I am inclined to abandon my Reminiscences. Instead I shall write a short article entitled “Secretaries I have had.” As regards secretaries, I seem to have fallen under a blight1. At one minute I have no secretaries, at another I have too many. At the present minute I am journeying to Rhodesia with a pack of women. Race goes off with the two best-looking, of course, and leaves me with the dud. That is what always happens to me—and, after all, this is my private car, not Race’s.
Also Anne Beddingfeld is accompanying me to Rhodesia on the pretext2 of being my temporary secretary. But all this afternoon she has been out on the observation platform with Race exclaiming at the beauty of the Hex River Pass. It is true that I told her her principal duty would be to hold my hand. But she isn’t even doing that. Perhaps she is afraid of Miss Pettigrew. I don’t blame her if so. There is nothing attractive about Miss Pettigrew—she is a repellent female with large feet, more like a man than a woman.
There is something very mysterious about Anne Beddingfeld. She jumped on board the train at the last minute, puffing3 like a steam-engine for all the world as though she’d been running a race—and yet Pagett told me that he’d seen her off to Durban last night! Either Pagett has been drinking again or else the girl must have an astral body.
And she never explains. Nobody ever explains. Yes, “Secretaries I have had.” No. 1, a murderer fleeing from justice. No. 2, a secret drinker who carries on disreputable intrigues4 in Italy. No. 3, a beautiful girl who possesses the useful faculty5 of being in two places at once. No. 4, Miss Pettigrew, who, I have no doubt, is really a particularly dangerous crook6 in disguise! Probably one of Pagett’s Italian friends that he has palmed off on me. I shouldn’t wonder if the world found some day that it had been grossly deceived by Pagett. On the whole, I think Rayburn was the best of the bunch. He never worried me or got in my way. Guy Pagett has had the impertinence to have the stationery7 trunk put in here. None of us can move without falling over it.
I went out on the observation platform just now, expecting my appearance to be greeted with hails of delight. Both the women were listening spellbound to one of Race’s travellers’ tales. I shall label this car—not “Sir Eustace Pedler and Party,” but “Colonel Race and Harem.”
Then Mrs. Blair must needs begin taking silly photographs. Every time we went round a particularly appalling8 curve, as we climbed higher and higher, she snapped at the engine.
“You see the point,” she cried delightedly. “It must be some curve if you can photograph the front part of the train from the back, and with the mountain background it will look awfully9 dangerous.”
I pointed10 out to her that no one could possibly tell it had been taken from the back of the train. She looked at me pityingly.
“I shall write underneath11 it: ‘Taken from the train. Engine going round a curve.’”
“You could write that under any snapshot of a train,” I said. Women never think of these simple things.
“I’m glad we’ve come up here in daylight,” cried Anne Beddingfeld. “I shouldn’t have seen this if I’d gone last night to Durban, should I?”
“No,” said Colonel Race, smiling. “You’d have waked up to-morrow morning to find yourself in the Karoo, a hot, dusty desert of stones and rocks.”
“I’m glad I changed my mind,” said Anne, sighing contentedly12, and looking round.
It was rather a wonderful sight. The great mountains all around, through which we turned and twisted and laboured ever steadily13 upwards14.
“Is this the best train in the day to Rhodesia?” asked Anne Beddingfeld.
“In the day?” laughed Race. “Why, my dear Miss Anne, there are only three trains a week. Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Do you realize that you don’t arrive at the Falls until Saturday next?”
“How well we shall know each other by that time,” said Mrs. Blair maliciously15. “How long are you going to stay at the Falls, Sir Eustace?”
“That depends,” I said cautiously.
“On what?”
“On how things go at Johannesburg. My original idea was to stay a couple of days or so at the Falls—which I’ve never seen, though this is my third visit to Africa—and then go on to Jo’burg and study the conditions of things on the Rand. At home, you know, I pose as being an authority on South African politics. But from all I hear, Jo’burg will be a particularly unpleasant place to visit in about a week’s time. I don’t want to study conditions in the midst of a raging revolution.”
Race smiled in a rather superior manner.
“I think your fears are exaggerated, Sir Eustace. There will be no great danger in Jo’burg.”
The women immediately looked at him in the “What a brave hero you are” manner. It annoyed me intensely. I am every bit as brave as Race—but I lack the figure. These long, lean, brown men have it all their own way.
“I suppose you’ll be there,” I said coldly.
“Very possibly. We might travel together.”
“I’m not sure that I shan’t stay on at the Falls a bit,” I answered non-committally. Why is Race so anxious that I should go to Jo’burg? He’s got his eye on Anne, I believe. “What are your plans, Miss Anne?”
“I thought you were my secretary,” I objected.
“Oh, but I’ve been cut out. You’ve been holding Miss Pettigrew’s hand all the afternoon.”
“Whatever I’ve been doing, I can swear I’ve not been doing that,” I assured her.
Thursday night.
We have just left Kimberley. Race was made to tell the story of the diamond robbery all over again. Why are women so excited by anything to do with diamonds?
At last Anne Beddingfeld has shed her veil of mystery. It seems that she’s a newspaper correspondent. She sent an immense cable from De Aar this morning. To judge by the jabbering17 that went on nearly all night in Mrs. Blair’s cabin, she must have been reading aloud all her special articles for years to come.
It seems that all along she’s been on the track of “The Man in the Brown Suit.” Apparently18 she didn’t spot him on the Kilmorden—in fact, she hardly had the chance, but she’s now very busy cabling home: “How I journeyed out with the Murderer,” and inventing highly fictitious19 stories of “What he said to me,” etc. I know how these things are done. I do them myself, in my Reminiscences when Pagett will let me. And of course one of Nasby’s efficient staff will brighten up the details still more, so that when it appears in the Daily Budget Rayburn won’t recognize himself.
The girl’s clever, though. All on her own, apparently, she’s ferreted out the identity of the woman who was killed in my house. She was a Russian dancer called Nadina. I asked Anne Beddingfeld if she was sure of this. She replied that it was merely a deduction20—quite in the Sherlock Holmes manner. However, I gather that she had cabled it home to Nasby as a proved fact. Women have these intuitions—I’ve no doubt that Anne Beddingfeld is perfectly21 right in her guess—but to call it a deduction is absurd.
How she ever got on the staff of the Daily Budget is more than I can imagine. But she is the kind of young woman who does these things. Impossible to withstand her. She is full of coaxing22 ways that mask an invincible23 determination. Look how she has got into my private car!
I am beginning to have an inkling why. Race said something about the police suspecting that Rayburn would make for Rhodesia. He might just have got off by Monday’s train. They telegraphed all along the line, I presume, and no one of his description was found, but that says little. He’s an astute24 young man and he knows Africa. He’s probably exquisitely25 disguised as an old Kafir woman—and the simple police continue to look for a handsome young man with a scar, dressed in the height of European fashion. I never did quite swallow that scar.
Anyway, Anne Beddingfeld is on his track. She wants the glory of discovering him for herself and the Daily Budget. Young women are very cold-blooded nowadays. I hinted to her that it was an unwomanly action. She laughed at me. She assured me that did she run him to earth her fortune was made. Race doesn’t like it, either, I can see. Perhaps Rayburn is on this train. If so, we may all be murdered in our beds. I said so to Mrs. Blair—but she seemed quite to welcome the idea, and remarked that if I were murdered it would be really a terrific scoop26 for Anne! A scoop for Anne indeed!
To-morrow we shall be going through Bechuanaland. The dust will be atrocious. Also at every station, little Kafir children come and sell you quaint27 wooden animals that they carve themselves. Also mealie bowls and baskets. I am rather afraid that Mrs. Blair may run amok. There is a primitive28 charm about these toys that I feel will appeal to her.
Friday evening.
As I feared. Mrs. Blair and Anne have bought forty-nine wooden animals!
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收听单词发音
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1
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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2
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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3
puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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4
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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5
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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6
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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7
stationery
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| n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封 | |
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8
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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9
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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10
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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11
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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12
contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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13
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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14
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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15
maliciously
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| adv.有敌意地 | |
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16
demurely
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| adv.装成端庄地，认真地 | |
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17
jabbering
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| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的现在分词 )；急促兴奋地说话；结结巴巴 | |
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18
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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19
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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20
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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21
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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22
coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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23
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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24
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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26
scoop
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| n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出 | |
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27
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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28
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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