Chapter 16 Chapter 15 The Maze

It can now be seen that Ellery Quinn had been nothing more than a ghost wandering around the outer circle of the Khalkis case until October 9th, and at this memorable On that Saturday afternoon, Ellery, with his exquisite demeanor, caught the essence of the problem suddenly and unexpectedly-he was no longer a bystander, but a driving force. The time was ripe to show his face: the stage was set just right, and he couldn't bear to step on it any longer.We must always remember that Ellery was a fledgling Ellery at this point—a pompous Ellery with all the big-picture ambitions of a sophomore.Life is sweet, with twisting puzzles to solve, mazes to navigate with confidence, and, to add a touch of drama, a swaggering prosecutor to tease .

Just like many thrilling scenes seen so far, this time it also took place in the sacrosanct office of Police Officer Quinn on Central Avenue.There was Simpson, fidgeting like a suspicious tiger; there was Pepper, who seemed to be brooding; and of course the policeman, slumped in his chair, his old gray eyes rolling with excitement, his mouth like a purse It seems to be closed tightly.Seriously, who could stand it?In particular, while Simpson was making a rambling analysis of the case, Officer Quinn's secretary hurried in, out of breath, and reported: Mr. James Knox, this James James Knox - who owns millions more than any man who has made money in the right way - Knox the Banker, Knox the Wall Street King, Knox the President's Confidant —was outside begging to see Sergeant Richard Quinn.Under such circumstances, if you can still hold back and not jump out to perform, then it must be extraordinary.

Knox was indeed a fabulous figure.He used his millionaires, and the power that came with them, to keep himself out of the public eye, but out of their reach.People can only hear the name, not see the person.So let’s just say it’s human nature: When Knox was ushered into the office, the Quinns, Simpsons, and Peppers all stood up in unison, all with a sense of trepidation far beyond the norms of a democratic society. Provisions.The tycoon shook their hands feebly and sat down. He was a big, washed-out man—nearly sixty now, and his prodigious physical strength had been visibly exhausted.His head was full of white hair, down to his eyebrows; the skin around his mouth had sagged a little; only his marble gray eyes remained as they had been in their youth.

"Are you in a meeting?" he asked.His tone was surprisingly soft—a false tone, lowered and slightly hesitant. "Well—yes, yes," replied Simpson, hastily, "we're working on the Khalkis case. It's a very sad thing, Mr. Knox." "Yes." Knox looked straight at the officer. "Is there any progress?" "One thing." Officer Quinn was not very happy. "It's very complicated, Mr. Knox. There are so many clues that I can't make sense of them. I dare not say that I can see the difference." This is the time.Such a moment, perhaps just what the young Ellery dreamed of-the enforcer of the law is at a loss, and there is another big man present...

"Dad, you're so modest," said Ellery Quinn.No further remarks are necessary.All you need is this mildly reproachful tone, a slightly dissatisfied expression, and a half-hearted smile. "Dad, you're so humble," as if the officer understood what he was referring to. Sergeant Quinn sat quite still indeed, and Simpson opened his mouth.The tycoon's gaze, from Ellery to his father, was obviously questioning.Pepper stared, dumbfounded. "Look, Mr. Knox," Ellery went on in that same low tone--ah, it's time!He thought to himself: "You see, sir, although there are still some sporadic and difficult points, the main body of the case has been roughly defined. This point, my father did not mention it."

"I don't quite get it yet," Knox encouraged him to go on. "Ellery," the officer began in a trembling voice... "It seems clear enough, Mr. Knox," said Ellery with a strange sentimentality.God, what a time to miss!He thought to himself, "The case has been solved." It is only at such a moment, in the endless stream of time, that a man who thinks he is so great feels himself so great.Ellery was full of ambition—he carefully studied the changes in the expressions on the faces of the police officer, Simpson, and Pepper, just like a scientist observing a strange and unexpected reaction in a test tube.As for Knox, of course nothing is known about this episode.He just expressed interest.

