tailieunhanh - INTRODUCTION TO QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS CHAPTER 2

2 Starting the Inquiry. `But what happened then?' `I'll tell you what happened then,' said Fiennes with a grim emphasis. `When we got back into that garden the first thing we saw was Traill, the lawyer; I can see him now with his black hat and black whiskers relieved against the perspective of the blue flowers stretching down to the summer-house, with the sunset and the strange outline of the Rock of Fortune in the distance. | 2 Starting the Inquiry But what happened then I ll tell you what happened then said Fiennes with a grim emphasis. When we got back into that garden the first thing we saw was Traill the lawyer I can see him now with his black hat and black whiskers relieved against the perspective of the blue flowers stretching down to the summer-house with the sunset and the strange outline of the Rock of Fortune in the distance. His face and figure were in shadow against the sunset but I swear the white teeth were showing in his head and he was smiling. The moment Nox saw that man the dog dashed forward and stood in the middle of the path barking at him madly murderously volleying out curses that were almost verbal in their dreadful distinctness of hatred. And the man doubled up and fled along the path between the flowers. The Oracle of the Dog Fiennes was a friend of Father Brown . Chesterton s famous priestdetective. Fiennes was recounting a story to Father Brown about the reaction of Nox the dog to a lawyer who represented Colonel Druce a wealthy man who had only recently been murdered. The newspapers had reported that Druce had been murdered with a sharp knife in a garden with no outside entry. The witnesses saw no murderer and there was no knife. Fiennes thought that the dog s reaction to Traill the lawyer was a clear sign that the lawyer was the murderer. Father Brown however interrogates his friend further and discovers that Colonel Druce changed his will and left his money to his daughter rather than to his son Harry Druce who owed money from gambling. Harry Druce committed suicide after his father s death. Father Brown also found out that the dog had tried to retrieve something from the ocean on a walk with Fiennes at the time of the murder and came back empty handed. Father Brown comes to the conclusion that Colonel Druce who wore a white coat was visible through a hedge that surrounded the garden. A man with a walking-stick-knife had seen Druce through the hedge and