“Do you know where we are going to lunch today, Tuppence?”
Mrs. Beresford considered the question.
“The Ritz?” she suggested hopefully.
“Think again.”
“That nice little place in Soho?”
“No.” Tommy’s tone was full of importance. “An ABC shop. This one, infact.”
He drew her deftly1 inside an establishment of the kind indicated, andsteered her to a corner marble-topped table.
“Excellent,” said Tommy with satisfaction, as he seated himself.
“Couldn’t be better.”
“Why has this craze for the simple life come upon you?” demanded Tup-pence.
“You see, Watson, but you do not observe. I wonder now whether one ofthese haughty2 damsels would condescend3 to notice us? Splendid, she driftsthis way. It is true that she appears to be thinking of something else, butdoubtless her subconscious4 mind is functioning busily with such mattersas ham and eggs and pots of tea. Chop and fried potatoes, please, miss, anda large coffee, a roll and butter, and a plate of tongue for the lady.”
The waitress repeated the order in a scornful tone, but Tuppence leantforward suddenly and interrupted her.
“No, not a chop and fried potatoes. This gentleman will have a cheese-cake and a glass of milk.”
“A cheesecake and a milk,” said the waitress with even deeper scorn, ifthat were possible. Still thinking of something else, she drifted awayagain.
“That was uncalled for,” said Tommy coldly.
“But I’m right, aren’t I? You are the Old Man in the Corner? Where’syour piece of string?”
Tommy drew a long twisted mesh5 of string from his pocket and pro-ceeded to tie a couple of knots in it.
“Complete to the smallest detail,” he murmured.
“You made a small mistake in ordering your meal, though.”
“Women are so literal-minded,” said Tommy. “If there’s one thing I hateit’s milk to drink, and cheesecakes are always so yellow and bilious-look-ing.”
“Be an artist,” said Tuppence. “Watch me attack my cold tongue. Jollygood stuff, cold tongue. Now then, I’m all ready to be Miss Polly Burton.
Tie a large knot and begin.”
“First of all,” said Tommy, “speaking in a strictly6 unofficial capacity, letme point out this. Business is not too brisk lately. If business does notcome to us, we must go to business. Apply our minds to one of the greatpublic mysteries of the moment. Which brings me to the point—the Sun-ningdale Mystery.”
“Ah!” said Tuppence, with deep interest. “The Sunningdale Mystery!”
Tommy drew a crumpled7 piece of newspaper from his pocket and laid iton the table.
“That is the latest portrait of Captain Sessle as it appeared in the DailyLeader.”
“Just so,” said Tuppence. “I wonder someone doesn’t sue these newspa-pers sometimes. You can see it’s a man and that’s all.”
“When I said the Sunningdale Mystery, I should have said the so-calledSunningdale Mystery,” went on Tommy rapidly.
“A mystery to the police perhaps, but not to an intelligent mind.”
“Tie another knot,” said Tuppence.
“I don’t know how much of the case you remember,” continued Tommyquietly.
“All of it,” said Tuppence, “but don’t let me cramp8 your style.”
“It was just over three weeks ago,” said Tommy, “that the gruesome dis-covery was made on the famous golf links. Two members of the club, whowere enjoying an early round, were horrified9 to find the body of a man ly-ing face downwards10 on the seventh tee. Even before they turned him overthey had guessed him to be Captain Sessle, a well-known figure on thelinks, and who always wore a golf coat of a peculiarly bright blue colour.
“Captain Sessle was often seen out on the links early in the morning,practising, and it was thought at first that he had been suddenly overcomeby some form of heart disease. But examination by a doctor revealed thesinister fact that he had been murdered, stabbed to the heart with a signi-ficant object, a woman’s hatpin. He was also found to have been dead atleast twelve hours.
