Review: Narrative Tenses

THE MURDERER

James Trim (to hang)……………… by his fingers from the window-sill and after a moment (to drop)………………….. noiselessly to the ground. He (to look)……………………… around hurriedly if anybody (to notice)…………………… him. But there ( to be)………………. nobody in the darkness of the street at that late hour. As he (to run)……………. across the lawn, he (to remember)………………………… how many burglaries he (to commit)……………………… in those far-off days of his criminal life.

And now, ten years later, he (to kill)………………… a man. But he (can)……………. calmly think of the dead body which once (to be)………………. Richard Stromes. It now (to lie)………………………… in the room which he just (to leave)……………………. . He never (to want)…………………… to murder anybody but (to have to)………………. do it because of his money troubles. Once he (to meet)…………………. an old prison acquaintance of his who (to recognize)……………………… him. Blackmail (to follow)……………. . Soon ruin (to look)…………………….. Trim in the face and he (to begin)…………………… to ask himself, ”What I (to do)……………….. when my money (to run)………………… out and he ( not to stop)…………………… demanding it?” So he (to turn)…………………… to his old business.

Richard Stromes (to collect)………………………. antiques and to break into his house (to be)……… easy. Trim (to know)…………………. the room in which the collection (to keep)………………………. . And all that (to have to do)………………………………… (to be)…………………. to climb a pipe up to a window. After he (to put)………………. many jewels into his pockets and (to prepare)……………………. to go, he (to hear)……………………… a noise behind him. He (to turn round)……………… to find that the door of the room (to open)……………….. and Stromes himself (to stand)……………………… in front of him. Trim still (to hold)……………………………. a beautiful knife in his hand and without thinking (to attack)……………… the man. Then he (to drag)………………………… the body into the room and (to leave)……………………. as he (to come)…………………. , through the window.

He (to feel)…………………. safe. Who (to suspect)………………. him of murder? He (to leave)………………. no signs. But at home he (to discover)………… that one of his gloves (to disappear)…………………. . He (to understand)………………….. at once that if he (not to not find)…………………. it, he (to catch)………………… . The glove (to be)…………….. the evidence against him.