'He had a small dark mole beneath the left 注目する，もくろむ. The 高く弓形に打ち返す of his 権利 ear was appreciably いっそう少なく than the other. The nail of the middle finger of the 権利 手渡す was corrugated from an 傷害 at some time.'

Carrados made a final 公式文書，認める on the paper before him.

'Very good indeed, Parkinson,' he 発言／述べるd. 'That is all I 手配中の，お尋ね者.'

* * * * *

A month passed and nothing happened. Occasionally a newspaper, 圧力（をかける）d for a 支配する, commented on the disquieting frequency with which undetected 殺人 could be done, and の中で other instances について言及するd the Holloway Flat 悲劇 and 嘆き悲しむd the 緩和する with which Peter the Italian had remained 捕まらないで. The 指名する by that time struck the reader as distantly familiar.

Then one evening 早期に in November Beedel rang Mr Carrados up. The blind man happened to take the call himself, and at the first words he knew that the dull, 患者 影をつくる／尾行するing of weeks was about to fructify.

'Yes, 視察官 Beedel himself, sir,' said the 発言する／表明する at the other end. 'I'm speaking from Beak Street. The two you know of have just gone to the Restaurant X in Warsaw Street. The lady has 調書をとる／予約するd two seats at the Alhambra for tonight, so we 推定する／予想する them to be there for the best part of an hour.'

'I'll come at once,' replied Carrados. 'What about Carlyle?'

'He's been 通知するd. 支援する 入り口 in Boulton 法廷，裁判所,' said the 視察官. 'I'm off there now myself.'

It was the first time that the two the blind man 'knew of' had met since the watch was 始める，決める, and their correspondence had been singularly innocuous. Yet not a breath of 疑惑 had been raised, and the same (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する care that had 誘発するd Mr Carrados to bring 負かす／撃墜する a picture to cover the abstraction of a small square of glass had been 持続するd throughout.

'Nice 私的な little room upstairs, saire,' insinuated the proprietor as 'the two' looked 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. He guessed that they shunned publicity, and he was 権利, although not 完全に so. With a curt nod the man led the way up the 狭くする stairway to the equivocal little den on the first 床に打ち倒す. The general room below had not been （人が）群がるd, but this one was wholly empty.

'やめる like old times,' said the woman with an unmusical laugh as she threw off her cloak—there was little 指示，表示する物 of the 悲しみing 未亡人 now, 'I thought we had better fight shy of the "Toledo" for the 未来.'

''M yes,' replied her companion slowly, looking dubiously about him—he no longer wore glasses or moustache, nor was his left 手渡す, the glove now 除去するd, deficient of a finger. 'The only thing is whether it isn't too soon for us to be about together at all.'

'Pha!' she snapped expressively. 'They've gone to sleep again. There isn't a thing—no not a 選び出す／独身 詳細（に述べる）—gone wrong. The most that could happen would be a （警察の）手入れ，急襲 here to look for Peter the Italian!'

'For God's sake don't keep on that,' he 勧めるd in a low 発言する／表明する. 'Your husband was a brute to you by what you say, and I'm not sorry now it's done, but I want to forget it all. You had your way: I've done everything you planned. Now you are 解放する／自由な and decently 井戸／弁護士席 off and as soon as it's 安全な we can really marry—if you still will.'

'If I still will,' she repeated, looking at him meaningly. 'Do you know, 刑事, I think it may become 望ましい sooner even than I thought.'

'Sssh!' he 警告するd; 'here comes someone. You order, Kitty—you always have done! Anything will 控訴 me.' He turned to arrange his overcoat across an empty 議長，司会を務める and 安心させるd his 手渡す の中で the contents of the nearest pocket.

Downstairs, in his nondescript living-room, the proprietor of the Restaurant X was 存在 very quickly and efficiently made to understand just so much of the 状況／情勢 as turned on his 即座の and 完全にする 受託 of it. In the presence of 当局 so vigorously 表明するd the stout gentleman 屈服するd profusely, lowered his 発言する／表明する, and from time to time placed a knowing finger on his lips in 協定.

'Hallo,' said the man called '刑事' as a different attendant brought a dish. 'Where has our other waiter got to?'

'Party of 正規の／正選手 顧客s as always has him just come in.' explained the new one.' 'Ope you don't mind, sir.'

'Not a 厚かましさ／高級将校連 button.'

'It's all 権利, 視察官,' 報告（する）／憶測d the 'waiter'. 'He has the three 示すs you said—mole, ear, nail.'

'確かな of the woman?'

'Mrs Poleash, sure as snow.'

'Any 言及／関連 to it?'

'Don't think so while I'm about. 演劇 just now. Has his little gun handy.'

'Take this in now. Leave the door open and see if you can make him talk up.... If you two gentlemen will step just across there I think you'll be able to hear.'

Carrados smiled as he proceeded to 従う.

'I have already heard,' he said. 'It is the 発言する／表明する of the man who called on Mr Carlyle on September the third.'

'I think it is the 発言する／表明する,' 認める Mr Carlyle when he had tiptoed 支援する again. 'I really think so, but after two months I should not be 用意が出来ている to 断言する.'

'He is the man,' repeated Carrados deliberately.

視察官 Beedel, clinking something 静かに in his pocket, nodded to his waiter.

'Morgan follows you in with the coffee,' he said. 'Put it 負かす／撃墜する on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, Morgan, and stand beside the woman. Call me as soon as you have him.'

It was the 甘い that the first waiter was to take, and with it there was a sauce. It was not 正確に／まさに overturned, but there was an ぎこちない movement and a few 減少（する）s were splashed. With a clumsy 陳謝 the waiter, napkin in 手渡す, leaned across the 顧客 to 除去する a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す that 示すd his coat-sleeve.

'Here!' exclaimed the startled man. 'What the devil are you up to?'

It was too late. Speech was the only thing left to him then. His wrists were already held in a trained, relentless しっかり掴む; he was 圧力（をかける）d helplessly 支援する into his 議長，司会を務める at the first movement of 抵抗. Kitty Poleash rose from her seat with a dreadful coldness 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her heart, felt a 手渡す upon her shoulder, cast one fearful ちらりと見ること 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, and sank 負かす／撃墜する upon her 議長，司会を務める again. Before another word was spoken 視察官 Beedel had appeared, and the 支配する of bone and muscle on the 緊張するing wrists was changed to one of steel. いっそう少なく than thirty seconds 橋（渡しをする）d the whole astonishing 変形.

'Richard Crispinge, you are 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with the 殺人 of this woman's husband. Katherine Poleash, you are held as an 従犯者,' The usual 警告を与える followed. 'Get a taxi to the 支援する entance, Morgan.'

Half a dozen emotions met on Crispinge's 直面する as he 発射 a ちらりと見ること at his companion and then 直面するd the accuser again.

'You're crazy,' he panted, still 労働ing from the 成果／努力. 'I've never even seen the man.'

'I shouldn't say anything now, if I were you,' advised Beedel, on a やめる human 公式文書，認める. 'You may find out later that we know more than you might think.'

What followed could not have been 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d against human foresight, for at a later 行う／開催する／段階 it was shown that a 確かな cable failed and in a trice one 味方する of Warsaw Street was 伴う／関わるd in 不明瞭. What happened in that 不明瞭—where they had severally stood before and after—who moved or spoke—whose 手渡す was raised—were all 事柄s of 論争, but suddenly the 黒人／ボイコット was stabbed by a streak of red, a little 割れ目—scarcely more than the sharp bursting of a paper 捕らえる、獲得する—nearly caught up to it, and almost slowly to the を待つing ears （機の）カム the sound of 緊張する and the long 衝突，墜落 of 落ちるing glass and 磁器.

'A lamp from 負かす／撃墜する there!' snapped Beedel's sorely-tried 発言する／表明する, as the ray of an electric たいまつ whirled like a pygmy サーチライト and then centred on a 宙返り／暴落するd thing lying beyond the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. 'Look alive!'

'They say there is gas somewhere,' 発表するd Mr Carlyle, striking a match as he ran in. 'Ah, here it is.'

No need to ask then what had happened, though how it had happened could never be 始める，決める やめる finally at 残り／休憩（する）; for if Kitty Poleash was standing now, 反して before she had sat, the 武器 lay beyond her reach の近くに to the shackled 手渡すs. A curious apathy seemed to 落ちる upon the room as though the 強い味 of the drifting wisp of smoke dulled their alertness, and when the woman moved slowly に向かって her lover Beedel 単に 選ぶd the ピストル up and waited. With a terrible calmness she knelt by the 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd form and raised the inert 長，率いる.

'Good-bye, my dear,' she said 静かに, kissing the dead lips for the last time; 'it's over.' And with a strange 悲劇の fitness she 追加するd, in the words of another 致命的な schemer, 'We fail!'

She seemed to be the only one who had any 商売／仕事 there; Beedel was abstracted; Carlyle and Carrados felt like 観客s walking on a 行う／開催する／段階 when the play is over. In the street below the 召喚するd taxi throbbed unheeded; they were waiting for another equipage now. When that had moved off with its 重荷（を負わせる） Kitty Poleash would follow her captors submissively, like a dog without a home.

'It isn't a feather in our caps to have a man slip away like that,' 発言／述べるd the 視察官 moodily as the two joined him for a word before they left; 'but, of course, as far as they are both 関心d, it's the very best that could have happened.'

'In what way do you mean the best?' 需要・要求するd Mr Carlyle with a professional keenness for the explicit.

'Why, look at what will happen now. He's saved all the trouble and thought of 存在 hanged, which it was bound to be in, the end, and has got it over without a moment's worry. She will get the 十分な 利益 of it 同様に, because her counsel will now be able to pile it all up against the fellow and （人命などを）奪う，主張する that he 演習d an irresistible 影響（力） over her. 本人自身で, I should say that it's twelve of one and thirteen of the other, and I don't know that she isn't the thirteen, but she is about as likely to be hanged as I am to be made superintendent tomorrow.'

* * * * *

'Max,' said Mr Carlyle, as they sat smoking together the same night, 'when you think of the elaboration of that 陰謀（を企てる） it was appalling.'

'Curious,' replied Carrados thoughtfully. 'To me it seems 絶対 simple and 必然的な. Perhaps that is because I should have done it—fundamentally, that is-just the same way myself.'

'And got caught the same way?'

'There were mistakes made. If you decide to kill a man you must do it either 内密に or 率直に. If you do it 内密に and it comes to light you are done for. If you do it 率直に there is the chance of putting another 外見 on the 罪，犯罪.

'These two—Crispinge and Mrs Poleash—knew that in the ordinary way the 殺人，大当り of the husband would すぐに attract 疑惑 to the wife. Under that 猛烈な／残忍な scrutiny it could not long be hidden that the woman had a lover, and the 公表，暴露 would be 致命的な. Indeed, if Poleash had lived, that fact must すぐに have come to light, and it was the sordid 決意 to 安全な・保証する his income for themselves before he discovered the intrigue and 離婚d his wife that 調印（する）d his 運命／宿命 and 軍隊d an 早期に 問題／発行する.

'If you ーするつもりである to commit a 殺人, Louis, and know that 疑惑 will automatically 落ちる on you, what is the first thing that you would wish to 影響? 明白に that it should 落ちる on someone else more 堅固に. But as the 逮捕（する） of that someone else would upset the 計画（する）, you would 自然に make his 身元 such that he would have the best chance of remaining at large. The most difficult person to find is one who does not 存在する.

'There you have the whole 戦略 of the sorry 商売／仕事. Everything hinged on that, and when you once 所有する that 手がかり（を与える） you not only see why everything happened as it did but you can confidently 予測（する） 正確に／まさに what will happen. To go on believing that you had talked with the real Poleash it was necessary that you should never 現実に see the man as he was. Hence the disfigurement. What 加害者 would 行為／法令／行動する in that way? Only one maddened by a jealous fury. The Southern people are popularly the most jealous and revengeful, so we must have a native of Italy or Spain, and the Italian is the more 信頼できる of the two. 類似して, Mr Hipwaite is brought in to 追加する another touch of corroboration to your tale. But why Mr Hipwaite from a mile away? There is a locksmith やめる 近づく at 手渡す; I made it my 商売／仕事 to call on him, and I learned that, as I 推定する／予想するd, he knew Poleash by sight. Plainly he would never have served the 目的.'

'Perhaps I せねばならない have been more 懐疑的な of the fellow's tale,' 譲歩するd Mr Carlyle; 'but, you know, Max, I have a dozen fresh people call on me every month with queer stories, and it's not once in a million times that this would happen. I, at any 率, saw nothing to rouse 疑惑. You say he made mistakes?'

'Crispinge, の中で divers other things he's failed in, has been an actor, and with Mrs Poleash's coaching on facts there is no 疑問 that he carried the part all 権利. 存在 wise after the event, we may say that he overstressed the need of secrecy. The idea of the previous attack, designed, of course, to throw irrefutable 証拠 into the 規模s, was too pronounced. Something slighter would have served better. 本人自身で, I think it was 超過 of 警告を与える to send Mrs Jones out on the Thursday afternoon. She could have been relied upon to be too "mithered" for her recollections to carry any 負わせる. It was necessary to destroy the only reliable photograph of Poleash, but the 危険 せねばならない have been taken of 燃やすing it before she went off to 設立する her unassailable アリバイ, and not leaving it for her 共犯者 to do. In the event, by 扱うing the でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる after he had 燃やすd his gloves, Crispinge furnished us with the 独房監禁 指紋 that linked up his 身元.'

'He had been 罪人／有罪を宣告するd then?'

'ゆすり，恐喝, six years ago, and other things before. A mixture of 証拠不十分 and 暴力／激しさ, he has always gravitated に向かって women for support. But the 広大な／多数の／重要な mistake—the 決定的な oversight—the alarm signal to my perceptions—'

'Yes?'

'井戸／弁護士席, I should really hardly like to について言及する it to anyone but you. The sheet and the 支える-事例／患者 that so convincingly turned up to clinch your （弁護士の）依頼人's tale once and for all 破壊するd it. They had never been on Poleash's bed, believe me, Louis. What a natural thing for the woman to take them from her own, and yet how 致命的な! I sensed that damning fact as soon as I had them in my 手渡すs, and in a trice the whole fabric of deception, so ingeniously contrived, （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する in 廃虚s. Nothing—nothing—could ever retrieve that simple, deadly 失敗.'

IV. — THE CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE TWO LEFT SHOES

AT the time when the Enderleighs lost their silver the Monkey 夜盗，押し込み強盗 was at the 高さ of his fame. The Monkey 夜盗，押し込み強盗, should you by this date have forgotten, was the one who invariably 伸び（る）d 接近 by leaping from a tree on to an upper-storey window-sill. So strong was habit that there were said to be 事例／患者s of the Monkey 夜盗，押し込み強盗 going through this 業績／成果 at houses where the 前線 door stood open, or where a 建設業者's ladder, left in position 夜通し, was 後部d against the very point he 伸び（る）d by the more sensational flight. During the 厚い of the 押し込み強盗 season that year each number of Punch 定期的に 含む／封じ込めるd one or more jokes about the Monkey; no pantomime was 完全にする without a few 言及／関連s to him; and the burgled invariably tried to （人命などを）奪う，主張する distinction as authentic 犠牲者s. In this, the 圧力（をかける）, to do it 司法（官）, worthily seconded their endeavours.

The Enderleighs lived 近づく Silver Park at that time, in one of the old-fashioned cottages that have long, delightful gardens running 負かす／撃墜する to the river 辛勝する／優位. They were a young couple, setting themselves a very 穏健な 基準 until the day when Enderleigh's wonderful 質s should be 都合よく 認めるd by a 共同. In the 一方／合間 he was something exceptionally responsible but not so exceptionally rewarded in connexion with a 会社／堅い of 広い地所 スパイ／執行官s and surveyors. Max Carrados had heard of him favourably from one or two friends and was not unwilling to put 商売／仕事 in the young man's way. An 適切な時期 （機の）カム when the blind criminologist had, as trustee, to を取り引きする an 広い地所 負かす／撃墜する in Warwickshire. He ascertained that Enderleigh was not debarred from doing work on his own account, and gave him a （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 to 検査／視察する the 所有物／資産／財産 and make a general 報告（する）／憶測. 商売／仕事 存在 slack, there was no difficulty in arranging a few days' leave of absence from the office, and the 提案 was gratefully 受託するd.

On his return—he had conscientiously managed to cover the ground within two days—Enderleigh looked in at The Turrets before 訴訟／進行 home and 設立する Mr Carrados at leisure.

'I thought that I would leave the 報告（する）／憶測 with you now,' he explained, 'in 事例／患者 you cared to ちらりと見ること over it and ask me about any 詳細（に述べる）s while it's all fresh in my mind. I wrote up my 公式文書，認めるs in the train on the way 支援する.'

'Good man,' smiled Carrados, 受託するing the docket. 'I should have liked you to stay while we discussed the 事柄, but I am afraid that someone else has a 事前の lien on your time.'

'In what way?'

'A few hours ago Mrs Enderleigh rang me up on the phone, and there is what I might 述べる as a standing order for you to communicate with her from here at the earliest moment.'

'Good heavens!' exclaimed Enderleigh in some trepidation. 'What's up, I wonder? Nothing wrong that you know of?'

'Nothing at all,' replied Carrados with 安心させるing unconcern. 'Your wife was in exceptional spirits, I gathered, but somewhat cryptical. However, there is the means of setting your mind at 残り／休憩（する）,' and he 示すd the 器具. 'I'll leave you to it.'

'Please don't go.' Enderleigh seemed to be toying with the moment as if rather unwilling to 始める，決める his mind at 残り／休憩（する）. 'I was startled for a second, but if my wife herself spoke to you there can't be anything much the 事柄. The fact is,' he confided with a 確かな shy complacency, 'she has been getting rather fanciful of late—not an unusual 段階 of the 状況／情勢, I understand.'

Mr Carrados murmured his 控えめの congratulations, and his 訪問者 summed up enough 無関心／冷淡 to make the call.

'宗教上の Moses!' the blind man heard him mutter, and there followed a 早い fusillade of 'How?' and 'When?' and 'What?' and 'You don't mean it!' all 示すing びっくり仰天 and surprise, as long as the colloquy lasted.

'Here's a pretty go,' 発表するd Mr Enderleigh, hanging up the receiver. 'We've been burgled!'

'The ジュース!' exclaimed Carrados sympathetically. 'I hope your wife isn't much upset?'

'No, I don't think so. In fact, she seems rather 始める，決める up, because some of our 隣人s were robbed in a very commonplace way lately, and she's 決定するd that this must have been the authentic Monkey.'

'Much taken?'

'明らかに the silver chest and nothing else. Myra rather fancied that I would call here on my way from something I had said—that's why she rang you up—and she wants me to go straight on. I hope you don't mind?'

'Of course not. I had hoped that you would keep me company for an hour or two, but that's out of the question now.... I'll tell you what, though: I will make a 取引 with you. Stay another fifteen minutes, in which we can have a 軽食 of some 肉親，親類d in place of dinner. In the 一方／合間 I will have a car got out that will land you at your place quicker than any other way you could go; and in return you shall 招待する me to 検査／視察する the depredation.'

'That's certainly a 取引 from my 味方する of the 処理／取引,' replied Enderleigh. 'If it isn't putting you out, I'll 受託する like a 発射.'

'Not a bit,' 宣言するd his host with more than polite 形式順守. He moved across to the house telephone and quickly 分配するd the necessary orders. 'I love anything that comes suddenly along. It may be the beginning of—what adventure?'

'井戸／弁護士席, as to that, of course there are two 味方するs,' said the domesticated Enderleigh. 'This is やめる sudden enough for men, but I certainly don't love it.'

Carrados was as good as his literal word, and fifteen minutes after he had spoken the lean form of his 迅速な Redshank car glided 負かす／撃墜する the 運動 into the high road and then stretched out for Silver Park.

'Now that it's come to this, I may 同様に tell you about our silver,' explained Mr Enderleigh to his companion, on a confidential impulse. 'We happen to have rather a lot—more than people in our modest way 一般に sport, I mean. Myra's father was a fruit-grower and won a lot of cups and plates in his time. I used to be something of a 走者 and I amassed a few more, and when we got married our friends にわか雨d cruets and cake baskets 負かす／撃墜する on us galore. The consequence is that there was a solid half-hundredweight of the metal reposing in a 特に made 事例／患者 in the dining-room at Homecroft. Of course it せねばならない have been kept at the bank, and at first it was, but Myra liked to see an assortment out on the sideboard, so that it got to be a nuisance sending it backwards and 今後s. Then I said that if we had it in the house it せねばならない be kept up in the bedroom for safety, and Myra 設立する that she couldn't even 解除する the chest and decided that it would be too inconvenient to have it there. What with one thing and another, the confounded silver got to become a bit of a sore point between us—it brought on the first unpleasantness we had. Then, as bad luck would have it, just when I was leaving the other morning to go on this 職業 we must needs get arguing about it again. I 示唆するd that as there would be only two women alone in the house—herself and the servant—it would be safer if I carried the box up and hid it under the bed. Myra—God know why—retorted that if the silver was the danger-point it wasn't very 肉親，親類d to want to put it just under where she would be. One silly word led to another until I finally went off 説 that I wished the damned stuff was at the 底（に届く） of the river.'

'You seem to have got the next thing to what you asked for then,' 発言／述べるd Carrados. 'The silver 明らかに won't trouble you again.' But Enderleigh demurred at this cheerful 要約 and shook his 長，率いる.

'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'but when you wish a thing like that you don't really mean that you want it to happen.'

'You are insured, I suppose?'

'Only partly, I'm afraid, because the value of the silver now 越えるs the 百分率 許すd. And of course a lot of the things have 協会s, although there is nothing of antique value. I'm really wondering how Myra will take it when the excitement wears off.'

But so far the excitement was on, and she welcomed them radiantly, albeit a shade mystified that Mr Carrados should have chosen that moment to 支払う／賃金 his call. It does not say much for the 犯罪の 専門家's sense of publicity that neither his host nor hostess had the faintest idea of his uncanny 評判. To them he was 簡単に the rich blind man who seemed as though he might be useful to Guy.

'But isn't it a shame, Mr Carrados?' she cooed, when the first 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of wonder and exclamation had been gone through. 'Sergeant Lapworth 宣言するs that it can't かもしれない be the Monkey 夜盗，押し込み強盗. And I was so relying on that to squelch the Higgses with.'

Carrados divined an 交流 of 私的な ちらりと見ることs, expostulatory from the husband, playfully 反抗的な on her part.

'I have met Sergeant Lapworth once or twice and he seemed to know his work,' said the 訪問者. 'Did he say why it couldn't be?'

'井戸／弁護士席, the only way they could have got in was by the 味方する door. No fastenings have been 軍隊d or windows opened. And the Monkey wouldn't ever dream of using a 味方する door.'

'But how on earth could they do that?' 需要・要求するd Enderleigh. 'I mean without using 軍隊. Chloe fastens the door at night, doesn't she?'

'I'll show you if you don't mind …を伴ってing me to the nether 地域s,' said the light-hearted girl. 'Chloe only locks the door it seems—the bolts are too stiff to work—and Sergeant Lapworth says that these people—he's almost sure he knows the ギャング（団）—have all manner of ingenious 道具s. There's a sort of pincers that you catch 持つ／拘留する of a 重要な with from the other 味方する and turn it やめる easily. You can see that the lock has been oiled to make it go.'

'You 設立する the door 打ち明けるd this morning?'

'No—I don't know. I never thought of that. But I suppose they could just as easily lock it again to cover their 跡をつけるs, and as it happened it was not until this afternoon that I 行方不明になるd the silver chest. Then there are 足跡s on the bed from the gate to the 味方する door. He 設立する those 同様に. It's most wildly exciting discovering 手がかり（を与える）s; I've been looking for some all the afternoon, but so far without success.'

'Come on then,' 示唆するd Enderleigh. 'You have a lamp or candle, I suppose?'

'Yes. Do you care to see our 私的な morgue, Mr Carrados—oh, I am sorry: I forgot!'

'That's very nice of you—to forget,' smiled the blind man. 'It shows that I'm not so helpless after all. Certainly I should like to come; I'm as keen on 手がかり（を与える）s as you are.'

The 味方する door was the 長，指導者 point of 利益／興味. It opened on to the garden from the scullery. The scullery—a dank and forbidding 議会 that almost 正当化するd its epithet—in turn led into the kitchen, and the kitchen into the hall. But there were other ways of getting about, for it was an old house with many passages and on さまざまな levels. Most of the rooms appeared to have at least two doors. 'I think that the man who built it must have been fond of French farces,' 発言／述べるd Mr Enderleigh, pointing out this feature.

But even at the 味方する door there was very little to see, the Enderleigh 押し込み強盗 存在 主として remarkable for its 消極的な features. There was the oiled lock, and the 重要な bore 確かな 最近の scratches, and that was all.

'If the bolts had been 発射 this would never have happened,' said the master of the house. 'Perhaps in 未来—'

'But the bolts can't be stirred, dear,' 抗議するd Myra. 'I've tried myself until my poor thumbs are nearly dislocated. And every one says that if 夜盗，押し込み強盗s want to get in they will, even if they have to come 負かす／撃墜する the chimney.'

'I think the bolts might move if they were 簡単に oiled,' 示唆するd Carrados. 'The level is all 権利, you see.'

'Chloe,' called out Mr Enderleigh—the kitchen door stood open—'is there any oil about?'

A young girl in cap and apron—a girl of やめる unusual prettiness—appeared at the door.

'Oil, sir?' she repeated faintly, and she continued to look from one to another of them as though something was amiss.

'Yes, oil—ordinary oil—the sort you oil with, you know. There must be some about somewhere.'

'Oh, yes—for the sewing machine,' she replied, and disappeared to return with it in a moment.

'Now a feather.'

The girl's 注目する，もくろむs 発射 to a bucket 持つ／拘留するing kitchen 辞退する that stood beneath the 沈む; then rose to the level again as she continued to stand there.

'Feathers: in the middle dresser drawer, Chloe,' 誘発するd her mistress tartly. 'Bless me,' she confided to the others, 'the girl's going dotty, I believe. Over-excitement isn't good for our poor sex.'

'Now we want a 議長，司会を務める or something for the 最高の，を越す bolt,' said Enderleigh.

'I think I can do it without, if you will 許す me,' put in Carrados. 'I fancy that I am just a few インチs to the good in that 尊敬（する）・点.'

'But really, Mr Carrados,' 抗議するd the lady, 'won't you get it on your 着せる／賦与するs—or something?'

That is only a 事柄 of carelessness, not 見通し,' replied Carrados. He gave the feather a dexterous turn in the neck of the 瓶／封じ込める to 除去する the 超過 of oil before he withdrew it. 'Children have the keenest sight, Mrs Enderleigh, and yet look how they 減少（する） the jam about!'

'It's やめる marvellous,' she murmured, watching him 適用する the oil and then work the 活動／戦闘 until the bolt slid easily.

'Not so much as you might think,' he 保証するd her. 'Frequently you are indebted to other senses when you think you are using your 注目する，もくろむs, and they get all the credit. Several men have told me that they always の近くに their 注目する，もくろむs when they are doing 確かな delicate 調整s.'

'I once knew a lady who always shut her 注目する，もくろむs before she 解雇する／砲火／射撃d a gun off,' 与える／捧げるd Enderleigh. 'Yet she was fond of 狙撃, and often 攻撃する，衝突する things.'

'Dogs or keepers?' 問い合わせd Myra politely.

Certainly the 押し込み強盗 did not seem to have damped anyone's spirits. Presently they went out to look at the 罪を負わせるing 足跡s—'見解（をとる）ing the 団体／死体' Myra called it—by candlelight until they were tired of striking matches and the friendly 不明瞭 put Carrados at liberty to go 負かす／撃墜する on 手渡すs and 膝s and touch the 井戸／弁護士席-示すd impressions with his eerily perceptive fingers in his own peculiar way.

'What's this—snowing?' Enderleigh had exclaimed as he opened the door to lead the way into the garden. A ぱらぱら雨ing of white showed on the 明らかにする earth before them.

'Goose!' retorted Myra 情愛深く, 'it's lime, of course. Old Benjamin—he's a sort of 地元の unhandyman, Mr Carrados, whom Guy 雇うs one day a week to sit in the garden and smoke shag—put it on only yesterday. He said the 国／地域 was too "thodden" for bulbs: it's always too something for Ben.'

'It （機の）カム in useful, all the same,' said her husband. 'You see, the lime 存在 鎮圧するd 負かす／撃墜する in the 足跡s shows that they were made after it was put there. That's important.'

'Lapworth the Sleuth had already 診断するd that, O Fountain of 知恵,' mocked his wife. She leaned 今後 and struck him lightly on the arm. 'You're it! Race you to the river, Guy!'

'Ssh!' 警告するd Enderleigh with a nod に向かって their guest.

'Go, children—run,' 勧めるd Carrados benignly. 'I will follow at a pace more ふさわしい to my years.'

'停止する!' cried Myra, limping into a walk before they were 公正に／かなり off. 'I forgot; my feet are as soft as mush today. Besides, I oughtn't to now.'

'No, of course you oughtn't to,' said Guy 厳しく. 'And we oughtn't to leave Mr Carrados like that. God knows what sort of a lunatic 亡命 he'll think he's dropped on.'

'Never mind: I got you away. Just one, Guy. And don't worry about him. He said his ears, but he meant his 注目する，もくろむs, of course: his ears are sharp enough. That old man wouldn't take any 害（を与える） if you put him 負かす／撃墜する in the middle of a sawmill.'

'Old!' exclaimed Mr Enderleigh indignantly. '広大な／多数の／重要な Scott! What next?'

They walked 支援する to 会合，会う the 前進するing Carrados, and then they all strolled soberly 負かす／撃墜する to the extremity of the garden and stood 熟視する／熟考するing the slow, muddy river before they turned 支援する again.

'You take Mr Carrados into the dining-room, Guy,' said Myra, 急いでing on ahead as they 近づくd the house. 'I'm going up to change my shoes—these are soaked.'

'Yes, my lady, you are pretty high up already, I'm afraid,' apostrophized her husband as they followed. 'That's the way of it, Mr Carrados. I shall think myself lucky if she isn't 負かす／撃墜する below 無 before the night is out.'

'I've taken hot water up to the spare room, sir,' said Chloe, as they passed her in the hall.

They washed their 手渡すs leisurely and went 負かす／撃墜する to the dining room. The maid had lit the lamp and was 補充するing the 解雇する／砲火／射撃. Still Mrs Enderleigh did not appear. A few minutes passed rather きっぱりと. Enderleigh made a half-hearted show of asking his guest if he was fond of this and that, but Carrados divined his vague uneasiness and soon they both 率直に waited.

'Guy,' said a queer little 発言する／表明する just outside the door—it had been left somewhat ajar—'do you mind coming here a minute.'

Enderleigh threw a quick, 問い合わせing look across, and the blind man—知らせるd by what sense, who shall say?—nodded mute assent. Then the door の近くにd and Carrados slowly turned his 直面する to the four points of the room.

It was perhaps five minutes later that Enderleigh returned. He （機の）カム thoughtfully across the room and stood の近くに to his guest's 議長，司会を務める.

'It's just as I was afraid,' he said, pitching his 発言する／表明する 慎重に. 'Myra is now at a very minus 行う／開催する／段階 indeed. And a curious thing—curious and trivial, and yet, I must 収容する／認める, 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の—has happened to upset her. It's mixed up with one or two other 事柄s, and I suppose that this 押し込み強盗 also—although that has nothing to do with it—has helped to put the emotional screw on. If you care to hear I will tell you with 楽しみ, 特に as you have seen how 有望な she was a few minutes ago, but I don't want to bore you.'

'Go on,' said Carrados. 'Curious and trivial things that are 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の have never bored me yet.'

'井戸／弁護士席, you shall 裁判官. I 示すd, over at your place, that we are 推定する／予想するing our little 世帯 to be 増加するd in the course of a few months. Not unnaturally, Myra has to pass through a variety of new emotions on the 支配する, and she also has an unfortunate 疑惑. It happened that her father was born club-footed and his father was disfigured in the same way. Of course, we tell her that it's all nonsense, but there is undeniably an element of 遺伝 in that sort of thing, and she knows it 井戸／弁護士席 enough. Just now she is doubly 傾向がある to take notice of any 肉親，親類d of suggestion or premonition that may come along, 特に on that one unlucky 可能性. You heard her say that she was going up to change her shoes? 井戸／弁護士席, this is what has happened: she went upstairs, kicked off her wet shoes, and proceeded to pull on another pair. They are shoes that she has worn やめる comfortably at intervals for the past few weeks, but now one—the 権利 foot—would not go on. Thinking nothing of it, she 選ぶd up a shoe-解除する and tried again. Still it 辞退するd to 融通する, and then she went to the light and looked more closely.... It wasn't likely to fit, Carrados, for the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の thing is that those shoes, which she has worn やめる easily and 自然に a dozen times in the last few weeks, are both for the left foot!'

There was a 動揺させる of cups and glasses as the attractive maid nearly dropped the tray she was bringing in. Enderleigh looked はっきりと 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, but the girl kept her 直面する 回避するd and quickly went out again.

'There's another who's certainly got the jumps,' said her master. 'But about those shoes. Of course it's ridiculous, but you see the inference? In each forerunning 事例／患者 it was the 権利 foot that was wrong, and so poor Myra is miraculously endowed with two left shoes at this moment as a sort ol admonition than an ordinary 権利 will not be needed.... But you don't see anything in it, I 推定する／予想する?'

'On the contrary,' replied Carrados slowly, 'I see so much in it—so many thousand 可能性s, all wrong but one—that I should like to go up into a very large, perfectly 明らかにする attic, lit by several twenty thousand candle-力／強力にする arc-lamps, and there meditate.'

'And the nearest thing I can 申し込む／申し出 you,' said Enderleigh, 'is the coal cellar. It's roomy as such places go and certainly 事実上 empty now. For the 残り／休憩（する）—' He 設立する the pleasantry difficult to 支える.

'So,' continued the blind man 本気で, 'we must still proceed on 直接／まっすぐに 構成要素 lines. I should very much like to 扱う the pair of shoes that has 原因（となる）d the trouble. Do you think Mrs Enderleigh would 許す me?'

'Why not?' assented the lady's husband. Til go and get them.'

He went, and returned almost すぐに—but empty-手渡すd.

'She's coming 負かす／撃墜する now. Much better,' he whispered in the 発言する／表明する of a conspirator. 'Bringing them.' And almost at his heels a sobered Myra 再現するd.

