08-01-2011, 02:31 PM
SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT
This is the very short recap given in the end: So the problem of Simon was settled. Simon, who, before he was fourteen, had killed his brother, calmly written a note on that brother's behalf, tossed the pen into the abyss after his brother's body, and gone home calmly to six o'clock supper when he was chased out of the smithy. Who had joined the night search for his brother on his pony, and some time during that long night had taken his brother's coat to the cliff-top and left it there with the note in the pocket.
I'm not sure how to read this correctly. Either Simon killed Patrick in the early afternoon, right after Abel spoke to Patrick, and then went to the smithy. Or everything happened in the time between leaving the smithy's and going home to supper.
He wasn't at the blacksmith's all day: Saturday afternoon was a holiday for the Ashby children and they were accustomed in the summer to take a "piece" with them and pursue their various interests in the countryside until it was time to come home to their evening meal.
Simon's alibi was sufficient when people suspected Patrick had been thrown off the cliff, but the quarry is much closer to the blacksmith's.
He had remembered that odd relaxing on Simon's part the moment he had had a good look at himself. That suggestion of relief. Of being "let off." So that was it! Simon had been afraid that it was Patrick. When he found that he was faced with a mere impostor he must have had difficulty in refraining from embracing him.
I think Simon just pushed Patrick, alive, over the edge, because he was afraid that perhaps Patrick had survived the fall, which could have happened: Abel knew all about the quarry because he had once rescued a sheep from it.
That's all. I agree Josephine Tey could have been a bit more explicit. Usually the murderer can't wait to tell all after he has been found out, which could have easily been done during the fight between Brat and Simon at the quarry's edge.
This is the very short recap given in the end: So the problem of Simon was settled. Simon, who, before he was fourteen, had killed his brother, calmly written a note on that brother's behalf, tossed the pen into the abyss after his brother's body, and gone home calmly to six o'clock supper when he was chased out of the smithy. Who had joined the night search for his brother on his pony, and some time during that long night had taken his brother's coat to the cliff-top and left it there with the note in the pocket.
I'm not sure how to read this correctly. Either Simon killed Patrick in the early afternoon, right after Abel spoke to Patrick, and then went to the smithy. Or everything happened in the time between leaving the smithy's and going home to supper.
He wasn't at the blacksmith's all day: Saturday afternoon was a holiday for the Ashby children and they were accustomed in the summer to take a "piece" with them and pursue their various interests in the countryside until it was time to come home to their evening meal.
Simon's alibi was sufficient when people suspected Patrick had been thrown off the cliff, but the quarry is much closer to the blacksmith's.
He had remembered that odd relaxing on Simon's part the moment he had had a good look at himself. That suggestion of relief. Of being "let off." So that was it! Simon had been afraid that it was Patrick. When he found that he was faced with a mere impostor he must have had difficulty in refraining from embracing him.
I think Simon just pushed Patrick, alive, over the edge, because he was afraid that perhaps Patrick had survived the fall, which could have happened: Abel knew all about the quarry because he had once rescued a sheep from it.
That's all. I agree Josephine Tey could have been a bit more explicit. Usually the murderer can't wait to tell all after he has been found out, which could have easily been done during the fight between Brat and Simon at the quarry's edge.