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CHAPTER XVI. Getting Ready for the Night
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 What was it which Cayley was going to hide in that pond that night? Antony thought that he knew now. It was Mark’s body.
 
From the beginning he had seen this answer coming and had drawn1 back from it. For, if Mark had been killed, it seemed such a cold-blooded killing2. Was Cayley equal to it? Bill would have said “No,” but that was because he had had breakfast with Cayley, and lunch with him, and dinner with him; had ragged3 him and played games with him. Bill would have said “No,” because Bill wouldn’t have killed anybody in cold blood himself, and because he took it for granted that other people behaved pretty much as he did. But Antony had no such illusions. Murders were done; murder had actually been done here, for there was Robert’s dead body. Why not another murder?
 
Had Mark been in the office at all that afternoon? The only evidence (other than Cayley’s, which obviously did not count) was Elsie’s. Elsie was quite certain that she had heard his voice. But then Bill had said that it was a very characteristic voice—an easy voice, therefore, to imitate. If Bill could imitate it so successfully, why not Cayley?
 
But perhaps it had not been such a cold-blooded killing, after all. Suppose Cayley had had a quarrel with his cousin that afternoon over the girl whom they were both wooing. Suppose Cayley had killed Mark, either purposely, in sudden passion, or accidentally, meaning only to knock him down. Suppose that this had happened in the passage, say about two o’clock, either because Cayley had deliberately4 led him there, or because Mark had casually5 suggested a visit to it. (One could imagine Mark continually gloating over that secret passage.) Suppose Cayley there, with the body at his feet, feeling already the rope round his neck; his mind darting6 this way and that in frantic7 search for a way of escape; and suppose that suddenly and irrelevantly8 he remembers that Robert is coming to the house at three o’clock that afternoon—automatically he looks at his watch—in half an hour’s time.... In half an hour’s time. He must think of something quickly, quickly. Shall he bury the body in the passage and let it be thought that Mark ran away, frightened at the mere9 thought of his brother’s arrival? But there was the evidence of the breakfast table. Mark had seemed annoyed at this resurrection of the black sheep, but certainly not frightened. No; that was much too thin a story. But suppose Mark had actually seen his brother and had a quarrel with him; suppose it could be made to look as if Robert had killed Mark—
 
Antony pictured to himself Cayley in the passage, standing10 over the dead body of his cousin, and working it out. How could Robert be made to seem the murderer, if Robert were alive to deny it? But suppose Robert were dead, too?
 
He looks at his watch again. (Only twenty-five minutes now.) Suppose Robert were dead, too? Robert dead in the office, and Mark dead in the passage—how does that help? Madness! But if the bodies were brought together somehow and Robert’s death looked like suicide?.... Was it possible?
 
Madness again. Too difficult. (Only twenty minutes now.) Too difficult to arrange in twenty minutes. Can’t arrange a suicide. Too difficult.... Only nineteen minutes....
 
And then the sudden inspiration! Robert dead in the office, Mark’s body hidden in the passage—impossible to make Robert seem the murderer, but how easy to make Mark! Robert dead and Mark missing; why, it jumped to the eye at once. Mark had killed Robert—accidentally; yes, that would be more likely—and then had run away. Sudden panic.... (He looks at his watch again. Fifteen minutes, but plenty of time now. The thing arranges itself.)
 
Was that the solution, Antony wondered. It seemed to fit in with the facts as they knew them; but then, so did that other theory which he had suggested to Bill in the morning.
 
“Which one?” said Bill.
 
They had come back from Jallands through the park and were sitting in the copse above the pond, from which the Inspector11 and his fishermen had now withdrawn12. Bill had listened with open mouth to Antony’s theory, and save for an occasional “By Jove!” had listened in silence. “Smart man, Cayley,” had been his only comment at the end.
 
“Which other theory?”
 
“That Mark had killed Robert accidentally and had gone to Cayley for help, and that Cayley, having hidden him in the passage, locked the office door from the outside and hammered on it.”
 
