The Hound of Death
Encyclopedia
The Hound of Death and Other Stories is a collection of twelve short stories
by Agatha Christie
first published in the United Kingdom
in October 1933
. Unusually, the collection was not published by Christie's regular publishers, William Collins & Sons
, but by Odhams Press
and was not available to purchase in shops (see Publication of book collection below).
This was the first time that a Christie book had been published in the UK but not in the US although all of the stories contained within it appeared in later US collections (see US book appearances of stories below).
Unusually, most of these are tales of fate and the supernatural with comparatively little detective content.
This collection is most notable for the first appearance in a book of Christie's famous short story The Witness for the Prosecution
. The author subsequently wrote an award-winning play based on this story which has been adapted for film and twice for television.
is having lunch with a friend called Anstruther when he hears that the latter is about to visit his sister in Folbridge, Cornwall
at her house called "Treane". Ryan has heard of the place and tells a story from the recent First World War
when he heard of a German attempt to take over a convent during the Rape of Belgium
. As soon as the soldiers entered the building it blew up, killing them all. It was proven that the soldiers had no high explosives on them and speaking with the locals afterwards Ryan was told of one of the nuns having miraculous powers and she brought down a lightning bolt from heaven that destroyed the convent and killed the Germans. All that was left of the building were two walls, one of which had a powder mark in the shape of a giant hound. This scared the local peasants who avoided the area after dark. The nun in question survived and went with other refugees to "Treane" in Cornwall and Anstruther confirms his sister did take
in some Belgians at the time.
In Cornwall, Anstruther finds out from his sister that the nun, Marie Angelique, is still in the area. She has constant hallucinations and is being studied by a local new young doctor by the name of Rose who intends to write a monograph on her condition. Anstruther meets Rose and persuades him to let him meet the young nun.
She is boarding with the local district nurse
. She talks of her dreams but when Anstruther tells her of the story he heard from Ryan, she is shocked to realise that what she thought was a dream was true – that of unleashing the "Hound of Death" on the Germans as they approached the altar. She rambles about the "City of Circles" and the "People of the Crystal" and when they have left her, Rose tells Anstruther that he has heard her mention crystals before and he produced a crystal to her on a previous occasion to test her reaction. She gasped, "Then the faith still lives!"
The next day, the young nun tells Anstruther that she feels that the crystal is a symbol of faith, possibly a second Christ
, and the faith has endured for many centuries. Rose tries a word association test in which Marie Angelique makes references to signs – and the sixth sign is destruction. Anstruther starts to feel uneasy about Rose’s interest in the case, suspecting something more than purely medical motives.
Some time later, Anstruther receives a letter from the nun in which she voices her fears of Rose and that the doctor is trying to obtain her powers by trying to progress to the sixth sign. The same day he hears from his sister that both Rose and the nun are dead. A landslide swept away the cliffside cottage they were in and the debris on the beach is in the shape of a giant hound. He also hears that Rose’s rich uncle died the same night, struck by lightning although there were no storms in the area and the burn-mark on him is in an unusual shape. Remembering comments from Marie Angelique, Anstruther wonders if Rose acquired the ancient (or possibly future?) powers of the crystal but he failed to control them properly, resulting in his own death. His fears are confirmed when he comes into possession of Rose’s notes which detail his attempts to become a superman with "the Power of Death" in his hands.
Sir Alington West and his nephew Dermot West. The talk turns round to precognitive abilities
and premonitions which Sir Alington is dismissive of, believing them to be both coincidences and situations that are talked up after the event. Dermot is not so sure and describes such feelings as having a red signal – "danger ahead!" – and tells one story of near-death in Mesopotamia when he avoided being murdered by an Arab servant. What he does not tell the group is that he is experiencing the red signal tonight at the dinner party.
He ponders who could be the source of danger, his thoughts moving to his love for Claire Trent, a feeling that he constantly suppresses in view of the fact that Jack Trent is his best friend. Coming out of his reverie, the conversation has turned to madness
and the dangers of suppressing delusions. Sir Alington looks pointedly at Claire Trent who is visibly disturbed by this talk.
One of the purposes of the evening is to meet a medium
who is there to conduct a sitting. She does so and warns one of the people in the room not to go home as there is danger there.
The party breaks up and Sir Alington asks Dermot to accompany him home to Harley Street
before going on to join his friends at the Grafton Galleries. Once inside, he tells his nephew that he knows of his infatuation for Claire and not to give into it. He disapproves of divorce
and speaks of a history of insanity in their family and his suspicions of homicidal mania
. The discussion becomes emotional and Dermot utters a threat to his uncle, one which is overheard by the manservant, Johnson, as he brings in drinks.
Going to the Grafton Galleries, Claire tells Dermot that his feelings for her are shared and because of this she wants him to go away. He asks her to join him but she refuses.
Going back to his flat, Dermot is once again assailed by the feeling of danger and, to his astonishment, finds a revolver hidden in a bedroom drawer. There is a knock on the door and Dermot opens it to the police. The feeling of danger makes him tell the police that he is Milson, his own manservant, and the police tell him that his "master" is wanted for the murder of Sir Alington who was shot dead earlier that night after being overheard arguing with his nephew. The police search the flat, find the revolver and decide to leave an officer there in case West "comes back".
Dermot escapes from the flat through the kitchen window while supposedly getting drinks and quickly bumps into Jack Trent who gets him away to his own house. He locks himself in a room with Dermot, produces a gun and then insanely confesses to the murder. Sir Alington recognised his condition and was at the dinner party to assess his true mental state. Dermot assumed that his uncle was speaking of Claire who was actually assisting Sir Alington in his diagnosis. She now also assists the police gaining entry to the house and the locked room. Jack shoots himself before they can take him.
Parfitt manages just to catch his train on time for a night journey. In his first class carriage he is reacquainted with Sir George Durand, a famous lawyer. A third man in the carriage introduces himself as Dr Campbell Clark, an eminent physician who is an expert on conditions of the mind. There is a fourth man with them who appears to be asleep.
The three other men, confessing to various degrees of insomnia
talk through the journey. Their conversation covers the idea that a body can house more than one soul
and Dr Clark cites the case of a French girl called Felicie Bault. She was a Brittany
peasant
who, at the age of five, lost her parents when her father in a drunken rage strangled her mother and he was then transported
for life. She was taken into the care of a Miss Slater, an English woman, who ran a charity
orphanage
in the area. Felicie was slightly backward and brutish-looking and Miss Slater had an uphill task to teach her the rudiments of reading and writing. In later years she had one maid’s job after another due to her perceived stupidity and laziness. Suddenly, at the age of twenty-two, a change came over her. Following a mental illness she split into three or four distinct personalities
. The first was the continuation of her known self but the second was cultured and educated, able to play the piano and speak two foreign languages. The third had the second’s education but also knew of the coarser side of life and the less respectable side of Paris
ian society. The fourth seemed dreamy and pious but was suspected to be the third putting on an act. The change in the personalities occurred after a severe headache and a deep sleep and left her with no recollection of the other personalities. The end of the story came when she was discovered dead in bed one morning, somehow having strangled
herself with her own hands.
