Emily woke early the next morning. Being a sensible young woman, sherealized there was little possibility of Mr. Enderby’s collaboration1 until themorning was well advanced. So, feeling restless and unable to lie still sheset out for a brisk walk along the lane in the opposite direction fromwhich they had come last night.
She passed the gates of Sittaford House on her right and shortly afterthat the lane took a sharp turn to the right and ran steeply up hill andcame out on the open moor2 where it degenerated3 into a grass track andsoon petered out altogether. The morning was a fine one, cold and crisp,and the view was lovely. Emily ascended4 to the very top of Sittaford Tor, apile of grey rock of a fantastic shape. From this height she looked downover an expanse of moorland, unbroken as far as she could see withoutany habitation or any road. Below her, on the opposite side of the Tor,were grey masses of granite5 boulders6 and rocks. After considering thescene for a minute or two she turned to view the prospect7 to the northfrom which she had come. Just below her lay Sittaford, clustering on theflank of the hill, the square grey blob of Sittaford House, and the dottedcottages beyond it. In the valley below she could see Exhampton.
“One ought,” thought Emily confusedly, “to see things better when youare high up like this. It ought to be like lifting off the top of a doll’s houseand peering in.”
She wished with all her heart that she had met the dead man even ifonly once. It was so hard to get an idea of people you had never seen. Youhad to rely on other people’s judgment8, and Emily had never yet acknow-ledged that any other person’s judgment was superior to her own. Otherpeople’s impressions were no good to you. They might be just as true asyours but you couldn’t act on them. You couldn’t, as it were, use anotherperson’s angle of attack.
Meditating9 vexedly on these questions, Emily sighed impatiently andshifted her position.
She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she had been oblivious10 toher immediate11 surroundings. It was with a shock of surprise that she real-ized that a small elderly gentleman was standing12 a few feet away fromher, his hat held courteously13 in his hand, while he breathed rather fast.
“Excuse me,” he said. “Miss Trefusis, I believe?”
“Yes,” said Emily.
“My name is Rycroft. You must forgive me speaking to you, but in thislittle community of ours the smallest detail is known, and your arrivalhere yesterday has naturally gone the round. I can assure you that every-one feels a deep sympathy with your position, Miss Trefusis. We are all,one and all, anxious to assist you in any way we can.”
“That’s very kind of you,” said Emily.
“Not at all, not at all,” said Mr. Rycroft. “Beauty in distress14, you will par-don my old-fashioned manner of putting it. But seriously, my dear younglady, do count on me if there is any way in which I can possibly assist you.
Beautiful view from up here, is it not?”
“Wonderful,” agreed Emily. “The moor is a wonderful place.”
“You know that a prisoner must have escaped last night from Prin-cetown.”
“Yes. Has he been recaptured?”
“Not yet, I believe. Ah, well, poor fellow, he will no doubt be recapturedsoon enough. I believe I am right in saying that no one has escaped suc-cessfully from Princetown for the last twenty years.”
“Which direction is Princetown?”
Mr. Rycroft stretched out his arm and pointed15 southwards over themoor.
“It lies over there, about twelve miles as the crow flies over unbrokenmoorland. It’s sixteen miles by road.”
Emily gave a faint shiver. The idea of a desperate hunted man im-pressed her powerfully. Mr. Rycroft was watching her and gave a littlenod.
“Yes,” he said. “I feel the same myself. It’s curious how one’s instinctsrebel at the thought of a man being hunted down, and yet, these men atPrincetown are all dangerous and violent criminals, the kind of menwhom probably you and I would do our utmost to put there in the firstplace.”
He gave a little apologetic laugh.
“You must forgive me, Miss Trefusis, I am deeply interested in the studyof crime. A fascinating study. Ornithology16 and criminology are my twosubjects.” He paused and then went on:
“That’s the reason why, if you will allow me to do so, I should like to as-sociate myself with you in this matter. To study a crime at firsthand haslong been an unrealized dream of mine. Will you place your confidence inme, Miss Trefusis, and allow me to place my experience at your disposal? Ihave read and studied this subject deeply.”
Emily was silent for a minute. She was congratulating herself on theway events were playing into her hand. Here was firsthand knowledge be-ing offered her of life as it had been lived at Sittaford. “Angle of attack,”
Emily repeated the phrase that had crept into her mind so short a time be-fore. She had had Major Burnaby’s angle—matter of fact—simple—direct.