"Grimshaw's murderer—" the prosecutor croaked. "Mr. Quinn, who is the murderer?" Knox asked gently. Ellery hesitated to answer, but sighed, and lit a cigarette.Never rush to the end.A happy ending must be delayed until the last precious moment.So, following a puff of smoke from his mouth, he spit out a few words. "It's George Khalkis," he said. Prosecutor Simpson admitted much later that, in the drama of the scene, if James Knox hadn't been there, he would have grabbed any telephone receiver on the officer's desk and headed toward Ellery. Throw it on your head.He doesn't believe it.He can't believe it.A dead man—and, besides, a man who was blind before he died—would be a murderer!It's unbelievable.It was more annoying than that--it was the smug babbling of the clown, it was a hallucination in a feverish head, and it was... It was clear that Simpson had a strong distaste.

However, at this moment, he finally restrained himself, just shifted his body in the chair, and he was very sad and troubled, trying to figure out how to get rid of this crazy goddamn sentence. It was Knox who spoke first, because Knox didn't need to calm down.Ellery's proclamation, indeed, made him blink, but after a moment he said in a calm tone, "Karjith...but I don't understand." The sergeant was unable to speak until now: "I think," he said, quickly licking his red lips, "I think we have to explain to Mr. Knox—er, boy? ’ The tone of his voice didn’t match the look of his eyes; there was fire in his eyes.

Ellery sprang up from his chair. "Of course we're going to explain," he said sincerely, "especially since Mr. Knox is personally involved in the case." He leaned against the edge of the sheriff's desk, "That's a really unique problem," he said, "and there are a couple of things that are quite delicate." "Attention, gentlemen. There are two main clues: the first clue is the tie that George Khalkis wore the morning he died of heart failure; the second clue is the colander and teacups in Khalkis' study. " Knox looked a little dazed."I'm so sorry, Mr. Knox. Of course you didn't know about this," said Ellery, hastily summarizing the facts of his investigation.After Knox nodded in understanding, Ellery went on to say, "Now let me explain what we can find from those ties in Khalkis." He deliberately used the term when referring to himself. Plurally stated; Ellery had a strong sense of family honor, although those who were unkind to him often used this as an excuse, "On Saturday morning, the morning of Khalkis' death, a week ago, you passed Demi's The testimony already knows that Khalkis's idiot follower, Demi, prepared clothes for his cousin according to the clothing schedule. Therefore, it is said that Khalkis should be wearing the Saturday clothing items stipulated in the schedule. So, look at the program, what does it say? You're bound to find that, among other things, Khalkis should be wearing a green moiré tie.

"Well, then, Demi left home at nine o'clock after finishing his morning class of helping his cousin to dress, or at least having brought out the prescribed clothes. Dressed up Khalkis was alone in his study for fifteen minutes, and at a quarter past nine Gilbert Sloan came in to discuss the day's affairs with Khalkis. "And what do we know? We understand that, from Sloane's testimony - which he did not emphasize, of course, but which he showed anyway - Khalkis was wearing a red tie at a quarter past nine. .” By now everyone was listening to him attentively; from his involuntary smile, you could see how satisfied he was: "This is an interesting situation, eh? If Demmy is telling the truth, then we'll We are now faced with a conundrum worth pondering. Assuming that Dummy is telling the truth—his state of mind precludes the possibility of lying—then Kharkis left at nine o’clock, that is, Dummy When he was there, he must have been wearing a green tie according to the scheduled procedures.

