MYRA WAS PLAINLY nervous. She looked at Kindell with troubled, questioning eyes. She asked:
"You really think you will get it through?"
She had had an angry enigmatic contest with her uncle, who had given assurances which appeared to be inconsistent with that which, in the same breath, he required her to do, and which had ended in his telling her that she talked too much, and it was no use her trying to use brains that she hadn't got, and that she must trust his judgment2, or go back to England to find another home than she now had.
"Do you think, my dear Myra," he had asked, "I should entrust3 anything to you which you might muck? Don't I know that you would give me away in a moment if you thought that you were in the slightest danger from the police which you could ward4 off in no other way? When you say I'm asking you to do a dangerous thing, you simply call me a fool."
The smoothness of his quiet voice had not concealed5 from her the anger with which he spoke6. She cared nothing for the imputations on her own brains, which she had heard often before, but fear made her stubborn as she replied: "I can't see why you won't tell me plainly what it all means. Everyone likes to understand what they do."
"Which is precisely7 the position in which I have placed you now. You have only to do what you are told - and even you are not stupid enough to go wrong in that - and you'll have nothing to fear. . . . As a matter of fact, I can tell you this. The Customs will pass anything Kindell carries with no trouble at all."
"You mean it's an arranged thing?"
"I mean just what I have said. Neither more nor less. When you're in England, you can take the parcel back from him, and keep it till I return, and if you've got any use for a hundred pounds, I'll give you a note of that value when I see you again. But that's on condition that I have no more sulky nonsense to hear, for I've got things of more importance to do."
Sulky or not, she had become silent at that, but she was only half assured, and her nervousness was plain for Kindell to see.
He answered confidently. "Yes. It will be all right. See what I've brought."
He opened a small suit-case, such as would be easy to handle. He showed a false bottom, of a size which proved to be sufficient for the parcel which lay between them. That was well. She had feared, as he spoke, that she would be required to open and repack it. She was in a puzzled doubt as to what it would show, but she was sure that her uncle would not thank her for that.
He said: "You needn't worry. You needn't even be near me. gut8 anyway I shall get it through."
He spoke with literal accuracy. Whatever the parcel might contain, her trouble was meant to be at a later hour. He was to be passed through the Customs with light inspection9, by an arrangement the police had made, and then return the parcel to Myra. After that, they would part, and what would happen then would be beyond his knowledge or his control. Actually she was to be shadowed by members of the C.I.D., who would either arrest her with the packet still in her possession or let her go to do with it what she would. The alternatives were to depend upon a wire from the Bureau de S?ret?, which Reynard had undertaken to send so that it would arrive at about the same time as they. Such was the plan which he had proposed in a telephone discussion between his department and the head-quarters of the C.I.D., which had become heated at times, as he had insisted on his own way with less adequate explanation than his colleagues thought they were entitled to have. Did they want, he asked, to alarm the Blinkwells by arresting Myra on a minor10 charge? Did they want Kindell implicated11 in a Customs fraud? Or was his connection with the police to be publicly exposed?
Did he, it was retorted, really think that the woman was trying to smuggle12 jewellery through without her uncle's knowledge? That there was no more in it than that?
He became voluble in denials. He appealed to the sacred skies, did they think him a fool? But he had a doubt which he must test, and, in short, they must await the wire they would get from him. He would have nothing but that.
His prestige, his irritable13 volubility, his obstinate14 certainty encountering nothing more resistant15 than reasoned doubts, had prevailed at last. So it was to be - and so it wasn't at all, for the plan failed. It came to casual disaster at the English Customs, and, at the H?tel Splendide, to a more tragic16 catastrophe17.
The trouble at the Customs arose from the factor which must make all mortal calculation unsure - the physical instability of the human body. There was a Customs officer who was in the confidence of the Yard, and who took instructions from them. He knew what was to be done, and he was not one who would be r likely to fail. He was a man in robust18 health, who would not be expected to fall suddenly ill. Yet fall ill he did, experiencing a sharp bilious19 attack which he attributed to a sister-in-law's too sanguine20 belief in the soundness of last Sunday's mutton, which she had curried21 the night before. But that is a domestic matter we need not probe.
Yet, however unfit he may have felt, he did not go off duty until he had prompted another officer. This was a man who had recently come on the staff, and who appeared to be of more than average alertness, and therefore fit both to take instructions from a senior officer and carry them out intelligently.
He described Kindell to this man, and was explicit22 upon what should be done. "You needn't be too nosy23 with him. Just a look-see, and chalk him through."
The man to whom he spoke responded readily. There was no indication that the order would not be exactly obeyed.
But it happened that he had been introduced by the Excise24 authorities for the especial purpose of detecting corruption25, which was suspected among the staff. Neither knew of the secret function the other had. It seemed to him that fortune had opened his way to a discovery from which reward and perhaps promotion26 would be likely to come.
He watched for Kindell, and made for him with an elbow in I a brother officer's side. He took him out of turn, letting other passengers stand impatiently behind their open baggage.
Kindell was not concerned when he saw him approach in this purposeful manner. It was about what he had expected. He opened the suitcase containing the hidden parcel, and another of more orthodox construction, in the expectation that their contents would receive no more than the flick27 of a carelessly probing hand, while the routine questions were answered in the routine way.
