Chapter 7 Christmas Teaching Bell Tower Mystery Case
"As I said last time," began Dr. Sam Hawthorne.He took down a brandy bottle from the top shelf. "1925 was a very bad year, with homicides and other violent crimes. One of the worst cases happened at Christmas, near the end of the year. Come on, let me tell you Take a little—er—drink, and start again..."
Ever since little Tommy Belmont was kidnapped and found.Beishan Town had a peaceful autumn.In fact, probably the biggest news around town is that the new Ford dealership across Mid Creek will soon start selling dark green and maroon cars in addition to the traditional black ones. "Look, Dr. Sam," said Ib, my nurse, "you won't be the only one with a bright yellow car around here anytime soon." "Dark green is nowhere near maroon and yellow," I reminded her.It was her favorite thing to do about my 1921 Arrow convertible.In my first winter in Beishan Town, I used to put the convertible on a big wooden block and drive the horse-drawn carriage to the doctor, but now I am more daring, as long as there is no snow on the road, I still drive out. On this day, about two weeks before Christmas, Abby and I were driving to a small gypsy camp on the outskirts of town to see a doctor.The traditional New England winter hadn't arrived yet, and apart from the bare branches, it looked like a cool September afternoon. Things were different with the gypsies, and their camp wasn't much fun.They had come here about a month ago, in a wagon drawn by half a dozen horses, and pitched their tents on an unused pasture on the old Haskin's farm.Minnie Haskin, an old widow in her seventies, had promised them to live there, but Sergeant Lens and some of the town were not happy.Occasionally, when gypsies went to the grocery store to buy food, they were treated very unkindly. I went to their camp once to see a sick child.Today I decided it was time for a follow-up visit.I knew there was little chance of getting a consultation fee, unless I was willing to have a gypsy woman tell my fortune for me.But I still think that's what I should do. "Look, Dr. Sam!" said Ib, when we could see the gypsy wagons, "isn't that Reverend Wegg's wagon?" "It sure looks like it." I wasn't surprised to find Reverend Wegg visiting the gypsies.He has been a controversial figure since he arrived in town as lead pastor of the First New England Church in the spring.He started by reopening the old Baptist church in the center of town, announcing regular services there.He appeared to be a good man, leading a simple life.Find the simplest solution to any problem - this is why many people don't like him.Contrary to popular belief, New Englanders are not very simple people. "Morning, Dr. Sam," he called when he saw our car coming up.He was standing beside a gypsy wagon, talking to two small dark-haired children. "Good morning, Aibo. What brought the two of you here?" "I came in to see a kid a while back and thought I'd see how he was doing." I got my bag from the car and walked over to them, already recognizing my patient, Tenny, as One of the two children with the priest. "Hello, Tiny, are you okay?" He was about eleven or twelve and would be shy with gadjo (outsiders) like me who were not gypsies. "It's fine," he finally said. "Is he the sick kid?" Reverend Wegg asked. I nodded. "Throat irritation, but seems to be healed." At this moment, Tiny's father came around from the side of the caravan.He was a swarthy, brooding man with a black beard and black hair that grew over his ears, and he wore little gold earrings.Although Reverend Weig was about the same size as him, and both appeared to be in their thirties, they were very different.In addition to the weakness of his right hand due to an old arm injury, Kalenza Rovana is a person full of strength and vitality. In contrast, Weig gives the impression of frail body, with thinning hair in the front and still He wore very thick glasses to correct his poor eyesight. "You're here again, doctor?" Tenny's father asked. "Yes, Kalenza. Here I go again." He nodded, then glanced at Aibo. "Is this your wife?" "No, it's my nurse, Aibo, and this is Kalenza Rovana, the leader of the group of gypsies." Aibo took a step forward, opened her eyes wide, and shook his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you." "I'm trying to help these people settle down for the winter," explained Reverend Wigg. "These wagons aren't a good place for twenty people. These two tents aren't much better." "We've had winters before," says Kalenza Rovana.He speaks English very well, but still with an accent I don't know, I guess it's Central European. "But that's not in New England," the priest explained, turning to me. "They came up from the South, like most gypsies. I've had contact with them elsewhere before. Spain brought the gypsies hundreds of years ago." people were exiled to Latin America, and they've been slowly moving north since then." "Is that so?" I asked Rovana. "You guys are from Latin America?" "A long time ago," he replied. I happened to glance back at my car.I saw a barefoot woman in a shiny dress, looking intently at my car.I saw her too on my last visit, and guessed she was Rovana's wife or woman. "Is she from your family?" I asked. "Come here, Volga." The woman came quickly, and I saw that she was much younger than I thought.Of course he was not a child, but he was only in his early twenties.She was more beautiful than most gypsy women, with high cheekbones and slightly raised eyes, and she seemed to have some oriental blood.I introduced her to Aibo, and they went to see other caravans together. "She's my wife," Rovana explained. "Tiny's mother?" "yes." "She seems very young." "Gypsy women are usually married very young, that's the custom. When should you come to a gypsy wedding and see how the groom steals the marriage. It's not like your Christian wedding, priest." "I suppose it's different," replied Reverend Wegg grimly, "but if I'm going to a gypsy wedding, you'll have to give me the honor of going to my church." The gypsy shook his head. "People in your town don't like us." "Perhaps they'd like you better if they saw you come to Christmas service." Rovana shrugged. "We have no religion and going to your church is like going to anything else." "Come on, then, on Christmas Day. It's only two weeks. Once you get to know the people, and be friendly with them, you might be able to get an old barn to spend the winter in." "Will the barn be warmer than our tent? I can't see it." "Come anyway," pleaded the priest, "you won't regret it." The gypsy nodded. "I'll talk to the others and I think you'll see us in two weeks." Reverend Wegg walks me back to my convertible. "I think it would do the town a favor if they showed up on Christmas morning. Nobody can hate their fellow Christians at Christmas." "Some people say they are beggars and thieves, they say those women are good for nothing but fortune-telling." "They're just like us. They're souls," Pastor Weig reminded me. "I agree, you just need to convince your few hundred compatriots." I don't have to remind him that his own popularity in Beishan Town is not very high at the moment. Ib came back from visiting the other caravans and we waved Goodbye to Reverend Wigg and drove off. "He's really trying to help those people," she said. "That Volja thinks very highly of the pastor." "She is Rovana's wife. She must be a so-called baby bride. I treated her son, but I never knew she was the child's mother." "There's an old woman in a wagon who can tell fortunes," said Aibo, and chuckled. "Did she tell your fate for you?" Aibo nodded. "Say I'm going to get married soon." "Great." Aibo is a few years older than me, in her thirties, and not the most beautiful woman in town.I think the old gypsy woman has a deep understanding of human nature.
