Sir Thomas Legge, Assistant Commissioner1 at Scotland Yard, said irritably2:
‘But the whole thing’s incredible!’
Inspector3 Maine said respectfully:
‘I know, sir.’
The AC went on:
‘Ten people dead on an island and not a living soul on it. It doesn’t makesense!’
Inspector Maine said stolidly4:
‘Nevertheless, it happened, sir.’
Sir Thomas Legge said:
‘Dam’ it all, Maine, somebody must have killed ’em.’
‘That’s just our problem, sir.’
‘Nothing helpful in the doctor’s report?’
‘No, sir. Wargrave and Lombard were shot, the first through the head,the second through the heart. Miss Brent and Marston died of cyanidepoisoning. Mrs Rogers died of an overdose of chloral. Rogers’ head wassplit open. Blore’s head was crushed in. Armstrong died of drowning. Ma-carthur’s skull5 was fractured by a blow on the back of the head and VeraClaythorne was hanged.’
The AC winced6. He said:
‘Nasty business—all of it.’
He considered for a minute or two. He said irritably:
‘Do you mean to say that you haven’t been able to get anything helpfulout of the Sticklehaven people? Dash it, they must know something.’
Inspector Maine shrugged7 his shoulders.
‘They’re ordinary decent seafaring folk. They know that the island wasbought by a man called Owen—and that’s about all they do know.’
‘Who provisioned the island and made all the necessary arrangements?’
‘Man called Morris. Isaac Morris.’
‘And what does he say about it all?’
‘He can’t say anything, sir, he’s dead.’
The AC frowned.
‘Do we know anything about this Morris?’
‘Oh yes, sir, we know about him. He wasn’t a very savoury gentleman,Mr Morris. He was implicated8 in that share-pushing fraud of Bennito’sthree years ago —we’re sure of that though we can’t prove it. And he wasmixed up in the dope business. And again we can’t prove it. He was a verycareful man, Morris.’
‘And he was behind this island business?’
‘Yes, sir, he put through the sale—though he made it clear that he wasbuying Soldier Island for a third party, unnamed.’
‘Surely there’s something to be found out on the financial angle, there?’
Inspector Maine smiled.
‘Not if you knew Morris! He can wangle figures until the best charteredaccountant in the country wouldn’t know if he was on his head or hisheels! We’ve had a taste of that in the Bennito business. No, he covered hisemployer’s tracks all right.’
The other man sighed. Inspector Maine went on:
‘It was Morris who made all the arrangements down at Sticklehaven.
Represented himself as acting9 for “Mr Owen”. And it was he who ex-plained to the people down there that there was some experiment on—some bet about living on a “desert island” for a week—and that no noticewas to be taken of any appeal for help from out there.’
Sir Thomas Legge stirred uneasily. He said:
‘And you’re telling me that those people didn’t smell a rat? Not eventhen?’
Maine shrugged his shoulders. He said:
‘You’re forgetting, sir, that Soldier Island previously10 belonged to youngElmer Robson, the American. He had the most extraordinary parties downthere. I’ve no doubt the local people’s eyes fairly popped out over them.
But they got used to it and they’d begun to feel that anything to do withSoldier Island would necessarily be incredible. It’s natural, that, sir, whenyou come to think of it.’
The Assistant Commissioner admitted gloomily that he supposed it was.
Maine said:
‘Fred Narracott—that’s the man who took the party out there—did sayone thing that was illuminating11. He said he was surprised to see what sortof people these were. “Not at all like Mr Robson’s parties.” I think it wasthe fact that they were all so normal and so quiet that made him overrideMorris’s orders and take out a boat to the island after he’d heard about theSOS signals.’
‘When did he and the other men go?’
‘The signals were seen by a party of boy scouts12 on the morning of the11th. There was no possibility of getting out there that day. The men gotthere on the afternoon of the 12th at the first moment possible to run aboat ashore13 there. They’re all quite positive that nobody could have leftthe island before they got there. There was a big sea on after the storm.’
