Emily arrived back at the cottage to find her boyfriend absent. He had,Mrs. Curtis explained, gone off with several other young gentlemen, buttwo telegrams had come for the young lady. Emily took them, openedthem, and put them in the pocket of her sweater, Mrs. Curtis eyeing themhungrily the while.
“Not bad news, I hope?” said Mrs. Curtis.
“Oh, no,” said Emily.
“Always gives me a turn, a telegram does,” said Mrs. Curtis.
“I know,” said Emily. “Very disturbing.”
At the moment she felt disinclined for anything but solitude1. She wantedto sort out and arrange her own ideas. She went up to her own room, andtaking pencil and notepaper she set to work on a system of her own. Aftertwenty minutes of this exercise she was interrupted by Mr. Enderby.
“Hullo, hullo, hullo, there you are. Fleet Street has been hard on yourtracks all morning but they have just missed you everywhere. Anywaythey have had it from me that you are not to be worried. As far as you’reconcerned, I am the big noise.”
He sat down on the chair—Emily was occupying the bed—and chuckled2.
“Envy and malice3 isn’t in it!” he said. “I have been handing them out thegoods. I know everyone and I am right in it. It’s too good to be true. I keeppinching myself and feeling I will wake up in a minute. I say, have you no-ticed the fog?”
“It won’t stop me going to Exeter this afternoon, will it?” said Emily.
“Do you want to go to Exeter?”
“Yes. I have to meet Mr. Dacres there. My solicitor4, you know—the onewho is undertaking5 Jim’s defence. He wants to see me. And I think I shallpay a visit to Jim’s Aunt Jennifer, while I am there. After all, Exeter is onlyhalf an hour away.”
“Meaning she might have nipped over by train and batted her brotherover the head and nobody would have noticed her absence.”
“Oh, I know it sounds rather improbable, but one has to go intoeverything. Not that I want it to be Aunt Jennifer—I don’t. I would muchrather it was Martin Dering. I hate the sort of man who presumes on goingto be a brother-in-law and does things in public that you can’t smack6 hisface for.”
“Is he that kind?”
“Very much that kind. He’s an ideal person for a murderer—always get-ting telegrams from bookmakers and losing money on horses. It’s annoy-ing that he’s got such a good alibi7. Mr. Dacres told me about it. A publisherand a literary dinner seems so very unbreakable and respectable.”
“A literary dinner,” said Enderby. “Friday night. Martin Dering—let mesee—Martin Dering—why, yes—I am almost sure of it. Dash it all, I amquite sure of it, but I can clinch8 things by wiring to Carruthers.”
“What are you talking about?” said Emily.
“Listen. You know I came down to Exhampton on Friday evening. Well,there was a bit of information I was going to get from a pal9 of mine, an-other newspaper man, Carruthers his name is. He was coming round tosee me about half past six if he could—before he went on to some literarydinner—he is rather a big bug10, Carruthers, and if he couldn’t make it hewould send me a line to Exhampton. Well, he didn’t make it and he didsend me a line.”
“What has all this got to do with it?” said Emily.
“Don’t be so impatient, I am coming to the point. The old chap wasrather screwed when he wrote it—done himself well at the dinner—aftergiving me the item I wanted, he went on to waste a good bit of juicy de-scription on me. You know—about the speeches, and what asses11 so and so,a famous novelist and a famous playwright12, were. And he said he hadbeen rottenly placed at dinner. There was an empty seat on one side ofhim where Ruby13 McAlmott, that awful best seller woman, ought to havesat and an empty place on the other side of him where the sex specialist,Martin Dering, ought to have been, but he moved up nearer to a poet, whois very well known in Blackheath, and tried to make the best of things.
Now, do you see the point?”
“Charles! Darling!” Emily became lyrical with excitement. “How marvel-lous. Then the brute14 wasn’t at the dinner at all?”
“Exactly.”
“You are sure you’ve remembered the name right?”
“I’m positive. I have torn up the letter, worse luck, but I can always wireto Carruthers to make sure. But I absolutely know that I’m not mistaken.”
“There’s the publisher still, of course,” said Emily. “The one he spent theafternoon with. But I rather think it was a publisher who was just goingback to America, and if so, that looks fishy15. I mean it looks as though hehad selected someone who couldn’t be asked without rather a lot oftrouble.”
“Do you really think we have hit it?” said Charles Enderby.
