命案目睹记17
时间：2025-10-20 07:22:22
（单词翻译:单击）
Eight
I
On entering the library Mr. Wimborne blinked a little as his shrewd old
haired, good-looking man beyond him.
Inspector Bacon performed introductions.
“This is Detective-Inspector Craddock of New Scotland Yard,” he said.
Dermot Craddock, who had a pleasant manner, went easily into speech.
“We have been called in on the case, Mr. Wimborne,” he said. “As you
are representing the Crackenthorpe family, I feel it is only fair that we
should give you a little confidential3 information.”
Nobody could make a better show of presenting a very small portion of
the truth and implying that it was the whole truth than Inspector Crad-
dock.
“Inspector Bacon will agree, I am sure,” he added, glancing at his col-
league.
Inspector Bacon agreed with all due solemnity and not at all as though
the whole matter were prearranged.
“It’s like this,” said Craddock. “We have reason to believe, from informa-
tion that has come into our possession, that the dead woman is not a nat-
ive of these parts, that she travelled down here from London and that she
had recently come from abroad. Probably (though we are not sure of that)
from France.”
Mr. Wimborne again raised his eyebrows.
“Indeed,” he said. “Indeed?”
felt that the Yard was better fitted to investigate the matter.”
“I can only hope,” said Mr. Wimborne, “that the case will be solved
quickly. As you can no doubt appreciate, the whole business has been a
in any way, they are—”
He paused for a bare second, but Inspector Craddock filled the gap
quickly.
“It’s not a pleasant thing to find a murdered woman on your property? I
couldn’t agree with you more. Now I should like to have a brief interview
with the various members of the family—”
“I really cannot see—”
“What they can tell me? Probably nothing of interest—but one never
knows. I dare say I can get most of the information I want from you, sir.
Information about this house and the family.”
“And what can that possibly have to do with an unknown young woman
coming from abroad and getting herself killed here?”
“Well, that’s rather the point,” said Craddock. “Why did she come here?
Had she once had some connection with this house? >Had she been, for in-
stance, a servant here at one time? A lady’s maid, perhaps. Or did she
come here to meet a former occupant of Rutherford Hall?”
Mr. Wimborne said coldly that Rutherford Hall had been occupied by
the Crackenthorpes ever since Josiah Crackenthorpe built it in 1884.
“That’s interesting in itself,” said Craddock. “If you’d just give me a brief
outline of the family history—”
“There is very little to tell. Josiah Crackenthorpe was a manufacturer of
here now.”
“Any other sons?”
“One other son, Henry, who was killed in a motor accident in 1911.”
“And the present Mr. Crackenthorpe has never thought of selling the
house?”
“He is unable to do so,” said the lawyer dryly. “By the terms of his
father’s will.”
“Perhaps you’ll tell me about the will?”
“Why should I?”
Inspector Craddock smiled.
“Because I can look it up myself if I want to, at Somerset House.”
“Quite right, Inspector. I was merely protesting that the information you
ask for is quite irrelevant12. As to Josiah Crackenthorpe’s will, there is no
mystery about it. He left his very considerable fortune in trust, the income
from it to be paid to his son Luther for life, and after Luther’s death the
capital to be divided equally between Luther’s children, Edmund, Cedric,
Harold, Alfred, Emma and Edith. Edmund was killed in the war, and Edith
died four years ago, so that on Luther Crackenthorpe’s decease the money
will be divided between Cedric, Harold, Alfred, Emma and Edith’s son Al-
exander Eastley.”
“And the house?”
“That will go to Luther Crackenthorpe’s eldest surviving son or his is-
sue.”
“Was Edmund Crackenthorpe married?”
“No.”
“So the property will actually go—?”
“To the next son— Cedric.”
“Mr. Luther Crackenthorpe himself cannot dispose of it?”
“No.”
“And he has no control of the capital.”
“No.”
“Isn’t that rather unusual? I suppose,” said Inspector Craddock
shrewdly, “that his father didn’t like him.”
“You suppose correctly,” said Mr. Wimborne. “Old Josiah was disappoin-
deed in business of any kind. Luther spent his time travelling abroad and
collecting objets d’art. Old Josiah was very unsympathetic to that kind of
thing. So he left his money in trust for the next generation.”
“But in the meantime the next generation have no income except what
they make or what their father allows them, and their father has a consid-
erable income but no power of disposal of the capital.”
“Exactly. And what all this has to do with the murder of an unknown
young woman of foreign origin I cannot imagine!”
“It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it,” Inspector Craddock
Mr. Wimborne looked at him sharply, then, seemingly satisfied with the
“I am proposing now to return to London,” he said. “Unless there is any-
thing further you wish to know?”
He looked from one man to the other.
“No, thank you, sir.”
The sound of the gong rose fortissimo from the hall outside.
“Dear me,” said Mr. Wimborne. “One of the boys, I think, must have
been performing.”
Inspector Craddock raised his voice, to be heard above the clamour, as
he said:
“We’ll leave the family to have lunch in peace, but Inspector Bacon and I
would like to return after it—say at two fifteen—and have a short inter-
view with every member of the family.”
“You think that is necessary?”
“Well…” Craddock shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just an off chance. Some-
body might remember something that would give us a clue to the woman’s
identity.”
“I doubt it, Inspector. I doubt it very much. But I wish you good luck. As
I said just now, the sooner this distasteful business is cleared up, the better
for everybody.”
Shaking his head, he went slowly out of the room.
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1
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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3
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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4
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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5
ted
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| vt.翻晒，撒，撒开 | |
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6
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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7
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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8
relishes
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| n.滋味( relish的名词复数 )；乐趣；（大量的）享受；快乐v.欣赏( relish的第三人称单数 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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9
pickles
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| n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 )；处于困境；遇到麻烦；菜酱 | |
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10
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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11
crabbed
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| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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13
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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14
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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