Case with 4 Clowns Read Online Free PDF

think that she’s a very unusual woman.” Beef appeared not to be listening.
    â€œEducation,” I went on. “Of a queer sort, I expect. A feeling for words. In any case, not what one usually expects from a fortune-teller on a fair-ground.”
    Beef still did not hear me. His lips moved silently as he finished reading the notice, and then he made a sudden dive for the opening of the tent.
    â€œHere,” I heard his voice saying, “I want to have a talk with you.”

CHAPTER IV
    T HE old woman looked at Beef with calculating eyes. “Cross the gypsy’s hand with silver,” she said.
    But Beef disregarded her, pulling out his notebook and sitting down at the table in the center of the tent. Margot slowly took her place in the deep arm-chair on the other side, and her eyes moved restlessly from Beef to myself and then back again to Beef.
    â€œWe don’t want our fortunes told, old lady,” said Beef cheerfully. “We want to find out what you know about this here murder story you’ve been telling my nephew.”
    â€œMurder,” began Margot, “I see in the crystal the gathering shadows of angry men and women. Why are they angry? Ah, they walk back. What lies at their feet? It is the body of someone killed. They are crying, I hear the sounds of their crying like the distant cries of gulls circling the cliffs. They are lost in a forest of crying trees and no one can show them the way. They are wandering …”
    â€œHere,” said Beef, “I can’t hardly follow all that fancy business. I want to know how you know there’s going to be a murder—if there is going to be a murder—and what made you tell Albert. Couldn’t you leave out the trimmings and tell us what you know?”
    The old gypsy closed her eyes and rocked backwards and forwards in her seat, then suddenly folding her arms she stared straight at Beef and began to speak very quickly in a high-pitched whine. “Beware of a dark woman. She is not to be trusted. She will ask you to follow her on a journey, but you must resist the temptation. For you the future is best when you do not obey impulses. Return to the fair woman I see waiting patiently at home for you. Nevertheless,you will make a journey and return home with something of value, though it will not be gold. People will admire you for it, though they cannot see it …”
    Beef looked up at me in despair. “What can you do with a case like this?” he asked dismally. “She don’t want to speak plain. What’s all this about journeys and dark women?”
    â€œTell her what we’re doing here,” I suggested.
    â€œLook here,” said Beef, turning back towards the old gypsy and speaking slowly and distinctly, as if to a child. “We came up here because of what you told Albert about there going to be a murder in the circus. We’re detectives, see. We want to find out about it.” He looked imploringly at the silent figure facing him, but she gave no sign that any of the words had been heard. Beef tried a new tack. “Do you know Albert?” he asked.
    Margot nodded.
    â€œWill he leave the circus?”
    She nodded again.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œThe circus,” she said slowly, as if she were spitting out the words, “will break up.”
    â€œBut why should it?” I asked, “it’s doing pretty well.”
    Margot shook her head violently, so that the heavy gold rings which hung from her ears jingled as they swung from side to side. For a moment she seemed to be considering us, then she began to speak in a slow measured voice, flat, as if she did not realize what she was saying, almost automatic.
    â€œThere is much hate in the circus,” she said. “I have seen it suddenly lighting an eye or directing a hand. It is like oil in the wheels; the circus is run on hate. Then suddenly a hand is raised in anger and a man is struck to the ground.