Famous Detectives On Christmas Duty - Ultimate Murder Mysteries for Holidays. Эдгар Аллан По

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      “You’ve got it then?”

      “Of course,” I said coolly. “All the same, you know, what I’m doing is highly irregular.”

      “You’ve been a perfect duck, and I shan’t forget it. Come along. They can’t see us from the house, can they?”

      “Wait a minute.” I arrested her eager advance. “I won’t stop you if you really wish to go in. But do you? You’ve seen the grave, and the grounds, and you’ve heard all the details of the affair. Isn’t that enough for you? This is going to be gruesome, you know, and—unpleasant.”

      She looked at me for a moment with an expression that I could not quite fathom. Then she laughed.

      “Me for the horrors,” she said. “Come along.”

      In silence we arrived at the door of the shed. I opened it and we passed in. I walked over to the body, and gently pulled down the sheet as M. Bex had done the preceding afternoon. A little gasping sound escaped from the girl’s lips, and I turned and looked at her. There was horror on her face now, and those debonair high spirits of hers were quenched utterly. She had not chosen to listen to my advice, and she was punished now for her disregard of it. I felt singularly merciless towards her. She should go through with it now. I turned the corpse gently over.

      “You see,” I said, “he was stabbed in the back.”

      Her voice was almost soundless.

      “With what?”

      I nodded towards the glass jar.

      “That dagger.”

      Suddenly the girl reeled, and then sank down in a heap. I sprang to her assistance.

      “You are faint. Come out of here. It has been too much for you.”

      “Water,” she murmured. “Quick. Water. …”

      I left her, and rushed into the house. Fortunately none of the servants were about, and I was able to secure a glass of water unobserved and add a few drops of brandy from a pocket flask. In a few minutes I was back again. The girl was lying as I had left her, but a few sips of the brandy and water revived her in a marvellous manner.

      “Take me out of here—oh, quickly, quickly!” she cried, shuddering.

      Supporting her with my arm I led her out into the air, and she pulled the door to behind her. Then she drew a deep breath.

      “That’s better. Oh, it was horrible! Why did you ever let me go in?”

      I felt this to be so feminine that I could not forbear a smile. Secretly, I was not dissatisfied with her collapse. It proved that she was not quite so callous as I had thought her. After all she was little more than a child, and her curiosity had probably been of the unthinking order.

      “I did my best to stop you, you know,” I said gently.

      “I suppose you did. Well, good-bye.”

      “Look here, you can’t start off like that—all alone. You’re not fit for it. I insist on accompanying you back to Merlinville.”

      “Nonsense. I’m quite all right now.”

      “Supposing you felt faint again? No, I shall come with you.”

      But this she combated with a good deal of energy. In the end, however, I prevailed so far as to be allowed to accompany her to the outskirts of the town. We retraced our steps over our former route, passing the grave again, and making a detour on to the road. Where the first straggling line of shops began, she stopped and held out her hand.

      “Good-bye, and thank you ever so much for coming with me.”

      “Are you sure you’re all right now?”

      “Quite, thanks. I hope you won’t get into any trouble over showing me things?”

      I disclaimed the idea lightly.

      “Well, good-bye.”

      “Au revoir,” I corrected. “If you’re staying here, we shall meet again.”

      She flashed a smile at me.

      “That’s so. Au revoir, then.”

      “Wait a second, you haven’t told me your address?”

      “Oh, I’m staying at the Hôtel du Phare. It’s a little place, but quite good. Come and look me up tomorrow.”

      “I will,” I said, with perhaps rather unnecessary empressement.

      I watched her out of sight, then turned and retraced my steps to the Villa. I remembered that I had not relocked the door of the shed. Fortunately no one had noticed the oversight, and turning the key I removed it and returned it to the sergent de ville. And, as I did so, it came upon me suddenly that though Cinderella had given me her address I still did not know her name.

      9. M. Giraud Finds Some Clues

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      In the Salon I found the examining magistrate busily interrogating the old gardener Auguste. Poirot and the commissary, who were both present, greeted me respectively with a smile and a polite bow. I slipped quietly into a seat. M. Hautet was painstaking and meticulous in the extreme, but did not succeed in eliciting anything of importance.

      The gardening gloves Auguste admitted to be his. He wore them when handling a certain species of primula plant which was poisonous to some people. He could not say when he had worn them last. Certainly he had not missed them. Where were they kept? Sometimes in one place, sometimes in another. The spade was usually to be found in the small tool shed. Was it locked? Of course it was locked. Where was the key kept? Parbleu, it was in the door of course! There was nothing of value to steal. Who would have expected a party of bandits, of assassins? Such things did not happen in Madame la Vicomtesse’s time. M. Hautet signifying that he had finished with him, the old man withdrew, grumbling to the last. Remembering Poirot’s unaccountable insistence on the footprints in the flower beds, I scrutinized him narrowly as he gave his evidence. Either he had nothing to do with the crime or he was a consummate actor. Suddenly, just as he was going out of the door, an idea struck me. “Pardon M. Hautet,” I cried, “but will you permit me to ask him one question?”

      “But certainly, monsieur.”

      Thus encouraged, I turned to Auguste.

      “Where do you keep your boots?”

      “Sac à papier!” growled the old man. “On my feet. Where else?”

      “But when you go to bed at night?”

      “Under my bed.”

      “But who cleans them?”

      “Nobody. Why should they СКАЧАТЬ