Taking cognizance of facts and completely oblivious of subtleties17. Now,she was being offered another angle which she suspected might open up avery different field of vision. This little, shrivelled, dried-up gentlemanhad read and studied deeply, was well versed18 in human nature, had thatdevouring interested curiosity in life displayed by the man of reflection asopposed to the man of action.
“Please help me,” she said simply. “I am so very worried and unhappy.”
“You must be, my dear, you must be. Now, as I understand the position,Trevelyan’s eldest19 nephew has been arrested or detained—the evidenceagainst him being of a somewhat simple and obvious nature. I, of course,have an open mind. You must allow me that.”
“Of course,” said Emily. “Why should you believe in his innocence20 whenyou know nothing about him?”
“Most reasonable,” said Mr. Rycroft. “Really, Miss Trefusis, you yourselfare a most interesting study. By the way, your name—is it Cornish like ourpoor friend Trevelyan?”
“Yes,” said Emily. “My father was Cornish, my mother was Scottish.”
“Ah!” said Mr. Rycroft, “very interesting. Now to approach our littleproblem. On the one hand we assume that young Jim—the name is Jim, isit not? We assume that young Jim had a pressing need of money, that hecame down to see his uncle, that he asked for money, that his uncle re-fused, that in a moment of passion he picked up a sandbag that was lyingat the door and that he hit his uncle over the head. The crime was unpre-meditated—was in fact a foolish irrational21 affair most deplorably conduc-ted. Now, all that may be so; on the other hand he may have parted withhis uncle in anger and some other person may have stepped in shortly af-terwards and committed the crime. That is what you believe—and to put ita little differently, that is what I hope. I do not want your fiancé to havecommitted the crime, for from my point of view it is so uninteresting thathe should have done so. I am therefore backing the other horse. The crimewas committed by someone else. We will assume that and go at once to amost important point. Was that someone else aware of the quarrel thathad just taken place? Did that quarrel, in fact, actually precipitate22 themurder? You see my point? Someone is meditating doing away with Cap-tain Trevelyan and seized this opportunity, realizing that suspicion isbound to fall on young Jim.”
Emily considered the matter from this angle.
“In that case,” she said slowly—
Mr. Rycroft took the words out of her mouth.
“In that case,” he said briskly, “the murderer would have to be a personin close association with Captain Trevelyan. He would have to be domi-ciled in Exhampton. In all probability he would have to be in the house,either during or after the quarrel. And since we are not in a court of lawand can bandy about names freely, the name of the servant, Evans, leapsto our minds as a person who could satisfy our conditions. A man whoquite possibly might have been in the house, have overheard the quarreland seized the opportunity. Our next point is to discover whether Evansbenefits in any way from his master’s death.”
“I believe he gets a small legacy,” said Emily.
“That may or may not constitute a sufficient motive23. We shall have todiscover whether or not Evans had a pressing need of money. We mustalso consider Mrs. Evans—there is a Mrs. Evans of recent date, I under-stand. If you had studied criminology, Miss Trefusis, you would realize thecurious effect caused by inbreeding, especially in country districts. Thereare at least four young women in Broadmoor, pleasant in manner, butwith that curious kink in their dispositions24 that human life is of little or noaccount to them. No—we must not leave Mrs. Evans out of account.”
“What do you think about this table-turning business, Mr. Rycroft?”
“Now, that is very strange. Most strange. I confess, Miss Trefusis, that Iam powerfully impressed by it. I am, as perhaps you may have heard, abeliever in psychic25 things. To a certain degree I am a believer in spiritual-ism. I have already written out a full account and sent it up to the Societyof Psychical26 Research. A well-authenticated and amazing case. Five peoplepresent, none of whom could have the least idea or suspicion that CaptainTrevelyan was murdered.”
“You don’t think—”
Emily stopped. It was not so easy to suggest her own idea to Mr. Rycroftthat one of the five people might have guilty foreknowledge, as he himselfhad been one of them. Not that she suspected for a moment that there wasanything whatever to connect Mr. Rycroft with the tragedy. Still she feltthat the suggestion might not be wholly tactful. She pursued her object ina more roundabout manner.
“It all interested me very much, Mr. Rycroft; it is, as you say, an amazingoccurrence. You don’t think that any of the people present, with the excep-tion of yourself of course, were in any way psychic?”
“My dear young lady, I myself am not psychic. I have no powers in thatdirection. I am only a very deeply interested observer.”
“What about this Mr. Garfield?”
“A nice lad,” said Mr. Rycroft, “but not remarkable27 in any way.”
“Well off, I suppose,” said Emily.
“Stony broke, I believe,” said Mr. Rycroft. “I hope I am using that idiomcorrectly. He comes down here to dance attendance on an aunt, fromwhom he has what I call ‘expectations.’ Miss Percehouse is a very sharplady and I think she knows what these attentions are worth. But as she hasa sardonic28 form of humour of her own she keeps him dancing.”
“I should like to meet her,” said Emily.
“Yes, you must certainly meet her. She will no doubt insist on meetingyou. Curiosity—alas, my dear Miss Trefusis—curiosity.”
“Tell me about the Willetts,” said Emily.
“Charming,” said Mr. Rycroft, “quite charming. Colonial, of course. Noreal poise29, if you understand me. A little too lavish30 in their hospitality.
Everything a shade on the ornate side. Miss Violet is a charming girl.”
“A funny place to come for the winter,” said Emily.
“Yes, very odd, is it not? But after all it is only logical. We ourselves liv-ing in this country long for the sunshine, hot climates, waving palm trees.
People who live in Australia or South Africa are enchanted31 with the ideaof an old-fashioned Christmas with snow and ice.”
“I wonder which of them,” said Emily to herself, “told him that.”
She reflected that it was not necessary to bury yourself in a moorlandvillage in order to obtain an old-fashioned Christmas with snow and ice.
Clearly, Mr. Rycroft did not see anything suspicious in the Willetts’ choiceof a winter resort. But that, she reflected, was perhaps natural in one whowas an ornithologist32 and a criminologist. Sittaford clearly appeared anideal residence to Mr. Rycroft, and he could not conceive of it as an unsuit-able environment to someone else.
They had been slowly descending33 the slope of the hillside and were nowwending their way down the lane.
“Who lives in that cottage?” asked Emily abruptly34.
“Captain Wyatt—he is an invalid35. Rather unsociable I fear.”
“Was he a friend of Captain Trevelyan’s?”
“Not an intimate friend in any way. Trevelyan merely made a formalvisit to him every now and then. As a matter of fact Wyatt doesn’t encour-age visitors. A surly man.”
Emily was silent. She was reviewing the possibility of how she herselfmight become a visitor. She had no intention of allowing any angle of at-tack to remain unexplored.
She suddenly remembered the hitherto unmentioned member of theséance.
“What about Mr. Duke?” she asked brightly.
“What about him?”
“Well, who is he?”
“Well,” said Mr. Rycroft slowly, “that is what nobody knows.”
“How extraordinary,” said Emily.
“As a matter of fact,” said Mr. Rycroft, “it isn’t. You see, Duke is such anentirely unmysterious individual. I should imagine that the only mysteryabout him was his social origin. Not—not quite, if you understand me. Buta very solid good fellow,” he hastened to add.
Emily was silent.
“This is my cottage,” said Mr. Rycroft pausing, “perhaps you will do methe honour of coming in and inspecting it.”
“I should like to,” said Emily.
They went up the small path and entered the cottage. The interior wascharming. Bookcases lined the walls.
Emily went from one to the other glancing curiously36 at the titles of thebooks. One section dealt with occult phenomena37, another with modern de-tective fiction, but by far the greater part of the bookcase was given up tocriminology and to the world’s famous trials. Books on ornithology held acomparatively small portion.
“I think, it’s all delightful,” said Emily. “I must get back now. I expect Mr.
Enderby will be up and waiting for me. As a matter of fact I haven’t hadbreakfast yet. We told Mrs. Curtis half past nine, and I see it’s ten o’clock. Ishall be dreadfully late—that’s because you’ve been so interesting—and sovery helpful.”
“Anything I can do,” burbled Mr. Rycroft as Emily turned a bewitchingglance on him. “You can count on me. We are collaborators.”
Emily gave him her hand and squeezed his warmly.
“It’s so wonderful,” she said, using the phrase that in the course of hershort life she had found so effectual, “to feel that there’s someone onwhom one can really rely.”
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1
collaboration
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| n.合作，协作；勾结 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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degenerated
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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courteously
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| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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ornithology
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| n.鸟类学 | |
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subtleties
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| 细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等 | |
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versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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psychical
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| adj.有关特异功能现象的；有关特异功能官能的；灵魂的；心灵的 | |
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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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sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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ornithologist
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| n.鸟类学家 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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