The hound of death by Agatha Christie

A collection of short stories with a common theme: the occult.
The first, The hound of death (ITA il segugio della morte) is less than twenty pages long. There is a nun, Marie Angelique, who is in a confused state of mind. A moment she's coherent, the next she's talking about the Six Signs, the Hound of Death, telepathy and the power of death...
Mr Anstruther comes across her story by chance and meets her twice, in the company of dottor Rose that has taken a personal interest in helping her but his mention of 'power' makes the reader doubt him, and with reason. The story ends with Mr Anstruther receiving two letters. In the first the nun asks for his help, telling him the doctor wants to learn from her the sixth sign, the sign of death; the second letter comes from his sister. She tells him a rather sinister story about the doctor's and the nun's deaths. The doctor's uncle died, struck by lightning. After that, all his money were to go to the doctor, but he died too, along with the nun, when his house was destroyed. Mr Anstruther thinks that maybe the doctor used the sign of death on his uncle, but he made the mistake of 'completing the circle' and death had come back, to him, but then, in a very British way, he discards the whole thing as nonsense, certain things don't exist, everything must have a perfectly rational explanation.
The red signal (ITA il segnale rosso) story n. 2. This is about premonition, intuition, sixth sense, and spiritism. A dinner at Jack and Claire Trent's house. Among the guests: rich psychiatrist Sir Alington West and his only relative Dermot West. Dermot has experienced before some kind of premonition, a 'signal' inside him, a 'red signal' that means danger. A couple of times already this red signal saved his life. Tonight he feels the same. He's madly in love with Claire, his best friend's wife, and because of this he can't think straight. When Sir Alington speaks of madness and how it is ereditary, Claire is very nervous and Dermot believes he's talking about her. During a séance there's a strange warning: "don't go home". Dermot thinks it's for him, so he's not worried when Sir Alington wants to talk to him at his house. They arrive at Sir Alington's and when the doctor tells him he's absolutely sure that it's a grave case of madness, homicidal madness, that needs seclusion, Dermot goes out of his mind. Not doubting for a second that he's talking about Claire, they fight. Dermot shouts that he'll run away with her and will protect her at all costs, and the butler hears them shout: "if you do that I'll change my will and you'll have nothing"_"I don't care, say a word against her and I'll kill you". Dermot won't listen when Sir Alington tries to talk to him some more, instead he goes away, he meets Claire who tells him that she loves him but there's no hope for them, oh it's so horrible, and then he goes home to find a gun in his drawer and the police at his door. He learns that Sir Alington has been killed and everything is against him. At Jack's house, while Dermot tries to make sense of it all, Jack starts laughing and confesses everything. The house is locked, Dermot can't escape. Jack will call the police because he wants Dermot to be hanged. Jack killed Sir Alington because he had understood everything, including his intention of killing Claire with a knife. Luckily for Dermot, Claire is there with a police inspector and he hears everything, so he's safe. The happy ending is given by the fact that now Jack will probably be hanged, thus freeing Claire. When she said 'horrible' and Sir Alington had spoken of no hope, they meant that by law Claire could not divorce a 'mad' husband, and therefore could never be free. The 'red signal' was right again, and also the 'don't go home' warning was right, but not just for one person!
Story 3- The fourth man (ITA Il quarto uomo) A doctor, a lawyer and a priest talk on a train about the extraordinary case of Felicie Bault and her four personalities and her "impossible death" when the fourth man joins in the conversation, telling them what they don't know, because he grew up with Felicie. They grew up in a house for orphans (but not an orphanage): there was Felicie, whose father had strangled her mother, and Annette: her mother was a "fille de joie" and died of tubercolosis after her father abandoned them. Annette is full of life and beautiful and wants to become famous. Felicie is very slow, everyone thinks she's stupid, but she's very strong and her health is perfect. Annette mocks and humiliates Felicie, and once she even hypnotized her into eating a candle in front of all the other laughing kids. Felicie hates her but for some reason (fascination or forced obedience) she follows her everywhere and obeys everything she tells her to do. As time goes by Annette becomes a singer, she loves the theatre and being a famous artist, but her health is not good and she'll have to leave it all and go back to the house. She's so sick everybody thinks she'll die but she insists that her will is stronger than her body and she'll live. She repeats that until the day she dies. After that day, Felicie starts acting weird, sometimes she's like another person, someone who plays the piano and can act very well, and other moments she remembers nothing about it and is the old stupid self again, until one day she says that she can hear Annette inside her head, trying to take over, to drive her out, and she's terrorized but still says that if that day will ever come, she'll use on her all the strength of her hands... Months or years later she was found dead, strangled by her own hands.
