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II
The voice had stopped.
the coffee tray!
At the same moment, from somewhere outside the room there came a scream and the
sound of a thud.
Lombard was the first to move. He leapt to the door and flung it open. Outside, lying in a
Lombard called:
“Marston.”
Anthony sprang to help him. Between them, they lifted up the woman and carried her into
the drawing room.
her. He said quickly:
“It’s nothing. She’s fainted, that’s all. She’ll be round in a minute.”
Lombard said to Rogers:
“Get some brandy.”
Rogers, his face white, his hands shaking, murmured:
“Yes, sir,” and slipped quickly out of the room.
Vera cried out:
“Who was that speaking? Where was he? It sounded—it sounded—”
General Macarthur spluttered out:
“What’s going on here? What kind of a practical joke was that?”
Blore was mopping his face with a handkerchief.
Only Mr. Justice Wargrave and Miss Brent seemed comparatively unmoved. Emily Brent
sat upright, her head held high. In both cheeks was a spot of hard colour. The judge sat in his
Lombard was free once more to take the initiative.
He said:
“That voice? It sounded as though it were in the room.”
Vera cried:
“Who was it? Who was it? It wasn’t one of us.”
Like the judge, Lombard’s eyes wandered slowly round the room. They rested a minute on
the open window, then he shook his head decisively. Suddenly his eyes lighted up. He moved
forward swiftly to where a door near the fireplace led into an adjoining room.
With a swift gesture, he caught the handle and flung the door open. He passed through and
immediately uttered an exclamation9 of satisfaction.
He said:
“Ah, here we are.”
Inside the second room a table had been brought up close to the wall which adjoined the
attached. The mouth of the trumpet was against the wall, and Lombard, pushing it aside
indicated where two or three small holes had been unobtrusively bored through the wall.
Adjusting the gramophone he replaced the needle on the record and immediately they
heard again “You are charged with the following indictments—”
Vera cried:
“Turn it off! Turn it off! It’s horrible!”
Lombard obeyed.
Dr. Armstrong said, with a sigh of relief:
“A disgraceful and heartless practical joke, I suppose.”
The small clear voice of Mr. Justice Wargrave murmured:
“So you think it’s a joke, do you?”
The doctor stared at him.
“What else could it be?”
The hand of the judge gently stroked his upper lip.
He said:
“At the moment I’m not prepared to give an opinion.”
Anthony Marston broke in. He said:
“Look here, there’s one thing you’ve forgotten. Who the devil turned the thing on and set it
going?”
Wargrave murmured:
“Yes, I think we must inquire into that.”
He led the way back into the drawing room. The others followed.
Rogers had just come in with a glass of brandy. Miss Brent was bending over the moaning
form of Mrs. Rogers.
“Allow me, Madam, I’ll speak to her. Ethel—Ethel—it’s all right. All right, do you hear?
Pull yourself together.”
and round the ring of faces. There was urgency in Rogers’ tone.
“Pull yourself together, Ethel.”
“You’ll be all right now, Mrs. Rogers. Just a nasty turn.” She said:
“Did I faint, sir?”
“Yes.”
“It was the voice—that awful voice—like a judgment—”
Dr. Armstrong said sharply:
“Where’s that brandy?”
Rogers had put it down on a little table. Someone handed it to the doctor and he bent over
“Drink this, Mrs. Rogers.”
She drank, choking a little and gasping. The spirit did her good. The colour returned to her
face. She said:
“I’m all right now. It just—gave me a turn.”
Rogers said quickly:
“Of course it did. It gave me a turn, too. Fair made me drop that tray. Wicked lies, it was!
I’d like to know—”
He was interrupted. It was only a cough—a dry little cough but it had the effect of stopping
him in full cry. He stared at Mr. Justice Wargrave and the latter coughed again. Then he said:
“Who put on that record on the gramophone. Was it you, Rogers?”
Rogers cried:
“I didn’t know what it was. Before God, I didn’t know what it was, sir. If I had I’d never
have done it.”
The judge said dryly:
“That is probably true. But I think you’d better explain, Rogers.”
The butler wiped his face with a handkerchief. He said earnestly:
“I was just obeying orders, sir, that’s all.”
“Whose orders?”
“Mr. Owen’s.”
Mr. Justice Wargrave said:
“Let me get this quite clear. Mr. Owen’s orders were—what exactly?”
Rogers said:
“I was to put a record on the gramophone. I’d find the record in the drawer and my wife
was to start the gramophone when I’d gone into the drawing room with the coffee tray.”
The judge murmured:
“A very remarkable18 story.”
Rogers cried:
“It’s the truth, sir. I swear to God it’s the truth. I didn’t know what it was—not for a
moment. It had a name on it—I thought it was just a piece of music.”
Wargrave looked at Lombard.
“Was there a title on it?”