'I'm a hopeless little rabbit, Mr Carrados,' she わびるd. 'Please don't say anything nice about it, because I am.'

'Rabbit!' ejaculated her natural protector loyally; 'rabbit I Why, Mr Carrados, that—that sylph has the heart of a—a—井戸／弁護士席, I'm not strong on the faunas, but of whatever is the antithesis of rabbit.'

'That would be a ferret, wouldn't it?' asked Myra in her funny way. 'What a sad flatterer you are, Guy!'

'Go on,' said Guy happily. 'So long as you can laugh—'

She waved a 安心させるing 手渡す to him across the room as she 演説（する）／住所d their guest again.

'Of course, I know that he has told you all about it, Mr Carrados,' she said. 'Because when I 税金d him he began by 説, "I only just—" Here is the mystery.'

It was a pair of pretty bronze shoes, neat yet not 壊れやすい, that she put into the blind man's 手渡すs. He held them one by one, and as his long, delicately-formed fingers 小衝突d across their surface the two 選挙立会人s received a curious impression of seeing something read.

'I shouldn't mind-I shouldn't mind the shoes a 粒子,' 宣言するd Myra—she felt compelled to speak to break the almost hypnotic 追求（する），探索（する） of those understanding 手渡すs 'though, of course, they're no earthly use. But for weeks I've been wearing them all 権利, and now I know perfectly 井戸／弁護士席 that I couldn't. There's something wrong with me somewhere, don't you see?'

'But, dearest,' pleaded Guy soothingly, 'there's some perfectly simple explanation if only we could see it. Why, only just now you said that your feet were tender. That's probably it. You've got them sore, and so you can't put on the shoe. If they were all 権利 you'd jump into them and not notice that anything was the 事柄, just as you have been doing up to now.'

'Don't talk tommy, Guy!' she exclaimed half wrathfully. 'As if I could かもしれない put on two left shoes without knowing it, even if I could get them on. And yet,' she wailed, 'I have been putting them on—that's the horrible thing about it.'

Carrados had 明らかに finished his scrutiny, for he was listening to this 交流 in his usual benign complacency, and as he listened he absently rubbed his nose gently with the polished toe of a shoe.

'始める，決める your mind at 残り／休憩（する）, Mrs Enderleigh,' he 発言／述べるd 静かに, as he 申し込む／申し出d her the other one. 'There is nothing wrong. You have never worn that shoe.'

'I have never worn it?'

'Neither you nor anybody else. The shoe has not been worn.'

'But look at the wear,' she 固執するd, 陳列する，発揮するing the scarified 単独の. 'Look at this worn lace.'

'The lace, yes,' he 認める, with unshaken 信用／信任. 'But not the shoe.'

'But how can you かもしれない know that?'

'In 正確に／まさに the same way that I could oil the bolt—by using other 力／強力にするs than that of sight.'

'Do you mean—' began Enderleigh, but Carrados interrupted him with uplifted 手渡す.

'If I may 示唆する, please don't say anything more about the shoes just yet. At this moment Sergeant Lapworth has come to the door and your servant is admitting him. Let us hear what he has to say.'

Myra and Guy 交流d looks of bewilderment—almost of alarm—and then the girl's 直面する （疑いを）晴らすd.

'Yes,' she exclaimed, 'I had forgotten to tell you. He did say that he would look in again after you got 支援する, Guy.'

'If you please, m'm,' said Chloe at the door, 'there's the 探偵，刑事 here again, and he would like to see the master if it's convenient.'

'やめる 権利,' replied Myra. 'Show him in here.'

Sergeant Lapworth was a plain-着せる／賦与するs man of the 地元の staff. If he had a fault it was that of giving the impression of knowing more than he would tell, a suggestion that resulted in people いつかs finding him いっそう少なく omniscient in the end than they had 推定する／予想するd. The Enderleighs were rather surprised at the sudden 尊敬（する）・点 that （機の）カム over him when he 認めるd their blind 訪問者.

'One or two small 事柄s I thought I'd like to see you about, sir,' he said, 演説（する）／住所ing Mr Enderleigh. 'Those 足跡s by the 味方する gate. I understand that no one （機の）カム along that way between the time your gardener put the lime there yesterday and my seeing them this afternoon?'

'That is やめる 権利,' agreed Myra. 'We 許す the milkman to come in at the 前線 gate and go to the 味方する door, to save him carrying his can 権利 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the other way. No one else （機の）カム; I asked Chloe 特に.'

'You see the point, sir?' continued the sergeant, directing his 発言する／表明する at Mr Carrados this time. 'Whoever left those 足跡s is the man we want to put our 手渡すs on. We should like him to account for his movements last night at all events. Old Ben certainly never made those prints, sir. Now, I wonder,' the sergeant's 発言する／表明する became softly specu-lative as he leisurely felt in one or two pockets and finally produced a neat paper template of a boot, 'I wonder if this 示唆するs anything to either of you?"

Myra shook her 長，率いる and passed the paper on to Enderleigh.

'It's a man's boot, I suppose,' she said. 'It is broader than a woman's and the heel is twice as large. It's much smaller than any of yours, Guy.'

'Lord, yes,' he agreed. 'I'm miles beyond that.'

'Perhaps,' continued Sergeant Lapworth, becoming almost dreamy in his 静かな detachment, 'perhaps this might help you more if you should ever have seen the 初めの.' It was a small fancy button that he mysteriously produced this time from the Aladdin's 洞穴 の中で his 衣料品s. Myra's spirits went up.

'What a splendid 手がかり（を与える）, Mr Lapworth!' she exclaimed. 'Where did you find it?'

'I don't want anything said about it just yet,' he 規定するd. 'As a 事柄 of fact I 選ぶd it up in your scullery this afternoon.'

'It is a boot button, I suppose?' questioned Enderleigh. 'It strikes me as rather dressy.'

'It is the 最高の，を越す of a pearl boot button undoubtedly, I should say,' pronounced the sergeant. 'One of those metal-shanked things that they wire into the boot nowadays. First question is, Does it belong to anyone of the house? I dare say you have plenty of pairs of fancy boots and shoes in use or put by, but it isn't a button that you would readily forget.'

Myra breathlessly agreed that if she had had boot buttons like that she would never have forgotten it, and 追加するd that if Guy had appeared with them she could never have forgiven it—a sotto-voce 成果／努力 that elicited nothing more than an anxious look from her husband.

'And how about the young person in the kitchen?' 示唆するd Lapworth.

'I know Chloe's boots, and it certainly doesn't come from there,' replied Chloe's mistress. 'However, you had better ask her, to make sure. Shall I （犯罪の）一味 now?'

'Don't trouble,' he replied, with a やめる spontaneous ちらりと見ること に向かって the decanters on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, as he returned the precious 遺物 to its hiding-place. 'I can have a word with her as I go out. Now as regards the silver. Your good lady said that you would be able to make me out a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）, sir.'

'Of course,' assented Enderleigh; 'that's got to be done, hasn't it? And then there'll be the 保険 people. And then a young man introducing himself as "The 圧力（をかける）". I'll tell you what, sergeant, this 存在 burgled isn't such a soft thing after all.'

'I don't know, sir. It strikes me that you have come off uncommonly 平易な, seeing as how things were. No mess, no breakages, no 半端物s and ends from every room that you can't remember until it's too late to （人命などを）奪う，主張する. Just one big lot taken clean.'

'It would be about as much as he could take, anyway,' said the owner. 'I shouldn't like to heft that 事例／患者 far.' He casually 示すd the group of アルコール飲料s. 'What shall it be, sergeant?'

'I'll leave that to you, sir,' said the sergeant modestly. 'Yes, it would be a tidy 負担. I don't know that I ever remember the 事例／患者 存在 taken before. Reckon they had a car somewhere 近づく.'

'Anyway, nothing was overlooked,' said Myra. 'There were some tankards out on the sideboard here, and three dozen spoons of さまざまな sizes in the drawer, and they went too. I put them—'

'You put them what?' 誘発するd her husband, for Myra had stopped as though she had said her say.

'I 港／避難所't the faintest notion, dear,' she replied 率直に. 'To tell the truth I think I was half asleep. Put what what?'

'井戸／弁護士席, I think I'll be getting on along, sir,' said Lapworth, reading in this a pretty obvious hint. 'As soon as we hear from you—'

'Nonsense,' interposed Enderleigh, rather put out at the turn; 'have another first,' and he refilled the not altogether inflexible sergeant's glass.

There was a hesitating knock at the door and Chloe entered with a card.

'Please, m'm,' said the girl—Mrs Enderleigh happened to be seated nearest to her—'there's a gentleman would like to see the master for a minute.'

'"Wich"—"Mr William Wich",' read Myra. 'Isn't there a Lady Wich a few houses away?'

'Trefusis—Lady Wich, madam,' volunteered Lapworth. 'There is a Mr William, the son.'

'I'd better go out and see what it is,' said Enderleigh. 'Probably only a minute—excuse me, won't you?'

For so short a gap it did not seem 価値（がある） while discovering a topic of conversation, and so no one broke the minute's silence. If they had spoken their thoughts the 交流 would have been something after this fashion:

'I wonder if Lady Wich ever ーするつもりであるs to call—city knight's 未亡人, I suppose. Now will Mr Carrados go when the fat sergeant leaves, or does he 推定する／予想する that we have proper supper?'

'Bit of a card this Mr Willie Wich from what I hear. Old party keeps him in pretty tight by all accounts. Larky; girls. Damn 罰金 stuff this Scotch here. Wonder if it'd be all 権利, if he does give the nod again, for me to—'

'She must stand five feet five—かもしれない six. At that, with the tread she has, she will take a 4ｽ to 5. Yes, under any vigorous 演習 she might reasonably 分裂（する） a pliant 3ｽ. There were certainly two definable personal exudations about the other shoe, and associable with them syringa—that's the girl—and cheiranthus—this one.'

The door opened and Enderleigh entered, then standing aside he waited for someone else.

'Rather curious,' he 発表するd. 'Mr Wich has come to give us some （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） about our friend last night; so as we are all here—My wife; Mr Wich; Mr Carrados; Sergeant Lapworth.'

'It's really from my mother, you know,' said the dapper 青年 who followed the host in. 'She's a frightful 無効の—heart and all that—so she sent me to tell you. We only just heard of what had happened: beastly shame—'

'We didn't know that you'd be 利益／興味d,' 投機・賭けるd Myra graciously.

'Eh? Oh, I mean rotten luck 存在 burgled like that. 井戸／弁護士席, it seems that last night the mater was having a bad turn and she had to get up and sit at the open window to have 空気／公表する. That's how it takes her. It seems that from her bedroom window one can see most of your garden—we live a couple of houses along: Trefusis, you know—and as she sat there she distinctly saw someone go 負かす／撃墜する your garden に向かって the river and disappear の中で the trees. She says she wasn't taking much notice of it at the time, because there was no 推論する／理由 why there should be anything wrong in that, and it 存在 dark she didn't see a lot, and she was feeling pretty washed out 同様に. But she did notice that it seemed to be a man carrying something large and 激しい, and when she heard of this she thought you'd better know.'

'It's most awfully good of Lady Wich to send,' 噴出するd Myra; 'and of you to come. We are just celebrating the event with frugal 歓待. Will you drink the toast "Our Absent Friend" in whisky, port, or coffee, Mr Wich?'

'Eh? Oh, I don't mind. The first for choice, thank you.'

'The river,' mused Lapworth. 'That's certainly an idea now: we couldn't find any likely モーター wheel-跡をつけるs 負かす／撃墜する the 味方する road here. A boat waiting, you see. What time about would this be, sir?'

'Oh, about half-past twelve, she said.'

'Ah!' The sergeant continued to regard Mr Wich with an 空気／公表する of distant 憶測 while at the same time his 手渡す went mechanically to his mysterious pocket. 'I suppose you didn't by any chance happen to be in the neighbourhood yourself at about that hour, sir?'

The perfect 尊敬（する）・点 of the トン could not wholly disguise a 確かな significance in the question, and Willie Wich looked up to 会合，会う the sergeant's 注目する，もくろむs on level 条件. Enderleigh also 設立する something 逮捕（する）ing in the sudden 緊張 that seemed to have 伴う／関わるd two of his guests, while Carrados continued to gaze into unseen space with the faint half smile of placid contemplation. Myra alone appeared to have no 利益／興味 in the passage, and her 直面する was turned away, but her lips were tight 圧力（をかける）d to 持つ／拘留する 支援する a cry of generous 警告 and her heart was thudding like an engine （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, for in a flash her 注目する，もくろむs had followed Lapworth's and in a flash had seen on her spruce guest's 延長するd foot a boot with 同一の pearl buttons, of which the upper one was 行方不明の.

The gap between the question and the answer was almost as long as it takes to tell of it, for with their 注目する，もくろむs 会合 Wich paused to consider his reply as though a thought 勧めるd 警告を与える.

'What do you やめる mean by that?' he asked guardedly. 'You know, of course, that I live in the neighbourhood. Do you mean, was I at home?'

'Not 正確に／まさに, sir,' replied the sergeant. 'You might have been passing this very house on your way home and thought you saw or heard something 怪しげな here and come nearer to 調査／捜査する. Or you might have had a dog 逸脱する into this garden and come in to call it 支援する, or a dozen things. What I should like to know is, did you come into this house or garden last night for any 目的?'

'I did not,' said Wich, his 直面する relaxing into something like an amused grin. 'What is more, sergeant, I have never before been in this house or garden in the course of my long and industrious life.'

'That's やめる 限定された, sir,' Lapworth 認める. 'In the circumstances would you mind 明言する／公表するing where you were between the hours of eleven last night and two o'clock this morning?'

To those who knew him pretty 井戸／弁護士席 young Mr Wich was something of a puzzle, and they complained that you never knew how he would take it and whether the fellow was やめる the fool he いつかs seemed.

'"In the circumstances", sergeant, seems to 暗示する the 存在 of 確かな 条件s of which I have no knowledge,' he now replied. 'Should I ever find myself in the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる of the Old Bailey, 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with the 殺人 of a constable, or before the Surrey Petty 開会／開廷／会期s （刑事）被告 of appropriating Mr Enderleigh's ancestral plate, either of those eventualities would 構成する an aggregation of circumstances that would 施行する my acquiescence. At 現在の I fail to see any 推論する／理由 why I should （判決などを）下す an account of my trivial life and movements.'

Sergeant Lapworth took out an irreproachably white pocket handkerchief and wiped his 直面する profusely.

'Very good, sir,' he 発言／述べるd with dark significance. 'Should you have any 反対 to my comparing this form'—here the sergeant 劇的な produced his first 展示（する）—'with the boots you are now wearing?'

'Not the least,' replied the buoyant young man, raising his 権利 foot to 容易にする the 操作／手術; 'though I must 抗議する against the attention thus gratuitously directed to my very unprepossessing footwear. Anything to 補助装置 the 合法的 ends of 司法（官）. But not,' he 追加するd 厳しく, 'of mere vulgar curiosity.'

Without deigning to reply, Sergeant Lapworth went 負かす／撃墜する on one 膝 and from that position fitted the paper impression against the proffered boot. It was at once plain to everyone that the two 輪郭（を描く）s 同時に起こる／一致するd perfectly. But an even more 重要な piece of 証拠 was to 現れる, for as the sergeant 成し遂げるd this office he slyly 挿入するd a nail in the angle of the instep and an appreciable ぱらぱら雨ing of white-peppered 国／地域 fell 負かす／撃墜する into his 手渡す.

'I must call your attention, sir, to the fact that this earth from your boot appears to correspond with the 国／地域 of the garden here.'

'I say!' exclaimed Mr Wich aghast, 'I am sorry, Mrs Enderleigh—bringing stuff like that into your pretty room!' Then with a 有望な look of toleration, 'But I 推定する／予想する you know what servants are!'

'Lastly,' said Sergeant Lapworth with admirable composure in spite of a rather 紅潮／摘発するd complexion, 'I shall be glad if you will look at this button which corresponds 正確に／まさに with those on your boot, where one is 行方不明の.'

'Thank you,' replied young Mr Wich, passing it 支援する again; it's very good of you to have kept it for me, but it's really no use. It isn't a button you sew on, but one of those metal-shanked 事件／事情／状勢s and the shank is broken.'

'Then I understand, sir, that you 拒絶する／低下する to 補助装置 us with any （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）?'

'Oh, no, you don't, sergeant—not if you understand the ありふれた or vernacular tongue, that is,' retorted his antagonist. 'So far, what I have 拒絶する／低下するd is to give an account of my movements on the strength of an old button hypothetically lost at some time from my boot and a little piece of paper traced to 手段. It may be the 法律 that I have to if anyone shows me those: I must look that up. But you may remember that the only 推論する／理由 for my 存在 here was to bring you （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）.'

'Oh, yes,' exclaimed Myra, 完全に won over by the 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う's ready nonchalance, 'we are all sure that Mr Wich is やめる all 権利, Sergeant Lapworth. Aren't we, Guy?'

'Mrs Enderleigh,' put in Wich, gazing at her with melancholy 賞賛, 'before I go I must unburden my mind, and I'm afraid you may think very 貧しく of me in consequence. I did not purloin your silver and I have not the faintest idea who did. Good-bye.'

'Must you really go?' she asked. 'Please be sure and thank Lady Wich from me, won't you? And any Thursday.'

'If you would be so 肉親，親類d as to help a blind man to his car, Mr Wich,' interposed Carrados, and Enderleigh 設立する his own proffered services 静かに 小衝突d aside.

'You don't say you are!' exclaimed Wich. 'I never 宙返り／暴落するd to it. And that's your little jigger waiting then? I'm looking 今後 to something on four wheels myself, but so far I have to be content with two.'

'It's hardly 価値（がある） while 申し込む／申し出ing you a 解除する,' said Carrados, when they were in the road, 'but if you don't mind I should like to walk with you as far as your gate.'

'権利-o,' said Mr Wich, wondering who this queer 顧客 who had made up to him might be. 'Lovely night, isn't it? What about your car?'

'It will follow presently; my driver understands. I have been trying to think where we have met before. Are you by-any chance the Wich who made forty-nine for The 残り／休憩（する） against Lord's Schools five years ago?'

'Oh, I say!' exclaimed his companion, becoming やめる boyishly shy at the 言及／関連 to this 偉業／利用する. 'You don't mean to say that you remember that? Were you at Lord's?'

'Yes. I am fond of the minor fixtures; I can hear more play in them than often comes out in first-class matches. We did not speak, but you passed, and I thought I 認めるd your step again. A Winchester fellow was commenting on the game for me. You were given run out.'

'You must 簡単に be a walking Wisden, sir.' said Wich, brimming with 賞賛. And then with a curious intonation in his 発言する／表明する he 追加するd, 'But why "given"?'

'I remember some 言及／関連 to it.... Were you out?'

'As a 事柄 of fact I was not,' he 認める.

'I don't think you made any fuss about it—quarrelled with the umpire or groused about the pavilion?'

'井戸／弁護士席, should I be likely? ... It was cricket.'

'Yes.... And now about this 商売／仕事?'

They had reached the gate of Trefusis, but the young man made no movement に向かって it, and presently they fell to walking slowly on again.

'That isn't so 平易な. Not by a long, long way. I was taken by surprise, I must 収容する／認める; I hadn't a notion that there'd be any trace. Of course it would have been simple enough to tell the sergeant how it （機の）カム about, if that was all.'

'You mean the lady in the 事例／患者; or shall we say the girl in the shoes?'

'Partly; and then there is my mother. She would certainly have a heart attack if she 設立する that William had been taking her 隣人's 手渡す-maiden out to midnight carnivals and other forms of penance.'

'Is that やめる—cricket?'

'Not 絶対 M.C.C., perhaps, but it isn't to be inferred that I had the inklingest of who she was at first. And Chloe really is an awfully pretty girl, you know. What has she let out?'

'Nothing at all, so far as I am aware.'

'Then how on earth do you come to know of her—and the shoes?'

'Very much, I suppose, in the same way that Sergeant Lapworth has come to know of you and the boot—because the traces are so obvious.'

'I must say I think Chloe was a bit of a mutt to walk on the bed and then leave a button somewhere about. She might have learned better than that from the pictures surely.'

'Chloe 自然に had not foreseen that the escapade would 同時に起こる／一致する with a 押し込み強盗. But I would not be too ready to 非難する her, my young friend,' advised Carrados dryly. 'The most 悲惨な 失敗 of all was made by someone else.'

'That's a straight one,' said Mr Wich. 'What did I do?'

'Suppose you tell me about it?' 示唆するd Mr Carrados. 'Under the 調印（する） of 信用／信任.'

'I don't mind. I was going to see a lawyer first thing tomorrow to find out what I'd better do to 回避する the 軍隊s of 法律 and order. Perhaps you could advise me?'

'Perhaps I could,' 認める Carrados. 'At all events I will.'

'There really isn't very much to tell,' said young Mr Wich pensively. 'I happened to be on the river alone a few months ago when I noticed a dazzling creature watching my feeble 成果／努力s from the bank. To have a nearer look I landed and asked her if she was not, excuse me, 行方不明になる Prendergast? She said no, but, how curious, she had been almost sure that I was a 確かな Mr Johnson. This 構成するing a 副 introduction on 設立するd lines I 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるd upon the 有望な 見通し to go for a short 巡航する and even to 受託する some slight refreshment of a light and portable nature.

'Under the 後援 of the gods the idyll proceeded with 模範的な propriety to run its normal course. So far as I was 関心d the 長，指導者 attraction was the extreme 見込み of （犯罪，病気などの）発見 and the certainty that everyone 関心d would impute the very worst 動機s to my 行為／行う when they did find out.

'On our usual "evening" last week I was indulging the delightful 存在's passion for a 害のない （水以外の）飲料 known as Tango Teaser when she 遠くに見つけるd a handbill 発表するing a cheap fancy dance at one of the public halls a few miles away and artlessly exclaimed:

'"I should love to go to one of those".

'Of course there was only one humanly possible reply to a heart-cry like that, and I gallantly made it.

'"And I should love to take you. Why not?"

'To this she said that it was 絶対 impossible and we fell to making the 手はず／準備. She was to creep out 静かに by a 味方する door after the others had gone to bed, lock the door after her and bring the 重要な, and 会合，会う me at our usual trysting place—a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す a few hundred yards from our 各々の abodes. I would be there with my アイロンをかける steed, and on the pillion thereof would whirl her into fairyland.

'Everything went off as per schedule. The only contretemps was that Chloe—have I について言及するd that the ヘロイン was Chloe, by the way?—ripped one of her shoes across and thus passed automatically into the retired 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）. I 自白する that I was surprised at the びっくり仰天 the 事故 occasioned the 甘い chit, and then she told me. Ashamed at the 欠陥／不足 of her own pedal outfit she had surreptitiously "borrowed" a pair belonging to her mistress. （犯罪，病気などの）発見 would now 必然的に follow, 不名誉, かもしれない 解雇／（訴訟の）却下. Sighs, 涙／ほころびs—heavens!—reproaches. Again I did the insane chivalrous thing and swore to 取って代わる the shoe within twelve hours or 死なせる／死ぬ.'

'The 残り／休憩（する） is obvious. Chloe knew where they had been bought—a shop in Oxford Street—and I was to his me off at 夜明け and duplicate them. As there would be the 商売／仕事 of giving the shoes the necessary "wear" it would be simpler to keep only one, and this I was to put into a clump of ivy on the garden 味方する 塀で囲む. But when it （機の）カム to parting a difficulty arose: it was 必須の for me to have the 分裂（する） shoe as a pattern; I could not 許す the fair penitent to walk 在庫／株ing-footed along the stony road; and it wasn't wise to 危険 存在 seen together any nearer our houses. The simple way out was for me to lend her one of 地雷, and this I 回復するd from the ivy bush when I put the other one in. And there, Mr Carrados, you have the whole egg in a nutshell.'

'Everything went off all 権利 then?' 問い合わせd Carrados maliciously.

'Like a clock. I 得るd the exact thing in the exact size, scrubbed it 負かす／撃墜する to the exact 外見 of the other and put in the old lace. The superfluous shoe was flung over into an orchard somewhere Isleworth way. There was nothing much in all that. But now you see why it was impossible to 満足させる Sergeant Lapworth's inopportune curiosity.'

'You may perhaps find it difficult to 満足させる one or two other people as 井戸／弁護士席. Did Chloe say anything when she let you in just now?'

'Why, yes; it struck me as ungracious at the time. The angel looked at me very weirdly and just said "Idiot!" I thought she must be overwrought.'

'I think it very likely. I told you that there had been other 失敗s besides Chloe's. What she wished to 示す by a 選び出す／独身 appropriate word, my budding Lothario, was that you had thrown away the wrong shoe, with the consequence that Mrs Enderleigh is now on the 瀬戸際 of hysterics at an 明らかな 奇蹟.'

'No!' exclaimed Wich incredulously, 'I could not. And yet, surely.... Oh, good Lord, I did! I kept them to make a pair—the new one and the other, instead of.... 井戸／弁護士席, I am a prize fathead! What will happen now?'

'What? Why the extreme probability that you have had your trouble for nothing and that Chloe will be 解雇（する）d after all.'

'Oh, I don't think that—not after seeing Mrs Enderleigh. You and Chloe both misjudge her strangely. She seems the jolliest sort of girl to me. I bet she'll understand.'

'I'll bet she will,' assented Carrados grimly. 'And when she understands that her pretty servant has been wearing her things, こそこそ動くing out at nights (to say nothing about giving 夜盗，押し込み強盗s the chance of こそこそ動くing in) to foot it at dance-halls with the young 誘発する from next-door-but-one, you may not find her やめる so 同情的な as she was half an hour ago. If she doesn't take the 適切な時期 of calling upon Lady Wich about it I'm 不正に out.'

'It's a 襲う，襲って強奪する's 商売／仕事,' said Mr Wich with a qualmish 公式文書，認める in his 発言する／表明する. 'What had I better do?'

'What you had better do is to leave it in my 手渡すs and agree to my 条件.'

'What 条件?'

'That you never go gallivanting with Chloe again. You both "don't mean anything", but suppose you did happen to get the girl 発射する／解雇するd with a very 疑わしい character? Should you see any 代案／選択肢 to behaving either as a fool or a knave to put it 権利?'

'Whew!' exclaimed Mr Wich, 緩和 the collar against his neck, 'that's heart-to-heart stuff. 井戸／弁護士席, if you can bring it off I'm good for my part. Chloe certainly is a dazzling thing, but, 厳密に between ourselves, her mind is little more than an assortment of obsolete film captions.'

* * * * *

When Mr Enderleigh returned from 商売／仕事 the next day Myra 迎える／歓迎するd him with a subdued 公式文書，認める. It was plain that the excitement had やめる worn off.

'If Mr Carrados is really going to be useful to you, Guy, of course I shall do my best to amuse him. But I wonder all the same if he is going to make a practice of dropping in every evening.'

'How so?' 需要・要求するd Guy.

'He rang me up this afternoon and hoped that we should both be in later as he would like to call. I had to say we should be charmed.'

'Just 同様に you did, my lady,' 発言／述べるd Guy. 'Do you know that やめる important people have a most 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の opinion of the man, and I am told that Scotland Yard will do anything to 強いる him. That's what I've come across today.'

'My gracious!' said Myra, 深く，強烈に impressed; 'it's just 同様に I fawned. Talking about police, I met Sergeant Lapworth in the road this morning and he seemed very 半端物. He said they had received 指示／教授／教育s to go slow in taking any steps.'

'That せねばならない 控訴 them 負かす／撃墜する to the ground,' 示唆するd Guy pessimistically. 'We don't look like seeing any of our plate again, old girl.'

'I don't know, Guy. It struck me that Sergeant Lapworth knew more than he would tell. He said that they 推定する／予想するd 開発s.'

'It used to be "were 調査／捜査するing a 手がかり（を与える）",' said the unimpressed gentleman.

Mrs Enderleigh had 指名するd nine o'clock as a convenient hour and with the busy man's punctuality nine o'clock 設立する Mr Carrados walking up the Homecraft garden path. Looking out, the lady of the house felt a pleasant 接近 of importance, arising from the 著名な 割合s of the car waiting at her gate.

'How nice of you to come again!' she exclaimed playfully. 'After the alarms and excursions of yesterday I hardly dared to hope it.'

'Oh, yes,' he replied prosaically, 'your husband and I have some small 商売／仕事 詳細（に述べる）s to discuss.'

'Of course,' she assented quickly. 'I am going to leave you at it.'

'But first,' he continued, 'I have a 取引 to 申し込む／申し出 you.'

'申し込む／申し出 me? How exciting! Whatever can it be?'

'You really want to get your silver 支援する again?'

'Why, 自然に. Guy tells me that we shall only receive about half the value the way our 政策 goes—isn't it, Guy?'

'I'm afraid it is,' 認める her husband.

'And that's only money. To both of us many of the things are priceless.'

'While you have no particular affection for that 半端物 pair of shoes?'

'Shoes? Oh, those! How ridiculous, Mr Carrados! You are not coming like an up-to-date genie to 申し込む／申し出 silver plates for old shoes, are you?'

'You have guessed. But there's always a catch about these attractive 取引s, you remember. If you agree to let the shoes go, everything connected with them goes also. You have no curiosity, make no 調査s, entertain no 疑惑s: it is to be as though they and all that appertains to them had never been.'

'I wonder if I understand?' mused Myra with a sharp little look in his direction.

'I think you do,' replied Carrados. 'You are—許す the homely phrase—no fool, Mrs Enderleigh. If you do not やめる understand yet it's only because you have not had time to think about it. You soon would.'

'All 権利; I'll take it,' said Myra, with a very 冒険的な 空気／公表する.

'But do you mean that you 現実に know now where the silver is?' 需要・要求するd Enderleigh.

'I know where the silver is,' Carrados 認める.

'Where?' exclaimed two 同時の 発言する／表明するs.

'When you went off a few days ago, you 表明するd a wish as to where it might be, Mr Enderleigh, didn't you?'

'What was that?' asked Myra, from whose mind the malediction had 明らかに faded. Her husband, on the contrary, remembered very 井戸／弁護士席 and he coloured at the recollection.

'I am sorry to be reminded of that,' he said moodily. 'Something happened to put me out, Myra, and in a moment of irritation, without meaning it, I said I wished the stuff at the 底（に届く） of the river. That's all.'

'Yes; that's the way with you impulsive people, as we genii are always finding. You want a thing and then discover that you don't. 井戸／弁護士席, my friend, you have got your wish, willy-nilly. The stuff is at the 底（に届く） of the river.'

'What a lark!' exclaimed the lady.

'The 夜盗，押し込み強盗s dropped it or hid it there?' said her husband, 熱心に intrigued. 'How on earth did you find that out?'

'The 夜盗，押し込み強盗s had nothing to do with it, because there was no 夜盗，押し込み強盗—no 押し込み強盗,' was the reply.

'Oh, but I say! Besides, it's gone. No, Mr Carrados! And then the 味方する door 重要な, you know.'

'Hush!' said Carrados mysteriously. 'That doesn't count. The 味方する door 重要な went, によれば our 取引, with the shoes.'

'Very 井戸／弁護士席,' acquiesced Myra, with something very like a giggle, 'but if there was no 夜盗，押し込み強盗 how did the silver get into the river?'

'How?' Carrados raised an 告発する／非難するing finger and slowly brought it dead level on his hostess. 'How? Behold the 犯人! You, my dear lady, threw it there!'

Moved by a ありふれた impulse Guy and Myra （機の）カム slowly to their feet. Looking at Max Carrados's 静かに smiling 直面する it seemed impossible to believe that he—to 疑問 that he—to know what to think.

'I—threw—it—there?' articulated Myra queerly.

'You deliberately cast the "damned stuff" in. Rising in the dead of night, without staying to put on slippers or to cover those 不十分な 衣料品s that are no longer the prerogative of my sex, you crept 負かす／撃墜する, carefully 取って代わるd the silver lying about, took up the 重荷（を負わせる）, let yourself out by the french window in the 製図／抽選-room, crossed the lawn, reached the silent river, and with a sigh of 救済 at 遂行するing so meritorious a 仕事, tipped the whole 捕らえる、獲得する of tricks into the water. All in a 深遠な sleep, of course. By the way, I hope your feet are better today?'

Myra sat 負かす／撃墜する again with a strange look in her 注目する，もくろむs.

'But I could not—I could not even move the box,' she whispered.

'Not when you are awake,' he replied, becoming 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な again. 'And do you know why that is? It is because you know that you cannot, and so, your slavish 団体／死体 assenting, you really cannot. But in your sleep you do not know it; your unbound mind 収容する／認めるs no 限界s, and so—'

'Do you know,' interposed Enderleigh sagely, 'I've heard something like that several tunes lately. I suppose there may be something in it after all.'

'Anyway,' said Mr Carrados, 'there is one thing you can congratulate yourself on. A wife who carries out her husband's slightest wish even in her sleep is a woman in a thousand.'

V. — THE INGENIOUS MIND OF MR RIGBY LACKSOME

THE mysterious 事件／事情／状勢 of the anatomical 支配する, that ended in a 広大な／多数の／重要な Western 回廊（地帯） 表明する, really began in a New York Mansion when Mr Hiram S. Nogg, wearing noiseless slippers, inconsiderately wandered into the remotest of his five palatial 製図／抽選-rooms, to the 当惑 of his niece Sabina and the even more pronounced 狼狽 of Rigby Lacksome. In the 条件 of Mr Lacksome's unspoken comment, the premature 発見 of the idyll 'knocked a piece of varnish off the mudguard,' and he 速く 推測するd that unless something 激烈な and 納得させるing could be brought into the 状況／情勢 not only his excellent chance of winning 行方不明になる Craddock's 手渡す, together with a reasonable 解決／入植地, but even his 任期 of usefulness as Mr Nogg's third 長官 stood in jeopardy. But having been modelling himself on the strong silent pattern for some time past, nothing really useful occurred to him.

'井戸／弁護士席, Pop,' 発言／述べるd the maiden, after she had nicked her hair into position (long 住居 in the Nogg 世帯 had led to the 採択 of this unpleasant form of endearment at her lips), 'what you gotta say about it?'

'Rainproof' Nogg fingered his scanty goatee dubiously and looked from one to the other of the young people in 穏やかな reproach. He had been 警告するd by his 私的な specialist that strong emotion 消費するd tissue, so he never ran to it now that he was seventy-five. He just 行為／法令／行動するd in the same way, but without the excuse of 深い feeling.