It was snowing on Christmas morning, and from a distance down the street Reverend Wigg's church looked as it always did on a greeting card.I'm not a churchgoer myself, but decided to make an appearance.Last Christmas I spent all day at a farm delivering a baby, and sitting in church for an hour couldn't have been more difficult. Reverend Weig was outside the front door of the church, greeting all who came.He wore thick clothes because of the cold and snow.I waved to him and stopped to chat with Eustace Corey, the owner of one of the two grocery stores in North Hills. "How are you? Doc, Merry Christmas." "And you too, Eustace. We've had fine weather for the holidays—a silver Christmas. Not so white, though." "They say those gypsies are coming to worship. Have you heard of that?" "No, but anyway, it's Christmas and there's nothing wrong with them going to church." Eustace said contemptuously, "It's wrong that they shouldn't be here at all, and I think they bewitched old Minnie to make her agree to let them camp on her land. You know, those gypsy women Very clever." I was about to answer when suddenly there was a murmur of voices in the waiting congregation, and a pair of horses came straight down the middle of the road, drawing a gypsy wagon full of people. "Looks like they've arrived," I said to Corey. From this point of view, it was obvious that Reverend Weig was standing in the snow waiting for this moment.He walked quickly to the caravan, greeted Rovana and the others very politely, and it looked as if all the gypsies had come, even the children, and after the priest shook hands with them, they filed into the church . "I don't like them," Corey said, looking behind his back. "They look weird, smell weird, and have weird names." "Oh, I don't know that, Eustace." We followed the gypsies into the church and sat down in a chair in front.I looked around for Aibo before I remembered that she was in the Catholic church across town. After waiting for a while, Reverend Weig stepped out in his traditional black robe and white cassock.He took a Bible in his hand and stepped up to the pulpit.start speaking. "First of all, I would like to wish every member of my parish congregation — and I feel you are all my parish congregation — the happiest Christmas and the happiest New Year. I see that 1926 was A promising year, a year to build our spiritual life." I was never good at listening to sermons.I found that my eyes had been looking at the gypsies two rows ahead.Even preaching bores them.They concealed their feelings very well.Sitting directly behind them, not very happy about it, was old Minnie Haskin who had promised them the land. Later, after Pastor Weig finished his sermon, he also said a prayer.After we had all sung the obligatory Christmas carols, I found Minnie Haskin at the back of the church.For all her age she was a nimble little woman, coming and going with vigor. "Hello, Dr. Sam," she greeted me, "Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas, Minnie, how's your leg?" "Fantastic," she kicked her leg to show me, "a little rheumatism is nothing to me!" Then she pulled me aside as the others left, and whispered, "These gypsies What are you doing out here, doctor? I've got me in enough trouble just having them live on my farm. And now they're coming to church!" "It's Christmas, Minnie. I think they're welcome in church on Christmas Day." "Well. A lot of people are upset with Reverend Wigg because he invited them, I tell you." "I have heard no complaints, except from Eustace Corey." "Hey, there are others besides him." At this time Corey came over, still chattering. "And if I can get the vicar aside, I'll tell him what's on my mind. It's bad enough to have a church full of gypsies, and he's got them in the front." "Where are they now?" I asked. "Do you believe it? He even took them up to the bell tower to show them the scenery." I followed them out onto the sidewalk and looked up amidst the fluttering snow to see the soaring church steeple, although there were windows for the bell tower on all four white walls, since it was a Baptist church , never rang the bell.The Baptists had taken the clock to the new church they were building in Groveland, and Reverend Wigg had not yet raised enough money to buy a new one. As we watched, the gypsies started coming out of the church and back into their caravan. "They can't read, they can't write, you know," Corey said, "none of the gypsies can." "Probably because no one taught them," I replied, "it would be helpful to send a little kid like Tiny to school." "Well," Corey said, "I'm still going to talk to the pastor about it, when I catch him alone." I looked around for Minnie, but she was gone, engulfed in falling snow.Now the big white snowflakes are blowing in the wind, we can barely see across the street.I could feel the snow flakes cold against my face, hanging from my eyelashes, and I decided it was time for me to go home.Just then Volga Rovana came out of the church and got into the wagon.With a flick of the reins from the driver, they set off. "I'm going to see the pastor now," Corey said. "Wait a minute," I said.I may be mistaken, but I don't recall seeing Kalenza leave the church, and he probably stayed to talk to Reverend Wegg. "Fuck it," Corey said finally, his hat and coat covered in big flakes of snow. "I want to go back." "Good-bye, Eustace, and Merry Christmas to you all," said it so as to avoid making any obvious reference to his wife's absence from Christmas church with him. I don't think I need to wait any longer.When Corey disappeared into the snowflakes, I started to walk in the opposite direction, but ran into Sergeant Lens. "Hello, Dr. Sam, just from church?" "Exactly. What a snowy Christmas, eh?" "Kids with new sledges. See Reverend Wegg?" "He's in church. What's the matter?" "It's funny, let me tell you." But before he could say anything, the familiar figure of Reverend Wigg appeared at the door of the church, still wearing his long black robe, but not the white cassock.For a split second, it seemed like a light reflected off his heavy glasses. "Reverend Wegg!" cried the Sheriff, as he began to walk up the steps of the church through the snow. Weig turned and walked into the church, banging on the doorpost, as if seeing Sergeant Lance suddenly frightened him.The sheriff and I hurried to the back of the church just in time to see Wegg's black robe disappear up the stairs to the bell tower. "Damn it!" Lan Si said angrily, "He even closed the door, is he hiding from us?" I tried the bell tower door and it was bolted from the inside. "He can't avoid us by going up. There's no other way up there." "Let me fix that door." It was an old church. Sergeant Lansi pulled hard, and the wood around the latch cracked. Pull hard again.The door opened. Lan Si led the way up the wooden stairs. "We're coming up, Reverend," he called aloud. No response above. We got to the bell tower, pushed open the floor door above us, and the first thing I saw was Reverend Wegg.Lying on the floor a few feet away, he was lying face up, the jeweled hilt of a small gypsy dagger protruding from the middle of his chest. "My God!" cried Inspector Lan Si, "he was killed!" From the open floor door I could see the whole empty bell tower, and the snowflakes flying around us, as if there was no other living being on it with us. But then something made me turn to look behind the open floor door. Kalenza Rovana squatted there with a frightened expression on his face. "I didn't kill him," he cried, "you must believe me—I didn't kill him!"
This is really the worst secret room mystery I have ever seen, because if there is no "room" at all, how can it be called a secret room? —It was empty on all sides.And the man who was clearly the murderer was right next to the body and the murder weapon.How can it be called a mystery? But—first, I'd better tell you a little more about the clock tower, because it was the first time I was on it, and some parts are not so clear from the ground.The big clock has been moved, yes, but the wooden frame of the original clock is still there.A round hole was also cut in the floor, about four inches in diameter, through which the thick rope which used to ring the bell passed down. But the most unexpected thing about the clock tower of Reverend Wiggs is that the four empty windows are covered with strips of very thin barbed wire, like the nets of chicken coops, and the interval between each two is about two inches. Since it was obviously not to keep flies from getting in, it made me think for a while about the purpose of the installation. "Anti-birds," Chief Lan Sijian noticed my confusion and explained, "He doesn't want birds to nest here." I snorted. "The net is so thin that it cannot be seen from the street." Wegg's body was removed, and the gypsy was arrested, but we remained, looking out through the fine net into the street below. "The news has already spread," Lan Si said, "Look at the crowd." "More than churchgoers. I guess that gives you an idea of what the crowd is about." "Do you think the gypsy did it, doctor?" "Who else? Just him and Wegg up there." Sergeant Lan Si scratched his thinning hair. "But why kill him? God knows, Wegg is their friend!" There was a sound from below, and Eustace Corey's head poked out through the open floor door. "I just heard about the pastor," he said. "What's the matter?" "He was showing the gypsies up there to see the scenery, and everyone went down except Rowana, and I guess he must be hiding here. We saw Reverend Wegg go down to the gate and look at the gypsies. Go away, I was trying to speak to him, and he ran almost as if to avoid us, and bolted the door to the bell tower below. By the time Dr. Sam and I got up there, he was dead, the gypsy A man's knife was stuck in his chest." "Is there no one else up there?" "not even one." Corey walked to both sides of the bell tower, where there was wind blown snow on the floor. "There are footprints here." "He brought a lot of gypsies up there. Footsteps don't make sense," Sergeant Lens said, walking over to the open floor door. I suddenly remembered one thing. "Sheriff, we both agree that Weig looks like he's avoiding you. What's the matter with you trying to get him?" Chief Lan Si snorted. "Now that he's dead, it doesn't matter," He replied and walked downstairs.