At this point, the fourth man in the carriage laughs and joins in the conversation. He speaks with a foreign accent and tells them that Felicie’s case in inextricably bound up with that of another girl called Annette Ravel. The two girls and the man himself – Raoul Letardeau – were together at Miss Slater’s orphanage. He was a witness to the bullying hold that Annette had over Felicie that included an incident when Annette seems to have successfully hypnotised
Felicie into carrying out an act of which she had no memory. He also saw how much Felicie hated Annette. The latter was an ambitious girl who determined to become a famous dancer in Paris. Raoul left the orphanage when work was found for him that took him abroad for five years. Returning to Paris he saw by chance a poster advertising Annette as singing on the stage and met her in her dressing room. She seemed to have achieved her ambitions but Raoul witnessed the unmistakable signs of consumption
and two years later he returned to Miss Slater’s orphanage where Annette had retreated, plainly dying but refusing to believe so. Felicie was also there, serving as a maid, as hateful of Annette as ever but still bullied and humiliated by the ruthless woman who seemed to have a strange hold on her.
Annette died soon afterwards. When Raoul returned six months later he was told by an amazed Miss Slater of the first symptoms of Felicie’s abnormal personality changes. He witnessed one of these and also heard Felicie speak of Annette, "taking...the clothes from your back, the soul from your body" and she was plainly in some terror of the dead girl. Nevertheless, she knew that she had strong hands – should she wish to escape...
The other three are amazed to hear the story and Raoul emphasises how much Annette longed for life – her life. The doctor had previously said that the body was a residence for the soul and, as Raoul points out before he leaves the train, if you find a burglar in your house, you shoot him...
to Esther Lawes and confides the reason why in the fiancée of Rachel Lawes, Esther’s younger sister - a dour Scot named Macfarlane: Dickie, a former naval man, has had an aversion to gypsies since his childhood when he started to have recurring dreams in which a he would be in a given situation and suddenly feel a presence. When he looked up, a gypsy woman would be stood there looking at him. The sudden appearance of this woman always unnerved him although it wasn’t until some years after these dreams started that he encountered a real gypsy. It was on a walk in the New Forest
and she warned him not to take a certain path. He ignored her and the wooden bridge he was crossing broke beneath his weight, casting him into the fast-running stream below and nearly drowning him.
These occurrences came back to him when he returned to England and started to see the Lawes family. At one dinner party he saw a woman called Alistair Haworth who he seemed to see in his own eyes as wearing a red scarf on her head, just like the gypsy of his dreams. He walked on the terrace with her after dinner and she warned him not to go back into the house. He did so and found himself falling for Esther Lawes. They got engaged a week later and two weeks after that he again caught sight of Mrs Haworth who once more warned Dickie. He again ignored her and that very night Esther stated that, after all, she didn’t love him.
The reason he is now confiding in Macfarlane is that he is due for a routine operation
and he thought he saw in one of the nurses in the hospital the image of Mrs Haworth who warned him not to go ahead with the surgery.
Dickie subsequently dies during the operation and some impulse makes Macfarlane go to see Mrs Haworth at her moorland
home. There he is surprised to see that her husband is not really suited to such a striking woman as her. The two walk on the moors and Mrs Haworth tells Macfarlane that he too has second sight. For proof, she asks him to look at a rock and he fancies he sees a hollow filled with blood. She tells him it is a sacrificial
stone from olden times and he has had his own vision. She confides that she married her husband because she saw some portent
hanging over him and wanted to prevent it. She also tells Macfarlane that they won't meet again.
Determined to challenge the fates, Macfarlane drives back from his inn to the Haworth’s cottage the next day and finds that the lady is dead. She drank something poisonous thinking it was her tonic
and her husband is beside himself with grief.
Back at his inn, the landlady tells him stories of long-gone ghosts seen on the moor, including a sailor and a gypsy. Macfarlane wonders if they will walk again...
Mrs Lancaster soon moves into the house with her elderly father, Mr Winburn, and her lively young son, Geoffrey. Mr Winburn knows that the house is haunted and hears another set of footsteps on the stairs following his grandson down. He also has a disturbing dream that he is in a town populated by no one but children who are begging him to know if he has "brought him". In addition, he overhears the servants gossiping about hearing a child cry.
Somewhat oblivious to this, Geoffrey nevertheless asks his startled mother if he can play with the little boy that he sometimes sees watching him but Mrs Lancaster brusquely stops all such talk. A month later, Geoffrey starts to fall ill and even his mother starts to hear the sobs of the other little boy that they seem to share the house with. The doctor confesses to his grandfather that there is little they can do as his lungs were never strong in the first place. One night, Geoffrey dies and his mother and grandfather suddenly hear the sound of the other child's joyous laughter and the receding sound of two pairs of footsteps. The little boy has a playmate at last...
To accomplish this, Charles persuades his aunt to have a radio
installed. She resists at first but quickly comes to enjoy the programmes being broadcast. One evening, when Charles is out with friends, the radio suddenly emits the voice of her dead husband, Patrick, who tells her that he is coming for her soon. Although naturally shocked, Mrs Harter remains composed but thoughtful.
Some days later the radio set emits a similar message and the old lady decides to ensure that her affairs are in order. She makes sure that Elizabeth, her maid, knows where her burial requests are kept and decides to increase the amount she has left her in her will
from fifty pounds to one hundred. To accomplish this, she writes to her lawyer and asks him to send her the will that he has in his possession.
Mrs Harter is somewhat startled that day at lunch when Charles makes a comment that when he was coming up the drive of the house the previous evening, he thought he saw a face at an upstairs window and realised afterwards that it resembled a portrait in a little-used room that he has since found out is that of Patrick Harter. His widow looks on this as further proof that her time is near.
That evening, Mrs Harter again hears a message through the radio from Patrick, telling her that will be coming for her at half-past nine on Friday night. She writes a note detailing what she has heard as proof, should she die at that time, that it is possible to receive messages from the afterlife
. She gives this to Elizabeth to pass onto the doctor in the event of her death.
On the Friday night in question, she sits in her room with the radio switched on and the will in her hand as she peruses its contents, having had fifty pounds in cash withdrawn from the bank for Elizabeth to supplement the amount contained in the document. She hears the noise of a step outside her room and staggers to her feet, dropping something from her fingers as the door swings open and she sees her dead husband's be-whiskered figure stood before her. She collapses...
...and is found an hour later by Elizabeth. Two days later the maid passes the note to the doctor who puts it down to hallucinations. Charles agrees, not wanting to spoil things now that his plan appears to be reaching fruition. Having safely disconnected the wire from the radio set to his bedroom and burnt the false whiskers he wore on the night of his aunt's death, he looks forward to the reading of the will and inheriting his aunt's money, a sum desperately needed to stave off possible imprisonment as a result of his business misdeeds.
He receives a shock when his aunt's lawyer calls and tells him that he posted the will onto the dead lady at her request. It can no longer be found among her papers and Charles realises that as he shocked her to death, the will she was holding in her fingers dropped into the fire. No other copy exists and therefore a former will becomes legal. This one left Mary Harter's fortune to a niece and Charles' cousin, Miriam, who proved unsatisfactory to her aunt and who entered into a marriage she didn't approve of. He receives a second shock when the doctor telephones him to say that the results of the autopsy proves that his aunt's heart was in a worse condition than he thought and there is no way she could have lived more than two months at the outside. Charles angrily realises he need never have set up his elaborate stunt.
and, by coincidence, he met her again that night at a party in Cricklewood
. She asked him to call at her house and he was ribbed by his friends who joked that he had made a conquest of a rich, lonely old lady.
He did call and struck up a friendship with Miss French and started to see her on many other occasions at a time when he himself was in low water financially. Vole's story is that Miss French asked him for financial advice despite the testimony of both her maid, Janet Mackenzie, and Miss French's bankers that the old lady was astute enough herself on these matters. He protests that he never swindled her of a single penny and, if he had been, surely her death would have frustrated his plans? Vole is then staggered when Mayherne tells him that he is the principle beneficiary of Miss French's will
and that Janet Mackenzie swears that her mistress told her that Vole was informed of this change in his fortunes.
The facts of the murder are that Janet Mackenzie, on her night off, returned to Miss French's house briefly at half-past-nine and heard voices in the sitting-room. One was Miss French and the other was a man's. The next morning, the body of Miss French was found, killed by a crowbar with several items taken from the house. Burglary was at first suspected but Miss Mackenzie's suspicions of Vole pointed the police in his direction and led eventually to his arrest. Vole though is delighted to hear of Miss Mackenzie's testimony about the visitor at nine-thirty as he was with his wife, Romaine, at the time and she can provide him with an alibi.
Mayherne has already wired Mrs Vole to return from a trip to Scotland to see him and he goes to her house to interview her. He is surprised to find that she is foreign and he is staggered when she cries out her hatred of her Vole and that he is not her husband – she was an actress in Vienna
and her real husband is still living there but in an asylum. She alleges that Vole returned from Miss French's an hour later than he claims and, not being her lawful husband, she can testify against him in court.
Romaine Heilger does indeed appear as a witness for the prosecution at the committal hearing
and Vole is sent for trial. In the intervening period, Mayherne tries to find evidence that will discredit Romaine but he is unsuccessful until he receives a scrawled and badly-spelt letter which directs him to call at an address in Stepney
and ask for Miss Mogson if he wants evidence against the "painted foreign hussy". He does so and in a reeking tenement
slum
meets a bent middle-aged crone of a woman with terrible scars on her face caused by the throwing of sulfuric acid
. This attack was carried out by a man by the name of Max who Romaine Heilger is now having an affair with. Miss Mogson herself was involved with Max herself many years before but Romaine took him away from her. Meyherne is passed a series of letters written by Romaine to Max, all dated, which prove that Vole is innocent and that Romaine is lying to be rid of him. Mayherne pays the crone twenty pounds for the letters which are then read out at the trial. The case against Vole collapses and he is declared "Not Guilty". Mayherne is delighted at his success but is suddenly stopped in his tracks when he remembers a curious habit of Romaine's in the witness box when she clenched and unclenched her right hand – a habit shared by Miss Mogson in Stepney.
Some time later he confronts Romaine with the accusation that she, a former actress, was Miss Mogson and that the letters were fakes. Romaine confesses: she loves Vole passionately and knew that her evidence would not have been enough to save him – she had to provoke an emotional reaction in the court in favour of the accused man. Mayherne is unhappy, protesting that he could have succeeded in saving an innocent man by more conventional means but Romaine tells him she couldn't have risked it – especially as she knew full well that Vole was guilty all along of the murder!
addict and consequently has taken a room at a hotel near to Stourton Heath links in order that he can practise for an hour each morning before having to take the train to his dull city job. One morning he is disturbed in mid-swing when he hears a female voice crying out "Murder! Help! Murder!". Running in the direction of the cry he comes across a quaint cottage outside which is a young girl quietly gardening. When questioned, she denies hearing the call for help and seems surprised at Jack's story, referring to him as "Monsieur". Confused, he leaves her and hunts in the surrounding area for the source of the cry but in the end gives up. The evening, he looks through the papers to see if any crime has been reported and follows this action the next morning – a day of heavy rain which cancels his practise routine – but finds nothing.
The next day, the strange occurrence of two days earlier is repeated at the same spot and the exact time. Also, once more the girl outside the cottage denies hearing any such sound and sympathetically enquires if Jack has suffered from shellshock
in the past.
The third day, he hears the cry again but this time doesn't let on to the girl that this is the case when he passes the cottage and instead they discuss her gardening. Nevertheless he is intensely troubled by these occurrences and notices that at the hotel breakfast table he is being watched by a bearded man who he knows to be called Dr. Lavington. Concerned that his sanity is under attack, Jack invites Lavington to join him for a few holes the next morning and the doctor agrees. When the cry is repeated Lavington denies hearing anything. The doctor discusses Jack's possible delusions and they talk of the possibility of some sort of psychic phenomena
. He suggests that Jack go off to work as usual while he investigates the history of the cottage.
Back at the hotel that night, the doctor tells him what he has learnt: The present occupants, who have been in situ for just ten days, are an elderly French professor with consumption and his daughter but a year ago and several tenants back were a strange couple called Turner who seemed to be afraid of something and who suddenly vacated the premises early one morning. Mr Turner has been seen since then but no one seems to have laid eyes on his wife and the doctor, although arguing against jumping to conclusions, theorises that Jack is receiving some sort of message from the woman.
A few days later, Jack receives a visit from the girl at the cottage who introduces herself as Felise Marchaud. She is in terror as, knowing of local gossip that the cottage is haunted, she has started to have a recurring dream
of a distressed woman holding a blue jar. The last two night's dreams ended with a voice crying out in the same way as Jack heard on the links. Jack brings Lavington into the discussion and Felise shows them both a rough watercolour she found in the house of a woman holding a blue jar as in her dream. Jack recognises it as similar to a Chinese
one bought by his uncle two months ago which coincides with the date one of the previous tenants left the cottage. Lavington suggests bringing the jar to the cottage where the three of them will sit with it for the night and see what happens. As Jack's uncle is away he is able to obtain the jar and bring it as requested and Felise recognises it as the one from the dream. Lavington switches off the lights in the sitting-room and the three of them sit in the darkness at a table on which the jar is placed. After a while of waiting, Jack suddenly starts to choke and falls unconscious.
He wakes up in a copse near the cottage in daylight to find out from his pocket watch that it is half-past-twelve in the afternoon. He gets no answer at the cottage and goes back to the hotel where he finds his uncle – newly arrived back from a continental trip. Jack tells him of the events prompting a cry of outrage from the old man: the blue Chinese jar was a priceless Ming
piece and the only one of its kind in the world. Jack rushes to the hotel office and finds that Lavington has checked out but has left a mocking note for Jack from himself, Felise and her invalid father, saying that their twelve hours start ought to be ample.
, is called in to investigate the case of Sir Arthur Carmichael, a young man of twenty-three who woke up the previous morning at his estate in Herefordshire
with a totally changed personality. Carstairs travels down there with a colleague called Dr. Settle who tells him that he feels that the house could be haunted and this phenomenon has connections with the case. The household consists of Sir Arthur, his stepmother, Lady Carmichael, his half-brother of eight years of age and a Miss Phyllis Patterson who Arthur is engaged to be married to. As their horse carriage comes up the drive, they see Miss Patterson walking across the lawn and Carstairs remarks on the cat
at her feet which provokes a startled reaction in Settle.