'Don't know that I've anything much to say, Sabbie,' he replied guardedly. 'Leastways, not in words. Rigby was going to Europe for the sales next week. Reckon he'd better go over just the same—and maybe stay there.'

'I guess not,' 推測するd 行方不明になる Craddock in an 平等に level 発言する／表明する, 'England's all 権利 for a trip, but I don't congeal to the idea of a permanency. I must have room to 逆転する in.'

'I wasn't 正確に／まさに thinking of you, Sabbie,' said the old man.

'No,' agreed Sabina. 'But from a child onwards I've always been encouraged to think for myself. And from what Rigby's just said I understand that if he went he'd wish to take me with him.'

'I hope, sir, you won't consider that there's anything clahndestine in my cawnduct beneath your roof.' を締めるing himself against the Sicilian marble mantelpiece Rigby began to 回復する something of the 態度 of the Noble Lover, a 提起する／ポーズをとる やむを得ず checked as yet by the 不確定 of the old man's real feelings. 'For some time past I have regarded 行方不明になる Craddock with 感情s of respectful 賞賛, but until this morning, when speaking of my 来たるべき trip to Yurrup, I have never—'

'That so?' interrupted Mr Nogg enigmatically. '井戸／弁護士席 we'll leave it there. Now, did that Shrubworth sale 目録 come in from Sotheby's by this morning's mail?'

'Yes, sir,' replied Rigby rather blankly. That was old Nogg all over—until it ふさわしい his own convenience the young man wouldn't have the least 指示，表示する物 whether it was going to be the foot of ignominious 追放 or the 手渡す of golden blessing.

'I want to go through it with you then,' said Hiram briskly. 'Bring it to my room when Johnson leaves.' He slid noiselessly away again, and after a very subdued 交流 of protestations with his inamorata Rigby followed him. As he went to find the 目録 of the celebrated Shrubworth collection of Shakespeariana he was thinking harder and more 速く than he had perhaps ever done before.

* * * * *

Max Carrados, you may remember, had some connexion with the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs. He had 相続するd his not inconsiderable fortune from an American cousin, who had in his time been a successful 相場師—a 相場師 not 正確に／まさに in 刈るs, which are 悪名高くも kittle-cattle, but in 公式の／役人 刈る 報告（する）／憶測s. With a select few of his friends out there the blind man endeavoured to 持つ／拘留する for a little longer a 独房監禁 outpost of the lost 原因（となる） of polite correspondence. It is to be inferred that his 出資／貢献s were 許容できる; in return he certainly learned much that even the sleuths of American journalism failed to get on to, and once or twice his （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） was curiously 効果的な.

'I 疑問 if you will ever have met "Rainproof" Nogg,' wrote one about this time—a shrewd old lady whose Dutch-sounding 指名する 原因（となる）d pushful young hostesses to prick up their ears even when it reached them at third 手渡す. 'Not a 広大な／多数の／重要な many years ago he was living precariously on the crumbs that 落ちる from rich men's waste-paper baskets, but during the last １０年間 or two he has 発射 今後 amazingly. I don't やめる know what he does, but if I had a son—no, I should prefer it to be my grandson—I think I would put him to it. We have wheat "kings" and cotton "kings" and coal "kings"; 鉄道／強行採決する "kings", 静止している engine "kings", and Mr Ford; "kings" in the realms of 金物類／武器類, ソフトウェア, sectional bookcases, 罪，犯罪, and canned tomatoes. But all these 君主s have some connexion with the domains they 代表する. I have never heard that Rainproof Nogg had any connexion with anything. I believe that people just bring 計画／陰謀s to him and if he 認可するs of them they give him a 株 of the 計画／陰謀 for 認可するing. It seems an 平易な way.

'At any 率, Mr Nogg is vastly 豊富な, but he is growing old. This 病気, I am told, has brought a morbid affection in its train: a dread that when he is dead he will be forgotten. It has become a terrible thing that in spite of his 力／強力にする and 影響（力） now, when he is gone his memory will soon be utterly effaced. I suppose he has been thinking. True, he has three thin-lipped, かみそり-jawed, 厳しい-直面するd 塀で囲む Street sons, who will doubtless go on 集会 more and more moss around the 指名する of Nogg until the 憲法 is 修正するd to 抑える them. ("So long as I can keep the money-making in the family, I can afford to 支払う／賃金 other people to do the spending," is a golden Noggett.) But that only raises the problem one 力／強力にする higher: Rainproof, poor romanticist, wants to be remembered in the way that George Washington, Col. W.F. Cody, Pocahontas, and Mary Garden will always be.

'You have heard of his 国家の 寺 out in Virginia? That we 所有するd no Westminster Abbey must have touched his native pride somewhere, and he has 始める，決める out to 除去する the 中傷する by building and endowing a lordly 私的な Valhalla on one of his seventeen 広い地所s for the last sleep of the 広大な／多数の／重要な. 著名な Americans are to be 招待するd to direct by will their interment there; and in the 事例／患者 of Americans not so 著名な as to be 招待するd, but who have にもかかわらず 表明するd a wish to join the others, a 委員会 will decide. It seems a touchy 商売／仕事 all along.... One cannot but think that Rainproof will have 設立するd a lien on the 判決 of that 委員会 when his own 事例／患者 comes up. A long 発射, it may be, at immortality, but longer ones have 攻撃する，衝突する; or Guido Fawkes, William Tell, and Samuel Pepys were forgotten now.

'In another direction Mr Nogg has 設立する what I imagine has been signally 欠如（する）ing in his life hereto—amusement. And this brings me at last 支援する to my 初めの sheep—a fleece in which you may discover the predatory Rainproof's lupine form. You collect something I know, but what it is between cigarette pictures and stuffed mammoths I can 嘆願d the most benighted ignorance. But I know that you will have the best of them whatever they are—and so, hark ye, my friend, a word in your judicious ear. If-if they should be Shakespeariana by any chance, lock them up until you hear that a young man called Rigby Lacksome has returned to the land of his fathers.

'For by this time Rainproof is やめる わずかに Shakespeare mad. A while ago he was advised by a 目だつ 神経 and stomach 顧問 (the two things go together here it seems) to "cultivate more 利益／興味 outside 商売／仕事". Rainproof made the one 記録，記録的な／記録するd joke of his 存在 then, but let that pass. Whether the poor old gentleman heard the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業d's curious 指名する for the first time about that period, or whether it was because his 広大な／多数の／重要な 財政上の 競争相手 "Slogger" Macmahomet was （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限ing Frissman to corner First Folios 事柄s not. At all events, Rainproof went 負かす／撃墜する into the Shakespeariana 炭坑，オーケストラ席 and became a bull 力／強力にする.

'His first 取得／買収 was a wistful young 専門家 who had been in the 古代の 調書をとる／予約する 商売／仕事 but who was やめる content to get out of it—Mr Lacksome, to wit. He was to be Rainproof's librarian and Shakespeare 長官. This, I glean, is how they got to work.

'"See here," said Mr Nogg, "I hear that fellow on the other 味方する the street has just given fifteen hundred dollars for a 調書をとる／予約する called Hamlet, printed way 支援する in the Dark Ages. Now I shall 推定する／予想する you to go one better."

'R.L. considered.

'"I know of a copy that might be got," he replied. "But you would have to go at least two hundred dollars more because it is half an インチ taller than Macmahomet's example."

'"インチ!" snapped Rainproof, "I don't do things by インチs now, young man. Find me one that's about half a yard taller and I won't jib at two thousand dollars more".

'He has been put wiser since then. You will have heard of the 匿名の／不明の 購入（する） last 落ちる of the Croxton Park First Folio for four thousand guineas (he buys 不明な on 塀で囲む Street 原則s). Yes, like Macheath's Polly, Mr Nogg by now is "most confoundedly bit."

'Will I bring this disquisition to a seemly の近くに? I will, sir, and then only will you plumb its dark significance. R.L. is on his mettle, and the 態度 of Rainproof is that of an expectant child with its mouth open and its 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd. For the engaging young librarian has fallen beneath the charm of Rainproof's not wholly guileless niece, and in return has 設立する favour in her 注目する，もくろむs. But what, everyone will 自然に ask, what about the 表現 of old man Nogg's 注目する，もくろむs, for on that the exact complexion of love's young dream must turn? 井戸／弁護士席, our やめる astute Romeo has thrown out a very 効果的な 飛行機で行く and the poor fish has risen. It is to be something so rarely and preciously Shakespearian that our hero begs the continuance of his 雇用者's 信用／信任 until his return. Is this mere bluff for time? Or what—a manuscript, a 署名, another portrait, a 反対する-cryptogram? However, young Lochinvar has gone out of the West—verbum 次第に損なう.

'For you collectors are—井戸／弁護士席, how shall I put it? Rainproof will do it for me.

'"Reckon even in England they take some 在庫／株 of W. Shakespeare as an 資産. So if you get a 安全な chance at anything unique, Rigby, don't think that I shall worry you any about just how it happened—so long as I don't come in it," he 発言／述べるd.

'"I just bet you won't sir," replied R.L. 率直に.

'So now you know.'

* * * * *

Mr Carrados dropped the copy of the 棺／かげり 商店街 Gazette that he had been reading and turned to light a cigarette.

'Greatorex,' he 発言／述べるd across the room; 'this is the Suffragettes' 最新の: they have tried to 爆発する Stratford-on-Avon Church.'

'My Sunday hat!' exclaimed the 長官, 深く，強烈に impressed. 'So that was it!'

'Was what?'

With no particular 外見 of 悔いる Annesley Greatorex detached himself from the cocupation of typing letters and （機の）カム across to his 雇用者's 議長，司会を務める.

'In a sort of way I suppose I am an 従犯者 before the fact,' he 発言／述べるd with some complacency. 'At least, I knew that they were up to some special brand of devilment from Moya's hints and general 空気／公表する of mystery and 勝利. Began about last Friday.'

'Moya?' repeated Mr Carrados. 'Do you mean to say that your shy little sister has become a "交戦的な"?'

Mr Greatorex essayed a hollow laugh with かなりの success.

'"Shy", you said, sir! And I think you saw Moya いっそう少なく than six months ago? 井戸／弁護士席, the 縮むing violet has been "had" twice since then for brawling, and if her mother hadn't contrived influenza in the very nick of time I understand that the timid fawn had arranged to chain herself to the minute 手渡す of Big Ben.'

'To 証明する that women are moving with the time, I suppose? 罰金 spirit, Greatorex.'

'Moral hashish, I tell her, sir,' 修正するd Annesley with severity. 'It's a pretty grey 見通し for England if these are a 見本 of the mothers of the coming 世代.'

Max Carrados turned away from his ingenuous young assistant ーするために strike a match for which he had no use.

'What did you hear about this 商売／仕事?' he asked, 示すing the open paper.

'井戸／弁護士席, you know what these young women are. I won't say they can't keep a secret, but at the same time they like to let it out on a string and then pull it 支援する again. Now that Moya is on the active 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of the precious "原因（となる）" she and half a dozen other hectics are in and out of our place like rabbits all day long. And ever since Friday there's been a sort of "We could and if we would" innuendo in the 空気／公表する.'

'Hallo!' exclaimed Mr Carrados with 利益／興味. 'Shakespeare again. How the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業d 固執するs.'

'軍隊 of example, sir. Moya and her new friend Mamie have been shrieking appropriate quotations at one another, upstairs and 負かす／撃墜する, for days past. Of course, I didn't see the exact point of the さまざまな 軸s of wit until now, but this is evidently what was brewing.'

'Oh,' thought Mr Carrados speculatively, 'Mamie!' '信用 an American,' he said aloud, 'to know more Shakespeare than nine out of ten of us. I suppose your sister's friend is from the 明言する／公表するs?'

'She just is sir,' replied Mr Greatorex, pitching his 発言する／表明する into what he considered an appropriate twang. 'And 充てるd to the emancipation of her downtrawd'n Bri'sh sisters. Says they are real ladies but want gingering some. Seems to be doing it too. I'll bet this last 事件／事情／状勢 was her idea.'

'Do you know what she is doing here?'

She says she is the European 代表者／国会議員 of the Bluff Folly 週刊誌 Rapier. My 宗教上の aunt!'

All rather slack and jejune doubtless. But Annesley Greatorex was no fool にもかかわらず his 時折の lapses of exuberance. He knew 正確に to the dot of an 'i' and the crossing of a 't' where he stood with Mr Carrados, and when the blind man 単に 示すd the newspaper paragraph that had started the digression it was read aloud to him with excellent clearness and diction by an 完全に staid and 事務的な assistant.

'ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP
STRATFORD-ON-AVON CHURCH

SUFFRAGETTES' LATEST OUTRAGE

'すぐに after midnight a 決定するd 試みる／企てる was made to 難破させる a 部分 of 宗教上の Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon, by means of an 爆発性の 爆弾. Many 居住（者）s in warious parts of the town were awakened about that hour by a loud 報告（する）／憶測, and on 調査 存在 made it was discovered that a sensational attack had been carried out with the parish church as its 客観的な. Both the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 旅団 and the police were quickly on the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, but the services of neither were すぐに 要求するd, for no conflagration resulted from the 爆発 and the dastardly 悪党／犯人s of the 乱暴／暴力を加える were （疑いを）晴らす of the scene before the earliest 捜査官／調査官s arrived. Copies of suffragette ちらしs strewn about 明確に 示す the purposse of this discreditable 事件／事情／状勢.

'詳細（に述べる）d examination made when it was light 明らかにする／漏らすs the extent of the 損失 is いっそう少なく than might have been 推定する／予想するd. The 位置／汚点／見つけ出す chosen for the attack is on the north 味方する of the chancel, and here several courses of masonry are 粉々にするd, much glass—fortunately all modern—broken, and the tracery of one window destroyed. The exact point of the 爆発 was against the 塀で囲むd-up doorway of what is known as the old "charnel house", and here the 軍隊 of the 爆弾 is shown by the 模造の door on the 内部の 存在 blown out. Those familiar with the sacred edifice will 認める from this description that the 爆発 took place within a few feet of Shakespeare's monument. It may be assumed, indeed, that this was the real 客観的な, and that nothing but a slight miscalculation 予定 to the 不明瞭 of the night, and, かもしれない, the nature of the 爆発性の used, saved it froom 破壊. Fortunately we are spared this 栄冠を与えるing 行為／法令／行動する of vandalism; the monument is 絶対 untouched and the actual 損失 can be made good without any loss of historic 協会.

'That is all, sir—no, here is something more about it in the "fudge".'

Greatorex 配列し直すd the paper to 陳列する，発揮する the 'Stop 圧力（をかける）' space and read on.

'STRATFORD-ON-AVON EXPLOSION—LATER

'A 代表者／国会議員 of Mr Hiram S. Nogg, the American millionaire and Shakespearian 熱中している人, who happens to be staying in the town, communicated with his 主要な／長／主犯 as soon as the news of the 乱暴／暴力を加える reached him. As a result of this timely 介入 Mr Nogg has generously undertaken to defray the entire cost of 修理s. The work will be put in 手渡す すぐに, the chuch 一方／合間 存在 の近くにd to the public.

'I think that really is all, sir.'

'Thank you, said Mr Carrados; 'that will do. Now bring me Valp's First Empire, will you. I want a 言及／関連.'

Greatorex 星／主役にするd at his 雇用者 almost with 関心.

'I'm sorry, but don't you remember? You advised me to read it and—'

'True. I told you to take it home with you. It's still there?'

'Yes, sir.... But I could 削減（する） out and be 支援する under the hour—time to do these letters for the 地位，任命する.'

'No; I want you for something else.... And Parkinson is out. I wonder—'

'I could phone to some people who live next door. They'd take a message in, and if Moya is about she'd bring it like a 発射.'

'Do you think so? That would be very convenient, but it seems rather too bad—'

'Not a bit, sir,' 宣言するd Annesley with 平易な generosity. 'She thinks no end of you; in fact, only the other day she said that if she was put on to 始める，決める this house on 解雇する／砲火／射撃 she wouldn't—'

'Really?' said Max Carrados, much gratified 明らかに.

'Yes; she said she'd certainly 説得する someone else to do the 職業. But, of course, at this hour it's just a 投げ上げる／ボディチェックする up—'

As it happened, however, Mr Carrados might be said to have won the 投げ上げる／ボディチェックする, for 行方不明になる Greatorex was discovered to be at home, and as she arrived at The Turrets within forty minutes she may be 裁判官d to have come 'like a 発射'. She was a small, elfin creature (the good looks of the family had begun and ended with Annesley), who in intimate political circles was 一般に referred to as 'The Vole'.

'Come and have some tea, 行方不明になる Greatorex, and tell me all the Secret History of the day,' 示唆するd Mr Carrados, and grinning amiably the Vole 従うd—to the extent of taking tea, at all events.

'I know that you don't やめる 認可する of us yet, Mr Carrados,' she 発言／述べるd, 'but that's only because you've never really thought it out. 非，不，無 but the very young and the very stupid are 現実に 敵意を持った.'

'They're all as pert as 投票 parrots, sir,' わびるd Annesley. 'That's a fair 見本.'

Moya showed her splendid little teeth at him across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, but 差し控えるd from any of the half-dozen appropriate retorts 供給するd by the textbook for the occasion. After all, there would be no particular sense in exposing Annesley's 知識人 shallowness to his 雇用者; and she was やめる reasonably fond of her brother—although he would come on the 来たるべき 登録（する）, with lodger 資格.

'I suppose this is some of your fatuous work?' he 発言／述べるd presently, pointing to the open evening paper. 'I hope you are proud of it.'

'公式に, I know nothing of it, Buttons,' she replied graciously. 'But it seems to have made some 動かす. Good heavens! Can that かもしれない be what the idiots ーするつもりであるd?'

'井戸／弁護士席, for mercy's sake don't call me by that ridiculous 指名する, now we're grown up,' he besought. 'At least, I am.'

'You certainly （機の）カム within an エース of making a much greater 動かす,' interposed the host, as peacemaker. 'I wonder how your friends （機の）カム to 行方不明になる the monument.'

'Perhaps they didn't want to 攻撃する，衝突する it,' 示唆するd the girl cryptically.

'Don't you believe it, sir,' put in Annesley with vigour. 'They'd 爆発する old Shakespeare himself, if they could, to keep in the limelight.'

'Mr Carrados, do you think that the man who created Portia would 反対する in the least to having that smug, fat-長，率いるd image of a retired pork-butcher blown into 原子s, if it would help to get her the 投票（する）?'

'I think,' replied Mr Carrados with a laugh, 'that he would recommend you to make better 爆弾s—if you want to 証明する that you can do anything.'

'Hear, hear,' 拍手喝采する Annesley, somewhat at a 投機・賭ける.

Moya Greatorex 発射 a curious little ちらりと見ること at the smiling Carrados and a quizzical 表現 新たな展開d her small 直面する.

'I don't mind telling you something, Mr Carrados,' she 発言／述べるd, looking 負かす／撃墜する upon her plate demurely. 'It was a man who contrived this particular demonstration.'

'Oh, we Englishmen can't,' he 急いでd to 宣言する. 'Too 法律-がまんするing, I suppose. You せねばならない get an Irishman—or an American—to do that sort of 職業.'

'How sharp you are,' she laughed. '井戸／弁護士席, as it happens, he is an American!'

In the pause—of indignation on one gentleman's part but of signal complacency on the other's—that followed this little 公式文書，認める of 勝利, 行方不明になる Greatorex rose to go.

'Good-bye,' she said, giving Carrados her 手渡す. 'I'm very glad to have been of this slight service to you.'

'Thank you,' he replied. 'It was most good of you to bring the 調書をとる／予約する.'

'Oh, the 調書をとる／予約する.' She 解任するd that casually. 'Yes. But of course I was referring to the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） that you 手配中の，お尋ね者. 率直に, Mr Carrados, I'm not at all 満足させるd with the ins-and-outs of that 事件／事情／状勢 myself.'

She nodded luminously and under the 護衛する of a rather mystified brother took her 出発.

'Greatorex,' 発言／述べるd the blind man, when his 長官 returned, 'I am not subscribing to a general 原則 at all, but it would be absurd to 否定する that your sister せねばならない have a 投票（する）.'

It was in this haphazard way that Mr Carrados was 運命／宿命d to be drawn into the curious Shakespeare 事例／患者—a gossipy letter from an American friend coupled with the Stratford-on-Avon 乱暴／暴力を加える, and the contiguous circumstance that his 長官's sister happened to be in the 会議 of the '交戦的なs'. 本人自身で, it was no 事件／事情／状勢 of his: whatever Rigby Lacksome had in mind, a 閣僚 of Greek tetradrachms did not attract him; and it would be idle to pretend that the amateur criminologist was stirred by public spirit to 利益／興味 himself in a 重罪 that he saw 差し迫った. He would be just as likely to 補助装置 in it if his sympathy went that way. No, as he himself would be the first to 収容する／認める, it was nothing but the element of mystery that attracted here; until that had been 始める，決める at 残り／休憩（する） something unsatisfied would continue to 乱す the even balance of his mind.

'That is 井戸／弁護士席 enough, my friend,' he said to himself that night, 'but you have precious little to go on. Coincidence is 簡単に the 会合 of two straight lines, and they, we all know, can never enclose a space. Before going any さらに先に on a wild goose chase I should advise you to 立証する the 認める American 影響（力） in the 事件／事情／状勢 as connectible with Rigby Lacksome, the get-Shakespeariana-anyhow 人物／姿／数字 in the 演劇. Until that point is settled both wings of your deductions are 純粋に in the 空気／公表する.'

'All 権利,' replied the other moiety. 'I will. That strange young creature certainly will know, and if I ask her nicely (as I might have had the sense to do before) I think she may have enough originality to tell me.'

'Do you?' scoffed the 消極的な 関係者. '井戸／弁護士席, I very much 疑問 it,'

Without wasting any more time in arguing, Mr Carrados sat 負かす／撃墜する and wrote his 外交の little 公式文書，認める. He had to wait several 地位，任命するs for any answer—he heard incidentally from Greatorex that his sister was 'out for scalps' somewhere—but one at length arrived. This was the form it took:

Dear Mr Carrados,

In reply to yours, the 言及／関連 you 要求する would seem to be in Brutus's third speech, "Julius Caesar", 行為／法令／行動する i, scene 2.

Yours truly,

Moya Greatorex

'言及／関連 I 要求する?' pondered the 受取人 dubiously, walking to a bookcase. 'Now, did I—' By this time his 手渡す had gone unerringly to the 調書をとる／予約する he sought, and he was turning the pages の中で the 悲劇s. '井戸／弁護士席, anyhow, here is the 言及／関連 I 要求する, whatever it is:

Brutus: I am not gamesome; I do 欠如（する） some part
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

A sudden light broke upon him and he repeated the first line with 表現.

'"欠如（する） some part." Lacksome, of course. That girl is a born conspirator, I'll take 誓い. In fifteenth-century Italy she'd have been up to the neck with some （犯罪の）一味-and-dagger party.... In these prosaic days she has to be a 交戦的な suffragette.... 井戸／弁護士席, that settles it.'

But what did it settle, after all? Assuming the 正確 of his （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, the curious fact was 設立するd that Mr Rigby Lacksome, 表面上は in England to …に出席する the 調書をとる／予約する sales, had 誘発するd a convenient organization to carry out a （警察の）手入れ，急襲 on a 確かな historic building, while he himself すぐに appeared on the scene with an 協定 to make good the 損失. It could scarcely be an (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する 計画（する） to get Rainproof's 指名する associated with Stratford; that result could have been 得るd in a hundred showier and いっそう少なく expensive ways. There was also a 詳細（に述べる） that might begin to assume significance: one gathered that on the whole the demonstration had somehow 行方不明になるd its 十分な point. The 地元の 報告（する）／憶測s 示唆するd so much, and Moya's 疑惑s might very 井戸／弁護士席 have been awakened by that very fact. Carrados was inclined to agree with his outspoken 長官 that the '交戦的なs', then at the apex of their frenzy, would be much more likely to 爆発する the poet's tomb itself, rather than to spare his effigy. Was there, indeed, some 二塁打 目的 here at work?

In a reflective mood Robinson Crusoe made a 一覧表にするd 声明 of the prospects of his 事例／患者. In much the same vein Max Carrados now drew a sheet of foolscap before him and 明言する／公表するd the position:

'What does Rigby Lacksome need?

'He must procure an incomparable Shakespeare item before he returns—fair means or foul 許すd.

'What has he 達成するd already?

'He had 伸び（る）d the most 特権d 接近 to Stratford-on-Avon church under unique 条件s. The church and grounds will be の近くにd against その上の "交戦的な" attacks. The 部分s under 修理 may be 審査するd off if he 要求するs it, and there is no 推論する／理由 to suppose that he cannot introduce workmen of his own selecting.

'What special points will be under his direct 支配（する）／統制する?

'Shakespeare's monument and Shakespeare's 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な are both at this 位置／汚点／見つけ出す.'

Carrados creased and recreased the sheet of paper a dozen times with absent-minded precision as he began to pace the room, making his way の中で the scattered furniture with startling certainty; pausing now and then to touch a special piece of ivory or bronze, just as another's 注目する，もくろむs might ぐずぐず残る for a moment on a 所有／入手 in half-unconscious satisfaction.

The monument; the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な.... The 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な; the monument.

の中で the many very baffling inconsistencies of Shakespeare's life the 優れた mystery is surely this: that of all his prolific work ('in 本体，大部分／ばら積みの almost equal to the English Bible; in importance second only to that 調書をとる／予約する'), not a line of manuscript is known to 存在する today. Nothing approaching this 完全にする effacement can be 平行のd in literary history, and to 用意する legend, when the poet who scrupulously particularized his worn wearing attire and his second-best bed （機の）カム to the making of a will, not the obliquest 言及／関連 to the contingencies of thirty-seven 演劇s finds a place therein. If William Shakespeare had been the greatest exponent of the modern method he could scarcely have planned a more 効果的な 'stunt'. The Baconian heresy is one of its first-born—certainly the lustiest of its offsprings—but the curious inquirer の中で the byways of literary credulity will start many another hare.

The monument; the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な....

What, for instance, was that American theory (most of the Shakespeare heterodoxies spring from that vigorous 国／地域) that in the poet's tomb, 安全な・保証する beneath the everlasting 悪口を言う／悪態—though too much 緊張する should not be put on that 保護 in these 構成要素 days—the 行方不明の manuscripts may still be 設立する, in extenso and 損なわれていない? 井戸／弁護士席, as to that, both before Shakespeare's time and after, poets have buried their lyrics in their own 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大なs or someone else's—and one at least of the greatest of the latter has repented and dug them up again.

'I don't feel drawn to that particular line,' mused the blind man, wheeling short on his （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 to 捜し出す his bookshelves again. 'No one believed it here, and I 疑問 if anyone now does in the 明言する／公表するs. No, Judith made greased cake-papers of the sheets of Romeo and Juliet that she 設立する about, and practical-minded W.S. nodded 是認. But, ye gods! imagine a 完全にする and 初めの MS. of, say, Hamlet today! Would gold, literally in millions, buy it?' He drew from its shelf a 容積／容量 of that useful series 'The American 目録' and soon 設立する the 入ること／参加（者） he 要求するd.

'"Where are Wm. Shakespeare's Manuscripts?" By Hasdrubal Pott. Philadelphia. 1866.' it ran. 'It might be 価値（がある） while to look it up. Lacksome will certainly know of it, and one must be on equal 条件 with him.'

He copied the 詳細（に述べる）s with his invariable precision and 追加するd a line for Greatorex's 指導／手引: 'Shadrock, of Museum Street, will be the likeliest to have this.'

'It's wrong, wrong, wrong,' he repeated softly as he put 支援する the 調書をとる／予約する. 'I should feel it 負かす／撃墜する to my finger-ends if I was going 権利; but what else can there be? The monument.... no earthly use or chance there. After all, Lucy Heemskerk did 明示する manuscript, and she may have had an inkling. Perhaps I'd better make sure of what she really says.'

It was 平易な in that room of perfect system to 言及する to anything, and in another minute Carrados was reading again the faintly ironic commentary on Rainproof Nogg's lamentable ambitions. At the time that he had received the letter he had 大（公）使館員d only the 利益／興味 of amusement to a 警告 that was plainly half or wholly jest, but now, as he touched line after line, his long delicate fingers seemed to ぐずぐず残る for an inspiration.

And then in a flash it （機の）カム.

'... You have heard of his 国家の 寺 out in Virginia ... a lordly 私的な Valhalla ... for the last sleep of the 広大な／多数の／重要な.... For by this time Rainproof is やめる わずかに Shakespeare made....'

The paper fell unheeded from the blind man's 手渡す; he was caught up in the magnificence of the brazen 企業.

'My gosh!' he exclaimed at last; 'but that would lick 創造, wouldn't it, Uncle Sam?'

* * * * *

It is one thing to 'know' that you are 権利; it is rather another to go to the length of putting your 完全に unsupported 有罪の判決 into practice. Before he had 取引d for やめる so astonishing a 発覚, Mr Carrados had 誓約（する）d himself in his 公式文書，認める to Moya Greatorex that there should be no 起訴. He nearly always kept that sort of 請け負うing, and in the 現在の 事例／患者 he had no 意向 of 出発／死ing from it, but it might mean that he would be able to avail himself very little of any 公式の／役人 help.

But in the first place it would be 望ましい to 強化する the 事例／患者 somewhat, not so much on his account as against the contingency that he might have to lay his 疑惑s before other and いっそう少なく romantic-minded people before he had done with it. If he had entered upon the adventure casually he was now in it up to the neck, and with no 意向 of 存在 left behind.

There were two ends at which he could begin—in London or in Stratford. The latter was the more conclusive ground, but at the same time the more delicate. No 害（を与える） would be likely to come of any sort of indiscreet move made here in London, but on the scene of the 偉業／利用する a 選び出す／独身 誤った step might easily be 致命的な. For, be it 公式文書，認めるd, with his keen appetite for 罪，犯罪, Max Carrados was not so much 関心d to scotch a 陰謀（を企てる） before it （機の）カム to fruition as to 論証する—if only to himself—that his deductions had been 訂正する. In the 一方／合間 he took 確かな simple 警戒s against 存在 forestalled by Lacksome's sudden 出発, and then, 満足させるd that he had made the position 安全な, he turned with leisurely 審議 to the more delicate lines of investifation.

For this theoretical 味方する of the 商売／仕事 there was one 決まり文句／製法 alone. To the extent that Carrados was able to 合併する himself within the 肌 of Rigby Lacksome would success or 失敗 …に出席する him. Rigby Lacksome, arrived in London, his 計画（する） 井戸／弁護士席 in train, 確かな things 保証するd, 確かな difficulties ahead, a keen 評価 that the 火刑／賭ける was a high one, and that at the last moment, when it might be touch and go, no untoward 不正行為 must arise to 略奪する him of the prize with the goal in sight. Come now, what would Rigby do?

From this starting-point Carrados 開始する，打ち上げるd four 完全に different lines of 調査. Not one of them （機の）カム to anything and the time was slipping by. It looked very like having to go on to Stratford and （問題を）取り上げる the 事例／患者 by the 厚い end. Before admitting this 手段 of 敗北・負かす the blind man sent the arrow of 投機・賭ける on one more flight.

'I want you to 追跡（する） 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and see if it's possible to 選ぶ up a 公正に／かなり 完全にする human 骸骨／概要,' he said to Greatorex the next morning. 'I shan't need you again today, so you can go off and let me know tomorrow how you got on.'

'権利-o,' assented Mr Greatorex cheerfully—he had '追跡（する）d 一連の会議、交渉／完成する' after rather out-of-the-way things for his 雇用者 too often to be startled. 'What about the price?'

'There won't be any price. I don't 提案する to go to the length of buying one—but you needn't let that out. Just talk to anyone who seems to have anything to say. Even if you come across one for sale you can go on trying, all the same. I want to 削減（する） across a 類似の 調査—successful or 不成功の—in the past few weeks. It is not impossible that Lacksome may have bought one. If you strike that, get all you can about it. Anyone who's been asked for another 骸骨／概要 so recently is sure to want to について言及する it.'

Annesley smiled his usual happy smile of charmed 協定 and got as far as the door.

'Oh, where had I better try, sir?' he asked, pausing there.

'That's just what I'm not going to tell you,' replied Mr Carrados with 決定／判定勝ち（する）. 'Your 長，指導者 資産 in this 商売／仕事 is that you know nothing about it and you are やめる likely to go where any other stranger in the same position might get. Now see what you can make of it.'

The wanderings of Annesley Greatorex throughout that livelong day (he was a generous 労働者 on occasions) might be 扱う／治療するd from a variety of 劇の 見地s, 存在 悲劇の, comic, farcical, melodramatic, or extravaganzic alternately—or even several at once—nor could the （人命などを）奪う，主張するs of pantomime and mystery 正確に，正当に be omitted. Annesley's own considered 判決 was that any account, from its 欠如（する） of cohesive 陰謀（を企てる）, its tenuous thread of connecting 利益／興味, and its wealth of 変化させるd and irrelevant 詳細（に述べる）, could only be done 司法（官） to as a musical comedy. It began in the 支援する parlour of 行方不明になる Poppington's surprising 設立 in Putney High Street and ended in the Lost 所有物／資産／財産 Office at London 橋（渡しをする）. Between those 限界s Annesley visited two general hospitals, a phrenologist off (n)艦隊／(a)素早い Street, an 著名な naturalist in Piccadilly, a metal 売買業者 負かす／撃墜する the Elephant and 城 way, Madame Tussaud's, a theatrical costumier in Convent Garden, a 卸売 toy merchant 近づく Aldgate Pump, a Harley Street specialist, a 会社／堅い of auctioneers, a museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a 押し込み強盗 (the 合法的な variety), a retired conjurer and about eight other people いっそう少なく 平易な to define. In most 事例／患者s he had sought these at someone else's suggestion, and the がまんするing impression he 保持するd of that wonderful day was of the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の good-nature of nearly everybody. Annesley certainly had a pleasant way with him.

And in the end he had the most astonishing success. It （機の）カム as the result of one of these 肉親，親類d suggestions—the 押し込み強盗's, in point of fact.

'Look here, mate,' said the 巨大（な） in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金. 'What about the big west-end 蓄える／店s? Tried any yet?'

'No,' 認める Annesley, who had come on there from an 教育の 器具 製造者. 'Do you think it would be any good?'

'Why not give it a run? I should. There's Blackley & Whiteing now, up Kensington way. My missus isn't an 平易な one to please and she says they have nearly everything there that she can even think of. Can't do no 害（を与える）, anyway.'

