Jonathan Rivers lived alone in a neat house in Compton Street and worked in London. Like many other single men in their middle age, he was getting rather set in his ways. He looked after the house well and had a beautiful garden. Before he left the house in the morning, he would carefully close all the doors downstairs, open some windows upstairs to let the air in and lock the front door.
One summer evening Jonathan returned home as usual, just at five minutes to seven. When he opened the front gate he immediately noticed something strange. There was a heavy footprint (脚印) in the earth in one of the flower beds. Jonathan was just going to blame the milkman when he noticed that one of the white curtains in the front room downstairs was out of place. Jonathan never left anything out of place.
He walked up to the front door and opened it quietly. He listened carefully for a few moments but could hear nothing. The front-room door was half-open. Jonathan studied it thoughtfully, wondering if he had forgotten to close it that morning. He had never forgotten to do it before. He stepped silently across the hall to the door and looked inside the room. The shadow of a man was clearly reflected on the far wall in the evening sunlight. The man had clearly been standing behind the door since Jonathan’s return. Jonathan immediately locked the door. Then he calmly picked up the telephone in the hall and set about calling the police.
The burglar (盗贼), a tall fellow with a beard, tried to climb through a window to get out but Jonathan had expected that. He attacked him with his umbrella, using it like a sword. Three minutes later the police arrived on the scene. Jonathan was a little annoyed that he had to have dinner later than usual but on the whole he felt quite pleased with himself.
What was the first thing Jonathan noticed when he came back home one summer evening