Chapter Twenty-one

Twenty-one
I nspector Curry¹ said rather impatiently:
“Yes, Miss Marple?”
“Could we, do you think, go into the Great Hall?”
Inspector² Curry looked faintly surprised.
“Is that your idea of privacy? Surely in here—”
He looked round the study.
“It’s not privacy I’m thinking of so much. It’s something I want to show you. Something Alex Restarick made mesee.”
Inspector Curry, stifling³ a sigh, got up and followed Miss Marple.
“Somebody has been talking to you?” he suggested hopefully.
“No,” said Miss Marple. “It’s not a question of what people have said. It’s really a question of conjuring⁴ tricks.
They do it with mirrors, you know—that sort of thing—if you understand me.”
Inspector Curry did not understand. He stared and wondered if Miss Marple was quite right in the head.
Miss Marple took up her stand and beckoned⁵ the Inspector to stand beside her.
“I want you to think of this place as a stage set, Inspector. As it was on the night Christian⁶ Gulbrandsen was killed.
You’re here in the audience looking at the people on the stage. Mrs. Serrocold and myself and Mrs. Strete and Ginaand Stephen—and just like on the stage, there are entrances and exits and the characters go out to different places.
Only you don’t think when you’re in the audience where they are really going to. They go out ‘to the front door’ or ‘tothe kitchen’ and when the door opens you see a little bit of painted backcloth. But really of course they go out to thewings—or the back of the stage with carpenters and electricians, and other characters waiting to come on—they go out—to a different world.”
“I don’t quite see, Miss Marple—”
“Oh, I know—I daresay it sounds very silly—but if you think of this as a play and the scene is ‘the Great Hall atStonygates’—what exactly is behind the scene?—I mean—what is backstage? The terrace—isn’t it?—the terrace anda lot of windows opening onto it.
“And that, you see, is how the conjuring trick was done. It was the trick of the Lady Sawn in Half that made methink of it.”
“The Lady Sawn in Half?” Inspector Curry was now quite sure that Miss Marple was a mental case.
“A most thrilling conjuring trick. You must have seen it—only not really one girl but two girls. The head of oneand the feet of the other. It looks like one person and is really two. And so I thought it could just as well be the otherway about. Two people could be really one person.”
“Two people really one?” Inspector Curry looked desperate.
“Yes. Not for long. How long did your constable⁷ take in the park to run to this house and back? Two minutes andforty-five seconds, wasn’t it? This would be less than that. Well under two minutes.”
“What was under two minutes?”
“The conjuring trick. The trick when it wasn’t two people but one person. In there—in the study. We’re onlylooking at the visible part of the stage. Behind the scenes, there is the terrace and a row of windows. So easy whenthere are two people in the study to open the study window, get out, run along the terrace (those footsteps Alex heard),in at the side door, shoot Christian Gulbrandsen and run back, and during that time, the other person in the study doesboth voices so that we’re all quite sure there are two people in there. And so there were most of the time, but not forthat little period of under—two minutes.”
Inspector Curry found his breath and his voice.
“Do you mean that it was Edgar Lawson who ran along the terrace and shot Gulbrandsen? Edgar Lawson whopoisoned Mrs. Serrocold?”
“But you see, Inspector, no one has been poisoning Mrs. Serrocold at all. That’s where the misdirection comes in.
Someone very cleverly used the fact that Mrs. Serrocold’s sufferings from arthritis⁸ were not unlike the symptoms ofarsenic poisoning. It’s the old conjurer’s trick of forcing a card on you. Quite easy to add arsenic⁹ to a bottle of tonic—quite easy to add a few lines to a typewritten letter. But the real reason for Mr. Gulbrandsen’s coming here was themost likely reason—something to do with the Gulbrandsen Trust. Money, in fact. Suppose that there had beenembezzlement—embezzlement on a very big scale—you see where that points? To just one person—”
“Lewis Serrocold?”
“Lewis Serrocold….”

1 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

2 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

3 stifling   

a.令人窒息的

参考例句：

• The weather is stifling. It looks like rain. 今天太闷热，光景是要下雨。
• We were stifling in that hot room with all the windows closed. 我们在那间关着窗户的热屋子里，简直透不过气来。

4 conjuring   

n.魔术

参考例句：

• Paul's very good at conjuring. 保罗很会变戏法。
• The entertainer didn't fool us with his conjuring. 那个艺人变的戏法没有骗到我们。

5 beckoned   

v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He beckoned to the waiter to bring the bill. 他招手示意服务生把账单送过来。
• The seated figure in the corner beckoned me over. 那个坐在角落里的人向我招手让我过去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 constable   

n.(英国)警察，警官

参考例句：

• The constable conducted the suspect to the police station.警官把嫌疑犯带到派出所。
• The constable kept his temper,and would not be provoked.那警察压制着自己的怒气，不肯冒起火来。

8 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

9 arsenic   

n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的

参考例句：

• His wife poisoned him with arsenic.他的妻子用砒霜把他毒死了。
• Arsenic is a poison.砒霜是毒药。