25-02-11, 06:30 AM
| #1 | ||||
| نجم روايتي وعضوة في فريق الترجمة 
|  Agatha Christie - The Man in the Brown Suit  Agatha Christie The Man in the Brown Suit  Plot introduction Like The Secret Adversary* the novel concentrates less on pure detection and is more a thriller of the period. It follows the adventures of Anne Beddingfeld as she gets involved in a world of diamond thieves* murderers and political intrigue in this tale set in exotic Southern Africa. Colonel Race makes his first appearance in the novel; he later appears in Cards on the Table* Sparkling Cyanide* and Death on the Nile. Plot summary Nadina* a feted "Russian" dancer in Paris receives a visit in her dressing room from a man calling himself Count Sergius Paulovitch. Neither of the pair are Russians; he is English and she is South African and both of them are in the service of a man they call "the Colonel"* an international Agent provocateur* crook and organiser of terrorism. After many years of organising his crimes* 'the colonel' is now planning to retire* leaving his agents high and dry* both financially and in terms of the evidence accumulated against them. Nadina though has other plans; many years before* in arranging for the substitution and smuggling of a hundred thousand pounds worth of De Beersdiamonds out of South Africa* Nadina kept some of the stones back and now plans to blackmail 'the colonel'. Nadina is being joined tomorrow by her accomplice from South Africa – her husband... Anne Beddingfeld is an English orphan following the recent death of her Professor father. Having lived in a country village all her life she longs for adventure and jumps at the chance when her father's solicitor* Mr. Flemming* suggests she lives with him and his wife in London. Returning from an unsuccessful job interview one day* Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station when a man looks over her shoulder* staggers back in terror at something or someone he sees* and falls onto the live track* dying instantly. A doctor examines the man on the platform once he has been pulled to safety* pronounces him dead and hurriedly leaves* dropping a note on his way. Anne picks up the note which reads "17.1 22 Kilmorden Castle". The inquest on the dead man (identified as 'L. B. Carton') brings a verdict of suicide. In his pocket was a house agent's order to view a house for let – The Mill House in Marlow – and the next day the newspapers report that a dead woman has been found there – strangled. The house is owned by Sir Eustace Pedler MP* who is on vacation on the French Riviera. The gardener's wife gave the dead woman the keys to the house as she too had a supposed agent's appointment. A few minutes later a young man in a brown suit followed her in and he came out soon afterwards looking shocked. Anne goes to see an uninterested policeman about the Tube suicide as she has realised after the event that the 'doctor' did not examine the dead man in the same way as she saw doctors working in the war when she was a nurse. She then goes to see Lord Naseby* publisher of the Daily Budget newspaper who agrees to publish anything interesting from the investigations Anne intends to make over the note dropped in the tube station. After fruitless investigations at Mill House* by sheer good chance Anne finds out that Kilmorden Castle is the name of a boat sailing on 17 January 1922 from Southampton to Cape Town and she books a passage on it. Once on board ship* Anne makes the acquaintance of the other passengers including society lady the Hon. Mrs Suzanne Blair and Colonel Race. Also on board ship is Sir Eustace Pedler himself who has been entrusted by the government to go to South Africa with a confidential document to be given to General Smuts. In addition to his normal secretary* Guy Pagett* there is a second secretary* a young man supposedly supplied by the government who goes by the name of Harry Rayburn. Anne wants to change cabins as she was to be put in Cabin 13 and she is superstitious and is strenuously opposed in this move by both Pagett and a clerical gentleman named Rev. Chichester who are suspiciously eager to claim Cabin 17 for themselves* leaving Anne to wonder if the '17' on the dropped note refers to the cabin number* not the date* and the '1' means 1.00am or pm. At 1.00am on the morning of the 22nd a young man staggers into her cabin having been stabbed. Anne hides the man while she answers a stewardess's enquiry as to whether everything is alright. After she has gone Anne is able to dress the man's slight wound but the man is not in the least bit grateful and leaves after an altercation with her. The next day Anne's cabin is ransacked while she is out. She resolves to investigate the people she is suspicious of* starting with the Rev. Chichester who becomes alarmed when he inadvertently drops a piece of paper on deck which is picked up and returned to him by Pedler. Anne also finds out that Pagett becomes agitated when anyone asks him about some time he spent in Florence recently. In addition* she becomes suspicious of Colonel Race when he converses with her on the subject of her father's work and makes some elementary mistakes despite claiming to have known him well. Sir Eustace keeps a diary whilst on his trip and in it he recounts how he managed to read the words on the note dropped by Chichester: it stated* "Don't try to