Major Burnaby was doing his accounts or—to use a more Dickens-likephrase — he was looking into his affairs. The Major was an extremelymethodical man. In a calf-bound book he kept a record of shares bought,shares sold and the accompanying loss or profit—usually a loss, for incommon with most retired1 army men the Major was attracted by a highrate of interest rather than a modest percentage coupled with safety.
“These oil wells looked all right,” he was muttering. “Seems as thoughthere ought to have been a fortune in it. Almost as bad as that diamondmine! Canadian land, that ought to be sound now.”
His cogitations were interrupted as the head of Mr. Ronald Garfield ap-peared at the open window.
“Hello,” said Ronnie cheerfully, “I hope I’m not butting2 in?”
“If you are coming in go round to the front door,” said Major Burnaby.
“Mind the rock plants. I believe you are standing3 on them at the moment.”
Ronnie retreated with an apology and presently presented himself at thefront door.
“Wipe your feet on the mat, if you don’t mind,” cried the Major.
He found young men extremely trying. Indeed, the only young man to-wards whom he had felt any kindliness4 for a long time was the journalist,Charles Enderby.
“A nice young chap,” the Major had said to himself. “And very interes-ted, too, in what I have told him about the Boer War.”
Towards Ronnie Garfield the Major felt no such kindliness. Practicallyeverything that the unfortunate Ronnie said or did managed to rub theMajor up the wrong way. Still, hospitality is hospitality.
“Have a drink?” said the Major, loyal to that tradition.
“No thanks. As a matter of fact I just dropped in to see if we couldn’t gettogether. I wanted to go to Exhampton today and I hear Elmer is booked totake you in.”
Burnaby nodded.
“Got to go over Trevelyan’s things,” he explained. “The police have donewith the place now.”
“Well, you see,” said Ronnie rather awkwardly, “I particularly wanted togo into Exhampton today. I thought if we could get together and share andshare alike as it were. Eh? What about it?”
“Certainly,” said the Major. “I am agreeable. Do you a lot more good towalk,” he added. “Exercise. None of you young chaps nowadays take anyexercise. A brisk six miles there and a brisk six miles back would do youall the good in the world. If it weren’t that I needed the car to bring someof Trevelyan’s things back here, I should be walking myself. Getting soft—that’s the curse of the present day.”
“Oh, well,” said Ronnie, “I don’t believe in being strenuous5 myself. ButI’m glad we’ve settled that all right. Elmer said you were starting at eleveno’clock. Is that right?”
“That’s it.”
“Good. I’ll be there.”
Ronnie was not quite so good as his word. His idea of being on the spotwas to be ten minutes late, and he found Major Burnaby fuming6 and fret-ting and not at all inclined to be placated7 by a careless apology.
“What a fuss old buffers8 make,” thought Ronnie to himself. “They haveno idea what a curse they are to everybody with their punctuality, andeverything done on the dot of the minute, and their cursed exercise andkeeping fit.”
His mind played agreeably for a few minutes with the idea of a mar-riage between Major Burnaby and his aunt. Which, he wondered, wouldget the better of it? He thought his aunt every time. Rather amusing tothink of her clapping her hands and uttering piercing cries to summon theMajor to her side.
Banishing9 these reflections from his mind he proceeded to enter intocheerful conversation.
“Sittaford has become a pretty gay spot—what? Miss Trefusis and thischap Enderby and the lad from Australia—by the way, when did he blowin? There he was as large as life this morning and nobody knew where hehad come from. It’s been worrying my aunt blue in the face.”
“He is staying with the Willetts,” said Major Burnaby tartly10.
“Yes, but where did he blow in from? Even the Willetts haven’t got aprivate aerodrome. You know, I think there’s something deuced mysteri-ous about this lad Pearson. He’s got what I call a nasty gleam in his eye—avery nasty glint. It’s my impression that he’s the chap who did in poor oldTrevelyan.”
The Major made no reply.
“The way I look at it is this,” continued Ronnie, “fellows that go off to theColonies are usually bad hats. Their relations don’t like them and pushthem out there for that reason. Very well then—there you are. The bad hatcomes back, short of money, visits wealthy uncle in the neighbourhood ofChristmastime, wealthy relative won’t cough up to impecunious11 nephew—and impecunious nephew bats him one. That’s what I call a theory.”
“You should mention it to the police,” said Major Burnaby.
“I thought you might do that,” said Mr. Garfield. “You’re Narracott’slittle pal12, aren’t you? By the way he hasn’t been nosing about Sittafordagain, has he?”
“Not that I know about.”
“Not meeting you at the house today, is he?”
The shortness of the Major’s answers seemed to strike Ronnie at last.
“Well,” he said vaguely13, “that’s that,” and relapsed into a thoughtful si-lence.
At Exhampton the car drew up outside the Three Crowns. Ronniealighted and after arranging with the Major that they would rendezvousthere at half past four for the return journey, he strode off in the directionof such shops as Exhampton offered.
The Major went first to see Mr. Kirkwood. After a brief conversationwith him, he took the keys and started off for Hazelmoor.
He had told Evans to meet him there at twelve o’clock, and he found thefaithful retainer waiting on the doorstep. With a rather grim face, MajorBurnaby inserted the key into the front door and passed into the emptyhouse, Evans at his heels. He had not been in it since the night of thetragedy, and in spite of his iron determination to show no weakness, hegave a slight shiver as he passed the drawing room.
Evans and the Major worked together in sympathy and silence. Wheneither of them made a brief remark it was duly appreciated and under-stood by the other.
“Unpleasant job this, but it has to be done,” said Major Burnaby, andEvans, sorting out socks into neat piles, and counting pyjamas14, responded.
“It seems rather unnatural15 like, but as you say, sir, it’s got to be done.”
Evans was deft16 and efficient at his work. Everything was neatly17 sortedand arranged and classified in heaps. At one o’clock they repaired to theThree Crowns for a short midday meal. When they returned to the housethe Major suddenly caught Evans by the arm as the latter closed the frontdoor behind him.
“Hush,” he said. “Do you hear that footstep overhead? It’s—it’s in Joe’sbedroom.”
“My Gawd, sir. So it is.”
A kind of superstitious18 terror held them both for a minute, and then,breaking loose from it, and with an angry squaring of the shoulders, theMajor strode to the foot of the stairs and shouted in a stentorian19 voice:
To his intense surprise and annoyance20 and yet, be it confessed, to hisslight relief, Ronnie Garfield appeared at the top of the stairs. He lookedembarrassed and sheepish.
“Hello,” he said. “I have been looking for you.”
“What do you mean, looking for me?”
“Well, I wanted to tell you that I shan’t be ready at half past four. I’ve gotto go into Exeter. So don’t wait for me. I’ll have to get a car up from Ex-hampton.”
“How did you get into this house?” asked the Major.
“The door was open,” exclaimed Ronnie. “Naturally I thought you werehere.”
The Major turned to Evans sharply.
“Didn’t you lock it when you came out?”
“No, sir, I hadn’t got the key.”
“Stupid of me,” muttered the Major.
“You don’t mind, do you?” said Ronnie. “I couldn’t see anyone down-stairs so I went upstairs and had a look round.”
“Of course, it doesn’t matter,” snapped the Major, “you startled me,that’s all.”
“Well,” said Ronnie airily. “I shall be pushing along now. So long.”
The Major grunted21. Ronnie came down the stairs.
“I say,” he said boyishly, “do you mind telling me—er—er—where ithappened?”
The Major jerked a thumb in the direction of the drawing room.
“Oh, may I look inside?”
“If you like,” growled22 the Major.
Ronnie opened the drawing room door. He was absent a few minutesand then returned.
The Major had gone up the stairs, but Evans was in the hall. He had theair of a bulldog on guard; his small deep-set eyes watched Ronnie with asomewhat malicious23 scrutiny24.
“I say,” said Ronnie. “I thought you could never wash out blood stains. Ithought, however much you washed them, they always came back. Oh, ofcourse—the old fellow was sandbagged, wasn’t he? Stupid of me. It wasone of these, wasn’t it?” He took up a long narrow bolster25 that lay againstone of the other doors. He weighed it thoughtfully and balanced it in hishand. “Nice little toy, eh?” He made a few tentative swings with it in theair.
Evans was silent.
“Well,” said Ronnie, realizing that the silence was not a wholly appreci-ative one, “I’d better be getting along. I’m afraid I’ve been a bit tactless,eh?” He jerked his head towards the upper story. “I forgot about them be-ing such pals26 and all that. Two of a kind, weren’t they? Well, I’m really go-ing now. Sorry if I’ve said all the wrong things.”
He walked across the hall and out through the front door. Evans stayedimpassively in the hall, and only when he had heard the latch27 of the gateclose behind Mr. Garfield did he mount the stairs and rejoin Major Burn-aby. Without any word or comment he resumed where he had left off, go-ing straight across the room and kneeling down in front of the boot cup-board.
At half past three their task was finished. One trunk of clothes and un-derclothes was allotted28 to Evans, and another was strapped29 up ready to besent to the Seamen’s Orphanage30. Papers and bills were packed into an at-taché case and Evans was given instructions to see a local firm of re-movers about the storage of the various sporting trophies31 and heads, asthere was no room for them in Major Burnaby’s cottage. Since Hazelmoorwas only rented furnished no other questions arose.
When all this was settled Evans cleared his throat nervously32 once ortwice and then said:
“Beg pardon, sir, but—I’ll be wanting a job to look after a gentleman,same as I did to look after the Capting.”
“Yes, yes, you can tell anyone to apply to me for a recommendation.
That will be quite all right.”
“Begging your pardon, sir, that wasn’t quite what I meant. Rebecca andme, sir, we’ve talked it over and we was wondering if, sir—if maybe youwould give us a trial?”
“Oh! but—well—I look after myself as you know. That old what’s hername comes in and cleans for me once a day and cooks a few things.
That’s—er—about all I can afford.”
“It isn’t the money that matters so much, sir,” said Evans quickly. “Yousee, sir, I was very fond of the Capting and—well, if I could do for you, sir,the same as I did for him, well, it would be almost like the same thing, ifyou know what I mean.”
The Major cleared his throat and averted33 his eyes.
“Very decent of you, ’pon my word. I’ll—I’ll think about it.” And escap-ing with alacrity34 he almost bolted down the road. Evans stood lookingafter him, an understanding smile upon his face.
“Like as two peas, him and the Capting,” he murmured.
And then a puzzled expression came over his face.
“Where can they have got to?” he murmured. “It’s a bit queer that. Imust ask Rebecca what she thinks.”
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1
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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butting
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| 用头撞人（犯规动作） | |
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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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kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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fuming
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| 愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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placated
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| v.安抚，抚慰，使平静( placate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
buffers
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| 起缓冲作用的人（或物）( buffer的名词复数 )； 缓冲器； 减震器； 愚蠢老头 | |
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banishing
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的现在分词 ) | |
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tartly
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| adv.辛辣地，刻薄地 | |
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impecunious
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| adj.不名一文的，贫穷的 | |
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pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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pyjamas
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| n.（宽大的）睡衣裤 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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stentorian
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| adj.大声的，响亮的 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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21
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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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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bolster
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| n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励 | |
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pals
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| n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙 | |
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latch
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| n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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orphanage
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| n.孤儿院 | |
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trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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