章节正文
remember, for the punch didn't agree with me, and I was seedy next
morning. Hang it all, there's the cigar-box I brought back from the
dinner.' He pointed to an object on the table, and laughed nervously.
'I think, Sir,' said the young man, addressing me respectfully,
'you will see you are mistaken. We want to assist the law like all
Englishmen, and we don't want Scotland Yard to be making fools
of themselves. That's so, uncle?'
'Certainly, Bob.' The old fellow seemed to be recovering his
voice. 'Certainly, we'll do anything in our power to assist the
authorities. But - but this is a bit too much. I can't get over it.'
'How Nellie will chuckle,' said the plump man. 'She always said
that you would die of boredom because nothing ever happened to
you. And now you've got it thick and strong,' and he began to
laugh very pleasantly.
'By Jove, yes. just think of it! What a story to tell at the club.
Really, Mr Hannay, I suppose I should be angry, to show my
innocence, but it's too funny! I almost forgive you the fright you
gave me! You looked so glum, I thought I might have been walking
in my sleep and killing people.'
It couldn't be acting, it was too confoundedly genuine. My heart
went into my boots, and my first impulse was to apologize and
clear out. But I told myself I must see it through, even though I
was to be the laughing-stock of Britain. The light from the dinner-
table candlesticks was not very good, and to cover my confusion I
got up, walked to the door and switched on the electric light. The
sudden glare made them blink, and I stood scanning the three faces.
Well, I made nothing of it. One was old and bald, one was stout,
one was dark and thin. There was nothing in their appearance to
prevent them being the three who had hunted me in Scotland, but
there was nothing to identify them. 1 simply can't explain why I
who, as a roadman, had looked into two pairs of eyes, and as Ned
Ainslie into another pair, why I, who have a good memory and
reasonable powers of observation, could find no satisfaction. They
seemed exactly what they professed to be, and I could not have
sworn to one of them.
There in that pleasant dining-room, with etchings on the walls,
and a picture of an old lady in a bib above the mantelpiece, I could
see nothing to connect them with the moorland desperadoes. There
was a silver cigarette-box beside me, and I saw that it had been won
by Percival Appleton, Esq., of the St Bede's Club, in a golf tournament.
I had to keep a firm hold of Peter Pienaar to prevent myself
bolting out of that house.
'Well,' said the old man politely, 'are you reassured by your
scrutiny, Sir?'
I couldn't find a word.
'I hope you'll find it consistent with your duty to drop this
ridiculous business. I make no complaint, but you'll see how annoying
it must be to respectable people.'
I shook my head.
'O Lord,' said the young man. 'This is a bit too thick!'
'Do you propose to march us off to the police station?' asked the
plump one. 'That might be the best way out of it, but I suppose
you won't be content with the local branch. I have the right to ask
to see your warrant, but I don't wish to cast any aspersions upon
you. You are only doing your duty. But you'll admit it's horribly
awkward. What do you propose to do?'
There was nothing to do except to call in my men and have them
arrested, or to confess my blunder and clear out. I felt mesmerized by
the whole place, by the air of obviousinnocence - not innocence
merely, but frank honest bewilderment and concern in the three faces.
'Oh, Peter Pienaar,' I groaned inwardly, and for a moment I was
very near damning myself for a fool and asking their pardon.
'Meantime I vote we have a game of bridge,' said the plump one.
'It will give Mr Hannay time to think over things, and you know
we have been wanting a fourth player. Do you play, Sir?'
I accepted as if it had been an ordinary invitation at the club.
The whole business had mesmerized me. We went into the
smoking-room where a card-table was set out, and I was offered
things to smoke and drink. I took my place at the table in a kind of
dream. The window was open and the moon was flooding the cliffs
and sea with a great tide of yellow light. There was moonshine,
too, in my head. The three had recovered their composure, and
were talking easily - just the kind of slangy talk you will hear in
any golf club-house. I must have cut a rum figure, sitting there
knitting my brows with my eyes wandering.
My partner was the young dark one. I play a fair hand at bridge,
but I must have been rank bad that night. They saw that they had
got me puzzled, and that put them more than ever at their ease. I
kept looking at their faces, but they conveyed nothing to me. It
was not that they looked different; they were different. I clung
desperately to the words of Peter Pienaar.
