The Fourth Man: A Short Story

By Agatha Christie

Previously published in the print anthology The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories.

A cleric, a lawyer, and a psychiatrist find themselves together on a train bound for Newcastle. There is a fourth man in the compartment, who apparently pays no attention to his companions' animated conversation. But do they have something to learn from this stranger?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Sep 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062300621

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

Book preview

Contents

The Fourth Man

About the Author

The Agatha Christie Collection

Copyright

About the Publisher

THE FOURTH MAN

Canon Parfitt panted a little. Running for trains was not much of a business for a man of his age. For one thing his figure was not what it was and with the loss of his slender silhouette went an increasing tendency to be short of breath. This tendency the Canon himself always referred to, with dignity, as "My heart, you know!"

He sank into the corner of the first-class carriage with a sigh of relief. The warmth of the heated carriage was most agreeable to him. Outside the snow was falling. Lucky to get a corner seat on a long night journey. Miserable business if you didn’t. There ought to be a sleeper on this train.

The other three corners were already occupied, and noting this fact Canon Parfitt became aware that the man in the far corner was smiling at him in gentle recognition. He was a clean-shaven man with a quizzical face and hair just turning grey on the temples. His profession was so clearly the law that no one could have mistaken him for anything else for a moment. Sir George Durand was, indeed, a very famous lawyer.

Well, Parfitt, he remarked genially, you had a run for it, didn’t you?

Very bad for my heart, I’m afraid, said the Canon. Quite a coincidence meeting you, Sir George. Are you going far north?

Newcastle, said Sir George laconically. By the way, he added, do you know Dr. Campbell Clark?

The man sitting on the same side of the carriage as the Canon inclined his head pleasantly.

We met on the platform, continued the lawyer. Another coincidence.

Canon Parfitt looked at Dr. Campbell Clark with a good deal of interest. It was a name of which he had often heard. Dr. Clark was

Reviews for The Fourth Man

[Gloriana · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A lawyer, doctor and clergyman sit together on the train. But, the fourth man steals the story into the possible paranormal. A different kind of Christie.