‘I don’t know what you’re doing about the garden,’ said Albert. ‘I did aspell once in a garden for a short time, but I’m not up in vegetables verymuch. There’s a boy here that wants to see you, by the way, madam.’
‘Oh, a boy,’ said Tuppence. ‘Do you mean the red-haired one?’
‘No. I mean the other one, the one with a lot of messy yellow hair halfdown his back. Got rather a silly name. Like a hotel. You know, the RoyalClarence. That’s his name. Clarence.’
‘Clarence, but not Royal Clarence.’
‘Not likely,’ said Albert. ‘He’s waiting in the front door. He says, madam,as he might be able to assist you in some way.’
‘I see. I gather he used to assist old Isaac occasionally.’
She found Clarence sitting on a decayed basket chair on the veranda1 orloggia, whichever you liked to call it. He appeared to be making a latebreakfast off potato crisps and held a bar of chocolate in his left hand.
‘Morning, missus,’ said Clarence. ‘Come to see if I could be any help.’
‘Well,’ said Tuppence, ‘of course we do want help in the garden. I be-lieve you used to help Isaac at one time.’
‘Ah well, now and again I did. Not that I know very much. Don’t say thatIsaac knew much neither. Lot of talk with him, lot of talking saying what awonderful time he used to have. What a wonderful time it was for thepeople who employed him. Yes, he used to say he was the head gardenerto Mr Bolingo. You know, as lives farther along the river. Great big house.
Yes, it’s turned into a school now. Head gardener there, he said he used tobe. But my grandmother says there isn’t a word of truth in that.’
‘Well, never mind,’ said Tuppence. ‘Actually, I wanted to turn a fewmore things out of that little greenhouse place.’
‘What d’you mean the shed, the glass shed? KK, isn’t it?’
‘Quite right,’ said Tuppence. ‘Fancy your knowing the proper name ofit.’
‘Oh well, it was always used to be called that. Everybody says so. Theysay it’s Japanese. I don’t know if that’s true.’
‘Come on,’ said Tuppence. ‘Let’s go there.’
A procession formed consisting of Tommy, Tuppence, Hannibal, the dog,with Albert abandoning the washing up of breakfast for something moreinteresting bringing up the rear. Hannibal displayed a great deal of pleas-ure after attending to all the useful smells in the neighbourhood. He re-joined them at the door of KK and sniffed2 in an interested manner.
‘Hullo, Hannibal,’ said Tuppence, ‘are you going to help us? You tell ussomething.’
‘What kind of a dog is he?’ asked Clarence. ‘Somebody said as he is thekind of dog they used to keep for rats. Is that so?’
‘Yes, that’s quite true,’ said Tommy. ‘He’s a Manchester Terrier, an oldEnglish Black and Tan.’
Hannibal, knowing he was being talked about, turned his head, waggledhis body, beat his tail with a good deal of exuberance3. He then sat downand looked proud of himself.
‘He bites, doesn’t he?’ said Clarence. ‘Everyone says so.’
‘He’s a very good guard dog,’ said Tuppence. ‘He looks after me.’
‘That’s quite right. When I’m away he looks after you,’ said Tommy.
‘The postman said he nearly got bitten four days age.’
‘Dogs are rather like that with postmen,’ said Tuppence. ‘Do you knowwhere the key of KK is?’
‘I do,’ said Clarence. ‘Hanging up in the shed. You know, the shed wherethe flower-pots are.’
He went off and returned shortly with the once rusty4 but now more orless oiled key.
‘Been oiling this key, Isaac must have,’ he said.
‘Yes, it wouldn’t turn very easily before,’ said Tuppence.
The door was opened.
The Cambridge china stool with the swan wreathed round it was look-ing rather handsome. Obviously Isaac had polished it up and washed it,with the idea of transferring it to the veranda when the weather was suit-able for sitting out.
‘Ought to be a dark blue one too,’ said Clarence. ‘Isaac used to say Ox-ford and Cambridge.’
‘Is that true?’
‘Yes. Dark blue Oxford5 and pale blue Cambridge. Oh, and Oxford wasthe one that smashed, was it?’
‘Yes. Rather like the boat race, isn’t it?’
‘By the way, something’s happened to that rocking- horse, hasn’t it?
There’s a lot of mess about in KK.’
‘Yes.’
‘Funny name like Matilda, hasn’t she?’
‘Yes. She had to have an operation,’ said Tuppence.
Clarence seemed to think this very amusing. He laughed heartily6.
‘My Great-Aunt Edith had to have an operation,’ he said. ‘Took out partof her inside but she got well.’
He sounded slightly disappointed.
‘I suppose there’s no real way of getting inside these things,’ said Tup-pence.
‘Well, I suppose you can smash them like the dark blue one wassmashed.’