Then something awoke me.
The old man laid down his hand to light a cigar. He didn't pick
it up at once, but sat back for a moment in his chair, with his
fingers tapping on his knees.
It was the movement I remembered when I had stood before him
in the moorland farm, with the pistols of his servants behind me.
A little thing, lasting only a second, and the odds were a thousand
to one that I might have had my eyes on my cards at the time and
missed it. But I didn't, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear. Some
shadow lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men
with full and absolute recognition.
The clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o'clock.
The three faces seemed to change before my eyes and reveal their
secrets. The young one was the murderer. Now I saw cruelty and
ruthlessness, where before I had only seen good-humour. His knife,
I made certain, had skewered Scudder to the floor. His kind had
put the bullet in Karolides.
The plump man's features seemed to dislimn, and form again, as
I looked at them. He hadn't a face, only a hundred masks that he
could assume when he pleased. That chap must have been a superb
actor. Perhaps he had been Lord Alloa of the night before; perhaps
not; it didn't matter. I wondered if he was the fellow who had first
tracked Scudder, and left his card on him. Scudder had said he
lisped, and I could imagine how the adoption of a lisp might add terror.
But the old man was the pick of the lot. He was sheer brain, icy,
cool, calculating, as ruthless as a steam hammer. Now that my eyes
were opened I wondered where I had seen the benevolence. His
jaw was like chilled steel, and his eyes had the inhuman luminosity
of a bird's. I went on playing, and every second a greater hate
welled up in my heart. It almost choked me, and I couldn't answer
when my partner spoke. Only a little longer could I endure
their company.
'Whew! Bob! Look at the time,' said the old man. 'You'd better
think about catching your train. Bob's got to go to town tonight,'
he added, turning to me. The voice rang now as false as hell.
I looked at the clock, and it was nearly half-past ten.
'I am afraid he must put off his journey,' I said.
'Oh, damn,' said the young man. 'I thought you had dropped
that rot. I've simply got to go. You can have my address, and I'll
give any security you like.'
'No,' I said, 'you must stay.'
At that I think they must have realized that the game was desperate.
Their only chance had been to convince me that I was playing
the fool, and that had failed. But the old man spoke again.
'I'll go bail for my nephew. That ought to content you, Mr
Hannay.' Was it fancy, or did I detect some halt in the smoothness
of that voice?
There must have been, for as I glanced at him, his eyelids fell in
that hawk-like hood which fear had stamped on my memory.
I blew my whistle.
In an instant the lights were out. A pair of strong arms gripped
me round the waist, covering the pockets in which a man might be
expected to carry a pistol.
'SCHNELL, FRANZ,' cried a voice, 'DAS BOOT, DAS BOOT!' As it spoke I
saw two of my fellows emerge on the moonlit lawn.
The young dark man leapt for the window, was through it, and
over the low fence before a hand could touch him. I grappled the
old chap, and the room seemed to fill with figures. I saw the plump
one collared, but my eyes were all for the out-of-doors, where
Franz sped on over the road towards the railed entrance to the
beach stairs. One man followed him, but he had no chance. The
gate of the stairs locked behind the fugitive, and I stood staring,
with my hands on the old boy's throat, for such a time as a man
might take to descend those steps to the sea.
Suddenly my prisoner broke from me and flung himself on the
wall. There was a click as if a lever had been pulled. Then came a
low rumbling far, far below the ground, and through the window I
saw a cloud of chalky dust pouring out of the shaft of the stairway.
Someone switched on the light.
The old man was looking at me with blazing eyes.
'He is safe,' he cried. 'You cannot follow in time ... He is
gone ... He has triumphed ... DER SCHWARZE STEIN IST IN DER
SIEGESKRONE.'
There was more in those eyes than any common triumph. They
had been hooded like a bird of prey, and now they flamed with a
hawk's pride. A white fanatic heat burned in them, and I realized
for the first time the terrible thing I had been up against. This man
was more than a spy; in his foul way he had been a patriot.
As the handcuffs clinked on his wrists I said my last word to him.
'I hope Franz will bear his triumph well. I ought to tell you that
the ARIADNE for the last hour has been in our hands.'
Three weeks later, as all the world knows, we went to war. I joined
the New Army the first week, and owing to my Matabele experience
got a captain's commission straight off. But I had done my best
service, I think, before I put on khaki.
End
morning. Hang it all, there's the cigar-box I brought back from the
dinner.' He pointed to an object on the table, and laughed nervously.
'I think, Sir,' said the young man, addressing me respectfully,
'you will see you are mistaken. We want to assist the law like all
Englishmen, and we don't want Scotland Yard to be making fools
of themselves. That's so, uncle?'
'Certainly, Bob.' The old fellow seemed to be recovering his
voice. 'Certainly, we'll do anything in our power to assist the
authorities. But - but this is a bit too much. I can't get over it.'
'How Nellie will chuckle,' said the plump man. 'She always said
that you would die of boredom because nothing ever happened to
you. And now you've got it thick and strong,' and he began to
laugh very pleasantly.
'By Jove, yes. just think of it! What a story to tell at the club.
Really, Mr Hannay, I suppose I should be angry, to show my
innocence, but it's too funny! I almost forgive you the fright you
gave me! You looked so glum, I thought I might have been walking
in my sleep and killing people.'
It couldn't be acting, it was too confoundedly genuine. My heart
went into my boots, and my first impulse was to apologize and
clear out. But I told myself I must see it through, even though I
was to be the laughing-stock of Britain. The light from the dinner-
table candlesticks was not very good, and to cover my confusion I
got up, walked to the door and switched on the electric light. The
sudden glare made them blink, and I stood scanning the three faces.
Well, I made nothing of it. One was old and bald, one was stout,
one was dark and thin. There was nothing in their appearance to
prevent them being the three who had hunted me in Scotland, but
there was nothing to identify them. 1 simply can't explain why I
who, as a roadman, had looked into two pairs of eyes, and as Ned
Ainslie into another pair, why I, who have a good memory and
reasonable powers of observation, could find no satisfaction. They
seemed exactly what they professed to be, and I could not have
sworn to one of them.
There in that pleasant dining-room, with etchings on the walls,
and a picture of an old lady in a bib above the mantelpiece, I could
see nothing to connect them with the moorland desperadoes. There
was a silver cigarette-box beside me, and I saw that it had been won
by Percival Appleton, Esq., of the St Bede's Club, in a golf tournament.
I had to keep a firm hold of Peter Pienaar to prevent myself
bolting out of that house.
'Well,' said the old man politely, 'are you reassured by your
scrutiny, Sir?'
I couldn't find a word.
'I hope you'll find it consistent with your duty to drop this
ridiculous business. I make no complaint, but you'll see how annoying
it must be to respectable people.'
I shook my head.
'O Lord,' said the young man. 'This is a bit too thick!'
'Do you propose to march us off to the police station?' asked the
plump one. 'That might be the best way out of it, but I suppose
you won't be content with the local branch. I have the right to ask
to see your warrant, but I don't wish to cast any aspersions upon
you. You are only doing your duty. But you'll admit it's horribly
awkward. What do you propose to do?'
There was nothing to do except to call in my men and have them
arrested, or to confess my blunder and clear out. I felt mesmerized by
the whole place, by the air of obviousinnocence - not innocence
merely, but frank honest bewilderment and concern in the three faces.
'Oh, Peter Pienaar,' I groaned inwardly, and for a moment I was
very near damning myself for a fool and asking their pardon.
'Meantime I vote we have a game of bridge,' said the plump one.
'It will give Mr Hannay time to think over things, and you know
we have been wanting a fourth player. Do you play, Sir?'
I accepted as if it had been an ordinary invitation at the club.
The whole business had mesmerized me. We went into the
smoking-room where a card-table was set out, and I was offered
things to smoke and drink. I took my place at the table in a kind of
dream. The window was open and the moon was flooding the cliffs
and sea with a great tide of yellow light. There was moonshine,
too, in my head. The three had recovered their composure, and
were talking easily - just the kind of slangy talk you will hear in
any golf club-house. I must have cut a rum figure, sitting there
knitting my brows with my eyes wandering.
My partner was the young dark one. I play a fair hand at bridge,
but I must have been rank bad that night. They saw that they had
got me puzzled, and that put them more than ever at their ease. I
kept looking at their faces, but they conveyed nothing to me. It
was not that they looked different; they were different. I clung
desperately to the words of Peter Pienaar.
