The next morning I tried to get hold of Jim Corrigan—without success. Ileft a message, however, that I’d be in between six and seven, if he couldcome for a drink. He was a busy man, I knew, and I doubted if he wouldbe able to come at such short notice, but he turned up all right at about tenminutes to seven. While I was getting him a whisky he wandered roundlooking at my pictures and books. He remarked finally that he wouldn’thave minded being a Mogul Emperor himself instead of a hard-pressedoverworked police surgeon.
“Though, I daresay,” he remarked as he settled down in a chair, “thatthey suffered a good deal from woman trouble. At least I escape that.”
“You’re not married, then?”
“No fear. And no more are you, I should say, from the comfortable messin which you live. A wife would tidy all that up in next to no time.”
I told him that I didn’t think women were as bad as he made out.
I took my drink to the chair opposite him and began:
“You must wonder why I wanted to get hold of you so urgently, but as amatter of fact something has come up that may have a bearing on whatwe were discussing the last time we met.”
“What was that?—oh, of course. The Father Gorman business.”
“Yes—But first, does the phrase The Pale Horse mean anything to you?”
“The Pale Horse… The Pale Horse—No, I don’t think so—why?”
“Because I think it’s possible that it might have a connection with thatlist of names you showed me—I’ve been down in the country with friends—at a place called Much Deeping, and they took me to an old pub, or whatwas once a pub, called the Pale Horse.”
“Wait a bit! Much Deeping? Much Deeping… Is it anywhere nearBournemouth?”
“It’s about fifteen miles or so from Bournemouth.”
“I suppose you didn’t come across anyone called Venables down there?”
“Certainly I did.”
“You did?” Corrigan sat up in some excitement. “You certainly have aknack of going places! What is he like?”
“He’s a most remarkable1 man.”
“He is, is he? Remarkable in what way?”
“Principally in the force of his personality. Although he’s completelycrippled by polio—”
“Corrigan interrupted me sharply—
“What?”
“He had polio some years ago. He’s paralysed from the waist down.”
Corrigan threw himself back in his chair with a look of disgust.
“That tears it! I thought it was too good to be true.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
Corrigan said, “You’ll have to meet the D.D.I. Divisional Detective- In-spector Lejeune. He’ll be interested in what you have to say. When Gor-man was killed, Lejeune asked for information from anyone who had seenhim in the street that night. Most of the answers were useless, as is usual.
But there was a pharmacist, name of Osborne, who has a shop in thoseparts. He reported having seen Gorman pass his place that night, and healso saw a man who followed close after him—naturally he didn’t thinkanything of it at that time. But he managed to describe this chap prettyclosely—seemed quite sure he’d know him again. Well, a couple of daysago Lejeune got a letter from Osborne. He’s retired2, and living inBournemouth. He’d been over to some local fête and he said he’d seen theman in question there. He was at the fête in a wheeled chair. Osborneasked who he was and was told his name was Venables.”
He looked at me questioningly. I nodded.
“Quite right,” I said. “It was Venables. He was at the fête. But he couldn’thave been the man who was walking along a street in Paddington follow-ing Father Gorman. It’s physically3 impossible. Osborne made a mistake.”
“He described him very meticulously4. Height about six feet, a prominentbeaked nose, and a noticeable Adam’s apple. Correct?”
“Yes. It fits Venables. But all the same—”
“I know. Mr. Osborne isn’t necessarily as good as he thinks he is at re-cognising people. Clearly he was misled by the coincidence of a chance re-semblance. But it’s disturbing to have you come along shooting yourmouth off about that very district — talking about some pale horse orother. What is this pale horse? Let’s have your story.”
“You won’t believe it,” I warned him. “I don’t really believe it myself.”
“Come on. Let’s have it.”
I told him of my conversation with Thyrza Grey. His reaction was imme-diate.