“Well, it looks like it. I think the best thing to be done is—to go straightto that nice Inspector16 Narracott and just tell him these new facts. I mean,we can’t tackle an American publisher who is on the Mauretania or theBerengaria or somewhere. That’s a job for the police.”
“My word if this comes off. What a scoop17!” said Mr. Enderby. “If it does,I should think the Daily Wire couldn’t offer me less than—”
Emily broke ruthlessly into his dreams of advancement18.
“But we mustn’t lose our heads,” she said, “and throw everything else tothe wind. I must go to Exeter. I don’t suppose I shall be able to be backhere until tomorrow. But I’ve got a job for you.”
“What kind of a job?”
Emily described her visit to the Willetts and the strange sentence shehad overheard on leaving.
“We have got absolutely and positively19 to find out what is going to hap-pen tonight. There’s something in the wind.”
“What an extraordinary thing!”
“Wasn’t it? But of course it may be a coincidence. Or it may not—butyou observe that the servants are being cleared out of the way. Somethingqueer is going to happen there tonight, and you have to be on the spot tosee what it is.”
“You mean I have to spend the whole night shivering under a bush inthe garden?”
“Well, you don’t mind that, do you? Journalists don’t mind what they doin a good cause.”
“Who told you that?”
“Never mind who told me, I know it. You will do it, won’t you?”
“Oh, rather,” said Charles. “I am not going to miss anything. If anythingqueer goes on at Sittaford House tonight, I shall be in it.”
Emily then told him about the luggage label.
“It’s odd,” said Mr. Enderby. “Australia is where the third Pearson is,isn’t it?—the youngest one. Not, of course, that that means anything, butstill it—well, there might be a connection.”
“H’m,” said Emily. “I think that’s all. Have you anything to report onyour side?”
“Well,” said Charles, “I’ve got an idea.”
“Yes?”
“The only thing is I don’t know how you’ll like it.”
“What do you mean—how I’ll like it?”
“You won’t fly out over it, will you?”
“I don’t suppose so. I mean I hope I can listen sensibly and quietly toanything.”
“Well, the point is,” said Charles Enderby eyeing her doubtfully, “don’tthink I mean to be offensive or anything like that, but do you think thatlad of yours is to be depended on for the strict truth?”
“Do you mean,” said Emily, “that he did murder him after all? You arequite welcome to that view if you like. I said to you at the beginning thatthat was the natural view to take, but I said we had to work on the as-sumption that he didn’t.”
“I don’t mean that,” said Enderby. “I am with you in assuming that hedidn’t do the old boy in. What I mean is, how far is his own story of whathappened true? He says that he went there, had a chat with the old fellow,and came away leaving him alive and well.”
“Yes.”
“Well, it just occurred to me, you don’t think it’s possible that he wentthere and actually found the old man dead? I mean, he might have got thewind up and been scared and not like to say so.”
Charles had propounded20 this theory rather dubiously21, but he was re-lieved to find that Emily showed no signs of flying out at him over it. In-stead, she frowned and creased22 her brow in thought.
“I am not going to pretend,” she said. “It is possible. I hadn’t thought of itbefore. I know Jim wouldn’t murder anyone, but he might quite well getrattled and tell a silly lie and then, of course, he would have to stick to it.
Yes, it is quite possible.”
“The awkward thing is that you can’t go and ask him about it now. Imean they wouldn’t let you see him alone, would they?”
“I can put Mr. Dacres onto him,” said Emily. “You see your solicitoralone, I believe. The worst of Jim is that he is frightfully obstinate23, if he hasonce said a thing he sticks to it.”
“That’s my story and I’m going to stick to it,” said Mr. Enderby compre-hendingly.
“Yes. I am glad you mentioned that possibility to me, Charles, it hadn’toccurred to me. We have been looking for someone who came in after Jimhad left—but if it was before—”
She paused, lost in thought. Two very different theories stretched out inopposite directions. There was the one suggested by Mr. Rycroft, in whichJim’s quarrel with his uncle was the determining point. The other theory,however, took no cognizance of Jim whatsoever24. The first thing to do,Emily felt, was to see the doctor who had first examined the body. If itwere possible that Captain Trevelyan had been murdered at—say—fouro’clock, it might make a considerable difference to the question of alibis25.
And the other thing to do was to make Mr. Dacres urge most strongly onhis client the absolute necessity of speaking the truth on this point.
She rose from the bed.
