Moira returned a few minutes later.
“I got her,” she said. “I’ve asked her to come and meet me at a little sum-merhouse down near the river. She must have thought it very odd, but shesaid she’d come.”
“Good,” said Bobby. “Now, just where is this place exactly?”
Moira described it carefully, and the way to get to it.
“That’s all right,” said Bobby. “You go first. I’ll follow on.”
They adhered to this programme, Bobby lingering to have a word withMr. Askew1.
“Odd thing,” he said casually2, “that lady, Mrs. Nicholson, I used to workfor an uncle of hers. Canadian gentleman.”
Moira’s visit to him might, he felt, give rise to gossip, and the last thinghe wanted was for gossip of that kind to get about and possibly find itsway to Dr. Nicholson’s ears.
“So that’s it, is it?” said Mr. Askew. “I rather wondered.”
“Yes,” said Bobby. “She recognized me, and came along to hear what Iwas doing now. A nice, pleasant-spoken lady.”
“Very pleasant, indeed. She can’t have much of a life living at theGrange.”
“It wouldn’t be my fancy,” agreed Bobby.
Feeling that he had achieved his object, he strolled out into the villageand with an aimless air betook himself in the direction indicated byMoira.
He reached the rendezvous4 successfully and found her there waiting forhim. Frankie had not yet put in an appearance.
Moira’s glance was frankly5 inquiring, and Bobby felt he must attemptthe somewhat difficult task of explanation.
“There’s an awful lot I’ve got to tell you,” he said, and stopped awk-wardly.
“Yes?”
“To begin with,” said Bobby plunging6, “I’m not really a chauffeur7, al-though I do work in a garage in London. And my name isn’t Hawkins—it’sJones—Bobby Jones. I come from Marchbolt in Wales.”
Moira was listening attentively8, but clearly the mention of Marchboltmeant nothing to her. Bobby set his teeth and went bravely to the heart ofthe matter.
“Look here, I’m afraid I’m going to give you rather a shock. This friendof yours—Alan Carstairs—he’s, well—you’ve got to know—he’s dead.”
He felt the start she gave and tactfully he averted9 his eyes from her face.
Did she mind very much? Had she been—dash it all—keen on the fellow?
She was silent a moment or two, then she said in a low, thoughtful voice:
“So that’s why he never came back? I wondered.”
Bobby ventured to steal a look at her. His spirits rose. She looked sadand thoughtful—but that was all.
“Tell me about it,” she said.
Bobby complied.
“He fell over the cliff at Marchbolt—the place where I live. I and the doc-tor there happened to be the ones to find him.” He paused and then added:
“He had your photograph in his pocket.”
“Did he?” She gave a sweet, rather sad smile. “Dear Alan, he was—veryfaithful.”
There was silence for a moment or two and then she asked:
“When did this happen?”
“About a month ago. October 3rd to be exact.”
“That must have been just after he came down here.”
“Yes. Did he mention that he was going to Wales?”
She shook her head.
“You don’t know anyone called Evans, do you?” said Bobby.
“Evans?” Moira frowned, trying to think. “No, I don’t think so. It’s a verycommon name, of course, but I can’t remember anybody. What is he?”
“That’s just what we don’t know. Oh! hullo, here’s Frankie.”
Frankie came hurrying along the path. Her face, at the sight of Bobbyand Mrs. Nicholson sitting chatting together, was a study in conflicting ex-pressions.
“Hullo, Frankie,” said Bobby. “I’m glad you’ve come. We’ve got to have agreat powwow. To begin with it’s Mrs. Nicholson who is the original of thephotograph.”
“Oh!” said Frankie blankly.
She looked at Moira and suddenly laughed.
“My dear,” she said to Bobby, “now I see why the sight of Mrs. Caymanat the inquest was such a shock to you!”
“Exactly,” said Bobby.
What a fool he had been. However could he have imagined for one mo-ment that any space of time could have turned a Moira Nicholson into anAmelia Cayman.
“Lord, what a fool I’ve been!” he exclaimed.
Moira was looking bewildered.
“There’s such an awful lot to tell,” said Bobby, “and I don’t quite knowhow to put it all.”
He described the Caymans and their identification of the body.