"Then how can the incomprehension make sense? It would seem that it has to be understood that during those fifteen minutes of solitude Khalkis, for reasons we may never know, He went into his bedroom to change a tie, put aside the green tie that Dommy gave him, and took a red one from the ties hanging on the closet rod in his bedroom. "At the same time, we know from Sloan's testimony that, after a quarter past nine that morning, during his discussion with Khalkis, Khalkis pointed to the tie he was wearing - the tie that Sloan was wearing. As soon as Loan entered the study, he noticed that it was red—and said something like this: 'Before you leave here, remind me to call Baileys and buy some new ones like the ones I'm wearing now. Tie.'"—his eyes brightened—"I added these emphatic words. Now pay attention. Later, as Miss Bright left Khalkis' study, she heard Khajiz dictated the number and got through to the Baileys company where he bought the odd clothes. Later, through investigation, we verified that Baileys had delivered the goods to -according to the testimony of the employee who answered the Khajis phone - to The goods that were sent were ordered by Khalkis. But what did Khalkis order? It goes without saying that they were delivered. Then, what are the goods sent? Six red ties!" Ellery leaned forward and tapped on the table: "To sum up: Khalkis said he was going to order the tie he was wearing exactly as it was, and then ordered the red tie, which means he must have known what he was wearing. It was a red tie. That was the basis of the argument. In other words, Khalkis knew the color of the tie he was wearing around his neck when he was talking to Sloan. "However, how could he, being blind, know the color of the tie, since it wasn't the color on Saturday according to the schedule? Presumably someone told him what color it was. But who told it? That morning, at Before he called Baileys, only three people had ever met him - one was Demi, who arranged for him to dress according to the schedule; One had mentioned the color of the tie; another was Joan Bright, who had mentioned the tie to Khalkis once that morning, also without mentioning the color of the tie. "In other words, nobody told Khalkis that the color of his tie had changed. So, could it be that he himself had changed the green tie on the original program form to the one he later had? What about the red tie—could he have accidentally pulled a red tie off the bar? Yes, it’s possible—because, remember, those ties on the bar of the wardrobe weren’t pressed Arranged by color—the ties of various colors are hung in a mess. But how to explain the fact that whether he chose a red tie on purpose or not, he knew anyway—his subsequent actions Proof of it—I picked a red tie?" Ellery unhurriedly poked out the cigarette in his hand at the bottom of the ashtray on the table: "Guys, there is only one way for Khalkis to know that he was wearing a red tie. That way That is - he can use his own eyesight to distinguish colors - he can see! "You will say, isn't he blind? "This is the crux of my first series of inferences. For, according to the testimony of Dr. Fullerstead, and confirmed by Dr. Worth, George Khalkis suffered from a peculiar form of blindness, Sight may return spontaneously at any time! What, then, is the conclusion? Last Saturday morning, to say the least, Mr. George Kharkis was as blind as you and me." Ellery smiled. "And here comes the problem again. If he suddenly regained his sight after being really blind for a while, why didn't he tell his family ecstatically—why didn't he tell his sister, Sloane?" What about Ann, Demmie, Joan Bright? Why didn't he call his doctor—actually Dr. Woz was visiting at his house at the time, why didn't he tell the ophthalmologist? For the sole psychological reason: he doesn't want people to know he's seeing again; he needs to be thought of as still blind in order to achieve something. So what exactly is he trying to achieve?" Ellery stopped and took a deep breath.Knox was leaning forward, eyes wide open without blinking; the rest of the group was also motionless, absorbed. "Let's leave this line here for a moment," said Ellery calmly, "and let's decipher the clues of the colander and teacup. "Let's look at the prima facie evidence first. The tea set on the small shelf clearly shows that three people have drank tea together. What's suspicious? There are dry dregs in all three teacups, and there is a ring of water around the inner rim of the cup This common sign shows that these cups have been used; three