FIVE, SIX, PICKING UP STICKS 9

IX
Poirot walked home through the deserted¹ streets in a thoughtful frame of mind.
When he got in, he rang up Japp.
“Forgive my troubling you, my friend, but did you ever do anything in the matter of tracing that
telegram that was sent to Gladys Nevill?”
“Still harping² on the subject? Yes, we did, as a matter of fact. There was a telegram and—rather
clever—the aunt lives at Richbourne in Somerset. The telegram was handed in at Richbarn—you
know, the London suburb.”
Hercule Poirot said appreciatively:
“That was clever — yes, that was clever. If the recipient³ happened to glance at where the
telegram was handed in, the word would look sufficiently⁴ like Richbourne to carry conviction.”
He paused.
“Do you know what I think, Japp?”
“Well?”
“There are signs of brains in this business.”
“Hercule Poirot wants it to be murder, so it’s got to be murder.”
“How do you explain that telegram?”
“Coincidence. Someone was hoaxing⁵ the girl.”
“Why should they?”
“Oh, my goodness, Poirot, why do people do things? Practical jokes, hoaxes⁶. Misplaced sense
of humour, that’s all.”
“And somebody felt like being funny just on the day that Morley was going to make a mistake
over an injection.”
“There may have been a certain amount of cause and effect. Because Miss Nevill was away,
Morley was more rushed than usual and consequently was more likely to make a mistake.”
“I am still not satisfied.”
“I daresay—but don’t you see where your view is leading you? If anybody got la Nevill out of
the way, it was probably Morley himself. Making his killing⁷ of Amberiotis deliberate and not an
accident.”
Poirot was silent. Japp said:
“You see?”
Poirot said:
“Amberiotis might have been killed in some other way.”
“Not he. Nobody came to see him at the Savoy. He lunched up in his room. And the doctors say
the stuff was definitely injected, not taken by mouth—it wasn’t in the stomach. So there you are.
It’s a clear case.”
“That is what we are meant to think.”
“The A.C. is satisfied anyway.”
“And he is satisfied with the disappearing lady?”
“The Case of the Vanishing Seal? No, I can tell you, we’re still working on that. That woman’s
got to be somewhere. You just can’t walk out into the street and disappear.”
“She seems to have done so.”
“For the moment. But she must be somewhere, alive or dead, and I don’t think she is dead.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’d have found her body by now.”
“Oh, my Japp, do bodies always come to light so soon?”
“I suppose you’re hinting that she’s been murdered now and that we’ll find her in a quarry⁸, cut
up in little pieces like Mrs. Ruxton?”
“After all, mon ami, you do have missing persons who are not found.”
“Very seldom, old boy. Lots of women disappear, yes, but we usually find ’em, all right. Nine
times out of ten it’s a case of good old sex. They’re somewhere with a man. But I don’t think it
could be that with our Mabelle, do you?”
“One never knows,” said Poirot cautiously. “But I do not think it likely. So you are sure of
finding her?”
“We’ll find her all right. We’re publishing a description of her to the Press and we’re roping in
the B.B.C.”
“Ah,” said Poirot, “I fancy that may bring developments.”
“Don’t worry, old boy. We’ll find your missing beauty for you—woollen underwear and all.”
He rang off.
George entered the room with his usual noiseless tread. He set down on a little table a steaming
pot of chocolate and some sugar biscuits.
“Will there be anything else, sir?”
“I am in great perplexity of mind, Georges.”
“Indeed, sir? I am sorry to hear it.”
Hercule Poirot poured himself out some chocolate and stirred his cup thoughtfully.
George stood deferentially⁹ waiting, recognizing the signs. There were moments when Hercule
Poirot discussed his cases with his valet. He always said that he found George’s comments
singularly helpful.
“You are aware, no doubt, Georges, of the death of my dentist?”
“Mr. Morley, sir? Yes, sir. Very distressing¹⁰, sir. He shot himself, I understand.”
“That is the general understanding. If he did not shoot himself, he was murdered.”
“Yes, sir.”
“The question is, if he was murdered, who murdered him?”
“Quite so, sir.”
“There are only a certain number of people, Georges, who could have murdered him. That is to
say the people who were actually in, or could have been in, the house at the time.”
“Quite so, sir.”
“Those people are: a cook and housemaid, amiable¹¹ domestics and highly unlikely to do
anything of the kind. A devoted¹² sister, also highly unlikely, but who does inherit her brother’s
money such as it was—and one can never entirely¹³ neglect the financial aspect. An able and
efficient partner—no motive¹⁴ known. A somewhat boneheaded page boy addicted¹⁵ to cheap crime
stories. And lastly, a Greek gentleman of somewhat doubtful antecedents.”
George coughed.
“These foreigners, sir—”
“Exactly. I agree perfectly¹⁶. The Greek gentleman is decidedly indicated. But you see, Georges,
the Greek gentleman also died and apparently¹⁷ it was Mr. Morley who killed him—whether by
intention or as the result of an unfortunate error we cannot be sure.”
“It might be, sir, that they killed each other. I mean, sir, each gentleman had formed the idea of
doing the other gentleman in, though of course each gentleman was unaware¹⁸ of the other
gentleman’s intention.”
Hercule Poirot purred approvingly.
“Very ingenious, Georges. The dentist murders the unfortunate gentleman who sits in the chair,
not realizing that the said victim is at that moment meditating¹⁹ exactly at what moment to whip out
his pistol. It could, of course, be so but it seems to me, Georges, extremely unlikely. And we have
not come to the end of our list yet. There are still two other people who might possibly have been
in the house at the given moment. Every patient, before Mr. Amberiotis, was actually seen to leave
the house with the exception of one—a young American gentleman. He left the waiting room at
about twenty minutes to twelve, but no one actually saw him leave the house. We must therefore
count him as a possibility. The other possibility is a certain Mr. Frank Carter (not a patient) who
came to the house at a little after twelve with the intention of seeing Mr. Morley. Nobody saw him
leave, either. Those, my good Georges, are the facts; what do you think of them?”
“At what time was the murder committed, sir?”
“If the murder was committed by Mr. Amberiotis, it was committed at any time between twelve
and five-and-twenty past. If by somebody else, it was committed after twenty-five minutes past
twelve, as otherwise Mr. Amberiotis would have noticed the corpse²⁰.”
He looked encouragingly at George.
“Now, my good Georges, what have you to say about the matter?”
George pondered. He said:
“It strikes me, sir—”
“Yes, Georges?”
“You will have to find another dentist to attend to your teeth in future, sir.”
Hercule Poirot said:
“You surpass yourself, Georges. That aspect of the matter had not as yet occurred to me!”
Looking gratified, George left the room.
Hercule Poirot remained sipping²¹ his chocolate and going over the facts he had just outlined. He
felt satisfied that they were as he had stated them. Within that circle of persons was the hand that
had actually done the deed—no matter whose the inspiration had been.
Then his eyebrows²² shot up as he realized that the list was incomplete. He had left out one name.
And no one must be left out—not even the most unlikely person.
There had been one other person in the house at the time of the murder.
He wrote down:
“Mr. Barnes.”

