Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers

Author:Dorothy L. Sayers [Sayers, Dorothy L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Crime
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2009-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE VINDICTIVE STORY OF THE FOOTSTEPS THAT RAN

Mr Bunter withdrew his head from beneath the focusing cloth.

‘I fancy that will be quite adequate, sir,’ he said deferentially, ‘unless there are any further patients, if I may call them so, which you would wish put on record.’

‘Not today,’ replied the doctor. He took the last stricken rat gently from the table, and replaced it in its cage with an air of satisfaction. ‘Perhaps on Wednesday, if Lord Peter can kindly spare your services once again—’

‘What’s that?’ murmured his lordship, withdrawing his long nose from the investigation of a number of unattractive-looking glass jars. ‘Nice old dog,’ he added vaguely. ‘Wags his tail when you mention his name, what? Are these monkey-glands, Hartman, or a south-west elevation of Cleopatra’s duodenum?’

‘You don’t know anything, do you?’ said the young physician, laughing. ‘No use playing your bally-fool-with-an-eyeglass tricks on me, Wimsey. I’m up to them. I was saying to Bunter that I’d be no end grateful if you’d let him turn up again three days hence to register the progress of the specimens – always supposing they do progress, that is.’

‘Why ask, dear old thing?’ said his lordship. ‘Always a pleasure to assist a fellow-sleuth, don’t you know. Trackin’ down murderers – all in the same way of business and all that. All finished? Good egg! By the way, if you don’t have that cage mended you’ll lose one of your patients – Number 5. The last wire but one is workin’ loose – assisted by the intelligent occupant. Jolly little beasts, ain’t they? No need of dentists – wish I was a rat – wire much better for the nerves than that fizzlin’ drill.’

Dr Hartman uttered a little exclamation.

‘How in the world did you notice that, Wimsey? I didn’t think you’d even looked at the cage.’

‘Built noticin’ – improved by practice,’ said Lord Peter, quietly. ‘Anythin’ wrong leaves a kind of impression on the eye; brain trots along afterwards with the warnin’. I saw that when we came in. Only just grasped it. Can’t say my mind was glued on the matter. Shows the victim’s improvin’, anyhow. All serene, Bunter?’

‘Everything perfectly satisfactory, I trust, my lord,’ replied the manservant. He had packed up his camera and plates, and was quietly restoring order in the little laboratory, whose fittings – compact as those of an ocean liner – had been disarranged for the experiment.

‘Well,’ said the doctor, ‘I am enormously obliged to you, Lord Peter, and to Bunter too. I am hoping for a great result from these experiments, and you cannot imagine how valuable an assistance it will be to me to have a really good series of photographs. I can’t afford this sort of thing – yet,’ he added, his rather haggard young face wistful as he looked at the great camera, ‘and I can’t do the work at the hospital. There’s no time; I’ve got to be here. A struggling G.P. can’t afford to let his practice go, even in Bloomsbury.

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