“But I don’t understand,” said Moira, bewildered. “Whose body was itreally, her brother’s or Alan Carstairs?”
“That’s where the dirty work comes in,” explained Bobby.
“And then,” continued Frankie, “Bobby was poisoned.”
“Eight grains of morphia,” said Bobby reminiscently.
“Don’t start on that,” said Frankie. “You’re capable of going on for hourson the subject and it’s really very boring to other people. Let me explain.”
She took a long breath.
“You see,” she said, “those Cayman people came to see Bobby after theinquest to ask him if the brother (supposed) had said anything before hedied, and Bobby said, ‘No.’ But afterwards he remembered that he hadsaid something about a man called Evans, so he wrote and told them so,and a few days afterwards he got a letter offering him a job in Peru orsomewhere and when he wouldn’t take it, the next thing was thatsomeone put a lot of morphia—”
“Eight grains,” said Bobby.
“—in his beer. Only, having a most extraordinary inside or something, itdidn’t kill him. And so then we saw at once that Pritchard—or Carstairs,you know—must have been pushed over the cliff.”
“But why?” asked Moira.
“Don’t you see? Why, it seems perfectly10 clear to us. I expect I haven’ttold it very well. Anyway, we decided11 that he had been and that RogerBassington-ffrench had probably done it.”
“Roger Bassington-ffrench?” Moira spoke3 in tones of the liveliest amuse-ment.
“We worked it out that way. You see, he was there at the time, and yourphotograph disappeared, and he seemed to be the only man who couldhave taken it.”
“I see,” said Moira thoughtfully.
“And then,” continued Frankie, “I happened to have an accident justhere. An amazing coincidence, wasn’t it?” She looked hard at Bobby withan admonishing12 eye. “So I telephoned to Bobby and suggested that heshould come down here pretending to be my chauffeur and we’d look intothe matter.”
“So now you see how it was,” said Bobby, accepting Frankie’s one dis-creet departure from the truth. “And the final climax13 was when last night Istrolled into the grounds of the Grange and ran right into you—the ori-ginal of the mysterious photograph.”
“You recognized me very quickly,” said Moira, with a faint smile.
“Yes,” said Bobby. “I would have recognized the original of that photo-graph anywhere.”
For no particular reason, Moira blushed.
Then an idea seemed to strike her and she looked sharply from one tothe other.
“Are you telling me the truth?” she asked. “Is it really true that you camedown here—by accident? Or did you come because—because”—her voicequavered in spite of herself—“you suspected my husband?”
Bobby and Frankie looked at each other. Then Bobby said:
“I give you my word of honour that we’d never even heard of your hus-band till we came down here.”
“Oh, I see.” She turned to Frankie. “I’m sorry, Lady Frances, but, you see,I remembered that evening when we came to dinner. Jasper went on andon at you—asking you things about your accident. I couldn’t think why.
But I think now that perhaps he suspected it wasn’t genuine.”
“Well, if you really want to know, it wasn’t,” said Frankie. “Whoof—nowI feel better! It was all camouflaged14 very carefully. But it was nothing to dowith your husband. The whole thing was staged because we wanted to—to—what does one call it?—get a line on Roger Bassington-ffrench.”
“Roger?” Moira frowned and smiled perplexedly.
“It seems absurd,” she said frankly.
“All the same facts are facts,” said Bobby.
“Roger—oh, no.” She shook her head. “He might be weak—or wild. Hemight get into debt, or get mixed up in a scandal—but pushing someoneover a cliff—no, I simply can’t imagine it.”
“Do you know,” said Frankie, “I can’t very well imagine it either.”
“But he must have taken that photograph,” said Bobby stubbornly.
“Listen, Mrs. Nicholson, while I go over the facts.”
He did so slowly and carefully. When he had finished, she nodded herhead comprehendingly.
“I see what you mean. It seems very queer.” She paused a minute andthen said unexpectedly: “Why don’t you ask him?”
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收听单词发音
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1
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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2
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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3
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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4
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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5
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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6
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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7
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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8
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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9
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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10
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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11
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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12
admonishing
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| v.劝告( admonish的现在分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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13
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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14
camouflaged
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| v.隐蔽( camouflage的过去式和过去分词 )；掩盖；伪装，掩饰 | |
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