“That put an entirely11 different complexion12 on the matter, and very soonsome interesting facts came to light. Practically the last person to see Cap-tain Sessle alive was his friend and partner, Mr. Hollaby of the PorcupineAssurance Co, and he told his story as follows:
“Sessle and he had played a round earlier in the day. After tea the othersuggested that they should play a few more holes before it got too dark tosee. Hollaby assented14. Sessle seemed in good spirits, and was in excellentform. There is a public footpath15 that crosses the links, and just as theywere playing up to the sixth green, Hollaby noticed a woman comingalong it. She was very tall, and dressed in brown, but he did not observeher particularly, and Sessle, he thought, did not notice her at all.
“The footpath in question crossed in front of the seventh tee,” continuedTommy. “The woman had passed along this and was standing16 at thefarther side, as though waiting. Captain Sessle was the first to reach thetee, as Mr. Hollaby was replacing the pin in the hole. As the latter came to-wards the tee, he was astonished to see Sessle and the woman talking to-gether. As he came nearer, they both turned abruptly17, Sessle calling overhis shoulder: ‘Shan’t be a minute.’
“The two of them walked off side by side, still deep in earnest conversa-tion. The footpath there leaves the course, and, passing between the twonarrow hedges of neighbouring gardens, comes out on the road to Windle-sham.
“Captain Sessle was as good as his word. He reappeared within a minuteor two, much to Hollaby’s satisfaction, as two other players were comingup behind them, and the light was failing rapidly. They drove off, and atonce Hollaby noticed that something had occurred to upset his compan-ion. Not only did he foozle his drive badly, but his face was worried andhis forehead creased18 in a big frown. He hardly answered his companion’sremarks, and his golf was atrocious. Evidently something had occurred toput him completely off his game.
“They played that hole and the eighth, and then Captain Sessle declaredabruptly that the light was too bad and that he was off home. Just at thatpoint there is another of those narrow ‘slips’ leading to the Windleshamroad, and Captain Sessle departed that way, which was a short cut to hishome, a small bungalow19 on the road in question. The other two playerscame up, a Major Barnard and Mr. Lecky, and to them Hollaby mentionedCaptain Sessle’s sudden change of manner. They also had seen him speak-ing to the woman in brown, but had not been near enough to see her face.
All three men wondered what she could have said to upset their friend tothat extent.
“They returned to the clubhouse together, and as far as was known atthe time, were the last people to see Captain Sessle alive. The day was aWednesday, and on Wednesday cheap tickets to London are issued. Theman and wife who ran Captain Sessle’s small bungalow were up in town,according to custom, and did not return until the late train. They enteredthe bungalow as usual, and supposed their master to be in his roomasleep. Mrs. Sessle, his wife, was away on a visit.
“The murder of the Captain was a nine days’ wonder. Nobody could sug-gest a motive20 for it. The identity of the tall woman in brown was eagerlydiscussed, but without result. The police were, as usual, blamed for theirsupineness—most unjustly, as time was to show. For a week later, a girlcalled Doris Evans was arrested and charged with the murder of CaptainAnthony Sessle.
“The police had had little to work upon. A strand21 of fair hair caught inthe dead man’s fingers and a few threads of flame-coloured wool caughton one of the buttons of his blue coat. Diligent22 inquiries23 at the railway sta-tion and elsewhere had elicited24 the following facts.
“A young girl dressed in a flame-coloured coat and skirt had arrived bytrain that evening about seven o’clock and had asked the way to CaptainSessle’s house. The same girl had reappeared again at the station, twohours later. Her hat was awry25 and her hair tousled, and she seemed in astate of great agitation27. She inquired about the trains back to town, andwas continually looking over her shoulder as though afraid of something.
“Our police force is in many ways very wonderful. With this slenderevidence to go upon, they managed to track down the girl and identify heras one Doris Evans. She was charged with murder and cautioned that any-thing she might say would be used against her, but she nevertheless per-sisted in making a statement, and this statement she repeated again in de-tail, without any subsequent variation, at the subsequent proceedings28.
