Ito came in with a tray of glasses and some sort of light Italian wine, and then he left, and it began to get late. Of course, Willy didn’t know about it, and at ten he left.
I went with him to the hall, and he told me how insulted he had been by Amy that morning, but that he felt that there were possibilities in her and that he was going to try to develop them.
Then he coughed and said: “You know that offer of mine?”
I said I recalled it.
“Well,” he went on, “it is good. No Southern gentleman ever forgets his honour, but we were both young. You know darned well, Nat, that I’ll go through with it if I have to, but I think you’d be a better pitcher2 than a wife!”
Everybody had annoyed me that day, Uncle Frank had just left, and saying good-bye to him was hard, and I was excited over the mystery, so I spoke3 frankly4, to be truthful5. I almost shouted, “I wouldn’t have you!” and then I turned and saw S. K. coming towards us. He was going down to get a piece of Japanese carving6 that aunt wanted to see, but he let Willy start before he did.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, “thank Heaven I did! . . . Nat, I’m a fool, but that chap’s coming upset me. You see, my conscience keeps me from entering the race just now. His evidently does not.”
I explained and put him right on that. “And anyway,” I added, “there wouldn’t be any race.”
“Dear child,” he said, “if I dared let myself believe you! But,” he continued, with a change in tone, “that is a tabooed subject. Some day, if it is true, you’ll prove it. Now, won’t you?” He looked down at me ever so anxiously, and I laughed up at him. I felt exceedingly light-hearted since the weight of his disapproval7 was removed. That had really bothered me.
“The subject,” I said, “is tabooed!”
He put his hands on my shoulders, shook me gently, told me I was a “dear scamp,” and started off. The minute after he got outside the lights went out, and I never in all my life have heard anything like the noise that followed! Evelyn and Herbert rushed out of the little drawing-room and fell over a pedestal. Amy fell over a chair that had a pile of records on it, and those tipped off and clattered8 as they went to pieces on the bare floor. Someone knocked over the card-table, and someone else the chair that held the tray of glasses; Aunt Penelope screamed, and Uncle Archie said things that I cannot quote, repeating them at intervals9, in this manner:
“What the blank do you think you’re doing!” or, “Penelope, shut up that blank noise!” He became frightfully natural, as people do in crises, and added considerably10 to the confusion.
When the lights came on again the detectives looked very silly. One of them said something about hoping “it” would never get out. Then Ito was summoned and asked what had happened to the lights.
“Not can say,” he replied, with a lift of his shoulders.
Then I went to my room, looked for my bracelet11, and found it was gone. Everything moved after that. Ito, Jane, and the cook were ordered to the library, where for the first and last time they sat in state; S. K. and his man were sent for, and enough moves to satisfy even Douglas Fairbanks were packed into the next few minutes.
“What was this fellow doing when you went down?” the detective asked of S. K. He looked at Debson.
“I don’t know,” S. K. answered. “I didn’t go down. I heard the noise and tried to get back.”
“How about the outside men?” the detective went on; and I then found that there had been other people on guard--these watching outside. Someone went down and returned with a crest-fallen, baffled air.
“Saw nothing,” he said, “but this fellow”--looking at Debson--“went down the stairs after the lights went out.”
Then Ito spoke. “He has habit,” he explained, “of spending evening with Jane, when Mr. Kempwood suspect him to be answering door-bell, it was therefore that I remove light plug to delay Mr. Kempwood and cover retreat of Debson, since we are friends.”
“That is true,” said Jane, beginning to cry, “and I hope, sir, that you’ll not blame him, since it is my fault and----”
“That’ll do,” someone said, and she relapsed into very moist-sounding sniffs12. I don’t know how the “servant class,” as aunt calls them, manage to sniff13 like that, for theirs is a pervasive14, far-carrying sniff. But I notice that they always employ it when they are thinking of leaving, and perhaps strength comes from constant practice.
“Suppose we go down and search,” said Amy. “Probably he’s”--she pointed15 to S. K.’s man--“hidden it.”
I never saw such a look of outraged16 innocence17 as that man wore. “If there is any doubt,” he said, “I will request a search. I am honest.”
“Was there a blind man around?” I asked. “Did you hear of him downstairs?”
The man whom I asked--the man who had been outside--said there was. “But,” he said, “I am afraid you won’t make a detective, miss. He has been watched; he has not moved, and, since this affair, he has been searched.”