dry tea bags are also evidence, and only a little tea solution can be squeezed out after being poked in clean water, which proves that several tea bags have been used. and three silver teaspoons, each with a greasy stain on them, which, of course, have been used--you see, all the signs make it clear that three people once drank tea together. Besides, this is just Just confirming what we already knew; for Khalkis had taken care of Joan Bright, who had two guests on Friday night, and was seen arriving here, into the study--which, together with Khalkis himself constitutes three people. This is also—a superficial circumstantial evidence. "And yet—that's a huge 'however', folks—" Ellery grinned, "we have only to look into the colander to see at once how superficial the signs are. What can you see in the colander? "To put it simply, there is too much water in the colander. Let us verify the claim of too much water. We poured out the water in the colander and found that there were five cups poured in total-the fifth cup was not full enough. No problem, because before that, we had already poured a vial sample from this spoiled water for chemical analysis. So, five full glasses. Later, we refilled the colander with fresh water , poured out again, filled six full cups, and there was no water left in the jug. Therefore, this shows that the colander capacity is six cups-while the spoiled water has filled five cups. However, if according to various How could it be possible that the three teacups had already been used by Khalkis and his two guests to drink tea from the superficial indications? According to our experiments, only one cup was poured out of the colander, not three cups. Does this mean that each of the three men drank only one-third of the glass? No way - there is a tea-stained ring along the inner rim of each glass, indicating that each glass was once filled. Well, then, is it possible that the colander was indeed filled three cups, and that someone added a gallon of water to what was left in the jug afterward to make up for the two missing cups? It's also unlikely— —According to an analysis after the assay of a small bottle of spoiled water which I have poured out, no fresh water has been mixed into the colander. "Only one conclusion can be drawn: the water in the colander is trustworthy, but the signs on the three teacups are not. Someone deliberately played tricks on the tea service - cups, teaspoons, lemons - well arranged It seems that there were three people who came to drink tea. The man who played tricks on the tea set made only one mistake—he did not fill the three cups separately from the colander, but poured the same cup of water into each cup in turn. But since It was already known that there were three there--from the presence of two guests, and from Khalkis' instructions--why would he go to the trouble of making it appear that there were three? The only reason - to try to emphasize it. But if there are three people here, why emphasize the fait accompli? "Only because, oddly enough, there were not three of us here." With triumphant excitement in his eyes, he watched them.One—Ellery was pleased to discover that it was Simpson—had a gasp of admiration.Pepper listened intently, but the officer nodded emotionally. James Knox began to stroke his chin. "You see," Ellery went on eloquently, "if there are really three people here, and all of them have had tea, three glasses of water should be missing from the colander. Now suppose that none of the three has ever had any tea." But—in our days of Prohibition in America, people tend not to drink this mild drink. That's okay. So where's the loophole? "The point is: why bother to show that all three of them had drunk tea? Once again, it can be seen that it is nothing more than to deepen the impression that others have already had. Please note that this impression was created by Khalkis himself. That is: on Friday night a week ago--the night Greenshaw was murdered--there were three people in that study." He went on to say: "So we are faced with this very interesting exercise: If there are not three people here, then how many people? Well, maybe more than three people: four, five, six, Anyway, Joan Bright had two guests and went upstairs to cram the drunken Allen into his cot; after this, however many people slipped into the study, no one saw it. However, since we There is no basis for the specific number of people, so it is meaningless to assume that there are more than three people. On the other hand, if we assume that there are fewer