Going into the house they make the acquaintance of Lady Carmichael and Miss Patterson and again Carstairs causes a reaction when he mentions seeing the cat. They then see their patient and observe his strange behaviour – sat hunched without speaking, then stretching and yawning and drinking a cup of milk without using his hands.
After dinner that night, Carstairs hears a cat meowing and this sound is repeated during the night outside his bedroom door but he is unable to find the animal in the house. The next morning he does spy the cat from the bedroom window as it walks across the lawn and straight through a flock of birds who seem oblivious to its presence. He is further puzzled when Lady Carmichael insists that there is no cat in their home. Talking to a footman
, Carstairs is informed that there used to be a cat but it was destroyed a week ago and buried in the grounds. There are further appearances of this apparition
and they realise that it is targeting Lady Carmichael. Carstairs even dreams of the cat the following night when he follows it into the library and it shows him to a gap in the volumes on the bookshelf. The next morning, Carstairs and Settle find that there is a book missing from the very spot in the room and Carstairs glimpses the truth later on in the day when Sir Arthur jumps off his chair when he spots a mouse
and crouches near the wainscoting
, waiting for it to appear.
That night, Lady Carmichael is badly attacked in her bed by the ghostly creature and this prompts Carstairs to insist that the body of the dead cat is dug up. It is and he sees that it is the very creature that he has spotted several times and a smell shows that it was killed by prussic acid.
Several days pass as Lady Carmichael starts to recover until one day Sir Arthur falls into the water of the lake. Pulled out to the bank, it is first thought that he is dead but he comes round and he has also recovered his personality but he has no recollection of the intervening days. The sight of him gives Lady Carmichael such a shock that she dies on the spot and the missing book from the library is found – a volume on the subject of the transformation of people into animals. The inference is that lady Carmichael used the book to put Sir Arthur's soul into the cat, then killed it to ensure her own son would inherit the title and estate.
Robert Barnard
: "Mostly semi-supernatural stories. In this setting, Witness for the Prosecution stands out as the jewel it is: surely this is the cleverest short story she wrote. Of the others, the best is perhaps The Call of Wings, but that, depressingly, was one of the very first things she wrote (pre-First World War
). In this mode she got no better."
In addition to the above, in the US The Witness for the Prosecution was published in the January 31, 1925 issue of Flynn's Weekly (Volume IV, No 2) under the title of Traitor Hands with an uncredited illustration and the first true printing of The Last Seance also occurred in the US when it was published in the November 1926 issue of Ghost Stories under the title of The Woman Who Stole a Ghost.
No magazine printings of the remaining stories prior to 1933 have yet been traced.
The book was not available to buy in the shops but through coupons collected from The Passing Show, a weekly magazine published by Odhams. The coupons appeared in issues 81 to 83 published from October 7 to October 21, 1933 as part of a promotional relaunch of the magazine. In exchange for the coupons and seven shillings (7/-) , customers could receive six books.. The other five books to choose from were Jungle Girl
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
, The Sun Will Shine by May Edginton
, The Veil'd Delight by Marjorie Bowen, The Venner Crime by John Rhode and Q33 by George Goodchild. The promotion appears to have been successful insofar as The Hound of Death is by far the easiest pre-war UK Christie book to obtain as a first edition in its dustwrapper. An edition for sale in the shops appeared in February 1936 published by the Collins Crime Club
on the inside flap of the dustjacket of the first edition (which is also repeated opposite the title page) reads:
"Stories by a world-famous detective-story writer – but not detective stories this time. Mrs. Agatha Christie has written a collection of hair-raising tales of mystery and the supernatural. Excitement, horror, pathos, and humour stalk hand in hand through the pages of the book. Mrs. Christie’s tales range from psychic nuns to demimondaines, from Chinese jars to haunted wireless sets; and each one is a perfect example of its kind, with just that satisfying extra twist that only a really fine novelist knows how to introduce into a story already full of surprises."
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
first published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in October 1933
1933 in literature
The year 1933 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 17 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.* James Joyce's Ulysses is allowed into United States.-New books:...
. Unusually, the collection was not published by Christie's regular publishers, William Collins & Sons
William Collins (publisher)
William Collins was a Scottish schoolmaster and publisher.Collins was born near Glasgow in 1789. In 1819 he set up a publishing business, initially selling religious books. He produced the first Collins dictionary in 1824, when he also obtained a licence to publish the Bible...
, but by Odhams Press
Odhams Press
Odhams Press was a British publishing firm. Originally a newspaper group, founded in 1890, it took the name Odham's Press Ltd in 1920 when it merged with John Bull magazine. By 1937 it had founded the first colour weekly, Woman, for which it set up and operated a dedicated high-speed print works...
and was not available to purchase in shops (see Publication of book collection below).
This was the first time that a Christie book had been published in the UK but not in the US although all of the stories contained within it appeared in later US collections (see US book appearances of stories below).
Unusually, most of these are tales of fate and the supernatural with comparatively little detective content.
This collection is most notable for the first appearance in a book of Christie's famous short story The Witness for the Prosecution
The Witness for the Prosecution
"The Witness for the Prosecution" is a famous short story by Agatha Christie, initially published as Traitor Hands in Flynn's Weekly edition of January 31, 1925. In 1933 the story was published for the first time in the collection The Hound of Death that appeared only in the United Kingdom...
. The author subsequently wrote an award-winning play based on this story which has been adapted for film and twice for television.
List of stories
- The Hound of Death
- The Red Signal
- The Fourth Man
- The Gypsy
- The Lamp
- Wireless
- The Witness for the Prosecution
- The Mystery of the Blue Jar
- The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael
- The Call of Wings
- The Last Seance
- SOS
The Hound of Death
William P. Ryan, an American journalistJournalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
is having lunch with a friend called Anstruther when he hears that the latter is about to visit his sister in Folbridge, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
at her house called "Treane". Ryan has heard of the place and tells a story from the recent First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
when he heard of a German attempt to take over a convent during the Rape of Belgium
Rape of Belgium
The Rape of Belgium is a wartime propaganda term describing the 1914 German invasion of Belgium. The term initially had a figurative meaning, referring to the violation of Belgian neutrality, but embellished reports of German atrocities soon gave it a literal significance...
. As soon as the soldiers entered the building it blew up, killing them all. It was proven that the soldiers had no high explosives on them and speaking with the locals afterwards Ryan was told of one of the nuns having miraculous powers and she brought down a lightning bolt from heaven that destroyed the convent and killed the Germans. All that was left of the building were two walls, one of which had a powder mark in the shape of a giant hound. This scared the local peasants who avoided the area after dark. The nun in question survived and went with other refugees to "Treane" in Cornwall and Anstruther confirms his sister did take
in some Belgians at the time.
In Cornwall, Anstruther finds out from his sister that the nun, Marie Angelique, is still in the area. She has constant hallucinations and is being studied by a local new young doctor by the name of Rose who intends to write a monograph on her condition. Anstruther meets Rose and persuades him to let him meet the young nun.
She is boarding with the local district nurse
District nurse
District Nurses are senior nurses who manage care within the community, leading teams of community nurses and support workers. Typically much of their work involves visiting house-bound patients to provide advice and care, for example, palliative care, wound management, catheter and continence...