Then something awoke me.
The old man laid down his hand to light a cigar. He didn't pick
it up at once, but sat back for a moment in his chair, with his
fingers tapping on his knees.
It was the movement I remembered when I had stood before him
in the moorland farm, with the pistols of his servants behind me.
A little thing, lasting only a second, and the odds were a thousand
to one that I might have had my eyes on my cards at the time and
missed it. But I didn't, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear. Some
shadow lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men
with full and absolute recognition.
The clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o'clock.
The three faces seemed to change before my eyes and reveal their
secrets. The young one was the murderer. Now I saw cruelty and
ruthlessness, where before I had only seen good-humour. His knife,
I made certain, had skewered Scudder to the floor. His kind had
put the bullet in Karolides.
The plump man's features seemed to dislimn, and form again, as
I looked at them. He hadn't a face, only a hundred masks that he
could assume when he pleased. That chap must have been a superb
actor. Perhaps he had been Lord Alloa of the night before; perhaps
not; it didn't matter. I wondered if he was the fellow who had first
tracked Scudder, and left his card on him. Scudder had said he
lisped, and I could imagine how the adoption of a lisp might add terror.
But the old man was the pick of the lot. He was sheer brain, icy,
cool, calculating, as ruthless as a steam hammer. Now that my eyes
were opened I wondered where I had seen the benevolence. His
jaw was like chilled steel, and his eyes had the inhuman luminosity
of a bird's. I went on playing, and every second a greater hate
welled up in my heart. It almost choked me, and I couldn't answer
when my partner spoke. Only a little longer could I endure
their company.
'Whew! Bob! Look at the time,' said the old man. 'You'd better
think about catching your train. Bob's got to go to town tonight,'
he added, turning to me. The voice rang now as false as hell.
I looked at the clock, and it was nearly half-past ten.
'I am afraid he must put off his journey,' I said.
'Oh, damn,' said the young man. 'I thought you had dropped
that rot. I've simply got to go. You can have my address, and I'll
give any security you like.'
'No,' I said, 'you must stay.'
At that I think they must have realized that the game was desperate.
Their only chance had been to convince me that I was playing
the fool, and that had failed. But the old man spoke again.
'I'll go bail for my nephew. That ought to content you, Mr
Hannay.' Was it fancy, or did I detect some halt in the smoothness
of that voice?
There must have been, for as I glanced at him, his eyelids fell in
that hawk-like hood which fear had stamped on my memory.
I blew my whistle.
In an instant the lights were out. A pair of strong arms gripped
me round the waist, covering the pockets in which a man might be
expected to carry a pistol.
'SCHNELL, FRANZ,' cried a voice, 'DAS BOOT, DAS BOOT!' As it spoke I
saw two of my fellows emerge on the moonlit lawn.
The young dark man leapt for the window, was through it, and
over the low fence before a hand could touch him. I grappled the
old chap, and the room seemed to fill with figures. I saw the plump
one collared, but my eyes were all for the out-of-doors, where
Franz sped on over the road towards the railed entrance to the
beach stairs. One man followed him, but he had no chance. The
gate of the stairs locked behind the fugitive, and I stood staring,
with my hands on the old boy's throat, for such a time as a man
might take to descend those steps to the sea.
Suddenly my prisoner broke from me and flung himself on the
wall. There was a click as if a lever had been pulled. Then came a
low rumbling far, far below the ground, and through the window I
saw a cloud of chalky dust pouring out of the shaft of the stairway.
Someone switched on the light.
The old man was looking at me with blazing eyes.
'He is safe,' he cried. 'You cannot follow in time ... He is
gone ... He has triumphed ... DER SCHWARZE STEIN IST IN DER
SIEGESKRONE.'
There was more in those eyes than any common triumph. They
had been hooded like a bird of prey, and now they flamed with a
hawk's pride. A white fanatic heat burned in them, and I realized
for the first time the terrible thing I had been up against. This man
was more than a spy; in his foul way he had been a patriot.
As the handcuffs clinked on his wrists I said my last word to him.
'I hope Franz will bear his triumph well. I ought to tell you that
the ARIADNE for the last hour has been in our hands.'