Annesley thanked the dusty 巨大（な） gracefully and withdrew. Blackley & Whiteing, whose proud 誇る it was that anything from a troupe of 成し遂げるing earwigs to a 砂漠 island would not find them wanting, ought certainly to be on his 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）. 非，不，無 the いっそう少なく he felt some of the diffidence of 青年 at 明言する／公表するing his 商売／仕事 when ah unconsidered 入り口 brought him 直面する to 直面する with a tall, blonde lady in the glove department. These big, busy shops, thought Annesley, 推定する／予想する one to be 正確な, and yet.... The tall, blonde guide would probably, he 恐れるd, 放出する a piercing shriek. He asked to see the 経営者／支配人.

It would be meticulous to cavil about a 限定された article. Annesley, at all events, saw an important-looking gentleman with a 管理の 空気／公表する. He listened 厳粛に and 根気よく to his 訪問者's recital and then struck a desk-bell.

'Mr Chadbeate!'

That is the worst of these big, busy shops. Annesley had imagined that he was getting on. He now had to repeat word for word to Mr Chadbeate all that he had just said to the 経営者／支配人. Mr Chadbeate listened 厳粛に and 根気よく and then with a dignified 'Kindly step this way, sir,' led the inquirer to a third compartment.

'Mr Noate!'

'Heavens,' murmured Annesley, as the prospect of an unending recital 直面するd him. 'I せねばならない have got it printed.'

Mr Noate, however, really was the man. He understood. He even sympathized. It was like that. You never could tell. Curious, too. Within the past few weeks they had had a 類似の 調査. Yes, in that 事例／患者 they had been able to 供給（する） the order....

'Really? Then there is a sort of 需要・要求する?'

Scarcely that—not so far as Blackley & Whiteing were 関心d, at any 率. Of course they had a 評判, and jokers now and then.... But it must have been years ago that the last—

'科学の 必要物／必要条件 of course?' 示唆するd Annesley.

'Oh, yes. An American. Singular idea. Theory that the English and American races, starting from a ありふれた 在庫／株, are diverging structurally. Wants to be able to 論証する it by an English 骸骨／概要.'

'I recently struck a man,' volunteered Annesley, 'who was on that tack. Fellow called Lacksome; sort of confidential 長官 to old Nogg, the U.S.A. millionaire.'

'That is the chap,' cried Mr Noate joyfully. 'So you know him? 井戸／弁護士席, it just happened that we were able to 会合，会う his 必要物／必要条件.'

'やめる casually,' 認める the 報知係. 'He didn't について言及する this to me. ぎこちない piece of luggage, won't it be?'

'Of course we had a proper box made; and nicely packed.... What he seemed most 関心d about was the idea of trouble with the steamship company or at the customs somewhere. Didn't know anything about that sort of thing, and appeared to have an idea that someone might think it fishy and 持つ／拘留する him up.'

'Yes; that might have occurred to me.'

'やめる an ordinary 事柄, of course. We 得るd and filled up a special customs 宣言 form so that there will be no trouble on that 得点する／非難する／２０, and as he still seemed anxious we wrote to the Cunard Company and got their 表明する 受託 of the freight on our 保証人／証拠物件. Now as regards—'

'Thank you,' interposed Annesley with a 感謝する 空気／公表する. 'I think that should be something for my people to go on. It's a little doubtful, as I said, but if anything—'

'We should do our best, rely on it,' acquiesced Mr Noate, with suave dignity.

* * * * *

Carrados retrieved a creased sheet of foolscap from his waste-paper basket, thoughtfully straightened it out, and 追加するd a few more lines of 令状ing to 一連の会議、交渉／完成する off the new position.

'What 警戒 has he taken against inconvenient curiosity?'

'He has 供給するd himself with a perfectly bona fide 領収書 for what he may be 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of unlawfully 所有するing, and he has insured against an unusual 所有物／資産／財産 主要な to ぎこちない 調査. He has created a sort of proprietorial アリバイ, which, like all fictitious アリバイs, may 証明する 悲惨な when it begins to 崩壊する.

This time he 燃やすd the sheet. The pr馗is was 完全にする.

The last up-train from Stratford-on-Avon with any tolerable connexion for Paddington (the 6.32 in those days) had just pulled out of Leamington. There was no 欠如（する） of accommodation and the 選び出す／独身 occupant of a smoking compartment 井戸／弁護士席 に向かって the 後部 was congratulating himself that he would be undisturbed for the 残りの人，物 of the 旅行 when two men passed slowly along the 回廊（地帯）, dropping an 時折の word of comment.

'This will do やめる nicely,' said Mr Carrados, stopping at the compartment 示すd and Parkinson slid the door open for him. 'Come 支援する as we reach Westbourne Park.'

'Very 井戸／弁護士席, sir,' replied Parkinson, as he の近くにd the door and moved on again.

The blind man settled 負かす／撃墜する in his corner seat and 解除するd his 直面する に向かって the other 乗客.

'Ah, Mr Lacksome, I believe,' he 発言／述べるd sociably. 'Delightful old place, Stratford, isn't it?'

Rigby Lacksome lowered the late evening paper that he had 供給するd himself with at Leamington 駅／配置する and favoured the 侵入者 with a long, 冷静な／正味の 星／主役にする.

'That's my 指名する, sir,' he replied with 審議. 'But you have the advantage of me.'

'Scarcely,' smiled Mr Carrados. He appeared to be in excellent spirits, as though the interview 約束d some entertainment.

'I mean,' explained the other man distantly, 'that I have no recollection of ever having seen you before.'

'That gives me no advantage, for I do not even see you now.'

'What do you mean?'

'簡単に that I am blind.' Mr Carrados beamed benignly on his startled fellow-traveller. 'There is no question of who 持つ／拘留するs the エース, you see, if it should come to 暴力／激しさ.'

'Just a modicum of breathing time, sir,' pleaded Mr Lacksome. 'You 削減（する） the ice かなり quicker than I can stack it.... Why 暴力／激しさ?'

'One never knows.... I was talking to a man about a 殺人 recently-just as casually as I am talking now to you. He became very violent.'

Lacksome's ばく然と calculating ちらりと見ること went 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 狭くする place they were enclosed in and （機の）カム 支援する to the self-所有するd 人物／姿／数字 in the other corner without losing a shred of its own わずかに arrogant 保証／確信.

'There's some mistake, I guess,' he 発言／述べるd. 'Are you one of the Scotland Yard outfit?'

Mr Carrados laughed appreciatively. 'No, no,' he said; 'you mustn't poke fun at our 国家の 会・原則s, Mr Lacksome. I am really no one. I せねばならない have introduced myself before. My 指名する is Carrados—Max Carrados. I am just 利益／興味d in things.'

'I see,' commented the other reflectively. Then he 追加するd, 'Any particular sort of things, might I 問い合わせ, sir?'

'罪，犯罪 in general, if it 約束s originality. At the moment I am curious to （疑いを）晴らす up one or two points in what I might call the Mystery of the Anatomical 見本／標本.'

Rigby Lacksome stretched his 四肢s and yawned わずかに to 論証する 無関心／冷淡.

'It sounds like a three-reel thrill all 権利, Mr Cahrados,' he said. 'What does it hinge on?'

I'm afraid,' わびるd Mr Carrados, 'that it hinges on one of your own articles of luggage.... No, the communication cord, if that is what you are looking for, is on your 味方する.'

'I guessed you were trying to put it across me about 存在 blind,' said Mr Lacksome cutely. 'I don't want the cord, but I want to know 権利 here before we go any その上の how you come into this.'

'It's a 詳細（に述べる） of our old-fashioned judicial system,' explained Mr Carrados. 'によれば these 古風な 法律s it is the 義務 of the merest 部外者—myself, for instance—to 逮捕（する） and give into 保護／拘留 anyone whom he reasonably 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs of having committed a 重罪.'

'Is that so?' drawled Mr Lacksome, moving a careless 手渡す. 'How does he get on with it if he finds himself looking 負かす／撃墜する the バーレル／樽 of a gun?'

'What, 暴力／激しさ already!' chid Mr Carrados amiably. 'And after I had 警告するd you, too! But the answer to that, Mr Lacksome, is that a blind man—and you may take my word for it—never knows, of course that he is looking 負かす／撃墜する the バーレル／樽 of a gun.'

Rigby Lacksome's 手渡す went 支援する again to its former position.

'Excuse me relapsing into the vernacular, Mr Cahrados,' he 発言／述べるd, not without a streak of 賞賛, 'but you certainly are the gelidest brand of guy I've ever struck.'

'Of course,' assented his companion; 'why not? I am sure it would shock you immeasurably if you met an Englishman who began to show traces of emotion under any circumstances whatever. You, for your part, are the most 遂行するd 団体／死体-ひったくり I have so far had to do with. Something like an hour must elapse before we reach Paddington. Why should we not entertain one another like two travellers in a 中央の-Victorian Christmas 年次の?'

'Pre-paratory to 存在 手渡すd over to a posse of the 駅／配置する police at the terminus?'

The blind man raised a deprecatory gesture.

'Surely you must have misunderstood me, Mr Lacksome. I said that such was the 義務 of every 国民.... 式のs; how few of us do our 義務 nowadays!'

'Just put it into English for me, sir,' said Mr Lacksome wearily. 'I'm late on the gear-clutch, I 収容する／認める.'

'It is やめる simple. You will find that at Westbourne Park we shall slow 負かす／撃墜する almost to nothing. There will be a couple of plain-着せる／賦与するs men waiting on the 壇・綱領・公約. If I show a white handkerchief at the window they will just step on to the footboard and take 指示／教授／教育s. If I show a coloured one—a 確かな coloured one—they will know that the 事例／患者 has dropped through and they are not 手配中の，お尋ね者.'

'広大な／多数の／重要な,' 認める Mr Lacksome with 怪しげな fervour. 'I had no idea that we were doing this for the movies, sir.... And now let me tell you, Mr Cahrados, that you've given yourself the devil of a lot of trouble over nothing. The particular 器具／備品 that you seem to have had your nose into when no one was looking is a 科学の 展示（する） that I've bought here for anthropological use in America.... Like to see Blackley & Whiteing's 領収書 for it?'

'Not just now, thank you,' replied Mr Carrados. 'Mr Noate showed me the counterfoil. And we needn't waste time over the 協定 made at the Claverhill Street 支店 of the S.W.L.; or your understanding with Rainproof Nogg; nor the 約束／交戦 of Sam Barbel to be foreman of 修理s.'

'Hell!' was wrung from Rigby, 'that makes a bobtail 紅潮／摘発する, I must 許す, sir. I can only put up one card against a 手渡す like that, but I guess he is the joker.'

'井戸／弁護士席?'

'You think I've 解除するd the mortal remains of old man Shakespeare to join the 残り／休憩（する） of 広大な／多数の／重要な Britain that we've 蓄積するd over there, don't you, sir?'

'I think you 始める，決める out with that idea.'

'Say "Yes", Mr Cahrados, won't you?' pleaded Lacksome. 'I should love you to guess wrong just once.'

'Was it the 悪口を言う／悪態 you 弱めるd on?'

Mr Lacksome smiled his pagan 優越 to such a failing.

'It was not, sir. I wouldn't deviate one 手早く書き留める, tittle, or iota for a sackful of best assorted 中世 悪口を言う／悪態s. Besides, do you think that the man who heart-throbbed to the tune of Romeo and Juliet, of Rosalind and Orlatido, and of Florizel and Perdita would care a 白人指導者べったりの東洋人-肌 what became of his loose parts after three centuries if it would help me to 勝利，勝つ Sabina Craddock? No, sir; there wasn't a milligramme of gall in old man Shakespeare's 憲法.'

'It seems to me,' 発言／述べるd Mr Carrados, remembering something very 類似の not long before, 'that whatever anyone wants to do about Shakespeare, it is 平易な to find 当局 in his 作品 for doing it.'

'That is so,' agreed Rigby 簡単に. 'W. Shakespeare was not for an age, but for all time; not of one country but ありふれた to the world, and he said everything that there is to be said on every 支配する. That's where old man Nogg left the 跡をつける. He has worked it out that Shakespeare was an American 国民, and he's tickled to death at the idea of getting him for his 国家の 寺.'

'I think someone else has already 証明するd that he was a German,' said Mr Carrados. 'So why not a German-American?'

'Both wrong, sir,' replied Mr Lacksome. 'Shakespeare was really a Literary 企業連合（する）. Rainproof is demonstrably 非，不，無 compos mentis on that 支配する, and his infirmity is spreading. My own 関心 is to get my matrimonial—and I may 追加する 財政上の—手はず／準備 put through before he is 現実に certified. You see how I am 直す／買収する，八百長をするd?'

Carrados nodded sympathetically. 'But you 港／避難所't yet told me how you （機の）カム to fail,' he said.

'Fail ...' considered Rigby dubiously. '井戸／弁護士席, as to that.... You are やめる 満足させるd about it, Mr Cahrados?'

'Life is 十分な of surprises,' 認める Carrados, 'but I must stand by my opinion. The 石／投石する had not been raised—the 共同の wouldn't even take water—and you certainly had not tunnelled.'

'You are 権利 sir. The paralysing truth is that the 石／投石する can't be raised.'

'Can't? Why not?'

'That will have to wait for another 世代 to find out, I guess. All I know is that we had a 特許 suction jack—for of course we daren't use てこ入れ／借入資本—有能な of raising five トンs dead 負わせる 製図／抽選 on a 石／投石する 重さを計るing something いっそう少なく than five hundredweight and it couldn't budge it a hair. No, sir; do what we might it had us beaten to 冷淡な cinders. And if you want my obiter dictum I should say the biggest thing in W.S. enigmas is waiting 根気よく there for some 有望な boy to come along and scoop it.'

'やめる likely,' agreed Max Carrados. 'You aren't the first to have a try by any means. And you are not going away 絶対 empty-手渡すd, I imagine?'

Mr Lacksome's 直面する relaxed appreciably from its smart, purposeful 表現 into something suspiciously like a genial grin.

'井戸／弁護士席, come now, Mr Cahrados,' he replied. 'What should you say! You know that 権利 beneath my feet there, by what they call the old charnel house, there were enough 古代の bones of every sort and 肉親，親類d to 在庫／株 the field of Waterloo. Sculls, 武器 脚s, middles, toes, fingers, ribs and what not. And there on the other 味方する Hiram S. Nogg is lapping up my cables and biting his nails to keep 静める about it. Why should we disappoint the poor old mono-maniac in the 中央 of plenty? Why, I've even rooted out a few 半端物s and ends of antique 棺s and a 厚かましさ／高級将校連 plate with something that you couldn't say wasn't a spear 削減（する） on it. Oh, Rainproof will be 満足させるd, never 恐れる, and Sabina will be 満足させるd, and I don't see why Rigby Lacksome shouldn't be 満足させるd too. And in about another century there'll be the dandiest Shakespeare mystery spring up at Nogg's 国家の 寺 that ever was!'

The 郊外の lights had been growing 厚い for the last few miles and the slackening train now began to dodge its way across the maze of points and switches. Parkinson's restful 直面する appeared at the window and the 回廊（地帯） door was 押し進めるd open.

'We are approaching Westbourne Park, sir.'

Lacksome started at the 指名する, and にもかかわらず the amiable relations that had 占領するd the 旅行 his 直面する was not without a shade of 苦悩 as he spoke.

'I hope you are 満足させるd 同様に, sir. After all—no one's a red cent worse off.'

'Rather a 罰金 point though, isn't it?' 譲歩するd Mr Carrados. 'However—you're on the 壇・綱領・公約 味方する—perhaps you'll show this from the window.'

Rigby snatched the dark silk handkerchief from the blind man's 手渡す and turned to wave it vigorously at the open window.

'But there's not a soul along the 壇・綱領・公約!' he exclaimed blankly, looking 支援する. 'Say, Mr Cahrados, have you been patting one over on me?'

'Dear me,' 自白するd Mr Carrados, やめる crest-fallen. 'Can I have dreamt that part of it, after all?'

VI. — THE CRIME AT THE HOUSE IN CULVER STREET

THE garden gate of Thornden 宿泊する stood open as the Bellmarks walked past, and from the path beyond there （機の）カム the sharp 積極的な click of 決定的な shears at work. Elsie Bellmark grew irresolute, then stopped.

'Do you mind if I just pop in for a 少しの moment, Roy?' she asked. 'I 推定する／予想する that it's 行方不明になる Barrowford gardening, and it will save me 令状ing. G.F.S. 商売／仕事, you know.'

'All 権利,' her husband replied. 'Only don't forget me and stay to supper.'

'The idea! As if I ever—I'll catch you up—or won't you come in too? You know her.'

'No,' he decided. 'If I do we shall be talking there for an hour. I won't go 権利 on either. I'll just hang about in the middle distance to keep you up to the 示す.'

With a nod and a smile she left him, and almost すぐに the sound of the shears 中止するd and through the privet hedge （機の）カム the rather ecstatic 交換 of greetings. A grin of affectionate amusement （機の）カム into Bellmark's 直面する as he slowly lit a cigarette.

'It's long 半端物s on my finishing this undisturbed,' ran his 憶測; but he was wrong, for before the first ash had fallen an insinuating 'Roy!' from beyond the privet hedge 召喚するd him inside.

'All bets off,' he murmured, as he cheerfully 従うd. 'That isn't によれば the 支配するs, my dear.'

'Oh Roy,' exclaimed Elsie, signalling. 'Sorry, couldn't help it,' with her 注目する，もくろむs, '行方不明になる Barrowford wondered whether you had seen her brother. He didn't come by your train, did he?'

'You do know Vernon by sight, don't you, Mr Bellmark?' put in the lady of the garden. 'It's unusual for him to be so late on Saturday.'

'I think I know him,' 認める Roy. 'First class, nonsmoking; Morning 地位，任命する: never in a hurry; nine-thirty-seven, isn't he?'

'Spats; 黒人／ボイコット tie: neat umbrella,' smiled 行方不明になる Barrowford. 'Has been in the Civil Service. Yes?'

'At all events he didn't come, or he would have been here long ago—this young lady has been shopping as we （機の）カム along, and leisurely at that. And when I come to think of it, there was only one other man got off the train at Stanthorpe—an oldish fellow, who didn't やめる seem as though he knew what he was doing here. Women and children in plenty, but no other man.'

'井戸／弁護士席, I don't think that anyone would 述べる Vernon as 正確に／まさに old,' hazarded his sister. 'We are neither of us children certainly, but—'

'No, indeed,' exclaimed Elsie with 広大な／多数の／重要な fervour. 'I mean,' she 追加するd あわてて, as she realized that her 井戸／弁護士席-meant disclaimer had got belated, 'I mean about your brother, of course. Why I feel ages older than he looks, I'm sure.'

'All the same, my dear,' confided 行方不明になる Barrowford dropping her 発言する／表明する, 'I think he feels the 強調する／ストレス of 商売／仕事 life of late. I often wonder if he was やめる 井戸／弁護士席 advised in giving up the Civil Service for 商業. Somerset House is so 保証するd; the feeling of permanency must be very tranquillizing.'

'I suppose he has to work hard now?' 示唆するd Elsie politely. She had very little 利益／興味 in the absent Vernon and still いっそう少なく in his 占領／職業, but 行方不明になる Barrowford was 'a dear', and the surest way to her good opinion was to turn a 同情的な ear to amiable garrulities on her two 支配するs—her wonderful garden and her exceptional brother.

'Yes,' agreed the sister with a わずかに 疑わしい look; 'I suppose he has. But it is more the 負わせる of 責任／義務 that I was thinking of. Vernon, you see, was never brought up to the 商売／仕事—to any 商売／仕事, in fact—and when an uncle left it 完全に to him on 条件 that he carried it on, it was like beginning life over again. His real tastes are literary and artistic, and he had to 打ち勝つ something like a 肯定的な aversion to 貿易（する）—though it is 厳密に 卸売 貿易（する） of course.'

'I don't think that I even know what he does,' 認める Elsie. 'But perhaps I oughtn't to be inquisitive—'

'Oh, yes, my dear; there's no secret at all about it.' 行方不明になる Barrowford's shrewd, good-natured 注目する，もくろむs opened wide at the 関わりあい／含蓄. 'It's a 卸売 fancy leather 商売／仕事—Widdowson & Stubb in Culver Street, though Uncle 反対／詐欺 was the last Stubb and there hasn't been a Widdowson in it for half a century. They do with all the finer sorts of leather. Vernon didn't know the least thing about either leather or 商売／仕事 when he took it up, but he had a very 有能な 経営者／支配人 and reliable staff, or I don't know what might have happened.'

'It sounds nice—罰金 leather: bindings have such a lovely smell. Do you ever go and revel の中で it, 行方不明になる Barrowford? I should.'

'I have been once or twice, but I am not fond of going,' 自白するd the lady. 'The place was 以前は a large, rambling old house—it was a good 居住の 地区 once—and many years ago a very dreadful 殺人 was committed there. Of course'—with an appropriate smile—'it is now haunted. But, 本気で, I do not care about the place; it is a little errie after dusk.'

'How gruesome! And your brother really likes it now?'

行方不明になる Barrowford 示すd the 複雑さ of her opinion by a shrug and a ladylike little mom before she committed herself on this. She even snipped off a superfluous leaf enigmatically as she ちらりと見ることd slyly at her other 訪問者.

'Men are strange 存在s, my dear,' she replied. 'Do we ever know what they really like—or, for that 事柄, do they know themselves? But who have we here?'

The gate, which had been 押し進めるd to on Mr Bellmark's 入り口, was very slowly opened by an unfamiliar 手渡す and along the immaculate path there 前進するd a peculiar 人物／姿／数字—curious not by 推論する／理由 of anything outlandish in dress or feature but by his 半端物 detachment from the scene and his pathetic 空気／公表する of 存在 in some way lost. A trite synonym for witlessness is 'not all there', and no phrase could better 述べる the impression that the stranger made: some 必須の thing was 行方不明の.

'Now, who in the world—' 推測するd 行方不明になる Barrowford with a queer afarness in her 発言する／表明する, and then suddenly she gave a startled little cry and ran a few steps 今後, only to stop again in a nameless 恐れる.

'Vernon. Vernon!' was wrung from her, though scarcely heard. 'What is it? Oh, my dear, what ever can have happened?'

'Good God!' whispered Bellmark to his wife. 'This is the man I spoke of-the one who （機の）カム by the train. It isn't the fellow I took to be her brother, and yet it somehow is. Do you catch on to it?'

'I don't know what you are 説,' replied Elsie, hypnotized by the two before her. 'But there is something dreadful.'

'Oughtn't we to go away?' he asked.

'I'm too bewildered to know. I shouldn't like her to think—And yet she may want us.'

Very slowly Vernon Barrowford walked up the familiar path to the door of his house, looking to the 権利 and the left occasionally as he seemed to 立証する some half-forgotten 目印. He passed his sister, he passed the others, without a 調印する of 承認, but when 行方不明になる Barrowford caught him up and took his 手渡す with a 熱烈な cry to be spoken to he did not shake her off. Only he never spoke. Docilely he 許すd himself to be led up the steps to the の近くにd 前線 door. Standing there, with the same monotonous precision that had 示すd his passage through the garden, he took out his bunch of 重要なs, selected the 権利 one with slow 審議, and 打ち明けるd the door.

'I must go in to her,' said Elsie, as the two passed out of sight. 'Whatever it is, we've seen it now, so it can't much 事柄. You will wait, won't you?'

'Of course I'll wait,' he replied half gruffly. 'Tell her we'll do anything—'

In three minutes she was 支援する again. Bellmark had discovered a garden seat and was meditating. He looked at her with 調査 in his 注目する，もくろむs.

'He's sitting there in the morning-room, and he does nothing. He won't speak. And, Roy—don't laugh—she whispered to me would I ask you how you can tell if people are drunk or not. She thinks it may be that, but I'm sure it isn't.'

'You ask them,' replied Roy 厳粛に. 'In either 事例／患者 they 否定する it, but if they are drunk they begin to argue about it and want to 証明する that they're not, and the more you agree and say, "It's all 権利, old man; don't shout and nobody will notice anything," the warmer they become, until you can hear a very intoxicated maan a mile away 抗議するing how sober he is.'

'井戸／弁護士席, that's no good because he certainly wouldn't speak. She'd be only too relieved if he would, whatever he might say.'

'He looked sober enough just now—too sober, in fact. If you want my opinion, it's a doctor's 職業.'

'I think so too, Roy. I'm sure she'd be glad to be encouraged to send, so I'll go in again and tell her what you say.'

'Wait a minute,' he advised, looking over her shoulder. 'I think—yes, here she comes.'

'What does he say?' asked 行方不明になる Barrowford, as Elsie went to 会合，会う her.

'He thinks you せねばならない have a doctor at once. I think so too, dear. We are afraid that you brother is really ill in some way.'

'I am sure that you are 権利. Yes, I will send for Dr Page at once. It is all very sudden, and for the moment I wished to keep it from the servants if it had been—anything disgraceful. I せねばならない have known Vernon better, but it is so inexplicable.'

'We'll go straight there and tell Dr Page to come. I'm sure Roy will get him as soon as anyone could.'

'Would you? That's very 肉親，親類d of you,' said 行方不明になる Barrowford やめる gratefully.

'Oh, how can you talk like that!' exclaimed Elsie, kissing her in a 緊急発進する. 'It's nothing, and anybody would—'

'I'll go 支援する now and wait, then,' 発言／述べるd her friend. 'I must not leave him for long.'

'Should Roy go on alone and I'll stay with you until the doctor comes?' 示唆するd Elsie.

'No, thank you, dear. I am not in the least afraid of anything and I shall tell the servants now.'

Dr Page must have been すぐに accessible, for in いっそう少なく than twenty minutes—he lived half a mile away—his cheerful, commonplace mien and 静かな 信用／信任 were diffusing a healthier feeling within Thornden 宿泊する. 行方不明になる Barrowford's 直面する lost something of its unaccustomed greyness and the two maids no longer みなすd it necessary to talk in whispers. No one ever thought of 述べるing Page as a 'clever' doctor; 'good' was the word they used, and that meant that you 一般に got better soon.

'So it's Master Vernon's turn this time, eh?' he 発言／述べるd, as he walked across to the unresponsive 人物／姿／数字 sitting 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd in the big 平易な-議長，司会を務める—he had dosed 'Master Vernon' through whooping cough and measles thirty years before. 'When I was last here on 商売／仕事 it was your turn, I think, 行方不明になる Barrowford.'

'Oh, then!' she exclaimed disdainfully. 'That was nothing—a touch of'flu.'

'Nothing when you were all 権利, again, was it?' he acquiesced tolerantly. 'That's the way with things, isn't it? No, he'll do very 井戸／弁護士席 where he is thanks. Now let us see.'

行方不明になる Barrowford stood aside while the 詳細（に述べる）d examination went on, ready to do just as she was told, and too sensible a woman to interrupt with needless, anxious questions. When he had finished, Page walked thoughtfully to the window and looked out; she followed with her 注目する，もくろむs, now 限定された in 調査.

'The simple word "shock" covers a multitude of 影響s. "Shock", 行方不明になる Barrowford. Does that 満足させる you?'

'I don't understand yet. It is all so very sudden—and—terrifying. Is he—is he 危険に ill?'

'Meaning "Will he die?" No, he is not. You have a convalescent on your 手渡すs. All the mischief has been done; the 商売／仕事 is to bring him 支援する to normal health.'

'But—doctor—what is it—what has happened?'

'Shock. That is what I crudely 示す. There is no 外部の lesion of any 肉親，親類d: no blow has been experienced. Bellmark told me how he arrived. Whether there is any especial 推論する／理由—商売／仕事 or personal, for instance—why Vernon should be likely to have any very violent mental 騒動 just now, you would be in a better position to know than I should.'

'I know of nothing—nothing at all. And it's so dreadful, his never speaking.'

'You must not ask him. That is the 長，指導者 thing now—perfect 残り／休憩（する）. If he begins to wake up don't encourage him to talk. If they send here from the 商売／仕事 wanting to know anything they'll have to do without it. You understand that やめる literally, don't you. 行方不明になる Barrowford? No 事柄 what it is. If the office can't go on without him it must stop. Better the 商売／仕事 than the man—he's our 職業.'

'Is it so serious then?' she whispered, the clutch at her heart 強化するing again.

'It might easily become so if we don't take care, In a few days we shall know more about it—whether, for instance, the loss of speech 延長するs to true aphasia or is only the 一時的な reflex of the first excitement. I should like to get McFlynn here to have a look—it's his especial 支配する. Tomorrow or Monday, shall I?'

'Certainly,' she replied. 'Oh, doctor—anything—everything—you can do.'

'Yes, yes,' he nodded. 'I know. You'd better have a nurse in—for a week, at any 率. 行方不明になる Hodge is doing nothing just now and she is handy. Shall I （犯罪の）一味 her up when I get 支援する?'

'If you think I'd better. Of course'—a little wistfully 'you know I can nurse 公正に／かなり 井戸／弁護士席; still—'

'For a week,' he said, smiling reassuringly. 'Then perhaps—'

'Very 井戸／弁護士席. I will sit on the doorstep like a veritable dragoness and keep 侵入者s off. But are we to do nothing to find out what has happened doctor?'

'Oh, yes; indeed we must. Everything short of asking him about it. It will be the first step に向かって 修理ing the 損失 to find out what has 原因（となる）d it. We know that he arrived at Stanthorpe in this 条件, so we must try さらに先に 支援する. He may have had a terribly 狭くする squeak of some sort.'

'There's the 倉庫／問屋. But everyone will have left long since.'

'Still, that's the place to begin from. Isn't there a 経営者／支配人 I've heard of?'

'Yes—Mr Pridger. He lives at Croydon.'

'You have his 演説（する）／住所?'

'Oh, yes, Shall I—'

'Yes, wire him to come up and see you as soon as he can get—tonight or tomorrow. Find out all he can 示唆する, but'—with a 警告 finger—'don't take him in to your brother. No 思い出の品s of the past just yet.'

It was the 有能な 経営者／支配人's long-設立するd custom to 護衛する Mrs Pridger to a theatre once a week, and Saturday evening had come to be the occasion of this 儀式. It not 存在 a 事柄 of life and death—行方不明になる Barrowford's 電報電信 簡単に enjoined 'as soon as possible'—there seemed no 圧力（をかける）ing 推論する／理由 why Mr Pridger should 始める，決める 前へ／外へ on an adventurous 旅行 from Croydon to Stanthorpe after midnight, so that, as it developed, it was not until Sunday afternoon that he learned of his 雇用者's 条件.

Turning in at the gate of Thornden 宿泊する, on her 使節団 'to 問い合わせ', Elsie Bellmark （機の）カム 直面する to 直面する with a 出発／死ing stranger, and, preoccupied as she was, she wondered ばく然と at the queer look his 直面する wore in the momentary flash before he 認めるd that she was calling there. The 前線 door stood open, and it seemed very 静かな within. With a freedom born of the circumstances Elsie 投機・賭けるd to 調査／捜査する unannounced. The door of the morning-room was わずかに ajar and from beyond （機の）カム a low, intermittent 公式文書，認める. She tapped very gently.

'Come in,' said 行方不明になる Barrowford's 発言する／表明する, and the other sound stopped.

She was sitting on a couch—it was plain that a moment before she had been lying there, and her 注目する，もくろむs and handkerchief betrayed the nature of her 占領／職業. Mrs Bellmark was appalled.

'Oh, dear Louise!' she said, and began to 支援する out again.

'Don't run away,' called out the occupant. 'That was the last of it anyway. Thank you for coming. I was 推定する／予想するing you some time today.'

'He isn't worse, is he?'

'Oh no; he is almost the same as you saw. It wasn't that.'

'You don't mean that there's something else?'

'Did you 会合，会う Mr Pridger as you （機の）カム in? He has just gone.'

'I did 会合，会う a man—at the gate. Whatever is it?'

'It feels rather like the end of the world. We've had a 解雇する／砲火／射撃.'

'Here?'

'No—at the office and 倉庫／問屋. It's 事実上 burnt out, he says.'

'Mr Pridger?'

'Yes; that's why he couldn't get here this morning. The police （機の）カム across his 演説（する）／住所 first and they sent for him. He 設立する the place a 難破させる. Isn't it 悲惨な?'

'Had it—the 解雇する／砲火／射撃—anything to do with Mr Barrowford 存在 ill?'

'We don't see how it could. Mr Pridger knows 事実上 nothing of Vernon's movements yesterday, as he himself had to go to another part of London to see a 顧客 and he didn't think it worthwhile going 支援する to Culver Street afterwards. The 解雇する／砲火／射撃 was not discovered until late on Saturday night, and long before that Vernon was here.'

'Yes,' agreed Mrs Bellmark; 'but it seems funny, all the same. I suppose it's insured anyway, 存在 a 商売／仕事.'

'Oh, yes, I'm 確かな it will be. But it's bound to be unsettling to Vernon, don't you see. Just when he will be getting all 権利 again and wanting to go 支援する to work he will have to be told of this upset. It will take months to 再構築する and straighten up.'

'It will be a good chance for him to take a long 残り／休憩（する）, I should say,' 宣言するd Mrs Bellmark. 'And, another thing, dear, from what you said yesterday I imagine that your brother might not be sorry to give up the 商売／仕事. We don't know, of course, but this might be an 適切な時期—'

'Oh, don't think that,' exclaimed 行方不明になる Barrowford あわてて. 'I am sure Vernon would never dream of taking advantage of such a way out.'

'井戸／弁護士席, I don't know,' said Elsie. 'It isn't as if he had 始める，決める it on 解雇する／砲火／射撃 himself. But what's the good of talking about that? You are no nearer getting at what happened then?'

'Not a bit. And I'm beginning to wonder what next to do if, as I 推定する／予想する, he left the office all 権利.'

'I've been thinking,' volunteered her friend. 'Did you ever hear of Mr Carrados?'

'I don't think so,' 認める 行方不明になる Barrowford ばく然と. And then with the ありふれた frailty of mankind she 追加するd: 'But the 指名する seems somehow familiar.'

'He finds out things. He's やめる wonderful at it, considering that he's blind. It's a hobby of his, because he is やめる rich.'

'But if he is blind, dear—'

'You hardly notice it. If you had lost something from here—stolen or disappeared, I mean—and he was helping you, he might come into this room and in a few minutes he would know all about it: the size and where the furniture was and the colour of the 塀で囲む-paper and when you last had the chimney swept and why you had moved a picture from one place to another. All the time you would be talking about nothing in particular as you thought and then he would 選ぶ up an old nail that no one else had noticed or touch a scratch on the paint.'