Article by article, his possessions were examined with care. He was closely questioned concerning the origin of those which were least worn. Was it, he wondered with growing impatience28, no more than an elaborate pretence29? Anyway, he had bought nothing of consequence while in Paris.
But the concealment30 was not destined31 to last. The zeal32 of the baffled officer had now become a conspicuous33 matter. The baggage of other passengers had been passed, and he operated on an otherwise bare bench. He saw that he must succeed for his own justification34, and his conviction that there was something to be discovered remained unshaken. His hands felt along the linings35 of the emptied case, while he considered the expediency36 of conducting Kindell to a room where he could be personally searched - and then suddenly he knew. "Do you mind," he asked, with an ominous37 suavity38, "opening the lower compartment39 of this case?"
Kindell had the wit to look blank incomprehension. He said:
"I don't know what you mean."
He was answered with a sarcastic40:
"No? Then I think you soon will."
A little group of interested Customs officials had gathered round them now in the otherwise empty shed. The man measured the outside of the case, and then its interior depth. There was a difference of several inches. He asked:
"Don't you see that you'd better open it now?"
Kindell said innocently: "It does look queer. But if there's a pocket, there can't be anything in it. I've never used it. I didn't know it was there," he added in an attempt at natural explanation. "I only bought it quite recently - secondhand."
The man, in his moment of triumph, forgot the restraint of language which official correctitude requires, even in dealing41 with those who are destined to be heavily fined. He said, "Tell that to the marines." He picked up a knife, with, "Well, if you won't, I must," and slit42 the lower part of the case. Myra's parcel lay exposed.
"I can only tell you," Kindell said, "that it isn't mine. I'd no idea it was there. I expect you'll have to admit that when you open it. I know you'll find nothing of mine."
It was the best line he could take, while still in ignorance of what its opening would reveal. He knew that something had gone wrong. He knew also that while, if he should be in any serious trouble, there were ways in which he might be protected and helped, his connection with the C.I.D. would not be publicly owned. He might be expected to sacrifice even his personal reputation. even his liberty, to the major interests of the state, and of the criminal investigation43 in which he was taking a minor
With no thought to spare for an anxious, bewildered Myra, leaning from the window of a first-class carriage as the train began to move slowly along the platform, and still hoping to see him board it at the last second, while trying to persuade herself that he might have escaped her observation, and be already upon the train, he watched the opening of the parcel, and saw a glitter of miscellaneous trinkets scattered44 upon the bench, among which a shell necklace was the largest, if not the most valuable, article.
&nbs`; ? ? ? With a smile of satisfaction, the officer swept them together again. "You'd better come to the office with me," he said crisply.
"I suppose it's no use telling you again that I've never seen - " Kindell began, in what he now felt to be futile45 protest, however true.
But he was interrupted by an older officer, who had been watching silently, and now pushed forward to examine the trinkets with experienced eyes. "Talbot," he asked sharply, "what is the charge you propose to make against this gentleman?"
"Well, I should have thought that was clear enough."
"It isn't to me." His fingers moved expertly among the baubles46. "It's all rubbish. There's nothing dutiable here."
"Then why on earth did he - - "
"I've told you already that the rubbish is not mine," Kindell interrupted, "and I didn't know it was there. The question is who's going to pay me for a new case?"
The older officer answered with the diplomatic politeness which the incident had come to require.
"There'll be no difficulty about that, sir, if you send in a claim. We'll find something for you to pack your things in now."
On this pretext47, he moved away, drawing with him the officer whose extreme zeal had had so strange a result. As they passed out of Kindell's hearing, his tone changed. "Queer business, Talbot. What made you suspect him?"
"I do still. There's something fishy48 about it, even if the things aren't worth tuppence."
"So there is. We see some queer things here, but not many queerer than that. What I asked was why you fastened on him the way you did?"
"Because, before Gibbons went off duty, he asked me to pass him without looking too hard, and that seemed fishy to me, too."
"Gibbons? You've made a bigger ass1 of yourself than I supposed. What Gibbons says goes."
"You mean you're all in it with him?"
"In it? In what? Don't be a bigger fool than you've been yet. Gibbons is Scotland Yard."
The jaw49 of the Excise and Customs detective dropped. He uttered a diminished "Oh."
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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entrust
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| v.信赖，信托，交托 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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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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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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gut
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| n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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implicated
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| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
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smuggle
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| vt.私运；vi.走私 | |
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irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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resistant
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| adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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bilious
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| adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的 | |
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sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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curried
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| adj.加了咖喱（或咖喱粉的），用咖哩粉调理的 | |
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explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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nosy
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| adj.鼻子大的，好管闲事的，爱追问的；n.大鼻者 | |
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excise
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| n.(国产)货物税；vt.切除，删去 | |
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corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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flick
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| n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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35
linings
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| n.衬里( lining的名词复数 )；里子；衬料；组织 | |
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expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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suavity
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| n.温和；殷勤 | |
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compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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baubles
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| n.小玩意( bauble的名词复数 )；华而不实的小件装饰品；无价值的东西；丑角的手杖 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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