Mystery & Investigation Anthology. Эдгар Аллан По

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      Table des matières

       In a Grove

       The Innocence of Father Brown

       The Man Who Knew Too Much

       The Wisdom of Father Brown

       The Moonstone

       The Woman in White

       The Hound of the Baskervilles

       The Return of Sherlock Holmes

       The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

       The Valley of Fear

       The Sign of the Four

       The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

       His Last Bow

       A Study in Scarlet

       The Spider

       The Man Who Ended War

       Desperate Remedies

       The Seven Secrets

       The Czar's Spy

       The Confessions of Arsène Lupin

       The Phantom of the Opera

       The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

       The Black Cat

       The Murders in the Rue Morgue

       The Lady, or the Tiger?

       Tom Sawyer, Detective

       An Antarctic Mystery

       The Technique of the Mystery Story

       Raspberry Jam

       The Master Criminal

      Table des matières

       In a Grove Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

       The Testimony of a Woodcutter Questioned by a High Police Commissioner

       The Testimony of a Traveling Buddhist Priest Questioned by a High Police Commissioner

       The Testimony of a Policeman Questioned by a High Police Commissioner

       The Testimony of an Old Woman Questioned by a High Police Commissioner

       Tajomaru's Confession

       The Repentance of a Woman Who Has Come to Kiyomizu Temple

       The Story of the Murdered Man, as Told Through a Medium

      In a Grove

      Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

      (Translator: Takashi Kojima)

       Published: 1922 Categorie(s): Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Short Stories

      The Testimony of a Woodcutter Questioned by a High Police Commissioner

      Yes, sir. Certainly, it was I who found the body. This morning, as usual, I went to cut my daily quota of cedars, when I found the body in a grove in a hollow in the mountains. The exact location? About 150 meters off the Yamashina stage road. It's an out-of-the-way grove of bamboo and cedars.

      The body was lying flat on its back dressed in a bluish silk kimono and a wrinkled head-dress of the Kyoto style. A single sword-stroke had pierced the breast. The fallen bamboo-blades around it were stained with bloody blossoms. No, the blood was no longer running. The wound had dried up, I believe. And also, a gad-fly was stuck fast there, hardly noticing my footsteps.

      You ask me if I saw a sword or any such thing?

      No, nothing, sir. I found only a rope at the root of a cedar near by. And … well, in addition to a rope, I found a comb. That was all. Apparently he must have made a battle of it before he was murdered, because the grass and fallen bamboo-blades had been trampled down all around.

      "A horse was near by?"

      No, sir. It's hard enough for a man to enter, let alone a horse.

      The Testimony of a Traveling Buddhist Priest Questioned by a High Police Commissioner

      The time? Certainly, it was about noon yesterday, sir. The unfortunate man was on the road from Sekiyama to Yamashina. He was walking toward Sekiyama with a woman accompanying him on horseback, who I have since learned was his wife. A scarf hanging from her head hid her face from view. All I saw was the color of her clothes, a lilac-colored suit. Her horse was a sorrel with a fine mane. The lady's height? Oh, about four feet five inches. Since I am a Buddhist priest, I took little notice about her details. Well, the man was armed with a sword as well as a bow and arrows. And I remember that he carried some twenty odd arrows in his quiver.

      Little did I expect that he would meet such a fate. Truly human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. My words are inadequate to express my sympathy for him.