OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

A CRIME IN HOLLAND 17I
forming clubs amongst themselves. A special room is reserved for
them where they can play billiards or skittles....
" As I was saying, Popinga went to his club. And by eleven
o'clock that evening he was drunk.... That same week his wife
was getting up a collection to buy clothing for some natives or
other. And Popinga, with his cheeks aflame and his eyes shining,
was heard to say:' What rot it all is! They're very well off as they
are. Instead of buying clothes for them, we'd do better to follow
their example, and go about naked too/
" You smile—I knew you would. You think it's trivial. But that
doesn't alter the fact that his words made a scandal that hasn't yet
died down, and if his funeral takes place at Delfzijl there will be a
good many absentees.
" That's only a detail, but it's one of a hundred others, of a
thousand others. As I said, it was every seam that was bursting, and
through the cloak of respectability the real Popinga was showing.
" To drink a glass too much is by itself a matter of the utmost
gravity. And don't forget Popinga's pupils used to see him in that
state. That's why they adored him, of course.
" With that in mind, try to reconstruct the atmosphere of that
house by the side of the Amsterdiep. Think of Madame Popinga,
of Any. .. .
" And now look out of the window. With one sweep of your
eye you can take in the whole town from one end to the other.
Delfzijl is a very small place. Everybody knows everybody else.
The least little scandal, and there's not a soul that doesn't
know it. . . .
" Then who should Popinga choose to make a friend of but the
Baes? A man who, if the truth be told, is nothing less than a
brigand. They used to go out together shooting seal, and they
drink schnapps together in the cabin. . ..
" Now don't jump to conclusions. But just bear in mind what I
said—that if the crime was committed by anybody in the house
except myself, then we're all implicated.
" There remains that stupid little Beetje whom Popinga never
failed to see home. I'll only mention one detail: her bathing-dress.
Everybody else's has a kind of skirt at the bottom. But hers—oh,
no! As tight fitting as it's possible to be, and red into the bargain!
" And now I leave you to pursue your own investigations. I
merely wished to make you aware of a few factors, which are of the
kind the police usually ignore. ...