“Well,” she said, “you had better find out how I can get to Exhampton.
The man at the smithy has a car of a kind, I believe. Will you go and settlewith him about it? I’ll start immediately after lunch. There’s a train atthree ten to Exeter. That will give me time to see the doctor first. What’sthe time now?”
“Half past twelve,” said Mr. Enderby, consulting his watch.
“Then we will both go up and fix up about that car,” said Emily. “Andthere’s just one other thing I want to do before leaving Sittaford.”
“What’s that?”
“I am going to pay a call on Mr. Duke. He’s the only person in Sittaford Ihaven’t seen. And he was one of the people at the table-turning.”
“Oh, we’ll pass his cottage on the way to the smithy.”
Mr. Duke’s cottage was the last of the row. Emily and Charles unlatchedthe gate and walked up the path. And then something rather surprisingoccurred. For the door opened and a man came out. And that man was In-spector Narracott.
He, too, looked surprised and, Emily fancied, embarrassed.
Emily abandoned her original intention.
“I am so glad to have met you, Inspector Narracott,” she said. “There areone or two things I want to talk to you about if I may.”
“Delighted, Miss Trefusis.” He drew out a watch. “I’m afraid you willhave to look sharp. I’ve a car waiting. I’ve got to go back to Exhampton al-most immediately.”
“How extraordinarily26 fortunate,” said Emily. “You might give me a lift,will you, Inspector?”
The Inspector said rather woodenly that he would be very pleased to doso.
“You might go and get my suitcase, Charles,” said Emily. “It’s packed upand ready.”
Charles departed immediately.
“It’s a great surprise meeting you here, Miss Trefusis,” said InspectorNarracott.
“I said au revoir,” Emily reminded him.
“I didn’t notice it at the time.”
“You’ve not seen the last of me by a long way,” said Emily candidly27. “Youknow, Inspector Narracott, you’ve made a mistake. Jim’s not the manyou’re after.”
“Indeed!”
“And what’s more,” said Emily, “I believe in your heart that you agreewith me.”
“What makes you think that, Miss Trefusis?”
“What were you doing in Mr. Duke’s cottage?” retaliated28 Emily.
Narracott looked embarrassed, and she was quick to follow it up.
“You’re doubtful, Inspector—that’s what you are—doubtful. You thoughtyou had got the right man and now you are not so sure, and so you aremaking a few investigations29. Well, I have got something to tell you thatmay help. I’ll tell it to you on the way to Exhampton.”
Footsteps sounded down the road, and Ronnie Garfield appeared. Hehad the air of a truant30, breathless and guilty.
“I say, Miss Trefusis,” he began. “What about a walk this afternoon?
While my aunt has a nap, you know.”
“Impossible,” said Emily. “I’m going away. To Exeter.”
“What, not really! For good you mean?”
“Oh, no,” said Emily. “I shall be back again tomorrow.”
“Oh, that’s splendid.”
Emily took something from the pocket of her sweater and handed it tohim. “Give that to your aunt, will you? It’s a recipe for coffee cake, and tellher that she was just in time, the cook is leaving today and so are the otherservants. Be sure to tell her, she will be interested.”
A far-off scream was borne on the breeze. “Ronnie,” it said, “Ronnie,Ronnie.”
“There’s my aunt,” said Ronnie starting nervously31. “I had better go.”
“I think you had,” said Emily. “You’ve got green paint on your leftcheek,” she called after him. Ronnie Garfield disappeared through hisaunt’s gate.
“Here’s my boyfriend with my suitcase,” said Emily. “Come on, In-spector. I’ll tell you everything in the car.”
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收听单词发音
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1
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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solicitor
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| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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6
smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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7
alibi
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| n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口 | |
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clinch
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| v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench | |
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pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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10
bug
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| n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器 | |
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11
asses
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| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
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12
playwright
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| n.剧作家，编写剧本的人 | |
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ruby
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| n.红宝石，红宝石色 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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15
fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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17
scoop
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| n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出 | |
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18
advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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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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propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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creased
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的过去式和过去分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 皱皱巴巴 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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25
alibis
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| 某人在别处的证据( alibi的名词复数 )； 不在犯罪现场的证人； 借口； 托辞 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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28
retaliated
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| v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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30
truant
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| n.懒惰鬼，旷课者；adj.偷懒的，旷课的，游荡的；v.偷懒，旷课 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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