Chapter 12 Oxford¹, Cambridge and Lohengrin

‘Good man,’ said Colonel Pikeaway, puffing² out smoke. ‘Sorry to send foryou so urgently but I thought I’d better see you.’
‘As I expect you know,’ said Tommy, ‘we’ve been having something alittle unexpected lately.’
‘Ah! Why should you think I know?’
‘Because you always know everything here.’
Colonel Pikeaway laughed.
‘Hah! Quoting me to myself, aren’t you? Yes, that’s what I say. We knoweverything. That’s what we’re here for. Did she have a very narrow es-cape? Your wife, I’m talking about, as you know.’
‘She didn’t have a narrow escape, but there might have been somethingserious. I expect you know most of the details, or do you want me to tellyou?’
‘You can run over it quickly if you like. There’s a bit I didn’t hear,’ saidColonel Pikeaway, ‘the bit about Lohengrin. Grin-hen-lo. She’s sharp, youknow, your wife is. She saw the point of that. It seems idiotic³, but there itwas.’
‘I’ve brought you the results today,’ said Tommy. ‘We hid them in theflour-bin until I could get up to see you. I didn’t like to send them by post.’
‘No. Quite right–’
‘In a kind of tin–not tin but a better metal than that–box and hanging inLohengrin. Pale blue Lohengrin. Cambridge, Victorian china outdoorgarden stool.’
‘Remember them myself in the old days. Had an aunt in the countrywho used to have a pair.’
‘It was very well preserved, sewn up in tarpaulin⁴. Inside it are letters.
They are somewhat perished and that, but I expect with expert treat-ment–’
‘Yes, we can manage that sort of thing all right.’
‘Here they are then,’ said Tommy, ‘and I’ve got a list for you of thingsthat we’ve noted⁵ down, Tuppence and I. Things that have been mentionedor told us.’
‘Names?’
‘Yes. Three or four. The Oxford and Cambridge clue and the mention ofOxford and Cambridge graduates staying there–I don’t think there wasanything in that, because really it referred simply to the Lohengrin porcel-ain stools, I suppose.’

分享到：