. She talks of her dreams but when Anstruther tells her of the story he heard from Ryan, she is shocked to realise that what she thought was a dream was true – that of unleashing the "Hound of Death" on the Germans as they approached the altar. She rambles about the "City of Circles" and the "People of the Crystal" and when they have left her, Rose tells Anstruther that he has heard her mention crystals before and he produced a crystal to her on a previous occasion to test her reaction. She gasped, "Then the faith still lives!"
The next day, the young nun tells Anstruther that she feels that the crystal is a symbol of faith, possibly a second Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, and the faith has endured for many centuries. Rose tries a word association test in which Marie Angelique makes references to signs – and the sixth sign is destruction. Anstruther starts to feel uneasy about Rose’s interest in the case, suspecting something more than purely medical motives.
Some time later, Anstruther receives a letter from the nun in which she voices her fears of Rose and that the doctor is trying to obtain her powers by trying to progress to the sixth sign. The same day he hears from his sister that both Rose and the nun are dead. A landslide swept away the cliffside cottage they were in and the debris on the beach is in the shape of a giant hound. He also hears that Rose’s rich uncle died the same night, struck by lightning although there were no storms in the area and the burn-mark on him is in an unusual shape. Remembering comments from Marie Angelique, Anstruther wonders if Rose acquired the ancient (or possibly future?) powers of the crystal but he failed to control them properly, resulting in his own death. His fears are confirmed when he comes into possession of Rose’s notes which detail his attempts to become a superman with "the Power of Death" in his hands.
The Red Signal
A dinner party is taking place in the London home of Jack and Claire Trent. Their three guests are a Mrs Violet Eversleigh, the famous psychiatristPsychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Sir Alington West and his nephew Dermot West. The talk turns round to precognitive abilities
Precognition
In parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
and premonitions which Sir Alington is dismissive of, believing them to be both coincidences and situations that are talked up after the event. Dermot is not so sure and describes such feelings as having a red signal – "danger ahead!" – and tells one story of near-death in Mesopotamia when he avoided being murdered by an Arab servant. What he does not tell the group is that he is experiencing the red signal tonight at the dinner party.
He ponders who could be the source of danger, his thoughts moving to his love for Claire Trent, a feeling that he constantly suppresses in view of the fact that Jack Trent is his best friend. Coming out of his reverie, the conversation has turned to madness
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
and the dangers of suppressing delusions. Sir Alington looks pointedly at Claire Trent who is visibly disturbed by this talk.
One of the purposes of the evening is to meet a medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
who is there to conduct a sitting. She does so and warns one of the people in the room not to go home as there is danger there.
The party breaks up and Sir Alington asks Dermot to accompany him home to Harley Street
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...
before going on to join his friends at the Grafton Galleries. Once inside, he tells his nephew that he knows of his infatuation for Claire and not to give into it. He disapproves of divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
and speaks of a history of insanity in their family and his suspicions of homicidal mania
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
. The discussion becomes emotional and Dermot utters a threat to his uncle, one which is overheard by the manservant, Johnson, as he brings in drinks.
Going to the Grafton Galleries, Claire tells Dermot that his feelings for her are shared and because of this she wants him to go away. He asks her to join him but she refuses.
Going back to his flat, Dermot is once again assailed by the feeling of danger and, to his astonishment, finds a revolver hidden in a bedroom drawer. There is a knock on the door and Dermot opens it to the police. The feeling of danger makes him tell the police that he is Milson, his own manservant, and the police tell him that his "master" is wanted for the murder of Sir Alington who was shot dead earlier that night after being overheard arguing with his nephew. The police search the flat, find the revolver and decide to leave an officer there in case West "comes back".
Dermot escapes from the flat through the kitchen window while supposedly getting drinks and quickly bumps into Jack Trent who gets him away to his own house. He locks himself in a room with Dermot, produces a gun and then insanely confesses to the murder. Sir Alington recognised his condition and was at the dinner party to assess his true mental state. Dermot assumed that his uncle was speaking of Claire who was actually assisting Sir Alington in his diagnosis. She now also assists the police gaining entry to the house and the locked room. Jack shoots himself before they can take him.
The Fourth Man
CanonCanon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
Parfitt manages just to catch his train on time for a night journey. In his first class carriage he is reacquainted with Sir George Durand, a famous lawyer. A third man in the carriage introduces himself as Dr Campbell Clark, an eminent physician who is an expert on conditions of the mind. There is a fourth man with them who appears to be asleep.
The three other men, confessing to various degrees of insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
talk through the journey. Their conversation covers the idea that a body can house more than one soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
and Dr Clark cites the case of a French girl called Felicie Bault. She was a Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
who, at the age of five, lost her parents when her father in a drunken rage strangled her mother and he was then transported
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
for life. She was taken into the care of a Miss Slater, an English woman, who ran a charity
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
in the area. Felicie was slightly backward and brutish-looking and Miss Slater had an uphill task to teach her the rudiments of reading and writing. In later years she had one maid’s job after another due to her perceived stupidity and laziness. Suddenly, at the age of twenty-two, a change came over her. Following a mental illness she split into three or four distinct personalities
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
. The first was the continuation of her known self but the second was cultured and educated, able to play the piano and speak two foreign languages. The third had the second’s education but also knew of the coarser side of life and the less respectable side of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian society. The fourth seemed dreamy and pious but was suspected to be the third putting on an act. The change in the personalities occurred after a severe headache and a deep sleep and left her with no recollection of the other personalities. The end of the story came when she was discovered dead in bed one morning, somehow having strangled
Strangling
Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and as the auxiliary lethal mechanism in hangings in the event the neck does not break...
herself with her own hands.
At this point, the fourth man in the carriage laughs and joins in the conversation. He speaks with a foreign accent and tells them that Felicie’s case in inextricably bound up with that of another girl called Annette Ravel. The two girls and the man himself – Raoul Letardeau – were together at Miss Slater’s orphanage. He was a witness to the bullying hold that Annette had over Felicie that included an incident when Annette seems to have successfully hypnotised
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
Felicie into carrying out an act of which she had no memory. He also saw how much Felicie hated Annette. The latter was an ambitious girl who determined to become a famous dancer in Paris. Raoul left the orphanage when work was found for him that took him abroad for five years. Returning to Paris he saw by chance a poster advertising Annette as singing on the stage and met her in her dressing room. She seemed to have achieved her ambitions but Raoul witnessed the unmistakable signs of consumption
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and two years later he returned to Miss Slater’s orphanage where Annette had retreated, plainly dying but refusing to believe so. Felicie was also there, serving as a maid, as hateful of Annette as ever but still bullied and humiliated by the ruthless woman who seemed to have a strange hold on her.
Annette died soon afterwards. When Raoul returned six months later he was told by an amazed Miss Slater of the first symptoms of Felicie’s abnormal personality changes. He witnessed one of these and also heard Felicie speak of Annette, "taking...the clothes from your back, the soul from your body" and she was plainly in some terror of the dead girl. Nevertheless, she knew that she had strong hands – should she wish to escape...
The other three are amazed to hear the story and Raoul emphasises how much Annette longed for life – her life. The doctor had previously said that the body was a residence for the soul and, as Raoul points out before he leaves the train, if you find a burglar in your house, you shoot him...