‘Couldn’t someone have swum ashore?’
‘It’s over a mile to the coast and there were heavy seas and big breakersinshore. And there were a lot of people, boy scouts and others on the cliffslooking out towards the island and watching.’
The AC sighed. He said:
‘What about that gramophone record you found in the house? Couldn’tyou get hold of anything there that might help?’
Inspector Maine said:
‘I’ve been into that. It was supplied by a firm that do a lot of theatricalstuff and film effects. It was sent toU. N. Owen Esq., c/o Isaac Morris, andwas understood to be required for the amateur performance of a hithertounacted play. The typescript of it was returned with the record.’
Legge said:
‘And what about the subject matter, eh?’
Inspector Maine said gravely:
‘I’m coming to that, sir.’
He cleared his throat.
‘I’ve investigated those accusations14 as thoroughly15 as I can.
‘Starting with the Rogerses who were the first to arrive on the island.
They were in service with a Miss Brady who died suddenly. Can’t get any-thing definite out of the doctor who attended her. He says they certainlydidn’t poison her, or anything like that, but his personal belief is that therewas some funny business—that she died as the result of neglect on theirpart. Says it’s the sort of thing that’s quite impossible to prove.
‘Then there is Mr Justice Wargrave. That’s OK. He was the judge whosentenced Seton.
‘By the way, Seton was guilty—unmistakably guilty. Evidence turned uplater, after he was hanged, which proved that beyond any shadow ofdoubt. But there was a good deal of comment at the time—nine people outof ten thought Seton was innocent and that the judge’s summing up hadbeen vindictive16.
‘The Claythorne girl, I find, was governess in a family where a death oc-curred by drowning. However, she doesn’t seem to have had anything todo with it, and as a matter of fact she behaved very well, swam out to therescue and was actually carried out to sea and only just rescued in time.’
‘Go on,’ said the AC with a sigh.
Maine took a deep breath.
‘Dr Armstrong now. Well-known man. Had a consulting-room in HarleyStreet. Absolutely straight and above- board in his profession. Haven’tbeen able to trace any record of an illegal operation or anything of thatkind. It’s true that there was a woman called Clees who was operated onby him way back in 1925 at Leithmore, when he was attached to the hos-pital there. Peritonitis and she died on the operating- table. Maybe hewasn’t very skilful17 over the op—after all he hadn’t much experience—butafter all clumsiness isn’t a criminal offence. There was certainly nomotive.
‘Then there’s Miss Emily Brent. Girl, Beatrice Taylor, was in service withher. Got pregnant, was turned out by her mistress and went and drownedherself. Not a nice business—but again not criminal.’
‘That,’ said the AC, ‘seems to be the point. U. N. Owen dealt with casesthat the law couldn’t touch.’
Maine went stolidly on with his list.
‘Young Marston was a fairly reckless car driver—had his licence en-dorsed twice and he ought to have been prohibited from driving in myopinion. That’s all there is to him. The two names John and Lucy Combeswere those of two kids he knocked down and killed near Cambridge. Somefriends of his gave evidence for him and he was let off with a fine.
‘Can’t find anything definite about General Macarthur. Fine record—war service—all the rest of it. Arthur Richmond was serving under him inFrance and was killed in action. No friction18 of any kind between him andthe General. They were close friends as a matter of fact. There were someblunders made about that time—commanding officers sacrificed men un-necessarily—possibly this was a blunder of that kind.’
‘Possibly,’ said the AC.
‘Now, Philip Lombard. Lombard has been mixed up in some very curi-ous shows abroad. He’s sailed very near the law once or twice. Got a repu-tation for daring and for not being over-scrupulous. Sort of fellow whomight do several murders in some quiet out of the way spot.
‘Then we come to Blore.’ Maine hesitated. ‘He of course was one of ourlot.’
The other man stirred.
‘Blore,’ said the Assistant Commissioner forcibly, ‘was a bad hat!’
‘You think so, sir?’
The AC said:
‘I always thought so. But he was clever enough to get away with it. It’smy opinion that he committed black perjury19 in the Landor case. I wasn’thappy about it at the time. But I couldn’t find anything. I put Harris on toit and he couldn’t find anything but I’m still of the opinion that there wassomething to find if we’d known how to set about it. The man wasn’tstraight.’
There was a pause, then Sir Thomas Legge said:
‘And Isaac Morris is dead, you say? When did he die?’
‘I thought you’d soon come to that, sir. Isaac Morris died on the night ofAugust 8th. Took an overdose of sleeping stuff—one of the barbiturates, Iunderstand. There wasn’t anything to show whether it was accident orsuicide.’
Legge said slowly:
‘Care to know what I think, Maine?’
‘Perhaps I can guess, sir.’
Legge said heavily:
‘That death of Morris’s is a damned sight too opportune20!’
Inspector Maine nodded. He said:
‘I thought you’d say that, sir.’
The Assistant Commissioner brought down his fist with a bang on thetable. He cried out:
‘The whole thing’s fantastic—impossible. Ten people killed on a barerock of an island—and we don’t know who did it, or why, or how.’
Maine coughed. He said:
‘Well, it’s not quite like that, sir. We do know why, more or less. Somefanatic with a bee in his bonnet21 about justice. He was out to get peoplewho were beyond the reach of the law. He picked ten people—whetherthey were really guilty or not doesn’t matter—’
The Commissioner stirred. He said sharply:
‘Doesn’t it? It seems to me—’
He stopped. Inspector Maine waited respectfully. With a sigh Leggeshook his head.
‘Carry on,’ he said. ‘Just for a minute I felt I’d got somewhere. Got, as itwere, the clue to the thing. It’s gone now. Go ahead with what you weresaying.’
Maine went on:
‘There were ten people to be—executed, let’s say. They were executed. U.
N. Owen accomplished22 his task. And somehow or other he spirited himselfoff that island into thin air.’
The AC said:
‘First-class vanishing trick. But you know, Maine, there must be an ex-planation.’
Maine said:
‘You’re thinking, sir, that if the man wasn’t on the island, he couldn’thave left the island, and according to the account of the interested partieshe never was on the island. Well, then the only explanation possible isthat he was actually one of the ten.’
The AC nodded.
Maine said earnestly:
‘We thought of that, sir. We went into it. Now, to begin with, we’re notquite in the dark as to what happened on Soldier Island. Vera Claythornekept a diary, so did Emily Brent. Old Wargrave made some notes—drylegal cryptic23 stuff, but quite clear. And Blore made notes too. All those ac-counts tally24. The deaths occurred in this order. Marston, Mrs Rogers, Ma-carthur, Rogers, Miss Brent, Wargrave. After his death Vera Claythorne’sdiary states that Armstrong left the house in the night and that Blore andLombard had gone after him. Blore has one more entry in his notebook.
Just two words. “Armstrong disappeared.”
‘Now, sir, it seemed to me, taking everything into account, that we mightfind here a perfectly25 good solution. Armstrong was drowned, you remem-ber. Granting that Armstrong was mad, what was to prevent him havingkilled off all the others and then committed suicide by throwing himselfover the cliff, or perhaps while trying to swim to the mainland?
‘That was a good solution—but it won’t do. No, sir, it won’t do. First ofall there’s the police surgeon’s evidence. He got to the island early on themorning of August 13. He couldn’t say much to help us. All he could saywas that all the people had been dead at least thirty-six hours and prob-ably a good deal longer. But he was fairly definite about Armstrong. Saidhe must have been from eight to ten hours in the water before his bodywas washed up. That works out at this, that Armstrong must have goneinto the sea sometime during the night of the 10th–11th—and I’ll explainwhy. We found the point where the body was washed up—it had beenwedged between two rocks and there were bits of cloth, hair, etc., onthem. It must have been deposited there at high water on the 11th—that’sto say round about 11 o’clock a.m. After that, the storm subsided26, and suc-ceeding high water marks are considerably27 lower.
