Twenty-one（2）

II
I tried to ring Lejeune next morning—but failed. However, after somedifficulty I managed to get through to Jim Corrigan.
“What about that psychological pipsqueak you brought along to see me,Corrigan? What does he say about Ginger¹?”
“A lot of long words. But I rather think, Mark, that he’s truly baffled.
And you know, people do get pneumonia². There’s nothing mysterious orout of the way about that.”
“Yes,” I said. “And several people we know of, whose names were on acertain list, have died of bronchopneumonia, gastroenteritis, bulbar para-lysis, tumour³ on the brain, epilepsy, paratyphoid and other well-authentic-ated diseases.”
“I know how you feel… But what can we do?”
“She’s worse, isn’t she?” I asked.
“Well—yes…”
“Then something’s got to be done.”
“Such as?”
“I’ve got one or two ideas. Going down to Much Deeping, getting hold ofThyrza Grey and forcing her, by scaring the living daylights out of her, toreverse the spell or whatever it is—”
“Well—that might work.”
“Or—I might go to Venables—”
Corrigan said sharply:
“Venables? But he’s out. How can he possibly have any connection withit? He’s a cripple.”
“I wonder. I might go there and snatch off that rug affair and see if thisatrophied limbs business is true or false!”
“We’ve looked into all that—”
“Wait. I ran into that little chemist chap, Osborne, down in Much Deep-ing. I want to repeat to you what he suggested to me.”
I outlined to him Osborne’s theory of impersonation.
“That man’s got a bee in his bonnet,” said Corrigan. “He’s the kind ofman who has always got to be right.”
“But Corrigan, tell me, couldn’t it be as he said? It’s possible, isn’t it?”
After a moment or two Corrigan said slowly,
“Yes. I have to admit it’s possible… But several people would have to bein the know—and would have to be paid very heavily for holding theirtongues.”
“What of that? He’s rolling in money, isn’t he? Has Lejeune found outyet how he’s made all that money?”
“No. Not exactly… I’ll admit this to you. There’s something wrong aboutthe fellow. He’s got a past of some kind. The money’s all very cleverly ac-counted for, in a lot of ways. It isn’t possible to check up on it all withoutan investigation⁴ which might take years. The police have had to do thatbefore—when they’ve been up against a financial crook⁵ who has coveredhis traces by a web of infinite complexity⁶. I believe the Inland Revenuehas been smelling around Venables for some time. But he’s clever. Whatdo you see him as—the head of the show?”
“Yes. I do. I think he’s the man who plans it all.”
“Perhaps. He sounds as though he’d have the kind of brains for that, Iagree. But surely he wouldn’t have done anything so crude as killingFather Gorman himself!”
“He might have if there was sufficient urgency. Father Gorman mighthave had to be silenced before he could pass on what he had learnt fromthat woman about the activities of the Pale Horse. Besides—”
I stopped short.
“Hallo—you still there?”
“Yes, I was thinking… Just an idea that occurred to me…”
“What was it?”
“I’ve not got it clear yet… Just that real safety could only be achieved oneway. I haven’t worked it out yet…Anyway, I must go now. I’ve got a ren-dezvous at a coffee bar.”
“Didn’t know you were in the Chelsea coffee bar set!”
“I’m not. My coffee bar is in Tottenham Court Road, as a matter of fact.”
I rang off and glanced at the clock.
I started for the door when the telephone rang.
I hesitated. Ten to one, it was Jim Corrigan again, ringing back to knowmore about my idea.
I didn’t want to talk to Jim Corrigan just now.
I moved towards the door whilst the telephone rang on persistently,naggingly.
Of course, it might be the hospital— Ginger—I couldn’t risk that. I strode across impatiently and jerked the receiveroff its hook.
“Hallo?”
“Is that you, Mark?”
“Yes, who is it?”
“It’s me, of course,” said the voice reproachfully. “Listen, I want to tellyou something.”
“Oh, it’s you.” I recognised the voice of Mrs. Oliver. “Look here, I’m in agreat hurry, got to go out. I’ll ring you back later.”
“That won’t do at all,” said Mrs. Oliver, firmly. “You’ve got to listen to menow. It’s important.”
“Well, you’ll have to be quick. I’ve got an appointment.”
“Pooh,” said Mrs. Oliver. “You can always be late for an appointment.
Everybody is. They’ll think all the more of you.”
“No, really, I’ve got to—”
“Listen, Mark. This is important. I’m sure it is. It must be!”
I curbed⁷ my impatience⁸ as best I could, glancing at the clock.
“Well?”
“My Milly had tonsilitis. She was quite bad and she’s gone to the country—to her sister—”
I gritted⁹ my teeth.
“I’m frightfully sorry about that, but really—”
“Listen. I’ve not begun yet. Where was I? Oh yes. Milly had to go to thecountry and so I rang up the agency I always go to—the Regency—such asilly name I always think—like a cinema—”
“I really must—”
“And said what could they send? And they said it was very difficult justnow—which they always say as a matter of fact—but they’d do what theycould—”
Never had I found my friend Ariadne Oliver so maddening.
“—and so, this morning a woman came along, and who do you think sheturned out to be?”
“I can’t imagine. Look—”
“A woman called Edith Binns—comic name, isn’t it?—and you actuallyknow her.”
“No, I don’t. I never heard of a woman called Edith Binns.”
“But you do know her and you saw her not very long ago. She had beenwith that godmother of yours for years. Lady Hesketh-Dubois.”
“Oh, with her!”
“Yes. She saw you the day you came to collect some pictures.”
“Well, that’s all very nice and I expect you’re very lucky to find her. I be-lieve she’s most trustworthy and reliable and all that. Aunt Min said so.
But really—now—”
“Wait, can’t you? I haven’t got to the point. She sat and talked a greatdeal about Lady Hesketh-Dubois and her last illness, and all that sort ofthing, because they do love illnesses and death and then she said it.”
“Said what?”
“The thing that caught my attention. She said something like: ‘Poor dearlady, suffering like she did. That nasty thing on her brain, a growth, theysay, and she in quite good health up to just before. And pitiful it was to seeher in the nursing home and all her hair, nice thick white hair it was, andalways blued regularly once a fortnight, to see it coming out all over thepillow. Coming out in handfuls. And then, Mark, I thought of Mary Dela-fontaine, that friend of mine. Her hair came out. And I remembered whatyou told me about some girl you’d seen in a Chelsea coffee place fightingwith another girl, and getting her hair all pulled out in handfuls. Hairdoesn’t come out as easily as that, Mark. You try—just try to pull your ownhair, just a little bit of it, out by the roots! Just try it! You’ll see. It’s not nat-ural, Mark, for all those people to have hair that comes out by the roots.
It’s not natural. It must be some special kind of new illness—it must meansomething.”
I clutched the receiver and my head swam. Things, half-rememberedscraps of knowledge, drew together. Rhoda and her dogs on the lawn—anarticle I had read in a medical journal in New York — Of course… Ofcourse!
I was suddenly aware that Mrs. Oliver was still quacking¹⁰ happily.
“Bless you,” I said. “You’re wonderful!”
I slammed back the receiver, then took it off again. I dialled a numberand was lucky enough this time to get Lejeune straightaway.
“Listen,” I said, “is Ginger’s hair coming out by the roots in handfuls?”
“Well—as a matter of fact I believe it is. High fever, I suppose.”
“Fever my foot,” I said. “What Ginger’s suffering from, what they’ve allsuffered from, is thallium poisoning. Please God, we may be in time….”

