Ashton-Kirk, Investigator · Chapter
A New Light on Allan Morris explained
Ashton-Kirk and Pendleton visit the lodging house of Antonio Spatola, where they interview the landlady Mrs.
What happens
Ashton-Kirk and Pendleton visit the lodging house of Antonio Spatola, where they interview the landlady Mrs. Marx and a machinist. They learn about Spatola's background, his loss of employment, and his multilingual abilities. A lodger named Hertz reveals that a man named Crawford frequently visited Spatola. Ashton-Kirk shows a photograph that Pendleton recognizes as Allan Morris, revealing that Crawford and Allan Morris are the same person.
Themes in this chapter
Secrecy and Deception
Allan Morris conceals his identity by using the alias Crawford, visiting Spatola in secret and hiding his true profession.
Detective Method and Reasoning
Ashton-Kirk systematically gathers information from multiple witnesses and uses a photograph to confirm the identity of Crawford as Allan Morris.
Characters to notice
- Ashton Kirk
Leads the investigation at Spatola's lodging house, questioning the machinist and Mrs. Marx, and reveals the connection between Crawford and Allan Morris.
- Pendleton
Accompanies Ashton-Kirk to Spatola's lodging house and is astonished to learn that Crawford is actually Allan Morris.
- Antonio Spatola
The absent lodger; described as a former vaudeville musician who lost his job, played on the street with trained birds, and was multilingual.
- Mrs. Marx
The landlady of the lodging house, initially hostile but becomes cooperative after a bribe; provides details about Spatola's habits and visitors.
- Allan Morris
Revealed to be the same person as Crawford, a frequent visitor to Spatola's room; his photograph is identified by Hertz.
Key passages
“Looking up the dago? I knowed he'd put a knife or something into somebody, some day. These people with bad tempers ought to be chained up short.”
The machinist assumes Spatola is violent due to his ethnicity, predicting he would eventually stab someone.
Reflects ethnic prejudice and the machinist's suspicion of Spatola.
“There's a good many kinds of funny people. Some of them you laugh at, and others you don't. These that I mean are the kind you don't.”
The machinist distinguishes between amusing oddities and unsettling individuals, referring to the well-dressed visitors to Spatola's building.
Highlights the contrast between the shabby lodgers and the mysterious 'swell' visitors.
“Things is come to a nice pass, when a respectable woman can't mind her own business in her own house.”
Mrs. Marx complains that her reputation is being harmed by the police interest in her lodger.
Shows her concern for social standing and her initial resistance to cooperating.
“I'm a gentleman. My name's Hertz. And being a gentleman, I always try and conduct myself like one. But that's more'n some other people in Marx's household does.”
Hertz insists on his own gentility while criticizing Crawford for being aloof and secretly meeting with Spatola.
Reveals Hertz's pretensions and his suspicion of Crawford's activities.