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1、【英文读物】Adventures of Martin HewittTHE CASE OF THE “FLITTERBAT LANCERS” Chapter 1 I IN none of the cases of investigation by Martin Hewitt which I have as yet recorded had I any direct and substantial personal interest. In the case I am about to set forth, however, I had some such interest, though leg
2、ally, I fear, it amounted to no more than the cost of a smashed pane of glass. But the case in some ways was one of the most curious which came under my notice, and completely justified Hewitts oft repeated dictum that there was nothing, however romantic or apparently improbable, that had not happen
3、ed at some time in London. It was late on a summer evening, two or three years back, that I drowsed in my armchair over a particularly solid and ponderous volume of essays on social economy. I was doing a good deal of reviewing at the time, and I remember that this particular volume had a property o
4、f such exceeding toughness that I had already made three successive attacks on it, on as many successive evenings, each attack having been defeated in the end by sleep. The weather was hot, my chair was very comfortable, the days were tiring, and the book had somewhere about its strings of polysylla
5、bles an essence as of laudanum. Still something had been done on each evening, and now on the fourth I strenuously endeavoured to finish the book. Late as it was, my lamp had been lighted but an hour or so, for there had been light enough to read by, near the window, till well past nine oclock. I wa
6、s just beginning to feel that the words before me were sliding about and losing their meanings, and that I was about to fall asleep after all, when a sudden crash and a jingle of broken glass behind me woke me with a start, and I threw the book down. A pane of glass in my window was smashed, and I h
7、urried across and threw up the sash to see, if I could, whence the damage had come. Clipboard05“A PANE OF GLASS IN MY WINDOW WAS SMASHED.”I think I have somewhere said (I believe it was in describing the circumstances of the extraordinary death of Mr. Foggatt) that the building in which my chambers
8、(and Hewitts office) were situated was accessibleor rather visible, for there was no entrancefrom the rear. There was, in fact, a small courtyard, reached by a passage from the street behind, and into this courtyard my sitting-room window looked. “Hullo, there!” I shouted. But there came no reply. N
9、or could I distinguish anybody in the courtyard. It was at best a shadowy place at night, with no artificial light after the news agentwho had a permanent booth therehad shut up and gone home. Gone he was now, and to me the yard seemed deserted. Some men had been at work during the day on a drain-pi
10、pe near the booth, and I reflected that probably their litter had provided the stone wherewith my window had been smashed. As I looked, however, two men came hurrying from the passage into the court, and going straight into the deep shadow of one corner, presently appeared again in a less obscure pa
11、rt, hauling forth a third man, who must have already been there in hiding. The manwho appeared, so far as I could see, to be smaller than either of his assailantsstruggled fiercely, but without avail, and was dragged across toward the passage leading to the street beyond. But the most remarkable fea
12、ture of the whole thing was the silence of all three men. No cry, no exclamation, or expostulation escaped any one of them. In perfect silence the two hauled the third across the courtyard, and in perfect silence he swung and struggled to resist and escape. The matter astonished me not a little, and
13、 the men were entering the passage before I found voice to shout at them. But they took no notice, and disappeared. Soon after I heard cab wheels in the street beyond, and had no doubt that the two men had carried off their prisoner. Clipboard04“THE MAN . . . STRUGGLED FIERCELY.”I turned back into m
14、y room a little perplexed. It seemed probable that the man who had been borne off had broken my window. But why? I looked about on the floor, and presently found the missile. It was, as I had expected, a piece of broken concrete, but it was wrapped up in a worn piece of paper, which had partly opene
15、d out again as it lay on my carpet, thus indicating that it had only just been hastily crumpled round the stone. But again, why? It might be considered a trifle more polite to hand a gentleman a clinker decently wrapped up than to give it him in its raw state; but it came to much the same thing afte
16、r all if it were passed through a shut window. And why a clinker at all? I disengaged the paper and spread it out. Then I saw it to be a rather hastily written piece of manuscript music, whereof I append a reduced facsimile: 1-06This gave me no help. I turned the paper this way and that, but could m
17、ake nothing of it. There was not a mark on it that I could discover, except the music and the scrawled title, “Flitterbat Lancers,” at the top. The paper was old, dirty, and cracked. What did it all mean? One might conceive of a person in certain circumstances sending a messagepossibly an appeal for
18、 helpthrough a friends window, wrapped round a stone, but this seemed to be nothing of that sort. It was not a message, but a hastily written piece of music, with no bars or time marked, just as might have been put down by somebody anxious to make an exact note of an air, the time of which he could
19、remember. Moreover, it was years old, not a thing just written in a recent emergency. What lunatic could have chosen this violent way of presenting me with an air from some forgotten “Flitterbat Lancers”? That indeed was an idea. What more likely than that the man taken away was a lunatic and the ot
20、hers his keepers? A man under some curious delusion, which led him not only to fling his old music notes through my window, but to keep perfectly quiet while struggling for his freedom. I looked out of the window again, and then it seemed plain to me that the clinker and the paper could not have bee
21、n intended for me personally, but had been flung at my window as being the only one that showed a light within a reasonable distance of the yard. Most of the windows about mine were those of offices, which had been deserted early in the evening. Once more I picked up the paper, and with an idea to h
22、ear what the Flitterbat Lancers sounded like, I turned to my little pianette and strummed over the notes, making my own time and changing it as seemed likely. But I make nothing of it, and could by no means extract from the notes anything resembling an air. I considered the thing a little more, and
23、half thought of trying Martin Hewitts office door, in case he might still be there and could offer a guess at the meaning of my smashed window and the scrap of paper. It was most probable, however, that he had gone home, and I was about resuming my social economy when Hewitt himself came in. He had
24、stayed late to examine a bundle of papers in connection with a case just placed in his hands, and now, having finished, came to find if I were disposed for an evening stroll before turning ina thing I was in the habit of. I handed him the paper and the piece of concrete, observing, “Theres a little
25、job for you, Hewitt, instead of the stroll. What do those things mean?” And I told him the complete history of my smashed window. Hewitt listened attentively, and examined both the paper and the fragment of paving. “You say these people made absolutely no sound whatever?” he asked. “None but that of
26、 scuffling, and even that they seemed to do quietly.” “Could you see whether or not the two men gagged the other, or placed their hands over his mouth?” “No, they certainly didnt do that. It was dark, of course, but not so dark as to prevent my seeing generally what they were doing.” “And when you f
27、irst looked out of the window after the smash, you called out, but got no answer, although the man you suppose to have thrown these things must have been there at the time, and alone?” “That was so.” Hewitt stood for half a minute in thought, and then said, “Theres something in this; what, I cant gu
28、ess at the moment, but something deep, I fancy. Are you sure you wont come out now?” On this my mind was made up. That dreadful volume had vanquished me altogether three times already, and if I let it go again it would haunt me like a nightmare. There was indeed very little left to read, and I deter
29、mined to master that and draft my review before I slept. So I told Hewitt that I was sure, and that I should stick to my work. “Very well,” he said; “then perhaps you will lend me these articles?” holding up the paper and the stone as he spoke. “Delighted to lend em, Im sure,” I said. “If you get no
30、 more melody out of the clinker than I did out of the paper, you wont have a musical evening. Good-night!” Hewitt went away with the puzzle in his hand, and I turned once more to my social economy, and, thanks to the gentleman who smashed my window, conquered. I am sure I should have dropped fast as
31、leep had it not been for that. Chapter 2 At this time my only regular daily work was on an evening paper, so that I left home at a quarter to eight on the morning following the adventure of my broken window, in order, as usual, to be at the office at eight; consequently it was not until lunchtime, w
32、hen my work was over, that I had an opportunity of seeing Hewitt. I went to my own rooms first, however, and on the landing by my door I found the housekeeper in conversation with a shortish, sun-browned man with a goatee beard, whose accent at once convinced me that he hailed from across the Atlant
33、ic. He had called, it appeared, three or four times during the morning to see me, getting more impatient each time. As he did not seem even to know my name, the housekeeper had not considered it expedient to say when I was expected, nor indeed to give him any information about me, and he was growing