When I arrived at the clinic the next morning, I was surprised to find Aibo waiting for me.It was Saturday and I told her she didn't have to go to work.The reason I came here was only to pick up the letters and to make sure no one left me anything.Most of my patients will call my home if they need to see me on weekends, but they are always afraid of emergency. But this time the emergency situation is not what I imagined. "Doctor Sam, that gypsy woman—Volga—is inside, and she came to me early this morning, and she's very upset that her husband has been arrested, can you talk to her?" "I'll see what I can do." Volja waited inside, her face stained with tears, her eyes full of despair. "Oh, Dr. Hawthorne, you must do him a favor! I know he's innocent! He couldn't have killed Reverend Wigg like that—the Reverend is our friend." "Calm down," I said, shaking her hand, "we'll do what we can to help him." "Can you go to jail? Some say he'll be lynched!" "There can't be anything like that here," I insisted.But I recalled an incident in the history of Beishan Township in my mind, after the Civil War.A negro who passed by with a gypsy woman was literally lynched. "Anyway, I'll go talk to him." I left her in Ib's care and walked the snow-covered streets to the town jail three blocks away.Sergeant Lens was there, along with an unexpected visitor—Minnie Huskin. "Hello, Minnie. It's not a very merry Christmas in this town, is it?" "Indeed, Dr. Sam." "Are you here to visit the prison?" "I want to know when they're going to leave my place. I went to the caravan this morning. But they only say that Kalenza is their leader, and they can't go if Kalenza doesn't tell them to go." "I thought you promised to let them stay." "Well, that was before they killed Reverend Wegg," she replied, reflecting the town's opinion. "I want to talk to that prisoner," I said to Sergeant Lens. "It's a little out of line." "All right, Sheriff." He grimaces, and pulls out the cell key.We found the gypsy sitting on the edge of the iron bed, staring blankly.He stood up when he saw me go in, as if he sensed that it was a friend. "Doctor, are you here to let me out?" "Five minutes," said Sergeant Lens, and locked Rowana and me in that cell. "Kalenza, I'm here because your wife Volga asked me to. But if I'm going to help you, I must know what happened yesterday in the bell tower." "I'm telling the truth. I didn't kill Pastor Wigg." "What are you going there for? Why don't you go with Volja and the others?" He smoothed back his long black hair that covered his ears. "Can a gadjo (outsider) like you understand this kind of thing? I stayed because I had a familial feeling for that person who considered himself a rom (Gypsy) and I wanted to privately Talk to him." "What happened?" "He followed the others down, left the bell tower, and stood at the door to watch them go on their way. Then he came back upstairs quickly. I heard him bolt the lower door, as if he was afraid that someone would follow him. When he came from I was turning around when the floor door came up, I didn't see what was going on, just heard a slow gasp, like a deep sigh, and I turned around. Just in time to see him Fall back on the floor." "You didn't see anyone else?" "There's no one else here." "Could he have been stabbed in the first place?" I asked. "While down in the church?" "With a knife stuck in his body, it is impossible to climb such a high staircase," Rovana shook his head and said, "He died on the spot with that knife." "And the knife? You admit that the jeweled dagger is yours?" He shrugged. "It's mine. I had it under my coat yesterday, but I was jostled in the crowd after service and it was stolen." "You don't know it yourself? It's unbelievable." "But, that's the truth." "Why would anyone want to kill Reverend Wigg?" I asked. He smiled slightly and spread his hands towards me. "That way the gypsies can be blamed," he said, as if it was the most logical reason in the world.
By the time I walked back to the church, the snow had stopped falling.In my pocket was the jewel-encrusted dagger that had killed Reverend Wegg, neatly wrapped in newspaper.The sheriff, having given up hope of fingerprinting the fake ruby-encrusted handle, promised me to borrow it for an experiment. It occurred to me that knives could be thrown or shot from a distance, and possibly so thin that they could pass through strips of bird-proof wire.To test my theory, I walked into a church that was unguarded.Climb to the bell tower on the steeple again. But I was wrong. Yes, a knife could barely fit through the middle of the barbed wire.But whether it was stabbing straight or at an angle, the crosspiece—the guard of the knife handle—could not pass through.It is impossible to throw or shoot in from the outside. Now only Kalenza Rovana remained. The only possible murderer. Did he lie? Thinking back to the moment Sergeant Lan Si and I found him standing next to the dead body, recalling the horror on his face, I always feel that I don't believe that he can be the murderer. I went back downstairs again, and walked around the rows of seats, hoping for a flash of inspiration.Finally I put the dagger back in my coat pocket and went out.As I cut across the snowy side yard, something caught my eye, something as white as the snow, half buried in it. I pulled it out and saw that it was a white vestment like the one that Reverend Weig wore to church.There was a dark red mark on it, and a crack about an inch long. I grabbed the dress in my hands.Stand there for a while, then turn and look up at the church steeple rising above me.
"I think we'll have to send that gypsy to the county jail," Sheriff Lence said when I returned to the jail and carefully placed the dagger back on his desk. "Why, Sheriff?" "Eustace Corey says there's talk of a lynching. I know they won't do it, but I can't take the risk. It happened fifty years ago, and there's no guarantee it won't happen again." I sat down across from him. "Sheriff, there is something you must tell me. That man's life and death may be on this matter. You went to Reverend Wigg for some reason on Christmas Day, and it is something that cannot even wait until the festival is over." thing." Sergeant Lansi looked a little uneasy. "I told you - it doesn't matter now." "But don't you see that it matters a lot--and it matters more now than ever?" The sheriff got up and went to the window.We can see a small group of people across the square looking out at the prison.This must have made him make up his mind. "Perhaps you're right, doctor. I'm getting too old to keep a secret anyway. You know, the Hartford police sent a report suggesting I check on Reverend Wegg. Doesn't look like he's really a Reverend." .” "what?" "He was a pastor in Hartford for two years, and then someone checked his background and kicked him out of town. Some people said he was a fraudster, and some people thought he was more interested in Women in the parish. Regardless of the truth, this man's background is very questionable." "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" "Didn't I say that this man is dead now. Why bother to discredit him? He didn't hurt anyone in Beishan Town." The door opened, and Eustace Corey burst in, followed by half a dozen local merchants. "We've got to talk, Sheriff. Talk badly all over the place, and even you can't keep it. Someone might be going to set fire to the gypsy caravan." At this point, I knew I had to speak. "Wait a minute," I said, "be quiet, everybody, while I tell you what happened to Reverend Wegg. He wasn't killed by that gypsy, or by some unseen demon. , unless you count the devil in his heart." "What do you mean by that?" Corey asked. I told them what I had just heard from Inspector Lens. "Do you understand? You understand it like this? The pastor was standing at the door of the church, and then he saw us walking towards him, because he saw the sheriff, so he was terrified. He knew that the matter had been exposed. Otherwise Why did he turn and run back to the church, and climb the stairs to the bell tower, and bolt the door from the inside? It was fear that made him climb up there, to face Sergeant Lens and the truth of the matter." "But who killed him?" "When he heard the latch was broken, and we came upstairs, he knew his mask was about to be unmasked, and he took the gypsy dagger and stabbed himself in the chest. There was no Some invisible murderer, or some impossible crime, Reverend Wigg committed suicide." Of course, it took a lot of convincing them that this was the only possible answer.You know, I also had to borrow Kalenza to explain that he couldn't have stabbed the priest to death with his right hand because of an old injury to his arm.I then proved from the angle of the wound that it was done by a right-handed man - or that he had stabbed himself. "There's no one else up there," I explained, "and if Kalenza Rovana didn't kill him, he must have killed himself, simple as that."