“Yes, but you were so dashed mysterious about that. I asked you what the point of it was, and you wouldn’t say anything.” He thought for a little, and then went on, “I suppose you meant that Cayley deliberately betrayed Mark, and tried to make him look like a murderer?”
 
“I wanted to warn you that we should probably find Mark in the passage, alive or dead.”
 
“And now you don’t think so?”
 
“Now I think that his dead body is there.”
 
“Meaning that Cayley went down and killed him afterwards—after you had come, after the police had come?”
 
“Well, that’s what I shrink from, Bill. It’s so horribly cold-blooded. Cayley may be capable of it, but I hate to think of it.”
 
“But, dash it all, your other way is cold-blooded enough. According to you, he goes up to the office and deliberately shoots a man with whom he has no quarrel, whom he hasn’t seen for fifteen years!”
 
“Yes, but to save his own neck. That makes a difference. My theory is that he quarrelled violently with Mark over the girl, and killed him in sudden passion. Anything that happened after that would be self-defense. I don’t mean that I excuse it, but that I understand it. And I think that Mark’s dead body is in the passage now, and has been there since, say, half-past two yesterday afternoon. And to-night Cayley is going to hide it in the pond.”
 
Bill pulled at the moss13 on the ground beside him, threw away a handful or two, and said slowly, “You may be right, but it’s all guess-work, you know.”
 
Antony laughed.
 
“Good Lord, of course it is,” he said. “And to-night we shall know if it’s a good guess or a bad one.”
 
Bill brightened up suddenly.
 
“To-night,” he said. “I say, to-night’s going to be rather fun. How do we work it?”
 
Antony was silent for a little.
 
“Of course,” he said at last, “we ought to inform the police, so that they can come here and watch the pond to-night.”
 
“Of course,” grinned Bill.
 
“But I think that perhaps it is a little early to put our theories before them.”
 
“I think perhaps it is,” said Bill solemnly.
 
Antony looked up at him with a sudden smile.
 
“Bill, you old bounder.”
 
“Well, dash it, it’s our show. I don’t see why we shouldn’t get our little bit of fun out of it.”
 
“Neither do I. All right, then, we’ll do without the police to-night.”
 
“We shall miss them,” said Bill sadly, “but ’tis better so.”
 
There were two problems in front of them: first, the problem of getting out of the house without being discovered by Cayley, and secondly14, the problem of recovering whatever it was which Cayley dropped into the pond that night.
 
“Let’s look at it from Cayley’s point of view,” said Antony. “He may not know that we’re on his track, but he can’t help being suspicious of us. He’s bound to be suspicious of everybody in the house, and more particularly of us, because we’re presumably more intelligent than the others.”
 
He stopped for a moment to light his pipe, and Bill took the opportunity of looking more intelligent than Mrs. Stevens.
 
“Now, he has got something to hide to-night, and he’s going to take good care that we aren’t watching him. Well, what will he do?”
 
“See that we are asleep first, before he starts out.”
 
“Yes. Come and tuck us up, and see that we’re nice and comfortable.”
 
“Yes, that’s awkward,” said Bill. “But we could lock our doors, and then he wouldn’t know that we weren’t there.”
 
“Have you ever locked your door?”
 
“Never.”
 
“No. And you can bet that Cayley knows that. Anyway, he’d bang on it, and you wouldn’t answer, and then what would he think?”
 
Bill was silent; crushed.
 
“Then I don’t see how we’re going to do it,” he said, after deep thought. “He’ll obviously come to us just before he starts out, and that doesn’t give us time to get to the pond in front of him.”
 
“Let’s put ourselves in his place,” said Antony, puffing15 slowly at his pipe. “He’s got the body, or whatever it is, in the passage. He won’t come up the stairs, carrying it in his arms, and look in at our doors to see if we’re awake. He’ll have to make sure about us first, and then go down for the body afterwards. So that gives us a little time.”
 
“Y-yes,” said Bill thoughtfully. “We might just do it, but it’ll be a bit of a rush.”
 
