II
The next morning I tried to get hold of Jim Corrigan—without success. Ileft a message, however, that I’d be in between six and seven, if he couldcome for a drink. He was a busy man, I knew, and I doubted if he wouldbe able to come at such short notice, but he turned up all right at about tenminutes to seven. While I was getting him a whisky he wandered roundlooking at my pictures and books. He remarked finally that he wouldn’thave minded being a Mogul Emperor himself instead of a hard-pressedoverworked police surgeon.
“Though, I daresay,” he remarked as he settled down in a chair, “thatthey suffered a good deal from woman trouble. At least I escape that.”
“You’re not married, then?”
“No fear. And no more are you, I should say, from the comfortable messin which you live. A wife would tidy all that up in next to no time.”
I told him that I didn’t think women were as bad as he made out.
I took my drink to the chair opposite him and began:
“You must wonder why I wanted to get hold of you so urgently, but as amatter of fact something has come up that may have a bearing on whatwe were discussing the last time we met.”
“What was that?—oh, of course. The Father Gorman business.”
“Yes—But first, does the phrase The Pale Horse mean anything to you?”
“The Pale Horse… The Pale Horse—No, I don’t think so—why?”
“Because I think it’s possible that it might have a connection with thatlist of names you showed me—I’ve been down in the country with friends—at a place called Much Deeping, and they took me to an old pub, or whatwas once a pub, called the Pale Horse.”
“Wait a bit! Much Deeping? Much Deeping… Is it anywhere nearBournemouth?”
“It’s about fifteen miles or so from Bournemouth.”
“I suppose you didn’t come across anyone called Venables down there?”
“Certainly I did.”
“You did?” Corrigan sat up in some excitement. “You certainly have aknack of going places! What is he like?”
“He’s a most remarkable¹ man.”
“He is, is he? Remarkable in what way?”
“Principally in the force of his personality. Although he’s completelycrippled by polio—”
“Corrigan interrupted me sharply—
“What?”
“He had polio some years ago. He’s paralysed from the waist down.”
Corrigan threw himself back in his chair with a look of disgust.
“That tears it! I thought it was too good to be true.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”

分享到：