Tuppence wondered, as she finished her lunch, whether the events ofthe morning would produce any sequel. Would anybody really come to es-cort her this afternoon and take her to the PPC? Was there any such thingreally as the PPC or was it a nickname1 of some kind that the children hadinvented? Anyway, it might be fun, Tuppence thought, to sit waiting incase someone came.
However, the deputation was punctual to the minute. At half past threethe bell rang, Tuppence rose from her seat by the fire, clapped a hat uponher head–an indiarubber hat because she thought it would probably rain–and Albert appeared to escort2 her to the front door.’
‘Not going to let you go with just anyone,’ he breathed into her ear.
‘Look here, Albert,’ whispered Tuppence, ‘is there really such a place asthe PPC here?’
‘I thought that had something to do with visiting cards,’ said Albert, whowas always prone4 to show his complete knowledge of social customs. ‘Youknow, what you leave on people when you’re going away or when you’rearriving, I’m not sure which.’
‘I think it’s something to do with pensioners5.’
‘Oh yes, they’ve got a sort of a place. Yes. Built just two or three yearsago, I think it was. You know, it’s just down after you pass the rectory andthen you turn right and you see it. It’s rather an ugly building, but it’s nicefor the old folk and any who like can go meeting there. They have gamesand things, and there’s a lot of ladies goes and helps with things. Gets upconcerts and–sort of–well, rather like, you know, Women’s Institute. Onlyit’s specially6 for the elderly people. They’re all very, very old, and most ofthem deaf.’
‘Yes,’ said Tuppence, ‘yes. It sounded rather like that.’
The front door opened. Janet, by reason of her intellectual superiority,stood there first. Behind her was Clarence, and behind him was a tall boywith a squint7 who appeared to answer to the name of Bert.
‘Good afternoon, Mrs Beresford,’ said Janet. ‘Everybody is so pleasedthat you are coming. I think perhaps you’d better take an umbrella, theweather forecast was not very good today.’
‘I’ve got to go that way anyway,’ said Albert, ‘so I’ll come with you ashort part of it.’
Certainly, Tuppence thought, Albert was always very protective. Per-haps just as well, but she did not think that either Janet, Bert or Clarencewas likely to be a danger to her. The walk took about twenty minutes.
When the red building was reached they went through the gate, up to thedoor and were received by a stout8 woman of about seventy.
‘Ah, so we’ve got visitors. I’m so pleased you could come, my dear, sopleased.’ She patted Tuppence upon the shoulder. ‘Yes, Janet, thank youvery much. Yes. This way. Yes. None of you need wait unless you like, youknow.’
‘Oh I think the boys will be very disappointed if they didn’t wait to heara little about what all this is about,’ said Janet.
‘Well, I think, you know, there are not so very many of us here. Perhapsit would be better for Mrs Beresford, not so worrying if there weren’t toomany of us. I wonder, Janet, if you would just go into the kitchen and tellMollie that we are quite ready for tea to be brought in now.’
Tuppence had not really come for tea, but she could hardly say so. Teaappeared rather rapidly. It was excessively weak, it was served with somebiscuits and some sandwiches with a rather nasty9 type of paste in betweenthem with an extra fishy10 taste. Then they sat around and seemed slightlyat a loss.
An old man with a beard who looked to Tuppence as though he wasabout a hundred came and sat firmly by her.
‘I’d best have a word with you first, I think, my lady,’ he said, elevatingTuppence to the peerage. ‘Seeing as I’m about the oldest here and haveheard more of the stories of the old days than anyone else. A lot of historyabout this place, you know. Oh, a lot of things has happened here, not thatwe can go into everything at once, can we? But we’ve all–oh, we’ve allheard something about the things that went on.’
‘I gather,’ said Tuppence, hastily11 rushing in before she could be intro-duced to some topic in which she had no interest whatever, ‘I understandthat quite a lot of interesting things went on here, not so much in the lastwar, but in the war before that, or even earlier. Not that any of yourmemories would go back as far as that. But one wonders perhaps if youcould have heard things, you know, from your elderly relations.’
‘Ah, that’s right,’ said the old man, ‘that’s right. Heard a lot, I did, frommy Uncle Len. Yes, ah, he was a great chap, was Uncle Len. He knew abouta lot of things. He knew what went on. It was like what went on down inthe house on the quay12 before the last war. Yes, a bad show, that. What youcall one of those fakists–’
‘Fascists,’ said one of the elderly ladies, a rather prim14 one with grey hairand a lace3 fichu rather the worse for wear round her neck.
‘Well, fascist13 if you like to say it that way, what does it matter? Ah yes,one of those he was. Yes. Same sort of thing as that chap in Italy. Mussolinior something, wasn’t it? Anyway, some sort of fishy name like that. Mus-sels or cockles. Oh yes, he did a lot of harm here. Had meetings, you know.
All sorts of things like that. Someone called Mosley started it all.’
‘But in the first war there was a girl called Mary Jordan, wasn’t there?’
said Tuppence, wondering if this was a wise thing to say or not.
‘Ah yes. Said to be quite a good- looker, you know. Yes. Got hold ofsecrets out of the sailors and the soldiers.’
A very old lady piped up in a thin voice.
‘He’s not in the Navy and he’s not in the Army,But he’s just the man for me.
Not in the Navy, not in the Army, he’s in theRoyal Ar-till-er-rie!’
The old man took up his personal chant when she had got thus far:
‘It’s a long way to Tipperary,
It’s a long way to go,
It’s a long way to Tipperary
And the rest of it I don’t know.’
‘Now that’s enough, Benny, that’s quite enough,’ said a firm-looking wo-man who seemed to be either his wife or his daughter.
Another old lady sang in a quavering voice:
‘All the nice girls love a sailor,
All the nice girls love a tar15,
All the nice girls love a sailor,
And you know what sailors are.’
‘Oh, shut up, Maudie, we’re tired of that one. Now let the lady hearsomething,’ said Uncle Ben. ‘Let the lady hear something. She’s come tohear something. She wants to hear where that thing there was all the fussabout was hidden, don’t you? And all about it.’
‘That sounds very interesting,’ said Tuppence, cheering up. ‘Somethingwas hidden?’
‘Ah yes, long before my time it was but I heard all about it. Yes. Before1914. Word was handed down, you know, from one to another. Nobodyknew exactly what it was and why there was all this excitement.’
‘Something to do with the boat race it had,’ said an old lady. ‘You know,Oxford16 and Cambridge. I was taken once. I was taken to see the boat racein London under the bridges and everything. Oh, it was a wonderful day.
Oxford won by a length.’
‘A lot of nonsense you’re all talking,’ said a grim-looking woman withiron-grey hair. ‘You don’t know anything about it, you don’t. I know morethan most of you although it happened a long time before I was born. Itwas my Great-Aunt Mathilda who told me and she were told by her AuntyLou. And that was a good forty years before them. Great talk about it, itwas, and people went around looking for it. Some people thought as it wasa gold-mine, you know. Yes, a gold ingot brought back from Australia.
Somewhere like that.’
‘Damn silly,’ said an old man, who was smoking a pipe with an air ofgeneral dislike of his fellow members. ‘Mixed it up with goldfish, they did.
Was as ignorant as that.’
‘It was worth a lot of money, whatever it was, or it wouldn’t have beenhidden,’ said someone else. ‘Yes, lots of people come down from the gov-ernment, and yes, police too. They looked around but they couldn’t findanything.’
‘Ah well, they didn’t have the right clues. There are clues, you know, ifyou know where to look for them.’ Another old lady nodded her headwisely. ‘There’s always clues.’
‘How interesting,’ said Tuppence. ‘Where? Where are these clues, Imean? In the village or somewhere outside it or–’
This was a rather unfortunate remark as it brought down at least six dif-ferent replies, all uttered at once.
‘On the moor17, beyond Tower West,’ one was saying.
‘Oh no, it’s past Little Kenny, it was. Yes, quite near Little Kenny.’
‘No, it was the cave. The cave by the sea front. Over as far as Baldy’sHead. You know, where the red rocks are. That’s it. There’s an old smug-glers’ tunnel. Wonderful, it must be. Some people say as it’s there still.’
‘I saw a story once of an old Spanish main or something. Right back tothe time of the Armada, it was. A Spanish boat as went down there. Full ofdoubloons.’
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1
nickname
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| n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字 | |
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escort
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| n.护卫者，护送者；vt.护送，护卫 | |
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lace
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| n.饰带，花边，缎带；v.结带子，饰以花边 | |
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4
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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pensioners
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| n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 ) | |
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6
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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7
squint
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| v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的 | |
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9
nasty
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| adj.令人讨厌的，困难的，恶劣的，下流的 | |
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10
fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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hastily
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| ad.过于匆忙地，急急忙忙地 | |
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12
quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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13
fascist
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| adj.法西斯主义的；法西斯党的；n.法西斯主义者，法西斯分子 | |
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14
prim
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| adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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15
tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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16
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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17
moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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