34、 irascible under the treatment. When I at last appeared, however, he left her and approached me eagerly. “See here, sir,” he said, “Ive been stumpin these here durn stairs o yours half through the mornin. Im anxious to apologise, I reckon, and fix up some damage.” He had followed me into my sitting-
35、room, and was now standing with his back to the fireplace, a dripping umbrella in one hand, and the forefinger of the other held up shoulder-high and pointing, in the manner of a pistol, to my window, which, by the way, had been mended during the morning, in accordance with my instructions to the ho
36、usekeeper. “Sir,” he continued, “last night I took the extreme liberty of smashin your winder.” “Oh,” I said, “that was you, was it?” “It was, sirme. For that I hev come humbly to apologise. I trust the draft has not discommoded you, sir. I regret the accident, and I wish to pay for the fixin up and
37、 the general inconvenience.” He placed a sovereign on the table. “I low youll call that square now, sir, and fix things friendly and comfortable as between gentlemen, an no ill will. Shake.” And he formally extended his hand. I took it at once. “Certainly,” I said, “certainly. As a matter of fact, y
38、ou havent inconvenienced me at all; indeed, there were some circumstances about the affair that rather interested me. But as to the damage,” I continued, “if youre really anxious to pay for it, do you mind my sending the glazier to you to settle? You see, its only a matter of half a crown or so at m
39、ost.” And I pushed the sovereign toward him. “But then,” he said, looking a trifle disappointed, “theres general discommodedness, you know, to pay for, and the general sass of the liberty to a strangers winder. I aint no down-easternot a Boston dudebut I reckon I know the gentlemanly thing, and I ca
40、n afford to do it. Yes. Say now, didnt I startle your nerves?” “Not a bit,” I answered, laughing. “In fact, you did me a service by preventing me going to sleep just when I shouldnt; so well say no more of that.” “Wellthere was one other little thing,” he pursued, looking at me rather sharply as he
41、slowly pocketed the sovereign. “There was a bit o paper round that pebble that came in here. Didnt happen to notice that, did you?” “Yes, I did. It was an old piece of manuscript music.” “That was itjust. Might you happen to have it handy now?” “Well,” I said, “as a matter of fact a friend of mine h
42、as it now. I tried playing it over once or twice, as a matter of curiosity, but I couldnt make anything of it, and so I handed it to him.” “Ah!” said my visitor, watching me narrowly, “thats a nailer, is that Flitterbat Lancersa real nailer. It whips em all. Nobody cant get ahead of that. Ha, ha!” H
43、e laughed suddenlya laugh that seemed a little artificial. “Theres music fellers as lows to set right down and play off anything right away that cant make anything of the Flitterbat Lancers. That was two of em that was monkeyin with me last night. They never could make anythin of it at all, and I wa
44、s tantalizing them with it all along till they got real mad, and reckoned to get it out o my pocket and learn it off quiet at home, and stop all my chaff. Ha, ha! So I got away for a bit, and bein a bit lively after a number of tooth-lotions (all three was much that way), just rolled it round a ston
45、e and heaved it through your winder before they could come up, your winder bein the nearest one with a light in it. Ha, ha! Ill be considerable obliged if youll get it from your friend right now. Is he stayin hereabout?” The story was so ridiculously lame that I determined to confront my visitor wit
46、h Hewitt, and observe the result. If he had succeeded in making any sense of the “Flitterbat Lancers,” the scene might be amusing. So I answered at once, “Yes; his office is only on the floor below; he will probably be in at about this time. Come down with me.” We went down, and found Hewitt in his
47、outer office. “This gentleman,” I told him with a solemn intonation, “has come to ask for his piece of manuscript music, the Flitterbat Lancers. He is particularly proud of it, because nobody who tries to play it can make any sort of tune out of it, and it was entirely because two dear friends of hi
48、s were anxious to drag it out of his pocket and practice it over on the quiet that he flung it through my window-pane last night, wrapped round a piece of concrete.” The stranger glanced sharply at me, and I could see that my manner and tone rather disconcerted him. But Hewitt came forward at once.
49、“Oh, yes,” he said. “Just soquite a natural sort of thing. As a matter of fact, I quite expected you. Your umbrellas wetdo you mind putting it in the stand? Thank you. Come into my private office.” We entered the inner room, and Hewitt, turning to the stranger, went on: “Yes, that is a very extraordinary piece of music, that Flitterbat Lancers. I hav