The Gypsy
Dickie Carpenter breaks off his recent engagementEngagement
An engagement or betrothal is a promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage which may be lengthy or trivial. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, affianced, engaged to be married, or simply engaged...
to Esther Lawes and confides the reason why in the fiancée of Rachel Lawes, Esther’s younger sister - a dour Scot named Macfarlane: Dickie, a former naval man, has had an aversion to gypsies since his childhood when he started to have recurring dreams in which a he would be in a given situation and suddenly feel a presence. When he looked up, a gypsy woman would be stood there looking at him. The sudden appearance of this woman always unnerved him although it wasn’t until some years after these dreams started that he encountered a real gypsy. It was on a walk in the New Forest
New Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
and she warned him not to take a certain path. He ignored her and the wooden bridge he was crossing broke beneath his weight, casting him into the fast-running stream below and nearly drowning him.
These occurrences came back to him when he returned to England and started to see the Lawes family. At one dinner party he saw a woman called Alistair Haworth who he seemed to see in his own eyes as wearing a red scarf on her head, just like the gypsy of his dreams. He walked on the terrace with her after dinner and she warned him not to go back into the house. He did so and found himself falling for Esther Lawes. They got engaged a week later and two weeks after that he again caught sight of Mrs Haworth who once more warned Dickie. He again ignored her and that very night Esther stated that, after all, she didn’t love him.
The reason he is now confiding in Macfarlane is that he is due for a routine operation
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
and he thought he saw in one of the nurses in the hospital the image of Mrs Haworth who warned him not to go ahead with the surgery.
Dickie subsequently dies during the operation and some impulse makes Macfarlane go to see Mrs Haworth at her moorland
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
home. There he is surprised to see that her husband is not really suited to such a striking woman as her. The two walk on the moors and Mrs Haworth tells Macfarlane that he too has second sight. For proof, she asks him to look at a rock and he fancies he sees a hollow filled with blood. She tells him it is a sacrificial
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
stone from olden times and he has had his own vision. She confides that she married her husband because she saw some portent
Omen
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change...
hanging over him and wanted to prevent it. She also tells Macfarlane that they won't meet again.
Determined to challenge the fates, Macfarlane drives back from his inn to the Haworth’s cottage the next day and finds that the lady is dead. She drank something poisonous thinking it was her tonic
Medication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
and her husband is beside himself with grief.
Back at his inn, the landlady tells him stories of long-gone ghosts seen on the moor, including a sailor and a gypsy. Macfarlane wonders if they will walk again...
The Lamp
A Mrs. Lancaster takes a lease on an empty house that sits in a square of an old cathedral town. Suspicious of the extremely low rent she accurately guesses that the house is haunted and pushes the agent for details. He reluctantly tells her of the version of the story that he has heard about a man called Williams living there some thirty years ago with his young son. Williams went up to London for the day and, being a wanted man on the run, was arrested and jailed by the police. His young son was left to fend for himself in the house but died of starvation. The story goes that the boy's sobbing as he waits for his father to return can sometimes be heard.Mrs Lancaster soon moves into the house with her elderly father, Mr Winburn, and her lively young son, Geoffrey. Mr Winburn knows that the house is haunted and hears another set of footsteps on the stairs following his grandson down. He also has a disturbing dream that he is in a town populated by no one but children who are begging him to know if he has "brought him". In addition, he overhears the servants gossiping about hearing a child cry.
Somewhat oblivious to this, Geoffrey nevertheless asks his startled mother if he can play with the little boy that he sometimes sees watching him but Mrs Lancaster brusquely stops all such talk. A month later, Geoffrey starts to fall ill and even his mother starts to hear the sobs of the other little boy that they seem to share the house with. The doctor confesses to his grandfather that there is little they can do as his lungs were never strong in the first place. One night, Geoffrey dies and his mother and grandfather suddenly hear the sound of the other child's joyous laughter and the receding sound of two pairs of footsteps. The little boy has a playmate at last...
Wireless
Mary Harter, an old lady in her seventies, has undergone a consultation by her doctor who advises her that she has something of a weak heart and to ensure many more years of life she should avoid undue exertion. Dr. Meynall also tells Mrs Harter's beloved resident nephew, Charles Ridgeway, of the advice that he has given, adding that she should be cheerfully distracted and avoid brooding.To accomplish this, Charles persuades his aunt to have a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
installed. She resists at first but quickly comes to enjoy the programmes being broadcast. One evening, when Charles is out with friends, the radio suddenly emits the voice of her dead husband, Patrick, who tells her that he is coming for her soon. Although naturally shocked, Mrs Harter remains composed but thoughtful.
Some days later the radio set emits a similar message and the old lady decides to ensure that her affairs are in order. She makes sure that Elizabeth, her maid, knows where her burial requests are kept and decides to increase the amount she has left her in her will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
from fifty pounds to one hundred. To accomplish this, she writes to her lawyer and asks him to send her the will that he has in his possession.
Mrs Harter is somewhat startled that day at lunch when Charles makes a comment that when he was coming up the drive of the house the previous evening, he thought he saw a face at an upstairs window and realised afterwards that it resembled a portrait in a little-used room that he has since found out is that of Patrick Harter. His widow looks on this as further proof that her time is near.
That evening, Mrs Harter again hears a message through the radio from Patrick, telling her that will be coming for her at half-past nine on Friday night. She writes a note detailing what she has heard as proof, should she die at that time, that it is possible to receive messages from the afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
. She gives this to Elizabeth to pass onto the doctor in the event of her death.
On the Friday night in question, she sits in her room with the radio switched on and the will in her hand as she peruses its contents, having had fifty pounds in cash withdrawn from the bank for Elizabeth to supplement the amount contained in the document. She hears the noise of a step outside her room and staggers to her feet, dropping something from her fingers as the door swings open and she sees her dead husband's be-whiskered figure stood before her. She collapses...
...and is found an hour later by Elizabeth. Two days later the maid passes the note to the doctor who puts it down to hallucinations. Charles agrees, not wanting to spoil things now that his plan appears to be reaching fruition. Having safely disconnected the wire from the radio set to his bedroom and burnt the false whiskers he wore on the night of his aunt's death, he looks forward to the reading of the will and inheriting his aunt's money, a sum desperately needed to stave off possible imprisonment as a result of his business misdeeds.
He receives a shock when his aunt's lawyer calls and tells him that he posted the will onto the dead lady at her request. It can no longer be found among her papers and Charles realises that as he shocked her to death, the will she was holding in her fingers dropped into the fire. No other copy exists and therefore a former will becomes legal. This one left Mary Harter's fortune to a niece and Charles' cousin, Miriam, who proved unsatisfactory to her aunt and who entered into a marriage she didn't approve of. He receives a second shock when the doctor telephones him to say that the results of the autopsy proves that his aunt's heart was in a worse condition than he thought and there is no way she could have lived more than two months at the outside. Charles angrily realises he need never have set up his elaborate stunt.
The Witness for the Prosecution
A solicitor, Mr. Mayherne, interviews his latest client in his office: Leonard Vole is a young man who has been arrested on the capital charge of the murder of an old lady, Miss Emily French. Vole tells how he met Miss French when he helped her to pick up some parcels she dropped in Oxford StreetOxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
and, by coincidence, he met her again that night at a party in Cricklewood
Cricklewood
Cricklewood is a district of North London, England whose northeastern part is in the London Borough of Barnet, western part is the London Borough of Brent and southeastern part is in London Borough of Camden.-History:...