1 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。

2 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

3 tumour   

n.(tumor)(肿)瘤，肿块

参考例句：

• The surgeons operated on her for a tumour.外科医生为她施行了肿瘤切除手术。
• The tumour constricts the nerves.肿瘤压迫神经。

4 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

5 crook   

v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处)

参考例句：

• He demanded an apology from me for calling him a crook.我骂他骗子，他要我向他认错。
• She was cradling a small parcel in the crook of her elbow.她用手臂挎着一个小包裹。

6 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

7 curbed   

v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Advertising aimed at children should be curbed. 针对儿童的广告应受到限制。 来自辞典例句
• Inflation needs to be curbed in Russia. 俄罗斯需要抑制通货膨胀。 来自辞典例句

8 impatience   

n.不耐烦，急躁

参考例句：

• He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢，他显得不耐烦。
• He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。

9 gritted   

v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的过去式和过去分词 )；咬紧牙关

参考例句：

• He gritted his teeth and plunged into the cold weather. 他咬咬牙，冲向寒冷的天气。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The young policeman gritted his teeth and walked slowly towards the armed criminal. 年轻警官强忍住怒火，朝武装歹徒慢慢走过去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 quacking   

v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• For the rest it was just a noise, a quack-quack-quacking. 除此之外，便是一片噪声，一片嘎嘎嘎的叫嚣。 来自英汉文学
• The eyeless creature with the quacking voice would never be vaporized. 那没眼睛的鸭子嗓也不会给蒸发。 来自英汉文学