‘Yes. There’s no other way, is there? Funny those sort of S-kind of slitsaround the top. Why, you could post things in there, couldn’t you, like apost box.’
‘Yes,’ said Tommy, ‘one could. It’s an interesting idea. Very interesting,Clarence,’ he said kindly7.
Clarence looked pleased.
‘You can unscrew ’em, you know,’ he said.
‘Unscrew them, can you?’ said Tuppence. ‘Who told you that?’
‘Isaac. I’ve seen ’im do it often. You turn them upside down and thenyou begin to swing the top round. It’s stiff sometimes. You pour a little oilround all the cracks and when it’s soaked in a bit you can turn it round.’
‘Oh.’
‘The easiest way is to put it upside down.’
‘Everything here always seems to have to be turned upside down,’ saidTuppence. ‘We had to do that to Mathilde before we could operate.’
For the moment Cambridge seemed to be entirely8 obstreperous9, whenquite suddenly the china began to revolve10 and very shortly afterwardsthey managed to unscrew it completely and lift it off.
‘Lot of rubbish in here, I should think,’ said Clarence.
Hannibal came to assist. He was a dog who liked helping11 in anythingthat was going on. Nothing, he thought, was complete unless he took ahand or a paw in it. But with him it was usually a nose in the investiga-tion. He stuck his nose down, growled12 gently, retired13 an inch or two andsat down.
‘Doesn’t like it much, does he?’ said Tuppence, and looked down into thesomewhat unpleasant mass inside.
‘Ow!’ said Clarence.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘Scratched myself. There’s something hanging down from a nail on theside here. I don’t know if it’s a nail or what it is. It’s something. Ow!’
‘Wuff, wuff!’ said Hannibal, joining in.
‘There’s something hung on a nail just inside. Yes, I’ve got it. No, it’s slip-ping. Yes, here I am. I’ve got it.’
Clarence lifted out a dark tarpaulin14 package.
Hannibal came and sat at Tuppence’s feet. He growled.
‘What’s the matter, Hannibal?’ said Tuppence.
Hannibal growled again. Tuppence bent15 down and smoothed the top ofhis head and ears.
‘What’s the matter, Hannibal?’ said Tuppence. ‘Did you want Oxford towin and now Cambridge have won, you see. Do you remember,’ said Tup-pence to Tommy, ‘how we let him watch the boat race once on television?’
‘Yes,’ said Tommy, ‘he got very angry towards the end and started bark-ing so that we couldn’t hear anything at all.’
‘Well, we could still see things,’ said Tuppence, ‘that was something. Butif you remember, he didn’t like Cambridge winning.’
‘Obviously,’ said Tommy, ‘he studied at the Oxford Dogs’ University.’
Hannibal left Tuppence and came to Tommy and wagged his tail appre-ciatively.
‘He likes your saying that,’ said Tuppence, ‘it must be true. I myself,’ sheadded, ‘think he has been educated at the Dogs’ Open University.’
‘What were his principal studies there?’ asked Tommy, laughing.
‘Bone disposal.’
‘You know what he’s like.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Tuppence. ‘Very unwisely, you know, Albert gave himthe whole bone of a leg of mutton once. First of all I found him in thedrawing-room putting it under a cushion, then I forced him out throughthe garden door and shut it. And I looked out of the window and he wentinto the flower- bed where I’d got gladioli, and buried it very carefullythere. He’s very tidy with his bones, you know. He never tries to eat them.
He always puts them away for a rainy day.’
‘Does he ever dig them up again?’ asked Clarence, assisting on this pointof dog lore17.
‘I think so,’ said Tuppence. ‘Sometimes when they’re very, very old andwould have been better if they had been left buried.’
‘Our dog doesn’t like dog biscuits,’ said Clarence.
‘He leaves them on the plate, I suppose,’ said Tuppence, ‘and eats themeat first.’
‘He likes sponge cake, though, our dog does,’ said Clarence.’
Hannibal sniffed at the trophy18 just disinterred from the inside of Cam-bridge. He wheeled round suddenly then and barked.
‘See if there’s anyone outside,’ said Tuppence. ‘It might be a gardener.
Somebody told me the other day, Mrs Herring, I think it was, that sheknew of an elderly man who’d been a very good gardener in his time andwho did jobbing.’
Tommy opened the door and went outside. Hannibal accompanied him.
‘Nobody here,’ said Tommy.
Hannibal barked. First he growled again, then he barked and barkedmore loudly.
‘He thinks there’s someone or something in that great clump19 of pampasgrass,’ said Tommy. ‘Perhaps someone is un- burying one of his bonesthere. Perhaps there’s a rabbit there. Hannibal’s very stupid about rabbits.
