Footprints in the Jungle by W.S. Maugham

It was in Malaya that I met the Cartwrights. I was staying with a man called Gaze who was head of the police and he came into the billiard-room, where I was sitting, and asked if I would play bridge with them. The Cartwrights were planters and they came to Malaya because it gave their daughter a chance of a little fun. They were very nice people and played a very pleasant game of bridge. I followed Gaze into the cardroom and was introduced to them.

Mrs. Cartwright was a woman somewhere in the fifties. I thought her a very agreeable person. I liked her frankness, her quick wit, her plain face. As for Mr. Cartwright, he looked tired and old. He talked little, but it was plain that he enjoyed his wife's humour. They were evidently very good friends. It was pleasing to see so solid and tolerant affection between two people who were almost elderly and must have lived together for so many years.

When we separated, Gaze and I set out to walk to his house.

"What did you think of the Cartwrights?" he asked me.

"I liked them and their daughter who is just the image of her father."

To my surprise Gaze told me that Cartwright wasn't her father. Mrs. Cartwright was a widow when he married her. Olive was born after her father's death.

And when we came to Gaze's house he told me the Cartwrights' story.

"I've known Mrs. Cartwright for over twenty years," he said slowly. "She was married to a man called Bronson. He was a planter in Selantan. It was a much smaller place than it is now, but they had a jolly little club, and we used to have a very good time. Bronson was a handsome chap. He hadn't much to talk about but tennis, golf and shooting; and I don't suppose he read a book from year's end to year's end. He was about thirty-five when I first knew him, but he had the mind of a boy of eighteen. But he was no fool. He knew his work from A to Z. He was generous with his money and always ready to do anybody a good turn.

One day Mrs. Bronson told us that she was expecting a friend to stay with them and a few days later they brought Cartwright along. Cartwright was an old friend of Bronson's. He had been out of work for a long time and when he wrote to Bronson asking him whether he could do anything for him, Bronson wrote back inviting him to come and stay till things got better. When Cartwright came Mrs. Bronson told him that he was to look upon the place as his home and stay as long as he liked. Cartwright was very pleasant and unassuming; he fell into our little company very naturally and the Bronsons, like everyone else, liked him."

"Hadn't the Bronsons any children at that time?" I asked Gaze.

"No," Gaze answered. "I don't know why, they could have af f orded it. Bronson was murdered," he said suddenly.

"Killed?"

"Yes, murdered. That night we had been playing tennis without Cartwright who had gone shooting to the jungle and without Bronson who had cycled to Kabulong to get the money to pay his coolies' their wages and he was to come along to the club when he got back. Cartwright came back when we started playing bridge. Suddenly I was called to police sergeant outside. I went out. He told me that the Malays had come to the police station and said that there was a white man with red hair lying dead on the path that led through the jungle to Kabulong. I understood that it was Bronson.

For a moment I didn't know what to do and how to break the news to Mrs. Bronson. I came up to her and said that there had been an accident and her husband had been wounded. She leapt to her feet and stared at Cartwright who went as pale as death. Then I said that he was dead after which she collapsed into her chair and burst into tears.

When the sergeant, the doctor and I arrived at the scene of the accident we saw that he had been shot through the head and there was no money about him. From the footprints I saw that he had stopped to talk to someone before he was shot. Whoever had murdered Bronson hadn't done it for money. It was obvious that he had stopped to talk with a friend.

Meanwhile Cartwright took up the management of Bronson's estate. He moved in at once. Four months later Olive, the daughter, was born. And soon Mrs. Bronson and Cartwright were married. The murderer was never found. Suspicion fell on the coolies, of course. We examined them all – pretty carefully – but there was not a scrap of evidence to connect them with the crime. I knew who the murderer was..."

"Who?"

"Don't you guess?"

 

NOTES:

Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions from the text and use them in the senfences of your own: be introduced to smb, elderly people, do smb a good turn, be wounded, burst into tears (laughter), it is obvious, connect smth with smth/smb, play a game of, an agreeable person, a handsome chap, fall into the company naturally.

 

III Quesfions on fhe text:

1) Describe Mrs. Cartwright and her husband.

2) Why did they come to Malaya?

3) Who was Mrs. Cartwright's first husband and where did Gaze get acquainted with him?

4) How did he characterize Bronson?

5) Why did Bronson invite Cartwright to come and stay at their place?

6) What kind of a person was Cartwright? Did his traits help him to get along with the local society?

7) Why were Bronson and Cartwright absent at the club on the night of the murder?

8) Who found Bronson's body?

9) How did Mrs. Bronson take the news?

10) What did Gaze and the others see at the scene of the accident?

11) Can you prove that Bronson was killed by someone whom he knew well?

12) What were Cartwright's actions after Bronson's death?

13) Was the crime disclosed?

 

IV

Discuss the following:

1) Who was Olive's real father? Which phrases from the text prove it? Has this fact anything to do with the crime?

2) Does Cartwright's behaviour after Bronson's death prove that the crime was well-planned?

3) Follow through the text Cartwright's characteristics and say whether they coincide with the reality.

4) Try to continue the story.

 

Il Retell the story on the part of 1) hlrs. Carfwright, 2) Bronson, 3) the doctor.