“Her story was this. She was a typist by profession, and had madefriends one evening, in a cinema, with a well-dressed man, who declaredhe had taken a fancy to her. His name, he told her, was Anthony, and hesuggested that she should come down to his bungalow at Sunningdale. Shehad no idea then, or at any other time, that he had a wife. It was arrangedbetween them that she should come down on the following Wednesday—the day, you will remember, when the servants would be absent and hiswife away from home. In the end he told her his full name was AnthonySessle, and gave her the name of his house.
“She duly arrived at the bungalow on the evening in question, and wasgreeted by Sessle, who had just come in from the links. Though he pro-fessed himself delighted to see her, the girl declared that from the first hismanner was strange and different. A half-acknowledged fear sprang up inher, and she wished fervently29 that she had not come.
“After a simple meal, which was all ready and prepared, Sessle sugges-ted going out for a stroll. The girl consenting, he took her out of the house,down the road, and along the ‘slip’ on to the golf course. And then sud-denly, just as they were crossing the seventh tee, he seemed to go com-pletely mad. Drawing a revolver from his pocket, he brandished30 it in theair, declaring that he had come to the end of his tether.
“ ‘Everything must go! I’m ruined—done for. And you shall go with me. Ishall shoot you first—then myself. They will find our bodies here in themorning side by side—together in death.’
“And so on—a lot more. He had hold of Doris Evans by the arm, and she,realising she had to do with a madman, made frantic31 efforts to free her-self, or failing that to get the revolver away from him. They struggled to-gether, and in that struggle he must have torn out a piece of her hair andgot the wool of her coat entangled32 on a button.
“Finally, with a desperate effort, she freed herself, and ran for her lifeacross the golf links, expecting every minute to be shot down with a re-volver bullet. She fell twice, tripping over the heather, but eventually re-gained the road to the station and realised that she was not being pursued.
“That is the story that Doris Evans tells—and from which she has nevervaried. She strenuously33 denies that she ever struck at him with a hatpin inself- defence — a natural enough thing to do under the circumstances,though—and one which may well be the truth. In support of her story, arevolver has been found in the furze bushes near where the body was ly-ing. It had not been fired.
“Doris Evans has been sent for trial, but the mystery still remains34 a mys-tery. If her story is to be believed, who was it who stabbed Captain Sessle?
The other woman, the tall woman in brown, whose appearance so upsethim? So far no one has explained her connection with the case. She ap-pears out of space suddenly on the footpath across the links, she disap-pears along the slip, and no one ever hears of her again. Who was she? Alocal resident? A visitor from London? If so, did she come by car or bytrain? There is nothing remarkable35 about her except her height; no oneseems to be able to describe her appearance. She could not have beenDoris Evans, for Doris Evans is small and fair, and moreover was only justthen arriving at the station.”
“The wife?” suggested Tuppence. “What about the wife?”
“A very natural suggestion. But Mrs. Sessle is also a small woman, andbesides, Mr. Hollaby knows her well by sight, and there seems no doubtthat she was really away from home. One further development has cometo light. The Porcupine13 Assurance Co is in liquidation36. The accounts revealthe most daring misappropriation of funds. The reasons for CaptainSessle’s wild words to Doris Evans are now quite apparent. For some yearspast he must have been systematically37 embezzling38 money. Neither Mr.
Hollaby nor his son had any idea of what was going on. They are practic-ally ruined.
“The case stands like this. Captain Sessle was on the verge39 of discoveryand ruin. Suicide would be a natural solution, but the nature of the woundrules that theory out. Who killed him? Was it Doris Evans? Was it the mys-terious woman in brown?”
Tommy paused, took a sip40 of milk, made a wry26 face, and bit cautiouslyat the cheesecake.
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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subconscious
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mesh
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| n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络 | |
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strictly
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crumpled
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cramp
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horrified
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downwards
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entirely
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complexion
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porcupine
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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footpath
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standing
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abruptly
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creased
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bungalow
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motive
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strand
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diligent
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inquiries
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elicited
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awry
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wry
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agitation
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proceedings
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fervently
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brandished
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frantic
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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strenuously
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remains
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remarkable
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liquidation
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systematically
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embezzling
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verge
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sip
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