“But wait. When he’s gone down to the passage and got the body, what will he do next?”
 
“Come out again,” said Bill helpfully.
 
“Yes; but which end?”
 
Bill sat up with a start.
 
“By Jove, you mean that he will go out at the far end by the bowling16-green?”
 
“Don’t you think so? Just imagine him walking across the lawn in full view of the house, at midnight, with a body in his arms. Think of the awful feeling he would have in the back of the neck, wondering if anybody, any restless sleeper17, had chosen just that moment to wander to the window and look out into the night. There’s still plenty of moonlight, Bill. Is he going to walk across the park in the moonlight, with all those windows staring at him? Not if he can help it. But he can get out by the bowling green, and then come to the pond without ever being in sight of the house, at all.”
 
“You’re right. And that will just about give us time. Good. Now, what’s the next thing?”
 
“The next thing is to mark the exact place in the pond where he drops—whatever he drops.”
 
“So that we can fish it out again.”
 
“If we can see what it is, we shan’t want to. The police can have a go at it to-morrow. But if it’s something we can’t identify from a distance, then we must try and get it out. To see whether it’s worth telling the police about.”
 
“Y-yes,” said Bill, wrinkling his forehead. “Of course, the trouble with water is that one bit of it looks pretty much like the next bit. I don’t know if that had occurred to you.
 
“It had,” smiled Antony. “Let’s come and have a look at it.”
 
They walked to the edge of the copse, and lay down there in silence, looking at the pond beneath them.
 
“See anything?” said Antony at last.
 
“What?”
 
“The fence on the other side.”
 
“What about it?”
 
“Well, it’s rather useful, that’s all.”
 
“Said Sherlock Holmes enigmatically,” added Bill. “A moment later, his friend Watson had hurled18 him into the pond.”
 
Antony laughed.
 
“I love being Sherlocky,” he said. “It’s very unfair of you not to play up to me.”
 
“Why is that fence useful, my dear Holmes?” said Bill obediently.
 
“Because you can take a bearing on it. You see—”
 
“Yes, you needn’t stop to explain to me what a bearing is.”
 
“I wasn’t going to. But you’re lying here”—he looked up—“underneath this pine-tree. Cayley comes out in the old boat and drops his parcel in. You take a line from here on to the boat, and mark it off on the fence there. Say it’s the fifth post from the end. Well, then I take a line from my tree—we’ll find one for me directly—and it comes on to the twentieth post, say. And where the two lines meet, there shall the eagles be gathered together. Q.E.D. And there, I almost forgot to remark, will the taller eagle, Beverley by name, do his famous diving act. As performed nightly at the Hippodrome.”
 
Bill looked at him uneasily.
 
“I say, really? It’s beastly dirty water, you know.”
 
“I’m afraid so, Bill. So it is written in the book of Jasher.”
 
“Of course I knew that one of us would have to, but I hoped—oh, well, it’s a warm night.”
 
“Just the night for a bathe,” agreed Antony, getting up. “Well now, let’s have a look for my tree.”
 
They walked down to the margin19 of the pond and then looked back. Bill’s tree stood up and took the evening, tall and unmistakable, fifty feet nearer to heaven than its neighbours. But it had its fellow at the other end of the copse, not quite so tall, perhaps, but equally conspicuous20.
 
“That’s where I shall be,” said Antony, pointing to it. “Now, for the Lord’s sake, count your posts accurately21.”
 
“Thanks very much, but I shall do it for my own sake,” said Bill with feeling. “I don’t want to spend the whole night diving.”
 
“Fix on the post in a straight line with you and the splash, and then count backwards22 to the beginning of the fence.”
 
“Right, old boy. Leave it to me. I can do this on my head.”
 
“Well, that’s how you will have to do the last part of it,” said Antony with a smile.
 
He looked at his watch. It was nearly time to change for dinner. They started to walk back to the house together.
 
“There’s one thing which worries me rather,” said Antony. “Where does Cayley sleep?”
 
“Next door to me. Why?”
 
“Well, it’s just possible that he might have another look at you after he’s come back from the pond. I don’t think he’d bother about it in the ordinary way, but if he is actually passing your door, I think he might glance in.”
 
“I shan’t be there. I shall be at the bottom of the pond, sucking up mud.”
 
“Yes.... Do you think you could leave something in your bed that looked vaguely23 like you in the dark? A bolster24 with a pyjama-coat round it, and one arm outside the blanket, and a pair of socks or something for the head. You know the kind of thing. I think it would please him to feel that you were still sleeping peacefully.”
 
Bill chuckled25 to himself.
 
“Rather. I’m awfully26 good at that. I’ll make him up something really good. But what about you?”
 
“I’m at the other end of the house; he’s hardly likely to bother about me a second time. And I shall be so very fast asleep at his first visit. Still, I may as well—to be on the safe side.”
 
They went into the house. Cayley was in the hall as they came in. He nodded, and took out his watch.
 
“Time to change?” he said.
 
“Just about,” said Bill.
 
“You didn’t forget my letter?”
 
“I did not. In fact, we had tea there.”
 
“Ah!” He looked away and said carelessly, “How were they all?”
 
“They sent all sorts of sympathetic messages to you, and—and all that sort of thing.”
 
“Oh, yes.”
 
Bill waited for him to say something more, and then, as nothing was coming, he turned round, said, “Come on, Tony,” and led the way upstairs.
 
“Got all you want?” he said at the top of the stairs.
 
“I think so. Come and see me before you go down.”
 
“Righto.”
 
Antony shut his bedroom door behind him and walked over to the window. He pushed open a casement27 and looked out. His bedroom was just over the door at the back of the house. The side wall of the office, which projected out into the lawn beyond the rest of the house, was on his left. He could step out on to the top of the door, and from there drop easily to the ground. Getting back would be little more difficult. There was a convenient water-pipe which would help.
 
He had just finished his dressing28 when Bill came in. “Final instructions?” he asked, sitting down on the bed. “By the way, how are we amusing ourselves after dinner? I mean immediately after dinner.”
 
“Billiards?”
 
“Righto. Anything you like.”
 
“Don’t talk too loud,” said Antony in a lower voice. “We’re more or less over the hall, and Cayley may be there.” He led the way to the window. “We’ll go out this way to-night. Going downstairs is too risky29. It’s easy enough; better put on tennis-shoes.”
 
“Right. I say, in case I don’t get another chance alone with you—what do I do when Cayley comes to tuck me up?”
 
“It’s difficult to say. Be as natural as you can. I mean, if he just knocks lightly and looks in, be asleep. Don’t overdo30 the snoring. But if he makes a hell of a noise, you’ll have to wake up and rub your eyes, and wonder what on earth he’s doing in your room at all. You know the sort of thing.”
 
“Right. And about the dummy31 figure. I’ll make it up directly we come upstairs, and hide it under the bed.”
 
“Yes.... I think we’d better go completely to bed ourselves. We shan’t take a moment dressing again, and it will give him time to get safely into the passage. Then come into my room.”
 
“Right.... Are you ready?”
 
“Yes.”
 
