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The Thirty-nine Steps-Part5_John Buchan(1875-1940)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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'I think they're off my track for the moment, but I must lie close

for a couple of days. Can you take me in?'



He caught my elbow in his eagerness and drew me towards the

house. 'You can lie as snug here as if you were in a moss-hole. I'll



see that nobody blabs, either. And you'll give me some more

material about your adventures?'



As I entered the inn porch I heard from far off the beat of an

engine. There silhouetted against the dusky West was my friend,



the monoplane.

He gave me a room at the back of the house, with a fine outlook



over the plateau, and he made me free of his own study, which was

stacked with cheap editions of his favourite authors. I never saw the



grandmother, so I guessed she was bedridden. An old woman called

Margit brought me my meals, and the innkeeper was around me at



all hours. I wanted some time to myself, so I invented a job for him.

He had a motor-bicycle, and I sent him off next morning for the daily



paper, which usually arrived with the post in the late afternoon. I

told him to keep his eyes skinned, and make note of any strange



figures he saw, keeping a special sharp look-out for motors and

aeroplanes. Then I sat down in real earnest to Scudder's note-book.



He came back at midday with the SCOTSMAN. There was nothing in

it, except some further evidence of Paddock and the milkman, and a



repetition of yesterday's statement that the murderer had gone

North. But there was a long article, reprinted from THE TIMES, about



Karolides and the state of affairs in the Balkans, though there was no

mention of any visit to England. I got rid of the innkeeper for the



afternoon, for I was getting very warm in my search for the cypher.

As I told you, it was a numerical cypher, and by an elaborate



system of experiments I had pretty well discovered what were the

nulls and stops. The trouble was the key word, and when I thought



of the odd million words he might have used I felt pretty hopeless.

But about three o'clock I had a sudden inspiration.



The name Julia Czechenyi flashed across my memory. Scudder

had said it was the key to the Karolides business, and it occurred to



me to try it on his cypher.

It worked. The five letters of 'Julia' gave me the position of the



vowels. A was J, the tenth letter of the alphabet, and so represented

by X in the cypher. E was XXI, and so on. 'Czechenyi' gave



me the numerals for the principal consonants. I scribbled that

scheme on a bit of paper and sat down to read Scudder's pages.



In half an hour I was reading with a whitish face and fingers that

drummed on the table.



I glanced out of the window and saw a big touring-car coming

up the glen towards the inn. It drew up at the door, and there was



the sound of people alighting. There seemed to be two of them,

men in aquascutums and tweed caps.



Ten minutes later the innkeeper slipped into the room, his eyes

bright with excitement.



'There's two chaps below looking for you,' he whispered.

'They're in the dining-room having whiskies-and-sodas. They asked



about you and said they had hoped to meet you here. Oh! and they

described you jolly well, down to your boots and shirt. I told them



you had been here last night and had gone off on a motor bicycle

this morning, and one of the chaps swore like a navvy.'



I made him tell me what they looked like. One was a dark-eyed

thin fellow with bushy eyebrows, the other was always smiling and



lisped in his talk. Neither was any kind of foreigner; on this my

young friend was positive.



I took a bit of paper and wrote these words in German as if they

were part of a letter -



... 'Black Stone. Scudder had got on to this, but he could not

act for a fortnight. I doubt if I can do any good now, especially



as Karolides is uncertain about his plans. But if Mr T. advises

I will do the best I ...'



I manufactured it rather neatly, so that it looked like a loose page

of a private letter.



'Take this down and say it was found in my bedroom, and ask

them to return it to me if they overtake me.'



Three minutes later I heard the car begin to move, and peeping

from behind the curtain caught sight of the two figures. One was



slim, the other was sleek; that was the most I could make of my

reconnaissance.



The innkeeper appeared in great excitement. 'Your paper woke

them up,' he said gleefully. 'The dark fellow went as white as death



and cursed like blazes, and the fat one whistled and looked ugly.

They paid for their drinks with half-a-sovereign and wouldn't wait






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