The gipsy (ITA la zingara) Dickie has always been scared of gipsies because every time one gives him a warning, something bad happens to him, until he dies after an operation. His friend McFarlane goes to talk to a gipsy who knew him, and learns that she has the gift/curse of seeing things. She married Maurice because she sensed a great danger over him and hoped to save him, but the next day she dies because in the dark he gave her the wrong thing to drink... she couldn't save him after all, and this was Fate's cruel joke. About Dickie, he was simply an idiot: every time a gipsy warned him of something, he was terrified of the woman but always ran and did exactly what she warned him against. What a genius...
The ramp (ITA la lanterna) An old house is said to be haunted. Once a man and a child lived there; he was a criminal and one day killed himself to avoid prison. The child was left alone, scared, and without food, until he died. Now Mrs Lancaster moves in with her dad and her son Geoff. She can't sense anything, but her old father often hears desperate crying, and Geoff even sees the child, so lonely and so desperate that Geoff wants to help him. Geoff is weak and one day he gets sick, and the doctors have no hope, but Geoff is happy he'll finally be able to help his little friend. When he dies, his spirit joins the other one and now there is the noise of 'two' pair of feet and of laughter instead of crying. The children leave the house together, I guess to go 'to the other side'.
Wireless (la radio) An old, rich woman, Mrs Harter, has a weak heart and her doctor says she must live a quiet, peaceful life, and to his nephew Charles he clearly said that strong emotions could be the end of her. Mrs Harter is very rich and she had tried to find an heir among nieces and nephews. Miriam had been a disappointment because she was young and reckless and easily bored in her company, and had married a man that she didn't like, so she had tried with Charles. He was polite, kind, listened to her stories with interest and would tell her compliments many times a day. Mrs Hartner had therefore changed her will leaving everything to Charles. Now he convinced her that she needed a radio to keep her mind occupied. At first she wasn't happy but she soon got used to it and liked to listen to concerts or other local programs. When Charles was out, she started hearing strange things. From time to time the music would stop and a voice would call her, telling her he was her dead husband coming to get her. She was a brave woman and when the last message said : Friday night , she asked for her will to be sent to her, to check what she had written. She thought what she had left to her maid was not enough, so she gave her some more (she had left her 50, she gave her another 50 to make it 100). She waited, that night, for her late husband; she had prepared everything for her demise, and when she saw a man with a long beard coming in, her heart failed her and she died. Charles was now quite happy of his little plan. He was careful to burn the fake beard and take care of everything that might lead to him. He was in deep trouble and needed a lot of money or he could go to jail, and now he did, he had a lot. He asked for his aunt's will, but it could not be found, and in the end he remembers seeing her with something in her hand, that night, a piece of paper that fell on the fire... without it, it will be valid the old will, the one before this, which stated that everything would go to Miriam, who now has four children. Good, I say, but Charles didn't feel the same way. As if that wasn't enough, the doctor told him Mrs Harter's health was worse than he had imagined, and would not have lived more than one or two months... ah, the irony!
