Dowd Siobhan - The London Eye Mystery 46 page

was broken and blood was shed. Well, punish me for the letter of the

law... and that's enough. Of course, in that case many of the

benefactors of mankind who snatched power for themselves instead of

inheriting it ought to have been punished at their first steps. But

those men succeeded and so _they were right_, and I didn't, and so I

had no right to have taken that step."

It was only in that that he recognised his criminality, only in the fact

that he had been unsuccessful and had confessed it.

He suffered too from the question: why had he not killed himself? Why

had he stood looking at the river and preferred to confess? Was the

desire to live so strong and was it so hard to overcome it? Had not

Svidrigailov overcome it, although he was afraid of death?

In misery he asked himself this question, and could not understand that,

at the very time he had been standing looking into the river, he had

perhaps been dimly conscious of the fundamental falsity in himself and

his convictions. He didn't understand that that consciousness might be

the promise of a future crisis, of a new view of life and of his future

resurrection.

He preferred to attribute it to the dead weight of instinct which he

could not step over, again through weakness and meanness. He looked at

his fellow prisoners and was amazed to see how they all loved life and

prized it. It seemed to him that they loved and valued life more in

prison than in freedom. What terrible agonies and privations some of

them, the tramps for instance, had endured! Could they care so much for

a ray of sunshine, for the primeval forest, the cold spring hidden away

in some unseen spot, which the tramp had marked three years before, and

longed to see again, as he might to see his sweetheart, dreaming of the

green grass round it and the bird singing in the bush? As he went on he

saw still more inexplicable examples.

In prison, of course, there was a great deal he did not see and did not

want to see; he lived as it were with downcast eyes. It was loathsome

and unbearable for him to look. But in the end there was much that

surprised him and he began, as it were involuntarily, to notice much

that he had not suspected before. What surprised him most of all was

the terrible impossible gulf that lay between him and all the rest. They

seemed to be a different species, and he looked at them and they at

him with distrust and hostility. He felt and knew the reasons of his

isolation, but he would never have admitted till then that those reasons

were so deep and strong. There were some Polish exiles, political

prisoners, among them. They simply looked down upon all the rest as

ignorant churls; but Raskolnikov could not look upon them like that.

He saw that these ignorant men were in many respects far wiser than the

Poles. There were some Russians who were just as contemptuous, a former

officer and two seminarists. Raskolnikov saw their mistake as clearly.

He was disliked and avoided by everyone; they even began to hate him at

last--why, he could not tell. Men who had been far more guilty despised

and laughed at his crime.

"You're a gentleman," they used to say. "You shouldn't hack about with

an axe; that's not a gentleman's work."

The second week in Lent, his turn came to take the sacrament with his

gang. He went to church and prayed with the others. A quarrel broke out

one day, he did not know how. All fell on him at once in a fury.

"You're an infidel! You don't believe in God," they shouted. "You ought

to be killed."

He had never talked to them about God nor his belief, but they wanted to

kill him as an infidel. He said nothing. One of the prisoners rushed at

him in a perfect frenzy. Raskolnikov awaited him calmly and silently;

his eyebrows did not quiver, his face did not flinch. The guard

succeeded in intervening between him and his assailant, or there would

have been bloodshed.

There was another question he could not decide: why were they all so

fond of Sonia? She did not try to win their favour; she rarely met

them, sometimes only she came to see him at work for a moment. And yet

everybody knew her, they knew that she had come out to follow _him_,

knew how and where she lived. She never gave them money, did them no

particular services. Only once at Christmas she sent them all presents

of pies and rolls. But by degrees closer relations sprang up between

them and Sonia. She would write and post letters for them to their

relations. Relations of the prisoners who visited the town, at their

instructions, left with Sonia presents and money for them. Their wives

and sweethearts knew her and used to visit her. And when she visited

Raskolnikov at work, or met a party of the prisoners on the road, they

all took off their hats to her. "Little mother Sofya Semyonovna, you

are our dear, good little mother," coarse branded criminals said to that

frail little creature. She would smile and bow to them and everyone was

delighted when she smiled. They even admired her gait and turned round

to watch her walking; they admired her too for being so little, and, in

fact, did not know what to admire her most for. They even came to her

for help in their illnesses.

He was in the hospital from the middle of Lent till after Easter. When

he was better, he remembered the dreams he had had while he was feverish

and delirious. He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a

terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of

Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen. Some new sorts

of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were

endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once

mad and furious. But never had men considered themselves so intellectual

and so completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never

had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions, their

moral convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole towns and peoples

went mad from the infection. All were excited and did not understand

one another. Each thought that he alone had the truth and was wretched

looking at the others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung

his hands. They did not know how to judge and could not agree what to

consider evil and what good; they did not know whom to blame, whom

to justify. Men killed each other in a sort of senseless spite. They

gathered together in armies against one another, but even on the march

the armies would begin attacking each other, the ranks would be broken

and the soldiers would fall on each other, stabbing and cutting, biting

and devouring each other. The alarm bell was ringing all day long in

the towns; men rushed together, but why they were summoned and who was

summoning them no one knew. The most ordinary trades were abandoned,

because everyone proposed his own ideas, his own improvements, and they

could not agree. The land too was abandoned. Men met in groups, agreed

on something, swore to keep together, but at once began on something

quite different from what they had proposed. They accused one another,

fought and killed each other. There were conflagrations and famine. All

men and all things were involved in destruction. The plague spread and

moved further and further. Only a few men could be saved in the whole

world. They were a pure chosen people, destined to found a new race and

a new life, to renew and purify the earth, but no one had seen these

men, no one had heard their words and their voices.

Raskolnikov was worried that this senseless dream haunted his memory so

miserably, the impression of this feverish delirium persisted so long.

The second week after Easter had come. There were warm bright spring

days; in the prison ward the grating windows under which the sentinel

paced were opened. Sonia had only been able to visit him twice during

his illness; each time she had to obtain permission, and it was

difficult. But she often used to come to the hospital yard, especially

in the evening, sometimes only to stand a minute and look up at the

windows of the ward.

One evening, when he was almost well again, Raskolnikov fell asleep. On

waking up he chanced to go to the window, and at once saw Sonia in the

distance at the hospital gate. She seemed to be waiting for someone.

Something stabbed him to the heart at that minute. He shuddered and

moved away from the window. Next day Sonia did not come, nor the day

after; he noticed that he was expecting her uneasily. At last he was

discharged. On reaching the prison he learnt from the convicts that

Sofya Semyonovna was lying ill at home and was unable to go out.

He was very uneasy and sent to inquire after her; he soon learnt that

her illness was not dangerous. Hearing that he was anxious about her,

Sonia sent him a pencilled note, telling him that she was much better,

that she had a slight cold and that she would soon, very soon come and

see him at his work. His heart throbbed painfully as he read it.

Again it was a warm bright day. Early in the morning, at six o'clock, he

went off to work on the river bank, where they used to pound alabaster

and where there was a kiln for baking it in a shed. There were only

three of them sent. One of the convicts went with the guard to the

fortress to fetch a tool; the other began getting the wood ready and

laying it in the kiln. Raskolnikov came out of the shed on to the river

bank, sat down on a heap of logs by the shed and began gazing at the

wide deserted river. From the high bank a broad landscape opened before

him, the sound of singing floated faintly audible from the other bank.

In the vast steppe, bathed in sunshine, he could just see, like black

specks, the nomads' tents. There there was freedom, there other men were

living, utterly unlike those here; there time itself seemed to stand

still, as though the age of Abraham and his flocks had not passed.

Raskolnikov sat gazing, his thoughts passed into day-dreams, into

contemplation; he thought of nothing, but a vague restlessness excited

and troubled him. Suddenly he found Sonia beside him; she had come up

noiselessly and sat down at his side. It was still quite early; the

morning chill was still keen. She wore her poor old burnous and the

green shawl; her face still showed signs of illness, it was thinner and

paler. She gave him a joyful smile of welcome, but held out her hand

with her usual timidity. She was always timid of holding out her hand

to him and sometimes did not offer it at all, as though afraid he would

repel it. He always took her hand as though with repugnance, always

seemed vexed to meet her and was sometimes obstinately silent throughout

her visit. Sometimes she trembled before him and went away deeply

grieved. But now their hands did not part. He stole a rapid glance

at her and dropped his eyes on the ground without speaking. They were

alone, no one had seen them. The guard had turned away for the time.

How it happened he did not know. But all at once something seemed to

seize him and fling him at her feet. He wept and threw his arms round

her knees. For the first instant she was terribly frightened and she

turned pale. She jumped up and looked at him trembling. But at the same

moment she understood, and a light of infinite happiness came into her

eyes. She knew and had no doubt that he loved her beyond everything and

that at last the moment had come....

They wanted to speak, but could not; tears stood in their eyes. They

were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the

dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were

renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the

heart of the other.

They resolved to wait and be patient. They had another seven years to

wait, and what terrible suffering and what infinite happiness before

them! But he had risen again and he knew it and felt it in all his

being, while she--she only lived in his life.

On the evening of the same day, when the barracks were locked,

Raskolnikov lay on his plank bed and thought of her. He had even fancied

that day that all the convicts who had been his enemies looked at him

differently; he had even entered into talk with them and they answered

him in a friendly way. He remembered that now, and thought it was bound

to be so. Wasn't everything now bound to be changed?

He thought of her. He remembered how continually he had tormented her

and wounded her heart. He remembered her pale and thin little face.

But these recollections scarcely troubled him now; he knew with what

infinite love he would now repay all her sufferings. And what were all,

_all_ the agonies of the past! Everything, even his crime, his sentence

and imprisonment, seemed to him now in the first rush of feeling an

external, strange fact with which he had no concern. But he could not

think for long together of anything that evening, and he could not have

analysed anything consciously; he was simply feeling. Life had stepped

into the place of theory and something quite different would work itself

out in his mind.

Under his pillow lay the New Testament. He took it up mechanically.

The book belonged to Sonia; it was the one from which she had read the

raising of Lazarus to him. At first he was afraid that she would worry

him about religion, would talk about the gospel and pester him with

books. But to his great surprise she had not once approached the subject

and had not even offered him the Testament. He had asked her for it

himself not long before his illness and she brought him the book without

a word. Till now he had not opened it.

He did not open it now, but one thought passed through his mind: "Can

her convictions not be mine now? Her feelings, her aspirations at

least...."

She too had been greatly agitated that day, and at night she was taken

ill again. But she was so happy--and so unexpectedly happy--that she was

almost frightened of her happiness. Seven years, _only_ seven years! At

the beginning of their happiness at some moments they were both ready

to look on those seven years as though they were seven days. He did not

know that the new life would not be given him for nothing, that he would

have to pay dearly for it, that it would cost him great striving, great

suffering.

But that is the beginning of a new story--the story of the gradual

renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing

from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life.

That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is

ended.

Dowd Siobhan - The London Eye Mystery

child_proseUniversity DowdLondon Eye Mysteryand Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye, but after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off—except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery. This is an unput-downable spine-tingling thriller—a race against time.London Eye Mystery’s PackFrescura3for Scheme of Work 45–6Plans 739teachers don’t need to be told the enormous value and pleasure of reading whole texts as class readers. Little compares with that feeling when a class are truly engaged in the reading of a really good book. Fortunately, contemporary writers of fiction for young adults continue to offer fresh opportunities to enjoy literature with students.Rollercoastersis a series that offers teachers the opportunity of studying first-class novels as whole-class readers with Year 7, 8 and 9 students. Each set of materials has been written in response to the diverse needs of students in those year groups.on assessment of readingRollercoastersincludes titles with varied themes, challenging subject matter and engaging plots. For example, Noughts and Crossestakes a contemporary slant on racism, while The Boy in the Striped Pyjamasexplores the Holocaust through the eyes of a young German boy. The London Eye Mysterysets its young characters in a conundrum, which they must work together to solve and considers the world as viewed through the eyes of a child with autism.the latest wave of Rollercoasters, each novel is accompanied by innovative and engaging teaching materials, designed to help all students access the texts and also to reflect the National Curriculum Programmes of Study. The key concepts of competence, creativity, cultural and critical understanding are clearly addressed, and the schemes offer a wide range of cross-curricular opportunities.latest teaching materials are firmly based on developing reading skills, though teaching plans include approaches to literature through oral work, drama and media. Theories behind both assessment for learning and thinking skills are evident in the lesson plans.saving resourceseach on-line Teaching Pack there is a compact Overviewwhich summarizes the work scheme, identifies the specific reading skills and strategies being developed, and the resources available for each lesson.Planssuggest particular focuses and learning outcomes, but the Word files can be adapted to suit the level of progression for each particular class. All Worksheetsand OHTscan be easily adapted for differentiation. Navigatoroffers a clear plot summary, identifying the stages in the structure of the novel. It is designed to help teachers adapt the pace and detail of work according to the needs of their class.Teacher’s Pack contains suggested Guided reading sessionsas well as the opportunity to develop further specific group teaching.set of lesson plans ends with its own student Reading Assessment Progresssheet, which can be used to identify areas for student development.Guideof the novels has its own student Reading Guide – an accessible, magazine-style booklet, packed with visual, textual and activity materials to help engage students in their study of the novel. Each one features writer’s craftmaterial to enhance and enrich the students’ appreciation of the author’s skills. Original drafts and commentary from the authors of the novels provide valuable insight into the process of writing.for wider reading and for the extension of independent reading are provided in the Pathwayssection at the end of the Reading Guide.Rollercoastersprovides first-class teaching resources for first-class contemporary fiction. The series is designed to engage the widest possible range of students in reading for pleasure, and we feel confident that it will contribute to those memorable experiences of reading together in the secondary classroom.FOR SCHEME OF WORKand focus

(Book pages)skills and strategies

.First impressions

(Book cover and Chapter 1)and retrieve informationand interpret informationpredictions about a text:p4:1a, 1b

.Narrative viewpoint/Language

(Chapters 2–4)and comment on writer’s use of languagetext in order to retrieve information and ideasidiomatic language:2a, 2b

.Building character

(Chapter 5)with charactersthe text to retrieve relevant informationpredictions about a text:pp8-9:3a, 3b

.Narrative structure/suspense

(Chapters 6–8)texts to their historical contextand interpret ideas from the texttext to identify relevant informationas to alternative outcomes in the plot:p10:4

.Summarizing information

(Chapters 9–11)the text to identify relevant informationinformation from the text about characters and eventsinformation:5a, 5b

.Character development

(Chapters 12–15)and interpret ideas from the texthow the author develops characterempathy with characters:6a, 6b

.Setting

(Chapters 16–19)links between setting and plot developmentpersuasive language and presentational devices in other media:p11:7a, 7b

.Perspective

(Chapters 20–23)and consider ideas from the text about key themes in the storyparallels and differences between characters:8

.Plot development

(Chapters 24–32)and discuss how to relay the same story through different mediainformationpredictions about a text:pp11, 12:9

.Themes/Plot pivot

(Chapters 33–37)and consider ideas from the text about key themes in the storyon structural featurespredictions about a text:p 7:10a, 10b

.Themes/Character development

(Chapters 38–41)and consider ideas from the text about key themes in the storyinformation from the text about characters and eventsempathy with characters:p 13:11

