The Egyptian Cross Mystery
- Автор: Куин (Квин) Эллери
- Серия: Ellery Queen #5
- Год: 1932
- Язык: английский
- Год: Frederick A. Stokes Company
- Жанр: Классические детективы
Электронная книга - «The Egyptian Cross Mystery». Краткое содержание книги:
Not ten seconds after the escape — if indeed it was an escape — an astonishing apparition burst out of the woods, following the same path the runaways had taken.
It was a nude man. A tall, wide, brown and heavily muscled fellow, with a mane of black hair tossing with the wind of his passage. Tarzan, thought Ellery; he was half-prepared to see the trunk of Tarzan’s elephantine and improbable companion appear from the brush behind him. But where was the loin skin?... They could make out his curse of disappointment as he stopped short on the dock, glaring after the departing boat. He stood there for a moment, ropy arms hanging loosely, utterly unconscious of his nakedness. He had eyes only for the outboard, and the man in the boat was looking back tensely, apparently unaware of what lay in the path of his craft.
Then, so suddenly that Ellery blinked, the nude man vanished. He had executed a swift dive from the edge of the dock, cleaving the water like a harpoon. He reappeared almost at once and broke into a fast, distance-eating crawl, heading for the runaways.
“The damned fool!” exclaimed Isham. “Does he expect to overhaul a motorboat?”
“The motorboat’s stopped,” observed Ellery dryly.
Isham, startled, looked sharply at the outboard. It lay dead in the water a hundred yards offshore; and its pilot was working frantically over the trailing motor.
“Hit ’er up!” shouted Inspector Vaughn to the police pilot. “That guy’s got murder in his eyes!”
The launch roared, and its siren let out a deep-throated whine that raised echoes behind the Island. As if for the first time conscious of the launch’s presence, the man in the boat and the man in the water froze to search out the source of the warning. The swimmer, treading water, stared for an instant, then shook a cascade from his hair savagely and dived. He reappeared a moment later in another fast crawl, but this time he was retreating to the Island as if all the devils out of hell were in his wake.
The girl on the thwart sat up and stared. The man dropped into the sternsheets limply and waved his hand to the launch.
They pulled alongside just as the naked man leaped out of the water to shore. Without looking back he tore into the protection of the woods, and disappeared.
Astonishingly, as the police craft hooked onto the dead outboard, the man threw back his head and laughed — a deep, hearty laugh of pure relief and enjoyment.
He was a thin wiry individual of indeterminate age, with brownish hair and a face burnt almost purple — a complexion which could only be the result of long years under the equatorial sun. His eyes, too, looked bleached; they were water-gray, almost colorless. His mouth was a trap in flesh; the muscles of his jaw braced his purple cheek like girder-steel. Altogether a formidable person despite his flight, Ellery decided, as he watched the man roll on the sternsheets in the full ecstasy of his glee.
The female this remarkable man had abducted could only be, from her resemblance to Jonah Lincoln, the rebellious Hester. She was a plain but well-made young woman. Well-made, as the embarrassed men in the police launch had no difficulty in seeing; although a man’s coat was draped about her shoulders — the laughing man, Ellery noted, was coatless — beneath it she was scantily concealed in a dirty piece of canvas, as if someone had forcibly covered her nakedness with the first scrap of material which lay at hand.
She returned their stares out of troubled blue eyes, and then she blushed and shivered, hanging her head. Her hands crept insensibly into her lap.
“What the hell are you laughing at?” demanded the Inspector. “And who are you? What d’ye mean by kidnaping this woman?”
The coatless man dashed a tear from his eyes. “Don’t blame you,” he gasped. “Gad, that was funny!” He shook the last remnants of mirth out of his somber face, and stood up. “Sorry. My name’s Temple. This is Miss Hester Lincoln. Thanks for the rescue.”
“Come aboard,” growled Vaughn.
Isham and Ellery helped the silent woman into the launch. “I say, wait a minute,” snapped Dr. Temple. There was no humor in his face now; it was black with suspicion. “Who the devil are you people, anyway?”
“Police. Come on, come on!”
“Police!” The man’s eyes narrowed, and he clambered slowly into the launch. A detective fastened the outboard to the painter of the bigger craft. Dr. Temple looked from Vaughn to Isham to Ellery. The girl had slumped into a seat and was studying the floor. “Now, that’s queer. What’s happened?”
District Attorney Isham told him. His face went ghastly pale; and Hester Lincoln looked up with eyes full of horror.
“Brad!” muttered Dr. Temple. “Murdered... It doesn’t seem possible! Why, only yesterday morning I saw him and—”
“Jonah,” began Hester; she was trembling. “Is — is he all right?”
No one answered her. Dr. Temple was biting his lower lip; a very thoughtful look had come into his pallid eyes. “Have you seen — the Lynns?” he asked in a peculiar voice. “Why?”
Temple was silent; then he smiled and shrugged. “Oh, nothing. Just a friendly question... Poor Tom.” He sat down suddenly and gazed over the water at Oyster Island.
“Head back to Brad’s landing,” ordered Vaughn. The launch churned the water and began to move back toward the mainland.
Ellery noticed the tall outlandish figure of Professor Yardley standing on the big slip, and waved. Yardley waved his gangling arm in reply.
“Now, Dr. Temple,” said District Attorney Isham grimly, “suppose you go into your song-and-dance. What’s the idea of the big kidnaping scene, and who in the name of God is that naked lunatic who was chasing you?”
“It’s unfortunate... I suppose I’d better come out with the truth. Hester — forgive me.”
The girl did not answer; she seemed stunned by the news of Thomas Brad’s death.
“Miss Lincoln,” went on the sun-blackened man, “has been — well, let’s say a little impulsive. She’s young, and certain things make young people lose their heads.”
“Oh, Victor,” said Hester in an infinitely weary voice.
“Jonah Lincoln,” continued Dr. Temple with a frown, “hasn’t taken — how shall I say it? — he hasn’t done his duty, as I see it, toward his sister.”
“As you see it,” said the girl bitterly.
“Yes, Hester, because I feel—” He bit his lip again. “At any rate, when a week passed and Hester hadn’t returned from that damned Island, I thought it was high time someone brought her to her senses. Since nobody else seemed capable of doing it, I assumed the duty. Nudism!” He snorted. “Perversion, as those people practice it. I haven’t been a medical man for nothing. They’re a bunch of fakers trading on the inhibitions of decent people.”
The girl gasped. “Victor Temple! Do you realize what you’re saying?”
“Excuse me for butting in,” said the Inspector mildly, “but might I ask what business it is of yours if Miss Lincoln wants to prance around without any clothes on? She looks of age.”
Dr. Temple snapped his jaws together. “If you must know,” he said angrily, “I feel I have the right to interfere. Emotionally, she’s just a child, an adolescent. She’s been carried away by a handsome physique and a smooth line of talk.”
“That was Paul Romaine, I take it?” put in Ellery with a dry smile.
The physician nodded. “Yes, the insidious blackguard! He’s the living trademark of that crazy cult of the sun. Sun’s all right in its place... I went over there this morning to scout around. Romaine and I had a little tussle. Like cavemen! It was ridiculous, and that’s why I laughed a moment ago. But it was serious then, and he’s a good deal stronger than I. I saw I was in for it, grabbed Miss Lincoln in the approved fashion, and ran for it.” He grinned wryly. “If it wasn’t for the fact that Romaine stumbled and hit his thick head against a rock, I’m afraid I should have been properly thrashed. And there’s the story of the great abduction.”