The witness of the prosecution (ITA testimone d'accusa) I liked this, a crime story, quite interesting. The crime has already happened. Leonard is very poor. He meets an old woman, very rich. He is kind to her and she likes having him around. They spend time together. One night she is brutally killed and Leonard is charged with murder. This is the story of his lawyer Mayherne trying to save him. Mayherne believes his words of innocence, but everything is against him. Leonard is optimistic though, because his wife loves him very much and will testify that he was at home. Mayherne is not so optimistic because he doubts the words of a woman madly in love will be able to save him. Mayherne will have many surprises though. The woman, beautiful Romaine, says he's not her husband but they live together (she's married to a madman and therefore can't divorce), but she hates him and will testify that he confessed the murder to her. Mayherne then meets an old, disfigured woman that can prove Romaine is lying. She has letters that prove she loves someone else and wants him hanged. During the trial things go according to Mayherne's plan, and once Romaine is discredited, all the jury is in Leonard's side, and he is found 'not guilty'. After thinking about habits and how Romaine moves her hands, Mayherne realizes she was the old woman. At the end of the story Mayherne meets Romaine again, but we are not told where. I guess she spent some time in jail for lying in court, but maybe she's already out, it is not said. Romaine conferms Mayherne's belief: yes, it was her, the letters were fake, she never loved anyone else and she deeply loved Leonard and had to save him, and the jury would not have believed the words of a woman in love, so she thought of a plan that would have worked, and it ends with the most important line: Romaine knew he was guilty!
The mistery of the blue jar (ITA il mistero del vaso azzurro) This was kind of fun, in a way. Jack loves to go golfing every morning before work. One morning he hears a woman's voice yelling Help and Murder; he runs and he meets a girl who says she heard nothing. The same thing happens again and again, always in the morning. He seems to be the only one hearing it, and that beautiful girl looks at him as if he's insane. He tries going to the same place with another person, again he hears the yell but Dr Lavington appears to have heard nothing. He thinks he's going mad but the doctor tells him he's not, he's probably 'feeling' something, and offers to investigate together. He tells Jack that nobody has ever seen again the woman that lived there before beautiful Felise came. To confirm this, Felise herself comes to tell them of her dreams of a woman yelling the same words, a woman with a blue jar. In Felise's dreams, this jar had apparently a great importance, and Lavington suggested to try a sort of seance. That jar was bought by Jack's uncle, so Jack goes home and takes the jar. He goes to Felise's cottage with Dr Lavington, drinks a cup of coffee there, and then wait in the dark for something to happen. He wakes up the next day but he's no more in the cottage, and can't find them. He meets his uncle and tells him everything, also adding how worried he is for his two friends, when his uncle asks about the jar. What happened to the jar? It was Ming, best piece of his collection, he already had an offer for 10.000 £... Jack tried again to find Lavington but only found a letter. Poor stupid Jack, I say. Felise was so beautiful he never even thought of doubting her words, and he was so relieved Lavington didn't think him mad that he made a hero out of him, again never doubting him for a second, and gave them the precious jar without a moment of hesitation.
The strange case of Sir Arthur Carmichael (ITA lo strano caso di Sir Arthur Carmichael) A strange story. After his father's death, young Sir Arthur lives with his father's second wife and her son. Arthur is now engaged to Phyllis, when something happens to him. He moves in a strange way, only drinks milk and doesn't speak. Doctor Settle calls for the help of his friend Dr Carstairs. As he arrives to the house, he witness this: he sees and hears a cat that is not there, while Arthur behaves like a cat himself. Carstairs learns that there was a cat once, but Lady Carmichael had to 'put him to sleep', if I can use this expression, with hydrocyanic acid. The spirit of the cat is furious with lady Carmichael and almost kills her once, then Arthur falls on into the pond. Phyllis says he can swim very well, but the two doctors have reasons to fear and run to him. They try to get him out and help him, but it looks like it's too late. Phyllis throws herself on him crying desperately "come back to me! come back to me!" and Arthur came back to life, and he was his old self again, with no memory at all of the last month. When she saw him, lady Carmichael died of shock. Carstairs thinks it's because she had killed Arthur with the acid...