“Where was he sitting?” I asked.
“Come to think of it,” said one of the men, “I think he was sitting by a window that leads to the coal cellars.”
“They got in coal to-day,” I said. “I heard it go in. Possibly the inner window was not replaced. If the grating only was locked, my bracelet would go through that.”
Then I saw Debson move. And he spoke quickly, and in doing so made me sure that he was guilty.
“As I said, I am honest,” he began, voice shaking. “I love this girl”--he pointed to Jane--“but, if you want my opinion, you will not have to go as far as the basement to find the bracelet.”
“What leads you to say that?” asked the man who was putting the questions. He asked it sternly.
“My conscience,” replied S. K.’s servant, “and a sudden recollection of having seen it on her arm one night when I took her to the Clover Leaf Social Club ball. I afterward18 saw it on Miss Page’s arm when she was having tea with Mr. Kempwood.”
Jane cried harder than ever. “Just onct,” she gasped19, “and, honest to Gawd, I never done it again----”
But no one was convinced. I felt sure that Jane was being truthful, but I think I was alone in this. Then, after dividing the men and leaving the suspects guarded, a party was sent to the basements. I went with them, and I--found my bracelet.
It was wrapped in a piece of burlap and a string was tied to it.
“Lowered from my window to the blind man,” I said, as I triumphantly20 undid21 it. The man who had told me I was not a detective told me he would give me a job any day. I did feel proud. Then we started upstairs once again, and I heard how the bracelet had come back. Evelyn did it, and, after she finished, Herbert put his arm around her, which proved to me that he does really care deeply.
“There’s no mystery about that bracelet disappearing and reappearing,” she said suddenly and stridently, when I was being questioned about that. “I have--until recently--cared a good deal about things, possessions, and, in this--my bracelet--I thought I had something that was unique, individual. When Natalie appeared with the real mate, it completely outshone mine and annoyed me frightfully. I began to warn her not to wear it, with hastily scribbled22 small notes which I left out. She ignored these. I therefore put it where she could not wear it. That is, I locked it in my jewel-case. When I felt that I must return it, I did so at night. Sometimes when I went in, she stirred, and I, wanting her to think the affair supernatural and not to have her connect it with me, began to send it back at the end of my riding-crop. I’d put the handle against the bracelet and shove it in the room just as far as I could reach; I don’t know how many times I did it. That is what she means when she said it ‘crept in by itself.’ . . . Naturally she didn’t see my crop, which is dark.”
“I only saw the glitter of the gold,” I said, “and I didn’t know you didn’t want me to wear it. If I had, of course I wouldn’t have done so.”
“It seemed a joke then,” she went on. “I didn’t think at first that Natalie could misunderstand, and then--well, I was annoyed with her and I let it go on. It was a form of ‘getting even.’ I even tried to frighten her once or twice. One night I stole her flashlight; she saw my hand and was frightened, I think, for she called. When I began to care more for you, Natalie,” she continued in a different tone, and speaking directly to me, “I was sorry, but--somehow--I couldn’t say so. And because you’d stopped telling of things that occurred to bother you, I thought you weren’t frightened any more. I know it was contemptible23. I hope you can forgive me.”
Of course I said I did and I cared a lot for her and that it didn’t matter.
“Didn’t you know your cousin’s writing?” asked one of the men. I shook my head.
“Perhaps it looked different in pencil,” I explained, “and I suppose I never had even noticed it in ink. Then I was so sure those notes came from Madam Jumel. Her initials and Evelyn’s are the same and----” Then I paused, but they made me go on, and I had to tell of our family misfortunes which had, to some minds, been twisted about that bracelet.
Then Amy, who had had to be silent, and who had seen how gentle Herbert had been with Evelyn after her confession24, put in. I like Amy most of the time, and we are good friends, but I knew she made her confession hoping that she would be thought noble and so that she would be noticed.
“I stole those violets,” she said, standing25 up. “I myself, under the lure26 of an orchid27 and a wish to snub some of my most intimate friends, put those stockings in the box that went back to Herbert!” Then she glared up at the ceiling and clasped her hands. It was a pose she got from Nazimova, but it didn’t look the way it did under Nazimova’s touch.
Aunt Penelope snapped at her so hard that I felt sorry for her. “You were a little sneak,” she said, “to let all of us punish your cousin for weeks for something that you did. Sit down and be quiet or leave the room.”
“I only ask for forgiveness,” Amy went on sadly, “and that will bring me peace. How could I know, when I inserted those worn-out yellow socks of Evelyn’s, that I was to wreck28 the happiness of a care-free, girlish heart?”
The detectives laughed, but S. K. glared at her, and he muttered something about hoping people wouldn’t believe everything they heard hereafter!
“Am I forgiven?” asked Amy. She made her voice tremble beautifully. She had learned to from those singing lesson records that you can buy now.
I said she was, of course, and S. K. grunted29. And then he put his arm around me. It seemed to be catching30.
“I am going to take care of you after this,” he said through set teeth. “I have adopted you for the present. Understand? No more of that sort of nonsense shall occur!”
“How about those noises outside--those noises that were heard on the balcony?” someone asked.
Jane got in her innings then, and I imagine that Debson was sorry he’d mentioned having seen her wear my bracelet.
“He come up to see me that way,” she said; “time and again he done it. He had a long stick with a hook on top that he jabbed in a window-sill or over the balcony rail, and then he come up, hand over hand. . . . He said he done a turn one year in vaudeville31 and that that was in his bill----” And then she laughed shortly.
“Is true,” said Ito. “Greatly we laugh when he approach in climb manner. It was in dark of court. No one have opportunity to see. We encourage him to arrive so like monkey. I think he plan to come in such manners so that we in back of apartment hear scrape noises. Jane will think he visit me, I think he visit Jane, meanwhile he inspect and salute32 Jumel bracelet.”
“Why did you want it?” asked the detective.
Debson said he did not, loudly protesting his innocence until one of our visiting gentlemen went forward, slapped his pockets, and then began to unload them. He found all sorts of interesting things. An implement33 that is called a “jimmy,” that is, I believe, largely used in burglaries; a pistol; S. K.’s best cuff34 links; and--most important--a ball of twine35, and that matched the piece that I found tied to the bracelet. He had to give in, and when he saw that protests amounted to nothing he talked frankly.
“I thought I was safe,” said Debson, after his conviction was achieved. “No one up here believed the kid, and almost every night I prowled around somewhere, and during the day too. After I was thick with these two”--he motioned to Ito and Jane--“why, it looked as exciting as a Sunday-school picnic. To be sure, I hadn’t located the right bracelet (she had a way of hiding it), but I could get into her room any time I wanted to. One afternoon I walked in and busted36 the lock of the window, and no one said nothing. I thought I had it all fixed37 and that my hunting was over, for just to-day he promised not to kick up a search until she wanted it. And I believed it. I believed it!” After that he looked at us and laughed, laughed in a silent, sneering38 way, but I felt that his own failure was what made his unhappy mirth; his own failure and his being caught by such a simple trap.
“Why did you want it?” asked Uncle Archie. “The thing isn’t worth enough for all the trouble you gave it.”
“Is that so, brother?” said the man, who as a servant had had the most quiet voice and repressed manner. “Just go ask Vicente Alcon y Rodriguez! That boy’s a little Sugar King, and he makes enough to sweeten several lives. He offered me twenty-five thousand if I could get the Jumel bracelet or its mate for him and get it down to the monkey zone. And now--yuh got me--what you going to do with me?” He snarled39 this.
“We’ll give you a nice chance to rest,” answered one of the men pleasantly, and, taking handcuffs from his pocket, snapped them on the man who had made me so much trouble, and all the mystery.
“I wonder why the Sugar King wanted it?” I asked as the men went off, taking Debson between them.
“I’ll find out,” S. K. answered. And he did.
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收听单词发音
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1
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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2
pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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3
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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4
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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5
truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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7
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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8
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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9
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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10
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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11
bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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12
sniffs
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的第三人称单数 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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13
sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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14
pervasive
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| adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的 | |
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15
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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16
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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18
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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20
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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21
Undid
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| v. 解开, 复原 | |
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22
scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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23
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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25
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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27
orchid
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| n.兰花，淡紫色 | |
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28
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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29
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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30
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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31
vaudeville
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| n.歌舞杂耍表演 | |
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32
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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33
implement
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| n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行 | |
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34
cuff
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| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
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35
twine
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| v.搓，织，编饰；（使）缠绕 | |
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36
busted
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| adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词 | |
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37
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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38
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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39
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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