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and Vance and I went out and entered the car. A few minutes later we were winding rapidly across town through Central Park.

      “Recall our recent conversazione[40] about footprints in the snow?” asked Vance, as we emerged into Fifth Avenue and headed south.

      Markham nodded abstractedly.

      “As I remember,” mused Vance, “in the hypothetical case you presented there were not only footprints but a dozen or more witnesses—including a youthful prodigy—who saw a figure of some kind cross the hibernal landscape. … Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie![41] Here you are in a most beastly pother because of the disheartenin’ fact that there are neither footprints in the snow nor witnesses who saw a fleeing figure. In short, you are bereft of both direct and circumstantial evidence. … Sad, sad.”

      He wagged his head dolefully.

      “Y’ know, Markham, it appears to me that the testimony in this case constitutes conclusive legal proof that no one could have been with the deceased at the hour of her passing, and that, ergo[42], she is presumably alive. The strangled body of the lady is, I take it, simply an irrelevant circumstance from the standpoint of legal procedure. I know that you learned lawyers won’t admit a murder without a body; but how, in sweet Heaven’s name, do you get around a corpus delicti

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      Примечания

      1

      cause célèbre (фр.) – громкое дело. – Здесь и далее комментарии на русском языке принадлежат редактору.

      2

      Comédie Humaine – La Comédie humaine, «Человеческая комедия» – цикл сочинений французского писателя Оноре де Бальзака.

      3

      demi-monde (фр.) – сумерки, полусвет

      4

      The Antlers Club has since been closed by the police; and Red Raegan is now serving a long term in Sing Sing for grand larceny. – Здесь и далее примечания на английском языке принадлежат автору. – Ред.

      5

      rôle (фр.) – роль, амплуа

      6

      première danseuse (фр.) — прима-балерина

      7

      Written especially for her by B. G. De Sylva.

      8

      amicus curiae (лат.) – юридический термин римского права, обозначающий лицо, содействующее суду

      9

      “The Benson Murder Case”.

      10

      The Loeb-Leopold crime, the Dorothy King case, and the Hall-Mills murder came later; but the Canary murder proved fully as conspicuous a case as the Nan Patterson “Caesar” Young affair, Durant’s murder of Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams in San Francisco, the Molineux arsenic-poisoning case, and the Carlyle Harris morphine murder. To find a parallel in point of public interest one must recall the Borden double-murder in Fall River, the Thaw case, the shooting of Elwell, and the Rosenthal murder.

      11

      The case referred to here was that of Mrs. Elinor Quiggly, a wealthy widow living at the Adlon Hotel in West 96^th Street. She was found on the morning of September 5 suffocated by a gag which had been placed on her by robbers who had evidently followed her home from the Club Turque—a small but luxurious all-night café at 89 West 48^th Street. The killing of the two detectives, McQuade and Cannison, was, the police believe, due to the fact that they were in possession of incriminating evidence against the perpetrators of the crime. Jewellery amounting to over $50,000 was stolen from the Quiggly apartment.

      12

      The Stuyvesant was a large club, somewhat in the nature of a glorified hotel; and its extensive membership was drawn largely from the political, legal, and financial ranks.

      13

      The case to which Vance referred, I ascertained later, was Shatterham v. Shatterham, 417 Mich., 79—a testamentary case.

      14

      Pithecanthropus erectus (лат.) – питекантроп, ископаемая внутривидовая разновидность людей, подвид Homo erectus, Человека прямоходящего)

      15

      partie carrée (фр.) – партия (обычно в карточных играх) на четверых игроков

      16

      objets d’art (фр.) – предметы искусства

      17

      coiffure d’or (фр.) – досл. золотая прическа (прическа на белокурых волосах)

      18

      Bien, mon vieux (фр.). – Прекрасно, старина.

      19

      Allons-y! (фр.) – Пойдемте!

      20

      Heath

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