‘You might say, I suppose, that Armstrong managed to polish off theother three before he went into the sea that night. But there’s anotherpoint and one you can’t get over. Armstrong’s body had been dragged abovehigh water mark. We found it well above the reach of any tide. And it waslaid out straight on the ground—all neat and tidy.
‘So that settles one point definitely. Someone was alive on the island afterArmstrong was dead.’
He paused and then went on.
‘And that leaves—just what exactly? Here’s the position early on themorning of the 11th. Armstrong has “disappeared” (drowned ). That leavesus three people. Lombard, Blore and Vera Claythorne. Lombard was shot.
His body was down by the sea—near Armstrong’s. Vera Claythorne wasfound hanged in her own bedroom. Blore’s body was on the terrace. Hishead was crushed in by a heavy marble clock that it seems reasonable tosuppose fell on him from the window above.’
The AC said sharply:
‘Whose window?’
‘Vera Claythorne’s. Now, sir, let’s take each of these cases separately.
First Philip Lombard. Let’s say he pushed over that lump of marble on toBlore—then he doped Vera Claythorne and strung her up. Lastly, he wentdown to the seashore and shot himself.
‘But if so, who took away the revolver from him? For that revolver wasfound up in the house just inside the door at the top of the stairs—War-grave’s room.’
The AC said:
‘Any fingerprints28 on it?’
‘Yes, sir, Vera Claythorne’s.’
‘But, man alive, then—’
‘I know what you’re going to say, sir. That it was Vera Claythorne. Thatshe shot Lombard, took the revolver back to the house, toppled the marbleblock on to Blore and then—hanged herself.
‘And that’s quite all right—up to a point. There’s a chair in her bedroomand on the seat of it there are marks of seaweed same as on her shoes.
Looks as though she stood on the chair, adjusted the rope round her neckand kicked away the chair.
‘But that chair wasn’t found kicked over. It was, like all the other chairs,neatly put back against the wall. That was done after Vera Claythorne’sdeath—by someone else.
‘That leaves us with Blore and if you tell me that after shooting Lombardand inducing Vera Claythorne to hang herself he then went out and pulleddown a whacking29 great block of marble on himself by tying a string to itor something like that—well, I simply don’t believe you. Men don’t commitsuicide that way—and what’s more Blore wasn’t that kind of man. Weknew Blore—and he was not the man that you’d ever accuse of a desirefor abstract justice.’
The Assistant Commissioner said:
‘I agree.’
Inspector Maine said:
‘And therefore, sir, there must have been someone else on the island.
Someone who tidied up when the whole business was over. But wherewas he all the time—and where did he go to? The Sticklehaven people areabsolutely certain that no one could have left the island before the rescueboat got there. But in that case—’
He stopped.
The Assistant Commissioner said:
‘In that case—’
He sighed. He shook his head. He leaned forward.
‘But in that case,’ he said, ‘who killed them?’
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
commissioner
|
|
| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
irritably
|
|
| ad.易生气地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
inspector
|
|
| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
stolidly
|
|
| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
skull
|
|
| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
winced
|
|
| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
implicated
|
|
| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
previously
|
|
| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
illuminating
|
|
| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
scouts
|
|
| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
ashore
|
|
| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
accusations
|
|
| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
vindictive
|
|
| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
skilful
|
|
| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
friction
|
|
| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
perjury
|
|
| n.伪证；伪证罪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
opportune
|
|
| adj.合适的，适当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
bonnet
|
|
| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
cryptic
|
|
| adj.秘密的，神秘的，含义模糊的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
tally
|
|
| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
subsided
|
|
| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
considerably
|
|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
fingerprints
|
|
| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
whacking
|
|
| adj.（用于强调）巨大的v.重击，使劲打( whack的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |