【正文】 ..A moment later they heard Mr Wainwright39。ve e to cure it.” And I plunged a steel knittingneedle into his heartlike this!39。m ing in,” I called I went there he stood smiling at me.“You haven39。She turned on him with sudden ferocity.`Will you stop interrupting?39。t stand it any more, and I was knocking at his door almost before I knew was my handkerchief you found in your room, Mr must have dropped it there.39。 continued Miss Wicks.` Your door was open, Mr Penbury, and I went in to ask if we couldn39。She tense atmosphere grew suddenly tenser.`Go on,39。s , noon and he wouldn39。s nerves, doesn39。 interrupted Penbury.`Just before nine, I think it was,39。d got the needles I was just about to e down when I heard Mr Wainwright39。s no need to , I left the drawingroom to fetch some steel ones I39。`Yes, I quite understand,39。ll be so good,39。Penbury shrugged his shoulders did not seem he turned now to Miss Wicks, and the old lady inquired, while her needles moved busily.`My turn?39。ve just said so, haven39。t go up to his room?39。 jerked Monty.`The curtain put it out of my came down with it still in my pocket.39。Penbury looked at Monty hard.`What about that latchkey?39。s right,39。ll remember, all of you, that we returned together.39。d forgotten to return Mr Wainwright39。 he said, `but let me suggest that you give the statement to the police with slightly less emphasis, Mr Smith?39。 He tapped it viciously.`Here it is!39。 he cried.`What damned rubbish!Did I leave this room without knowing it, and kill Wainwright forfor no reason at all ?39。 he exclaimed.`Has Mr Calthrop dozed during the past hour?39。t you lost a handkerchief?39。`That sounds good enough,39。`A long time to get a handkerchief.39。 she concluded, producing it triumphantly.`How long were you out of the room?39。`I am39。s not proof, I admit, but they know me there, you see, and it may , who39。 replied Penbury.`That39。s to prove you were out all that time?39。 answered Penbury, coolly.`Well, I call that a rotten alibi!39。Flushed and emotional, Mrs Mayton challenged him.`Why did you sit here for three minutes without telling us?39。 He paused.`On the floor I found a I went into his room to ask if the handkerchief was found him lying on the ground near his his towards the through the no sign of what he39。t need any time at all to think of an answer,39。t take too long thinking of an answer!39。Penbury regarded her with interest and respect.`Intelligent,39。`How did you know Mrs Mayton heard the front door close? You weren39。`Wait a moment!39。 replied Penbury.`Then let me give my alibi twenty minutes to eight I followed Wainwright up to the second going into his room he made an odd remark whichnine o39。 murmured Penbury.`But so have you!39。ve all been out of the room,39。 Penbury explained.`Now, if my assumption is correct, he was killed between ten minutes past eight and ten minutes past nine, so anyone who can prove that he or she has remained in this room during all that time should have no worry.39。`How do you know he went to his bedroom?39。 he exclaimed.`The police will not necessarily accept our word for it,39。 responded voice suddenly shed its cynicism and became practical.`Shall we try and make use of these two or three minutes? We shall all be questioned, and perhaps we can clear up a little ground before they arrive.39。`How longwhen do you expect...?39。 she suggested.`They already have,39。s drawingroom, but never a silence like this Wicks broke it.`Shouldn39。 he gulped.`That is exactly what I mean,39。t matter to her in the least where he had that mattered was that he paid his three guineas a week regularly for board and lifedon39。s gone?39。t tell him I couldn39。only by accident, when they make something like Mother and said,to me, “What are you thinking?”I said, “Many things,” and my inarticulateness distressed me, for I knew he wanted something from fell him fall back, angry, hurt, desiring, I didn39。t touch me, for black people don39。for his eyes had been blinded by years in the I thought it was a pity he was blind, for if men never touch each other, they39。s sake he wanted to touch me too and he couldn39。t know what that something couldn39。m frightened of Orlando at night.”We drop up Eloff Street, and he said, “Did you know what I mean?” I wanted to answer him, but I couldn39。d take you to the station,” he said.“I39。t was drinking my brandy almost as fast as I would have drunk it in Orlando.“I must go,” I Rensburg said, “I39。ve ever I wanted to get the hell out of uncle came back with his glass to me of us were full of goodwill, but I was waiting for the opening of one of those impersonal they were too, I don39。t you worry about that.”He poured me a drink and one for himself.“Uncle,” he said, “what about one for yourself?”The older man said, “I don39。s French.”He showed me the bottle, and I, wanting to get the hell out of that place, looked at it and saw it was turned to the man and said, “Uncle, you remember? The man at the bottlestore said this was the best brandy in the world.”“I must go,” I said.“I must catch that train.”“I39。s a good boy.”Then the other woman returned with van Rensburg, and van Rensburg had a bottle of was smiling and pleased, and he said to me, “This isn39。s somehow because it39。t know how, but I saw the earnestness of the woman who had smiled and bowed to me, and I said to her, “I can see that, Mevrou.”“He goes down every night to look at the statue,” she said.“He said only God could make something so beautiful, therefor God must be in the man who made it, and he wants to meet him and talk out his heart to him.”She looked back at the room, and then she dropped her voice a little, and said to me, “Can39。s a good , but good.”And I thought the whole thing was mad, and getting beyond me, with me a black stranger being shown a testimonial for the son of the house, with these white strangers standing and looking at me in the passage, as though they wanted for God39。s a .,” van Rensburg told first woman smil