than three people present, and if we reason like this, then we will find some clues. "It can never be one person, because two people have indeed been seen entering the study. And we have just deduced that, in any case, it is not three people. Then, in this second hypothesis-that is, the assumption that there are not enough people present. Three people—there is only one answer left, and that is two people. "Have we any difficulty in thinking that there are two persons here? We know that one of them was Albert Grinshaw--a man whom Miss Bright saw and later identified. The second The individual, by all laws of probability, must be Khalkis himself. If this inference holds water, then the man who accompanied Grimshaw to the house—as Miss Bright described it—was the Someone who is 'wrapped up and down' - certainly Khalkis! But maybe it's impossible?" Ellery lit another cigarette: "It is possible, it is absolutely possible. There is a strange phenomenon that can be used to prove it. You always remember that when two visitors entered the study, Miss Bright could not see the inside of the room." the fact that Grimshaw's companion pushed her aside as if on purpose to keep her from seeing what was - or rather was not - in the study. Such a gesture could of course be explained in many ways, but the above An understanding must be in line with the assumption that Khalkis is here to accompany the guest, because of course he will prevent Miss Bright from seeing the inside of the study, lest she find that he should be in but he is not there... what else? Also—what are the characteristics of Greenshaw's companion? In terms of body shape, height and size are similar to Khalkis. The episode also shows that Grimshaw's companion can be seen. Because the cat is lying silently on the carpet that serves as the door, but the person who is fully wrapped can stop when he lifts his foot. and walked round the cat; if he had been blind, he would have stepped on it. This is also a proof; The next morning was not pretending to be blind - and we have good reason to believe that his vision returned sometime after last Thursday, based on the fact that Dr. Woz's last examination of Khalkis The eye was last Thursday—the day before the two visitors came. "And this also answers the question I posed earlier, which is: Why is Khalkis so silent about his recovery of vision? The answer lies in this: If Greenshaw is found after killing, in case anyone suspects that Khalkis Khalkis, he can use his blindness as a shield to disassociate himself—because, of course, it must be said: Khalkis is blind and can never be the murderer of Greenshaw who is to be found. How Keith played the avatar trick was simple enough: that Friday night, after he had ordered the tea-things arranged, he slipped out of the house in his overcoat and bowler hat as soon as Mrs. Simms had left. , arrived at what may have been a pre-arranged location, met Greenshaw, and then came in with Greenshaw, pretending to be one of the two guests who were scheduled to visit." Knox remained motionless in his chair; he seemed about to say something, but blinked and said nothing. "What circumstantial evidence do we have of Khalkis' conspiracy and deceit?" Ellery went on lightly. He deliberately said that he was going on a date with two guests, and that one of them wanted to hide his identity. Another circumstantial evidence was that he deliberately concealed that his eyesight had recovered-this is a conclusive evidence. Another Circumstantial evidence, we have determined that Greenshaw was strangled between six and twelve hours before Khalkis' death." "There's a big loophole!" the prosecutor murmured. "What loophole?" Ellery asked cheerfully. "I think it's pretty stupid for Khalkis to use the same glass of water to create the stains on each of the glasses, especially considering how clever his other tricks are." Pepper was a little childish, and couldn't wait to interject: "In my opinion, the prosecutor," he said, "according to Mr. Quinn's thinking, that is not a loophole at all." "Pepper, what do you think?" Ellery asked with interest. "Well, maybe Khalkis didn't know the colander was full. Maybe he took it for granted that the colander was only about half full. Or maybe he didn't know that a full colander could fill six cups. The above Any one of several hypotheses is enough to explain why he seems so stupid." "That makes sense." Ellery smiled, "That's great. There are indeed some links in the current answer that have not been settled, and we have not been able to actually untie these buttons, although we might as well boldly make some reasonable answers. For example, such a question: If it was Khalkis who killed Greenshaw, what was his motive? Well, we know that Greenshaw visited him alone, last night. And we also know that this time The visit, which resulted in Khalkis ordering his lawyer, Woodruff, to draw up a new will—in fact, he called Woodruff late that night. Urgent, so to speak—was imminent. No changes to the new will , just replaced the heir of the Khalkis collection, which is a considerable legacy; as for who the new heir is, Khalkis kept it secret—even his own lawyer kept it a secret. In my opinion, if it is speculated that the new heir is Greenshaw, or a person represented by Greenshaw, it may not be considered far-fetched. However, why did Khalkis make such a strange move? According to Greenshaw Analyzing his criminal history, the obvious answer is racketeering. And let's not forget that Greenshaw has ties to the industry; Xiao came to blackmail, which means: Khalkis, who is engaged in the same industry, has something to be grasped by Greenshaw. In my opinion, nine out of ten are involved in dark activities in the art business, or An illegal trade in an antique or something. "Now, let me picture the crime on the basis of this apparently hypothetical motive. On Thursday night, Greenshaw visited Khalkis - and we may think that the fresh prisoner made a statement during this visit. The ultimatum was issued, that is, the blackmail plan was thrown. Khalkis agreed to change the will according to the will of Greenshaw or the person represented by Greenshaw as a price-it is likely that Khalkis was in a difficult financial situation at this time and could not pay. The money came in. And Khalkis, after instructing his lawyers to draw up a new regret, either felt that he would continue to be blackmailed in the future even if he changed his will, or he wanted to do something else altogether: either way The reason, anyway, he made up his mind that it would be better to kill Greenshaw than to pay the price—and his such determination unintentionally and forcefully demonstrated the fact that Greenshaw was for himself and not for Someone else had come to blackmail, otherwise it would have been of no use to Khalkis to kill Greenshaw, because there would still be someone behind who could take up the blackmail used by the dead man. In short, the next day, Friday night, Greenshaw again Came here to collect the new will he wanted, which fell into the above-mentioned trap of Khalkis and was killed; Khalkis probably hid the body somewhere nearby, intending to make another permanent However, doom was inevitable, and Khalkis himself died of heart failure the next morning, before he had time to dispose of the body once and for all, because of the strain and stress of this ordeal." "But there's more—" Simpson began. Ellery grinned, "I know you're asking me: If Khalkis killed Greenshaw and then died himself, then after Khalkis' burial, bury Greenshaw in Khalkis And who went into the coffin?" "It goes without saying that someone must have discovered Grimshaw's body, and used Khalkis's grave as a permanent hiding place. That's not bad—then why didn't this gravedigger of unknown origin drag the body out Why didn't he come to report when he found the body? We may speculate: he guessed the origin of the crime, or he had another wrong guess, so he adopted this method to dispose of the body. in order to keep the case forever concealed—his purpose was to protect the honor of a dead man, and possibly the life of a living man. Whatever the truth, at least one of our suspects fit the bill. Standard: when this person was repeatedly ordered not to leave without permission, he withdrew all the money from the bank where he deposited it, and disappeared; this person was unexpectedly dug up in the grave, and Green After Shaw's body was found, he must have realized that everything was over, and he was frightened and panicked, so he ran away. Of course, what I'm talking about is Khalkis' nephew, Alan Cheney. "I also think, gentlemen," Ellery summed up his comments with a smile of satisfaction to the point of smugness, "I think that once Chennay is caught, the case can be closed." The look on Knox's face was astonishingly strange.For the first time since Ellery's spouting tirade, the officer now spoke.The officer said grumpily, "Then who stole the new will from Khalkis' safe against the wall? Khalkis was dead then--he couldn't have done it. Could it be that Cheney did it?" ?” "Not necessarily him. You see, when it comes to stealing a will, Gilbert Sloan has the strongest motives first, because our analysis shows that he is the only victim of the new will. That means Well, Sloane's stealing of the will had nothing to do with the murders—it was just a coincidence. Of course, we have no evidence to prove Sloane's theft. "On the other hand, once Chennay is caught, it's not hard to see that he destroyed the will. When he buries Grimshaw, he's bound to find a new will hidden in the coffin—it was put in by Sloane. He read it and learned that the new heir was Greenshaw, so he took the box and the will with him and destroyed the matter. Once the will was destroyed, Khalkis had to die as if he had not made a will. , In this way, Chenai's mother, as a close relative of Khalkis, will be able to get most of the property when the estate is distributed." Simpson showed an anxious expression: "Then, what happened to those people who went to the hotel to look for him the night before Greenshaw was killed? What role did these people play?" Ellery shook his hand. "It's irrelevant, Simpson. These guys are irrelevant. You see—" There was a frantic knock on the door, and the policeman said hastily, "Come in!" From the open door, a small, inconspicuous detective named Rhett entered. "What's the matter, what's the matter, Rhett?" Rhett hurried over and leaned over beside the police officer's chair: "Sir, that girl named Brett is waiting outside," he whispered, "She insists on coming in right away." Rhett said sheepishly: "She said she wanted to see Mr. Ellery Queen, sir..." "Let her in." Rhett opened the door and let her in.All the men present stood up.Joan was dressed elegantly and quietly, especially charming, but there was a melancholy look in her eyes, and she hesitated at the door. "Are you looking for Mr. Quinn?" the police officer asked briskly, "We are currently busy, Miss Bright." "It's—I think it might be important, Officer Quinn." Ellery said immediately, "You've got news from Cheney!" But she shook her head. Ellery frowned: "Excuse me, Miss Bright, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Knox, and this is Mr. Simpson..." The prosecutor nodded slightly; Knox said, "We've known each other for a long time." There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.Ellery moved a chair for the girl, and they sat down. "I—I just don't know where or how to begin," said Joan, fingering her gloves. "You'll think me stupid. It seems so trivial, it's ridiculous. But, but—" Ellery cheered her up and said, "Miss Bright, have you found out anything? Or is there something you forgot to tell us?" "Yes. I mean - there's something I forgot to tell you." She whispered, as softly as possible, "There's something - about the teacup." "Teacup!" The words shot out of Ellery's mouth like a rocket. "Well—yes. You see, when I was first asked about, I actually forgot... I just remembered. I've been—I've been thinking about those things, you see." "Please go on," Ellery ordered solemnly. "That's--that's the day I moved the little shelf with the tea-things from the desk into the alcove. I moved it out of the way--" "You've told us already, Miss Bright." "But I didn't tell you all, Mr. Quin. I remember now that there was something different about the teacups." 埃勒里高踞在他父亲的办公桌上，象一尊在山顶打坐的菩萨。肃静得出奇……他顿失常态。他呆若木鸡的望着琼。 她急着往下讲：“你瞧，当你在书房里发现那些茶杯的时候，一共有三只脏杯子——”埃勒里掀了掀嘴唇，但是没有作声，“可是我现在想起来了，举行葬礼那天下午，在我把小架子从当路口挪开的时候，只有一只脏杯子呀……” 埃勒里陡然站直了身子。幽默的表情一扫而光，板着脸，几乎是生气的样子：“你必须回忆得非常仔细，布莱特小姐。”他嗓音也嘶哑了，“这事非同小可。你现在是说，上个星期二，当你把小架子从书桌移到凹室去的时候，茶盘里有两只干净杯子——只有一个杯子看得出来是用过的，对吗？” “正是这样。这是千真万确的。事实上，我现在记得，那一只杯子里的变质冷茶差不多是满的；茶托里有一片干柠檬，还有一把脏茶匙。茶盘里其余各件全都是干干净净——未曾使用过。” “柠檬碟子里有几片柠檬呢？” “对不起，奎因先生，我可记不得了。咱们英国人不吃柠檬，这你总知道吧。这是俄国佬的陋习啊。还有那套茶球！”她耸耸肩，“不过对那几只杯子，我记得十分真切的。” 埃勒里固执地问：“这是在卡吉士死了之后吗？” “对呀，一点不错，”琼叹息道，“不仅是在他死后，而且是在他下葬之后。是星期二，我早讲过了。” 埃勒里紧咬住下唇，眼睛象石头一样：“万分感谢你，布莱特小姐。”他声音微弱，“你使我们总算没有陷入一个下不了台的局面……现在你请回吧。” 她腼腆地笑着，似乎是在等待热情的夸奖，打算听两句好话。不料却没有谁再来理会她了；大家全都揶揄地望着埃勒里。她只好一声不响地起身走出了房间；瑞特跟在她后面走出去，顺手轻轻地关上了门。 辛普森第一个发言：“好吧，小伙子，刚才是一个大败仗。”他慈祥地说，“现在这样吧，埃勒里，别太难受啦。咱们都犯过错误。而你犯的是个很体面的错误。” 埃勒里有气无力地摇了一下手；脑袋耷拉到了胸口，嗓音象闷在鼓动里：“错误吗，辛普森？这是绝对不能饶恕的。我真该打板子，应该夹着尾巴回家去……” 詹姆士·诺克斯忽地站了起来。他精明地打量着埃勒里，目光中流露出一丝幽默感。 “奎因先生，你的判断主要是根据两个因素——” “我明白，先生，我明白，”埃勒里哼哼唧唧地说道，“请您别再提起啦。” “你会懂的。年轻人，”那位大亨说道，“没有失败就不会有成功……两个因素。一个就是茶杯。你分析得很精辟，十分精辟，奎因先生，可惜让布莱特小姐给捅破了。你现在没有现由再认为当时只有两个人在座了吧。你刚才根据茶杯，说什么自始至终只有两个人，就是卡吉士和格林肖；又说什么是故布疑阵，安排得象是有三个人在座；还说根本就没有第三个人，只有卡吉士自己是第三个人。” “这话对呀，”埃勒里颓丧地说道，“可是现在——” “这话错了，”诺克斯仍是那样柔声细气地说道，“因为确实有第三个人。而且我可以直截了当加以证实，我并不是做什么推论。” “什么？”埃勒里的脑袋好象安上弹簧似的蹦了起来，“什么，先生？有吗？你能证明？你怎么知道的呢？” 诺克斯吃吃地笑了：“我知道，”他说，“因为我就是这第三个人！”