.Review/Reflect

(Whole novel)and share personal responses to the novel orally and in writinglearning:pp4, 6, 15:12:12: teachers’ choice of this text should be influenced by the degree to which the study of The London Eye Mysterywill allow a class to make appropriate progress in their knowledge and skills of reading. The London Eye Mysteryoffers students the opportunity to closely examine the use of a first-person narrator, building suspense and tension, inference and deduction, and to engage with the themes of family, citizenship, bullying, social exclusion and Asperger’s Syndrome.curricular links: opportunities to link with PSHE, geography and citizenship.outline1description of Salim’s disappearance on the London Eye.2letter arrives with news that Gloria, Ted’s aunt, will be visiting London with her son, Salim. The family joke that Gloria is like a hurricane, leaving a trail of devastation in her wake.3is upset when he finds out that he will be sharing his bedroom during the visit with Salim.4and Salim arrive and tell the family about their forthcoming move to New York. The family decide to visit the London Eye the following day.5and Salim talk in bed about Ted’s Asperger’s Syndrome, and both reveal they are teased at school for being different (Salim for being mixed race). Salim has overcome his troubles by befriending another boy called Marcus.6family go to the London Eye. While waiting in a long queue, a stranger offers the children a single ticket. They accept it and Salim boards the Eye without them.7and Ted wait for Salim to finish his ride on the Eye, but when his pod lands he isn’t in amongst the tourists coming out. Kat buys a souvenir photograph, but there is no sign of Salim, who has disappeared completely.8waiting at the Eye for a while and trying Salim’s mobile phone (which is turned off), the family report Salim’s disappearance to the police and return home to wait for news.9comforts Kat, who feels responsible for Salim’s disappearance. She asks Ted for his help in solving the mystery. Ted finds Salim’s camera in his jacket pocket.10thinks about his history with Kat as they try to decide what to do with the camera. Two police officers arrive.11police ask Kat and Ted questions and explain that they are doing everything they can to find him. They ask Aunt Gloria more questions in private and Ted and Kat feel extremely frustrated.12police ask Aunt Gloria whether Salim would run away and Ted and his father discuss it. Ted thinks about body language and how he finds it difficult to understand what people are feeling.13police ask about Salim’s father and Gloria tells them they are divorced and not on speaking terms. Once the police leave, the family are in shock. Ted’s father tells them he has finished work preparing a nearby tower block for demolition.14and Kat discuss Ted’s eight theories for how Salim could have disappeared from the London Eye pod. Ted comes up with another idea, but before he can tell Kat, the phone rings.15body of a young Asian boy is found and Ted’s father goes to identify it. The boy isn’t Salim.16and Ted test out one of his theories, which leads to a family argument. Ted and Kat go out with their father and convince him to revisit the London Eye with them to try to see things from Salim’s perspective.17rides the London Eye with Kat and his father and tries to imagine what Salim did the day he disappeared. Kat gets Salim’s last roll of film developed.18and Kat examine the photographs for clues, but find none. They look over their theories to eliminate some of them, and Ted speculates that perhaps Salim didn’t get on the Eye. Kat considers this, then insists that she saw him do so.19police return and tell the family that a boy has been spotted on CCTV boarding a train to Manchester. Salim’s father, Rashid, arrives.20thinks about how objects look different depending on your perspective. He overhears Salim’s parents talking, and Rashid reveals that Salim asked to live with him rather than move to New York with his mother. Aunt Gloria and Rashid kiss.21looks at the photographs and identifies the strange man who gave them the ticket.22has the photographs blown up. She and Ted try to figure out which words are written on the stranger’s shirt. They come up with ‘security’ but before Kat can get any further, there is a scream from downstairs.23Gloria misses a call from Salim’s mobile phone. Kat goes out to try to solve the mystery, taking a page from the phonebook, and leaves an upset Ted behind.24searches the phonebook to find the page Kat has taken, and realizes the shirt said Frontline Security.25TV crew arrive to film an appeal for information by Aunt Gloria. Ted calls Frontline Security, and is directed to an employee called Christy. He leaves to find Christy and Kat himself.26follows Kat to Earl’s Court station on the tube.27goes to a motorbike show manned by Frontline Security, where he watches a bike jump and finds Kat.28and Kat find Christy, who denies knowing anything about Salim’s disappearance. However, Kat and Ted both conclude that the man is lying.29and Ted follow Christy on to a tube train and to a pub in Mile End. They wait outside and see Aunt Gloria’s TV appeal through the window of a shop, then are surprised by Christy coming up to them.30tells Kat and Ted he was given the ticket by a dark haired woman in the London Eye queue and asked to give it to them. He escapes on a bus before answering more questions.31and Kat return home to find their mother worried and angry. Kat and her mum argue.32gathers his thoughts and realizes how Salim disappeared.33tries to tell someone in his family what he has figured out, but nobody will listen to him. He calls the police inspector.34family eat dinner and Aunt Gloria is upset because she feels everyone blames her for Salim’s disappearance, because perhaps he ran away. She is about to go out and try to find him herself when the police arrive, sirens blaring.35police explain that, thanks to Ted, they know how Salim disappeared but not where he is. They also know that the boy on the train was Salim’s friend Marcus, who they have with them.36explains that Marcus posed as a girl getting on to the London Eye, then swapped disguises with Salim in the pod while the other tourists were having their photo taken, and that Christy is a relation of Marcus’s. This is how Salim was able to fake his disappearance.37police read out Marcus’s statement. He and Salim had planned the disappearance but Salim had changed his mind and decided to go to New York with his mum. Marcus hadn’t seen Salim since he left him at Euston station.38and Ted try to mentally retrace Salim’s steps from Euston and conclude he may have gone into the empty tower block and been locked in by mistake.39is found in the tower block.40asks Ted and Kat how they found him, and tells them how he got into the tower block, and about his time trapped there. He decides to move to New York with Aunt Gloria.41, Salim and Aunt Gloria leave, and Ted and Kat are rewarded for their help.1:Cover and Chapter 1impressionsoutcomeswill be able to:impressions about the novel based on the cover and blurbpredictions about the genre and textand deduce information from the textcopies of the novel and Reading Guide to students and ask them to look at the cover of the novel and read the blurb at the back of the book. Then ask them to speculate what genre of fiction the book might fall into (mystery/detective/crime fiction) using evidence from the cover. (Remind them that ‘genre’ is a style of writing or art, if necessary.)expectations do students have of this genre? Ask them to think of books, films and television shows that they have seen and try to come up with some of the features of crime fiction. They could use the opinions on page 4 of the Reading Guide to get started.could also introduce students to the term ‘locked room mystery’, a sub-genre of detective fiction in which a crime is committed under impossible circumstances, typically including a scene that none of the suspects could have entered or left. Based on the evidence in the blurb, do they think The London Eye Mysterycould qualify as a locked room mystery?students that the function of a good story opening is to interest the reader and make them keep reading. Story openings can describe a character, a setting, or an event, but they will set the mood or tone for the rest of the book. Distribute WS 1a, which has the opening paragraphs from three detective stories. Ask the class to read them in turn and comment on what they learn about character, setting, event and general tone. Would they have been able to guess that these stories were all mysteries just based on their openings? What else can they infer and deduce from the extracts?read Chapter 1 of The London Eye Mystery. Ask students to consider whether they think it is a successful story opening. Does it interest the reader and make them want to continue reading? What does the opening describe? What mystery is being solved? Does it appear to conform to some of the expectations they have of the mystery genre?students that a detective’s job is to gather information from witnesses and suspects and use this information to deduce how a crime was committed. To do so, they must separate facts from opinions, and as they go, they will also draw up a list of questions to answer or investigate. Explain that a reader is a little like a detective in that they are given certain clues by the writer as a story progresses, and use these clues to infer and deduce information about characters, context, etc. that allows the author to share his or her ideas with the reader. In a detective story, the reader will also use this information to unravel a mystery.pairs, ask students to come up with five things they can deduce from the first chapter (they should be able to back this up with textual evidence). Then ask them to come up with at least three questions that the first chapter presents, which, as a ‘reading detective’, they will need answered through the rest of the story.is an appropriate point to work with a guided group. WS 1bprovides guidance on the format a guided session could take.and reflectstudents to feed back the information they have deduced as well as their lists of questions. Use these to compile a master list. Reflect with students how creating these questions in a reader’s mind builds up suspense and ‘hooks’ them into the story.the class to predict what they think might happen in the rest of the novel. They should already be able to infer from Chapter 1 that Ted solves the mystery.students to complete the exercise on page 4 of the Reading Guide, which asks them to match up famous fictional detectives with their descriptions. Students should then research one of these detectives (or another of their choice), including information about their setting, creator and most famous cases.1aopenings

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.

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 1029