XXV: Approaching the Finish explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Detective Method and Reasoning

  Ashton-Kirk explains his reasoning behind Locke's actions and Sagon's choice of weapon, demonstrating deductive logic.

• Secrecy and Deception

  Locke's secretive lurking, Hume's denial of the plans, and Morris's hidden financial troubles all involve deception.

• Crime and Morality

  The chapter explores the moral dimensions of revenge, theft, and the consequences of criminal associations.

Characters to notice

• Ashton Kirk

  Reveals Locke's movements and the motive behind Sagon's use of a bayonet; explains the resolution of the case.

• Pendleton

  Spends the night at Ashton-Kirk's and demands a full explanation of the case.

• Allan Morris

  Visits Ashton-Kirk, confesses his financial troubles and his father's stolen monoplane plans, and reveals his broken engagement with Miss Vale.

• Professor Locke

  Reported by Burgess to have been lurking around Christie Place and entering the Marx house.

• Antonio Spatola

  Mentioned as having been confronted; his use of a bayonet is explained as poetic justice.

• Miss Edyth Vale

  Mentioned as having broken her engagement with Allan Morris after her dangerous adventures.

Key passages

• “I gave them the heads of the case very plainly, but as it was almost the hour for going to press, I suppose they did not get the finer points of my meaning.”

  Ashton-Kirk provided the newspapers with the main facts, but due to the deadline, they missed the subtleties.

  Ashton-Kirk comments on the inaccuracy of the morning papers.

• “The bayonet, so legend has it, was first made in Bayonne, and Sagon conceived that it would be a sort of poetic justice if the traitor were to die by a weapon so closely connected with the scene of his treachery.”

  Sagon chose a bayonet because it originated in Bayonne, where Hume had betrayed their smuggling ring, making the murder a form of poetic justice.

  Ashton-Kirk explains Sagon's motive for using a bayonet.