They released Rowana the next morning, and Sergeant Lance drove him back to the gypsy camp in the only police car in town.I stood at the door of my clinic and watched them go, and Aibo said, "Can you close the door? Doctor, you have solved another case. Can't you let the poor man go home?" "I have one more thing to do, Aibo," I said to her, "see you later." I got in my convertible and drove up the rutted and snow-stained road straight up to Minnie Haskin's farm, I didn't stop in front of her house, and continued around the back until I got to the Jeep Racer's camp.When Volja saw me get out of the car, she ran out of the snow to meet me. "How can we thank you, Dr. Hawthorne? You got my husband out of jail. You even saved his life." "Go get him now and I'll tell you how you can thank me." I stood by the car and waited, not wanting to get any closer to the wagon, and I saw Tiny Tiny playing in the snow.At this moment Kalenza was in front of me, and Volja followed him. "I want to thank you," he said, "for setting me free." I looked at the snow in the distance. "I want to thank you too. You taught me that there are different ways to cheat - the gadjo (outsider) way and the rom (gypsy) way." As I spoke, I reached out and pulled his long black hair.My hair was pulled out of my hands, and Volja gasped.Without the wig, he was almost bald and looked at least ten years older.I also pulled the beard off his lips, and he didn't stop me. "Well, Doctor," he said, "it's a little deception, and you're going to arrest me again for wearing a wig and a false beard? Are you going to say I killed Reverend Wegg in the end?" I shook my head. "No, Kalenza. That doesn't tell me that you killed Wegg. But it does tell me that Volja killed him."
She gasped again, and took a step back as if she had been slapped by me. "This man is a devil!" she said to her husband. "How could he know!" "Shut up!" Kalenza ordered.Then he turned to me and said, "Why are you saying those things?" "Well, I proved to myself that you didn't kill Wegg. But I don't believe at all that a man like him would kill himself just because the sheriff wanted to talk to him. And yet he ran away from us. This That was the point—the key to the crime, the key to the impossibility. I was looking in the church yard earlier, and I found this in the snowdrifts." I took the bloody surplice Pulled out from under my coat. "What does this prove?" "See the gash where the knife went in? And the blood? Reverend Wigg must have been wearing this surplice when he was stabbed, but the sheriff and I saw him at the church door without his surplice. We Can it be believed that he went up to the bell tower, put on his cassock, stabbed himself, then managed to take the cassock off, put the knife back in his chest, and die?—and all this time we've been trying to break in ?Of course not! "So what is the only possible situation? If the body on the bell tower is Wegg, then the priest we saw at the door is not Wegg. He turned away from us only because if Sergeant Lance and I were to come again." Get closer and we'll see he's not Weig." Volja paled and remained silent while I spoke. “如果不是韦格，那会是谁呢？呃，穿黑色长袍的那个人跑上了钟楼。我们紧跟在他后面，发现上面有两个人——已经死了的韦格和活着的罗瓦纳。如果那个穿黑袍的人不是韦格——而我已经说明他不是了——那他一定就是你，卡伦扎。” “猜得好。” “还不止如此。我起先就注意到你们两个身材差不多，由远处看来，你最显眼的地方就是你的黑头发和胡子。可是我记得两个礼拜以前我在这里的那天注意到你的耳环露在你的短头发底下。等到我到牢里看你的时候，你的头发却长得遮住了你的耳朵。头发在两个礼拜之内不会长得那么快，所以我知道你戴的是假发，如果头发是假的，那胡子也有可能是假的——只是用来增添你吉普赛人形象的道具，是骗那些gadjo（外人）的道具。” “你证明了在那一小段时间里我扮成韦格，你并没有证明是沃尔嘉杀了他。” “哎，你装成韦格的样子能达到什么目的呢？从远处看过去，我们的视线又被落雪弄得模模糊糊的，警长和我只看到一个穿黑袍的高个子男人，戴着韦格的厚厚眼镜。要是我们没有追着你的话，我们可能就走开了，相信在沃尔嘉和其他的人都走了之后，韦格还活着，不过你出了两个差错。你在教堂门口转身躲开我们的时候，撞上了门柱，因为你不习惯他的厚眼镜。另外昨天在牢里，你向我形容韦格站在教堂门口——可是如果你真像你所说的一直都在钟楼上的话，你根本就看不到。” “这还是扯不到沃尔嘉身上，”那个吉普赛人坚持道。 “你那样做。很明显地不是在保护你自己，因为那并不能给你什么不在场证明。没有人看到你离开教堂。你那样暂时冒充别人唯一可能的目的，就是要保护另外一个人——真正的凶手。然后我记起来沃尔嘉是最后一个离开教堂的吉普赛人。她一个人和韦格在那里面，她是你的太太，也是最可能带着你的匕首的人。放在哪里？在你的丝袜头上？沃尔嘉？” 她用两手捂着脸。“他——他想要——” “我知道。韦格其实不是个真正的牧师，他以前就因为染指教区里的妇人而惹出麻烦过。他想在那里非礼你，是不是？对他来说，你不过是个漂亮的吉普赛女子。他知道你绝对不会张扬的。你反抗他，你的手摸到了你一向带着的匕首，你在钟楼上刺了他一刀，将他杀死。然后你在教堂里找到了卡伦扎，把你做的事告诉了他。” “那会是一个吉普赛人的一面之词来对抗一个牧师的名声，”卡伦扎说，“他们绝不会相信她的话。我让她坐篷车回去。想办法弄得看起来好像他还活着。” I nodded. “你穿上他的黑袍，因为从远处看来，不会看见黑衣服上染血的裂缝。可是白色法衣就绝对会显出血迹了。你后来的时间刚够把黑袍穿回在韦格身上，把法衣从防鸟的网子缝里塞出去，免得别人在钟楼上发现，你不能把白法衣穿回尸体上，因为你先前在楼下就没有穿着。” 卡伦扎·罗瓦纳叹了口气。“我一只手无力，做起来真困难。我才把黑袍穿回在尸体上，下面门闩就断了。你现在要叫警长来吗？” 我望着他的儿子和其他的吉普赛人玩在一起，心里想着我是否有权力来审判。最后，我说道：“收拾好你们的篷车。天黑以前离开，永远不要再靠近北山镇。” “可是——”卡伦扎开口说道。 “韦格不是个好人，不过也许还不至于坏到该得那样的报应。我不知道。我只知道如果你们留在这里的话，我可能会改变主意。” 沃尔嘉走到我面前。“现在我欠你的更多了。” “走吧。这只是我给你们的圣诞礼物，走吧，免得那像融雪一样地消失了。” 不到一个钟点，篷车队就上路了，这回是往南走。也许他们已经受够了我们新英格兰的冬天。
“这件事我从来没告诉过任何人，”山姆·霍桑医生总结道，“那是我第一次自己来审判是非，而我始终不知道我做得对不对。” 他喝完了最后一点白兰地，站了起来。“到了一九二六年的春天，一个有名的法国罪犯躲到了北山镇。他有个绰号叫泥鳅，因为他最擅长逃遁。不过我把这个故事留到下回再说。你走之前，要不要再来点——呃——喝的？”
Notes:
Ever since little Tommy Belmont was kidnapped and found.Beishan Town had a peaceful autumn.In fact, probably the biggest news around town is that the new Ford dealership across Mid Creek will soon start selling dark green and maroon cars in addition to the traditional black ones. "Look, Dr. Sam," said Ib, my nurse, "you won't be the only one with a bright yellow car around here anytime soon." "Dark green is nowhere near maroon and yellow," I reminded her.It was her favorite thing to do about my 1921 Arrow convertible.In my first winter in Beishan Town, I used to put the convertible on a big wooden block and drive the horse-drawn carriage to the doctor, but now I am more daring, as long as there is no snow on the road, I still drive out. On this day, about two weeks before Christmas, Abby and I were driving to a small gypsy camp on the outskirts of town to see a doctor.The traditional New England winter hadn't arrived yet, and apart from the bare branches, it looked like a cool September afternoon. Things were different with the gypsies, and their camp wasn't much fun.They had come here about a month ago, in a wagon drawn by half a dozen horses, and pitched their tents on an unused pasture on the old Haskin's farm.Minnie Haskin, an old widow in her seventies, had promised them to live there, but Sergeant Lens and some of the town were not happy.Occasionally, when