We were standing2 in the garden at a point near to my open study window. A small flower-bed intervened between the path and the high privet hedge. It lay much in shade, and Coates had set tobacco plants there. But the soil was softer here than elsewhere.
"It seems to take us back to the days of 'Spring-heeled Jack,'" my friend continued; "which was before my time! I don't think that mystery was ever cleared up?"
"No," I replied, meeting his questioning glance; "it never was, satisfactorily. Therefore the analogy is an unfortunate one. But as you say, it certainly looks as though my visitor had sprung across a six-foot hedge!"
"It's absolutely mad," said Gatton gloomily. "Far from helping4 us, it only plunges5 us deeper in the mire6."
We returned to the study, and:
"You will have seen the daily papers?" asked the Inspector.
I nodded.
"Practically all of them. They give a hateful prominence7 to the name of Miss Merlin."
"And to that of the new baronet—Sir Eric," said Gatton significantly.
I stared at him straightly.
"Do you seriously believe," said I, "that Eric Coverly had anything whatever to do with the death of his cousin?"
Gatton stirred uneasily in his chair.
"Well," he answered, "ignoring everything else for the moment, who else benefits by Sir Marcus Coverly's death?"
"He inherits the title," continued Gatton, "and on the death of Lady Burnham Coverly he inherits Friars' Park. There is some clause or entail9, or legal hotchpotch whereby the estate and revenue remain hers during her lifetime."
"But I understand the estate is mortgaged?"
"That I have to confirm, Mr. Addison," replied Gatton. "Sir Eric's solicitor10 has no information on the point and that of Sir Marcus's man of business is inexact. But even supposing that only the title is concerned, many a man has lost his life for less. Then you have to consider—Miss Merlin."
"In what way?" I demanded
"In relation to the attitude of Sir Marcus. Jealousy11 makes men (and women) do strange and desperate things. The character of Eric Coverly, the new baronet, is a very odd one."
"He is headstrong and in some respects weak," I admitted. "But otherwise he is an ordinary English gentleman, with the traditions of an old name and a public school to back him up. I tell you, Gatton, it's nonsense. His army career alone shows him to be a sound man."
"Yes," murmured Gatton; "he was awarded a decoration for distinguished12 service in Egypt."
That seemingly simple remark struck me with all the force of a physical blow. Gatton began quietly to load his pipe, without even glancing in my direction; but the covert13 significance of his words was all too apparent:
"Gatton," I said—"what the devil are you driving at?"
"What you may term the hocus-pocus side of the case," he replied, "turns on matters Egyptian, doesn't it? Very well. Who else, that we know about, is associated, or ever has been associated with Egypt?"
"But—the woman?"
"Ah!" said Gatton. "Now you are getting down to the depths. But assuming that the extraordinary characteristics of this visitor of yours can be explained in some way, by deliberate trickery, for example, might she not be a woman whom Eric Coverly met in Egypt?"
I stared silently a while, and then:
"In short, a rival of Miss Merlin's?" I suggested.
"Precisely15. The trick with the photograph was just of the kind one would expect from a madly jealous woman. Everything planned with supreme16 cunning, but the scene at which the hated rival enters the scheme badly overdone17."
"And you believe Coverly's silence to be due to the fact that he is shielding some one?"
"Well, that or shielding himself. What else can it mean? A man suspected of murder doesn't hesitate to establish an alibi18 unless he is in a desperately19 tight corner. The exact position of your strange-eyed acquaintance in the case is not apparent to me at the moment, I'll admit, but I seem to have heard that there have been rare instances of human beings with luminous20 eyes."
"Quite right, Inspector," I agreed; "I hope very shortly to have some further particulars for you bearing upon this point. I am endeavoring to obtain a work by Saint-Hilaire dealing21 with teratology."
"As to her extraordinary activity and agility," Gatton continued, "we must remember that a privet hedge is not like a stone wall. I mean she may not have actually cleared the whole six feet, and after all, this is the age of the athletic22 girl. There are women athletes who can perform some extraordinary feats23 of high-jumping. Of course, there are still a number of witnesses to be discovered and examined, but I know by now exactly what to expect. It's an ingenious idea, although not entirely24 new to me.