Three weeks later, as all the world knows, we went to war. I joined
the New Army the first week, and owing to my Matabele experience
got a captain's commission straight off. But I had done my best
service, I think, before I put on khaki.
End
- pointed [´pɔintid]
a.尖(锐)的；中肯的 (初中英语单词) - assist [ə´sist] v.协助；援助；搀扶 (初中英语单词)
- forgive [fə´giv] vt.原谅，谅解，宽恕 (初中英语单词)
- fright [frait] n.惊吓；恐怖；怪人 (初中英语单词)
- acting [´æktiŋ] a.代理的 n.演戏 (初中英语单词)
- impulse [´impʌls] n.推动(力)；冲动；刺激 (初中英语单词)
- confusion [kən´fju:ʒən] n.混乱(状态)；骚乱 (初中英语单词)
- identify [ai´dentifai] vt.认出；鉴定；验明 (初中英语单词)
- observation [,ɔbzə´veiʃən] n.观测；注意；意义 (初中英语单词)
- satisfaction [,sætis´fækʃən] n.满意；满足 (初中英语单词)
- complaint [kəm´pleint] n.抱怨；叫屈 (初中英语单词)
- confess [kən´fes] vt.供认；坦白；承认 (初中英语单词)
- obvious [´ɔbviəs] a.明显的；显而易见的 (初中英语单词)
- player [´pleiə] n.游戏的人；选手 (初中英语单词)
- invitation [,invi´teiʃən] n.邀请；请帖；吸引 (初中英语单词)
- partner [´pɑ:tnə] n.伙伴 v.同....合作 (初中英语单词)
- movement [´mu:vmənt] n.活动；运动；动作 (初中英语单词)
- absolute [´æbsəlu:t] a.绝对的 n.绝对 (初中英语单词)
- bullet [´bulit] n.子弹 (初中英语单词)
- hammer [´hæmə] n.锤子 v.重击 (初中英语单词)
- security [si´kjuəriti] n.安全；证券；抵押品 (初中英语单词)
- convince [kən´vins] vt.使确信；使认识错误 (初中英语单词)
- nephew [´nevju:, ´nɛfju] n.侄子；外甥 (初中英语单词)
- instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
- emerge [i´mə:dʒ] vi.出现；显露；暴露 (初中英语单词)
- throat [θrəut] n.咽喉；嗓子；出入口 (初中英语单词)
- descend [di´send] v.下来，下降 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- mistaken [mis´teikən] mistake的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- genuine [´dʒenjuin] a.真正的；真诚的 (高中英语单词)
- politely [pə´laitli] ad.温和地；文雅地 (高中英语单词)
- respectable [ri´spektəbəl] a.可敬的；有身价的 (高中英语单词)
- blunder [´blʌndə] n.&v.(犯)大错；疏忽 (高中英语单词)
- innocence [´inəsəns] n.无罪；天真 (高中英语单词)
- lasting [´lɑ:stiŋ] a.持久的；永远的 (高中英语单词)
- murderer [´mə:dərə] n.杀人犯，凶手 (高中英语单词)
- cruelty [´kru:əlti] n.残忍；残酷行为 (高中英语单词)
- adoption [ə´dɔpʃən] n.采用；收养 (高中英语单词)
- detect [di´tekt] vt.发觉；侦察 (高中英语单词)
- fugitive [´fju:dʒitiv] n.逃亡者，亡命者 (高中英语单词)
- commission [kə´miʃən] n.委任(状) vt.委任 (高中英语单词)
- consistent [kən´sistənt] a.一致的；始终如一的 (英语四级单词)
- warrant [´wɔrənt] n.根据；委任书；权利 (英语四级单词)
- composure [kəm´pəuʒə] n.镇静，沉着 (英语四级单词)
- bewilderment [bi´wildəmənt] n.为难；狼狈；迷惑 (英语六级单词)
- inwardly [´inwədli] ad.内向；独自地 (英语六级单词)
- wanting [´wɔntiŋ, wɑ:n-] a.短缺的；不足的 (英语六级单词)
- ruthless [´ru:θləs] a.无情的；残忍的 (英语六级单词)
- moonlit [´mu:n,lit] a.月光普照的 (英语六级单词)
- fanatic [fə´nætik] a.狂热的 n.狂热者 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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