Leading the way up the path to the Major’s front door, Mr. Enderbyrapped upon it in a cheery fashion. The door was flung open almost imme-diately and Major Burnaby, red in the face, appeared on the threshold.
“It’s you, is it?” he observed with no very great fervour in his voice, andwas about to go on in the same strain when he caught sight of Emily andhis expression altered.
“This is Miss Trefusis” said Charles with the air of one producing the aceof trumps1. “She was very anxious to see you.”
“May I come in?” said Emily with her sweetest smile.
“Oh! yes. Certainly. Of course—Oh, yes, of course.”
Stumbling in his speech the Major backed into the living room of his cot-tage and began pulling forward chairs and pushing aside tables.
Emily, as was her fashion, came straight to the point.
“You see, Major Burnaby, I am engaged to Jim—Jim Pearson, you know.
And naturally I am terribly anxious about him.”
In the act of pushing a table the Major paused with his mouth open.
“Oh dear,” he said, “that’s a bad business. My dear young lady, I ammore sorry about it than I can say.”
“Major Burnaby, tell me honestly. Do you yourself believe he is guilty?
Oh, you needn’t mind saying if you do. I would a hundred times ratherpeople didn’t lie to me.”
“No, I do not think him guilty,” said the Major in a loud assertive2 voice.
He hit a cushion once or twice vigorously, and then sat down facing Emily.
“The chap is a nice young chap. Mind you, he might be a bit weak. Don’tbe offended if I say that he’s the kind of young fellow that might easily gowrong if temptation came in his way. But murder—no. And mind you, Iknow what I am talking about—a lot of subalterns have passed throughmy hands in my time. It’s the fashion to poke3 fun at retired4 army officersnowadays, but we know a thing or two all the same, Miss Trefusis.”
“I’m sure you do,” said Emily. “I’m awfully5 grateful to you for sayingwhat you’ve done.”
“Have—have a whisky and soda6?” said the Major. “I’m afraid there’snothing else,” he said apologetically.
“No, thank you, Major Burnaby.”
“Some plain soda then?”
“No, thank you,” said Emily.
“I ought to be able to produce tea,” said the Major with a touch of wist-fulness.
“We’ve had it,” said Charles. “At Mrs. Curtis’s,” he added.
“Major Burnaby,” said Emily, “who do you think did it—have you anyidea at all?”
“No. I am damned—er—bother—if I have,” said the Major. “Took it forgranted it was some chap that broke in, but now the police say that can’tbe so. Well, it’s their job, and I suppose they know best. They say nobodybroke in, so I suppose nobody did break in. But all the same it beats me,Miss Trefusis. Trevelyan hadn’t an enemy in the world as far as I know.”
“And you would know if anybody did,” said Emily.
“Yes, I suppose I knew more of Trevelyan than many of his relationsdid.”
“And you can’t think of anything — anything that would help, in anyway?” asked Emily.
The Major pulled at his short moustache.
“I know what you’re thinking. Like in books there ought to be some littleincident that I should remember that would be a clue. Well, I’m sorry, butthere isn’t any such thing. Trevelyan just led an ordinary life. Got very fewletters and wrote less. There were no female complications in his life, I amsure of that. No, it beats me, Miss Trefusis.”
All three were silent.
“What about that servant of his?” asked Charles.
“Been with him for years. Absolutely faithful.”
“He had married lately,” said Charles.
“Married a perfectly7 decent respectable girl.”
“Major Burnaby,” said Emily, “forgive me putting it this way—but didn’tyou get the wind up rather easily about him?”
The Major rubbed his nose with the embarrassed air that always cameover him when the table-turning was mentioned.
“Yes, there’s no denying it, I did. I knew the whole thing was tommy rotand yet—”
“You felt somehow it wasn’t,” said Emily helpfully.
The Major nodded.
“That’s why I wonder—” said Emily.
The two men looked at her.
“I can’t quite put what I mean in the way I want,” said Emily. “What Imean is this: You say that you don’t believe in all this table-turning busi-ness—and yet, in spite of the awful weather and what must have seemedto you the absurdity8 of the whole thing—you felt so uneasy that you had toset out, no matter what the weather conditions, and see for yourself thatCaptain Trevelyan was all right. Well, don’t you think that may have beenbecause—because there was something in the atmosphere?
“I mean,” she continued desperately9 as she saw no trace of comprehen-sion in the Major’s face, “that there was something in someone else’s mindas well as yours. And that somehow or other you felt it.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the Major. He rubbed his nose again. “Ofcourse,” he added hopefully, “women do take these things seriously.”
“Women!” said Emily. “Yes,” she murmured softly to herself, “I believesomehow or other that’s it.”
She turned abruptly10 to Major Burnaby.
“What are they like, these Willetts?”
“Oh, well,” Major Burnaby cast about in his mind, he was clearly nogood at personal description. “Well—they are very kind you know—veryhelpful and all that.”
“Why do they want to take a house like Sittaford House at this time ofyear?”
“I can’t imagine,” said the Major. “Nobody does,” he added.
“Don’t you think it’s very queer?” persisted Emily.
“Of course, it’s queer. However, there’s no accounting11 for tastes. That’swhat the Inspector12 said.”
“That’s nonsense,” said Emily. “People don’t do things without a reason.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Major Burnaby cautiously. “Some peopledon’t. You wouldn’t, Miss Trefusis. But some people —” He sighed andshook his head.
“You are sure they hadn’t met Captain Trevelyan before?”
The Major scouted13 the idea. Trevelyan would have said something tohim. No, he was as astonished himself as anyone could be.
“So he thought it queer?”
“Of course, I’ve just told you we all did.”
“What was Mrs. Willett’s attitude towards Captain Trevelyan?” askedEmily. “Did she try and avoid him?”
A faint chuckle14 came from the Major.
“No, indeed she didn’t. Pestered15 the life out of him always asking him tocome and see them.”
“Oh!” said Emily thoughtfully. She paused and then said. “So she might—just possibly she might have taken Sittaford House just on purpose to getacquainted with Captain Trevelyan.”
“Well,” the Major seemed to turn it over in his mind. “Yes, I suppose shemight have. Rather an expensive way of doing things.”
“I don’t know,” said Emily. “Captain Trevelyan wouldn’t have been aneasy person to get to know otherwise.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” agreed the late Captain Trevelyan’s friend.
“I wonder,” said Emily.
“The Inspector thought of that too,” said Burnaby.
Emily felt a sudden irritation16 against Inspector Narracott. Everythingthat she thought of seemed to have already been thought of by the In-spector. It was galling17 to a young woman who prided herself on beingsharper than other people.
She rose and held out her hand.
“Thank you very much,” she said simply.
“I wish I could help you more,” said the Major. “I’m rather an obvioussort of person—always have been. If I were a clever chap I might be ableto hit upon something that might be a clue. At any rate count on me foranything you want.”
“Thank you,” said Emily. “I will.”
“Good-bye, sir,” said Enderby. “I shall be along in the morning with mycamera, you know.”
Burnaby grunted18.
Emily and Charles retraced19 their steps to Mrs. Curtis’s.
“Come into my room, I want to talk to you,” said Emily.
She sat on the one chair and Charles sat on the bed. Emily plucked offher hat and sent it spinning into a corner of the room.
“Now, listen,” she said. “I think I’ve got a kind of starting point. I may bewrong and I may be right, at any rate it’s an idea. I think a lot hinges onthis table-turning business. You’ve done table-turning, haven’t you?”
“Oh, yes, now and then. Not serious, you know.”
“No, of course not. It’s the kind of thing one does on a wet afternoon,and everyone accuses everyone else of shoving. Well, if you’ve played ityou know what happens. The table starts spelling out, say, a name, well,it’s a name somebody knows. Very often they recognize it at once andhope it isn’t going to be that, and all the time unconsciously they are whatone calls shoving. I mean sort of recognizing things makes one give an in-voluntary jerk when the next letter comes and stops the thing. And theless you want to do that sometimes the more it happens.”
“Yes, that’s true,” agreed Mr. Enderby.
“I don’t believe for a moment in spirits or anything like that. But suppos-ing that one of those people who were playing knew that Captain Trev-elyan was being murdered at that minute—”
“Oh, I say,” protested Charles, “that’s awfully far fetched.”
“Well, it needn’t be quite so crude as that. Yes, I think it must be. We arejust taking a hypothesis—that’s all. We are asserting that somebody knewthat Captain Trevelyan was dead and absolutely couldn’t hide their know-ledge. The table betrayed them.”
“It’s awfully ingenious,” said Charles, “but I don’t believe for a minuteit’s true.”
“We’ll assume that it is true,” said Emily firmly. “I am sure that in detec-tion of crime you mustn’t be afraid to assume things.”
“Oh, I’m quite agreeable,” said Mr. Enderby. “We’ll assume that it is true—anything you like.”
“So what we have to do,” said Emily, “is to consider very carefully thepeople who were playing. To begin with there’s Major Burnaby and Mr.
Rycroft. Well, it seems wildly unlikely that either of them should have anaccomplice who was the murderer. Then there is this Mr. Duke. Well, forthe moment we know nothing about him. He has only just arrived herelately and of course, he might be a sinister20 stranger—part of a gang orsomething. We will put X against his name. And now we come to the Wil-letts. Charles, there is something awfully mysterious about the Willetts.”
“What on earth have they got to gain from Captain Trevelyan’s death?”
“Well, on the face of it, nothing. But if my theory is correct there must bea connection somewhere. We’ve got to find what is the connection.”
“Right,” said Mr. Enderby. “And supposing it’s all a mare’s nest?”
“Well, we’ll have to start all over again,” said Emily.
“Hark!” cried Charles suddenly.
He held up his hand. Then he went over to the window and opened it,and Emily too, heard the sound which had aroused his attention. It wasthe far-off booming of a great bell.
As they stood listening, Mrs. Curtis’s voice called excitedly from below:
“Do you hear the bell, Miss—do you hear it?”
Emily opened the door.
“D’you hear it? Plain as plan, isn’t it? Well now, now, to think of that!”
“What is it?” asked Emily.
“It’s the bell at Princetown, Miss, near to twelve mile away. It meansthat a convict’s escaped. George, George, where is the man? D’you hear thebell? There’s a convict loose.”
Her voice died away as she went through the kitchen.
Charles shut the window and sat down on the bed again.
“It’s a pity that things happen all wrong,” he said dispassionately. “Ifonly this convict had escaped on Friday, why, there would be our mur-derer nicely accounted for. No farther to look. Hungry man, desperatecriminal breaks in. Trevelyan defends his English-man’s castle—and des-perate criminal biffs him one. All so simple.”
“It would have been,” said Emily with a sigh.
“Instead of which,” said Charles, “he escapes three days too late. It’s—it’shopelessly inartistic.”
He shook his head sadly.
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收听单词发音
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1
trumps
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| abbr.trumpets 喇叭；小号；喇叭形状的东西；喇叭筒v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去式 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造 | |
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2
assertive
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| adj.果断的，自信的，有冲劲的 | |
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3
poke
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| n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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4
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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5
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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6
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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7
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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8
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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9
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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10
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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12
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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13
scouted
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| 寻找，侦察( scout的过去式和过去分词 )； 物色（优秀运动员、演员、音乐家等） | |
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14
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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15
pestered
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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17
galling
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| adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的 | |
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18
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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19
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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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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