gypsies went to the grocery store to buy food, they were treated very unkindly. I went to their camp once to see a sick child.Today I decided it was time for a follow-up visit.I knew there was little chance of getting a consultation fee, unless I was willing to have a gypsy woman tell my fortune for me.But I still think that's what I should do. "Look, Dr. Sam!" said Ib, when we could see the gypsy wagons, "isn't that Reverend Wegg's wagon?" "It sure looks like it." I wasn't surprised to find Reverend Wegg visiting the gypsies.He has been a controversial figure since he arrived in town as lead pastor of the First New England Church in the spring.He started by reopening the old Baptist church in the center of town, announcing regular services there.He appeared to be a good man, leading a simple life.Find the simplest solution to any problem - this is why many people don't like him.Contrary to popular belief, New Englanders are not very simple people. "Morning, Dr. Sam," he called when he saw our car coming up.He was standing beside a gypsy wagon, talking to two small dark-haired children. "Good morning, Aibo. What brought the two of you here?" "I came in to see a kid a while back and thought I'd see how he was doing." I got my bag from the car and walked over to them, already recognizing my patient, Tenny, as One of the two children with the priest. "Hello, Tiny, are you okay?" He was about eleven or twelve and would be shy with gadjo (outsiders) like me who were not gypsies. "It's fine," he finally said. "Is he the sick kid?" Reverend Wegg asked. I nodded. "Throat irritation, but seems to be healed." At this moment, Tiny's father came around from the side of the caravan.He was a swarthy, brooding man with a black beard and black hair that grew over his ears, and he wore little gold earrings.Although Reverend Weig was about the same size as him, and both appeared to be in their thirties, they were very different.In addition to the weakness of his right hand due to an old arm injury, Kalenza Rovana is a person full of strength and vitality. In contrast, Weig gives the impression of frail body, with thinning hair in the front and still He wore very thick glasses to correct his poor eyesight. "You're here again, doctor?" Tenny's father asked. "Yes, Kalenza. Here I go again." He nodded, then glanced at Aibo. "Is this your wife?" "No, it's my nurse, Aibo, and this is Kalenza Rovana, the leader of the group of gypsies." Aibo took a step forward, opened her eyes wide, and shook his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you." "I'm trying to help these people settle down for the winter," explained Reverend Wigg. "These wagons aren't a good place for twenty people. These two tents aren't much better." "We've had winters before," says Kalenza Rovana.He speaks English very well, but still with an accent I don't know, I guess it's Central European. "But that's not in New England," the priest explained, turning to me. "They came up from the South, like most gypsies. I've had contact with them elsewhere before. Spain brought the gypsies hundreds of years ago." people were exiled to Latin America, and they've been slowly moving north since then." "Is that so?" I asked Rovana. "You guys are from Latin America?" "A long time ago," he replied. I happened to glance back at my car.I saw a barefoot woman in a shiny dress, looking intently at my car.I saw her too on my last visit, and guessed she was Rovana's wife or woman. "Is she from your family?" I asked. "Come here, Volga." The woman came quickly, and I saw that she was much younger than I thought.Of course he was not a child, but he was only in his early twenties.She was more beautiful than most gypsy women, with high cheekbones and slightly raised eyes, and she seemed to have some oriental blood.I introduced her to Aibo, and they went to see other caravans together. "She's my wife," Rovana explained. "Tiny's mother?" "yes." "She seems very young." "Gypsy women are usually married very young, that's the custom. When should you come to a gypsy wedding and see how the groom steals the marriage. It's not like your Christian wedding, priest." "I suppose it's different," replied Reverend Wegg grimly, "but if I'm going to a gypsy wedding, you'll have to give me the honor of going to my church." The gypsy shook his head. "People in your town don't like us." "Perhaps they'd like you better if they saw you come to Christmas service." Rovana shrugged. "We have no religion and going to your church is like going to anything else." "Come on, then, on Christmas Day. It's only two weeks. Once you get to know the people, and be friendly with them, you might be able to get an old barn to spend the winter in." "Will the barn be warmer than our tent? I can't see it." "Come anyway," pleaded the priest, "you won't regret it." The gypsy nodded. "I'll talk to the others and I think you'll see us in two weeks." Reverend Wegg walks me back to my convertible. "I think it would do the town a favor if they showed up on Christmas morning. Nobody can hate their fellow Christians at Christmas." "Some people say they are beggars and thieves, they say those women are good for nothing but fortune-telling." "They're just like us. They're souls," Pastor Weig reminded me. "I agree, you just need to convince your few hundred compatriots." I don't have to remind him that his own popularity in Beishan Town is not very high at the moment. Ib came back from visiting the other caravans and we waved Goodbye to Reverend Wigg and drove off. "He's really trying to help those people," she said. "That Volja thinks very highly of the pastor." "She is Rovana's wife. She must be a so-called baby bride. I treated her son, but I never knew she was the child's mother." "There's an old woman in a wagon who can tell fortunes," said Aibo, and chuckled. "Did she tell your fate for you?" Aibo nodded. "Say I'm going to get married soon." "Great." Aibo is a few years older than me, in her thirties, and not the most beautiful woman in town.I think the old gypsy woman has a deep understanding of human nature.
