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The Haunted Hotel-Part24_WILKIE COLLINS (1824-1899)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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hitherto associated with the vaults of the old palace and with the



bed-chamber beneath, now floated up from the open recess, and filled

the room.



The manager started back. 'Good God, Mr. Westwick!' he exclaimed,

'what does this mean?'



Remembering, not only what his brother Francis had felt

in the room beneath, but what the experience of Agnes had been



on the previous night, Henry was determined to be on his guard.

'I am as much surprised as you are,' was his only reply.



'Wait for me one moment, sir,' said the manager. 'I must stop

the ladies and gentlemen outside from coming in.'



He hurried away--not forgetting to close the door after him.

Henry opened the window, and waited there breathing the purer air.



Vague apprehensions of the next discovery to come, filled his mind

for the first time. He was doublyresolved, now, not to stir a step in



the investigation without a witness.

The manager returned with a wax taper in his hand, which he lighted



as soon as he entered the room.

'We need fear no interruption now,' he said. 'Be so kind,



Mr. Westwick, as to hold the light. It is my business to find

out what this extraordinary discovery means.'



Henry held the taper. Looking into the cavity, by the dim and

flickering light, they both detected a dark object at the bottom of it.



'I think I can reach the thing,' the manager remarked, 'if I lie down,

and put my hand into the hole.'



He knelt on the floor--and hesitated. 'Might I ask you, sir, to give

me my gloves?' he said. 'They are in my hat, on the chair behind you.'



Henry gave him the gloves. 'I don't know what I may be going

to take hold of,' the manager explained, smiling rather uneasily



as he put on his right glove.

He stretched himself at full length on the floor, and passed his right



arm into the cavity. 'I can't say exactly what I have got hold of,'

he said. 'But I have got it.'



Half raising himself, he drew his hand out.

The next instant, he started to his feet with a shriek of terror.



A human head dropped from his nerveless grasp on the floor,

and rolled to Henry's feet. It was the hideous head that Agnes



had seen hovering above her, in the vision of the night!

The two men looked at each other, both struck speechless by the same



emotion of horror. The manager was the first to control himself.

'See to the door, for God's sake!' he said. 'Some of the people



outside may have heard me.'

Henry moved mechanically to the door.



Even when he had his hand on the key, ready to turn it in the lock

in case of necessity, he still looked back at the appalling object



on the floor. There was no possibility of identifying those decayed

and distorted features with any living creature whom he had seen--



and, yet, he was conscious of feeling a vague and awful doubt

which shook him to the soul. The questions which had tortured



the mind of Agnes, were now his questions too. He asked himself,

'In whose likeness might I have recognised it before the decay set in?



The likeness of Ferrari? or the likeness of--?' He paused trembling,

as Agnes had paused trembling before him. Agnes! The name,



of all women's names the dearest to him, was a terror to him now!

What was he to say to her? What might be the consequence if he trusted her



with the terrible truth?

No footsteps approached the door; no voices were audible outside.



The travellers were still occupied in the rooms at the eastern end of

the corridor.



In the brief interval that had passed, the manager had sufficiently

recovered himself to be able to think once more of the first



and foremost interests of his life--the interests of the hotel.

He approached Henry anxiously.



'If this frightful discovery becomes known,' he said, 'the closing

of the hotel and the ruin of the Company will be the inevitable results.



I feel sure that I can trust your discretion, sir, so far?'

'You can certainly trust me,' Henry answered. 'But surely discretion



has its limits,' he added, 'after such a discovery as we have made?'




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