For a moment, the bold simplicity1 of the question quite took their breathaway. Both Frankie and Bobby started to speak at once:
“That’s impossible—” began Bobby, just as Frankie said: “That wouldnever do.”
Then they both stopped dead as the possibilities of the idea sank in.
“You see,” said Moira eagerly, “I do see what you mean. It does seem asthough Roger must have taken that photograph, but I don’t believe for onemoment that he pushed Alan over. Why should he? He didn’t even knowhim. They’d only met once — at lunch down here. They’d never comeacross each other in any way. There’s no motive2.”
“Then who did push him over?” asked Frankie bluntly.
A shadow crossed Moira’s face.
“I don’t know,” she said constrainedly3.
“Look here,” said Bobby. “Do you mind if I tell Frankie what you toldme. About what you’re afraid of.”
Moira turned her head away.
“If you like. But it sounds so melodramatic and hysterical4. I can’t believeit myself this minute.”
And indeed the bald statement, made unemotionally in the open air ofthe quiet English countryside, did seem curiously5 lacking in reality.
Moira got up abruptly6.
“I really feel I’ve been terribly silly,” she said, her lip trembling. “Pleasedon’t pay any attention to what I said, Mr. Jones. It was just—nerves. Any-way, I must be going now. Good-bye.”
She moved rapidly away. Bobby sprang up to follow her, but Frankiepushed him firmly back.
“Stay there, idiot, leave this to me.”
She went rapidly off after Moira. She returned a few minutes later.
“Well?” queried7 Bobby anxiously.
“That’s all right. I calmed her down. It was a bit hard on her having herprivate fears blurted8 out in front of her to a third person. I made herpromise we’d have a meeting — all three of us — again soon. Now thatyou’re not hampered9 by her being there, tell us all about it.”
Bobby did so. Frankie listened attentively10. Then she said:
“It fits in with two things. First of all, I came back just now to find Nich-olson holding both Sylvia Bassington-ffrench’s hands—and didn’t he lookdaggers at me! If looks could kill I feel sure he’d have made me a corpsethen and there.”
“What’s the second thing?” asked Bobby.
“Oh, just an incident. Sylvia described how Moira’s photograph hadmade a great impression on some stranger who had come to the house.
Depend upon it, that was Carstairs. He recognized the photograph, Mrs.
Bassington-ffrench tells him that it is a portrait of a Mrs. Nicholson, andthat explains how he came to find out where she was. But you know,Bobby, I don’t see yet where Nicholson comes in. Why should he want todo away with Alan Carstairs?”
“You think it was him and not Bassington-ffrench? Rather a coincidenceif he and Bassington-ffrench should both be in Marchbolt on the sameday.”
“Well, coincidences do happen. But if it was Nicholson, I don’t yet seethe11 motive. Was Carstairs on the track of Nicholson as the head of a dopegang? Or is your new lady friend the motive for the murder?”
“It might be both,” suggested Bobby. “He may know that Carstairs andhis wife had an interview, and he may have believed that his wife gavehim away somehow.”
“Now, that is a possibility,” said Frankie. “But the first thing is to makesure about Roger Bassington-ffrench. The only thing we’ve got against himis the photograph business. If he can clear that up satisfactorily—”
“You’re going to tackle him on the subject? Frankie, is that wise? If he isthe villain12 of the piece, as we decided13 he must be, it means that we’re go-ing to show him our hand.”
“Not quite—not the way I shall do it. After all, in every other way he’sbeen perfectly14 straightforward15 and aboveboard. We’ve taken that to besuper-cunning—but suppose it just happens to be innocence16? If he can ex-plain the photograph—and I shall be watching him when he does explain—and if there’s the least sign of hesitation17 of guilt18 I shall see it—as I say, ifhe can explain the photograph—then he may be a very valuable ally.”
“How do you mean, Frankie?”
“My dear, your little friend may be an emotional scaremonger who likesto exaggerate, but supposing she isn’t—that all she says is gospel truth—that her husband wants to get rid of her and marry Sylvia. Don’t you real-ize that, in that case, Henry Bassington-ffrench is in mortal danger too. Atall costs we’ve got to prevent him being sent to the Grange. And at presentRoger Bassington-ffrench is on Nicholson’s side.”
“Good for you, Frankie,” said Bobby quietly. “Go ahead with your plan.”
Frankie got up to go, but before departing she paused for a moment.
“Isn’t it odd?” she said. “We seem, somehow, to have got in between thecovers of a book. We’re in the middle of someone else’s story. It’s a fright-fully queer feeling.”
“I know what you mean,” said Bobby. “There is something rather un-canny about it. I should call it a play rather than a book. It’s as thoughwe’d walked on to the stage in the middle of the second act and we haven’treally got parts in the play at all, but we have to pretend, and what makesit so frightfully hard is that we haven’t the faintest idea what the first actwas about.”
Frankie nodded eagerly.
“I’m not even so sure it’s the second act—I think it’s more like the third.
Bobby, I’m sure we’ve got to go back a long way .?.?. And we’ve got to bequick because I fancy the play is frightfully near the final curtain.”
“With corpses19 strewn everywhere,” said Bobby. “And what brought usinto the show was a regular cue—five words—quite meaningless as far aswe are concerned.”
“ ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’ Isn’t it odd, Bobby, that though we’vefound out a good deal and more and more characters come into the thing,we never get any nearer to the mysterious Evans?”
“I’ve got an idea about Evans. I’ve a feeling that Evans doesn’t reallymatter at all—that although he’s been the starting point as it were, yet inhimself he’s probably quite inessential. It will be like that story of Wellswhere a prince built a marvellous palace or temple round the tomb of hisbeloved. And when it was finished there was just one little thing thatjarred. So he said: ‘Take it away.’ And the thing was actually the tomb it-self.”
“Sometimes,” said Frankie, “I don’t believe there is an Evans.”
Saying which, she nodded to Bobby and retraced20 her steps towards thehouse.
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收听单词发音
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1
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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2
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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3
constrainedly
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| 不自然地，勉强地，强制地 | |
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4
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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5
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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6
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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7
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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11
seethe
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| vi.拥挤，云集；发怒，激动，骚动 | |
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12
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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13
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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14
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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15
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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16
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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17
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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18
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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19
corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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20
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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