40 pages • 1 hour read
Dorothy L. SayersThe Nine Tailors
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1934A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 7-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “A Full Peal of Grandsire Triples (Holt’s Ten-Part Peal)”
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “The Fifth Part—Tailor Paul Is Called Before with a Single”
Wimsey examines the laundered clothing of the murdered man. The outerwear is of English manufacture, but the underwear is French. He thinks, “It puzzled him that Cranton, last seen in London in September, should possess a French vest and pants so much worn and so carefully repaired […] Why should Cranton be wearing second-hand French underclothes?” (184). Wimsey wonders if Cranton might have been corresponding with someone in France. He and Bunter decide to visit the surrounding villages to see if their post offices have any unclaimed letters from overseas.
As they travel back and forth from Fenchurch, they meet an old sluice-keeper at the bridge out of town who adjusts the water levels to prevent flooding in his region. He strikes up a conversation with Wimsey and complains that the government won’t send him a new sluicegate to replace his worn one. The old man grouses, “What I says is, Why don’t they refer it to Geneva? See? Why don’t they refer it to Geneva? Then we might get it, same time as they gets disarmament, see?” (200). Wimsey is amused by the pithy comment and chats with the old man on many subsequent visits across his bridge.
Upon arrival at the post office in Walbeach, Bunter poses as Stephen Driver (Cranton’s alias) and wheedles a piece of correspondence from the postmistress. When Wimsey takes the letter to Blundell, they discover that the writer is a woman corresponding with her husband. He has traveled to England in disguise by growing a beard. Blundell proposes finding the Frenchwoman and questioning her. Whimsey volunteers to go to France and continue the investigation with the help of the local police there.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary: “The Sixth Part—Monsieur Rozier Hunts the Treble Down”
The letter writer is identified as Suzanne LeGros from the village of Chateau-Thierry. The local police constable, Monsieur Rozier, takes Wimsey to the woman’s cottage. She says that her husband’s name is Jean LeGros. He was an English army deserter and feared going back to his native country undisguised. However, the family has fallen on hard times, and Jean has some property back home that could be sold. He spends days writing a mysterious letter to someone in England, grows a beard to cover his features, and then departs.
When Wimsey shows Suzanne the murdered man’s undershirt and shorts, she identifies the stitches she used to mend them. The clothing belongs to her husband, and Wimsey informs her that the man is dead. However, when Suzanne is shown a picture of Cranton, she flatly denies he is her husband, stating, “No, milord. That is not my husband. It is not in the least like him” (221).
Her statement invalidates Wimsey’s theory that the dead man is Cranton. Later, he confides to Rozier that a third party may have been involved. It is possible that when Deacon broke out of prison, he had an accomplice. This accomplice later killed Deacon and fled the country, but he may know something about where the emeralds are hidden. After Wimsey returns home and shares this information with Blundell, the latter concludes that they must establish the current whereabouts of Cranton to get to the bottom of the matter.
Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary: “The Seventh Part—Plain Hunting”
As Blundell and Wimsey discuss the case in the churchyard, a local named Potty Peake claims to have seen something strange inside the church. He says that he saw Will standing with a rope in his hand over the man whose body was later found in Lady Thorpe’s grave. This information sounds incriminating, but Potty has an intellectual disability, is known to make up stories, and his timing of the event is vague.
When Wimsey returns to the rectory, he finds a letter from Hilary. During her spring visit to the belfry, she discovered a strange note lying in the corner. Thinking it might be connected to the case, she has sent it to his lordship. Though the message is written in English, it sounds like a poorly written passage from a gothic novel by Sheridan LeFanu. The stationary is the same as that used by Suzanne to write to her missing husband in England.
Wimsey concludes that the note may be some kind of cipher and tells Blundell, “I think this is the paper that Legros sent to his friend in England—the ‘guarantee’ that he composed, shut up in his room for so many hours. And I think it’s the clue to where the emeralds were hidden. A cipher, or something of that sort ” (241). Blundell gives Wimsey the good news that Cranton was found in London. The two men go to interrogate him.
Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary: “The Eighth Part—Lord Peter Follows His Course Bell to Lead”
Cranton has skipped parole and is currently recovering from rheumatic fever. He denies ever having gotten his hands on the emeralds, saying, “When I said I never had those emeralds, I meant what I said. I never did have them, and you know it. If I had had them, I wouldn’t be living in a hole like this, you can bet your regulation boots” (244).
The ex-con admits to being the bearded vagrant who crossed Wimsey’s path on the way to the village after New Year’s. Cranton also admits to searching for the emeralds. However, he was frightened away when he thought that Mary may have recognized him. When Wimsey shows him the cipher letter, Cranton seems shaken by the sight of it. However, he denies ever having seen it before or having any knowledge of the mysterious Jean.
Back in the village, Wimsey decides to examine the church for clues. In the belfry, he finds a clean spot on the floor, which might mean someone had recently mopped up a bloodstain. The truth ends up being much more mundane when he finds an empty beer bottle rolled into a corner. Wimsey takes the bottle and gives it to Bunter, instructing him to have it dusted for fingerprints.
After returning to the Vicarage, Wimsey racks his brain trying to solve the cipher until Venables gives him the idea that it might relate to a change-ringing sequence. When decoded this way, the letter produces three verses from scripture. The words are clear, but the meaning of the clue is still obscure: 1) He sitteth between the cherubim; 2) The isles may be glad thereof as the rivers in the south; 3) When the Lord turned the captivity of Sion.
Part 2, Chapters 7-10 Analysis
This segment is almost exclusively concerned with the motif of letters. These advance the plot in a variety of ways. The unlikely clue that leads to the first letter is a man’s underwear. Wimsey’s powers of observation are acute. When examining the dead man’s laundered clothing, he notices that the underwear is French while the outerwear is of English manufacture. This detail would suggest a French connection and potentially a French correspondent. This is how Suzanne’s letter to her husband first becomes known.
The letters conceal as much as they reveal. Suzanne’s letter is incomprehensible to Blundell because he can’t read French. Although Wimsey can translate the words, they tell very little about the nature of the recipient. In fact, the words create a new aura of mystery by suggesting that the man is a fugitive. The only helpful fact that the investigators can glean is the probable location of the Frenchwoman and her first name.
The second letter is even less illuminating at first glance. Hilary sends Wimsey the note she found in the belfry. Its rambling content can be interpreted as a singularly bad piece of prose or a cipher. The words themselves are meaningless. It isn’t until Venables suggests a change-ringing sequence as the key to the cipher that the secret message becomes clear. However, once again, words conceal more than they reveal because the three decoded scriptural quotations are still incomprehensible.
Significantly, Hilary discovers the second letter in the belfry, bringing the plot back to a religious setting. When Cranton is confronted with the letter during interrogation, he lies, saying he’s never seen it before. The lettering matters far less than the reaction of the recipient in providing a clue to his involvement.
