指向死亡的微燈

藍寶石十字架 The Blue Cross

字體:16+-

G.K.切斯特頓/G.K.Chesterton

G.K.切斯特頓(G.K.Chesterton,1874-1936),英國作家。出生於倫敦一個小資產階級家庭。在校期間,喜歡寫詩,並獲得彌爾頓獎金。1900年,切斯特頓的第一部詩集《野騎士》出版,詩意清新雋永,其中以《飛的旅舍》(1914)的祝酒歌最為著名。另外偵探小說集《布朗神父的純樸》(1911)、《布朗神父的智慧》(1914)、《布朗神父的秘密》(1927)、《布朗神父的醜行》(1935)等,也深受讀者歡迎。

Between the silver ribbon of morning and the green glittering ribbon of sea, the boat touched Harwich and let loose a swarm of folk like flies, among whom the man we must follow was by no means conspicuous-nor wished to be. There was nothing notable about him, except a slight contrast between the holiday gaiety of his clothes and the official gravity of his face. His clothes included a slight, pale grey jacket, a white waistcoat, and a silver straw hat with a grey-blue ribbon. His lean face was dark by contrast, and ended in a curt black beard that looked Spanish and suggested an Elizabethan ruff. He was smoking a cigarette with the seriousness of an idler. There was nothing about him to indicate the fact that the grey jacket covered a loaded revolver, that the white waistcoat covered a police card, or that the straw hat covered one of the most powerful intellects in Europe. For this was Valentin himself, the head of the Paris police and the most famous investigator of the world;and he was coming from Brussels to London to make the greatest arrest of the century.

Flambeau was in England. The police of three countries had tracked the great criminal at last from Ghent to Brussels, from Brussels to the Hook of Holland;and it was conjectured that he would take some advantage of the unfamiliarity and confusion of the Eucharistic Congress, then taking place in London. Probably he would travel as some minor clerk or secretary connected with it;but, of course, Valentin could not be certain;nobody could be certain about Flambeau.