山核桃大街谋杀案（19）

时间：2025-03-03 03:20:47

（单词翻译:单击）

Chapter Eighteen
“Now, Mr. Akibombo,” said Inspector1 Sharpe, resignedly, “let’s hear, please, what all this is
about.”
Mr. Akibombo had been provided with a chair. He sat facing the others who were all looking at
him with keen attention.
“Thank you. I begin now?”
“Yes, please.”
“Well, it is, you see, that sometimes I have the disquieting2 sensations in my stomach.”
“Oh.”
“Sick to my stomach. That is what Miss Sally calls it. But I am not, you see, actually sick. I do
not, that is, vomit3.”
Inspector Sharpe restrained himself with difficulty while these medical details were elaborated.
“Yes, yes,” he said. “Very sorry, I’m sure. But you want to tell us—”
“It is, perhaps, unaccustomed food. I feel very full here.” Mr. Akibombo indicated exactly
where. “I think myself, not enough meat, and too much what you call cardohydrates.”
“Carbohydrates,” the inspector corrected him mechanically. “But I don’t see—”
“Sometimes I take small pill, soda4 mint; and sometimes stomach powder. It does not matter
very much what it is—so that a great pouf comes and much air—like this.” Mr. Akibombo gave a
most realistic and gigantic belch5. “After that,” he smiled seraphically, “I feel much better, much
better.”
The inspector’s face was becoming a congested purple. Mrs. Hubbard said authoritatively6:
“We understand all about that. Now get on to the next part.”
“Yes. Certainly. Well, as I say, this happens to me early last week—I do not remember exactly
which day. Very good macaroni and I eat a lot, and afterwards feel very bad. I try to do work for
my professor but difficult to think with fullness here.” (Again Akibombo indicated the spot.) “It is
after supper in the common room and only Elizabeth there and I say to her, ‘Have you bicarbonate
or stomach powder, I have finished mine.’ And she says, ‘No. But,’ she says, ‘I saw some in Pat’s
drawer when I was putting back a handkerchief I borrowed from her. I will get it for you,’ she
says. ‘Pat will not mind.’ So she goes upstairs and comes back with soda bicarbonate bottle. Very
little left, at bottom of bottle, almost empty. I thank her and go with it to the bathroom, and I put
nearly all of it about a teaspoonful7 in water and stir it up and drink it.”
“A teaspoonful? A teaspoonful! My God!”
The inspector gazed at him fascinated. Sergeant8 Cobb leaned forward with an astonished face.
Mrs. Hubbard said obscurely:
“Rasputin!”
“You swallowed a teaspoonful of morphia?”
“Naturally, I think it is bicarbonate.”
“Yes, yes, what I can’t understand is why you’re sitting here now!”
“And then, afterwards, I was ill, but really ill. Not just the fullness. Pain, bad pain in my
stomach.”
“I can’t make out why you’re not dead!”
“Rasputin,” said Mrs. Hubbard. “They used to give him poison again and again, lots of it, and it
didn’t kill him!”
Mr. Akibombo was continuing.
“So then, next day, when I am better, I take the bottle and the tiny bit of powder that is left in it
to a chemist and I say please tell me what is this I have taken that has made me feel so bad?”
“Yes?”
“And he says come back later, and when I do, he says, ‘No wonder! This is not the bicarbonate.
It is the borasseek. The acid borasseek. You can put it in the eyes, yes, but if you swallow a
teaspoonful it makes you ill.’ ”
“Boracic?” The Inspector stared at him stupefied. “But how did boracic get into that bottle?
What happened to the morphia?” He groaned9. “Of all the haywire cases!”
“And I have been thinking, please,” went on Akibombo.
“You have been thinking,” Sharpe said. “And what have you been thinking?”
“I have been thinking of Miss Celia and how she died and that someone, after she was dead,
must have come into her room and left there the empty morphia bottle and the little piece of paper
that say she killed herself—”
Akibombo paused and the inspector nodded.
“And so I say—who could have done that? And I think if it is one of the girls it will be easy, but
if a man not so easy, because he would have to go downstairs in our house and up the other stairs
and someone might wake up and hear him or see him. So I think again, and I say, suppose it is
someone in our house, but in the next room to Miss Celia’s—only she is in this house, you
understand? Outside his window is a balcony and outside hers is a balcony too, and she will sleep
with her window open because that is hygienic practice. So if he is big and strong and athletic10 he
could jump across.”
“The room next to Celia’s in the other house,” said Mrs. Hubbard, “Let me see, that’s Nigel’s
and—and. . . .”
“Len Bateson’s,” said the inspector. His finger touched the folded paper in his hand. “Len
Bateson.”
“He is very nice, yes, said Mr. Akibombo sadly. “And to me most pleasant, but psychologically
one does not know what goes on below top surface. That is so, is it not? That is modern theory.
Mr. Chandra Lal very angry when his boracic for the eyes disappears and later, when I ask, he
says he has been told that it was taken by Len Bateson. . . .”
“The morphia was taken from Nigel’s drawer and boracic was substituted for it, and when
Patricia Lane came along and substituted soda bicarbonate for what she thought was morphia but
which was really boracic powder . . . Yes . . . I see. . . .”
“I have helped you, yes?” Mr. Akibombo asked politely.
“Yes, indeed, we’re most grateful to you. Don’t—er—repeat any of this.”
“No, sir. I will be most careful.”
Mr. Akibombo bowed politely to all and left the room.
“Len Bateson,” said Mrs. Hubbard, in a distressed11 voice. “Oh! No.”
Sharpe looked at her.
“You don’t want it to be Len Bateson?”
“I’ve got fond of that boy. He’s got a temper, I know, but he’s always seemed so nice.”
“That’s been said about a lot of criminals,” said Sharpe.
Gently he unfolded his little paper packet. Mrs. Hubbard obeyed his gesture and leaned forward
to look.
On the white paper were two red short curly hairs. . . .
“Oh! dear,” said Mrs. Hubbard.
“Yes,” said Sharpe reflectively. “In my experience a murderer usually makes at least one
mistake.”