. She asked him to call at her house and he was ribbed by his friends who joked that he had made a conquest of a rich, lonely old lady.
He did call and struck up a friendship with Miss French and started to see her on many other occasions at a time when he himself was in low water financially. Vole's story is that Miss French asked him for financial advice despite the testimony of both her maid, Janet Mackenzie, and Miss French's bankers that the old lady was astute enough herself on these matters. He protests that he never swindled her of a single penny and, if he had been, surely her death would have frustrated his plans? Vole is then staggered when Mayherne tells him that he is the principle beneficiary of Miss French's will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
and that Janet Mackenzie swears that her mistress told her that Vole was informed of this change in his fortunes.
The facts of the murder are that Janet Mackenzie, on her night off, returned to Miss French's house briefly at half-past-nine and heard voices in the sitting-room. One was Miss French and the other was a man's. The next morning, the body of Miss French was found, killed by a crowbar with several items taken from the house. Burglary was at first suspected but Miss Mackenzie's suspicions of Vole pointed the police in his direction and led eventually to his arrest. Vole though is delighted to hear of Miss Mackenzie's testimony about the visitor at nine-thirty as he was with his wife, Romaine, at the time and she can provide him with an alibi.
Mayherne has already wired Mrs Vole to return from a trip to Scotland to see him and he goes to her house to interview her. He is surprised to find that she is foreign and he is staggered when she cries out her hatred of her Vole and that he is not her husband – she was an actress in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and her real husband is still living there but in an asylum. She alleges that Vole returned from Miss French's an hour later than he claims and, not being her lawful husband, she can testify against him in court.
Romaine Heilger does indeed appear as a witness for the prosecution at the committal hearing
Committal procedure
In law, a committal procedure is the process by which a defendant is charged with a serious offence under the criminal justice systems of all common law jurisdictions outside the United States...
and Vole is sent for trial. In the intervening period, Mayherne tries to find evidence that will discredit Romaine but he is unsuccessful until he receives a scrawled and badly-spelt letter which directs him to call at an address in Stepney
Stepney
Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in London's East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstan's church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road...
and ask for Miss Mogson if he wants evidence against the "painted foreign hussy". He does so and in a reeking tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
meets a bent middle-aged crone of a woman with terrible scars on her face caused by the throwing of sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
. This attack was carried out by a man by the name of Max who Romaine Heilger is now having an affair with. Miss Mogson herself was involved with Max herself many years before but Romaine took him away from her. Meyherne is passed a series of letters written by Romaine to Max, all dated, which prove that Vole is innocent and that Romaine is lying to be rid of him. Mayherne pays the crone twenty pounds for the letters which are then read out at the trial. The case against Vole collapses and he is declared "Not Guilty". Mayherne is delighted at his success but is suddenly stopped in his tracks when he remembers a curious habit of Romaine's in the witness box when she clenched and unclenched her right hand – a habit shared by Miss Mogson in Stepney.
Some time later he confronts Romaine with the accusation that she, a former actress, was Miss Mogson and that the letters were fakes. Romaine confesses: she loves Vole passionately and knew that her evidence would not have been enough to save him – she had to provoke an emotional reaction in the court in favour of the accused man. Mayherne is unhappy, protesting that he could have succeeded in saving an innocent man by more conventional means but Romaine tells him she couldn't have risked it – especially as she knew full well that Vole was guilty all along of the murder!
The Mystery of the Blue Jar
Jack Hartington, a young man of twenty-four years of age, is something of a golfGolf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
addict and consequently has taken a room at a hotel near to Stourton Heath links in order that he can practise for an hour each morning before having to take the train to his dull city job. One morning he is disturbed in mid-swing when he hears a female voice crying out "Murder! Help! Murder!". Running in the direction of the cry he comes across a quaint cottage outside which is a young girl quietly gardening. When questioned, she denies hearing the call for help and seems surprised at Jack's story, referring to him as "Monsieur". Confused, he leaves her and hunts in the surrounding area for the source of the cry but in the end gives up. The evening, he looks through the papers to see if any crime has been reported and follows this action the next morning – a day of heavy rain which cancels his practise routine – but finds nothing.
The next day, the strange occurrence of two days earlier is repeated at the same spot and the exact time. Also, once more the girl outside the cottage denies hearing any such sound and sympathetically enquires if Jack has suffered from shellshock
Combat stress reaction
Combat stress reaction , in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency. The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's...
in the past.
The third day, he hears the cry again but this time doesn't let on to the girl that this is the case when he passes the cottage and instead they discuss her gardening. Nevertheless he is intensely troubled by these occurrences and notices that at the hotel breakfast table he is being watched by a bearded man who he knows to be called Dr. Lavington. Concerned that his sanity is under attack, Jack invites Lavington to join him for a few holes the next morning and the doctor agrees. When the cry is repeated Lavington denies hearing anything. The doctor discusses Jack's possible delusions and they talk of the possibility of some sort of psychic phenomena
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
. He suggests that Jack go off to work as usual while he investigates the history of the cottage.
Back at the hotel that night, the doctor tells him what he has learnt: The present occupants, who have been in situ for just ten days, are an elderly French professor with consumption and his daughter but a year ago and several tenants back were a strange couple called Turner who seemed to be afraid of something and who suddenly vacated the premises early one morning. Mr Turner has been seen since then but no one seems to have laid eyes on his wife and the doctor, although arguing against jumping to conclusions, theorises that Jack is receiving some sort of message from the woman.
A few days later, Jack receives a visit from the girl at the cottage who introduces herself as Felise Marchaud. She is in terror as, knowing of local gossip that the cottage is haunted, she has started to have a recurring dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
of a distressed woman holding a blue jar. The last two night's dreams ended with a voice crying out in the same way as Jack heard on the links. Jack brings Lavington into the discussion and Felise shows them both a rough watercolour she found in the house of a woman holding a blue jar as in her dream. Jack recognises it as similar to a Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
one bought by his uncle two months ago which coincides with the date one of the previous tenants left the cottage. Lavington suggests bringing the jar to the cottage where the three of them will sit with it for the night and see what happens. As Jack's uncle is away he is able to obtain the jar and bring it as requested and Felise recognises it as the one from the dream. Lavington switches off the lights in the sitting-room and the three of them sit in the darkness at a table on which the jar is placed. After a while of waiting, Jack suddenly starts to choke and falls unconscious.
He wakes up in a copse near the cottage in daylight to find out from his pocket watch that it is half-past-twelve in the afternoon. He gets no answer at the cottage and goes back to the hotel where he finds his uncle – newly arrived back from a continental trip. Jack tells him of the events prompting a cry of outrage from the old man: the blue Chinese jar was a priceless Ming
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
piece and the only one of its kind in the world. Jack rushes to the hotel office and finds that Lavington has checked out but has left a mocking note for Jack from himself, Felise and her invalid father, saying that their twelve hours start ought to be ample.
The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael
Dr Edward Carstairs, a noted psychologistPsychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, is called in to investigate the case of Sir Arthur Carmichael, a young man of twenty-three who woke up the previous morning at his estate in Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
with a totally changed personality. Carstairs travels down there with a colleague called Dr. Settle who tells him that he feels that the house could be haunted and this phenomenon has connections with the case. The household consists of Sir Arthur, his stepmother, Lady Carmichael, his half-brother of eight years of age and a Miss Phyllis Patterson who Arthur is engaged to be married to. As their horse carriage comes up the drive, they see Miss Patterson walking across the lawn and Carstairs remarks on the cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
at her feet which provokes a startled reaction in Settle.
Going into the house they make the acquaintance of Lady Carmichael and Miss Patterson and again Carstairs causes a reaction when he mentions seeing the cat. They then see their patient and observe his strange behaviour – sat hunched without speaking, then stretching and yawning and drinking a cup of milk without using his hands.
After dinner that night, Carstairs hears a cat meowing and this sound is repeated during the night outside his bedroom door but he is unable to find the animal in the house. The next morning he does spy the cat from the bedroom window as it walks across the lawn and straight through a flock of birds who seem oblivious to its presence. He is further puzzled when Lady Carmichael insists that there is no cat in their home. Talking to a footman
Footman
A footman is a male servant, notably as domestic staff.-Word history:The name derives from the attendants who ran beside or behind the carriages of aristocrats, many of whom were chosen for their physical attributes. They ran alongside the coach to make sure it was not overturned by such obstacles...
, Carstairs is informed that there used to be a cat but it was destroyed a week ago and buried in the grounds. There are further appearances of this apparition
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
and they realise that it is targeting Lady Carmichael. Carstairs even dreams of the cat the following night when he follows it into the library and it shows him to a gap in the volumes on the bookshelf. The next morning, Carstairs and Settle find that there is a book missing from the very spot in the room and Carstairs glimpses the truth later on in the day when Sir Arthur jumps off his chair when he spots a mouse
Mouse
A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
and crouches near the wainscoting
Panelling
Panelling is a wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials....
, waiting for it to appear.
That night, Lady Carmichael is badly attacked in her bed by the ghostly creature and this prompts Carstairs to insist that the body of the dead cat is dug up. It is and he sees that it is the very creature that he has spotted several times and a smell shows that it was killed by prussic acid.
Several days pass as Lady Carmichael starts to recover until one day Sir Arthur falls into the water of the lake. Pulled out to the bank, it is first thought that he is dead but he comes round and he has also recovered his personality but he has no recollection of the intervening days. The sight of him gives Lady Carmichael such a shock that she dies on the spot and the missing book from the library is found – a volume on the subject of the transformation of people into animals. The inference is that lady Carmichael used the book to put Sir Arthur's soul into the cat, then killed it to ensure her own son would inherit the title and estate.
Literary significance and reception
As this book was not published through the usual channels or available to buy in shops until 1936, there were no reviews of the original publication.Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
: "Mostly semi-supernatural stories. In this setting, Witness for the Prosecution stands out as the jewel it is: surely this is the cleverest short story she wrote. Of the others, the best is perhaps The Call of Wings, but that, depressingly, was one of the very first things she wrote (pre-First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
). In this mode she got no better."
Publication history
- 1933, Odhams Press, October 1933, Hardcover, 252 pp
- 1936, Collins Crime Club (London), February 1936, Hardcover, 252 pp
- 1960, Pan BooksPan BooksPan Books is an imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
, Paperback (Great Pan G377), 218 pp - 1964, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
), Paperback, 190 pp - 1968, Ulverscroft Large Print Edition, Hardcover, 218pp, ISBN 0-70-890187-5
- 2010, HarperCollins; Facsimile edition, Hardcover: 256 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0007354658
First publication of stories
The first UK magazine publication of all the stories has not been fully documented. A partial listing is as follows:- The Red Signal: First published in issue 232 of The Grand MagazineThe Grand MagazineThe Grand Magazine was the first British pulp magazine. It was published monthly between February 1905 and April 1940. Published by George Newnes, it initially emulated Newnes's highly successful Strand Magazine, featuring a mix of fiction and non-fiction...
in June 1924. - The Fourth Man: First published in issue 250 of The Grand Magazine in December 1925.
- Wireless: First published in the Sunday Chronicle Annual in December 1926.
- The Mystery of the Blue Jar: First published in issue 233 of The Grand Magazine in July 1924.
- The Last Seance: First published under the title of The Stolen Ghost in issue 87 of The Sovereign Magazine in March 1927. The illustrator of the story was not named.
- SOS: First published in issue 252 of The Grand Magazine in February 1926.
In addition to the above, in the US The Witness for the Prosecution was published in the January 31, 1925 issue of Flynn's Weekly (Volume IV, No 2) under the title of Traitor Hands with an uncredited illustration and the first true printing of The Last Seance also occurred in the US when it was published in the November 1926 issue of Ghost Stories under the title of The Woman Who Stole a Ghost.
No magazine printings of the remaining stories prior to 1933 have yet been traced.
Publication of book collection
Jungle Girl (novel)
Jungle Girl is an Edgar Rice Burroughs Lost World novel set in a forgotten kingdom in the jungles of Cambodia.It was begun in 1929-10-02 under the working title The Dancing Girl of the Leper King it was first run serially in five installments from May to September 1931 by Blue Book Magazine under...
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
, The Sun Will Shine by May Edginton
May Edginton
May Edginton was a British writer. She was married to Francis E. Bailey and died in Rondebosch, South Africa in 1957.-Novels and short stories:...
, The Veil'd Delight by Marjorie Bowen, The Venner Crime by John Rhode and Q33 by George Goodchild. The promotion appears to have been successful insofar as The Hound of Death is by far the easiest pre-war UK Christie book to obtain as a first edition in its dustwrapper. An edition for sale in the shops appeared in February 1936 published by the Collins Crime Club
Collins Crime Club
The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...
Book dedication
In common with most collections of Christie's short stories, this book carried no dedication.Dustjacket blurb
The blurbBlurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
on the inside flap of the dustjacket of the first edition (which is also repeated opposite the title page) reads:
"Stories by a world-famous detective-story writer – but not detective stories this time. Mrs. Agatha Christie has written a collection of hair-raising tales of mystery and the supernatural. Excitement, horror, pathos, and humour stalk hand in hand through the pages of the book. Mrs. Christie’s tales range from psychic nuns to demimondaines, from Chinese jars to haunted wireless sets; and each one is a perfect example of its kind, with just that satisfying extra twist that only a really fine novelist knows how to introduce into a story already full of surprises."
US book appearances of stories
The stories contained in The Hound of Death appeared in the following US collections:- The Witness for the Prosecution and Other StoriesThe Witness for the Prosecution and Other StoriesThe Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1948. The first edition retailed at $2.50...
(1948) - The Fourth Man, The Mystery of the Blue Jar, The Red Signal, S O S, Wireless (under the revised title of Where There's a Will) and The Witness for the Prosecution. - Double Sin and Other StoriesDouble Sin and Other StoriesDouble Sin and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1961 and retailed for $3.50...
(1961) - The Last Seance. - The Golden Ball and Other StoriesThe Golden Ball and Other StoriesThe Golden Ball and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1971 in an edition priced at $5.95...
(1971) - The Hound of Death, The Gypsy, The Lamp, The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael (under the slightly revised title of The Strange Case of Sir Andrew Carmichael) and The Call of Wings
External links
- The Hound of Death at the official Agatha Christie website