“Quite right, sir. It was entitled Swan Song.…”
2
“声音”戛然而止。
屋内死一般寂静。突然，一声大响，回声震动了每个人的心。原来罗杰斯失手把咖啡
托盘掉在了地上！
就在此时，客厅外某个地方响起一声尖叫，然后传来“扑通”一声。
隆巴德第一个反应过来，奔到门口，一下子推开门。门外，罗杰斯太太倒在了地上。
隆巴德喊道：
“马斯顿！”
安东尼赶忙冲过去帮忙。他们搀扶着罗杰斯太太，把她扶进客厅。
阿姆斯特朗医生立刻走过来，帮着他们把罗杰斯太太安顿在沙发上。他弯腰查看她，
然后说：
“没什么，她只是晕过去了，应该很快就会醒过来。”
隆巴德对罗杰斯说：
“去拿点儿白兰地来！”
罗杰斯脸色煞白，双手颤抖，喃喃地说：
“好的，先生。”然后便出了房间。
维拉喊了起来。
“是谁在说话？他在哪儿？听起来——听起来像是——”
麦克阿瑟将军气愤地说：
“怎么回事？这是开什么玩笑？”
他双手发抖，肩膀塌了下来，好像一下子老了十岁。
布洛尔拿着手帕一个劲儿擦汗。
和他们相比，只有瓦格雷夫法官和布伦特小姐看起来还算镇定。埃米莉·布伦特端庄地
坐在那儿，昂首挺胸，脸颊微红。法官一如往常，不拘小节地坐着，脑袋几乎要缩到脖子
里去了。他挠着耳朵，眼珠转个不停，东看看西看看，脸上露出既困惑又警觉的神情。
轮到隆巴德发话了。阿姆斯特朗正在照顾晕倒的罗杰斯太太。这让他正好得空，便开
口说：
“那个声音听上去好像就在这个房间里。”
维拉喊道：
“是谁？是谁？肯定不是我们当中的人。”
隆巴德也像法官那样，东看西看，眼珠转来转去。他盯着敞开的窗户看了一会儿，接
着坚决地摇摇头。突然，他步伐敏捷地走向壁炉架旁边那扇通向隔壁房间的门，眼睛里闪
出坚定的光。他一把抓住门把手，猛地把门推开，走了进去，紧接着满意地喊了一声：
“啊，原来如此！”
其他人随即一拥而入。只有布伦特小姐独自坐在椅子上，挺直腰板，纹丝不动。
就在隔壁房间，紧挨着客厅的那堵墙边放着一张桌子。桌上摆着一台留声机，带大喇
叭的老式留声机，喇叭正冲着墙。隆巴德一下子把喇叭推开，指了指墙上钻透的几个小
孔。若不仔细看，根本无法发现这些小孔。
他调整了一下留声机，把唱针放在唱片上，立刻又响起了那个“声音”：
“你们被控犯有以下罪行——”
维拉喊了起来：
“快关上！关上！太可怕了！”
隆巴德听从她的话，关上了留声机。
阿姆斯特朗医生松了一口气，说：
“这个玩笑未免太不体面，太没有底线了。”
瓦格雷夫法官先生声音不大，但是语气很严肃：
“你认为这只是开玩笑而已？”
阿姆斯特朗医生瞪着他。
“不然是什么？”
法官用手指轻轻点着上嘴唇，说：
“我目前不发表任何看法。”
安东尼·马斯顿说：
“我觉得你们都忘了一个关键问题，究竟是谁把唱片放上去，让它转起来的？”
瓦格雷夫低声说：
“没错，是得查一查。”
他率先走回客厅，其余人也跟着他回来了。
罗杰斯端着一杯白兰地走进来。布伦特小姐俯下身，照顾着哼哼唧唧的罗杰斯太太。
罗杰斯挤进她们中间。
“不好意思，太太，让我来照顾她吧。埃塞尔，埃塞尔，没事了，没事了！你听见了
吗？来，振作一点儿！”
罗杰斯太太呼吸急促，两只眼睛惊恐万状地一遍又一遍扫过周围的人，眼神直勾勾
的。罗杰斯在她旁边不停地说：
“振作一点儿，埃塞尔，没事了。”
阿姆斯特朗医生安慰她说：
“你现在没事了，罗杰斯太太，只不过受了点儿惊吓。”
她问道：
“我晕过去了？先生？”
“是的。”
“是那个声音。那个可怕的声音，就像末日审判似的……”
她的脸色又发青了，连眼皮都开始发抖。
阿姆斯特朗医生急忙问：
“白兰地呢？”
刚才罗杰斯把酒杯留在一张小桌子上，此时有人帮忙递了过来。阿姆斯特朗端着酒
杯，俯身向呼吸急促的罗杰斯太太说：
“把它喝了，罗杰斯太太。”
她把酒一饮而尽。稍微呛了一口，然后急促地喘气。酒精的作用让她脸上顿时有了血
色。她说：
“我现在没事了，刚才只是晕过去了。”
罗杰斯立刻说：
“那个声音确实令人头晕，我刚才听到之后也脑袋晕了一下，把盘子都摔了。这是可恶
的诽谤，简直罪大恶极！我真想弄弄清楚……”
一声咳嗽。他突然住了嘴。一声轻轻的干咳竟然如同一声大喝，制止了他继续说下
去。他看着瓦格雷夫法官先生。法官先生又咳了一声，然后问：
“留声机上的唱片是谁放上去的？是你吗，罗杰斯？”
“我不知道唱片的内容！天哪，我真不知道唱片的内容，先生。如果知道的话，我说什
么也不会放。”
法官语调平静地说：
“你说的也许是真话。但是罗杰斯，我希望你最好把事情说明白些。”
管家拿着手绢擦了擦脸上的汗，认真地说：
“我只是奉命行事，先生，真的。”
“奉谁的命？”
“奉欧文先生之命。”
瓦格雷夫法官先生说：
“让我把这一点搞清楚。你说你是奉欧文先生的命令，那么他具体是怎么说的？”
罗杰斯回答：
“他让我把唱片放在留声机上。唱片是从抽屉里拿出来的，我去给屋里送咖啡的时候，
让我妻子把留声机打开了。”
法官轻声说：
“故事编的还挺像样。”
罗杰斯嚷了起来：
“我说的是实话，先生。我向上帝发誓，句句属实。我事先并不知道唱片是什么内容，
一个字都不知道。唱片上写了标题，我原本以为只是一段音乐。”
瓦格雷夫瞧着隆巴德：
“上面是有标题吗？”
隆巴德点点头。他突然咧嘴一乐，露出一口尖利的白牙，说：
“没错，确实有。唱片标题是《天鹅绝唱》……”
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