospital run by Adeline after suffering a minor injury. Adeline used her society connections to get John a job at the War Office, and the two later married. Poirot notes that John uncomplainingly puts up with Adeline's demands for attention.

The boat reaches Alexandria and many of the company go ashore. Adeline refuses, shouting to John from behind her locked cabin door that she has suffered a bad night and wants to be left alone. When everyone has returned later on, Adeline is no longer answering her door. A steward unlocks it and they find her fatally stabbed through the heart, her money and jewellery stolen.

That evening, at Poirot's request, the other passengers are assembled in the lounge. Poirot addresses them and unwraps a ventriloquist's doll which speaks and repeats the words used by Adeline from behind the locked cabin door to her husband. John leaps from his seat and promptly collapses, dead of a heart attack brought on by shock.

Poirot explains that he had previously seen John performing card tricks, reflected on Forbes' comments about his music hall experience, and conjectured that he might have been a ventriloquist as well as a magician. John had killed his wife, locked the cabin, and thrown his voice to make it seem that she was speaking from inside. A female crew member with a voice similar to Adeline's had assisted Poirot in his demonstration, hidden behind the stage and speaking the lines he gave her. Poirot had guessed that John had a heart condition after finding a prescription for digitalin in Adeline's bag and observing that he exhibited dilated pupils as a side effect of its use, but she did not.