Bundle reached 14 Hunstanton Street about six p.m. At that hour, as sherightly judged, the Seven Dials Club was a dead spot. Bundle’s aim was asimple one. She intended to get hold of the ex-footman Alfred. She wasconvinced that once she had got hold of him the rest would be easy.
Bundle had a simple autocratic method of dealing1 with retainers. It sel-dom failed, and she saw no reason why it should fail now.
The only thing of which she was not certain was how many people in-habited the club premises2. Naturally she wished to disclose her presenceto as few people as possible.
Whilst she was hesitating as to the best line of attack, the problem wassolved for her in a singularly easy fashion. The door of No 14 opened andAlfred himself came out.
“Good afternoon, Alfred,” said Bundle pleasantly.
Alfred jumped.
“Oh! good afternoon, your ladyship. I—I didn’t recognize your ladyshipjust for a moment.”
Paying a tribute in her own mind to her maid’s clothing, Bundle pro-ceeded to business.
“I want a few words with you, Alfred. Where shall we go?”
“Well—really, my lady—I don’t know—it’s not what you might call anice part round here—I don’t know, I’m sure—”
Bundle cut him short.
“Who’s in the club?”
“No one at present, my lady.”
“Then we’ll go in there.”
Alfred produced a key and opened the door. Bundle passed in. Alfred,troubled and sheepish, followed her. Bundle sat down and looked straightat the uncomfortable Alfred.
“I suppose you know,” she said crisply, “that what you’re doing here isdead against the law?”
Alfred shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.
“It’s true as we’ve been raided twice,” he admitted. “But nothing com-promising was found, owing to the neatness of Mr. Mosgorovsky’s ar-rangements.”
“I’m not talking of the gambling3 only,” said Bundle. There’s more thanthat—probably a great deal more than you know. I’m going to ask you adirect question, Alfred, and I should like the truth, please. How much wereyou paid for leaving Chimneys?”
Alfred looked twice round the cornice as though seeking for inspiration,swallowed three or four times, and then took the inevitable4 course of aweak will opposed to a strong one.
“It was this way, your ladyship. Mr. Mosgorovsky, he come with a partyto visit Chimneys on one of the show days. Mr. Tredwell, he was indis-posed like—an ingrowing toenail as a matter of fact—so it fell to me toshow the parties over. At the end of the tour Mr. Mosgorovsky, he stays be-hind the rest, and after giving me something handsome, he falls into con-versation.”
“Yes,” said Bundle encouragingly.
“And the long and the short of it was,” said Alfred, with a sudden accel-eration of his narrative5, “that he offers me a hundred pound down toleave that instant and to look after this here club. He wanted someone aswas used to the best families—to give the place a tone, as he put it. And,well, it seemed flying in the face of providence6 to refuse—let alone thatthe wages I get here are just three times what they were as second foot-man.”
“A hundred pounds,” said Bundle. “That’s a very large sum, Alfred. Didthey say anything about who was to fill your place at Chimneys?”
“I demurred7 a bit, my lady, about leaving at once. As I pointed8 out, itwasn’t usual and might cause inconvenience. But Mr. Mosgorovsky heknew of a young chap — been in good service and ready to come anyminute. So I mentioned his name to Mr. Tredwell and everything wassettled pleasant-like.”
Bundle nodded. Her own suspicions had been correct and the modus op-erandi was much as she had thought it to be. She essayed a further in-quiry.
“Who is Mr. Mosgorovsky?”
“Gentleman as runs this club. Russian gentleman. A very clever gentle-man too.”
Bundle abandoned the getting of information for the moment and pro-ceeded to other matters.
“A hundred pounds is a very large sum of money, Alfred.”
“Larger than I ever handled, my lady,” said Alfred with simple candour.
“Did you ever suspect that there was something wrong?”
“Wrong, my lady?”
“Yes. I’m not talking about the gambling. I mean something far moreserious. You don’t want to be sent to penal9 servitude, do you, Alfred?”
“Oh, Lord! my lady, you don’t mean it?”
“I was at Scotland Yard the day before yesterday,” said Bundle impress-ively. “I heard some very curious things. I want you to help me, Alfred,and if you do, well—if things go wrong, I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“Anything I can do, I shall be only too pleased, my lady. I mean I wouldanyway.”
“Well, first,” said Bundle, “I want to go all over this place—from top tobottom.”
Accompanied by a mystified and scared Alfred, she made a very thor-ough tour of inspection10. Nothing struck her eye till she came to the gamingroom. There she noticed an inconspicuous door in the corner, and thedoor was locked.
Alfred explained readily.
“That’s used as a getaway, your ladyship. There’s a room and a door onto a staircase what comes out in the next street. That’s the way the gentrygoes when there’s a raid.”
“But don’t the police know about it?”
“It’s a cunning door, you see, my lady. Looks like a cupboard, that’s all.”
Bundle felt a rising excitement.
“I must get in there,” she said.
Alfred shook his head.
“You can’t, my lady; Mr. Mosgorovsky, he has the key.”
“Well,” said Bundle, “there are other keys.”
She perceived that the lock was a perfectly11 ordinary one which prob-ably could be easily unlocked by the key of one of the other doors. Alfred,rather troubled, was sent to collect likely specimens12. The fourth thatBundle tried fitted. She turned it, opened the door and passed through.
She found herself in a small, dingy13 apartment. A long table occupied thecentre of the room with chairs ranged round it. There was no other fur-niture in the room. Two built-in cupboards stood on either side of the fire-place. Alfred indicated the nearer one with a nod.
“That’s it,” he explained.
Bundle tried the cupboard door, but it was locked, and she saw at oncethat this lock was a very different affair. It was of the patent kind thatwould only yield to its own key.
“ ’Ighly ingenious, it is,” explained Alfred. “It looks all right whenopened. Shelves, you know, with a few ledgers14 and that on ’em. Nobody’dever suspect, but you touch the right spot and the whole things swingsopen.”
Bundle had turned round and was surveying the room thoughtfully. Thefirst thing she noticed was that the door by which they had entered wascarefully fitted round with baize. It must be completely soundproof. Thenher eyes wandered to the chairs. There were seven of them, three eachside and one rather more imposing15 in design at the head of the table.
Bundle’s eyes brightened. She had found what she was looking for. This,she felt sure, was the meeting place of the secret organization. The placewas almost perfectly planned. It looked so innocent—you could reach itjust by stepping through from the gaming room, or you could arrive thereby16 the secret entrance—and any secrecy17, any precautions were easily ex-plained by the gaming going on in the next room.
Idly, as these thoughts passed through her mind, she drew a fingeracross the marble of the mantelpiece. Alfred saw and misinterpreted theaction.
“You won’t find no dirt, not to speak of,” he said. “Mr. Mosgorovsky, heordered the place to be swept out this morning, and I did it while hewaited.”
“Oh!” said Bundle, thinking very hard. “This morning, eh?”
“Has to be done sometimes,” said Alfred. “Though the room’s neverwhat you might call used.”
Next minute he received a shock.
“Alfred,” said Bundle, “you’ve got to find me a place in this room where Ican hide.”
Alfred looked at her in dismay.
“But it’s impossible, my lady. You’ll get me into trouble and I’ll lose myjob.”
“You’ll lose it anyway when you go to prison,” said Bundle unkindly.
“But as a matter of fact, you needn’t worry, nobody will know anythingabout it.”
“And there ain’t no place,” wailed18 Alfred. “Look round for yourself, yourladyship, if you don’t believe me.”
Bundle was forced to admit that there was something in this argument.
But she had the true spirit of one undertaking19 adventures.
“Nonsense,” she said with determination. “There has got to be a place.”
“But there ain’t one,” wailed Alfred.
Never had a room shown itself more unpropitious for concealment21.
Dingy blinds were drawn22 down over the dirty window panes23, and therewere no curtains. The window sill outside, which Bundle examined, wasabout four inches wide! Inside the room there were the table, the chairsand the cupboards.
The second cupboard had a key in the lock. Bundle went across andpulled it open. Inside were shelves covered with an odd assortment24 ofglasses and crockery.
“Surplus stuff as we don’t use,” explained Alfred. “You can see for your-self, my lady, there’s no place here as a cat could hide.”
But Bundle was examining the shelves.
“Flimsy work,” she said. “Now then, Alfred, have you got a cupboarddownstairs where you could shove all this glass? You have? Good. Thenget a tray and start to carry it down at once. Hurry—there’s no time tolose.”
“You can’t, my lady. And it’s getting late, too. The cooks will be here anyminute now.”
“Mr. Mosgo—whatnot doesn’t come till later, I suppose?”
“He’s never here much before midnight. But oh, my lady—”
“Don’t talk so much, Alfred,” said Bundle. “Get that tray. If you stay herearguing, you will get into trouble.”
Doing what is familiarly known as “wringing his hands,” Alfred depar-ted. Presently he returned with a tray, and having by now realized that hisprotests were useless, he worked with a nervous energy quite surprising.
As Bundle had seen, the shelves were easily detachable. She took themdown, ranged them upright against the wall, and then stepped in.
“H’m,” she remarked. “Pretty narrow. It’s going to be a tight fit. Shut thedoor on me carefully, Alfred—that’s right. Yes, it can be done. Now I wanta gimlet.”
“A gimlet, my lady?”
“That’s what I said.”
“I don’t know—”
“Nonsense, you must have a gimlet—perhaps you’ve got an auger25 aswell. If you haven’t got what I want, you’ll have to go out and buy it, soyou’d better try hard to find the right thing.”
Alfred departed and returned presently with quite a creditable assort-ment of tools. Bundle seized what she wanted and proceeded swiftly andefficiently to bore a small hole at the level of her right eye. She did thisfrom the outside so that it should be less noticeable, and she dared notmake it too large lest it should attract attention.
“There, that’ll do,” she remarked at last.
“Oh, but, my lady, my lady—”
“Yes?”
“But they’ll find you—if they should open the door.”
“They won’t open the door,” said Bundle. “Because you are going to lockit and take the key away.”
“And if by chance Mr. Mosgorovsky should ask for the key?”
“Tell him it’s lost,” said Bundle briskly. “But nobody’s going to worryabout this cupboard—it’s only here to attract attention from the other oneand make it a pair. Go on, Alfred, someone might come at any time. Lockme in and take the key and come and let me out when everyone’s gone.”
“You’ll be taken bad, my lady. You’ll faint—”
“I never faint,” said Bundle. “But you might as well get me a cocktail26. Ishall certainly need it. Then lock the door of the room again—don’t forget—and take the door keys back to their proper doors. And Alfred—don’t betoo much of a rabbit. Remember, if anything goes wrong, I’ll see youthrough.”
“And that’s that,” said Bundle to herself, when having served the cock-tail, Alfred had finally departed.
She was not nervous lest Alfred’s nerve should fail and he should giveher away. She knew that his sense of self-preservation was far too strongfor that. His training alone helped him to conceal20 private emotions be-neath the mask of a well-trained servant.
Only one thing worried Bundle. The interpretation27 she had chosen toput upon the cleaning of the room that morning might be all wrong. And ifso—Bundle sighed in the narrow confines of the cupboard. The prospectof spending long hours in it for nothing was not attractive.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
dealing
|
|
| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
premises
|
|
| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
gambling
|
|
| n.赌博；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
demurred
|
|
| v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
penal
|
|
| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
inspection
|
|
| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
specimens
|
|
| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
dingy
|
|
| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
ledgers
|
|
| n.分类账( ledger的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
imposing
|
|
| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
thereby
|
|
| adv.因此，从而 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
secrecy
|
|
| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
wailed
|
|
| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
undertaking
|
|
| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
concealment
|
|
| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
panes
|
|
| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
assortment
|
|
| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
auger
|
|
| n.螺丝钻，钻孔机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
cocktail
|
|
| n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
interpretation
|
|
| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |