I bowed with what grace I might, and retired3. The other cab had gone, so I set forth4 to find one for myself at the nearest rank. I could think of nothing better to do than to make for Crouch5 End Police Station and endeavour to find Hewitt. Soon after my cab emerged north of the city I became conscious of another cab, whose driver I fancied I recognised, and which kept ahead all along the route. In fact it was Mrs. Geldard’s cab, and presently it dawned upon me that we must both be bound for the same place. When it became quite clear that Crouch End was the destination of the lady I instructed my driver to disregard the police-station and follow the cab in front. Thus I arrived at Mr. Fuller’s house just behind Mrs. Geldard, and thus, waiting at the gate, I met Hewitt as he emerged.
“Hullo, Brett!” he said. “Condole with me. Mrs. Geldard has changed her mind, and considers me a pernicious creature anxious to make mischief6 between her and her husband; I’m very much afraid I shan’t get my fee.”
“No,” I answered, “she told me you wouldn’t.”
We compared notes, and Hewitt laughed heartily7. “The appearance of Emma Trennatt at Geldard’s office this morning is explained,” he said. “She went first with a message from Geldard to Mrs. Geldard at Camberwell, explaining his absence and imploring8 her not to talk of it or make a disturbance9. Mrs. Geldard had gone off to town, and Emma Trennatt was told that she had gone to Geldard’s office. There she went, and then we first saw her. She found nobody at the office, and after a minute or two of irresolution10 returned to Camberwell, and then succeeded in delivering her message, as you saw. Mrs. Geldard is apparently11 satisfied with her husband’s explanation. But I’m afraid the revenue officers won’t approve of it.”
“The revenue officers?”
“Yes. It’s a case of illicit12 distilling—and a big case, I fancy. I’ve wired to Somerset House, and no doubt men are on their way here now. But Mrs. Geldard’s up at the house, so we’d better hurry up to the police station and have a few sent from there. Come along. The whole thing’s very clever, and a most uncommonly13 big thing. If I know all about it—and I think I do—Geldard and his partners have been turning out untaxed spirit by the hundred gallons for a long time past. Geldard is the practical man, the engineer, and probably erected14 the whole apparatus15 himself in that house on the hill. The spirit is brought down by a pipe laid a very little way under the garden surface, and carried into one of the irrigation stand-pipes in the nursery ground. There’s a quiet little hole behind the pipe with a couple of stop-cocks—one to shut off the water when necessary, the other to do the same with the spirit. When the stopcocks are right you just turn the tap at the top of the pipe and you get water or whisky, as the case may be. Fuller, the man up at the house, attends to the still, with such assistance as the deaf old woman can give him. Trennatt, down below, draws off the liquor ready to be carried away. These two keep up an ostentatious appearance of being at unending feud16 to blind suspicion. Our as yet ungreeted friend Geldard, guiding spirit of the whole thing, comes disguised as a carter with an apparent cart-load of linoleum17, and carries away the manufactured stuff. In the pleasing language of Geldard and Co., ‘smoke,’ as alluded18 to in the note you saw, means whisky. Something has been wrong with the apparatus lately, and it has been leaking badly. Geldard has been at work on it, patching, but ineffectually. ‘What you did was no good’ said the charming Emma in the note, as you will remember. ‘Uncle was anxious.’ And justifiably19 so, because not only does a leak of spirit mean a waste, but it means a smell, which some sharp revenue man might sniff20. Moreover, if there is a leak, the liquid runs somewhere at random21, and with any sudden increase in volume attention might easily be attracted. It was so bad that ‘F.’ (Fuller) thought Geldard must light another pipe (start another still) or give up smoking (distilling) for a bit. There is the explanation of the note. ‘To-morrow, to carry’ probably means that he is to call with his cart—the cart in whose society Geldard becomes Cookson—to remove a quantity of spirit. He is not to come late because people are expected on floral business. The crosses, I think, will be found to indicate the amount of liquid to be moved. But that we shall see. Anyhow, Geldard got there yesterday and had a busy day loading up, and then set to repairing. The damage was worse than supposed, and an urgent thing. Result, Geldard works into early morning, has a sleep in the place, where he may be called at any moment, and starts again early this morning. New parts have to be ordered, and these are delivered at Trennatt’s to-day and passed through the hedge. Meantime Geldard sends a message to his wife explaining things, and the result you’ve seen.”
At the police station a telegram had already been received from Somerset House. That was enough for Hewitt, who had discharged his duty as a citizen and now dropped the case. We left the police and the revenue officers to deal with the matter and travelled back to town.
“Yes,” said Hewitt on the way, after each had fully22 described his day’s experiences, “it seemed pretty plain that Geldard left his office by the back way in disguise, and there were things that hinted what that disguise was. The pipes were noticeable. They were quite unnecessarily dirty, and partly from dirty fingers. Pipes smoked by a man in his office would never look like that. They had been smoked out of doors by a man with dirty hands, and hands and pipes would be in keeping with the rest of the man’s appearance. It was noticeable that he had left not only his clothes and hat, but his boots behind him. They were quite plain though good boots, and would be quite in keeping with any dress but that of a labourer or some such man in his working clothes. Moreover, the partly-smoked cigars were probably thrown aside because they would appear inconsistent with Geldard’s changed dress. The contents of the pockets in the clothes left behind, too, told the same tale. The cheap watch and the necessary keys, pocketbook and pocket-knife were taken, but the articles of luxury, the russia leather card-case, the sovereign purse and so on, were left. Then we came on the receipts for stable-rent. Suggestion—perhaps the disguise was that of a carter.