“What unutterable balderdash!”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“Of course it is! What’s the matter with you, Mark? White cockerels. Sac-rifices, I suppose! A medium, the local witch, and a middle-aged5 countryspinster who can send out a death ray guaranteed lethal6. It’s mad, man—absolutely mad!”
“Yes, it’s mad,” I said heavily.
“Oh! stop agreeing with me, Mark. You make me feel there’s somethingin it when you do that. You believe there’s something in it, don’t you?”
“Let me ask you a question first. This stuff about everybody having asecret urge or wish for death. Is there any scientific truth in that?”
Corrigan hesitated for a moment. Then he said:
“I’m not a psychiatrist7. Strictly8 between you and me I think half thesefellows are slightly barmy themselves. They’re punch drunk on theories.
And they go much too far. I can tell you that the police aren’t at all fond ofthe expert medical witness who’s always being called in for the defence toexplain away a man’s having killed some helpless old woman for themoney in the till.”
“You prefer your glandular9 theory?”
He grinned.
“All right. All right. I’m a theorist, too. Admitted. But there’s a good phys-ical reason behind my theory—if I can ever get at it. But all this subcon-scious stuff! Pah!”
“You don’t believe in it?”
“Of course I believe in it. But these chaps take it much too far. The un-conscious ‘death wish’ and all that, there’s something in it, of course, butnot nearly so much as they make out.”
“But there is such a thing,” I persisted.
“You’d better go and buy yourself a book on psychology10 and read allabout it.”
“Thyrza Grey claims that she knows all there is to know.”
“Thyrza Grey!” he snorted. “What does a half-baked spinster in a coun-try village know about mental psychology?”
“She says she knows a lot.”
“As I said before, balderdash!”
“That,” I remarked, “is what people have always said about any discov-ery that doesn’t accord with recognised ideas. Frogs twitching11 their legson railings—”
He interrupted me.
“So you’ve swallowed all this, hook, line and sinker?”
“Not at all,” I said. “I just wanted to know if there is any scientific basisfor it.”
Corrigan snorted.
“Scientific basis my foot!”
“All right. I just wanted to know.”
“You’ll be saying next she’s the Woman with the Box.”
“What Woman with a box?”
“Just one of the wild stories that turns up from time to time—by Nos-tradamus out of Mother Shipton. Some people will swallow anything.”
“You might at least tell me how you are getting on with that list ofnames.”
“The boys have been hard at work, but these things take time and a lotof routine work. Names without addresses or Christian12 names aren’t easyto trace or identify.”
“Let’s take it from a different angle. I’d be willing to bet you one thing.
Within a fairly recent period—say a year to a year and a half—every one ofthose names has appeared on a death certificate. Am I right?”
He gave me a queer look.
“You’re right—for what it’s worth.”
“That’s the thing they all have in common—death.”
“Yes, but that mayn’t mean as much as it sounds, Mark. Have you anyidea how many people die every day in the British Isles13? And some ofthose names are quite common—which doesn’t help.”
“Delafontaine,” I said. “Mary Delafontaine. That’s not a very commonname, is it? The funeral was last Tuesday, I understand.”
He shot me a quick glance.
“How do you know that? Saw it in the paper. I suppose.”
“I heard it from a friend of hers.”
“There was nothing fishy14 about her death. I can tell you that. In fact,there’s been nothing questionable15 about any of the deaths the police havebeen investigating. If they were ‘accidents’ it might be suspicious. But thedeaths are all perfectly16 normal deaths. Pneumonia17, cerebral18 haemor-rhage, tumour19 on the brain, gallstones, one case of polio—nothing in theleast suspicious.”
I nodded.
“Not accident,” I said. “Not poisoning. Just plain illnesses leading todeath. Just as Thyrza Grey claims.”
“Are you really suggesting that that woman can cause someone she’snever seen, miles away, to catch pneumonia and die of it?”
“I’m not suggesting such a thing. She did. I think it’s fantastic and I’d liketo think it’s impossible. But there are certain curious factors. There’s thecasual mention of a Pale Horse—in connection with the removal of un-wanted persons. There is a place called the Pale Horse—and the womanwho lives there practically boasts that such an operation is possible. Liv-ing in that neighbourhood is a man who is recognised very positively20 asthe man who was seen following Father Gorman on the night that he waskilled—the night when he had been called to a dying woman who washeard to speak of ‘great wickedness.’ Rather a lot of coincidences, don’tyou think?”
“The man couldn’t have been Venables, since according to you, he’sbeen paralysed for years.”
“It isn’t possible, from the medical point of view, that that paralysiscould be faked?”
“Of course not. The limbs would be atrophied21.”
“That certainly seems to settle the question,” I admitted. I sighed. “Apity. If there is a—I don’t know quite what to call it—an organisation22 thatspecialises in ‘Removals—Human’ Venables is the kind of brain I can seerunning it. The things he has in that house of his represent a fantasticamount of money. Where does that money come from?”
I paused—and then said:
“All these people who have died—tidily—in their beds, of this, that andthe other—were there people who profited by their deaths?”
“Someone always profits by a death—in greater or lesser23 degree. Therewere no notably24 suspicious circumstances, if that is what you mean.”
“It isn’t quite.”
“Lady Hesketh-Dubois, as you probably know, left about fifty thousandnet. A niece and a nephew inherit. Nephew lives in Canada. Niece is mar-ried and lives in North of England. Both could do with the money.
Thomasina Tuckerton was left a very large fortune by her father. If shedied unmarried before the age of twenty-one, it reverts25 to her stepmother.
Stepmother seems quite a blameless creature. Then there’s your Mrs.
Delafontaine—money left to a cousin—”
“Ah yes. And the cousin?”
“In Kenya with her husband.”
“All splendidly absent,” I commented.
Corrigan threw me an annoyed glance.
“Of the three Sandfords who’ve kicked the bucket, one left a wife muchyounger than himself who has married again—rather quickly. DeceasedSandford was an R.C., and wouldn’t have given her a divorce. A fellowcalled Sidney Harmondsworth who died of cerebral haemorrhage wassuspected at the Yard of augmenting26 his income by discreet27 blackmail28.
Several people in high places must be greatly relieved that he is no more.”
“What you’re saying in effect is that all these deaths were convenientdeaths. What about Corrigan?”
Corrigan grinned.
“Corrigan is a common name. Quite a lot of Corrigans have died—butnot to the particular advantage of anyone in particular so far as we canlearn.”
“That settles it. You’re the next prospective29 victim. Take good care ofyourself.”
“I will. And don’t think that your Witch of Endor is going to strike medown with a duodenal ulcer30, or Spanish ’flu. Not a casehardened doctor!”
“Listen, Jim. I want to investigate this claim of Thyrza Grey’s. Will youhelp me?”
“No, I won’t! I can’t understand a clever educated fellow like you beingtaken in by such balderdash.”
I sighed.
“Can’t you use another word? I’m tired of that one.”
“Poppycock, if you like it better.”
“I don’t much.”
“Obstinate fellow, aren’t you, Mark?”
“As I see it,” I said, “somebody has to be!”
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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meticulously
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| adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心 | |
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middle-aged
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lethal
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| adj.致死的；毁灭性的 | |
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psychiatrist
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| n.精神病专家；精神病医师 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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glandular
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| adj.腺体的 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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pneumonia
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| n.肺炎 | |
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cerebral
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| adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的 | |
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tumour
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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atrophied
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| adj.萎缩的，衰退的v.（使）萎缩，（使）虚脱，（使）衰退( atrophy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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organisation
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lesser
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notably
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reverts
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augmenting
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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blackmail
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| n.讹诈，敲诈，勒索，胁迫，恫吓 | |
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prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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ulcer
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| n.溃疡，腐坏物 | |
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