They went downstairs together.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 drawn MuXzIi     
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
参考例句:
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
2 killing kpBziQ     
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
参考例句:
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
3 ragged KC0y8     
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的
参考例句:
  • A ragged shout went up from the small crowd.这一小群人发出了刺耳的喊叫。
  • Ragged clothing infers poverty.破衣烂衫意味着贫穷。
4 deliberately Gulzvq     
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地
参考例句:
  • The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
  • They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。
5 casually UwBzvw     
adv.漠不关心地,无动于衷地,不负责任地
参考例句:
  • She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
  • I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。
6 darting darting     
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔
参考例句:
  • Swallows were darting through the clouds. 燕子穿云急飞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • Swallows were darting through the air. 燕子在空中掠过。 来自辞典例句
7 frantic Jfyzr     
adj.狂乱的,错乱的,激昂的
参考例句:
  • I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
  • He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。
8 irrelevantly 364499529287275c4068bbe2e17e35de     
adv.不恰当地,不合适地;不相关地
参考例句:
  • To-morrow!\" Then she added irrelevantly: \"You ought to see the baby.\" 明天,”随即她又毫不相干地说:“你应当看看宝宝。” 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比
  • Suddenly and irrelevantly, she asked him for money. 她突然很不得体地向他要钱。 来自互联网
9 mere rC1xE     
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过
参考例句:
  • That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
  • It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。
10 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
11 inspector q6kxH     
n.检查员,监察员,视察员
参考例句:
  • The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
  • The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。
12 withdrawn eeczDJ     
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出
参考例句:
  • Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
  • All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。
13 moss X6QzA     
n.苔,藓,地衣
参考例句:
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
14 secondly cjazXx     
adv.第二,其次
参考例句:
  • Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二,动脑筋提出自己的见解。
  • Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次,需要确定所作用的载荷。
15 puffing b3a737211571a681caa80669a39d25d3     
v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧
参考例句:
  • He was puffing hard when he jumped on to the bus. 他跳上公共汽车时喘息不已。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe. 父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
16 bowling cxjzeN     
n.保龄球运动
参考例句:
  • Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
  • Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动,高尔夫还是保龄球?
17 sleeper gETyT     
n.睡眠者,卧车,卧铺
参考例句:
  • I usually go up to London on the sleeper. 我一般都乘卧车去伦敦。
  • But first he explained that he was a very heavy sleeper. 但首先他解释说自己睡觉很沉。
18 hurled 16e3a6ba35b6465e1376a4335ae25cd2     
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂
参考例句:
  • He hurled a brick through the window. 他往窗户里扔了块砖。
  • The strong wind hurled down bits of the roof. 大风把屋顶的瓦片刮了下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
19 margin 67Mzp     
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘
参考例句:
  • We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
  • The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
20 conspicuous spszE     
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的
参考例句:
  • It is conspicuous that smoking is harmful to health.很明显,抽烟对健康有害。
  • Its colouring makes it highly conspicuous.它的色彩使它非常惹人注目。
21 accurately oJHyf     
adv.准确地,精确地
参考例句:
  • It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
  • Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。
22 backwards BP9ya     
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地
参考例句:
  • He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
  • All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。
23 vaguely BfuzOy     
adv.含糊地,暖昧地
参考例句:
  • He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
  • He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面,对一切都视而不见。
24 bolster ltOzK     
n.枕垫;v.支持,鼓励
参考例句:
  • The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
  • He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。
25 chuckled 8ce1383c838073977a08258a1f3e30f8     
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
  • She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情,她就轻轻地暗自发笑。
26 awfully MPkym     
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地
参考例句:
  • Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
  • I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。
27 casement kw8zwr     
n.竖铰链窗;窗扉
参考例句:
  • A casement is a window that opens by means of hinges at the side.竖铰链窗是一种用边上的铰链开启的窗户。
  • With the casement half open,a cold breeze rushed inside.窗扉半开,凉风袭来。
28 dressing 1uOzJG     
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料
参考例句:
  • Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
  • The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。
29 risky IXVxe     
adj.有风险的,冒险的
参考例句:
  • It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险,但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
  • He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。
30 overdo 9maz5o     
vt.把...做得过头,演得过火
参考例句:
  • Do not overdo your privilege of reproving me.不要过分使用责备我的特权。
  • The taxi drivers' association is urging its members,who can work as many hours as they want,not to overdo it.出租车司机协会劝告那些工作时长不受限制的会员不要疲劳驾驶。
31 dummy Jrgx7     
n.假的东西;(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头
参考例句:
  • The police suspect that the device is not a real bomb but a dummy.警方怀疑那个装置不是真炸弹,只是一个假货。
  • The boys played soldier with dummy swords made of wood.男孩们用木头做的假木剑玩打仗游戏。


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