“Then there was the coach-house. Plainly, if Geldard took the trouble thus to disguise himself, and thus to hide his occupation even from his wife, he had some very good reason for secrecy23. Now the goods which a man would be likely to carry secretly in a cart or van, as a regular piece of business, would probably be either stolen or smuggled24. When I examined those pieces of linoleum, I became convinced that they were intended merely as receptacles for some other sort of article altogether. They were old, and had evidently been thus rolled for a very long period. They appeared to have been exposed to weather, but on the outside only. Moreover they were all of one size and shape, each forming a long, hollow cylinder26, with plenty of interior room. Now from this it was plainly unlikely that they were intended to hold stolen goods. Stolen goods are not apt to be always of one size and shape, adaptable27 to a cylindrical28 recess29. Perhaps they were smuggled. Now the only goods profitable to be smuggled nowadays are tobacco and spirits, and plainly these rolls of linoleum would be excellent receptacles for either. Tobacco could be packed inside the rolls and the ends stopped artistically30 with narrow rolls of linoleum. Spirits could be contained in metal cylinders31 exactly fitting the cavity, and the ends filled in the same way as for tobacco. But for tobacco a smart man would probably make his linoleum rolls of different sizes, for the sake of a more innocent appearance, while for spirits it would be a convenience to have vessels32 of uniform measure, to save trouble in quicker delivery and calculation of quantity. Bearing these things in mind, I went in search of the gentle nurseryman at Crouch End. My general survey of the nursery ground and the house behind it inspired me with the notion that the situation and arrangement were most admirably adapted for the working of a large illicit still—a form of misdemeanour, let me tell you, that is much more common nowadays than is generally supposed. I remembered Geldard’s engineering experience, and I heard something of the odd manners of Mr. Fuller; my theory of a traffic in untaxed spirits became strengthened. But why a nursery? Was this a mere25 accident of the design? There were commonly irrigation pipes about nurseries, and an extra one might easily be made to carry whisky. With this in mind I visited the nursery with the result you know of. The stand-pipe I tested (which was where I expected—handy to the vehicle-entrance) could produce simple New River water or raw whisky at command of one of two stop-cocks. My duty was plain. As you know, I am a citizen first and an investigator33 after, and I find the advantage of it in my frequent intercourse34 with the police and other authorities. As soon as I could get away I telegraphed to Somerset House. But then I grew perplexed35 on a point of conduct. I was commissioned by Mrs. Geldard. It scarcely seemed the loyal thing to put my client’s husband in gaol36 because of what I had learnt in course of work on her behalf. I decided37 to give him, and nobody else, a sporting chance. If I could possibly get at him in the time at my disposal, by himself, so that no accomplice38 should get the benefit of my warning, I would give him a plain hint to run; then he could take his chance. I returned to the place and began to work round the grounds, examining the place as I went; but at the very first outhouse I put my head into I was surprised in the rear by Mrs. Geldard coming in hot haste to stop me and rescue her husband. She most unmistakably gave me the sack, and so now the police may catch Geldard or not, as their luck may be.”
They did catch him. In the next day’s papers a report of a great capture of illicit distillers occupied a prominent place. The prisoners were James Fuller, Henry Matthew Trennatt, Sarah Blatten, a deaf woman, Samuel Geldard, and his wife Rebecca Geldard. The two women were found on the premises39 in violent altercation40 when the officers arrived, a few minutes after Hewitt and I had left the police station on our way home. It was considered by far the greatest haul for the revenue authorities since the seizure41 of the famous ship’s boiler42 on a wagon43 in the East End stuffed full of tobacco, after that same ship’s boiler had made about a dozen voyages to the Continent and back “for repair.” Geldard was found dressed as a workman, carrying out extensive alterations44 and repairs to the still. And a light van was found in a shed belonging to the nursery loaded with seventeen rolls of linoleum, each enclosing a cylinder containing two gallons of spirits, and packed at each end with narrow linoleum rolls. It will be remembered that seventeen was the number of crosses at the foot of Emma Trennatt’s note.
3-6
THE PRISONERS.
The subsequent raids on a number of obscure public-houses in different parts of London, in consequence of information gathered on the occasion of the Geldard capture, resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of secreted45 spirit for which no permit could be shown. It demonstrated also the extent of Geldard’s connection, and indicated plainly what was done with the spirit when he had carted it away from Crouch End. Some of the public-houses in question must have acquired a notoriety among the neighbours for frequent purchases of linoleum.
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1
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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bonneted
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| 发动机前置的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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crouch
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| v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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7
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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9
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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irresolution
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| n.不决断，优柔寡断，犹豫不定 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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12
illicit
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| adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的 | |
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uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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15
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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16
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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linoleum
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| n.油布，油毯 | |
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18
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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justifiably
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| adv.无可非议地 | |
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20
sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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21
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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cylinder
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| n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸 | |
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adaptable
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| adj.能适应的，适应性强的，可改编的 | |
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cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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artistically
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| adv.艺术性地 | |
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cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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33
investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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39
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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40
altercation
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| n.争吵，争论 | |
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41
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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42
boiler
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| n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等) | |
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43
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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44
alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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45
secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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