play a lone hand or it will be the worse for you". Pedler also confides his observations of Pagett's suspicious actions to the diary. One evening on ship* the talk turns to the De Beers diamond fields of Kimberley and Colonel Race recounts a story of the theft of a hundred thousand pounds worth of diamonds some years before* supposedly by the son of the South African gold magnate* John Eardsley and his friend Lucas. They claimed to have found another source of diamonds at the same time that a theft took place from De Beers. John and his friend were arrested but John's father* Sir Laurence* disowned his son. John Eardsley was killed in the war and his father's huge fortune passed to a next of kin whom he hardly knew. Lucas was posted as "missing in action". Harry Rayburn walks into the cabin as the story is being told* overhears it* looks sickly and leaves. Race reveals he himself is the fortunate next of kin. The next day* Anne finds out that there are no stewardesses on night duty on the ship and is therefore puzzled who the woman was on the night she helped the stabbed man. She decided to confide in Suzanne. Harry Rayburn was the stabbed man - he and Anne had not met on ship previously - and Suzanne helps her realises the mysterious stewardess was the Rev. Chichester in disguise. They examine the piece of paper Anne obtained in the underground station and realise that a flaw in the paper adds a dot where there shouldn't be one and that it could therefore be referring to cabin 71 – Suzanne's cabin. She was given it when the booked passenger failed to turn up. This was a Mrs Grey but that was a pseudonym for the Russian dancer Nadina. Race has told Suzanne of his suspicions of Nadina and her links to 'the Colonel'. Anne and Suzanne speculate that Nadina was the dead woman in the Mill House. Anne suddenly connects her memory of finding a roll of unexposed films in the Mill House with a canister of returned films that were dropped into Suzanne's cabin on night of the 22nd by a steward. They look in the canister and find uncut diamonds. They speculate that Harry Rayburn is the "Man in the Brown Suit". In investigating further* Anne presses the steward who left the films in cabin 71 for information and finds out that he was paid to do so by a man whose description matches that of the man who died in the underground station. She also traps Pagett into a conversation on Florence and his conversation reveals he knows next to nothing about the city* despite claiming to have been there recently. Anne makes an "innocent" comment that she thought she once saw him in Marlow and the man flees from her company. Suzanne and Anne make plans to keep an eye on their suspects once they arrive in Cape Town and go on their onward journeys – Suzanne has been invited along with Race to accompany Pedler to Rhodesia. Anne confesses to her that she has fallen for Harry. That night Anne is attacked as she walks the deck of the ship. Harry Rayburn saves her but the attacker gets away. Searching further Anne and Harry find Pagett unconscious. Anne amazes Harry with her knowledge of events in Marlow* at Hyde Park Corner station and suggests that Harry may be Lucas and the "Man in the Brown Suit". They again part on bad terms. Pedler confides in his diary* once in Cape Town* that Pagett told him the next day that he followed Rayburn round the ship when he was suspicious that he was having a secret meeting in the middle of the night. Pedler's attention is taken by the fact that his letter to General Smuts is in fact a blank piece of paper and Pagett suggests that Rayburn may have substituted it. He further suggests that Harry is the "Man in the Brown Suit"* annoying Pedler who states that he is going to leave Pagett in the Cape when he goes to Rhodesia in his private train and he wants to take Anne as his secretary for the trip. Anne is warned by Rayburn that she is meddling in things she doesn't understand but he admits to being the "Man in the Brown Suit". His warning to Anne bears fruit when she is lured to a house at Muizenberg where she is held and imprisoned in the attic by a bearded Dutchman who tells her that she will tell everything she knows tomorrow when they question her. Anne manages to escape her bonds. She explores the house and overhears the Rev. Chichester speaking with the Dutchman about "the colonel" wanting to question her tomorrow. Anne retreats back to her attic prison as there are too many people about but the next day she manages to escape the house and make her way back to Cape Town. There she finds out that the news has got out that Harry is wanted as the "Man in the Brown Suit" but has gone missing. Pedler is even more annoyed at the way the attention about this inconveniences him and again offers Anne the role of his secretary on the train trip to Rhodesia. She refuses as she wants to keep an eye on Pagett but the next morning Anne realises that she is being followed by someone who she later sees talking to Pagett and then speaking to a policeman. Anne thinks she is being set up. She races for the station and manages to get onto the train before being caught and is then reunited with Race* Suzanne and Pedler who has had employed for him a mannish secretary by Pagett who goes by the name of Miss Pettigrew. In Bulawayo* Anne receives a note* supposedly from Harry* which lures her out to the Palm Gully* a