Читать книгу Ten Little Niggers / Десять негритят - Агата Кристи, Agatha Christie, Detection Club The - Страница 9

Mr. Blore was in the slow train from Plymouth. There was only one other person in his carriage, an elderly sea-faring gentleman with a bleary eye. At the present moment he was sleeping.

Mr. Blore was writing in his notebook: “Emily Brent, Vera Claythorne, Dr. Armstrong, Anthony Marston, old Justice Wargrave, Philip Lombard, General Macarthur. Manservant and wife: Mr. and Mrs. Rogers.”

“That’s the lot,” he muttered to himself and closing the notebook, put it back in his pocket.

He thought that his forthcoming job ought to be easy enough and hoped that he looked right for the role he was to play.

He stood up and studied himself in the mirror. The face reflected there was slightly military, with a moustache. There was very little expression in it. The eyes were grey and set rather close together.

“Might be a major,” said Mr. Blore. “No, I forgot. There’s that old general. He’d unmask me at once.

“South Africa,” decided Mr. Blore, “that’s my line!”He’d been reading a travel leaflet about South Africa, and thought he could talk about it all right.

Fortunately there were all sorts and types of colonials. As a well-off man from South Africa, Mr. Blore felt that he could enter into any society unmasked.

He had been on Nigger Island in his boyhood… Smelly sort of rock covered with gulls – stood about a mile from the coast. It had been named Nigger Island because it resembled a Negro man’s profile.

The old man in the corner woke up and said:

“You can’t never tell at sea – never! There’s a storm coming.”

Mr. Blore objected:

“No, no, mate, it’s a lovely day.”

The old man said angrily:

“There’s a storm ahead. I can smell it.”

“Maybe you’re right,” said Mr. Blore pacifically.

The train stopped at a station where the old man was to get out. As he was quite drunk, Mr. Blore helped him to the door.

The old sailor stood in the doorway. He raised a solemn hand and blinked his bleary eyes.

“Watch and pray,” he said. “Watch and pray. The day of judgement[11] is very close.”

Returning to his seat Mr. Blore thought to himself:

“He’s nearer the day of judgement than I am!”

But there, as it happens, he was wrong…