"The whole thing has been managed by means of the telephone—a powerful ally of the modern criminal. Briefly25 what happened was this: The Red House—selected because of its lonely position, but also because it was fairly accessible—was leased by our missing assassin without any personal interview taking place. We have to look then in the first instance for some one possessing considerable financial resources. It was by the effective substitution of a year's rent—in cash—for the more usual references, that our man—or woman—whom I will call 'A' secured possession of the keys and right of entry to the premises26. A limited amount of furniture was obtained in the same manner. We haven't found the firm who supplied it, but I don't doubt that the business was done over the telephone, cash being paid as before. Duplicate keys must have been made for some of the doors, I think—a simple matter. We shall find that the furnishing people as well as the caterer27 who later on supplied the supper were admitted to the Red House by a district messenger or else had the keys posted to them for the purpose.
"The whole business was built up around a central idea, simple in itself: that of inveigling28 Sir Marcus into the prepared supper-room. His attendance at the New Avenue Theater last night was doubtless assured—although we may never prove it—by another of these mysterious telephone messages, probably purporting29 to come from Miss Merlin. The cold-blooded thoroughness with which 'A' arranged for a crate30 to be delivered at the garage and for the body of the murdered man to be taken to the docks and shipped to the West Indies, illuminates31 the character of the person we have to seek.
"Discovery sooner or later was inevitable32, of course. It came sooner because of the accident at the docks. Had it come later I don't doubt that 'A' would have dismantled33 the Red House again so that the investigation34 would have been severely35 handicapped. As it is, the only dismantling36 done was the most important of all."
"You mean?" I said with keen interest.
"The death-machine," answered Gatton. "The cunning device around which all these trappings were erected37. We don't have to wait for the coroner's inquest nor the pathologists' report to know that Sir Marcus was asphyxiated38."
"In that room where supper was laid for two?" I muttered.
"Can you doubt it?"
"No," I said, "and I don't."
"I have allowed nothing to be touched," continued Gatton, "and I am going around there now to make a final attempt to unravel39 the mystery of how Sir Marcus met his death."
"There is one detail," said I, "which it seems impossible to fit into its proper place in the scheme. The figure of Bâst painted upon the crate—you have that at Scotland Yard—and the little image of the goddess which was stolen from my table last night."
Gatton stood up, uttering a sigh.
"I have always found, Mr. Addison," he replied, "that it is these outstanding features of a case, these pieces which don't seem to fit, that are the most valuable clews. It's the apparently40 simple cases in which there is no outstanding point that are the most baffling."
I laughed shortly.
"One could not very well complain of the lack of such features in 'the Oritoga mystery,'" I said. "As a confrère of mine remarked when the body of Sir Marcus was discovered in the crate, the whole thing is as mad as 'Alice in Wonderland'!"
Gatton presently departed for the Red House and I accompanied him, for I was intensely curious to learn by what means the murder of Sir Marcus had been accomplished41. As I proposed later in the morning to call on Isobel, Coates drove Gatton and myself as far as the Red House and I instructed the man to wait for me.
Although the morning was still young, the prominence given by the press to this sensational42 crime had resulted in the presence of quite a considerable group of pilgrims who even thus early had arrived to look upon the scene of the mysterious tragedy. London is a city of onlookers43. The most trivial street accident never lacks its interested audience, and a house in which a murder is reputed to have taken place becomes a center upon which the idly curious focus from the four points of the compass.
Our arrival created a subdued44 excitement amongst the nondescript group gathered upon the pavement. Despite the efforts of a constable45 on duty, men, women and children persistently46 gathered before the gates of the drive peering up at the empty house as if they anticipated seeing the face of the murderer or an apparition47 of the victim appear behind one of the windows. A considerable group, too, was gathered before the garage, but as Gatton and I descended48 and began to walk up the drive there was a general movement in our direction.
"I wonder," said I, "if 'A,' the wanted man, is among the crowd? One reads that murderers are irresistibly49 drawn50 back to the scene of their crimes."
"He may be," replied Gatton; "anyway there are two C.I.D. men there for certain, so that 'A' will do well to be upon his guard."
A few moments later I found myself again in the lounge-hall of the Red House; and the place now seemed to me to have taken on an air of oppressive mystery. In the very deserted51 silence of the house I detected something sinister52. Of course, no doubt this was merely an effect created upon my mind by the ghastly associations of the place; but I know that whereas on the previous day surprise and curiosity had been the most characteristic emotions aroused by our discoveries there, this morning something darker seemed to have taken their place; and I found myself listening for a sound that never came and wondering vaguely53 and vainly, what secret was hidden in this desolate54 mansion55.
By Gatton's orders the room in which that gruesome supper was laid had been left undisturbed and once more we stood surveying the spotless napery and sparkling silver. I listened to the ticking of the clock upon the mantelpiece and stared dully at the wine resting in the ice-pail which now contained nothing but dirty water. A big dish of fruit stood upon the table, peaches and apricots and nectarines; and several large wasps56 had entered through one of the windows which some one had opened, and were buzzing sleepily around the dish. Lastly—there beside the clock stood Isobel's photograph.
For any evidence of a struggle I looked in vain, but the nature of my companion's investigation was more obscure. Again the whole of his attention seemed to be directed upon the wall, the window-ledges and the door-frame. Suddenly:
"Ah," I said, "I know what you are looking for! Some connection between this room and the garage?"
Gatton, who was kneeling examining a lower panel of the door, looked up with a grim smile.
"Perhaps I am," he replied.
By the tone of his voice I knew that whatever he had sought he had failed once more to find. Presently, desisting from this quest of his, he stood and stared curiously57 for some time at a recess58 immediately behind one of the high-backed chairs drawn up to the supper table. We had already explored this recess and had found it to be vacant. Gatton advanced towards it and drew aside the curtain which was draped in the opening.
It was a recess about four feet wide by three deep and it contained nothing in the nature of furniture or ornament59.
"Does anything strike you as curious about this arrangement?" said my companion.
I looked for a long time, but failed to detect anything of a notable nature.
"Nothing," I said, "except that it seems a peculiar60 idea to drape a curtain before a recess in that way."
I in turn touched the material with my fingers and found it to be an extremely heavy velvet62. Looking upward, I noticed that it was attached to a rod set so high in the wall on either side that the top of the drapery actually touched the ceiling.
"Well," said Gatton, looking at me oddly, "in addition to the texture of the curtain do you notice anything else?"
"No," I confessed.
"Well," he continued, "you may remember that yesterday when I examined this place, I had to drape the curtain over a chair, which I moved here for the purpose, in order to see the recess."
"So you did," I said; "I remember."
"Well, doesn't it strike you as odd? If you'll notice the way it is fastened above, you will see that it is not upon rings. In other words it is not intended to be opened. You see that it is in one piece so that anybody having occasion to enter the recess would have to lift it aside and let it fall to behind him."
I studied the arrangement of the drapings more closely and saw that his statement was correct; also I saw something else, and:
"This room has been lighted by gas at some time!" I cried. "Here, up under the picture-rail, is a plug."
"Most houses are provided both with gas and electric light about here," replied Gatton abstractedly.
But even before he had finished speaking I saw his expression change, and in a moment he had dragged a chair into the recess.
"Hold the curtain back," he directed sharply.
Standing on the chair, he began to examine the little brass63 plug to which I had drawn his attention. For some time I watched him in silence, and then:
"What do you think you have found?" I inquired.
He glanced down over his shoulder.
"I think I have found a clew!" he replied.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
inspector
|
|
| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
imprints
|
|
| n.压印( imprint的名词复数 )；痕迹；持久影响 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
plunges
|
|
| n.跳进，投入vt.使投入，使插入，使陷入vi.投入，跳进，陷入v.颠簸( plunge的第三人称单数 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
mire
|
|
| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
prominence
|
|
| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
dreaded
|
|
| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
entail
|
|
| vt.使承担，使成为必要，需要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
solicitor
|
|
| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
covert
|
|
| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
overdone
|
|
| v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
alibi
|
|
| n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
desperately
|
|
| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
luminous
|
|
| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
dealing
|
|
| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
athletic
|
|
| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
feats
|
|
| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
premises
|
|
| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
caterer
|
|
| n. 备办食物者，备办宴席者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
inveigling
|
|
| v.诱骗，引诱( inveigle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
purporting
|
|
| v.声称是…，（装得）像是…的样子( purport的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
crate
|
|
| vt.(up)把…装入箱中；n.板条箱，装货箱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
illuminates
|
|
| v.使明亮( illuminate的第三人称单数 )；照亮；装饰；说明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
dismantled
|
|
| 拆开( dismantle的过去式和过去分词 )； 拆卸； 废除； 取消 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
investigation
|
|
| n.调查，调查研究 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
dismantling
|
|
| （枪支）分解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
ERECTED
|
|
| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
asphyxiated
|
|
| v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的过去式和过去分词 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
unravel
|
|
| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
sensational
|
|
| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
onlookers
|
|
| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
subdued
|
|
| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
constable
|
|
| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
persistently
|
|
| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
apparition
|
|
| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
irresistibly
|
|
| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
sinister
|
|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
desolate
|
|
| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
mansion
|
|
| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
wasps
|
|
| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
curiously
|
|
| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
recess
|
|
| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
ornament
|
|
| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
texture
|
|
| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
velvet
|
|
| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |