“Hullo, hullo, hullo,” said Ronnie Garfield.
Mr. Rycroft, slowly ascending1 the steep slope of the lane from the postoffice, paused, till Ronnie overtook him.
“Been to the local Harrods, eh?” said Ronnie. “Old Mother Hibbert.”
“No,” said Mr. Rycroft. “I have been for a short walk along past theforge. Very delightful2 weather today.”
Ronnie looked up at the blue sky.
“Yes, a bit of a difference from last week. By the way, you’re going to theWilletts’, I suppose?”
“I am. You also?”
“Yes. Our bright spot in Sittaford—the Willetts. Mustn’t let yourself getdownhearted, that’s their motto. Carry on as usual. My aunt says it is un-feeling of them to ask people to tea so soon after the funeral and all that,but that’s all bunkum. She just says that because she’s feeling rattled3 aboutthe Emperor of Peru.”
“The Emperor of Peru?” said Mr. Rycroft surprised.
“One of the blinking cats. It’s turned out to be an Empress instead andAunt Caroline’s naturally annoyed about it. She doesn’t like these sexproblems—so, as I say, she got her feelings off her chest by making cattyremarks about the Willetts. Why shouldn’t they ask people to tea? Trev-elyan wasn’t a relation, or anything like that.”
“Very true,” said Mr. Rycroft turning his head and examining a birdwhich flew past and in which he thought he recognized a rare species.
“How annoying,” he murmured. “I haven’t got my glasses with me.”
“Eh! I say, talking of Trevelyan, do you think Mrs. Willett can haveknown the old boy better than she says?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because of the change in her. Have you ever seen anything like it?
She’s aged4 about twenty years in the last week. You must have noticed it.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Rycroft. “I have noticed it.”
“Well, there you are. Trevelyan’s death must have been the most fright-ful shock to her in some way or other. Queer if she turned out to be the oldman’s long lost wife whom he deserted5 in his youth and didn’t recognize.”
“I hardly think that likely, Mr. Garfield.”
“Bit too much of a movie stunt6, eh? All the same very odd things happen.
I’ve read some really amazing things in the Daily Wire — things youwouldn’t credit if a newspaper didn’t print them.”
“Are they any more to be credited on that account?” inquired Mr.
Rycroft acidly.
“You have got a down on young Enderby, haven’t you?” said Ronnie.
“I dislike ill-bred nosing into affairs that do not concern you,” said Mr.
Rycroft.
“Yes, but then they do concern him,” Ronnie persisted. “I mean nosingabout is the poor chap’s job. He seems to have tamed old Burnaby allright. Funny, the old boy can hardly bear the sight of me. I’m like a red ragto a bull to him.”
Mr. Rycroft did not reply.
“By Jove,” said Ronnie again glancing up at the sky. “Do you realize it’sFriday? Just a week ago today at about this time we were trudging7 up tothe Willetts’ just as we are now. But a bit of a change in the weather.”
“A week ago,” said Mr. Rycroft. “It seems infinitely8 longer.”
“More like a bally year, doesn’t it? Hullo, Abdul.”
They were passing Captain Wyatt’s gate over which the melancholy9 In-dian was leaning.
“Good afternoon, Abdul,” said Mr. Rycroft. “How’s your master?”
The Indian shook his head.
“Master bad today, Sahib. Not see anyone. Not see anyone for longtime.”
“You know,” said Ronnie as they passed on, “that chap could murderWyatt quite easily and no one would know. He could go on for weeksshaking his head and saying the master wouldn’t see anyone and no onewould think it the least odd.”
Mr. Rycroft admitted the truth of the statement.
“But there would still be the problem of the disposal of the body,” hepointed out.
“Yes, that’s always the snag, isn’t it? Inconvenient10 thing, a human body.”
They passed Major Burnaby’s cottage. The Major was in his garden look-ing sternly at a weed which was growing where no weed should be.
“Good afternoon, Major,” said Mr. Rycroft. “Are you also coming to Sitta-ford House?”
Burnaby rubbed his nose.
“Don’t think so. They sent a note asking me. But—well—I don’t feel likeit. Expect you’ll understand.”
Mr. Rycroft bowed his head in token of understanding.
“All the same,” he said. “I wish you’d come. I’ve got a reason.”
“A reason. What sort of reason?”
Mr. Rycroft hesitated. It was clear that the presence of Ronnie Garfieldconstrained him. But Ronnie, completely oblivious11 of the fact, stood hisground listening with ingenuous12 interest.
“I’d like to try an experiment,” he said at last slowly.
“What sort of experiment?” demanded Burnaby. Mr. Rycroft hesitated.
“I’d rather not tell you beforehand. But if you come I’ll ask you to backme up in anything I suggest.”
Burnaby’s curiosity was aroused.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll come. You can count on me. Where’s my hat?”
He rejoined them in a minute, hat on head, and all three turned in at thegates of Sittaford House.
“Hear you are expecting company, Rycroft,” said Burnaby conversation-ally.
A shade of vexation passed over the older man’s face.
“Who told you that?”
“That chattering13 magpie14 of a woman, Mrs. Curtis. She’s clean and she’shonest, but her tongue never stops, and she pays no attention to whetheryou listen or whether you don’t.”
“It’s quite true,” admitted Mr. Rycroft. “I am expecting my niece, Mrs.
Dering, and her husband, tomorrow.”
They had arrived at the front door by now, and on pressing the bell itwas opened to them by Brian Pearson.
As they removed their overcoats in the hall, Mr. Rycroft observed thetall broad-shouldered young man with an interested eye.
“Fine specimen15,” he thought. “Very fine specimen. Strong temper. Curi-ous angle of the jaw16. Might be a nasty customer to tackle in certain cir-cumstances. What you might call a dangerous young man.”
A queer feeling of unreality stole over Major Burnaby as he entered thedrawing room, and Mrs. Willett rose to greet him.
“Splendid of you to turn out.”
The same words as last week. The same blazing fire on the hearth17. Hefancied, but was not sure, the same gowns on the two women.
It did give one a queer feeling. As though it were last week again—asthough Joe Trevelyan hadn’t died—as though nothing had happened orwere changed. Stop, that was wrong. The Willett woman had changed. Awreck, that was the only way of describing her. No longer the prosperousdetermined woman of the world, but a broken nervy creature making anobvious and pathetic effort to appear as usual.
“But I’m hanged if I can see what Joe’s death meant to her,” thought theMajor.
For the hundredth time he registered the impression that there wassomething deuced odd about the Willetts.
As usual, he awoke to the realization19 that he was being silent and thatsomeone was speaking to him.
“Our last little gathering20, I am afraid,” Mrs. Willett was saying.
“What’s that?” Ronnie Garfield looked up suddenly.
“Yes.” Mrs. Willett shook her head with a would-be smile. “We have gotto forego the rest of the winter in Sittaford. Personally, of course, I love it—the snow and the tors and the wildness of it all. But the domestic prob-lem! The domestic problem is too difficult—it defeats me!”
“I thought you were going to get a chauffeur-butler and a handyman,”
said Major Burnaby.
A sudden shiver shook Mrs. Willett’s frame.
“No,” she said, “I—I have to give up that idea.”
“Dear, dear,” said Mr. Rycroft. “This is a great blow to us all. Very sad in-deed. We will sink back into our little rut after you have gone. When doyou go, by the way?”
“On Monday, I expect,” said Mrs. Willett. “Unless I can get away tomor-row. It’s so very awkward with no servants. Of course, I must arrangethings with Mr. Kirkwood. I took the house for four months.”
“You are going to London?” inquired Mr. Rycroft.
“Yes, probably, to start with anyway. Then I expect we shall go abroadto the Riviera.”
“A great loss,” said Mr. Rycroft bowing gallantly21.
Mrs. Willett gave a queer aimless little titter.
“Too kind of you, Mr. Rycroft. Well, shall we have tea?”
Tea was laid ready. Mrs. Willett poured out. Ronnie and Brian handedthings. A queer kind of embarrassment22 lay over the party.
“What about you?” said Burnaby abruptly23 to Brian Pearson. “You offtoo?”
“To London, yes. Naturally I shan’t go abroad till this business is over.”
“This business?”
“I mean until my brother is cleared of this ridiculous charge.”
He flung the words at them defiantly24 in such a challenging manner thatnobody knew quite what to say. Major Burnaby relieved the situation.
“Never have believed he did it. Not for a moment,” he said.
“None of us think so,” said Violet, flinging him a grateful glance.
The tinkle25 of a bell broke the ensuing pause.
“That’s Mr. Duke,” said Mrs. Willett. “Let him in, Brian.”
Young Pearson had gone to the window.
“It’s not Duke,” he said. “It’s that damned journalist.”
“Oh! dear,” said Mrs. Willett. “Well, I suppose we must let him in all thesame.”
Brian nodded and reappeared in a few minutes with Charles Enderby.
Enderby entered with his usual ingenuous air of beaming satisfaction.
The idea that he might not be welcome did not seem to occur to him.
“Hullo, Mrs. Willett, how are you? Thought I’d just drop in and see howthings were. I wondered where everyone in Sittaford had got to. Now, Isee.”
“Have some tea, Mr. Enderby?”
“Awfully kind of you. I will. I see Emily isn’t here. I suppose she’s withyour aunt, Mr. Garfield.”
“Not that I know of,” said Ronnie staring. “I thought she’d gone to Ex-hampton.”
“Ah! but she’s back from there. How do I know? A little bird told me.
The Curtis bird, to be accurate. Saw the car pass the post office and go upthe lane and come back empty. She is not in No. 5 and she’s not in Sitta-ford House. Puzzle—where is she? Failing Miss Percehouse, she must besipping tea with that determined18 lady killer26, Captain Wyatt.”
“She may have gone up Sittaford Beacon27 to see the sunset,” suggestedMr. Rycroft.
“Don’t think so,” said Burnaby. “Should have seen her pass. I’ve been inthe garden for the last hour.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s a very vital problem,” said Charles cheerfully. “Imean I don’t think she’s been kidnapped or murdered or anything.”
“That’s a pity from the point of view of your paper, isn’t it?” sneeredBrian.
“Even for copy, I wouldn’t sacrifice Emily,” said Charles. “Emily,” he ad-ded thoughtfully, “is unique.”
“Very charming,” said Mr. Rycroft. “Very charming. We are—er—collab-orators, she and I?”
“Has everyone finished?” said Mrs. Willett. “What about some bridge?”
“Er—one moment,” said Mr. Rycroft.
He cleared his throat importantly. Everyone looked at him.
“Mrs. Willett, I am, as you know, deeply interested in psychic28 phenom-ena. A week ago today, in this very room, we had an amazing, indeed anawe-inspiring experience.”
There was a faint sound from Violet Willett. He turned to her.
“I know, my dear Miss Willett, I know. The experience upset you, it wasupsetting. I do not deny it. Now, ever since the crime the police force havebeen seeking the murderer of Captain Trevelyan. They have made an ar-rest. But some of us, at least, in this room, do not believe that Mr. JamesPearson is the guilty party. What I propose is this, that we repeat the ex-periment of last Friday, though approaching it this time in a rather differ-ent spirit.”
“No,” cried Violet.
“Oh! I say,” said Ronnie. “That’s a bit too thick. I’m not going to join inanyway.”
Mr. Rycroft took no notice of him.
“Mrs. Willett, what do you say?”
She hesitated.
“Frankly, Mr. Rycroft, I do not like the idea. I don’t like it at all. Thatmiserable business last week made a most disagreeable impression on me.
It will take me a long time to forget it.”
“What are you getting at exactly?” asked Enderby interestedly. “Do youpropose that the spirits should tell us the name of Captain Trevelyan’smurderer? That seems a pretty tall order.”
“It was a pretty tall order, as you call it, when last week a message camethrough saying that Captain Trevelyan was dead.”
“That’s true,” agreed Enderby. “But—well—you know this idea of yoursmight have consequences you haven’t considered.”
“Such as?”
“Supposing a name was mentioned? Could you be sure that someonepresent did not deliberately—”
He paused and Ronnie Garfield tendered the word.
“Shove. That’s what he means. Supposing somebody goes and shoves.”
“This is a serious experiment, sir,” said Mr. Rycroft warmly. “Nobodywould do such a thing.”
“I don’t know,” said Ronnie dubiously29. “I wouldn’t put it past them. Idon’t mean myself. I swear I wouldn’t, but suppose everyone turns on meand says I have. Jolly awkward, you know.”
“Mrs. Willett, I am in earnest,” the little old gentleman disregarded Ron-nie. “I beg of you, let us make the experiment.”
She wavered.
“I don’t like it. I really don’t. I—” She looked round her uneasily, asthough for a way of escape. “Major Burnaby, you were Captain Trev-elyan’s friend. What do you say?”
The Major’s eyes met those of Mr. Rycroft. This, he understood, was thecontingency which the latter had foreshadowed.
“Why not?” he said gruffly.
It had all the decision of a casting vote.
Ronnie went into the adjoining room and brought the small table whichhad been used before. He set it in the middle of the floor and chairs weredrawn up round it. No one spoke30. The experiment was clearly not popu-lar.
“That is correct, I think,” said Mr. Rycroft. “We are about to repeat theexperiment of last Friday under precisely31 similar conditions.”
“Not precisely similar,” objected Mrs. Willett. “Mr. Duke is missing.”
“True,” said Mr. Rycroft. “A pity he is not here. A great pity. Well—er—we must consider him as replaced by Mr. Pearson.”
“Don’t take part in it, Brian. I beg of you. Please don’t,” cried Violet.
“What does it matter? It’s all nonsense anyway.”
“That is quite the wrong spirit,” said Mr. Rycroft severely32.
Brian Pearson did not reply, but took his place beside Violet.
“Mr. Enderby,” began Mr. Rycroft, but Charles interrupted him.
“I was not in on this. I’m a journalist and you mistrust me. I’ll take notesin shorthand of any phenomena—that’s the word, isn’t it?—that occur.”
Matters were settled like that. The other six took their places round thetable. Charles turned off the lights and sat down on the fender.
“One minute,” he said. “What’s the time?” He peered at his wristwatchin the firelight.
“That’s odd,” he said.
“What’s odd?”
“It’s just twenty-five minutes past five.”
Violet uttered a little cry.
Mr. Rycroft said severely:
“Silence.”
The minutes passed. A very different atmosphere this to the one a weekago. There was no muffled33 laughter, no whispered comments—only si-lence, broken at last by a slight crack from the table.
Mr. Rycroft’s voice rose.
“Is there anyone there?”
Another faint crack—somehow an eerie34 sound in that darkened room.
“Is there anyone there?”
Not a crack this time but a deafening35 tremendous rap.
Violet screamed and Mrs. Willett gave a cry.
Brian Pearson’s voice rose reassuringly36.
“It’s all right. That’s a knock at the front door. I’ll go and open it.”
He strode from the room.
Still nobody spoke.
Suddenly the door flew open, the lights were switched on.
In the doorway37 stood Inspector38 Narracott. Behind him were Emily Tre-fusis and Mr. Duke.
Narracott took a step into the room and spoke.
“John Burnaby I charge you with the murder of Joseph Trevelyan on Fri-day the 14th instant, and I hereby warn you that anything you may saywill be taken down and may be used in evidence.”
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收听单词发音
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1
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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6
stunt
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| n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长 | |
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7
trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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8
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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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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ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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13
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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magpie
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| n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者 | |
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15
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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19
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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20
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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21
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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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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dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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30
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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36
reassuringly
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| ad.安心，可靠 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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