“Der liebe Gott!” said Herr Eberhard in a whisper.
His face had gone chalky white.
George turned a face of dignified1 reproach on Battle.
“Is this true, Battle? I left all arrangements in your hands.”
The rock- like quality of the Superintendent2 showed out well. Not amuscle of his face moved.
“The best of us are defeated sometimes, sir,” he said quietly.
“Then you mean-you really mean-that the document is gone?”
But to everyone’s surprise Superintendent Battle shook his head.
“No, no, Mr. Lomax, it’s not so bad as you think. Everything’s all right.
But you can’t lay the credit for it at my door. You’ve got to thank thisyoung lady.”
He indicated Loraine, who stared at him in surprise. Battle steppedacross to her and gently took the brown paper parcel which she was stillclutching mechanically.
“I think, Mr. Lomax,” he said, “that you will find what you want here.”
Sir Stanley Digby, quicker in action than George, snatched at the pack-age and tore it open, investigating its contents eagerly. A sigh of relief es-caped him and he mopped his brow. Herr Eberhard fell upon the child ofhis brain and clasped it to his heart, whilst a torrent3 of German burst fromhim.
Sir Stanley turned to Loraine, shaking her warmly by the hand.
“My dear young lady,” he said, “we are infinitely4 obliged to you, I amsure.”
“Yes, indeed,” said George. “Though I-er-”
He paused in some perplexity, staring at a young lady who was a totalstranger to him. Loraine looked appealingly at Jimmy, who came to therescue.
“We-this is Miss Wade5.” said Jimmy. “Gerald Wade’s sister.”
“Indeed,” said George, shaking her warmly by the hand. “My dear MissWade, I must express my deep gratitude6 to you for what you have done. Imust confess that I do not quite see-”
He paused delicately and four of the persons present felt that explana-tions were going to be fraught7 with much difficulty. Superintendent Battlecame to the rescue.
“Perhaps we’d better not go into that just now, sir,” he suggested tact-fully.
The efficient Mr. Bateman created a further diversion.
“Wouldn’t it be wise for someone to see to O’Rourke? Don’t you think,sir, that a doctor had better be sent for?”
“Of course,” said George. “Of course. Most remiss8 of us not to havethought of it before.” He looked towards Bill. “Get Dr. Cartwright on thetelephone. Ask him to come. Just hint, if you can, that-er-discretionshould be observed.”
Bill went off on his errand.
“I will come up with you, Digby,” said George. “Something, possibly,could be done-measures should, perhaps, be taken-whilst awaiting thearrival of the doctor.”
He looked rather helplessly at Rupert Bateman. Efficiency always makesitself felt. It was Pongo who was really in charge of the situation.
“Shall I come up with you, sir?”
George accepted the offer with relief. Here, he felt, was someone onwhom he could lean. He experienced that sense of complete trust in Mr.
Bateman’s efficiency which came to all those who encountered that excel-lent young man.
The three men left the room together. Lady Coote, murmuring in deeprich tones: “The poor young fellow. Perhaps I could do something-” hur-ried after them.
“That’s a very motherly woman,” observed the Superintendent thought-fully. “A very motherly woman. I wonder-”
Three pairs of eyes looked at him inquiringly.
“I was wondering,” said Superintendent Battle slowly, “where Sir Os-wald Coote may be.”
“Oh!” gasped9 Loraine. “Do you think he’s been murdered?”
Battle shook his head at her reproachfully.
“No need for anything so melodramatic,” he said. “No-I rather think-”
He paused, his head on one side, listening-one large hand raised to en-join silence.
In another minute they all heard what his sharper ears had been thefirst to notice. Footsteps coming along the terrace outside. They rang outclearly with no kind of subterfuge10 about them. In another minute the win-dow was blocked by a bulky figure which stood there regarding them andwho conveyed, in an odd way, a sense of dominating the situation.
Sir Oswald, for it was he, looked slowly from one face to another. Hiskeen eyes took in the details of the situation. Jimmy, with his roughlybandaged arm; Bundle, in her somewhat anomalous11 attire12; Loraine, a per-fect stranger to him. His eyes came last to Superintendent Battle. He spokesharply and crisply.
“What’s been happening here, officer?”
“Attempted robbery, sir.”
“Attempted-eh?”
“Thanks to this young lady, Miss Wade, the thieves failed to get awaywith it.”
“Ah!” he said again, his scrutiny14 ended. “And now, officer, what aboutthis?”
He held out a small Mauser pistol which he carried delicately by thebutt.
“Where did you find that, Sir Oswald?”
“On the lawn outside. I presume it must have been thrown down by oneof the thieves as he took to his heels. I’ve held it carefully, as I thought youmight wish to examine it for fingerprints15.”
“You think of everything, Sir Oswald,” said Battle.
He took the pistol from the other, handling it with equal care, and laid itdown on the table beside Jimmy’s Colt.
“And now, if you please,” said Sir Oswald, “I should like to hear exactlywhat occurred.”
Superintendent Battle gave a brief résumé of the events of the night. SirOswald frowned thoughtfully.
“I understand,” he said sharply. “After wounding and disabling Mr.
Thesiger, the man took to his heels and ran, throwing away the pistol ashe did so. What I cannot understand is why no one pursued him.”
“It wasn’t till we heard Mr. Thesiger’s story that we knew there was any-one to pursue,” remarked Superintendent Battle dryly.
“You didn’t-er-catch sight of him making off as you turned the cornerof the terrace?”
“No, I missed him by just about forty seconds, I should say. There’s nomoon and he’d be invisible as soon as he’d left the terrace. He must haveleapt for it as soon as he’d fired the shot.”
“H’m,” said Sir Oswald. “I still think that a search should have been or-ganized. Someone else should have been posted-”
“There are three of my men in the grounds,” said the Superintendentquietly.
“Oh!” Sir Oswald seemed rather taken aback.
“They were told to hold and detain anyone attempting to leave thegrounds.”
“And yet-they haven’t done so?”
“And yet they haven’t done so,” agreed Battle gravely.
Sir Oswald looked at him as though something in the words puzzledhim. He said sharply:
“Are you telling me all that you know, Superintendent Battle?”
“All that I know-yes, Sir Oswald. What I think is a different matter.
Maybe I think some rather curious things-but until thinking’s got yousomewhere it’s no use talking about it.”
“And yet,” said Sir Oswald slowly, “I should like to know what you think,Superintendent Battle.”
“For one thing, sir, I think there’s a lot too much ivy16 about this place-excuse me, sir, you’ve got a bit on your coat-yes, a great deal too muchivy. It complicates17 things.”
Sir Oswald stared at him, but any reply he might have contemplatedmaking was arrested by the entrance of Rupert Bateman.
“Oh, there you are, Sir Oswald. I’m so glad. Lady Coote has just dis-covered that you were missing-and she has been insisting upon it thatyou had been murdered by the thieves. I really, think, Sir Oswald, that youhad better come to her at once. She is terribly upset.”
“Maria is an incredibly foolish woman,” said Sir Oswald. “Why should Ibe murdered? I’ll come with you, Bateman.”
He left the room with his secretary.
“That’s a very efficient young man,” said Battle, looking after them.
“What’s his name-Bateman?”
Jimmy nodded.
“Bateman - Rupert,” he said. “Commonly known as Pongo. I was atschool with him.”
“Were you? Now, that’s interesting, Mr. Thesiger. What was your opin-ion of him in those days?”
“Oh, he was always the same sort of ass18.”
“I shouldn’t have thought,” said Battle mildly, “that he was an ass.”
“Oh, you know what I mean. Of course he wasn’t really an ass. Tons ofbrains and always swotting at things. But deadly serious. No sense of hu-mour.”
“Ah!” said Superintendent Battle. “That’s a pity. Gentlemen who have nosense of humour get to taking themselves too seriously-and that leads tomischief.”
“I can’t imagine Pongo getting into mischief,” said Jimmy. “He’s done ex-tremely well for himself so far-dug himself in with old Coote and lookslike being a permanency in the job.”
“Superintendent Battle,” said Bundle.
“Yes, Lady Eileen?”