'How could he see the nail to 選ぶ it up?' 需要・要求するd the 年上の lady 事実上.

'He couldn't, of course, but he would 選ぶ it up all the same. And in a few days or a few weeks it would lead in some absurdly simple way straight to what you had lost.'

'It sounds very marvellous,' 譲歩するd 行方不明になる Barrowford dubiously, 'but in any 事例／患者 we do not know this Mr Carrados.'

'We know him pretty 井戸／弁護士席—from the time when we used to live at Groats ヒース／荒れ地,' said Elsie. 'An uncle of 地雷 is his 広大な／多数の／重要な friend. I am sure he would come if he thought that it would help us: we are under a very 広大な／多数の／重要な 義務 to him.'

'But, my dear,' 訂正するd Louise Barrowford 正確に, 'that's the wrong way about. It would be if he was under an 義務 to you.'

'Oh, he doesn't do things like that,' 答える／応じるd Elsie from the 高さs. 'Besides, if he was I shouldn't like to ask him.'

When Max Carrados learned the particulars of the Barrowford 事例／患者 his first 訴訟／進行—before he decided whether it 利益／興味d him or not—was an obvious one. He made 調査 at Scotland Yard and at 確かな divisional （警察，軍隊などの）本部 to find out if anything had been 観察するd on the Saturday that would 約束 to 耐える on the mystery. It had not. No trace of Vernon was 選ぶd up until パン職人 Street 駅／配置する was reached, where a porter who knew him as a 'first season' had noticed that he seemed 'groggy'. The blind man decided that the 事例／患者 申し込む／申し出d enough obscurity to attract him.

It was not until the Wednesday after the 悲劇の happening that Max Carrados 設立する leisure to get across to Stanthorpe. Elsie took him on to Thornden 宿泊する, where 行方不明になる Barrowford, now almost accustomed to her silent 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, received him with some trepidation. It was （疑いを）晴らす that Mrs Bellmark's rather 自由に coloured portrait had sunk in, and the lady of the house 推定する／予想するd curious things to materialize beneath her 注目する，もくろむs. Carrados had never seemed more 事柄-of-fact in his 手続き. He betrayed no startling knowledge of the surroundings (to his sponsor's despair) and 単に encouraged 行方不明になる Barrowford to talk about her brother from every angle. She was nothing loath, but Elsie had heard most of it before. Nor were his 調査s いっそう少なく commonplace.

'You have looked through his pockets, I suppose?' he asked. 'You 設立する nothing unusual?'

'Nothing that I had not seen a hundred times before—with one exception. There was a large enamelled badge or check with a number on.'

'Perhaps I might see it?' 示唆するd the inquirer. 'Oh, yes'—when it was produced—'this is a cloak-room 保証人／証拠物件 from the reading-room at the British Museum.'

'He frequently went to the 国家の Gallery, I know,' 示唆するd 行方不明になる Barrowford. 'Might it not perhaps be from there?'

'No,' replied Carrados. 'A benevolent 当局 has arranged that you shall not procure your 隣人's new silk umbrella from one 会・原則 by depositing your own worn-out walking-stick at another, and so all the 始める，決めるs of tickets 変化させる. Is your brother absent-minded in a general way, 行方不明になる Barrowford?'

'No, indeed; he is one of the most 正確な of people. Why?'

Carrados held up the numbered badge 意味ありげに.

'Whatever that stands for he omitted to 埋め立てる,' he explained. 'It is 一般に a stick or umbrella.'

'Of course,' she acquiesced. 'Vernon invariably carried an umbrella, and on Saturday he returned without it. I took it for 認めるd that he had left it in the train.'

'If this usually exact man forgot it after going 特に to the reading-room—umbrella or whatever it may be—it is assumable that he may have learned something important there, isn't it?'

'Yes, yes,' exclaimed Elsie 熱心に. 'Can you find out what?'

'If it turns upon a 調書をとる／予約する it is doubtful. You help yourself to the thousands of more general 作品 of 言及／関連. I suppose'—to 行方不明になる Barrowford—'you did not come across a cancelled 使用／適用 slip for a 調書をとる／予約する?'

'I know the sort of thing you mean,' she replied. 'No, he had 非，不，無 about him.'

'They are usually torn up,' agreed Mr Carrados.

'Apropos of papers now,' continued 行方不明になる Barrowford, 行方不明になる Hodge—the nurse, you know—設立する something rather curious this morning. Vernon was sitting by a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する on which there happened to be some stationery—a few sheets of paper and a pen and 署名／調印する. He wasn't looking at it, but 行方不明になる Hodge noticed that his 手渡す was moving on the paper. When she went to him she 設立する that he had 現実に been scribbling there—hardly words, perhaps, and やめる unintelligible, but she thought it was encouraging.'

'Yes,' assented Carrados, speaking so 静かに that one might have thought he was afraid of startling so wonderful a thing of 約束 away, 'I am sure it would be. What became of the paper?'

'I think it was left about—or she may have thrown it away. Do you want it?'

'It is not without 利益／興味,' 認める the blind man. 'I think we せねばならない see it.'

It had not been thrown away, though 行方不明になる Hodge hoped for much more coherent 調印するs of 知能 ere long. Carrados 受託するd the sheet and しっかり掴むd its 詳細（に述べる）s of 形態／調整, 負わせる, and texture as readily as another would by sight, while the two ladies overlooked his movements curiously.

'I cannot make 長，率いる or tail of it,' 自白するd 行方不明になる Barrowford, as the senseful fingers crossed and recrossed the scrawl, now に引き続いて a vague spidery line, now drawn where no 明白な 示す appeared to lead. 'Is there any meaning, do you think?'

'That little 協定 comes in more than once,' said Elsie, 示すing a hieroglyphic 新たな展開. 'I'm sure it must mean something.'

'That little 協定 is the word "red", and it comes in seven times,' 解釈する／通訳するd the 患者 探検者. 'It is the strongest impression that 固執するs.'

'Red! But what—' conjectured the sister with a （軽い）地震 in her 発言する／表明する.

'Oh, a lamp-地位，任命する—a sunshade—a picture,' 安心させるd Mr Carrados quickly. 'Even a lead pencil if it happened to be there at the 権利 moment.'

'Or a 解雇する／砲火／射撃, I suppose?' 示唆するd Elsie unfortunately.

'Here is a 実験（する） for ingenuity.' Carrados was anxious to 修理 his indiscretion. 'That is a 選び出す／独身 word manifestly, but what?'

'It doesn't make a word to me,' 宣言するd 行方不明になる Barrowford, after a minute's scrutiny.

'"Meou" or "miaow", if there was such a thing,' 示唆するd Elsie.

'井戸／弁護士席, isn't there? What does one call a cat noise?'

'But why not 令状 "cat"?' 行方不明になる Barrowford 反対するd. 'If that is it.'

'Because the noise is the most 逮捕（する）ing thing about it,' he replied. 'A "miaowing" cat.'

'Shut in,' 与える／捧げるd Elsie. 'Now I wonder what that long scrawl may be?'

'I think I had better take this for 詳細（に述べる）d 実験（する）s,' said Mr Carrados, coolly transferring the paper to his pocket. He was not anxious for the broken man's sister to discover that the 'long scrawl' (twice repeated) stood for 'horrible', or that the poignant exclamation 'Oh!' had been penned four times. Later search 公表する／暴露するd only one other word. 'This,' considered Max Carrados as he reviewed his slender 手がかり（を与える）s that night, 'this is the flashlight on a man's brain at the moment of its 絶滅,' and he arranged the impressions によれば their persistence:

Why Mr Pridger, on 存在 shown in a few minutes later, should have tacitly assumed that the gentleman who seemed so tolerably at home on the hearthrug must be his 雇用者's doctor, does not appear. かもしれない there was an あいまいな word in the simple-mannered girl's exclamation of surprise at finding another 訪問者 still there; かもしれない Mr Carrados's bland 空気／公表する of perfect self-所有／入手 lent itself to the idea.

'Sad 商売／仕事, isn't it?' 発言／述べるd the 経営者／支配人 expansively. '患者 any better today, sir?'

So far, although one might hazard a guess, the blind man had no knowledge of his new 知識. A wisely professional shake of the 長，率いる committed him to nothing.

'Ah! Looks like 存在 a long 商売／仕事, I'm afraid. I wonder if you could give me an idea—I'm his 経営者／支配人, by the way—any sort of an idea how long it might be before he would be fit again?'

'That is a difficult question to answer at all, and an impossible one to answer satisfactorily.'

'Yes, I guessed as much. But it makes it rather ぎこちない for me, sir. And when he does come, as you may say, to himself—I suppose there have been plenty of other 事例／患者s 類似の—what will he be like should you say?' There was a moment of hesitation in でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるing the crux of what he sought, an 仮定／引き受けること of 怠慢，過失 that stood out like the postscript of a lady's letter, but it had to come: 'Will he remember what happened to him up to the last?'

'Will he remember!' What did Mr Pridger 心配する; what had he to 恐れる? Carrados could not see the respectful, serious-注目する，もくろむd, decorously-attired 経営者／支配人 who stood there. The whole of Mr Pridger's eminently respectable 外見 went for nothing, but a hundred other 指示，表示する物s that he had never taken into account were signalling their message through subtler mediums.

It was a question to which there could be no 絶対の reply, but it fell in with the 捜査官／調査官's impulse to なぎ the man's 疑惑s, and in his impromptu character Carrados spoke to that end of other curious 事例／患者s. Mr Pridger seemed to breathe more 自由に.

'So far as the actual 商売／仕事 is 関心d, of course his 存在 away wouldn't make a ha'p'orth of difference,' he confided. 'I'm the practical man and the 知事 looks on. But there isn't any 商売／仕事 now; the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 has put the lid on that. And the 最新の is that the 保険 company is going to be 汚い.'

This was news, and Mr Carrados encouraged its recital by a 同情的な question.

'They don't say so yet, but the suggestion is incendiarism. They sent 負かす／撃墜する a man at once in the ordinary way, and now we've had a notice to leave everything just as it is 未解決の a その上の examination.'

'Why should they think anything wrong?'

'These 保険s go a lot by the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 旅団 報告（する）／憶測. I suppose the officer in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 has 示唆するd something.'

'But surely he must be mistaken?'

'井戸／弁護士席, it isn't for me to say. I'm an 従業員 of the 会社／堅い and bound to stand by it. Besides, I was away all the Saturday after ten o'clock, so I couldn't say what happened. But it's no secret that W. & S. have been getting short of the ready for more than a year now; it's （人命などを）奪う，主張するd that the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 began in three or four places at once; and Mr Barrowford was the last to leave the 前提s. We've got to make the best of that whether we like it or not.'

'How gratuitously a rogue gives himself away; every clumsy insinuation is a window to his mind,' ran the hearer's thoughts, while his commiserating 発言する／表明する was 説, 'Dear, dear me! This is very surprising.'

'Of course'—暗示するd the loyal 経営者／支配人, and 'Oh, of course; not a word,' assented his confidant. He had at that moment 選ぶd up the returning him here a few days ago and he was grinning in a most 悪意のある fashion. Why should he seem so taken aback that you were not a doctor?'

'People get such curious ideas, don't they?' agreed Mr Carrados. 'I thought that he seemed annoyed about some-thing when your friend said who I was. And yet he had been talking やめる confidentially to me just before.'

'You hadn't misled him about 存在 the doctor, had you?' asked a rather startled Elsie.

'Misled? I! Good gracious no; I wouldn't 誤って導く a tortoise.'

'No, of course I didn't 現実に mean that you would,' said the amiable girl almost penitently. 'But really and truly I don't always やめる know what to say about you, Mr Carrados. I was trying to tell 行方不明になる Barrowford what you would do and I could think of nothing better than to say that you might 選ぶ up a pin or a needle and that would be 十分な 手がかり（を与える） for you, and, do you know, all the time we were there she was craning her neck to see if you 選ぶd one up!'

'I wish I'd known,' he chuckled. 'I certainly would have done.'

'I wonder,' mused Elsie artlessly, 'if you did 選ぶ anything up?'

'No needles,' he replied lightly. 'A few loose threads at the most.'

It was in 追跡 of the other ends of those same threads that Mr Carrados モーターd up to Culver Street on the next day. It was a neighbourhood of small 産業s with their contiguous offices, almost 砂漠d after 商売／仕事 hours and a wilderness at week-ends. Such shops as appeared to 存在する there were those supported by a special and 保証するd clientage, with here and there a modest 設立 of the humbler catering class. Widdowson and Stubb, not 存在 in need of even such publicity as that 平和的な thoroughfare afforded, had been thrust into the background by more assertive 隣人s and had to be reached along an inner passage. A 支援する 入り口 with a 貿易（する） approach was discoverable in a cul-de-sac that seemed to have no 指名する.

Parkinson …を伴ってd his master, and with the perfect understanding of long 協会 he 再生するd from time to time just those 詳細（に述べる）s of the surroundings that he knew to be 要求するd. So much was 決まりきった仕事, for any special need a word was enough to direct his peculiar talent for 観察 into the 願望（する）d channel.

利益／興味 in No. 33 as the scene of the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 had passed away—indeed nothing of the 前提s 伴う／関わるd could be seen from Culver Street. The door, the 単独の 証拠 on that 味方する of the 存在 of Widdowson & Stubb, opened to a 押し進める and the 訪問者s 設立する themselves in a long, 明らかにする passage, where a notice painted on the 塀で囲む directed the inquirer onward to the office.

'We will wait here a moment and consider the circumstances,' directed Mr Carrados.

'Very good, sir,' replied Parkinson. He knew that at those の近くに ４半期/4分の1s his descriptive 力／強力にするs were not 要求するd unless to some 明確な／細部 end, and the blind man's 利益／興味 in the 床に打ち倒す and 塀で囲むs did not 関心 him. He sauntered 負かす／撃墜する the passage and then 支援する again.

'I imagine that Mr Carlyle is in the room beyond, sir,' he 発言／述べるd. 'I can hear what I apprehend to be his 発言する／表明する.'

'Yes,' assented Carrados. 'He is part of the circumstances.'

They 設立する the 調査 スパイ／執行官 支配するing the 廃虚 of what had been the 主要な／長／主犯's office, and with him Mr Pridger. The 経営者／支配人's 迎える／歓迎するing was not by any stretch of imagination cordial, but Mr Carlyle's triumphantly assertive cry of welcome 溺死するd the other's formal 調査 as to how he could serve the 訪問者.

'You, of all men, by the immortal 力／強力にするs!' he 布告するd enthusiastically. 'What piece of luck brings you this way, Max?'

'I scarcely think that the Barrowfords would 述べる it as that,' replied Carrados, 示すing their surroundings. 'Do you happen to know that Elsie is やめる a friend of theirs?'

'What, my niece?' exclaimed Mr Carlyle, with a sudden 減少（する） in his elation. 'No, by gad, I didn't. To be sure, they all live at Stanthorpe, don't they? I shall get into hot water over this, Max; I'm here for the 商売／仕事 and 国内の 保険 people.'

'I may 同様に go on with my own work now, Mr Carlyle, interposed the 経営者／支配人, with 厳しい 形式順守. 'For any other particulars you may 要求する I'm 完全に at your service.'

'Queer 事件／事情／状勢,' explained the professional 捜査官／調査官, with a gracious gesture of assent に向かって the 出発／死ing Pridger. 'Shocking barefaced 試みる／企てる, Max, if ever there was one. And now, I hear, this Barrowford is playing possum to 避ける explaining things.'

'Oh, have you 抽出するd that admission from the 気が進まない Pridger, Louis?'

'Egad, the fellow feels it, 存在 connected with such a 職業; but he sees that there's nothing to be 伸び（る）d by piling 偽証 on the 最高の，を越す of 放火（罪）. Four separate 解雇する／砲火／射撃s, all starting about the same time, 人物／姿／数字 in this remarkable 突発／発生, and the first things to be 消費するd are the 会社／堅い's 調書をとる／予約するs.'

'That was very unfortunate,' 認める Max Carrados.

'It was, when you consider. 調書をとる／予約するs, Max, are about the most stubbornly uninflammable things that you find about an office. So long as it remains の近くにd it is next to impossible to light a solidly-bound ledger; what happens is that it slowly chars for an インチ or two inwards all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. These'—示すing the heap of soaked 破片 on the 床に打ち倒す—'have been deliberately thrown open, drenched with some spirit, and 始める，決める 解雇する／砲火／射撃 to.'

'Turpentine,' 宣言するd the blind man, 選ぶing up the 遺物 of a 容積／容量. 'All this must have taken time, Louis.'

'Undoubtedly; the 準備s were 徹底的な enough for anything.'

'Vernon Barrowford—the last to leave as you very 自然に 主張する—locked the Culver Street door after him at half-past twelve. The general office clerk was here certainly up to twelve-twenty. Ten minutes at the outside, Louis.'

'I 港／避難所't gone into that yet. He may have returned again. We learn that he did not reach home until rather late that day.'

'I think he very likely did return, and my 利益／興味 lies in what he 設立する here. He certainly went 一方／合間 to the reading-room of the British Museum—I have his umbrella in my car at this moment.'

'To pass the time until it was 安全な to return here? The 旅団 think half-past twelve too 早期に to assume this 解雇する／砲火／射撃 which was not discovered until about ten at night.'

'The place is shut in all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and a 穏健な 解雇する／砲火／射撃 might go on for a long time unseen, but three or four o'clock would 控訴 me better than half-past twelve,' agreed Carrados. 'What 事例／患者 of 動機 are you making against him, Louis?'

'The suggestion is that the 在庫／株 has been going 負かす／撃墜する ever since this Barrowford took on the 商売／仕事—five years ago—and the 保険 has remained the same. The 関心 is 事実上 破産者／倒産した now, and the 経営者／支配人 収容する／認めるs—'

'Don't say "収容する／認めるs", Louis; I have already conversed with that good, and faithful servant.'

'井戸／弁護士席, I am only 取引，協定ing with facts, whatever we call the source of our （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）. For months past Barrowford has been trying to get in 資本／首都. Lately he 設立する some people who were not unwilling, but of course they 規定するd for a proper stocktaking and an 独立した・無所属 audit. Now that's just what—'

'I say,' （機の）カム a plaintive 発言する／表明する from outside the door, 'I don't want to intrude, but—'

'Come in by all means,' called 支援する Mr Carlyle. 'The 形式順守s of office 決まりきった仕事 are 一時停止するd for the nonce. But if you want to see the 経営者／支配人—'

'No, I don't want to see good old Pridger,' said the 訪問者, 公表する／暴露するing himself as an 年輩の young man of rather languid 面; 'I just drifted across, en passant, for a nod and a 同情的な word with dear old Vernon, but the 有望な young Frederick intimates that he hasn't arrived—'

'We are afraid he isn't likely to arrive,' volunteered Mr Carrados. 'Your friend is rather 本気で ill at 現在の.'

'You don't say so,' replied the 報知係, balancing himself against his walking-stick after looking vainly 一連の会議、交渉／完成する for an unburnt piece of furniture to lean upon. 'Nervous 決裂／故障 and all that, I suppose? The fact is, dear old Vernon wasn't 削減（する） out for the 騒動 of modern 商売／仕事 競争. It was a 根底となる error for him ever to have crept out of his cosy corner in Somerset House, where he really was integral. He didn't fit the 塀で囲む space here.'

'I understand that his tastes were literary and artistic,' 発言／述べるd Mr Carrados.

'Literary and artistic? Literary and artistic!' repeated the new 知識, with some play in emphatics. 'Certainly, the dear old somniloquist 達成するd an 時折の letter to the Moribund Review on "Telepathy の中で Cab Horses", or something of that sort, but, my good Lord, artistic! And that reminds me—what has become of the 先頭 Doop まっただ中に the cataclysm?'

'The 先頭 Doop?'

'Yes; you've come across the 残虐（行為）, 港／避難所't you? He had it hung up there when I was last in—Saturday. You don't mean to say—'

'If it was anywhere in this room on Saturday last it has certainly gone the way of all flesh,' 宣言するd Mr Carlyle briskly. 'A 絵, I suppose? Those may be the remains of a でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる where you are looking. Was it 価値のある?'

'If the dear old chap has had the mental acumen to insure it for what he （人命などを）奪う，主張するd it to be 価値（がある） I should say it was very 価値のある indeed,' was the 下落する reply. If not—'

'There is no picture of any sort in the schedule,' 宣言するd Mr Carlyle, after 協議するing his papers.

'Then I don't mind telling you that it was rotten. Under the impression that anything 調印するd "先頭 Doop" was by 先頭 Doop, and that anything by 先頭 Doop was 価値（がある） about the level thousand, the poor old haddock seems to have let a ギャング（団） of 社債 Street rooks put it across him to the tune of some three hundred. Of course it was 平易な, because he thought that he was a born 裁判官, and that is the beginning of ignorance.'

'Was he likely to find this out on Saturday?' asked Mr Carrados.

'井戸／弁護士席, I told him. I don't see that you could have anything more conclusive than that,' explained the gentleman with some complacency. '"My dear old image," I said やめる plainly. "先頭 Doop painted only one 'Portrait of a Father-in-法律' and that's in the Eremitage and has been for the last half century."'

'The where?' 問い合わせd Mr Carlyle with 警報 curiosity.

'Eremitage—the Hermitage Museum at St Petersburg, you would probably call it.'

'Yes, or course,' assented Mr Carlyle あわてて. 'I didn't やめる catch the word, that was all.'

'"As for this mutton-直面するd adventurer," I told him; "he is probably a worked-up piece by Jan 先頭 Doop—an obscure 親族 of the man. As a 事柄 of fact, I think Lenlau 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせるs of this canvas in his 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of spurious 先頭 Doops." "Lenlau?" he said helplessly, and I saw that the unfortunate oyster had never heard of the one man who wrote intelligently on the 支配する of 先頭 Doop. "Good heavens, old thing!" I said, 存在 really too 打ち勝つ to rub it in, and then, as he asked me, I gave him the 詳細（に述べる）s of the work, and that's about all there is to it.'

'I think that explains why Barrowford （機の）カム 支援する,' said Carrados when the two were alone again. 'That egregious poseur knew what he was talking about, at all events. Our man went to the reading-room, got out "Lenlau", and then returned here to 立証する some point of description.'

'More desperate than ever,' 発言／述べるd Mr Carlyle 意味ありげに.

'Not desperate enough to 燃やす a picture that he hasn't had the prudence to insure, 特に as there might be a chance of getting something 支援する yet,' replied his friend. 'Did he find the place on 解雇する／砲火／射撃 when he got here? It is difficult to imagine anything 特に "horrible" about the redness of a 燃やすing room. Did he surprise Pridger, who attacked him? Then the cat? Of course it might—'

'One moment, Max, one moment,' 削減（する） in Mr Carlyle's assertive 抗議する. 'It is very nattering of you to credit me with a supernatural intuition, but it makes your monologue unnecessarily cryptical. If this is a 事例／患者 of incendiarism—and, by Jupiter, on the 証拠 lying 一連の会議、交渉／完成する I shall advise my （弁護士の）依頼人s to resist the （人命などを）奪う，主張する tooth and nail—who is the 悪党／犯人 if not Barrowford?'

'Who?' said Max Carrados, and then his attention suddenly faded. With one of his disconcertingly exact movements he went direct to the mantlepiece, skirting a heap of 破片 in his 進歩, and 選ぶd up a few letters that were 範囲d there. 'Oh, Louis, Louis, and we two sleuths are asking, you "Who?" and I "How?" and here are Barrowford's neglected letters.'

'Pshaw!' fretted Garlyle impatiently. 'What 商売／仕事 are they of ours, Max? Besides, the fellow is too ill to を取り引きする them by your account.'

'And no letter-box to the door.'

'井戸／弁護士席, what of that?'

'The letters 落ちる upon the 床に打ち倒す.' The blind man's 問い合わせing fingers were touching off every word and 調印する accessible to them as he threw aside one packet after another. 'What do you make of this, Louis?'

'A 地位，任命する card. Not very confidential that, eh?'"Thanks for your 肉親，親類d 調査. At the moment we have not—" This is 単に formal.'

'Try the other 味方する.'

'Ah, the 地位，任命する 示す, "London, E.G., 12.30 p.m., 25 May"—Saturday last. You mean that if this was 選ぶd up on Saturday it 示すs that someone was about after—let me see, twelve-thirty, say two-thirty 配達／演説／出産, say three o'clock here—and if it wasn't 選ぶd up—I see.'

'Not 正確に／まさに that. Isn't there a sort of a—' and he 示すd the 取り消し.

'A mere pinkish smudge from something. Do you mean that?'

'What one might perhaps 述べる as the faint impression of a cat's paw transferred in red. Now, Louis, what was the office cat—'

'But, good heavens, Max, 本気で, what have we to do with the peregrinations of this feline marauder? You are not 示唆するing that the abandoned quadruped deliberately 始める，決める 解雇する／砲火／射撃 to the 設立, are you? My only 関心 is who—'

'Oh, who, of course,' わびるd his friend. 'You asked that before, didn't you, and I got led away to something else? 自然に, Pridger 始める，決める the place on 解雇する／砲火／射撃—hasn't he told you that yet?'

'The 経営者／支配人?' Louis Carlyle 星／主役にするd hard and incredulously for a moment, and then swung half 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to Carrados's lead with his usual mental agility. 'Do you know, Max, I always had an underlying instinct that there was something fishy—but so long as it is incendiarism I don't suppose it 事柄s to my （弁護士の）依頼人s who the 犯罪の is.'

'Oh, don't you, my friend?' retorted Max. 'It may かなり.'

'How so?'

'Barrowford is the 単独の proprietor of this 関心. If he 始める，決めるs it on 解雇する／砲火／射撃 that 自然に 無効にするs his 保険. But if someone else does—'

'His 経営者／支配人,' the other reminded him. 'His confidential 従業員, Max.'

'True. But you don't 示唆する that 燃やすing the place 負かす／撃墜する is "in or arising out of" his 義務, do you?—特に as it was after hours! If you are thinking of your （弁護士の）依頼人s, Louis, you had much better stick to Barrowford.'

'井戸／弁護士席, after all, I shall keep an open mind on the 支配する yet. I have still to question some of the men—only Pridger and a boy come here now, and I must 追跡（する） the others up.'

'And I must 追跡（する） the cat up. We won't trouble Pridger about it, but the boy might be 価値（がある） seeing.'

'驚くべき／特命の／臨時の fancies you いつかs get, Max,' said Mr Carlyle, regarding this whim with benevolent toleration. 'I believe half of them are to mystify the simple-minded. The curious thing is that now and then they seem to lead—間接に, of course—to something we've been looking for.'

'You've noticed that?' 答える／応じるd Carrados. 'I thought that perhaps it was only my imagination.'

'If you really want the boy I'll call him,' preferred Mr Carlyle. 'But I should 警告する you that even as boys go, he doesn't seem to be a very intelligent member of his tribe.'

The blind man nodded a smiling assent, and Mr Carlyle, going to another door across the way, sent out his ample 権威のある 発言する／表明する in a call for 'Fred'.

An undersized, weak-注目する，もくろむd lad of about fifteen 現れるd unwillingly from a secluded lair, and stuffing an untidy paper-支援するd 調書をとる／予約する into a pocket as he （機の）カム he 迎える／歓迎するd Mr Carlyle with a boorish '井戸／弁護士席?'

'This is the brilliant individual, Max,' said the 調査 スパイ／執行官 with elegant disdain. 'Democratic education, egad!'

'Can you tell me where we are likely to find the cat, Fred?' asked Mr Carrados persuasively. 'Perhaps there is more than one kept here?'

'Cat?' repeated the unwholesome-looking boy stupidly. 'The cat isn't 非，不，無 of my 商売／仕事.'

'But you might perhaps know where it usually is,' 示唆するd the inquirer mildly. 'Cats have habits, you know.' But Fred was not to be cajoled by mildness, and turning away he muttered something of which only the words 'if you use your 注目する，もくろむs' 現れるd.

'You young ruffian!' exclaimed the 怒った Carlyle; 'is that the way to reply to a gentleman—and a blind man, too! If I were Mr Carrados I'd have you skinned, by Jupiter!'

Mr Carlyle was not unaccustomed to his impressive 発言する／表明する and 法廷の manner carrying 影響, but he was hardly 用意が出来ている for the 劇の change that his words produced.

'Mr Carrados, did you say—blind!' （機の）カム from the boy in a wholly different トン. His doltish look was gone, his sulky 耐えるing had given place to lively excitement, and his dull 注目する，もくろむs were now 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with 知能—almost with cunning. Coming nearer he laid a 手渡す 熱望して on the venerated sleeve, and dropping his 発言する／表明する to the トン appropriate to melodrama, 'Are you Max Carrados, the blind 'tec?' he 需要・要求するd.

'Come, come; really!' 抗議するd Louis Carlyle, scandalized by his familiarity, but his friend only laughed understandingly.

'Was that "Jake Jackson, the Human Bloodhound" you were reading just now?' he asked. 'Pretty good, isn't it?'

Til tell you about the cat, sir,' whispered the boy. 'It was 窒息させるd by the smoke on Saturday, and it's out at the 支援する by the dust-貯蔵所s now. Is it the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 or 使い込み，横領 you're on to now, sir?'

'Fred!' sounded the 経営者／支配人's 発言する／表明する not so far away. 'Fred, where are—'

'Look out, sir,' 警告を与えるd the boy, as he made for the door. 'Old Pridger half 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs it's not going smooth. 貯蔵所s straight through 倉庫／問屋—yellow jinny cat.' Then his former lethargy descended on him and he lounged into the passage muttering, 'Electric fuses? 'Ow'm I to know—'

'Oh, Fred,' said the 経営者／支配人 はっきりと, 'why the devil can't you come when—Here, get your hat at once and take this 公式文書，認める across to Marchmont's and wait an answer. 井戸／弁護士席, gentlemen—'

Two minutes later, as the three walked に向かって the 倉庫／問屋, they 遭遇（する）d Fred on his way out. The loutish 青年, not dreaming of giving way, 船d into Mr Carrados and earned a けん責（する），戒告 for clumsiness and a その上の word for the whistle of 熟考する／考慮するd disrespect with which he artistically 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd off the 事件／事情／状勢. When the 適切な時期 （機の）カム the blind man smoothed out the screw of paper that the 遭遇（する） had left in his 手渡す and read as follows:

If you want to know more about it 会合，会う me at twelve tonight (中央の-night) on Waterloo 橋（渡しをする）. Boss is all 権利, but old P. is a churlish swine. I've been dogging his footsteps for months and can put you on to two banks where he goes in different 指名するs. What 売春婦!

(調印するd) Frederick the Boy 探偵，刑事.

'Frederick will probably be heard of again,' 推測するd Carrados as he slid the message into his wallet. 'All the same, I wish that his taste in 任命s had not been やめる so inconveniently 劇の.'

* * * * *

'Dear Louis,' wrote Max Carrados some time later, 'I will redeem the 約束 made when you were called away in the middle of the Barrowford 事件／事情／状勢. You complained that I did not seem to take much 利益／興味 in that conflagration, and you were 権利, for a mere straightforward piece of incendiarism 申し込む／申し出s nothing new. But the mystery of Vernon Barrowford's 条件 struck やめる another line. Whether we should ever have reached a true understanding of that curious 事例／患者 without the miraculous 介入 of Frederick is beside the question. That boy, Louis, is in his way a masterpiece. Do you know, every article of 着せる／賦与するing that he wears is reversible, so that he can 現在の やめる a different 外見 at the shortest notice!

'You will have seen that Pridger got five years. It might 井戸／弁護士席 have been more if Barrowford could have appeared, but that was out of the question, and so, much against the man had to be ignored. His is やめる an ordinary 事例／患者. His nature is not essentially 犯罪の and he had no expensive tastes. For twenty years he had been an 模範的な servant under the 注目する，もくろむ of old Conrad Stubb; but Stubb knew the 商売／仕事 to his finger-nails, while Vernon never really touched it with a long 政治家. His coming was the beginning of Pridger's downfall. The man saw—it was, indeed, thrown at him—how 平易な peculation was. Everything was left to his unsupervised 支配（する）／統制する. In five years, out of a salary of six or seven 続けざまに猛撃するs a week, he had "saved" at least eight thousand 続けざまに猛撃するs!

'This 卸売 success was the 経営者／支配人's undoing. The 商売／仕事 grew poorer and poorer until it could no longer turn. Then Barrowford bestirred himself to get in outside 資本／首都. He 設立する someone not unwilling to go into it, but that entailed a 徹底的な audit. So far as Pridger was 関心d the game was up. He had cooked the buying, he had cooked the selling, he had systematically 略奪するd the 在庫／株. He could, of course, have bolted—all his booty was conveniently arranged for that—but the man's 従来の nature shrank from such a break with respectability. A 解雇する／砲火／射撃 was 明白に the 解答, and, as luck would have it, a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 just then might very easily be made to look like Vernon's expedient.

This brings us 負かす／撃墜する to the Saturday of the 行為. For some time Pridger had been waiting and watching for the occasion when his 雇用者 should be the last man to leave. In pursuance of this 計画／陰謀 it was his custom to 発表する that he was going and then secrete himself. This is what happened on the day in question, and when Barrowford saw all the others off and himself locked the outer door on his 出発 the 経営者／支配人 decided that his chance had come.

'He was in no hurry. There was the 明らかにする 可能性 at first that someone might return for something, while as the afternoon wore on the footstep of the 時折の passer-by would get even rarer, and it was no part of the 計画（する） that the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 should be discovered by some premature busybody. Mr Pridger leisurely 消費するd his simple lunch and re-read through his morning paper. Then at about three o'clock he began work 本気で.

'We know now what had happened to Barrowford 一方／合間. He had, I have since discovered, been the 犠牲者 of a やめる (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する "工場／植物" over the Dutch old master—thinking by his "connoisseurship" to 改善する his position—and he could not afford it. Whether the proof of the deception was やめる such a simple 事件／事情／状勢 as it pleased that debonair sprig to 影響する／感情 need not trouble us; at any 率, Barrowford 設立する some 言及／関連 so disconcerting at the British Museum that he hurried 支援する to his office to 立証する the worst.

'Three-thirty, let us say. Pridger had been 燃やすing 調書をとる／予約するs and other 罪を負わせるing 事柄 now for half an hour. Then on his startled ear there 落ちるs suddenly the sound of someone 打ち明けるing the outer 前線 door. No need to think twice who. Only one man beside himself 所有するd the 重要なs.

'For this 緊急 the 有罪の knave had no 計画（する） ready. He had gone too far to make extrication possible; the 証拠 of his 意向 lay about in every room, and however slack a master Barrowford had been he would certainly read the plain riddle of the scene that met his 注目する，もくろむs, and then Pridger was lost.

'Flight was no longer possible; for even to reach the 倉庫／問屋 and the 支援する he must have 頼みの綱 to the long passage. It was then that Pridger's 注目する，もくろむ fell on the door of a small 蓄える／店 closet—he was in the general office now—windowless and dark. I think that the man's impulse was 簡単に to hide himself and 伸び（る） a breath of time. But as he つまずくd in there flashed to his mind the desperate expedient of this last chance. It was no sooner しっかり掴むd than 行為／法令／行動するd on.

'A few months before a handy fellow の中で them had 申し込む／申し出d to paint the place and the 構成要素s were bought, but something 介入するd and the 事業／計画（する） hung. The tins of paint still stood there, already mixed, and it was to a lurid crimson that Pridger's mind had leapt. There was no subtlety—there was no time for it. He stooped, dipped both 手渡すs into the fluid, and 簡単に laved his 直面する with it. Then throwing 完全に 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his form a sable cloth—one of those to be spread over the goods—he stepped out to 会合，会う his unsuspecting 犠牲者.

'How they met—whether the dreadful apparition leapt out as the man drew 近づく, whether it stood silently を待つing him, or whether it 急ぐd shrieking 負かす／撃墜する the passage threateningly—we shall perhaps never know. But 再建するing the scene の中で those silent 塀で囲むs in the 不安定な light, with the unforgotten ghosts of other 罪，犯罪s ready to 現れる from every 影をつくる／尾行する, I can conceive that no more frightful spectre than this sombre 存在, dripping red from 手渡すs and 直面する at every step, has ever walked. Its 影響 on a rather soft and just then 大いに 悩ますd mind was 悲劇の. Vernon Barrowford has brought from that shuttered past just one vivid 雷 flash—the 恐ろしい, all-pervading redness of the Thing; his own paralysing sense of helpless terror; the panic-stricken howling of the 飛行機で行くing cat; and the safety of the distant door that he must—must—reach. He did reach it, but he left something there behind.'

VII. — THE STRANGE CASE OF CYRIL BYCOURT

'I KNEW you in a moment, Mr Carrados. But I 推定する／予想する that you 港／避難所't the very faintest idea of who I am?'

'No,' 認める Max Carrados pleasantly; 'I am afraid that I must 嘆願d 有罪の. But,' he 追加するd, in his usual 事柄-of-fact, 効果的な way, 'of course I know 井戸／弁護士席 enough who you were. Twenty years ago—at least, twenty to my account—we 行為／法令／行動するd charades together and you were Gertie Hamilton.'

'I still am,' 認める the lady, with a suggestion of 辞職 in her 発言する／表明する. 'And it's every bit of twenty years as far as I'm 関心d.'

That evening Mr Carrados (duly 発表するd by an 時折の small 法案 in the windows of 酪農場s, fancy wool shops, and other 精製するd 設立s) had been 配達するing an 演説（する）／住所 on 'Premonition, Hallucination, and Autosuggestion' at the Corn Market Hall in Overbury. It had amused the blind man to 受託する the 招待 to give the 年次の Stalworthy lecture, as it frequently did amuse him to do 予期しない things—sheerly to experience—but more than once before he was through the unentertaining 商売／仕事 he 悪口を言う／悪態d the moment of good-natured assent.

The last formal word of compliment was spoken and the audience dribbled away with a sense of having 成し遂げるd a 義務 only わずかに いっそう少なく meritorious than that of going to church. Parkinson, at all events, in the glory of 存在 seated on the 壇・綱領・公約, had 完全に enjoyed himself. It was then that the lady, who had 占領するd a retired seat 井戸／弁護士席 負かす／撃墜する the hall, 召喚するd up the 決意／決議 to approach the lecturer and to challenge his recollection.

'And you really do know me by my 発言する／表明する! How wonderful! I had been told—but you never know what to believe.'

'It does depend somewhat on the teller, doesn't it?' agreed Carrados.

'井戸／弁護士席, it was 主として Lydia Murgatroyd, I think. You remember her? Lydia married a 製図／抽選-master who had a pupil whose father—a 卸売 druggist, you know—got into a 事例／患者 and 雇うd a Mr Carlyle, who said—'

'Heavens!' interposed Carrados, 'that's five 除去するs already. You can only believe a fifth of what you heard. Much better 推定する／予想する to find me as you 設立する me in the past.'

'井戸／弁護士席, we were always やめる good friends, weren't we? You were Mr Max Wynn in those days, and you—you—'

'I had to 信用 my poor 誤って導くing 注目する，もくろむs then? Yes; I wonder if I should have known you, 行方不明になる Hamilton, at sight.'

'Oh, I hope not!' she exclaimed ingenuously, and 公表する／暴露するing that train of thought she 追加するd, 'but my sister Mildred was the pretty one, you know.'

'Mildred; yes, I remember her very 井戸／弁護士席 indeed,' replied the blind man thoughtfully. 'We were all her 充てるd slaves. And she died?'

'You heard?'

'Not until now. Your 発言する／表明する told me that.'

行方不明になる Hamilton's look 表明するd surprise, but she 受託するd what he said unquestioningly; it agreed with much that she had heard.

'Yes; she died five years ago. And, curiously enough, it has to do with that in a way that I am here now. I （機の）カム'—she suddenly 設立する her diffidence returning—'I （機の）カム to see if the Mr Carrados I'd heard so much about really was the Max Wynn we used to know, and if so to ask your advice.'

At the 支援する of the hall a sad man was already putting out the lights; in the neighbourhood of the 壇・綱領・公約 another coughed hopefully from time to time. No one else remained; even the young lady who had played 選択s from Bach and Schumann before the lecture and 'God Save the King' after it had の近くにd the 雇うd piano, rolled up her music, and stolen silently away. At a suitable distance apart, 演習ing his unique gift of 存在 profoundly impressed by a 支配する that he had no 利益／興味 in whatever, Parkinson was 深く，強烈に immersed in a chart illustrating a century of wheat 普通の／平均（する）s of the British 小島s.

'I suppose that I oughtn't to 拘留する you here,' continued 行方不明になる Hamilton looking about. 'I wonder if you could spare the time to go 支援する with me and tell me what you think. I live just outside Overbury—やめる a short walk.'

'If you knew anything of life in the "Mitre" smoking-room you wouldn't sound so diffident about 申し込む／申し出ing an 代案／選択肢 for an hour or two,' replied Carrados.

'That's just like you used to be,' she commented. Thanking me for asking you to do something.'

As they walked through the silent and 砂漠d streets of the little market town, Carrados was reviewing his memories of the past. Twenty-five years ago (he had given the lady the 利益 of five) he had been of very small account indeed—an unknown 青年 in a strange city, with the wealth that had afterwards suddenly descended on him as remote then as if it had been buried in the mountains of the moon. The Hamiltons had let him understand that he need not be 独房監禁 if he cared to 受託する the simple, kindly entertainment they dispensed. It had not lasted very long; 昇進／宣伝 to another town had 削減（する） across his path, and the Hamiltons had never become more than an 出来事/事件, but, a little tardily perhaps, he 認めるd that at the time their friendliness had meant much to him.

The now middle-老年の Gertrude, padding rather ひどく by his 味方する as she guided his course, had been the 年上の of the sisters. The other—Mildred—had more than 長所d Gertie's （人命などを）奪う，主張する and his own prosaic 尊敬の印. Her memory stirred no heartbeat now, but he could very 井戸／弁護士席 解任する the shy wonder with which the adoring 青年 had watched her movements. Then there had been a brother of whom he was yet to hear. Both parents would be dead....

'Here we are at last,' exclaimed 行方不明になる Hamilton with 決定するd sprightliness, and Carrados heard the latch of a gate 解除するd. The garden they passed through was of the cottage order, but trimly kept; the blind man checked off one old English flower after another, and divined the care lavished on them before the door was reached.

'I wonder if Mr Parkinson would mind sitting in the kitchen with my old servant?' whispered 行方不明になる Hamilton. 'I am rather afraid of him, do you know!' The little grimace …を伴ってing this 示すd that the idea was to be regarded humorously, and Carrados understood that what she really 疑問d was the extent of Parkinson's discretion. 'Nothing would 控訴 him better,' he replied. 'If he happens to 認可する of my 演説（する）／住所 he will give your servant a 選択 of 抽出するs from it, only in much superior language.'

'Then I will take him through, if you will excuse me.' She ぐずぐず残るd at the door and laughed a little self-consciously. 'And 一般に—though of course you wouldn't remember a thing like that—we used to have just coffee and cakes as a sort of supper. But I hardly 推定する／予想する that now—'

'Do you still make the cake with pink icing and the orange flavour?' he 問い合わせd.

'井戸／弁護士席, really, I wouldn't have believed!' she exclaimed, and bounced away like a delighted schoolgirl.

A little later, having 首尾よく introduced Parkinson and arranged for the 外見 of the celebrated cake, 行方不明になる Hamilton 開始する，打ち上げるd upon the 支配する of her trouble.

'It's really about Cyril I meant when I said Mildred,5 she explained. 'Cyril is Mildred's son, the only child she had, and so, of course, my 甥, the only one I have.'

'Then Tom—'

'Tom went to South Africa ten—twelve—oh, fifteen years ago. We never heard from him after the war there; I think he must have been killed. You see, Mr Carrados, I'm やめる alone except for Cyril now. Father—Mother—Tom—Mildred—all I had: all gone.'

'Your 甥 lives with you here?' 誘発するd Carrados. He was sorry for the poor lady, forlorn and rather unwieldy の中で the buffetry of circumstance, but he began to 予知する that it might be necessary to keep her to the point.

'No; I'm coming to that. You must 許す me—I know I'm slow and tiresome. I can do nothing but think about things now, hour after hour: moping I suppose others would call it. It's so dreadful if it's true that I can hardly believe it possible; and yet, there it is. I must do something about it.'

'Yes,' said Carrados, smiling away the 辛勝する／優位 of his retort, 'you must really tell me about it.'

'There I go again!' 自白するd 行方不明になる Hamilton with a gesture of despair. 'How can I 推定する／予想する you to advise me? 井戸／弁護士席, Millie married a Mr Bycourt—示す Bycourt—who still lives a few miles from here. He was やめる a nice sort of man, but a little old for her, I thought, considering her looks and chances, and he really doesn't appear to be 利益／興味d in any 支配する except water beetles. It seems a strange taste for a man. He might have taken up ゴルフ, or prize poultry, or politics, or lots of things, I mean, that would have seemed more—井戸／弁護士席, gentlemanly.'

'やめる a number of people are 利益／興味d in water beetles,' 観察するd Carrados mildly.

'So I am given to understand,' she 認める, 'and I suppose that I must be 狭くする-minded. But don't think that I have anything against Mr Bycourt; he made what I should call a good husband, though it must undoubtedly have been a little dull for Millie at times. When they had been married about three years Cyril （機の）カム.... Did you ever hear of an Uncle Stace when you knew us at Midchester, Mr Carrados?'

'Stace? No, I have never heard the 指名する before,' replied the blind man.

'I don't やめる know where the 関係 （機の）カム in or if he really was any relation at all. I have heard that he had been very fond of mother years ago and 手配中の，お尋ね者 to marry her, but when we children knew him he seemed やめる old and was said to be very rich. 井戸／弁護士席, all that he has to do with it is this: Millie was his favourite—as she was everyone's—and when he died it was 設立する that he had left everything—almost everything—to her, and to Cyril afterwards.'

'To her and to her children 一般に afterwards?' 示唆するd Carrados.

'No, just to Cyril by 指名する. There were no other children, you see.'

'やめる so,' agreed the listener.

'Millie died when she had been married about eight years—it was appendicitis. Then 示す asked me if I would keep house for him and look after Cyril, and I did—for four years. Of course I got very fond of the child, 特に after I had mothered him through his little troubles and illnesses; he was all that was left to me of the old days at Midchester. It was a 広大な／多数の／重要な blow to me when 示す married again.'

Carrados 与える／捧げるd only a 同情的な nod; 行方不明になる Hamilton seemed 公正に／かなり 井戸／弁護士席 始める，決める on her 支配する now.

'I should not have minded so much if the new Mrs Bycourt had been what I would call a suitable person, but really, one could hardly 述べる her as a lady. She was the very opposite of Mildred, and what 示す could have been thinking of I cannot imagine.'

'Some people are like that,' 認める Carrados 外交上.

'井戸／弁護士席, I suppose so; but it is a 広大な／多数の／重要な pity. She was the 未亡人 of a sort of small country gentleman who owned one or two racehorses and （機の）カム to grief, and she really seemed to have 吸収するd the atmosphere of the stable and the farmyard. Not that I mean there was anything definitely wrong about her—but the whiskies-and-sodas, the cigars, the slang (to call it nothing worse), the 非難する-dash of everything!—and 示す was such a 精製するd man, whatever else he was. I really couldn't stand it for more than a week, although they both 圧力（をかける）d me to remain until I could make my own 手はず／準備; it was a sudden marriage, you know. That was about a year ago.

'It really was very terrible for me, Mr Carrados, to have to give little Cyril up. He was such an affectionate, dear little boy, and for four years I had been neither more nor いっそう少なく than his mother. But there! I took this cottage partly so that I could get across to Stacks—that's their house—from tune to time, and of course I have to consider ways and means 同様に: Papa was unfortunate に向かって the last. In the 一方／合間 Cyril goes daily to a small school kept by a lady in the village; he is delicate and rather too young to leave home yet. Mrs Bycourt has two boys of her own, a few years older than Cyril and perfect young ruffians. Fortunately, they are 一般に away at 搭乗-school.'

'And now?' 誘発するd Carrados, for 行方不明になる Hamilton's silence was becoming rather 緊張するd, and, after 持続するing an admirable 支配（する）／統制する up to this point, the poor lady, brought 直面する to 直面する with her 即座の 苦しめる, suddenly brimmed over.

'Oh, Mr Carrados,' she wailed appealingly, 'don't laugh at me, but I'm sure the woman's 殺人ing Cyril by degrees so that her own will get his money. I know she is, and what am I to do?'

Now with regard to 殺人, experience had imbued the blind man with two 有罪の判決s: the first that it is a very 平易な thing to do, and the second that it is a very difficult thing to do 適切に. If this inauspicious Mrs Bycourt 現実に 後継するd in 除去するing her young stepson, Max Carrados did not 疑問 that the chances were on the 味方する of 司法（官） 追いつくing her, but the more 圧力（をかける）ing need was to find out if she had any such 意向, and if so to 失望させる it.

'Would the money go to her if your 甥 died?' he asked.

'Oh, yes. I saw our old solicitor about that. As I said, it was left to Millie and to Cyril after her. It is really Cyril's now, but held in 信用 for him until he comes of age. Of course he can't make a will yet, so that if he died the money would pass to his father, and he 自然に would leave it to his wife.'

'He probably would,' agreed Carrados. 'How much is there?'

'It was about thirty thousand 続けざまに猛撃するs. I understand that by the time Cyril could touch it there would be more than fifty thousand. That seems a lot to people like ourselves. 示す is やめる comfortably off, I suppose, but by no means 豊富な, and his new wife will have brought him little. If she is 決定するd to get rich or to 供給する 井戸／弁護士席 for her own awful children, Cyril's fortune—'

It was やめる （疑いを）晴らす that 行方不明になる Hamilton had definitely settled the 感情を害する／違反するing Mrs Bycourt and Cyril in their 各々の 役割s of murderess and 犠牲者, but when the 患者 捜査官／調査官 brought her up against the 実験（する） of 固める／コンクリート facts he felt that the most useful 目的 he could serve would be to 割引 her 恐れるs.

'But I feel so 絶対 納得させるd that something 悪意のある is going on,' pleaded the 苦しめるd lady. 'Oh, Mr Carrados, the boy is growing thinner and more lifeless week by week, the woman is 有能な of any villiany, the 誘導 is plain before our 直面するs—'

'Then why not 説得する the father to get a doctor in?'

'The doctor has seen him already. I 主張するd on Dr Huntley 存在 called in some time ago.'

Carrados passed the 明らかにする／漏らすing word '主張するd'. 'And he said?' he 問い合わせd.

'Oh, he said that there was nothing really the 事柄. Of course he meant that Cyril hadn't measles or chicken-pox, and we knew that 井戸／弁護士席 enough already. He recommended a little change. Cyril went with me to Eastbourne for two weeks. There he 改善するd wonderfully. Then we （機の）カム 支援する and he went 負かす／撃墜する again.'

'Could he not live with you here for some time?'

'I should love it. But Mrs Bycourt won't hear of such a thing—自然に. She says that the boy has been coddled enough already—me, of course—and that the sooner he gets over his morbid fancies the better, and that in any 事例／患者 if the 空気／公表する of Stacks doesn't 控訴 him, it's hardly likely that this will as it's only five miles away.... Now whatever can that be at this hour? Did you hear a knock? I didn't, but Susan has gone to the door.'

'I heard a footstep outside and then a knock,' replied the blind man. 'It is a child who is uncertain.'

'Please, m'm,' said the 年輩の servant, 開始 the room door and standing there a little ぱたぱたするd, 'here's Master Cyril from Stacks and in a pretty pickle.'

'Do you mean he's alone?' exclaimed 行方不明になる Hamilton, jumping up and making for the door. 'Oh, my poor lamb!' For the next half minute there was 補欠／交替の／交替する 動揺させる and murmur in the hall, while the staid Susan continued by the door, regarding Mr Carrados with a fascinated 利益／興味. Parkinson had undoubtedly been 大きくするing. Then 行方不明になる Hamilton returned, 主要な in a little boy who clung to her, his pale, over-精製するd young 直面する not yet wholly 安心させるd.

'This is Cyril, Mr Carrados,' she explained, patting the 手渡す that gripped her protectively. 'He tells me that he has run away from home and walked all the way here, but I know nothing more because I thought that you had better hear it with me.'

'井戸／弁護士席, he seems to have come just in time for some coffee and cake, unless the 調印するs deceive me,' 発言／述べるd Carrados with encouraging levity. 'Fond of cake with plenty of pink icing on it, Cyril?'

'Yes, thank you, sir,' replied the boy politely, as he took serious 在庫／株 of this new grown-up.

'So am I,' 自白するd the friendly stranger. 'And I don't mind telling you, Cyril, that when I was ten—that's older than you perhaps—I ran away, because there was a very fat big boy who used to wait for me every morning and punch my 長，率いる.'

'I am ten,' 抗議するd Cyril; 'and I am not much afraid of boys. But I am 脅すd of the man who comes to me in the night and is going to take me in his cart.' A look of pitiable terror （機の）カム into his 注目する，もくろむs and his 発言する／表明する rose almost to a 叫び声をあげる. 'Don't let him; oh, don't let him take me, Auntie!'

With a croon of horror and affection Gertrude Hamilton flung her 武器 protectingly about her darling child and 発射 a meaning look of 勝利 at her unbelieving guest. 'Now what do you think?' it seemed to say, and, for all the world as if he had met it, the blind man's scarcely-moving 手渡す mutely signalled 支援する, '静かに. Be careful now!'

'He shall not touch you,' he said reassuringly. 'You are going to stay here tonight. Now tell us what this man is like, so that we shall be able to 妨げる him from ever coming again.'

'He is a big man and very strong, so that he can carry people. He stands by my bed looking 負かす／撃墜する; and there is a 汚い smell comes with him.'

'What does he wear?'

'It is a long brown thing with a belt, and a queer high hat, not like men wear now. And he has a staff.'

'Can you tell us what his 直面する is like? Have you ever seen another that reminds you of it?'

'It is only his 注目する，もくろむs that you can see,' replied Cyril, in a 発言する／表明する low with the memory of his terror. 'There is something like a cloth over his 直面する.'

'Oh, my precious!' was wrung from 行方不明になる Hamilton, but Carrados's insistent gesture 削減（する） 発射 her 熱烈な 激しい抗議.

'It is a dream,' said the blind man 静かに, taking up his 患者 again; 'a bad 黒人／ボイコット dream. You are really asleep at the time, Cyril?'

'I am not やめる awake,' 認める the boy consideringly, 'but I am not really asleep. It is very queer and—different. And he mutters.'

'Do you remember anything that he has ever said?'

'Only a little bit now and then. Last night he said, "He has the—the"—I forget the word; oh, yes—"the 記念品s on him, but he is not dead yet. I will come again tomorrow night". That was why I dare not stay any longer.'

行方不明になる Hamilton left Cyril on the couch where they had been seated and crossed the room.

'Is it necessary to 苦しめる him any more with this?' she whispered. Her 直面する was white and 脅すd, but there was the （犯罪の）一味 of 反抗 in her 発言する／表明する. 'Whatever happens, he shall not go 支援する while I'm alive.'

'It's extraordinarily fascinating,' replied Carrados in the same guarded トン, 'and we せねばならない get at the 底（に届く） of these things. On the 直面する of it this is plainly nightmare—he has read it all. Do you ever,' he continued, turning to the boy again, 'do you ever hear a bell （犯罪の）一味ing while this goes on?'

'Yes,' was the reply, given without hesitation, 'it （犯罪の）一味s いつかs outside. That is before the man comes in or alter he has gone.'

'You see,' explained Carrados aside; 'that 耐えるs it out. If this were someone got up to terrify the boy it's absurd that he should take the extra 危険 of having a bell rung outside, 単に for a point of extra realism, but it is just the sort of 詳細（に述べる） that sticks in the imagination and 再生するs in a very vivid nightmare.'

'But what is it?' 需要・要求するd 行方不明になる Hamilton, beginning to be shaken in her high 態度. 'What is it that he is supposed to dream about?'

'What? Why the 疫病／悩ます to be sure; the 広大な／多数の／重要な 疫病／悩ます that furnished nightmares for many a 世代 in the past. Let me see, Cyril, you are fond of reading, aren't you?'

'井戸／弁護士席, yes, sir,' said Cyril. 'If it's tales,' he 追加するd conscientiously.

'Oh, of course; we don't mean lessons, do we? Have you ever read Robinson Crusoe?'

'Rather! I've got it at home—with pictures.'

'Man Friday and the parrot and all? Do you remember who wrote it?'

'Yes; Daniel Defoe.'

'Bravo! 井戸／弁護士席, he wrote other 調書をとる／予約するs. Can you tell me any?'

明らかに not. Cyril considered, but remained dumb. 'Something about a "定期刊行物" and a "Year", eh?' 誘発するd the 質問者. 'No? 井戸／弁護士席, never mind.'

'But why not ask him 完全な if you think it's that?' put in the lady. 'Shall I?'

'It is liable to 示唆する,' was his reply. 'But try.'

'Once upon a time a lot of people got very ill,' said 行方不明になる Hamilton coaxingly, 'and they called it a 疫病／悩ます. Have you ever heard of it, my pet?'

'Yes, Auntie,' said Cyril, his large, considering 注目する，もくろむs incapable of jest. 'It's what papa calls me when I ask him things.'

行方不明になる Hamilton so to speak 'stood 負かす／撃墜する' and Carrados 再開するd.

'Did you ever see a picture of a man in a long brown dress—'

'Like him?' interrupted the child with a shudder. 'No—and—please, sir—'

'My dear lad,' 心配するd Carrados, going to the couch and laying his 手渡す unfailingly on the boy's shoulder, 'we are going to help you. We ーするつもりである that you shall never, never see the man again. But いつかs the doctor has to give you 汚い 薬／医学 for your good. It isn't always pleasant to be left in the dark, even when you are ten, is it?'

'No, sir.'

'井戸／弁護士席, when you feel like that, Cyril, you can think of me 存在 in the 不明瞭 with you too. I am always in the dark because, you see, I am blind.'

'Oh, I didn't know, sir,' said the little boy with quick feeling. 'I am very sorry, but'—consolingly—'you look all 権利.'

'Thank you,' replied Mr Carrados 厳粛に. '一般に speaking, I feel all 権利. But we all have our moments in the dark.'

'Cyril has a little light always in his bedroom,' volunteered 行方不明になる Hamilton. 'Don't you, dear?'

'やめる 権利,' said Carrados idly. 'A nightlight?'

'Yes, but electric light, you know. A tiny bulb. It's new there. Mrs Bycourt said she couldn't stand lamps, and so 示す has recently put up an 取り付け・設備 for the house.'

'Electric light, and 最近の?' mused Carrados. 'How long ago?'

'About, 井戸／弁護士席—how long have you had the electric light, Cyril? A few months, isn't it?'

'At Christmas, Auntie. We had all the lights on at once on Christmas Day. Don't you remember; you were there?'

行方不明になる Hamilton nodded assent, her 注目する，もくろむs on her guest's impenetrable 直面する. 'Yes, that is 権利,' she said.

'Let me see'—a most 武装解除するing unconcern had come into the blind man's 発言する／表明する—'was it before or after Christmas that the bad dream first （機の）カム?'

'It was just after Christmas,' replied the boy.

'やめる sure?'—a little more insistent now.

'Oh, yes; I remember by my 現在のs. And then he began to come oftener, and then he stayed away a bit, and—and I am 脅すd, but I'm glad I told you.'

'My treasure!' cried the fond lady, 'why didn't you tell Auntie sooner?' and for reply Cyril hung his 長，率いる and whispered the 致命的な insuperable excuse of childhood:

'I didn't like to.'

'Another time you must,' she enjoined. 'And do you always sleep on your 権利 味方する, as I told you?'

'Yes, Auntie.'

'And the bed is still 押し進めるd to the さらに先に 塀で囲む, away from the draught, where I arranged it?'

'Oh, yes Auntie. It is 権利 up to the little pull-thing in the 塀で囲む that does my light. I can send it in and out while I'm in bed.'

'And the best place for you to be now, young man,' said Carrados, taking out his watch and touching its fingers. 'Eleven-fifteen.'

'Yes, indeed,' chimed in 行方不明になる Hamilton. 'If you don't want another piece of cake Susan will take you up. I suppose'—turning to her 訪問者—'that I せねばならない let them know somehow at Stacks where Cyril is tonight?'

'I have been thinking of that. Are they on the telephone?'

'No—what a pity. You would have told them from your hotel, I'm sure.'

'Yes, but as they're not, so much the better. Just 令状 them a line and I will take it 一連の会議、交渉／完成する there now.'

'You, Mr Carrados? At this hour?'

'Why not? All hours are alike to me. Then we needn't 乱す them if they know nothing of the escapade as yet. If I find the place in 不明瞭 I shall leave the 公式文書，認める to be discovered with Master Cyril's absence in the morning. I have a fancy to "see" Stacks in my own particular way, 行方不明になる Hamilton, and, lo and behold! the 運命／宿命s arrange it.'

いっそう少なく than half an hour later a モーター-car skated 負かす／撃墜する the long, slight hill that ended in the village street of Irling and drew up before the cottages began. Mr Carrados and Parkinson got out, and leaving the hotel chauffeur to doze across his wheel they 始める，決める out on the adventure of 発見.

'The turning to the left before the パン職人's shop,' directed the leader of the 探検隊／遠征隊. 'That must be it ahead, Parkinson, although the 田舎の パン職人 does not seem to bake by night. Edwards should be the 指名する.'

'There is a shop, sir,' assented Parkinson, peering across the way. 'But I am unable to distinguish the 指名する. If I may—' He was away a moment. 'Perfectly 訂正する, sir, and there is the 小道／航路. The people hereabouts, sir, would seem to dispense with street 照明, and it is very dark tonight.'

'True,' replied Carrados, 'and fortunately there is no moon.'

'Yes, sir,' agreed the faithful servitor, catching his toe against the kerb and 回復するing by his master's 指導／手引; 'I 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる that it gives us the 初期の advantage.'

A short half mile, another turn, and presently a darker 集まり 現れるd lying 支援する upon their left.

'That should be Stacks,' conjectured Carrados, when Parkinson gave him this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）. 'Now is the 殺人 out yet?'

'We are coming to the gates,' 報告（する）／憶測d the proxy '注目する，もくろむs'. 'There is a small 宿泊する すぐに inside. The gates, of open-work アイロンをかける, are の近くにd. The 運動—'

'Wait,' interrupted Carrados. 'Any lights showing at the 宿泊する?'

'No, sir; not on this 味方する.'

'Have a look さらに先に on.'

Parkinson walked fifty yards along the road and then returned.

'No lights anywhere,' he 報告（する）／憶測d.

'Then the 殺人 is probably not yet out. With so good an excuse for 存在 on the 前提s, and every 適切な時期 for losing ourselves if need be, I begin to despise the 前線 way, Parkinson. Let us 調査／捜査する.'

They continued along the road away from Stacks. Parkinson soon 報告（する）／憶測d a small door in the garden 盗品故買者, but this 証明するd to be locked. A little さらに先に on a 小道／航路 gave 約束 on their left. A few 星／主役にするs had risen and the seeing 注目する，もくろむs were more accustomed to the 不明瞭. After a 選び出す／独身 futile cast a path was discovered through the fields that now separated them from Stacks, and with scarcely the 尊敬の印 of a scratch they 軍隊d a likely hedge and fell through into what was unmistakably a 私的な garden.

'Never mind the rhubarb 工場／植物s,' said Carrados—his 信奉者 was standing rather aghast at the extent of their 荒廃. 'They made 資本／首都 上陸 and usefully 示す that we are in an obscure part of the kitchen-garden. Can you see the house? 井戸／弁護士席, we will take a stroll 一連の会議、交渉／完成する.'

進歩 was slow and vicissitudinous. 'The advantage of beginning 操作／手術s from here is obvious,' expounded the specialist. 'If we walk across a bed of onions—as we are, in fact, doing at this moment—we create an aromatic 直す／買収する，八百長をするd point, so to speak, to which it is 平易な to return again whenever it becomes 慎重な. It is a line that 持つ／拘留するs.'

'I have always understood that onions 所有するd 確かな medicinal 所有物／資産／財産s, sir,' replied Parkinson sagaciously, and heaven knows what profundities the ingenuous creature might not have 前進するd had not a parallelogram of 現れるing blackness 公表する／暴露するd the position of the house. Here also, ran the 報告（する）／憶測, no lights were 明白な.

'Then the 殺人 is certainly not out,' decided Carrados. 'We can 再開する out leisurely 調査する. But not, for preference, along their celery ざん壕, Parkinson.'

'I am very sorry, sir. For the moment my attention was distracted. I have just 観察するd another building, much nearer than the house, where a light is showing.'

'Make for it then. A light means someone, and we must put ourselves 権利 by getting in the first word.'

But he was wrong. The place, a small, 井戸／弁護士席-built shed standing in a remote corner of the grounds—half shrubbery, half waste, they 裁判官d—was 砂漠d. 機械／機構, now idle, 布告するd its use; the light that had attracted them a 選び出す／独身 指示する人（物） lamp glowing above a switchboard.

'The dynamo house, of course, and now they're on the 殴打／砲列,' explained Carrados when they had 調査／捜査するd. 'I heard that they made their own light, but who would have 推定する／予想するd to find the place 負かす／撃墜する here.'

'I had some general conversation with the 年輩の person at 行方不明になる Hamilton's,' volunteered Parkinson tolerantly; 'and after the arrival of the young gentleman she 表明するd her opinions about the family living here. Mr Bycourt is a very nervous, irritable gentleman, it would appear, sir, and cannot put up with any noise or distraction. Perhaps on that account—'

'Aye, that will be it,' agreed Mr Carrados. 'The （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 of the engine will scarcely be heard up there; but ssh! what the ジュース is coming now?'

Someone was approaching at all events, and the two 侵入者s shrank 支援する into the readiest cover.

'A woman, sir,' whispered Parkinson.

'An old woman,' amplified his master. 'She carries something, and she's in a hurry. Also, she has no 商売／仕事 here: which gives us a 広大な／多数の／重要な advantage, because we have.'

At the threshold of the little house the 重荷（を負わせる） was 発射 負かす／撃墜する. The 選挙立会人s knew already that the door was fastened and looked for the unknown to produce a 重要な. Instead, there was a sudden scrunch of アイロンをかける, a 後援ing of 支持を得ようと努めるd, and the door swung loosely open.

'軍隊d, egad!' thought Carrados. 'Our lady is 決定するd.' Then as she passed in, dragging along what now appeared to be a 解雇（する）, he touched his attendant's arm and together they crept 今後 to the half-open door.

'It's shavings and 支持を得ようと努めるd she's brought,' 伝えるd Parkinson, his 注目する，もくろむ to a convenient chink. 'And, blow me, sir,' he 追加するd a second later, stirred to this deplorable lapse irom his usual diction, 'but she's drenching the place with 石油! she means mischief!'

'Stop!' cried Carrados, 公表する／暴露するing himself in the doorway. '港／避難所't you the sense to know that you'll blow yourself up too?'

The startled creature—never was there a meeker-looking p騁roleuse than this tidy, grey-haired cottager—dropped the box of matches she was 扱うing and literally fell upon her 膝s の中で the mess she had contrived.

'Oh, the dear Lord 保存する us all!' she gasped in terror. 'Who are ye?'

'Never mind that. The question is who are you and what are you doing here?'

'Sure I'm only Mrs Laffey from the 宿泊する just by, sir. Indeed I wasn't doing no 害（を与える） at all, but you gave me a 広大な／多数の／重要な turn—just a bit of arranging and tidying up, as you may say. I dhropped a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す of oil an'—'

'Parkinson,' threw out Carrados in a 十分な whisper, 'the police.'

'Oh, don't bring in the polis on me, 肉親，親類d gentleman,' implored Mrs Laffey with redoubled fluency; 'the dirty, thievin' sergeant that 始める，決める the 嘘（をつく） against me a short while 支援する over Mister Johnson's sthrayin' pullets, it's little 司法（官） I should ever see. Be the good 肉親，親類d gentleman—'

'You have just one chance,' Carrados took out his watch and 陳列する，発揮するd it upon his outstretched 手渡す. 'Get up and tell us the exact truth, no 事柄 what it is. Come, out with it.'

'Indeed an' I will, sir an' your honour, for I'm sure ye'd not be after bethraying a poor old widder woman. 'Tis for me boy I'm doing of it, and that's the blessed truth this minnit, though nothing but 黒人／ボイコット words and the 解除する of a 手渡す maybe would be me thanks if he did know.'

'Your boy? Your son, you mean?'