It was snowing on Christmas morning, and from a distance down the street Reverend Wigg's church looked as it always did on a greeting card.I'm not a churchgoer myself, but decided to make an appearance.Last Christmas I spent all day at a farm delivering a baby, and sitting in church for an hour couldn't have been more difficult. Reverend Weig was outside the front door of the church, greeting all who came.He wore thick clothes because of the cold and snow.I waved to him and stopped to chat with Eustace Corey, the owner of one of the two grocery stores in North Hills. "How are you? Doc, Merry Christmas." "And you too, Eustace. We've had fine weather for the holidays—a silver Christmas. Not so white, though." "They say those gypsies are coming to worship. Have you heard of that?" "No, but anyway, it's Christmas and there's nothing wrong with them going to church." Eustace said contemptuously, "It's wrong that they shouldn't be here at all, and I think they bewitched old Minnie to make her agree to let them camp on her land. You know, those gypsy women Very clever." I was about to answer when suddenly there was a murmur of voices in the waiting congregation, and a pair of horses came straight down the middle of the road, drawing a gypsy wagon full of people. "Looks like they've arrived," I said to Corey. From this point of view, it was obvious that Reverend Weig was standing in the snow waiting for this moment.He walked quickly to the caravan, greeted Rovana and the others very politely, and it looked as if all the gypsies had come, even the children, and after the priest shook hands with them, they filed into the church . "I don't like them," Corey said, looking behind his back. "They look weird, smell weird, and have weird names." "Oh, I don't know that, Eustace." We followed the gypsies into the church and sat down in a chair in front.I looked around for Aibo before I remembered that she was in the Catholic church across town. After waiting for a while, Reverend Weig stepped out in his traditional black robe and white cassock.He took a Bible in his hand and stepped up to the pulpit.start speaking. "First of all, I would like to wish every member of my parish congregation — and I feel you are all my parish congregation — the happiest Christmas and the happiest New Year. I see that 1926 was A promising year, a year to build our spiritual life." I was never good at listening to sermons.I found that my eyes had been looking at the gypsies two rows ahead.Even preaching bores them.They concealed their feelings very well.Sitting directly behind them, not very happy about it, was old Minnie Haskin who had promised them the land. Later, after Pastor Weig finished his sermon, he also said a prayer.After we had all sung the obligatory Christmas carols, I found Minnie Haskin at the back of the church.For all her age she was a nimble little woman, coming and going with vigor. "Hello, Dr. Sam," she greeted me, "Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas, Minnie, how's your leg?" "Fantastic," she kicked her leg to show me, "a little rheumatism is nothing to me!" Then she pulled me aside as the others left, and whispered, "These gypsies What are you doing out here, doctor? I've got me in enough trouble just having them live on my farm. And now they're coming to church!" "It's Christmas, Minnie. I think they're welcome in church on Christmas Day." "Well. A lot of people are upset with Reverend Wigg because he invited them, I tell you." "I have heard no complaints, except from Eustace Corey." "Hey, there are others besides him." At this time Corey came over, still chattering. "And if I can get the vicar aside, I'll tell him what's on my mind. It's bad enough to have a church full of gypsies, and he's got them in the front." "Where are they now?" I asked. "Do you believe it? He even took them up to the bell tower to show them the scenery." I followed them out onto the sidewalk and looked up amidst the fluttering snow to see the soaring church steeple, although there were windows for the bell tower on all four white walls, since it was a Baptist church , never rang the bell.The Baptists had taken the clock to the new church they were building in Groveland, and Reverend Wigg had not yet raised enough money to buy a new one. As we watched, the gypsies started coming out of the church and back into their caravan. "They can't read, they can't write, you know," Corey said, "none of the gypsies can." "Probably because no one taught them," I replied, "it would be helpful to send a little kid like Tiny to school." "Well," Corey said, "I'm still going to talk to the pastor about it, when I catch him alone." I looked around for Minnie, but she was gone, engulfed in falling snow.Now the big white snowflakes are blowing in the wind, we can barely see across the street.I could feel the snow flakes cold against my face, hanging from my eyelashes, and I decided it was time for me to go home.Just then Volga Rovana came out of the church and got into the wagon.With a flick of the reins from the driver, they set off. "I'm going to see the pastor now," Corey said. "Wait a minute," I said.I may be mistaken, but I don't recall seeing Kalenza leave the church, and he probably stayed to talk to Reverend Wegg. "Fuck it," Corey said finally, his hat and coat covered in big flakes of snow. "I want to go back." "Good-bye, Eustace, and Merry Christmas to you all," said it so as to avoid making any obvious reference to his wife's absence from Christmas church with him. I don't think I need to wait any longer.When Corey disappeared into the snowflakes, I started to walk in the opposite direction, but ran into Sergeant Lens. "Hello, Dr. Sam, just from church?" "Exactly. What a snowy Christmas, eh?" "Kids with new sledges. See Reverend Wegg?" "He's in church. What's the matter?" "It's funny, let me tell you." But before he could say anything, the familiar figure of Reverend Wigg appeared at the door of the church, still wearing his long black robe, but not the white cassock.For a split second, it seemed like a light reflected off his heavy glasses. "Reverend Wegg!" cried the Sheriff, as he began to walk up the steps of the church through the snow. Weig turned and walked into the church, banging on the doorpost, as if seeing Sergeant Lance suddenly frightened him.The sheriff and I hurried to the back of the church just in time to see Wegg's black robe disappear up the stairs to the bell tower. "Damn it!" Lan Si said angrily, "He even closed the door, is he hiding from us?" I tried the bell tower door and it was bolted from the inside. "He can't avoid us by going up. There's no other way up there." "Let me fix that door." It was an old church. Sergeant Lansi pulled hard, and the wood around the latch cracked. Pull hard again.The door opened. Lan Si led the way up the wooden stairs. "We're coming up, Reverend," he called aloud. No response above. We got to the bell tower, pushed open the floor door above us, and the first thing I saw was Reverend Wegg.Lying on the floor a few feet away, he was lying face up, the jeweled hilt of a small gypsy dagger protruding from the middle of his chest. "My God!" cried Inspector Lan Si, "he was killed!" From the open floor door I could see the whole empty bell tower, and the snowflakes flying around us, as if there was no other living being on it with us. But then something made me turn to look behind the open floor door. Kalenza Rovana squatted there with a frightened expression on his face. "I didn't kill him," he cried, "you must believe me—I didn't kill him!"
This is really the worst secret room mystery I have ever seen, because if there is no "room" at all, how can it be called a secret room? —It was empty on all sides.And the man who was clearly the murderer was right next to the body and the murder weapon.How can it be called a mystery? But—first, I'd better tell you a little more about the clock tower, because it was the first time I was on it, and some parts are not so clear from the ground.The big clock has been moved, yes, but the wooden frame of the original clock is still there.A round hole was also cut in the floor, about four inches in diameter, through which the thick rope which used to ring the bell passed down. But the most unexpected thing about the clock tower of Reverend Wiggs is that the four empty windows are covered with strips of very thin barbed wire, like the nets of chicken coops, and the interval between each two is about two inches. Since it was obviously not to keep flies from getting in, it made me think for a while about the purpose of the installation. "Anti-birds," Chief Lan Sijian noticed my confusion and explained, "He doesn't want birds to nest here." I snorted. "The net is so thin that it cannot be seen from the street." Wegg's body was removed, and the gypsy was arrested, but we remained, looking out through the fine net into the street below. "The news has already spread," Lan Si said, "Look at the crowd." "More than churchgoers. I guess that gives you an idea of what the crowd is about." "Do you think the gypsy did it, doctor?" "Who else? Just him and Wegg up there." Sergeant Lan Si scratched his thinning hair. "But why kill him? God knows, Wegg is their friend!" There was a sound from below, and Eustace Corey's head poked out through the open floor door. "I just heard about the pastor," he said. "What's the matter?" "He was showing the gypsies up there to see the scenery, and everyone went down except Rowana, and I guess he must be hiding here. We saw Reverend Wegg go down to the gate and look at the gypsies. Go away, I was trying to speak to him, and he ran almost as if to avoid us, and bolted the door to the bell tower below. By the time Dr. Sam and I got up there, he was dead, the gypsy A man's knife was stuck in his chest." "Is there no one else up there?" "not even one." Corey walked to both sides of the bell tower, where there was wind blown snow on the floor. "There are footprints here." "He brought a lot of gypsies up there. Footsteps don't make sense," Sergeant Lens said, walking over to the open floor door. I suddenly remembered one thing. "Sheriff, we both agree that Weig looks like he's avoiding you. What's the matter with you trying to get him?" Chief Lan Si snorted. "Now that he's dead, it doesn't matter," He replied and walked downstairs.