He needs an awful lot of encouragement before he’ll chase a rabbit. Heseems to have a kindly feeling about them. He goes after pigeons and largebirds. Fortunately he never catches them.’
Hannibal was now sniffing20 round the pampas grass, first growling21, afterwhich he began to bark loudly. At intervals22 he turned his head towardsTommy.
‘I expect there’s a cat in there,’ said Tommy. ‘You know what he’s likewhen he thinks a cat is around. There’s the big black cat that comes roundhere and the little one. The one that we call the Kitty-cat.’
‘That’s the one that’s always getting into the house,’ said Tuppence. ‘Itseems to get through the smallest chinks. Oh, do stop, Hannibal. Comeback.’
Hannibal heard and turned his head. He was expressing a very high de-gree of fierceness. He gave Tuppence a look, went back a little way, thenturned his attention once more to the clump of pampas grass and beganbarking furiously.
‘There’s something worries him,’ said Tommy. ‘Come on, Hannibal.’
Hannibal shook himself, shook his head, looked at Tommy, looked atTuppence and made a prancing23 attack on the pampas grass, barkingloudly.
There was a sudden sound. Two sharp explosions.
‘Good Lord, somebody must be shooting rabbits,’ exclaimed Tuppence.
‘Get back. Get back inside KK, Tuppence,’ said Tommy.
Something flew past his ear. Hannibal, now fully16 alerted, was racinground and round the pampas grass. Tommy ran after him.
‘He’s chasing someone now,’ he said. ‘He’s chasing someone down thehill. He’s running like mad.’
‘Who was it–what was it?’ said Tuppence.
‘You all right, Tuppence?’
‘No, I’m not quite all right,’ said Tuppence. ‘Something– something, Ithink, hit me here, just below the shoulder. Was it–what was it?’
‘It was someone shooting at us. Someone who was hidden inside thatpampas grass.’
‘Someone who was watching what we were doing,’ said Tuppence. ‘Doyou think that’s it, perhaps?’
‘I expect it’s them Irish,’ said Clarence hopefully. ‘The IRA. You know.
They’ve been trying to blow this place up.’
‘I don’t think it’s of any political significance,’ said Tuppence.
‘Come into the house,’ said Tommy. ‘Come quickly. Come on, Clarence,you’d better come too.’
‘You don’t think your dog will bite me?’ said Clarence uncertainly.
‘No,’ said Tommy. ‘I think he is busy for the moment.’
They had just turned the corner into the garden door when Hannibal re-appeared suddenly. He came racing24 up the hill very out of breath. Hespoke to Tommy in the way a dog does speak. He came up to him, shookhimself, put a paw on Tommy’s trouser leg and tried to pull him in the dir-ection from which he had just come.
‘He wants me to go with him after whoever the man was,’ said Tommy.
‘Well, you’re not to,’ said Tuppence. ‘If there’s anyone there with a rifleor a pistol or something that shoots, I’m not going to have you shot. Not atyour age. Who would look after me if anything happened to you? Comeon, let’s get indoors.’
They went into the house quickly. Tommy went out into the hall andspoke on the telephone.
‘What are you doing?’ said Tuppence.
‘Telephoning the police,’ said Tommy. ‘Can’t let anything like this pass.
They may get on to someone if we’re in time.’
‘I think,’ said Tuppence, ‘that I want something put on my shoulder. Thisblood is ruining my best jumper.’
‘Never mind your jumper,’ said Tommy.
Albert appeared at that moment with a complete service of first aid.
‘Well I never,’ said Albert. ‘You mean some dirty guy has shot at the mis-sus? Whatever’s happening next in this country?’
‘You don’t think you ought to go to the hospital, do you?’
‘No, I don’t,’ said Tuppence. ‘I’m quite all right but I want an outsizeBand-Aid or something to stick on here. Put on something like friar’s bal-sam first.’
‘I’ve got some iodine25.’
‘I don’t want iodine. It stings. Besides, they say now in hospitals that itisn’t the right thing to put on.’
‘I thought friar’s balsam was something you breathed in out of an in-haler,’ said Albert hopefully.
‘That’s one use,’ said Tuppence, ‘but it’s very good to put on slightscratches or scars or if children cut themselves or anything like that. Haveyou got the thing all right?’
‘What thing, what do you mean, Tuppence?’
‘The thing we just got out of the Cambridge Lohengrin. That’s what Imean. The thing that was hanging on a nail. Perhaps it’s something im-portant, you know. They saw us. And so if they tried to kill us–and tried toget whatever it was–that really would be something!’
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1
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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exuberance
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| n.丰富；繁荣 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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obstreperous
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| adj.喧闹的，不守秩序的 | |
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revolve
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| vi.(使)旋转；循环出现 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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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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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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tarpaulin
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| n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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iodine
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| n.碘，碘酒 | |
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