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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 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。
2 disquieting disquieting     
adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 )
参考例句：
  • The news from the African front was disquieting in the extreme. 非洲前线的消息极其令人不安。 来自英汉文学
  • That locality was always vaguely disquieting, even in the broad glare of afternoon. 那一带地方一向隐隐约约使人感到心神不安甚至在下午耀眼的阳光里也一样。 来自辞典例句
3 vomit TL9zV     
v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物
参考例句：
  • They gave her salty water to make her vomit.他们给她喝盐水好让她吐出来。
  • She was stricken by pain and began to vomit.她感到一阵疼痛，开始呕吐起来。
4 soda cr3ye     
n.苏打水；汽水
参考例句：
  • She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
  • I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。
5 belch GuazY     
v.打嗝，喷出
参考例句：
  • Cucumber makes me belch.黃瓜吃得我打嗝。
  • Plant chimneys belch out dense smoke.工厂的烟囱冒出滚滚浓烟。
6 authoritatively 1e057dc7af003a31972dbde9874fe7ce     
命令式地，有权威地，可信地
参考例句：
  • "If somebody'll come here and sit with him," he snapped authoritatively. “来个人到这儿陪他坐着。”他用发号施令的口吻说。
  • To decide or settle(a dispute, for example) conclusively and authoritatively. 判定结论性、权威性地决定或解决（纠纷等）
7 teaspoonful Ugpzi1     
n.一茶匙的量；一茶匙容量
参考例句：
  • Add a teaspoonful of mixed herbs. 加入一茶匙混合药草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Add a teaspoonful of curry powder. 加一茶匙咖喱粉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
8 sergeant REQzz     
n.警官，中士
参考例句：
  • His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
  • How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？
9 groaned 1a076da0ddbd778a674301b2b29dff71     
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦
参考例句：
  • He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
  • The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 athletic sOPy8     
adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的
参考例句：
  • This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
  • He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。
11 distressed du1z3y     
痛苦的
参考例句：
  • He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
  • The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

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