地下墓穴（6）（在线收听）

“What you are driving at I cannot imagine,” said the Englishman, “but if you mean that you will answer my question about the catacomb if I answer any question which you may put to me I can assure you that I will certainly do so.”

“Well, then,” said Burger, leaning luxuriously back in his settee, and puffing a blue tree of cigar-smoke into the air, “tell me all about your relations with Miss Mary Saunderson.”

Kennedy sprang up in his chair and glared angrily at his impassive companion.

“What the devil do you mean?” he cried. “What sort of a question is this? You may mean it as a joke, but you never made a worse one.”

“No, I don’t mean it as a joke,” said Burger, simply. “I am really rather interested in the details of the matter. I don’t know much about the world and women and social life and that sort of thing, and such an incident has the fascination of the for me. I know you, and I knew her by sight—I had even spoken to her once or twice. I should very much like to hear from your own lips exactly what it was which occurred between you.”

“I won’t tell you a word.”

“That’s all right. It was only my whim to see if you would give up a secret as easily as you expected me to give up my secret of the new catacomb. You wouldn’t, and I didn’t expect you to. But why should you expect otherwise of me? There’s Saint John’s clock striking ten. It is quite time that I was going home.”

“你究竟想得到什么回报，我无法想象，"英国人说，“如果你的意思是，假如我回答你所提出的任何问题，你就告诉我有关墓穴的事，那么我可以向你保证，我将乐意这样做。

很好，"伯格说，然后舒适地靠在沙发背上，向空中喷出一口蓝色的烟雾，“那么，告诉我有关你和玛丽桑德森小姐的全部事情吧。”

肯尼迪从椅子上跳起来，愤怒地瞪着冷漠的同伴。

“你究竟是什么意思？"他嚷道。“这算什么问题？也许你是在开玩笑，不过这是你开的最糟糕的玩笑了，”

“不，我没开玩笑，伯格冷冷地说。“我真的对这件事的细节很感兴趣。关于世事，女人，社交一类事情，我一概不了解，这样一桩事件对我来说就像一个未解之谜一样神秘。我认识你，也见过她，而且还跟她搭过话，我非常渴望听你亲口说说你们俩之间发生的事。”

“我一个字也不会告诉你。”

“那好吧。我只是想看看你会不会轻易吐露一个秘密，因为刚才你想让我轻易吐露关于墓穴的秘密。看来你不会那样做，我也没指望你会那样做。可是为什么你却指望我那样做呢？圣约翰大钟敲十点了。我真的应该回家了。”