Read Online Case with 4 Clowns by Leo Bruce - Free Book Online Page A

lash out.”
    â€œI’m sure your theory is very interesting, Mr. Beef,” said Jackson in a rather flat voice, “but I fail to see where it’s getting you.”
    â€œThat’s what I was coming to,” said Beef eagerly. “Now, it may not mean anything in itself, so to speak, but it gives me just the opportunity I want to go round and talk to all the people here. I don’t want to question them like a policeman. Don’t think that, Mr. Jackson. I just want to have a friendly little talk with them all, so’s I can get to know them and get an idea of the circus as a whole. You see what I mean?”
    â€œQuite, but why come to me about it? You’re perfectly free to have these little ‘chats’ if you wish. It is no affair of mine, so long as you don’t interfere with the working hours of the circus, that is a question which only affects the people themselves.”
    â€œStill,” said Beef, uncrushed, “I just thought I’d like to get your approval. Well, that’s all right then.” And at that he rose, and we left the wagon.
    When we were outside he drew me aside, and with an expression of childish pleasure, opened his large hand and showed me what lay in the palm of it.
    â€œFound this on the floor in there,” he said.
    It was a small colored button with five or six letters printed across the center. It looked a very ordinary object to me. Perhaps a badge for some circus society, or one of those “clubs” which the makers of some proprietory articles actually persuade people to join in order to advertise their wares.
    â€œWell, what about it?” I asked.
    â€œI like little things like that,” Beef said. “Especially coming out of Jackson’s wagon. I’ve got my eye on him, you know.”
    â€œBut what does it mean?”
    â€œHow should I know?” protested Beef. “Give us a chance. I only just picked it up. I shall make an examination of it later,” he added grandly. “And now I think we’ll go and see the Dariennes.”
    â€œOh yes, I know,” I said, “the greatest aerial act of all time.”
    â€œI don’t know about that,” admitted Beef, not recognizing my quotation from the circus bill, “but I’ve heard they’re very good trapeze artists. French, too. I like anything French.”
    â€œThey have a partner, haven’t they?”
    â€œUm,” said Beef. “Suzanne. But she’s not French. More like Camden Town, I should say. But she’s All Right though.”
    When we entered the Dariennes’ wagon we found that Suzanne was with them, and it was she who invited us to that universal cup of tea which will always be associated in my mind with visits to circus people. It was hot, and sticky, and sweet; a rich dark brown in color, and made with tinned milk. Since Beef seemed completely occupied with the noisy consumption of this I felt that it was incumbent on me to open the conversation, which I conscientiously did, touching on such commonplace subjects as the weather, the dullness of the Yorkshire people, and the possibilities of a good house that evening. Meanwhile, I was closely examining the Darienne brothers.
    I had already heard strange rumors of these two, although I was determined to let Beef find out all that I knew for himself. Theirs was the most highly-paid act on the show, and topped the bill in the sense that they were given the largest type in all Jacobi’s posters. But what had struck Ginger, my informant on the subject, was the relationship between the two brothers. The Concinis were bound by their similarity, but between the Dariennes there was a more subtle bond. “Paul, that’s the oldest one,” Ginger had explained, “watches his brother like a cat with a mouse.” I appreciated this somewhat trite simile when I looked at Paul when he sat in the wagon. He had string-colored hair, which was