'Me boy Jim, and he the only one I've got and me husband gone this seventeen years. Ever since he has left school he's worked in the garden, with a thing here and there maybe in the house beyond and a bit extry for it of a Saturday. 井戸／弁護士席—and it's the stark truth I'm telling ye the blessed knows—last 支援する end the master calls him by and said, "Jim," he said, "the missis is 決定するd on this electrey light and it's all arranged for. You'll have to learn to 扱う the dynamey an' what not, but 'tis no 事柄 at all—an hour here and there maybe and a grand learning for you for to be an engineer". "Jim," I said when I hear of it, "don't do it. For 'twas handlin' of that stuff hoist your granda out of Donegal in the old days". "Oh, bother," he says, "how am I to say I an't when himself has said I am? Twould be the marching order I should likely get instead". "An' if you should," I up and said, "aren't there plenty other 職業s as good in the long breadth of the land and you a handy thrifty chap?" "Have done," he says, souring on me, and—God 許す him!—井戸／弁護士席 I knew the 推論する／理由 why he'd stay, eating the very dirt if need be and she little better than a pagan deity, as you may say.'

'He had 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of this place then?' said Carrados with a patience that Parkinson could not but disapprove of. '井戸／弁護士席, go on.'

'He had indeed, sir, and never a restful moment has he known since. First his 有望な pretty colour goes, and soon his appetite, and he that would eat me out of house and home now touching no more'n a sup of tay and fiddling with a little thin piece of currant cake maybe. And all the while he taking 広大な／多数の／重要な 蓄える／店 of the dynamey and that, and would spend long hours polishing and oiling up here alone. Then the sleep forsake him, or it'd be one sweaty terror of the livelong night the way he'd fetch likely a groan in his dreams or a 悪口を言う／悪態 at the long, still blackness stretching to the 夜明け, and me listening at the latch-穴を開ける of his door.'

'What did he dream?' asked Carrados.

'We made no talk about it, sir, him 存在 that stubborn. But many's the queer word he's let out in his sleep, the same as if he'd （人命などを）奪う，主張する that one was waiting there to fetch him in a cart. But give notice to himself he would not, as I am tellin' yous, and the very 支配する of death の近くにing in upon him plain for eny to see, until I knew. 'Tis either Jim or that rampageous divil that's somehow desthroyin' him up there. And that's the sacred truth itself, God help me!'

For a 十分な minute the blind man remained silent, prodding the loose earth with his walking-stick as he pondered. When he spoke, instead of any of the things that Mrs Laffey had hoped, or perhaps 恐れるd, it was to put an idle question.

'Did this part of the ground have any special 指名する?' he asked. 'Before this place was built, I mean.'

'They did used to be calling it the Bone 塚, so I've heard,' she said, trying to catch his mood with surreptitious ちらりと見ることs. 'There was a little hump, you'll understand, but they thrudged the 最高の，を越す off ut for to make a level space.'

'Yes, of course they would. And now, Mrs Laffey, you'd better go on home again. Show this man the way to the 前線 gate as you go. We'll leave that way, Parkinson, but don't come 支援する to me for half an hour.'

'Very good, sir.' Parkinson knew of the times when his master would have no human 注目する，もくろむ upon him as he worked, and he had 中止するd—if, indeed, he had ever begun—to feel a trace of curiosity.

''行為 an' I will,' said Mrs Laffey cheerfully. 'The gentleman is welcome to me little 前線 room too until your honour's ready. And, begging your 容赦, sir, you'll overlook to について言及する what's passed tonight?'

'So far as I am 関心d you can 始める，決める your mind at 残り／休憩（する）,' was his reply; 'but you'll have to explain one or two things in the morning, it seems to me. I dare say you can put a very good 直面する on it somehow.'

'I might contrive,' replied Mrs Laffey hopefully.

* * * * *

Mrs Laffey did indeed contrive to put a very good 直面する upon it, as Mr Carrados 設立する when he visited Stacks 率直に the に引き続いて day. It was not Mrs Laffey's fault that she 行方不明になるd seeing them, and doubtless dropping a word of timely 準備, but their own in discovering a wicket gate that saved the bend of the road and brought them upon Mrs Bycourt, who was 演習ing a pair of young hounds on the lawn.

'If ever there was a good Samaritan this 味方する the Jordan it's surely you, Mr Carrados!' exclaimed that 運動競技の lady when she had identified her 報知係. 'And'—she felt that she せねばならない 示す some 譲歩 to his infirmity—'in spite of your—'

'Or because of, perhaps,' he 示唆するd, coming to her 救助（する）. 'You got the 公式文書，認める anyway?'

'Oh, yes. In fact, it was our first intimation that the bird had flown. It really was a 広大な／多数の／重要な 親切 because my husband fidgets so over little things, and if he had 設立する Cyril gone and no trace of him, heavens knows what! And then this other 商売／仕事 coming on the 最高の，を越す of it!'

'You mean the 出来事/事件 負かす／撃墜する the garden?' asked Carrados 試験的に.

'Good gracious, yes! I hope there isn't anything else? Not that I mind a bit of a shindy any time, but I have my poor dear's 神経s to consider. He is most tremendously indebted to you; it really was 冒険的な in the circumstances. Mrs Laffey gave us a most glowing account of your 偉業／利用する.'

'Oh, did she?' Carrados considered a little. 'I rather wondered what she would say.'

'井戸／弁護士席, she said—as 近づく as I can remember—"The way the sthranger gentleman, and he not seeing, put the shame of terror into the trapesin' interlopin' blackguards, who would wring the neck of their own father for a 造幣局d sixpence, is a walking masterpiece," only much faster and a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 more of it. I am dying to hear all the 詳細（に述べる）s, but we 結論するd that you must have heard them 負かす／撃墜する the garden as you （機の）カム across to leave the 公式文書，認める. Of course you could get no idea of what sort of men they were?'

'No,' 認める Carrados. 'I certainly could not.'

'Mrs Laffey says she arrived on the scene too late to be any use at all. いつかs, do you know, I've been a 少しの bit 懐疑的な of Mrs Laffey's romances, but in this 事例／患者 she is singularly modest about her own 株 in it. What gets me is why anyone should want to destroy our 所有物／資産／財産.'

'Yes, that is the mystery, isn't it?'

'Of course we have enemies here and there I know. It seems strange that anyone who behaves in a perfectly simple, straightforward way, just 説 正確に／まさに what you think of people, should be received with 敵意, but there it is. We've 設立する where they broke in—it's 平易な to see that they knew their way about—and they have deliberately trampled on the 工場／植物d beds ...'

'Disgraceful!'

'Yes, but unfortunately there's nothing 前向きに／確かに to identify any of them by. 井戸／弁護士席, you'll come in, Mr Carrados, and—and 会合，会う my husband?'

'With 楽しみ, but can you guess what it is that 主として brought me to Stacks today?'

'No. What?'

'Cyril's bedroom.'

'Oh,' pondered Mrs Bycourt, pausing in their 進歩. 'I wondered what tale Cyril told.'

'You are not going to be angry with him for running away?'

'Angry? Good Lord, no! It's the best thing I've known him do yet. I'm delighted to find that he has that much spirit left in him. The fact is, Mr Carrados, ever since I've been here I've had to be a bit hard-事例／患者d に向かって Cyril, 簡単に to 中和する／阻止する the "come-to-mammy-and-let-her-kiss-it-better" ways his dear Auntie Gertie had got him into. But I forgot—you are 行方不明になる Hamilton's friend.'

'All the same I want to understand just how 事柄s are.'

'Then I'll tell you this. Do you know what was the deciding thing made me marry 示す Bycourt in the end? Yes: Cyril. I'm fond of boys, Mr Carrados, and I want them to have their chance in life. I have two dear little scrubby ragamuffins of my own—they're called （頭が）ひょいと動く and Jack. Cyril was 存在 brought up on Eric, Misunderstood, and Little Lord Fauntleroy, and Cyril will have more need of red stuffing than most people because when he is twenty-one he will come into a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 too much money. You know that, perhaps?'

'I understood so much from 行方不明になる Hamilton.'

'Yes; and I dare say 行方不明になる Hamilton 示すd that I was 有能な of dark designs on Cyril's fortune? No? 井戸／弁護士席, if she had, it wouldn't have been wonderful. The fact is, Mr Carrados, Gertrude is a misfire. It was the surprise of her life (if I said "失望" you'd think me catty) when 示す married me, and she didn't 始める，決める out to be pleasant to the interloper. When I saw that, I—井戸／弁護士席, I certainly laid it on a bit 厚い for Gertrude's 利益. I'm not really a he-woman or a vamp, Mr Carrados. I'm watching Cyril very carefully, and—if I may 自白する it to you—rather affectionately. I hope that in the end I, with the unconscious help of my two ragamuffins, may make a man of him. Now we have reached his room. Is there anything particular that you want to—to—'

'To see? To see in my own way? 井戸／弁護士席'—pointing—'the bed is there?'

'Yes. But how on earth do you know?'

'To make no mystery, by the familiar 過程 of putting two and two together. And on the 塀で囲む, やめる 近づく to the bed-長，率いる, is an electric light plug?'

'Yes, there is.'

'So that Cyril, sleeping dutifully on his 権利 味方する, as he has been taught to do, will be lying with his 直面する やめる 近づく that plug?'

'Within a foot or so certainly. It seems to be a fad of 行方不明になる Hamilton's—sleeping on the 権利 味方する. I suppose she was taught to as a child.'

'I was, too. But I've grown out of it. Now I will look into this fitting, if you don't mind.' He put his 手渡す with baffling exactness on the rail of the bed and drew it from the 塀で囲む so that he could approach the plug—approach it so closely indeed that to Mrs Bycourt's mystified curiosity his 直面する appeared to touch it. 'Yes, there it is,' he 発言／述べるd, as one who has brought a delicate 実験 to a successful end.

'But what?' 需要・要求するd the lady, not unreasonably. 'Why this hanky-panky, Mr Carrados? Nothing wrong, is there?'

'許す me, I really didn't ーするつもりである to seem mysterious. There is nothing wrong, and if there had been we have got to the root of it at last. But there is something very curious, and there is something—I was, in fact, trying to break it to you mildly—something rather horrible.'

'But, my dear man, people don't break things to me—they throw them at me solid.'

Til be as 残虐な as you like then. You know that Cyril has been having nightmares lately?'

'Oh, yes. That is not unusual for a boy.'

'Not at all. Nor is the menace of a man standing by his 病人の枕元 uncommon. What is 重要な is that it always takes the form of the 疫病／悩ます cart come to fetch him, and what is doubly 重要な is that your man James Laffey passes through 正確に／まさに the same experience.'

'Cyril never told me what it was; but we all knew that Jim Laffey was pining for the blue 注目する，もくろむs of my housemaid. But what a dreadful dream, and what a strange coincidence!'

'In my experience,' replied Carrados, 'coincidence—as we call it—is often 単に a 重要な I find that fits a lock I have. Laffey, spending long hours in the new building there, but not, I ascertain, with the electric light fitted in his cottage; Cyril, sleeping here with his 直面する turned to that 塀で囲む, but not, I learn, 許すd to put his foot inside the dynamo-house. What is it, Mrs By 法廷，裁判所, this strange coincidence?'

'I don't know,' she replied, awed in spite of her lavish spirit. 'What?'

'I will tell you. Over two centuries ago the 疫病／悩ます—the 広大な／多数の／重要な 疫病／悩ます of London as some histories call it—（機の）カム to Irling, brought by a 逃げるing pedlar, and nearly wiped the village out. You have heard perhaps?'

'No, I don't think so. I don't remember anyway.'

'I find the tradition of it is almost lost here now. There are a few forgotten 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大なs in the churchyard—but after the first weeks the dead were not buried there. It took too long to dig 選び出す／独身 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大なs and soon there was neither parson, clerk, nor sexton to 成し遂げる the office of the Church. So a 広大な／多数の／重要な 炭坑，オーケストラ席 was dug, 井戸／弁護士席 away from the houses of the living, in what was then an open field. But it is no longer that.'

'Oh!' exclaimed Mrs Bycourt, with the nameless horror beginning to take form before her 注目する，もくろむs, 'do you mean—'

He nodded assent to the unspoken question.

'Yes; what was the distant 牧草地 field is now your lower garden. The Bone 塚 示すs the 迅速な burial-炭坑，オーケストラ席, and 権利 upon it they have built your 力／強力にする house.'

'But how does that—why does it—' she stammered.

'Who can say? It is 平易な enough to reply that you have stirred up the buried 汚職 of that dreadful place, but how is it that there have been awakened again the groans and the 恐れるs and the agonies of those heart-rending times?'

'Oh, how horrible—how horrible!' she cried. 'Is it true—can it be really true?'

'Is what true?' he asked. 'Do you mean—which 詳細（に述べる）?'

'I don't know,' she said. 'I mean any of it—all of it. It is like a nightmare in itself; it is so loathsome—so incredible. Why should it result in that?'

'That is the really 利益／興味ing thing about it,' he replied. 'Your—'

'利益／興味ing!' she retorted はっきりと. 'This!'

'To me,' he 認める mildly. 'I am 単に an 捜査官／調査官, Mrs Bycourt. Your dynamo, designed to transform mechanical 軍隊 into 電気の energy, has here in some obscure way also changed physical 影響 into psychological experience. I dare say you know that in the house'—he 示すd the 塀で囲む plug—'the wires are carried through アイロンをかける 麻薬を吸うing, and outside the cable is brought 地下組織の through drain-麻薬を吸うs. The 嘘（をつく） 存在 uniformly 上向きs, a warm room like this would create a slight but continuous 現在の, so that, you see, Cyril has really been breathing direct—Yes, it is rather uncanny, isn't it? Laffey, of course, has been in more direct but shorter 接触する. 現実に, we might have 推定する／予想するd them both to 契約 the 疫病／悩ます—there is 記録，記録的な／記録する of that happening to some men who dug into a 類似の 炭坑，オーケストラ席 rather more than a hundred years after the interment. Instead, they caught the emotions of the 犠牲者s. It will seem やめる simple and obvious some day, but we know so lamentably little of that 味方する of 電気の energy yet. Even as it is I shall have to re-令状 my lecture.'

But Mrs Bycourt had no 利益／興味 in his lecture. 'Oh, the dreadful, dreadful thing!' she moaned. 'What should one do? ... I shall have that horrible place 破壊するd to the ground—I can't 残り／休憩（する） until it's gone—and then I shall have a 広大な／多数の／重要な 解雇する／砲火／射撃 heaped on the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す and 燃やすd and 燃やすd for weeks until every trace of those poor creatures is 減ずるd to decent ashes.'

'Yes,' assented Mr Carrados. 'That does seem to occur to one, does it not?'

VIII. — THE MISSING WITNESS SENSATION

IN its earlier 行う／開催する／段階s the Ayr Street 地位，任命する Office 強盗 had attracted little notice. Afterwards, 借りがあるing to 原因（となる）s with which this narrative has to do, it 達成するd the distinction of passing into the grade of what 探偵，刑事 視察官 Beedel was wont to 言及する to with 静かな professional enthusiasm as 'First-class 罪，犯罪s'. But so meagre was public 利益／興味 in the 初期の 訴訟／進行s that when Mr Carrados looked in at the 治安判事's 法廷，裁判所 純粋に for old 知識's sake one stifling afternoon, he 設立する the place half empty.

'地位，任命する office 持つ／拘留する-up—Ayr Street 事例／患者, sir,' explained the officer on 義務 at the door. 'Party 指名するd 階級 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d. Pretty nearly over now, I should say.'

'Philip Thaxted!' cried a 発言する／表明する across the 法廷，裁判所.

'New 証言，証人／目撃する for the defence,' whispered the policeman. 'Like a seat, sir?'

'Don't trouble—I may only stay a minute. Who are 行為／行うing?'

'Mr Booker's for the Public 検察官，検事. I don't know the defence—not one of our 正規の／正選手 people here.'

'He is speaking now?'

'Yes, sir.'

A plainly dressed man with a 堅固に lined and rather artistic 直面する, アイロンをかける-grey hair, and a 静かな, self-確信して manner, had gone into the 証言，証人／目撃する-box. The formal 誓い had been 治めるd and the 予選s were 存在 動揺させるd through. Yes, his 指名する was Philip Thaxted and he lived at such an 演説（する）／住所 at Kingston-on-Thames. 以前は in the lace 商売／仕事, both as 経営者／支配人 and on his own account, but now retired.

'On the afternoon of Wednesday, the seventeenth inst, you were taking a walk in Richmond Park?' 示唆するd the defending counsel.

'That is やめる 訂正する.'

'Tell us what occurred.'

The blind 訪問者 leaned across and touched the attendant lightly on the arm.

'I should like to hear a little more of this 証拠,' he 発言／述べるd with lowered 発言する／表明する. 'Perhaps I had better have a seat.'

As he moved 静かに to a place, 操縦するd by the officer's unobtrusive 手渡す, someone in making way dropped a stick with an exasperating clatter. The man in the 証言，証人／目撃する-box ちらりと見ることd はっきりと across in the direction of the noise, and something almost as perceptible as a start touched him, and for a word or two his 発言する／表明する rang flat. The next moment the flicker, such as it was, had passed and he was continuing his story as 平等に as before.

* * * * *

'I suppose, 視察官,' said Mr Carrados, 'it might seem rather 不当な of me to ask you to come 負かす／撃墜する here after 存在 in 法廷，裁判所 all day, eh?'

'井戸／弁護士席, no, sir,' replied 視察官 Beedel with his usual unpenetrable candour; 'I can't 正確に／まさに say it did. You see, Mr Carrados, you've asked me to come and talk to you on one occasion or another a good dozen times now, and it's always been—as they say in the 宣伝—"to hear of something to my advantage".'

Carrados laughed as he pointed to a 議長，司会を務める and 押し進めるd the cigars across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.

'Don't be too 確信して this time,' he advised. 'Can you give a guess what it's about?'

Beedel raised his slow, meditative 注目する，もくろむs and wondered for the hundredth time at the strangely alive 表現 in the gaze that really seemed to 会合，会う his own.

'I may say that I noticed you in 法廷，裁判所 today, sir, and putting one thing and another together—'

'やめる 権利,' assented Carrados. 'It is about today's 事例／患者. These 地位，任命する office 持つ／拘留する-ups are getting beyond a joke, 視察官.'

'This one has certainly been beyond a joke for Lizzie Baxter, sir. We have it 個人として that the poor girl hasn't one chance in a thousand of pulling through. Then—'

'Aye. Then the 事例／患者 against 階級 will not be one of 強盗 with 暴力／激しさ, but Wilful 殺人. That 決定するd a special 成果／努力 to get him off if possible before the graver 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 （機の）カム in.'

'The アリバイ, you mean, sir?'

'The アリバイ, yes. What did you think of that timely 遭遇（する） at the exact minute that the 職業 was taking place?'

A brightly-coloured 禁止（する）d had adorned the cigar that 視察官 Beedel was appreciatively considering. He smoothed out the pretty 捨てる and put it, carefully flattened, away in his notebook for the 利益 of a stalwart young Beedel now rising five.

'It certainly staggered me more than a bit to hear that 証拠 this afternoon,' he replied. 'The man who comes 今後 and 証言するs that he was talking to Dennis 階級 at half-past four that day isn't one of the sort that （頭が）ひょいと動く up after every 強襲，強姦 or 事故, 用意が出来ている to 断言する anything for half a quid and a マリファナ of beer. He has been in a good way of 商売／仕事, and so far from anything 存在 known against him, 調査 goes to show that he has a creditable public 記録，記録的な／記録する 延長するing over twenty years. A police 治安判事 is a bit 用心深い, and, as you know, Mr Lipscott committed, but if this chap sticks to his tale at the Old Bailey I 疑問 if any 陪審／陪審員団 will 罪人／有罪を宣告する.'

The blind man nodded 重大な acquiescence. Plainly there could be no question about the importance of the Kingston 証拠.

'He was walking in Richmond Park—やめる a likely thing for a middle-老年の gentleman who wants a little 演習 to do—when this happened. A little dog coming out of a clump of bracken barked at him furiously, and he swished 支援する with his walking-stick. Then it 掴むd one of his trouser 脚s and tore it. The dog's master appeared on the scene and they fell to 乱用ing one another, the owner 告発する／非難するing him of savaging the dog and he 告発する／非難するing the man of keeping a vicious animal. In the end he 需要・要求するd this fellow's 指名する and 演説（する）／住所, and there it is, written in his notebook widi the date and the exact time of the occurrence.'

'That's it,' assented the 視察官. 'All very reasonable and circumstantial.'

'Yes,' agreed Mr Carrados. 'More than that: almost providential one might say. Had it been one of 階級's friends the 証拠 might have been open to 疑惑, but our Mr Thaxted appears as a total stranger. Had they met, say in Hyde Park, a very slight discrepancy of time might have made the アリバイ unconvincing, but Richmond is too far away to consider that. And then under how few circumstances are you likely to ask a total stranger for his 指名する and 演説（する）／住所, to 令状 them 負かす／撃墜する, and to 公式文書，認める the time and date of the occurrence?'

'There is no 疑問 that 階級 had a small terrier that might have 行為／法令／行動するd like that,' 認める Beedel.

'And certainly Mr Thaxted will be able to produce a pair of trousers that would 証明する to have been torn,' said Carrados dryly. 'Come; what is behind this 商売／仕事, Beedel?'

'Behind it, sir?' repeated the 視察官 with the 最大の innocence.

'The Ayr Street 地位，任命する Office 持つ／拘留する-up wasn't an ordinary 乱暴／暴力を加える at all. You know that 同様に as I do.'

'It's a funny thing,' 発言／述べるd the 訪問者 introspectively. 'Here for the last week I've been trying to 説得する one or two up at the Yard to regard it in that light and almost your first words—'

'Of course I really know nothing about it,' qualified Mr Carrados.

'It's my belief,' 宣言するd 視察官 Beedel with sombre relish, and repeating the 表現 of 約束 to 強調する it! 'it's my belief that there's a secret organization at work in the background somewhere. I've never thought that 財務省 公式文書，認めるs were what those two fellows were after, though they certainly grabbed all they could as they went through it.'

'What then?' 誘発するd Mr Carrados, for Beedel had relapsed into a keen professional abstraction.

'Something political, I'm pretty sure, sir. A lot of those Sinn Feiners are out to make trouble systematically just now. And you'd be surprised to find who are more or いっそう少なく in with them—all sorts of people.'

'The retired gentleman from Kingston, for instance?'

'I have no 疑問 he may be one. But people you'd never think of as, 井戸／弁護士席, I mean—professional men and 兵士s, civil servants, society ladies, ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる labourers, 技術d artisans. I dare say a good many of them wouldn't go very far for "The 原因（となる）", but some of them would, and then on the 辛勝する／優位 of it there are the usual （人が）群がる who are always keen to make something out of whatever's going on.'

'It's likely enough,' 譲歩するd the blind man. 'What were they after here?'

'There isn't a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of 商売／仕事 一般に at this Ayr Street 地位，任命する Office, but it lies handy for 確かな public offices. Anything that had been 登録（する）d would be lying beyond the 反対する, handy for collection, at the time of the （警察の）手入れ，急襲. My idea is that they knew of something 存在 地位，任命するd that they were 猛烈に anxious to 安全な・保証する or to stop. Lizzie Baxter wasn't 発射 持つ／拘留するing on to the 公式文書，認めるs but because she got between 階級 and the letters.'

'She hasn't spoken?'

'No; she probably never will. She is the only one who could identify the men, and without her the 事例／患者 against 階級 is 純粋に circumstantial; that's what makes it 安全な for Thaxted to come 今後 now.'

'Perhaps not 完全に 安全な, after all, 視察官,' 発言／述べるd Mr Carrados with significance.

'How do you mean, sir?'

'I mean that as it happens on the seventeenth—the day 関心d—Mr Thaxted and I sat on a retired seat in Kew Gardens from four to half-past and discussed carnation-growing and other impersonal topics. Afterwards we walked together as far as the Lion Gate and parted at about ten minutes to five.'

'Oho!' 視察官 Beedel swung his shrewd but not very agile mind 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to review the position created by this new factor. 'That's something of a facer for the defence, isn't it, sir? Do you mean that you know this Mr Thaxted?'

'Not at all. We were perfect strangers who just met and chatted a little and then went on our separate ways. I didn't know him from Adam until I 認めるd him in 法廷，裁判所 today.'

'I see. Of course if he wasn't quarrelling with 階級 in Richmond Park at half-past four he must have been somewhere else. But still, you would think—井戸／弁護士席, he took a fairish 危険.'

'Don't we all do that if we decide to commit 偽証, 視察官? After all, the man never について言及するd his 指名する, his 商売／仕事, any 有形の personal 詳細（に述べる）; and he knew that it was a blind man who had sat by his 味方する and talked with him. When—as we may assume—a volunteer was called for to save 階級 by 供給するing an アリバイ, it may have seemed to Mr Thaxted that the half hour or so that he must 妥協 himself over was pretty 井戸／弁護士席 安全な・保証するd.'

'Yes, yes,' agreed Beedel, 一連の会議、交渉／完成するing up the 状況／情勢 within his 整然とした mind as a rather slow but 有能な sheepdog brings in stragglers; 'it's all reasonable enough.... There's one 証拠不十分 ahead—if you don't mind my について言及するing it?'

'Let us 診察する the thin places, by all means,' encouraged Carrados.

'You are willing to give 証拠, sir?'

'I suppose I must. I know nothing of 階級 one way or the other, but I must either come 今後 or let an appalling perversion of 司法（官） go on. It may also help to （疑いを）晴らす off a trifle of my 負債 to you, 視察官, eh?'

'Thank you, sir, but I think that's pretty good 負わせる already. Still, I don't 否定する that it would do me a bit of good to produce 証拠 to upset that アリバイ. And that brings me to what I was 説.'

'Yes; only you seem rather 気が進まない to say it.'

'井戸／弁護士席, it's like this, Mr Carrados. In the ordinary way you would give your 証拠, and then the question would be put: "Do you see that man in 法廷，裁判所?" Now here—'

'When counsel says, "Have you heard that man in 法廷，裁判所?" and I reply, "Yes; when Mr Thaxted was speaking", you think it would fail to carry 有罪の判決?'

'I don't think the ordinary 陪審／陪審員団 would see that it's as 満足な to identify a man by his 発言する／表明する as by his 直面する.'

'I am inclined to agree with you. If I said, "The man who sat with me bit his finger-nails, smoked Algerian cigars, and wore an elastic 在庫／株ing", do you think it might impress the 法廷，裁判所?'

The 視察官 laughed rather contentedly.

'Why, yes, sir; I can't but suppose it might. We could challenge Mr Thaxted to show his finger-nails, produce his cigar-事例／患者, and pull up his trouser-脚. It せねばならない be a fair bombshell.'

'Then I must consider myself 調書をとる／予約するd for Tuesday fortnight and as many days afterwards as the 事例／患者 lasts.'

'The より小数の the better, sir,' replied Beedel cryptically. 'To tell you the truth, I shouldn't be sorry if tomorrow was Tuesday fortnight. It's a good thing that 非，不，無 of the lot know that you have anything to do with the 事例／患者, and I hope you'll keep it の近くに, up to the very last minute.'

'Oh!' Mr Carrados felt a trifle 有罪の, remembering that moment when the 証言，証人／目撃する paused and 滞るd, but Beedel was-やめる solicitous enough already. 'Any particular 推論する／理由?'

'One of our 証言，証人／目撃するs has already had the misfortune to be rather 不正に run 負かす／撃墜する while cycling, and I've had a natty-looking box of chocolates by 地位，任命する from an "unknown friend" myself,' replied the 視察官. 'I imagine this 階級 must be something of a 最高の，を越す-hat の中で these people.'

* * * * *

There was a form overlooking a 深い expanse of country where Max Carrados often sat when he took a walk in that direction. Indeed, a 穏やかな pleasantry 現在の at one time の中で park-keepers and their 肉親，親類d credited him with a 証拠不十分 for pointing out the things of 利益／興味 to any passing stranger who happened to 株 the seat with him, and the prospect 脅すd to become mysterious to posterity as 'Blind Man's 見解（をとる）'.

One breathless July afternoon (the 干ばつ and languor of that summer have become a 記録，記録的な／記録する) about a fortnight after 視察官 Beedel's visit, Carrados was sitting there alone when his ear 選ぶd up the footsteps of two men approaching. In a minute he knew that one man led the other, and with that （機の）カム the intuition that the second man was blind. Then he 設立する that they were making for the seat.

'This will do,' said the leader. 'You don't mind?'

'No, no; not at all. Only don't be long,' replied the other. 'I shall get anxious if you are and I—I feel so confoundedly helpless by myself.'

'There is a gentleman already on the seat,' dropped the 発言する／表明する warningly. 'That will be all 権利; I won't be long. I must have lost the damn thing within the last three minutes.'

His footsteps sounded on the turf, and then grew いっそう少なく along the gravelled road. The stranger turned to Mr Carrados.

'Could you give me the time, sir?' he asked, and at once 大きくするd the 開始 sociably. 'You'll have noticed that I'm blind. Helpless, of course. My friend dropped an important pocket-調書をとる／予約する some way 支援する. Three minutes he said—say three minutes there, three 支援する, and three looking about. Ten minutes at the outside.... I'll time him if you're staying so long. I don't mind 存在 left in an ordinary way, but I get so confoundedly anxious if anything goes different. You see.... If anything happened and he didn't come 支援する for a long time—or at all! 井戸／弁護士席—'

'That will be all 権利,' said Carrados. 'I shan't be going just yet. Ten minutes....'

'I daresay it doesn't seem very long to you, but it's different when there isn't a 選び出す／独身 blessed thing for you to do.... Just to sit and smoke and think.... Oh, and talk, of course, when you're lucky enough to get anyone who will.... But it's a pretty dull 見通し. You normal people have no idea—'

In all this there was, as it happened, an insidious 誘惑. 'You are as fond of showing off, Carrados, as a child with a recitation', had been the piqued barb flung across by a man at whose expense the 'showing off' had been 影響d and there was in the jibe just enough truth to 新たな展開 the blind man's habitual suaveness for a moment. Max Carrados was admittedly 傾向がある to a 確かな vein of 優越, and his demonstrations were occasionally timed to 達成する a theatrical 影響, but all sprang from a not unworthy root—from a 熱烈な 主張 on 存在 扱う／治療するd as an ordinary human 存在. To take in a seeing man—to outwit five senses by the use of four—was 井戸／弁護士席 enough, but might not the 適切な時期 be at 手渡す of 論証するing to another 苦しんでいる人 that his life need not be so empty as he pictured? He waited.

'The war?' he hazarded.

'Nothing so romantic. Cataract. I suppose I shall get used to it in time.... Surely it must be ten minutes now?'

'No—eight.' Carrados referred to the fingers of his watch. 'But don't think too much of the time. There may be a hundred things to 原因（となる） 延期する. Ten minutes ... that was altogether too 罰金 a 利ざや.'

'That's just it—a hundred things. Anything might happen to a man going along the road looking for a pocketbook.... and then where should I be? I was a 襲う，襲って強奪する to let him go.... Suppose—'

'Don't suppose. I'll stay here till your friend comes 支援する.... At all events I'll see you through.'

'That's most confoundedly good of you.... I must strike you as a poor sort of wash-out....'

'No.' The 状況／情勢 was beginning to endear itself to Carrados's mind. 'I am 利益／興味d in the blind.... Like 約束, blindness moves in a peculiar way....'

'約束?' mused the stranger ばく然と. 'Yes; I suppose so.... What's that—a car?'

'No,' replied Carrados.' A 計画（する） going south. Queer how the sound 変化させるs, isn't it?'

'We left our taxi somewhere 近づく—Heriot 小道／航路 the driver called it. I thought that perhaps—A flier, eh? ... Wings—"The wings of the morning", doesn't old Shakespeare or someone say? Suppose I shall never see a 計画（する） travelling again. Used to give me a funny touch いつかs, that. Just as if I was on the point of finding out what this old caboodle is all about anyway—only I never やめる got it. Seemed as though I just needed that extra 押し進める through that I could never raise. Sounds mushy rot to you, I 推定する／予想する.'

'No,' 認める Carrados; 'most of us have been there. Seeing "through a glass, darkly", said the ユダヤ人の テント-製造者 of old.'

The other man gave a nod of あいまいな 協定. 'How's the time?' he asked. 'Confound Stringer; he せねばならない be here by now.'

'Going on for twenty minutes. But I don't suppose that it will have seemed like ten to your friend.'

They talked again and Carrados tried to 利益／興味 his companion to make the time pass inperceptibly. Half an hour went by and still there was no 調印する of Mr Stringer. When three-４半期/4分の1s had been reached, Arnold—he had incidentally dropped his 指名する—could stand it no longer.

'Look here. Something must have happened. I can't stay here for ever. And you—you've been most confoundedly decent, but you must want to be moving. Can you put me in the way of getting 支援する to the taxi? Then I shall know where I am, whatever's gone wrong.'

'Certainly,' replied Carrados. 'I know Heriot 小道／航路 井戸／弁護士席 enough. I'll take you there with 楽しみ. It isn't ten minutes' walk from here. What do you say to pinning a line here on the seat, so that your friend—'

'No, confound him! exclaimed Arnold with sudden warmth. 'He's left me in the lurch all 権利. Let him do a bit of guessing.'

It wasn't an 部外者's 事件／事情／状勢 either way. Carrados took the blind man's arm and led him from the seat. Out of consideration for his 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 the pace was about half that at which the more experienced man usually walked. There was also still the chance that Stringer might appear. But he did not, and they reached Heriot 小道／航路 without 出来事/事件.

'Is it far 負かす／撃墜する?' asked Carrados. He knew that the 小道／航路 was a winding little byway where even the humblest sort of traffic might not pass from one hour to another. He could take Arnold along it with a fair 量 of 信用／信任, but （犯罪，病気などの）発見 might come at any moment now. He had 始める，決める himself to 操縦する the blind man 権利 up to the door of the cab before he 明らかにする／漏らすd the true 状況／情勢—anything short of that failed to 運動 home the moral of his 業績／成就. 'I don't see a taxi yet,' he 追加するd.

'A bit along, I suppose,' said Arnold. His 注目する，もくろむs were open and he was looking sideways into his guide's 直面する with an 表現 of peculiar and 私的な amusement that did not carry into his 発言する／表明する. 'He may have drawn on....'

'Ah,' exclaimed the blind leader as they （疑いを）晴らすd a bend, 'there's something at last.' Ear and nose told him so much, and it would be an 平易な 事柄 to bring his 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 権利 up to the car. But—the chance of so inglorious a fiasco was small in that infrequent place—but how to be sure that this was indeed the taxi?

