I
Calgary and Huish looked at each other. Calgary saw what seemed to himone of the most depressed1 and gloomy-looking men he had ever seen. Soprofoundly disillusioned2 did he appear that Calgary felt tempted3 to sup-pose that Superintendent4 Huish’s career had been one long series of fail-ures. He was surprised to discover on a later occasion that SuperintendentHuish had been extremely successful professionally. Huish saw a lean,prematurely grey-haired man with slightly stooping shoulders, a sensitiveface and a singularly attractive smile.
“You don’t know who I am, I’m afraid,” Calgary began.
“Oh, we know all about you, Dr. Calgary,” said Huish. “You’re the jokerin the pack who queered the Argyle case.” A rather unexpected smile lif-ted the corners of his sad-looking mouth.
“You can hardly regard me favourably5 then,” said Calgary.
“It’s all in the day’s work,” said Superintendent Huish. “It seemed a clearcase and nobody can be blamed for thinking it so. But these things hap-pen,” he went on. “They’re sent to try us, so my old mother used to say. Wedon’t bear malice6, Dr. Calgary. After all, we do stand for Justice, don’t we?”
“So I’ve always believed, and shall continue to believe,” said Calgary.
“To no man will we deny justice,” he murmured softly.
“Magna Carta,” said Superintendent Huish.
“Yes,” said Calgary, “quoted to me by Miss Tina Argyle.”
Superintendent Huish’s eyebrows7 rose.
“Indeed. You surprise me. That young lady, I should say, has not beenparticularly active in helping8 the wheels of justice to turn.”
“Now why do you say that?” asked Calgary.
“Frankly,” said Huish, “for withholding9 information. There’s no doubtabout that.”
“Why?” asked Calgary.
“Well, it’s a family business,” said Huish. “Families stick together. Butwhat was it you wanted to see me about?” he continued.
“I want information,” said Calgary.
“About the Argyle case?”
“Yes. I realize that I must seem to you to be butting10 in in a matter that’snot my concern—”
“Well, it is your concern in a way, isn’t it?”
“Ah, you do appreciate that. Yes. I feel responsible. Responsible forbringing trouble.”
“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, as the French say,”
said Huish.
“There are things I want to know,” said Calgary.
“Such as?”
“I’d like a great deal more information about Jacko Argyle.”
“About Jacko Argyle. Well, now, I didn’t expect you to say that.”
“He’d got a bad record, I know,” said Calgary. “What I want is a few de-tails from it.”
“Well, that’s simple enough,” said Huish. “He’d been on probation11 twice.
On another occasion, for embezzlement12 of funds, he was just saved by be-ing able to put up the money in time.”
“The budding young criminal, in fact?” asked Calgary.
“Quite right, sir,” said Huish. “Not a murderer, as you’ve made clear tous, but a good many other things. Nothing, mind you, on a grand scale. Hehadn’t got the brains or the nerve to put up a big swindle. Just a small-timecriminal. Pinching money out of tills, wheedling13 it out of women.”
“And he was good at that,” said Calgary. “Wheedling money out of wo-men, I mean.”
“And a very nice safe line it is,” said Superintendent Huish. “Women fellfor him very easily. Middle-aged14 or elderly were the ones he usually wentfor. You’d be surprised how gullible15 that type of woman can be. He putover a very pretty line. Got them to believe he was passionately16 in lovewith them. There’s nothing a woman won’t believe if she wants to.”
“And then?” asked Calgary.
Huish shrugged17 his shoulders.
“Well, sooner or later they were disillusioned. But they don’t prosecute,you know. They don’t want to tell the world that they’ve been fooled. Yes,it’s a pretty safe line.”
“Was there ever blackmail18?” Calgary asked.
“Not that we know of,” said Huish. “Mind you, I wouldn’t have put itpast him. Not out and out blackmail, I’d say. Just a hint or two, perhaps.
Letters. Foolish letters. Things their husbands wouldn’t like to knowabout. He’d be able to keep a woman quiet that way.”
“I see,” said Calgary.
“Is that all you wanted to know?” asked Huish.
“There’s one member of the Argyle family I haven’t met yet,” said Cal-gary. “The eldest19 daughter.”
“Ah, Mrs. Durrant.”
“I went to her house, but it was shut up. They told me she and her hus-band were away.”
“They are at Sunny Point.”
“Still there?”
“Yes. He wanted to stay on. Mr. Durrant,” added Huish, “is doing a bit ofdetecting, I understand.”
“He’s a cripple, isn’t he?”
“Yes, polio. Very sad. He hasn’t much to do with his time, poor chap.
That’s why he’s taken up this murder business so eagerly. Thinks he’s onto something too.”
“And is he?” asked Calgary.
Huish shrugged his shoulders.
“He might be, at that,” he said. “He’s a better chance than we have, youknow. He knows the family and he’s a man with a good deal of intuition aswell as intelligence.”
“Do you think he’ll get anywhere?”
“Possibly,” said Huish, “but he won’t tell us if he does. They’ll keep it allin the family.”
“Do you yourself know who’s guilty, Superintendent?”
“You mustn’t ask me things like that, Dr. Calgary.”
“Meaning that you do know?”
“One can think one knows a thing,” said Huish slowly, “but if youhaven’t got evidence there’s not much you can do about it, is there?”
“And you’re not likely to get the evidence you want?”
“Oh! We’re very patient,” Huish said. “We shall go on trying.”
“What’s going to happen to them all if you don’t succeed?” said Calgary,leaning forward. “Have you thought of that?”
Huish looked at him.
“That’s what’s worrying you, is it, sir?”
“They’ve got to know,” said Calgary. “Whatever else happens, they’ve gotto know.”
“Don’t you think they do know?”
Calgary shook his head.
“No,” he said slowly, “that’s the tragedy.”
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收听单词发音
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1
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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disillusioned
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| a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的 | |
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3
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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4
superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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5
favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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6
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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7
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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8
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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9
withholding
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| 扣缴税款 | |
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10
butting
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| 用头撞人（犯规动作） | |
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11
probation
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| n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期) | |
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12
embezzlement
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| n.盗用，贪污 | |
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13
wheedling
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的现在分词 ) | |
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14
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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15
gullible
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| adj.易受骗的；轻信的 | |
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16
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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17
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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18
blackmail
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| n.讹诈，敲诈，勒索，胁迫，恫吓 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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