<P> 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 says that the doctor is trying to obtain her powers by progressing 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 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 . </P> <P> Dickie Carpenter breaks off his recent engagement to Esther Lawes and confides the reason to Mcfarlane, a dour Scot who is the fiancée of Rachel Lawes, Esther's younger sister . 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 . This happened 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 . </P> <P> 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 whom 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 became engaged a week later and two weeks after that he again caught sight of Mrs Haworth who once more warned him . 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 . </P> <P> 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 find 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 . </P>

The golden ball and other stories agatha christie pdf