'支援する again, sir?'

That settled it. Carrados moved on by the light of his own intuitive 裁判／判断. When he knew that he was three yards from the car the door was opened. He had reached the goal.

'Now!' said another 発言する／表明する in sharp 命令（する）.

Before the word was spoken Carrados had had a flash of 現実化. It （機の）カム with the nature-sense of overhanging danger, with the subtle change of 意向 in the arm that touched his own, with the slight chirrup of a stoppered phial 存在 opened—but it （機の）カム too late. Arnold's light 圧力 on his 権利 suddenly became a pinioning 支配する, another pair of 武器 の近くにd on his left and a saturated cloth not unpleasantly odoured, was 圧力（をかける）d against his 直面する....

'It worked? 発言／述べるd one, 配列し直すing himself after they had bundled the senseless form into the car.

'Like a charm,' replied the man called Arnold, smiling at a thought.

'Change that plate again, and move about it,' said the third of the ギャング（団） すぐに.

A minute later the renumbered car slipped out of Heriot 小道／航路 without any superfluous parade of 警告, and taking on a pace much too 穏健な to 示唆する the remotest connexion with things sensational, it was soon swallowed up in the stream of evening traffic flowing eastward.

* * * * *

'Ah. So ye're com'n' 一連の会議、交渉／完成する now, aren't ye?' said a not unfriendly 発言する／表明する, as consciousness began to trickle at first and then 急ぐ into Max Carrados's perceptions. 'Feelin' just a thrifle sick, too, at first, I don't 疑問.'

'Where am I?' asked the blind man mechanically. Sick he certainly did feel in more ways than one, for the stuff that had been used to 麻薬 him with was of an unholy texture that left nausea and 頭痛 in its wake, while to be drawn into so guileless a 罠（にかける） 乱暴／暴力を加えるd his most 攻撃を受けやすい susceptibilities. 'Where am I and who are you?'

'Now don't be troublin' ye'self about things like those that don't really 事柄 at all,' replied the other persuasively. 'Ye're 権利 enough now, and so long as ye don't sthruggle, so to speak, ye can be as comfortable as a dormouse in a haystack.'

'I やめる understand,' retorted the 捕虜. 'And if I struggle, as you are pleased to call it, I may infer that I shall be 扱う／治療するd as Lizzie Baxter was?'

''Tis a 広大な／多数の／重要な mistake to dhrop from the exthract on to the conkrate, as the man 発言／述べるd whin he fell from the distillery window 負かす／撃墜する into th' sthrate. Ye'll understand that whin there's a war goin' on there's likely to be cashoolties. Ye're a cashoolty just at the moment, Mr Carrados, but whether ye're ultimate 目的地 is to be the recooperation （軍の）野営地，陣営 or the wayside simitry is a 事柄 完全に awaitin' ye're own personal convenience.'

'I have an idea,' replied Carrados, 'that it will turn out to be the 証言，証人／目撃する-box.'

'I shouldn't build on that now,' said the Irishman speculatively. 'With all 予定 尊敬（する）・点 to the three classical 女性（の）s who arrange the 運命s, I can see no 指示，表示する物 of anything like that on the immedjet horizon. Doubtless if ye were to 協議する the mysterious lady who prognosticates through the mejum of a chrystal sphere, or the 強いるing wizard who for the small consideration of haf a 栄冠を与える tells you what he sees in the smoke of an aromatic pastille, something in the nature of a 証言，証人／目撃する-box might かもしれない be adumbrated; but for all practical 目的s I should 除去する it from ye're calc'lations, Mr Carrados.'

'You appear to be a pleasant and ingenious gentleman, Mr—?'

'Murphy is a very handy 指名する for the 目的 of short 言及／関連.'

'Mr Murphy, then. You appear also to have a general knowledge of me and my movements, while I, unfortunately, know 事実上 nothing of you or my surroundings. As a guest, enjoying your 歓待, that 自然に puts me in a very humiliating position. You see—'

'I 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる the delicacies of the 状況／情勢,' replied Mr Murphy in the same vein of guarded satire to which they had fallen. 'I should dearly love to 行為／法令／行動する as a general vade-mecum, who's who, and illustrated gazetteer of the 状況／情勢 if it could be done. But ye'll understand there may be sthretegic 推論する／理由s aginst lettin' on which end of Park 小道／航路 this mansion is 据える in, or whether ye're host is a blue-血d aristochrat or 単に a 労働 member.'

'Perhaps,' 示唆するd the blind man, 'it would be permissible to say why I have been carried off in this outrageous manner and what you imagine you are going to do with me?'

'There's no 害（を与える） at all in tellin' ye what ye know already,' replied Mr Murphy, with a sudden loss of geniality in his manner. 'Ye're here because ye ーするつもりであるd giving 証拠 in a 事例／患者 that was no airthly 関心 of ye's, and ye'll stay here, or in some other suitable place of 退職, until that little 事柄's satisfactorily 性質の／したい気がして of. What call had ye to go 事実上の／代理 さもなければ than sthrictly as a nootral if ye're not 用意が出来ている to take the consequences?'

'A 中立の!' repeated Carrados in amazement. 'Good heavens, man, 中立の in what? This was 簡単に a 事例／患者 of elementary 司法（官）. But perhaps,' he 追加するd pointedly, 'you have never heard of that?'

There was a movement of 怒り／怒る from more than one part of the room, and the man who had been carrying on the conversation strode across and stood over the 捕虜. The taunt had served a useful 目的, for Carrados had learned a little more.

'I should advise ye to keep that sort of 発言／述べる in ye're breeches po'k't while ye're here, Mr Carrados,' said Murphy. 'This once ye're blind 注目する，もくろむs 保護する ye.'

'They often do,' replied Carrados imperturbably. 'I am 確信して that they often will.'

'Don't be too sure while ye are here, that's all.'

He heard the man turn はっきりと on his heel and walk across the room. The door banged and silence lengthened out, but the 囚人 knew that unfriendly 注目する，もくろむs still watched him and that he had not been left alone.

Nearly a week went by and nothing happened. Max Carrados was as 完全に 削減（する） off from the world as if he had been carried away to 火星. Food was put before him on a generous 規模 and his ordinary needs were attened to, but conversation with those who moved about was not encouraged. Mr Murphy seemed to have disappeared after the first evening.

From the moment of his 回復するing consciousness Carrados began to 建設する the 詳細（に述べる）s of his surroundings and to 診察する his 刑務所，拘置所. It was, he learned within a day, a spacious, old-fashioned house of three storeys and a 地階, detached, and standing in some 私的な ground. The rooms were 一般に large and lofty, but their former 明言する／公表する was not kept up; several were empty and the furniture of the others was miscellaneous and haphazard. Gas was used, the telephone bell often rang, and a silent 年輩の woman did the cooking and 出席. The 捕虜 soon discovered that he was never left alone, and at night he slept in a room where the window was 閉めだした from 最高の，を越す to 底（に届く） and the chimney 封鎖するd. The blind man smiled as he realized that an alarming 評判 must have に先行するd him.

It was not until the second night that he could definitely 位置を示す his 刑務所，拘置所. How long the 旅行 in the car had been he had no means of knowing, but the taste of the 空気／公表する, the touch of the water in which he washed, and the distant noises of the street were all unmistakably of London. It was a 静かな and secluded 支援する-water to which he had been brought, and at no 広大な／多数の／重要な distance from the house he soon knew of a park-like space where thrushes sang at 夜明け and the フクロウ 布告するd the night, but a 広大な／多数の／重要な 主要道路 of traffic lay 延長するd on the south and another, rather いっそう少なく busy, on the north. On the second night he heard Big Ben slowly にわか景気ing out the hours on a line almost 直接／まっすぐに east, and 適用するing to the sounds his own peculiar methods he 設立する that he could assume the space between them as just about three miles. The next day he dropped a simple 実験（する）.

'I suppose I can have a 確かな 調書をとる／予約する I want? I think it could be got—'

'A 調書をとる／予約する?' repeated the man who was then in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of him, dubiously.

'Yes, from Mudie's in the High Street just below here'—nodding direction—'you know.'

The sharp breath of surprise 確認するd what he had already guessed, even without the attendant's belated and rather 傷つける protestation that he 'could say nothing about that.' The 事柄 of the 調書をとる／予約する 進歩d no その上の.

For a couple of days Carrados had been 推測するing rather poignantly about his position. A 危機 of some sort must, he conjectured, be at 手渡す. Even if the 裁判，公判 of 階級 lasted three days—a generous 限界—the 判決 was now 予定. He had, he assumed, been carried off 純粋に to 抑える his 致命的な 証拠, but if the 事例／患者 went against the 囚人—how then? He had no illusions about the methods of the desperate little 禁止（する）d of 極端論者s into whose 手渡すs he had fallen, and, without flurry or 明白な 関心, there were very few minutes of the day when he was not considering 計画（する）s of escape. But so far the strength of his 刑務所，拘置所 was unassailable, the guards not to be drawn by casual hints of gold.

It was on the evening of the sixth day of confinement that the 推定する／予想するd 危機 （機の）カム. All that afternoon there had been いっそう少なく movement about the big house than was usual, but に向かって dusk men began to arrive by ones and twos until Carrados had accounted for at least a dozen above the usual company.

'They have all been to hear the 判決 given,' surmised the blind man. 'Now for it.'

He was 権利. An hour later he was curtly 召喚するd to another room—'the 会議 議会,' as he had always mentally 述べるd it from the 会合s that 明白に took place there—and 設立する himself before an informal 法廷，裁判所.

'This is the man Carrados?' 問い合わせd someone, with brusque 当局.

One of Carrados's 正規の／正選手 custodians replied.

'He is blind, captain, though you mightn't notice it,' he 追加するd. 'Shall I give him a 議長，司会を務める?'

'Was Dennis 階級 given a 議長，司会を務める once during the three days of his 裁判，公判?' 需要・要求するd the 発言する／表明する.

'He was not,' （機の）カム the hearty 返答 from half a dozen.

'Let the 囚人 stand.'

'A 囚人,' 発言／述べるd Carrados mildly, 'is usually 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with an offence. May I ask what 地雷 is?'

'伝えるing （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to the enemy,' was the answer, rapped out with domineering harshness. 'It 関心s you to learn, Carrados, that Dennis 階級 was pronounced 有罪の this afternoon and 宣告，判決d to death.'

'That would be the very natural result of carrying me off, wouldn't it?' insinuated the blind man. 'You had surely thought of that.'

'What do you mean?'

Carrados was almost tempted to shrug his shoulders to を強調する the obviousness of what had happened.

'If I had appeared and given 証拠 it would have been perfectly 平易な to 示唆する that I was either mistaken or a liar—one man's word against another's. As it was, there was nothing on which to 示唆する that I was mistaken or lying. You 簡単に advertised that my 証拠 was 訂正する and true and that you daren't 許す it to be given at any price.'

'There now, captain, what did I tell ye?' muttered a malcontent.

'Stow that,' 命令（する）d the man in 当局. Then he turned to the 囚人 again. 'You are not before us to 表明する your own personal and 私的な 見解（をとる）s on this or that, Carrados, but to hear the 決定／判定勝ち（する） of this 法廷，裁判所. Needless to say an 控訴，上告 is 存在 宿泊するd against the bloodthirsty tyranny of Dennis 階級's 宣告，判決. If you can 示唆する anything to help that along you'd do 井戸／弁護士席 to get busy 権利 now and let us know.'

'Theoretically,' 認める Mr Carrados, 'I've never been in favour of 死刑.'

'That's vurry opportune,' 発言／述べるd the captain dryly. 'But there are exceptions, and かもしれない this may be one of them.'

'Oh, it may, you think?' roared the astonished inquisitor. '塀で囲む, let me tell you this: the hour the 黒人／ボイコット 旗 goes up at Brixton 刑務所，拘置所 for Dennis 階級 your family will have 原因（となる） to go into 嘆く／悼むing too.'

'What good will that do?'

'It will do this good, that you may 同様に begin to get a move on you to dodge it. We opine that you have a pull in more than one direction, Carrados, and pawsably your 政府 may cawnsider your neck 価値（がある） saving. 塀で囲む, you know the price, and you'd better make out the best 事例／患者 you can for the 交流 when you let them know. You can have pen and 署名／調印する and paper and—under suitable examination, so don't try any of your わずかな／ほっそりした tricks here—you can communicate with your own lawyer or anyone else you like.'

'Thank you,' replied Mr Carrados, 'but I won't trouble you.'

'Won't trouble! Hell! what d'ye mean?'

'Just what I say. I have no 意向 of 令状ing. Of my own 解放する／自由な will I might in ordinary circumstances 調印する a 嘆願（書） against 階級 存在 hanged. As you put it, I am much more likely to 調印する one against his 存在 （死）刑の執行猶予（をする）d. You'll have to do your own unpleasant work yourself.'

'The man's clean daft,' sighed one of the 法廷，裁判所 in helpless bewilderment. 'What'll there be unpleasant in saving your nut?'

'単に a point of 見解（をとる）,' 発言／述べるd Carrados, turning に向かって him やめる courteously. 'There are things that we all stick at doing at any price.... Or, at all events'—his 直面する was again in the direction of the 大統領，／社長 of the 法廷，裁判所 'most of us.'

For some 推論する／理由, in the five minutes that they had been together there had sprung up between these two men a 深い and corrosive 反感. に向かって all the others of his captors Carrados bore little beyond a philosophic 寛容, with an 時折の lapse into 穏やかな annoyance. But here each felt the other's 憎悪, and 認めるd that between them there would be no accommodation, no 妥協. The only difference was the way the 動議 showed—in the captain it produced a 傾向 to shout, in the 捕虜 an icy quietness.

'So you think you can ride the high horse here, do you?' 爆発するd the leader, flashing out passionately. 'With ya 爆破d "point of 見解（をとる）" and ya infernal five-cent style. Remember that ya're not 取引，協定ing with any of ya're own shilly-shallying Dublin 城 trash, but with men that mean what they say. And show proper 尊敬（する）・点 to the 法廷，裁判所 ya're up before or, by heaven! the 割れ目 of a 握りこぶし'll teach you.'

'I can't defend myself.' Carrados turned に向かって the others and held out his groping 手渡すs with a plaintive helplessness. 'Is there any man here who can strike me across my sightless 注目する，もくろむs?'

'God know that's true!' murmured more than one.

'Then how are you going to hang me?'

The captain summed up his stalwarts with a 冷淡な, contemptuous ちらりと見ること.

'Leave that to me,' he said more 静かに, 'when the time comes. There's a proverb about killin' a dog, Carrados, you'll maybe know. In the 一方／合間 you'll have a few days to think better of it. 耐える in mind that it's not to hang you for preference that we're out, but to save Dennis 階級. 除去する the 囚人.'

When Carrados was 除去するd he guessed that the eventuality had plainly been foreseen, for he was not led 支援する to his former ４半期/4分の1s. Instead, he 設立する himself 横断するing parts of the house where he had never been 許すd before. Then （機の）カム a downward flight of steps and a cooler atmosphere. He was to be 拘留するd in a cellar.

His 治療, as he learned presently, was to be in keeping with the place. All the contents of his pockets were taken from him, but 存在 now in の近くに confinement he was left alone. Doubtless it was considered that forcible escape was impossible, and when he （機の）カム to 診察する his surroundings he saw no 推論する／理由 to dissent. It was not so much a cellar as a blind passage to which a 大規模な door had been fitted. Probably at the time of its 転換 there had been some special use in 見解（をとる）. Every ４半期/4分の1 has its vague, half-forgotten legends of mystery and 罪，犯罪. The house was old, and who could say now why the remote, unwanted passage should have been so 堅固に turned into the 外見 of a dungeon? The 囚人 paced it and 診察するd its every corner with 調査／捜査するing 手渡すs. Five ordinary strides took him from one end to the other, and standing there he could without 転換ing his position touch its two long 塀で囲むs at the same time-with outstretched 手渡すs, and then the 天井. いっそう少なく than five yards in length it would seem to be, two yards across, and seven feet in 高さ. The 塀で囲むs were 石／投石する, the 床に打ち倒す was 石／投石する, and 天井 石／投石する or 固める／コンクリート. Its most dreadful feature—the total absence of window or any source of light—did not trouble the man who now sat 負かす／撃墜する to review his rather desperate 苦境. A 選び出す／独身 議長，司会を務める had been 供給するd and a small pallet with a couple of rugs.

With the 刑務所，拘置所 went 刑務所，拘置所 fare—three very plain meals a day—enough, but far from lavish. It was perfectly 示すd what this rigorous system meant: each day his jailer asked whether he wished for 令状ing 構成要素, and each day he returned a 消極的な. The 半端物s were rather ひどく balanced, but if it （機の）カム to a 実験（する） of mere obstinacy between the man they called 'Captain' and himself, Carrados was やめる inclined to fancy his own chances. After the 死刑執行, or the （死）刑の執行猶予（をする）, of 階級 there would be no sane 推論する／理由 for 拘留するing him. And somehow at the 支援する of his mind the blind man could not abandon the feeling that even in the last extremity his 星／主役にする would see him through.

Three days passed. Carrados was not unendurably bored, for his mind was an inexhaustible storehouse, and with the unconcern for surroundings that was one of his 資産s he at once 再開するd the composition of a monograph on 'The Persian Archer on a Unique Tetradrachm of Corinth,' an entertainment that his 逮捕（する） had interrupted. But on the evening of the third day something occurred to make the Persian archer rather いっそう少なく 利益／興味ing than he had been up to then. Night （機の）カム, but no supper was brought, and as the hours went on and Carrados failed by the most delicate 実験（する）s of 審理，公聴会 to discover any movement in the house above, a sudden 疑惑 shook him. What if.... He put the thought aside and went to bed as the simplest way of ignoring the 状況／情勢.

But the next morning there was no breakfast. Again an unnatural silence lay upon the place. With his ear to the 塀で囲む, the blind 囚人 had been able to follow a footstep from his door up to the distant kitchen, but not the faintest echo now reached him. He took off a boot and （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 a 盛り上がり of remonstrance upon the door.... He might just 同様に have flicked it with his handkerchief for all the attention it 刺激するd. Yet it could scarcely have failed to be heard, remote and subterranean as his 刑務所，拘置所 was, if there had been anyone.... If there had been anyone! The thought suddenly developed and spread in half a dozen directions like a 炎上 の中で 乾燥した，日照りの shavings: was it part of a 計画（する） to 餓死する him to submission—had some been 逮捕（する）d and the 残りの人，物 fled—was there some 恐ろしい 誤解, everyone leaving his care or 解放（する） to someone else—had they suddenly given up all hope of 影響（力）ing 階級's 処分 and in 復讐 had left him there to die? In いっそう少なく than five minutes he was 推測するing on the probable discoverer of his 団体／死体 and how long hence the event would be a month, a year, or so remote that he would be referred to as 'a shrivelled 骸骨／概要.' ... He 悪口を言う／悪態d his imagination and 軍隊d his mind 支援する to the Persian archer and his 重要な 外見 on a Greek tetradrachm.

But at noon there was no dinner. Hunger now began to make itself really felt, but more than that, a tormenting かわき had come over him. He raved a button off and kept it in his mouth to induce secretion, but it was a poor pretence. At 手段d intervals he （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 upon the door as he had done before; to 試みる／企てる to make himself heard by the outside world was, he knew, hopeless....

That night Carrados again went supperless to bed. He had been without food for a day and a half, but that was a small consideration beside the awful かわき that now 所有するd him. Those were the hottest days of an exceptional summer, and though the cellar was cooler than the house above it was also closer. A neglected drain somewhere 近づく had given the 囚人 'a throat' which ticked and throbbed for 救済 in vain. His mind turned to innumerable tales of shipwrecked sailors dying of かわき, to accounts of men 削減（する） off and driven to frenzy through 欠如（する） of water in the ざん壕s, to the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, to a memory of a nauseous passage in Robinson Crusoe, to the awful 事例／患者 of.... Would it end in madness with him also? Before that ... he had no 武器, but there were the 一面に覆う／毛布s of his bed, and he had touched a 相当な 麻薬を吸う running in the angle of the 塀で囲む and 天井 of his 独房 that would surely 耐える his 負わせる.

It was to escape these thoughts that he lay 負かす／撃墜する and tried to sleep when his time-sense told him that it was something short of midnight. He still clung to the hope that morning would bring 救済, and if so he was in the mood to 令状 anything to 回避する another day of かわき and torment—even the 署名／調印する, he 反映するd grimly, would be a godsend at that moment.

Thinking of the 署名／調印する—the 署名／調印する—署名／調印する—the door opened miraculously and Parkinson （機の）カム in. 'What a horrible dream,' thought Carrados. 'I fancied that I was shut up in a cellar, and here I am sitting 負かす／撃墜する to dinner at some nice restaurant. What soup have you got there, Parkinson?' 'I beg your 容赦, sir,' replied his attendant, putting a large bowl before him, 'but I understand that the custom of this house is for a dish of water to be left at night on every （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する; さもなければ, I am told, the ネズミs will gnaw through the lead 麻薬を吸うs in search of it.' 'Very 井戸／弁護士席,' replied Mr Carrados. 'But this is 署名／調印する that you have brought.' 'I'm 極端に 苦しめるd,' stammered Parkinson, 'I will change—' And as he spoke he changed into the 治安判事 at Lemon Square Police 法廷，裁判所, and Carrados 設立する himself listening to a 事例／患者 about a fountain-pen. 'Your worship,' pleaded the 原告／提訴人, 'the pen was in perfect 条件 when I sold it. I would respectfully 示唆する that it was 損失d by—' 'ネズミs!' interposed the 被告 contemptuously as he proceeded to light a cigar. 'Silence in coort!' roared his worship. 'What this poor, honest man says is very true, belike. Sure, the craytures'll do anything for dhrink. Why, every morning don't I find the 署名／調印する on me desk here lappit up and—' Again the 法廷，裁判所 shook with laughter, and in the middle of it Carrados suddenly awoke—still in his 独房 and more かわき-racked than ever, but with a new hope to 奮起させる. As he sat up he heard the ネズミs outside scampering past his door.

'Idiot!' he apostrophized himself; 'not to think of that. You are certainly getting old and stupid. Dying of かわき with a water 麻薬を吸う—oh, my God, suppose it isn't! If it should be the gas!'

But it was not the gas. One tap with a finger-end 始める，決める that at 残り／休憩（する）. In an old, rambling house it might have been any-thing, but an インチ 麻薬を吸う giving the resonance of liquid contents could 示す nothing but the 供給（する）—an inexhaustible stream, of pure water was his for the taking. But how? His mind accounted for one useless article after another in a vain search for any 肉親，親類d of 一時しのぎの物，策 道具. Not a 捨てる of metal, not even a serviceable 辛勝する／優位 of broken 石／投石する or brick, had been left to 示唆する escape. Still, there must be something—must—Yes; the boot! His たびたび（訪れる） poundings on the 床に打ち倒す had already 緊張するd a heel; one sharp wrench against the other boot and the loose heel （機の）カム away. In his 手渡す he held a 厚板 of leather bristling with 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of pointed nails: as 効果的な a とじ込み／提出する as one could wish for.

In いっそう少なく than three minutes Carrados was drinking—drinking gloriously. He had rubbed through the soft metal of the 麻薬を吸う until the water began to jet, then he dropped the boot heel and used his 手渡すs to form a cup. He had no means of stopping the 漏れる now; it might flood the cellar and 最終的に 溺死する him, but even if he had known that that must happen it would not have held him 支援する—not at that moment.

When he had drunk 十分な for the time he took his handkerchief and held it to the stream, ーするつもりであるing to sponge his 直面する. On that slight 出来事/事件—even on the hazard of the position he took up—depended all that happened after; for as he waited there—crouching rather on the uncertain 議長，司会を務める and 安定したing himself with one 手渡す upon the 麻薬を吸う a faint but 際立った （軽い）地震 passed beneath his 手渡す. It was so trivial in itself, so barren of suggestion, that not one man in a thousand—even の中で desperate 囚人s—would have given it a thought. But to Max Carrados his fingertips were 注目する，もくろむs, and to him that slight vibration flashed a ray of hope. It told him little—definitely there was little it could tell—but he knew that somewhere someone was within reach of a signal in reply. The 供給（する） 麻薬を吸う would lead to a cistern up above, and at that hour—about daybreak now he 裁判官d—it was ありそうもない that anyone should be moving there. But in the other direction—out, through the garden, and along the streets? For months past now no rain had fallen, and the 空気／公表する was 十分な of the talk of 広大な／多数の／重要な 干ばつs and 脅すing water 飢饉. Every wasted 減少（する） was grudged, and by day and night—特に by night when the streets were 静かな—the company's 視察官s made their 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs, tracing every suggestion of a 漏れる, raising the little 罠（にかける）s that give 接近 to the mains, and stick to ear for the faintest distant sound, listening—oh, ray of hope, Max Carrados!—listening!

A second gone, perhaps. Still lightly touching the 麻薬を吸う to （問題を）取り上げる any 返答, the blind man dropped the unheeded handkerchief and with the strong 明らかにする knuckles of his other 手渡す he began to （一定の）期間 out into the unknown the 全世界の／万国共通の message of despair: short, short, short; long, long, long; short, short, short—S.O.S.; S.O.S.; S.O.S.

* * * * *

About the time that Mr Carrados awoke and thought of a boot heel two men in the chaste blue attire favoured by the 主要都市の Water Board stopped at a small アイロンをかける plate let into the road and 用意が出来ている to enter upon the cabbalistic ritual of their tribe. The high priest, as it were, of the two carried a 病弱なd of office in his 手渡す—a serviceable bamboo 棒 with a saucer-形態／調整d 最高の，を越す, and his 儀式の cap was dignified by the word INSPECTOR blazoned on a neat oval badge above the 頂点（に達する）. His acolyte 異なるd from him only in the slight 詳細（に述べる）s of 外見, but instead of a 棒 he 影響する／感情d a dangerous-looking 器具／実施する that could only be に例えるd to a small—but not a very small—harpoon.

'When we've worked 負かす／撃墜する to the High Street again we'll knock off for breakfast, 'Orras,' 発言／述べるd the 視察官, speaking as one who 伝えるs 激励.

''一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 同様に,' commented 'Orras. 'My inwards are beginning to 問い合わせ audibly whether me throat's 貯蔵所 削減（する）.'

'It's queer how young fellows are always thinking of their teeth nowadays,' mused his superior. 'They don't seem to have no endurance, somehow, 'Orras. Did I ever tell you how three of us signallers were up in a tower outside a place called Binchley for the better part of a week—'

'Often; yesterday for once,' retorted the younger 世代. 'Contrive to forget those 早期に days of 罪，犯罪, Father William. The war's over and done with, and we aren't going to have no more.'

The 視察官 sighed and, leaning against a convenient lamp-地位，任命する, tactfully 示すd to 'Orras a suggestion to get on with it, while he himself proceeded to 令状 up 現在の 記録，記録的な／記録する in his 調書をとる／予約する. Disdaining an 申し込む／申し出 of the listening stick the assistant impaled and raised the lid of the 罠（にかける） with his own 悪意のある 武器, and 調査（する）ing the depths with the 商売／仕事 end of it 適用するd his ear to the other.

'井戸／弁護士席?' 問い合わせd the 視察官 presently. 'All O.K.?'

'Nor yet in sight of it,' 報告（する）／憶測d 'Orras gloomily. 'There's something going on somewhere that's beyond me.'

'That's queer.' The 視察官 meant nothing by it, but 'Orras 新たな展開d his neck to get a sight of his superior's 直面する. 'What do you mean it's like?'

'Better have a look yourself,' 示唆するd the junior, making way, while the other の近くにd his 調書をとる／予約する and took his place above the 罠（にかける）. 'Listening 地位，任命するs are more in your line than 地雷.'

A minute passed in silence as the more experienced man stooped with his ear upon the 不景気 of his stick.

'It's rummy that we should be talking about signalling and what not just now,' he 発言／述べるd, without raising his 長，率いる. 'If such a thing was 信頼できる I should have said that someone was talking morse along the 麻薬を吸う.'

'Wha'd'z'e say?' 問い合わせd 'Orras with languid 利益／興味, as he rolled a cigarette.

'Nothing what you might call coherent—just a run of letters. Sos; sos; sos all the time. Half a minute though: isn't there something "S.O.S." stands for?'

'Yes,' agreed 'Orras with 表現, 'there is. Sosagers. And very nice too for breakfast.'

'Tchk! Tchk!' clicked the 視察官 reproachfully. 'Can't you never leave off thinking of food for half a minute, 'Orras? There! Now I've got it. S.O.S. It's the signal of 苦しめる a 沈むing ship sends out, of course.'

'Of course. 潜水艦 must ha' come up the main, and now it can't neither turn nor 逆転する in the 狭くするs. Why ever didn't we think of that at first?'

But the 視察官 was not to be put off by the cheap humour of irreverent 青年. He had not lived five and forty years and gone through the war without discovering that very queer things do occasionally occur in real life. For a moment he twirled a pair of pliers absent-mindedly in his 解放する／自由な 手渡す; then ひさまづくing on the pavement he struck the metal fittings 負かす／撃墜する below a succession of 手段d taps—a 得点する／非難する／２０ or so.

'What's that?' 需要・要求するd 'Orras, intrigued in spite of his blase 見通し.

'I just sent "Who's there?"' explained the 視察官, returning to the listening 態度 again. 'They mayn't know the calls and general answer and such like.'

'Seems to me this isn't M.W.B. 決まりきった仕事 at all,' said the assistant flippantly. 'You must have got through to the cinema somehow, uncle. "Snatched from Death's Jaws" in seven snatches—'

The 視察官's 権利 手渡す 発射 out in a 説得力のある gesture of 警告 and repression.

'Get this 負かす／撃墜する, lad,' he said with sharp 当局. 'You have a bit o' paper and pencil, 港／避難所't you? C-A-R-R—You have a bit o' paper and a pencil, 港／避難所't you? C-A-R-R....'

'権利-o,' 答える／応じるd the other, discovering an old 星／主役にする in his pocket and turning to the 'Stop 圧力（をかける）' space. 'C-A-R-R—Carry on, sergeant.'

'-A-D-O-S.'

'Carrados! Why, he's the bloke—' The boy dived into the paper until a 長，率いる-line caught his 注目する，もくろむ. 'MISSING BLIND WITNESS. STILL NO TRACE OF MAX CARRADOS.' 'You don't mean to say—'

'Shut it!' snapped the 視察官 ひどく. '…に出席する, can't you? T-R-A-P-P-E-D P-H-O-N-E N-E-A-R-E-S-T P-O-L-I-C-E S-T-A-T-I-O-N U-R-G-E-N-T L-I-F-E D-E-A-T-H-'

'Phew!' murmured 'Orras, perspiring ecstatically. 'That's the stuff to—'

'A-M O-P-E-N-I-N-G L-E-A-K G-U-I-D-E P-O-L-I-C-E R-E-W-A-R-D.'

'Orras drew his breath in はっきりと, almost 打ち勝つ by the vista of 伸び（る） and glory.

'That all?' he whispered meekly.

'S-E-N-D R-T I-F U-N-D-E-R-S-T-O-O-D—you needn't put that last bit in though.'

'Let's see you do it.' 'Orras, subdued by a technical efficiency that lay outside his 範囲, shrewdly foresaw that for the next three weeks at least every word he might condescend to 減少（する） would be 価値（がある） its 負わせる in cigarettes.

The 視察官 bent 負かす／撃墜する and gave the metal a few considered taps with the pliers.

'That's all. Now slip off into the High Street, boy, and get through on the nearest telephone. And for God's sake don't stop to have your breakfast anywhere on the way, and I shouldn't wonder if this doesn't mean a week's fishing at Southend for us.'

'Garn,' retorted 'Orras, now in a 明言する／公表する of giggling bliss. 'A day at Barnes 貯蔵所 more likely. What're you going to do?'

'Now hop it,' said the 視察官 堅固に. 'And don't muck up your end of the 職業. I'm going to look into this 漏れる.'

Ten minutes later he was still （電話線からの）盗聴 the road at intervals when two やめる unnoticeable gentlemen appeared in sight, walking that way. As they took in his 占領／職業 a few words passed hurriedly between them and instead of passing him they stopped.

''Morning, 視察官,' said one affably—he had 発射 a ちらりと見ること at the 公式の／役人 cap. 'Nothing wrong with the water 供給（する） up here, I hope?'

'Nothing that I know of, sir,' replied the 視察官 簡単に. 'Just our usual 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs.'

'Ah?' said the stranger. 'That so? But it's a hell of a summer, isn't it? Keeps you people busy, I bet. I thought you might be making a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to look at our taps and fittings to see there was no waste.'

'Everything O.K. so far as I have 設立する,' was the 安心させるing answer. 'We don't like to give any more trouble than we need. As a 事柄 of fact, I'm only waiting for my mate to knock off for breakfast.'

The two nodded pleasantly and passed on. The 視察官 threw his stick into the hollow of his arm and strolled idly along the road after them, whistling softly to himself, until they turned in at a distant gate. He had a 特に guileless 直面する and 穏やかな, 思索的な 注目する，もくろむs.

* * * * *

As it turned out Mr Murphy and the Captain could scarcely have timed their return better from one point of 見解（をとる）. They had just entered, seen that everything was, as the genial Irishman took occasion to 発言／述べる, 'Go'n' on schwimmin'' (there 存在 then about six インチs of water in the cellar), and brought up the 囚人 to a higher and drier level for a little serious conversation (foreshadowed by 確かな 言及／関連s to necks and ropes and throats and knives on the Captain's part) when a polite knock on the 前線 door called one of them away for a moment. It chanced that the Captain was the one who went and he did not すぐに return. Noticing this, Mr Murphy was 掴むd by a sudden 願望（する） to 調査／捜査する the 後部 部分 of the grounds, and he rather hurriedly opened a window and dropped 負かす／撃墜する, with the evident 意向 of 訴訟／進行 there. In his excitement, however, he had overlooked the presence of several policemen, standing in what he himself would have 述べるd as 'sthretegic attitoods', and he fell into their 武器 to be 護衛するd ingloriously 支援する again....

'Do you know, Mr Murphy, I still have an idea that it will turn out to be the 証言，証人／目撃する-box,' Mr Carrados 観察するd when they all 組立て直すd in the hall—an ignoble thrust admittedly, but much may be forgiven of a man who is carrying half a gallon of 冷淡な water after 急速な／放蕩なing for a couple of days.

THE END

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