How romantic was Agatha, having Arthur come back to life at the sound of Phyllis voice :-)
The call of wings (Il richiamo delle ali) What a strange story, I don't know what to think of it. It's the story of rich Silas Hamer. Once poor, he became very rich and is now a happy man; not interested in power, he loves the comforts that money can buy. One day he witnesses an accident, a poor man under a bus. A man tells him not to feel guilty, nothing he could have done, but he's not feeling guilty, he's feeling scared, terrorized at the thought of death that comes for everyone, the poor and the rich alike. This is because he loves his life now, with all the comforts he can afford. Going home, he meets a man (who will later reveal to be Pan): he's playing a strange, beautiful music, and Hamer is captured by it and shows it. He will hear the same music at night, and every time it'll be better and more addicting. He feels like he's flying, free, a wonderful sensation, but the end of it every time is more difficult and painful; he feels trapped in his home, by the walls, by all the things that he cherished. He realizes talking to a friend that he'll never feel completely free until he has his money and all the things that made his life so enjoyable before. He arranges to leave everything to a priest (or whatever) that will use it to help the poor, and feels finally free. Worried about his future, the cold, the hunger, but in a way feeling that it was important because nothing can compare to that wonderful sensation he felt hearing the mystic music. He takes the train to go to the park (the tube I think) and sees a young man losing his balance and fall. In a second many thoughts dwell inside him, he's the only one who can help, it's dangerous but he can save him if he wants, and in a way this time there's nothing to stop him and he jumps. He saves the guy, but can't save himself, but he had no more fear, the material world he lived in has no more grip on him, he was free, and he felt now those wings that many nights he had felt were calling him, around him.
Now, I can understand the symbolism and the good message and everything, but I still think it's sad: if every story regarding self-improvement, conscience, soul, end with death, it's no wonder if so many people are bastards but alive.
The last seance (ITA l'ultima seduta) This was terrible, I knew what was going to happen and it was hard to read it. A young medium, Simone, is the real thing and her seance are spectacular, always a great success. She's engaged to Raoul, who is very proud of her, so much I feel in him pride is bigger than love. Simone's maid tells him of how ill Simone is, how bad all this is for her, then Simone tells him she's scared, terrorized, feeling something bad is going to happen to her. She cries more than once that she doesn't wanna do it anymore, that he had promised her, but he reminds her she has an appointment for that same day. Madame Exe paid a fortune for that seance. Raoul had been present the last time, and he had seen clearly the child, more than an image, she was solid, flesh and blood, he had touched her but realizing he hurt Simone he forbade Madame Exe to touch her. Today Simone begs Raoul to stop it, she doesn't want to do it, but he makes her feel guilty, the idiot: "as a woman you should understand the pain of a mother that has lost her child" so Simone accepts - seems to me she totally understood that, but he didn't, he did not understand such pain, and the effect of the word 'mum' and what a mother would do to get her child back. When Madame Exe arrives, she has a rope with her. She says she wants to be sure there are no tricks and Raoul is all Sure, tie me up tight, there are no tricks here, Simone is a real wonder! So when the child appears, more real and complete than ever, calling her 'maman', Raoul can't do nothing but shout. Madame Exe touches the child, ignoring Simone's pain. Raoul shouts again, but the woman tells him she doesn't care about the medium at all, she only cares about her child come back to life. She hugs her little child and takes her out of the house. When Raoul manages to free himself, he can see Simone is dead, and her body is half her usual size.
S.O.S. (Ita. S.O.S.) A story kind of like the movie 'The Shining'. A secluded place, a lonely house where many years before a man had killed his wife. The Dinsmead family goes to live in this house. Mortimer Cleveland knocks at their door one night by mere chance: his car has abandoned him. He notices the strange atmosphere and later on he finds the letters s.o.s. written in the dust. Who wrote it and why? Exactly like Poirot, Cleveland will stop and think until he has the solution. Mather and father had told him that Magdalene was adopted and about to inherit a nice amount of money, but Cleveland noticed that Charlotte looks nothing like her mother, and that the tea that was thrown away when he arrived was still hot, not cold at all... he finds out the truth and is able to stop the tragedy. Magdalene was the real daughter, Charlotte the adopted one. The man wanted his daughter to inherit but for this he needed Charlotte to disappear... so he had poisoned her tea. Cleveland saved her though. It is said that they acted like that because of the influence of the house.

The end, no more stories.