1 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

2 harping   

n.反复述说

参考例句：

• Don't keep harping on like that. 别那样唠叨个没完。
• You're always harping on the samestring. 你总是老调重弹。

3 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

4 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

5 hoaxing   

v.开玩笑骗某人，戏弄某人( hoax的现在分词 )

参考例句：

6 hoaxes   

n.恶作剧，戏弄( hoax的名词复数 )v.开玩笑骗某人，戏弄某人( hoax的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The disc jockey, a young separatist named Pierre Brassard, has made his name with such hoaxes. 这位名叫彼埃尔 - 布拉萨尔的音乐节目主持人，是一名年轻的分离主义者，以制造这类骗局闻名。 来自百科语句
• This chain-letter hoaxes, has mutated over the years. 这一骗局多年来在互联网上不断发展和变异。 来自互联网

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 quarry   

n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找

参考例句：

• Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
• This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。

9 deferentially   

adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地

参考例句：

• "Now, let me see,'said Hurstwood, looking over Carrie's shoulder very deferentially. “来，让我瞧瞧你的牌。”赫斯渥说着，彬彬有礼地从嘉莉背后看过去。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• He always acts so deferentially around his supervisor. 他总是毕恭毕敬地围着他的上司转。 来自互联网

10 distressing   

a.使人痛苦的

参考例句：

• All who saw the distressing scene revolted against it. 所有看到这种悲惨景象的人都对此感到难过。
• It is distressing to see food being wasted like this. 这样浪费粮食令人痛心。

11 amiable   

adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的

参考例句：

• She was a very kind and amiable old woman.她是个善良和气的老太太。
• We have a very amiable companionship.我们之间存在一种友好的关系。

12 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

13 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

14 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

15 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

16 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

17 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

18 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

19 meditating   

a.沉思的，冥想的

参考例句：

• They were meditating revenge. 他们在谋划进行报复。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics. 这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

20 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

21 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

22 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。