“Don’t you think it very odd that Sir Oswald didn’t say what he was do-ing wandering about in the garden in the middle of the night?”
“Ah!” said Battle. “Sir Oswald’s a great man-and a great man alwaysknows better than to explain unless an explanation is demanded. To rushinto explanations and excuses is always a sign of weakness. Sir Oswaldknows that as well as I do. He’s not going to come in explaining and apolo-gizing-not he. He just stalks in and hauls me over the coals. He’s a bigman, Sir Oswald.”
Such a warm admiration19 sounded in the Superintendent’s tones thatBundle pursued the subject no further.
“And now,” said Superintendent Battle, looking round with a slighttwinkle in his eye, “now that we’re together and friendly like-I shouldlike to hear just how Miss Wade happened to arrive on the scene so pat.”
“She ought to be ashamed of herself,” said Jimmy. “Hood-winking us allas she did.”
“Why should I be kept out of it all?” cried Loraine passionately20. “I nevermeant to be-no, not the very first day in your rooms when you both ex-plained how the best thing for me to do was to stay quietly at home andkeep out of danger. I didn’t say anything, but I made up my mind then.”
“I half expected it,” said Bundle. “You were so surprisingly meek21 aboutit. I might have known you were up to something.”
“I thought you were remarkably22 sensible,” said Jimmy Thesiger.
“You would, Jimmy dear,” said Loraine. “It was easy enough to deceiveyou.”
“Thank you for these kind words,” said Jimmy. “Go on, and don’t mindme.”
“When you rang up and said there might be danger, I was more determ-ined than ever,” went on Loraine. “I went to Harrods and bought a pistol.
Here it is.”
She produced the dainty weapon and Superintendent Battle took it fromher and examined it.
“Quite a deadly little toy, Miss Wade,” he said. “Have you had much-er-practice with it?”
“None at all,” said Loraine. “But I thought if I took it with me-well, thatit would give me a comforting feeling.”
“Quite so,” said Battle gravely.
“My idea was to come over here and see what was going on. I left my carin the road and climbed through the hedge and came up to the terrace. Iwas just looking about me when-plop-something fell right at my feet. Ipicked it up and then looked to see where it could have come from. Andthen I saw the man climbing down the ivy and I ran.”
“Just so,” said Battle. “Now, Miss Wade, can you describe the man atall?”
The girl shook her head.
“It was too dark to see much. I think he was a big man-but that’s aboutall.”
“And now you, Mr. Thesiger.” Battle turned to him. “You struggled withthe man-can you tell me anything about him?”
“He was a pretty hefty individual-that’s all I can say. He gave a fewhoarse whispers-that’s when I had him by the throat. He said ‘Lemme go,guvnor,’ something like that.”
“An uneducated man, then?”
“Yes, I suppose he was. He spoke13 like one.”
“I still don’t quite understand about the packet,” said Loraine. “Whyshould he throw it down as he did? Was it because it hampered23 him climb-ing?”
“No,” said Battle. “I’ve got an entirely24 different theory about that. Thatpacket, Miss Wade, was deliberately25 thrown down to you-or so I believe.”
“To me?”
“Shall we say-to the person the thief thought you were.”
“This is getting very involved,” said Jimmy.
“Mr. Thesiger, when you came into this room, did you switch on thelight at all?”
“Yes.”
“And there was no one in the room?”
“No one at all.”
“But previously26 you thought you heard someone moving about downhere?”
“Yes.”
“And then, after trying the window, you switched off the light again andlocked the door?”
Jimmy nodded.
Superintendent Battle looked slowly around him. His glance was arres-ted by a big screen of Spanish leather which stood near one of the book-cases.
Brusquely he strode across the room and looked behind it.
He uttered a sharp ejaculation, which brought the three young peoplequickly to his side.
Huddled27 on the foor, in a dead faint, lay the Countess Radzky.
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收听单词发音
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1
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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remiss
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| adj.不小心的，马虎 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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subterfuge
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| n.诡计；藉口 | |
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anomalous
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| adj.反常的；不规则的 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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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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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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fingerprints
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| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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complicates
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| 使复杂化( complicate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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