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Thirty-one,CARDS ON THE TABLE,It was Poirot’s moment, every face was turned to his in eager anticipation ¹.,“You are very kind,” he said, smiling. “You know, I think, that I enjoy my little lecture. I am aprosy old fellow.,“This case, to my mind, has been one of the most interesting cases I have ever come across.,There was nothing, you see, to go upon. There were four people, one of whom must havecommitted the crime but which of the four? Was there anything to tell one? In the material sense—no. There were no tangible ² clues—no fingerprints—no incriminating papers or documents.,“And one tangible clue—the bridge scores.,“You may remember that from the beginning I showed a particular interest in those scores.,They told me something about the various people who had kept them and they did more. Theygave me one valuable hint. I noticed at once, in the third rubber, the figure of 1500 above the line.,That figure could only represent one thing—a call of grand slam. Now if a person were to make uptheir minds to commit a crime under these somewhat unusual circumstances (that is, during arubber game of bridge) that person was clearly running two serious risks. The first was that thevictim might cry out and the second was that even if the victim did not cry out someone of theother three might chance to look up at the psychological moment and actually witness the deed.,“Now as to the first risk, nothing could be done about it. It was a matter of gambler’s luck. Butsomething could be done about the second. It stands to reason that during an interesting or anexciting hand the attention of the three players would be wholly on the game, whereas during adull hand they were more likely to be looking about them. Now a bid of grand slam is alwaysexciting. It is very often (as in this case it was) doubled. Every one of the three players is playingwith close attention—the declarer to get his contract, the adversaries ³ to discard correctly and to gethim down. It was, then, a distinct possibility that the murder was committed during this particularhand and I determined ⁴ to find out, if I could, exactly how the bidding had gone. I soon discoveredthat dummy ⁵ during this particular hand had been Dr. Roberts. I bore that in mind and approachedthe matter from my second angle—psychological probability. Of the four suspects Mrs. Lorrimerstruck me as by far the most likely to plan and carry out a successful murder—but I could not seeher as committing any crime that had to be improvised ⁶ on the spur of the moment. On the otherhand her manner that first evening puzzled me. It suggested either that she had committed themurder herself or that she knew who had committed it. Miss Meredith, Major Despard and Dr.,The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安 ，像是感到了地震即将发生 。,The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处
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