ravine crossed by a rope bridge near their hotel. There she is pursued by a sinister figure* and running* falls into darkness... Almost a month later* Anne awakens in a hut on an island in the Zambezi with Harry Rayburn. He rescued her and a native woman has been tending to her ever since. She has a badly knocked head and a wrenched arm. She fell because the stones which marked the dark path down into the ravine had been moved – causing her to step over the edge. Anne stays some time on the island* and she and Harry fall in love. Anne guesses that Harry Rayburn is Harry Lucas. Harry tells her of the diamond discovery he and John Eardsley made years earlier. They were quickly duped by a young woman called Anita Grünberg who substituted their diamonds for ones stolen from De Beers. John's father managed to get the charge dropped but disowned his son. They both enlisted in the war and John was killed. Harry was listed as missing in action and used this to disappear* coming to Africa under the name of Harry Parker. Some time later he came across a man – Carton - and recognised him from the incident with Anita Grünberg. Under threats he confessed that Grünberg – Nadina by another name – was in the employ of "the Colonel" and had the evidence which would clear Harry and his dead friend* this evidence being the substituted diamonds from years earlier. He followed Carton to London and there came across Nadina again although as Harry was in disguise* neither of them recognised him. Following Carton into the tube station* Carton did* with a shock* finally recognise Harry and fell back onto the line. Harry followed Nadina to the Mill House and found her there already dead. He realised that she hadn't had the diamonds on her* not did Carton and that they were probably still on the Kilmorden Castle. Anne confirms they were and were handed to Suzanne in her cabin on the night of the 22nd. Harry's island is attacked that night by a party led by the red-bearded Dutchman but the two manage to escape and Anne plans to return to Pedler's party where she can keep an eye on developments. They exchange codes to be used in order that neither can be duped again. In the meantime* Pedler's diary has detailed the hue and cry which erupted when Anne disappeared. Some time later* Sir Eustace is at Johannesburg when Suzanne sends him a telegram stating that Anne has turned up safe and sound. He is similarly amazed to bump into Colonel Race who tells him of Harry's true identity and that he saw Miss Pettigrew going into a curio shop which he knows is connected with "the Colonel's" organisation. Reunited with Suzanne* Anne is told that the diamonds are with luggage sent on with Sir Eustace. She also receives telegram from Harry telling her to meet him but it is not in their code. Pagett turns up at Kimberley on the way to Johannesburg to meet Sir Eustace. Anne accosts him and accuses him of being in Marlow. Pagett tells her two interesting facts which change everything... Anne turns up for the false meeting with Harry and again bumps into Chichester* alias Miss Pettigrew. She boldly asks to be taken to Sir Eustace and her request is promptly carried out as the man is already in the building she has been led to – Sir Eustace is "the Colonel"! The 'facts' that Pagett told her were that he* Pagett* is married with children and his family is in Marlow. He was there visiting them when he should have been in Florence and saw Pedler who he thought was still on the Riviera – Anne has realised from this that Pedler killed Nadina and therefore what his true identity is. Pedler confesses the truth – he sent Pagett off to Florence in order that he wouldn't know that he'd left the Riviera but because Pagett used the break to visit his family* his alibi was broken (and that was the reason Pagett knew next to nothing of Florence or Italy and became evasive when asked). At the falls* it was Chichester* in truth a man called Arthur Minx* who lured Anne down the wrong path on Pedler's orders. Pedler forces Anne to write a note to Harry to lure him to the curio shop which she does but she does not include their code in it. Harry turns up and Pedler is exultant – until Anne pulls out a pistol that she bought with her and they capture Pedler* albeit they are in a house full of his thugs. Harry tells Pedler that he was followed out the curio shop and he and Race have been working together altered by Suzanne as to Anne's movements. Race turns up with reinforcements and Pedler tries to bluff matters out but Minx has gone over to their side and tells him of his visit to Nadina in Paris in the disguise of Count Sergius Paulovitch. Shortly after that* Harry recruited Minx over to their side. They have all the evidence they need against Pedler and arrest him. The next day* while recovering on a farm on the veld* Anne is told that Sir Eustace managed to escape his guard. Anne is somewhat pleased* having grown a certain fondness for the man's charms. Race tells her that Harry is in fact John Eardsley* not Lucas* and therefore the heir to the fortune. John however has found his happiness with Anne and they marry and live on the island in the Zambezi with Race continuing to manage the estate of John's inheritance. :qatarw_com_52228917 Enjoy .gif "Eh S(7)") | ||||
|  |
 |
| مواقع النشر (المفضلة) |
| أدوات الموضوع | |
| انواع عرض الموضوع | |
|
|
العرض العادي
