“I’m sorry, Olive. You’ve got to believe I’m sorry. About you, I mean. Foryour sake I’d have given him one chance. I warned you that he’d be saferto stay in the Unit and yet I’d come halfway1 across the world to get him,and I meant to get him for what he did to Elsa.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything. Who are you?”
“I thought you knew that. I’m Boris Andrei Pavlov Glydr, Elsa’s cousin. Iwas sent over to America from Poland, to a University there to completemy education. And the way things were in Europe my uncle thought itbest for me to take out American citizenship2. I took the name of AndrewPeters. Then, when the war came, I went back to Europe. I worked for theResistance. I got my uncle and Elsa out of Poland and they got to America.
Elsa—I’ve told you about Elsa already. She was one of the first-class scient-ists of our time. It was Elsa who discovered ZE Fission3. Betterton was ayoung Canadian who was attached to Mannheim to help him in his experi-ments. He knew his job, but there was no more to him than that. He delib-erately made love to Elsa and married her so as to be associated with herin the scientific work she was doing. When her experiments neared com-pletion and he realized what a big thing ZE Fission was going to be, he de-liberately poisoned her.”
“Oh, no, no.”
“Yes. There were no suspicions at the time. Betterton appeared heart-broken, threw himself with renewed ardour into his work and then an-nounced the ZE Fission discovery as his own. It brought him what hewanted. Fame and the recognition of being a first- class scientist. Hethought it prudent4 after that to leave America and come to England. Hewent to Harwell and worked there.
“I was tied up in Europe for some time after the war ended. Since I hada good knowledge of German, Russian and Polish, I could do very usefulwork there. The letter that Elsa had written to me before she died dis-quieted me. The illness from which she was suffering and from which shedied seemed to me mysterious and unaccounted for. When at last I gotback to the U.S.A. I started instituting inquiries5. We won’t go into it all, butI found what I was looking for. Enough, that is, to apply for an order forexhumation of the body. There was a young fellow in the District Attor-ney’s office who had been a great friend of Betterton. He was going overon a trip to Europe about that time, and I think that he visited Bettertonand in the course of his visit mentioned the exhumation6. Betterton got thewind up. I imagine that he’d been already approached by agents of ourfriend, Mr. Aristides. Anyway, he now saw that there lay his best chanceto avoid being arrested and tried for murder. He accepted the terms, stipu-lating that his facial appearance was to be completely changed. What actu-ally happened, of course, was that he found himself in a very real captiv-ity. Moreover, he found himself in a dangerous position there since he wasquite unable to deliver the goods—the scientific goods, that is to say. Hewas not and never had been a man of genius.”
“And you followed him?”
“Yes. When the newspapers were full of the sensational7 disappearanceof the scientist, Thomas Betterton, I came over to England. A rather brilli-ant scientist friend of mine had had certain overtures8 made to him by awoman, a Mrs. Speeder, who worked for U.N.O. I discovered on arrivingin England that she had had a meeting with Betterton. I played up to her,expressing Left Wing views, rather exaggerating perhaps my scientificabilities. I thought, you see, that Betterton had gone behind the Iron Cur-tain where no one could reach him. Well, if nobody else could reach him, Iwas going to reach him.” His lips set in a grim line. “Elsa was a first-classscientist and she was a beautiful and gentle woman. She’d been killed androbbed by the man whom she loved and trusted. If necessary I was goingto kill Betterton with my own hands.”
“I see,” said Hilary, “oh, I see now.”
“I wrote to you,” said Peters, “when I got to England. Wrote to you, thatis, in my Polish name, telling you the facts.” He looked at her. “I supposeyou didn’t believe me. You never answered.” He shrugged9 his shoulders.
“Then I went to the Intelligence people. At first I went there putting on anact. Polish officer. Stiff, foreign and correctly formal. I was suspicious justthen of everybody. However, in the end Jessop and I got together.” Hepaused. “This morning my quest has come to an end. Extradition10 will beapplied for, Betterton will go to the U.S.A. and will stand his trial there. Ifhe’s acquitted11, I have no more to say.” He added grimly, “But he won’t beacquitted. The evidence is too strong.”
He paused, staring down over the sunlit gardens towards the sea.
“The hell of it is,” he said, “that you came out there to join him and I metyou and fell in love with you. It has been hell, Olive. Believe me. So therewe are. I’m the man who’s responsible for sending your husband to theelectric chair. We can’t get away from it. It’s a thing that you’ll never beable to forget even if you forgave it.” He got up. “Well, I wanted to tell youthe whole story from my own lips. This is goodbye.” He turned abruptly12 asHilary stretched out a hand.
“Wait,” she said, “wait. There is something you don’t know. I’m not Bet-terton’s wife. Betterton’s wife, Olive Betterton, died at Casablanca. Jessoppersuaded me to take her place.”
He wheeled round staring at her.
“You’re not Olive Betterton?”
“No.”
“Good lord,” said Andy Peters. “Good lord!” He dropped heavily into achair beside her. “Olive,” he said, “Olive, my darling.”
“Don’t call me Olive. My name’s Hilary. Hilary Craven.”
“Hilary?” He said it questioningly. “I’ll have to get used to that.” He puthis hand over hers.
At the other end of the terrace Jessop, discussing with Leblanc varioustechnical difficulties in the present situation, broke off in the middle of asentence.
“You were saying?” he asked absently.
“I said, mon cher, that it does not seem to me that we are going to be ableto proceed against this animal of an Aristides.”
“No, no. The Aristides always win. That is to say they always manage tosquirm out from under. But he’ll have lost a lot of money, and he won’tlike that. And even Aristides can’t keep death at bay forever. I should sayhe’ll be coming up before the Supreme13 Justice before very long, from thelook of him.”
“What was it attracting your attention, my friend?”
“Those two,” said Jessop. “I sent Hilary Craven off on a journey to a des-tination unknown, but it seems to me that her journey’s end is the usualone after all.”
Leblanc looked puzzled for a moment then he said:
“Aha! yes! your Shakespeare!”
“You Frenchmen are so well-read,” said Jessop.
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收听单词发音
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1
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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2
citizenship
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| n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份) | |
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3
fission
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| n.裂开；分裂生殖 | |
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4
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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5
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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6
exhumation
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| n.掘尸，发掘；剥璐 | |
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7
sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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8
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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9
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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10
extradition
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| n.引渡（逃犯） | |
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11
acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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12
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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13
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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