Monday, June 23, 2014

Could I have the summary of "The Blind Spot" by Saki?

In "The Blind Spot," by Saki, Egbert has just come from
his Aunt Adelaide's funeral. He has been named executor and principal heir of her
belongings. Egbert is having lunch with his Uncle Lulworth. Egbert desires to share a
mysterious letter with his Uncle Lulworth, but Uncle Lulworth will not hear of the
matter before or during lunch.


Uncle Lulworth takes his
lunch very seriously. He is in awe of his cook, Sebastien. Sebastien came to cook for
Uncle Luworth upon the untimely death of Aunt Adelaide's brother Peter for whom
Sebastien cooked.


Egbert has a letter with evidence that
Peter and Sebastien quarreled. Peter threw coffee in Sebastien's face. Sebastien then
muttered something about killing Peter:


readability="13">

I [Peter] got so irritated and annoyed at
[Sebastien's] conceit and obstinacy that at last I threw a cupful of coffee in his face
and called him at the same time an impudent jackanapes. Very little of the coffee went
actually in his face, but I have never seen a human being show such deplorable lack of
self-control. I laughed at the threat of killing me that he spluttered out in his rage,
and thought the whole thing would blow over, but I have several times since caught him
scowling and muttering in a highly unpleasant fashion, and lately I have fancied that he
was dogging my footsteps about the grounds, particularly when I walk of an evening in
the Italian Garden.'



Shortly
thereafter, Peter died from a blow to the head, but no one suspected Sebastien. He and
Peter seemingly had never quarreled. Egbert had just found the letter addressed to his
Aunt Adelaide. With this information, Sebastien would have had a motive to kill
Peter.


Uncle Lulworth, who now employs Sebastien as his
cook, asks Egbert for the letter. Uncle Lulworth burns the letter, the evidence that
Sebastien could have had a motive for killing Peter. Egbert almost
screams:


readability="7">

Egbert's voice rose almost to a scream. Sir
Lulworth had flung the paper well and truly into the glowing centre of the grate. The
small, neat hand-writing shrivelled into black flaky
nothingness.



Egbert gasped.
He cannot believe his Uncle Lulworth just destroyed the evidence that could have given
Sebastien a motive for killing Peter:


readability="6">

"What on earth did you do that for?" gasped
Egbert. "That letter was our one piece of evidence to connect Sebastien with the
crime."



Uncle Lulworth
intentionally burned the letter so there would be no evidence against Sebastien who is
now his cook. Egbert asks why did he cover for a common murderer. Uncle Lulworth
exclaims that murderers are common, but cooks are
not:



"But why
should you want to shield him?" cried Egbert; "the man is a common
murderer."


"A common murderer, possibly, but a very
uncommon
cook."




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