When I arrived at the clinic the next morning, I was surprised to find Aibo waiting for me.It was Saturday and I told her she didn't have to go to work.The reason I came here was only to pick up the letters and to make sure no one left me anything.Most of my patients will call my home if they need to see me on weekends, but they are always afraid of emergency. But this time the emergency situation is not what I imagined. "Doctor Sam, that gypsy woman—Volga—is inside, and she came to me early this morning, and she's very upset that her husband has been arrested, can you talk to her?" "I'll see what I can do." Volja waited inside, her face stained with tears, her eyes full of despair. "Oh, Dr. Hawthorne, you must do him a favor! I know he's innocent! He couldn't have killed Reverend Wigg like that—the Reverend is our friend." "Calm down," I said, shaking her hand, "we'll do what we can to help him." "Can you go to jail? Some say he'll be lynched!" "There can't be anything like that here," I insisted.But I recalled an incident in the history of Beishan Township in my mind, after the Civil War.A negro who passed by with a gypsy woman was literally lynched. "Anyway, I'll go talk to him." I left her in Ib's care and walked the snow-covered streets to the town jail three blocks away.Sergeant Lens was there, along with an unexpected visitor—Minnie Huskin. "Hello, Minnie. It's not a very merry Christmas in this town, is it?" "Indeed, Dr. Sam." "Are you here to visit the prison?" "I want to know when they're going to leave my place. I went to the caravan this morning. But they only say that Kalenza is their leader, and they can't go if Kalenza doesn't tell them to go." "I thought you promised to let them stay." "Well, that was before they killed Reverend Wegg," she replied, reflecting the town's opinion. "I want to talk to that prisoner," I said to Sergeant Lens. "It's a little out of line." "All right, Sheriff." He grimaces, and pulls out the cell key.We found the gypsy sitting on the edge of the iron bed, staring blankly.He stood up when he saw me go in, as if he sensed that it was a friend. "Doctor, are you here to let me out?" "Five minutes," said Sergeant Lens, and locked Rowana and me in that cell. "Kalenza, I'm here because your wife Volga asked me to. But if I'm going to help you, I must know what happened yesterday in the bell tower." "I'm telling the truth. I didn't kill Pastor Wigg." "What are you going there for? Why don't you go with Volja and the others?" He smoothed back his long black hair that covered his ears. "Can a gadjo (outsider) like you understand this kind of thing? I stayed because I had a familial feeling for that person who considered himself a rom (Gypsy) and I wanted to privately Talk to him." "What happened?" "He followed the others down, left the bell tower, and stood at the door to watch them go on their way. Then he came back upstairs quickly. I heard him bolt the lower door, as if he was afraid that someone would follow him. When he came from I was turning around when the floor door came up, I didn't see what was going on, just heard a slow gasp, like a deep sigh, and I turned around. Just in time to see him Fall back on the floor." "You didn't see anyone else?" "There's no one else here." "Could he have been stabbed in the first place?" I asked. "While down in the church?" "With a knife stuck in his body, it is impossible to climb such a high staircase," Rovana shook his head and said, "He died on the spot with that knife." "And the knife? You admit that the jeweled dagger is yours?" He shrugged. "It's mine. I had it under my coat yesterday, but I was jostled in the crowd after service and it was stolen." "You don't know it yourself? It's unbelievable." "But, that's the truth." "Why would anyone want to kill Reverend Wigg?" I asked. He smiled slightly and spread his hands towards me. "That way the gypsies can be blamed," he said, as if it was the most logical reason in the world.
By the time I walked back to the church, the snow had stopped falling.In my pocket was the jewel-encrusted dagger that had killed Reverend Wegg, neatly wrapped in newspaper.The sheriff, having given up hope of fingerprinting the fake ruby-encrusted handle, promised me to borrow it for an experiment. It occurred to me that knives could be thrown or shot from a distance, and possibly so thin that they could pass through strips of bird-proof wire.To test my theory, I walked into a church that was unguarded.Climb to the bell tower on the steeple again. But I was wrong. Yes, a knife could barely fit through the middle of the barbed wire.But whether it was stabbing straight or at an angle, the crosspiece—the guard of the knife handle—could not pass through.It is impossible to throw or shoot in from the outside. Now only Kalenza Rovana remained. The only possible murderer. Did he lie? Thinking back to the moment Sergeant Lan Si and I found him standing next to the dead body, recalling the horror on his face, I always feel that I don't believe that he can be the murderer. I went back downstairs again, and walked around the rows of seats, hoping for a flash of inspiration.Finally I put the dagger back in my coat pocket and went out.As I cut across the snowy side yard, something caught my eye, something as white as the snow, half buried in it. I pulled it out and saw that it was a white vestment like the one that Reverend Weig wore to church.There was a dark red mark on it, and a crack about an inch long. I grabbed the dress in my hands.Stand there for a while, then turn and look up at the church steeple rising above me.
"I think we'll have to send that gypsy to the county jail," Sheriff Lence said when I returned to the jail and carefully placed the dagger back on his desk. "Why, Sheriff?" "Eustace Corey says there's talk of a lynching. I know they won't do it, but I can't take the risk. It happened fifty years ago, and there's no guarantee it won't happen again." I sat down across from him. "Sheriff, there is something you must tell me. That man's life and death may be on this matter. You went to Reverend Wigg for some reason on Christmas Day, and it is something that cannot even wait until the festival is over." thing." Sergeant Lansi looked a little uneasy. "I told you - it doesn't matter now." "But don't you see that it matters a lot--and it matters more now than ever?" The sheriff got up and went to the window.We can see a small group of people across the square looking out at the prison.This must have made him make up his mind. "Perhaps you're right, doctor. I'm getting too old to keep a secret anyway. You know, the Hartford police sent a report suggesting I check on Reverend Wegg. Doesn't look like he's really a Reverend." .” "what?" "He was a pastor in Hartford for two years, and then someone checked his background and kicked him out of town. Some people said he was a fraudster, and some people thought he was more interested in Women in the parish. Regardless of the truth, this man's background is very questionable." "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" "Didn't I say that this man is dead now. Why bother to discredit him? He didn't hurt anyone in Beishan Town." The door opened, and Eustace Corey burst in, followed by half a dozen local merchants. "We've got to talk, Sheriff. Talk badly all over the place, and even you can't keep it. Someone might be going to set fire to the gypsy caravan." At this point, I knew I had to speak. "Wait a minute," I said, "be quiet, everybody, while I tell you what happened to Reverend Wegg. He wasn't killed by that gypsy, or by some unseen demon. , unless you count the devil in his heart." "What do you mean by that?" Corey asked. I told them what I had just heard from Inspector Lens. "Do you understand? You understand it like this? The pastor was standing at the door of the church, and then he saw us walking towards him, because he saw the sheriff, so he was terrified. He knew that the matter had been exposed. Otherwise Why did he turn and run back to the church, and climb the stairs to the bell tower, and bolt the door from the inside? It was fear that made him climb up there, to face Sergeant Lens and the truth of the matter." "But who killed him?" "When he heard the latch was broken, and we came upstairs, he knew his mask was about to be unmasked, and he took the gypsy dagger and stabbed himself in the chest. There was no Some invisible murderer, or some impossible crime, Reverend Wigg committed suicide." Of course, it took a lot of convincing them that this was the only possible answer.You know, I also had to borrow Kalenza to explain that he couldn't have stabbed the priest to death with his right hand because of an old injury to his arm.I then proved from the angle of the wound that it was done by a right-handed man - or that he had stabbed himself. "There's no one else up there," I explained, "and if Kalenza Rovana didn't kill him, he must have killed himself, simple as that."
They released Rowana the next morning, and Sergeant Lance drove him back to the gypsy camp in the only police car in town.I stood at the door of my clinic and watched them go, and Aibo said, "Can you close the door? Doctor, you have solved another case. Can't you let the poor man go home?" "I have one more thing to do, Aibo," I said to her, "see you later." I got in my convertible and drove up the rutted and snow-stained road straight up to Minnie Haskin's farm, I didn't stop in front of her house, and continued around the back until I got to the Jeep Racer's camp.When Volja saw me get out of the car, she ran out of the snow to meet me. "How can we thank you, Dr. Hawthorne? You got my husband out of jail. You even saved his life." "Go get him now and I'll tell you how you can thank me." I stood by the car and waited, not wanting to get any closer to the wagon, and I saw Tiny Tiny playing in the snow.At this moment Kalenza was in front of me, and Volja followed him. "I want to thank you," he said, "for setting me free." I looked at the snow in the distance. "I want to thank you too. You taught me that there are different ways to cheat - the gadjo (outsider) way and the rom (gypsy) way." As I spoke, I reached out and pulled his long black hair.My hair was pulled out of my hands, and Volja gasped.Without the wig, he was almost bald and looked at least ten years older.I also pulled the beard off his lips, and he didn't stop me. "Well, Doctor," he said, "it's a little deception, and you're going to arrest me again for wearing a wig and a false beard? Are you going to say I killed Reverend Wegg in the end?" I shook my head. "No, Kalenza. That doesn't tell me that you killed Wegg. But it does tell me that Volja killed him."
She gasped again, and took a step back as if she had been slapped by me. "This man is a devil!" she said to her husband. "How could he know!" "Shut up!" Kalenza ordered.Then he turned to me and said, "Why are you saying those things?" "Well, I proved to myself that you didn't kill Wegg. But I don't believe at all that a man like him would kill himself just because the sheriff wanted to talk to him. And yet he ran away from us. This That was the point—the key to the crime, the key to the impossibility. I was looking in the church yard earlier, and I found this in the snowdrifts." I took the bloody surplice Pulled out from under my coat. "What does this prove?" "See the gash where the knife went in? And the blood? Reverend Wigg must have been wearing this surplice when he was stabbed, but the sheriff and I saw him at the church door without his surplice. We Can it be believed that he went up to the bell tower, put on his cassock, stabbed himself, then managed to take the cassock off, put the knife back in his chest, and die?—and all this time we've been trying to break in ?Of course not! "So what is the only possible situation? If the body on the bell tower is Wegg, then the priest we saw at the door is not Wegg. He turned away from us only because if Sergeant Lance and I were to come again." Get closer and we'll see he's not Weig." Volja paled and remained silent while I spoke. “如果不是韦格，那会是谁呢？呃，穿黑色长袍的那个人跑上了钟楼。我们紧跟在他后面，发现上面有两个人——已经死了的韦格和活着的罗瓦纳。如果那个穿黑袍的人不是韦格——而我已经说明他不是了——那他一定就是你，卡伦扎。” “猜得好。” “还不止如此。我起先就注意到你们两个身材差不多，由远处看来，你最显眼的地方就是你的黑头发和胡子。可是我记得两个礼拜以前我在这里的那天注意到你的耳环露在你的短头发底下。等到我到牢里看你的时候，你的头发却长得遮住了你的耳朵。头发在两个礼拜之内不会长得那么快，所以我知道你戴的是假发，如果头发是假的，那胡子也有可能是假的——只是用来增添你吉普赛人形象的道具，是骗那些gadjo（外人）的道具。” “你证明了在那一小段时间里我扮成韦格，你并没有证明是沃尔嘉杀了他。” “哎，你装成韦格的样子能达到什么目的呢？从远处看过去，我们的视线又被落雪弄得模模糊糊的，警长和我只看到一个穿黑袍的高个子男人，戴着韦格的厚厚眼镜。要是我们没有追着你的话，我们可能就走开了，相信在沃尔嘉和其他的人都走了之后，韦格还活着，不过你出了两个差错。你在教堂门口转身躲开我们的时候，撞上了门柱，因为你不习惯他的厚眼镜。另外昨天在牢里，你向我形容韦格站在教堂门口——可是如果你真像你所说的一直都在钟楼上的话，你根本就看不到。” “这还是扯不到沃尔嘉身上，”那个吉普赛人坚持道。 “你那样做。很明显地不是在保护你自己，因为那并不能给你什么不在场证明。没有人看到你离开教堂。你那样暂时冒充别人唯一可能的目的，就是要保护另外一个人——真正的凶手。然后我记起来沃尔嘉是最后一个离开教堂的吉普赛人。她一个人和韦格在那里面，她是你的太太，也是最可能带着你的匕首的人。放在哪里？在你的丝袜头上？沃尔嘉？” 她用两手捂着脸。“他——他想要——” “我知道。韦格其实不是个真正的牧师，他以前就因为染指教区里的妇人而惹出麻烦过。他想在那里非礼你，是不是？对他来说，你不过是个漂亮的吉普赛女子。他知道你绝对不会张扬的。你反抗他，你的手摸到了你一向带着的匕首，你在钟楼上刺了他一刀，将他杀死。然后你在教堂里找到了卡伦扎，把你做的事告诉了他。” “那会是一个吉普赛人的一面之词来对抗一个牧师的名声，”卡伦扎说，“他们绝不会相信她的话。我让她坐篷车回去。想办法弄得看起来好像他还活着。” I nodded. “你穿上他的黑袍，因为从远处看来，不会看见黑衣服上染血的裂缝。可是白色法衣就绝对会显出血迹了。你后来的时间刚够把黑袍穿回在韦格身上，把法衣从防鸟的网子缝里塞出去，免得别人在钟楼上发现，你不能把白法衣穿回尸体上，因为你先前在楼下就没有穿着。” 卡伦扎·罗瓦纳叹了口气。“我一只手无力，做起来真困难。我才把黑袍穿回在尸体上，下面门闩就断了。你现在要叫警长来吗？” 我望着他的儿子和其他的吉普赛人玩在一起，心里想着我是否有权力来审判。最后，我说道：“收拾好你们的篷车。天黑以前离开，永远不要再靠近北山镇。” “可是——”卡伦扎开口说道。 “韦格不是个好人，不过也许还不至于坏到该得那样的报应。我不知道。我只知道如果你们留在这里的话，我可能会改变主意。” 沃尔嘉走到我面前。“现在我欠你的更多了。” “走吧。这只是我给你们的圣诞礼物，走吧，免得那像融雪一样地消失了。” 不到一个钟点，篷车队就上路了，这回是往南走。也许他们已经受够了我们新英格兰的冬天。
“这件事我从来没告诉过任何人，”山姆·霍桑医生总结道，“那是我第一次自己来审判是非，而我始终不知道我做得对不对。” 他喝完了最后一点白兰地，站了起来。“到了一九二六年的春天，一个有名的法国罪犯躲到了北山镇。他有个绰号叫泥鳅，因为他最擅长逃遁。不过我把这个故事留到下回再说。你走之前，要不要再来点——呃——喝的？”
Notes: