I was a great solitary3 when I was young. I made it my pride to keep aloof4 and suffice for my own entertainment; and I may say that I had neither friends nor acquaintances until I met that friend who became my wife and the mother of my children. With one man only was I on private terms; this was R. Northmour, Esquire, of Graden Easter, in Scotland. We had met at college; and though there was not much liking5 between us, nor even much intimacy6, we were so nearly of a humour that we could associate with ease to both. Misanthropes7, we believed ourselves to be; but I have thought since that we were only sulky fellows. It was scarcely a companionship, but a coexistence in unsociability. Northmour’s exceptional violence of temper made it no easy affair for him to keep the peace with any one but me; and as he respected my silent ways, and let me come and go as I pleased, I could tolerate his presence without concern. I think we called each other friends.
When Northmour took his degree and I decided8 to leave the university without one, he invited me on a long visit to Graden Easter; and it was thus that I first became acquainted with the scene of my adventures. The mansion-house of Graden stood in a bleak9 stretch of country some three miles from the shore of the German Ocean. It was as large as a barrack; and as it had been built of a soft stone, liable to consume in the eager air of the seaside, it was damp and draughty within and half ruinous without. It was impossible for two young men to lodge10 with comfort in such a dwelling11. But there stood in the northern part of the estate, in a wilderness12 of links and blowing sand-hills, and between a plantation13 and the sea, a small Pavilion or Belvidere, of modern design, which was exactly suited to our wants; and in this hermitage, speaking little, reading much, and rarely associating except at meals, Northmour and I spent four tempestuous14 winter months. I might have stayed longer; but one March night there sprang up between us a dispute, which rendered my departure necessary. Northmour spoke15 hotly, I remember, and I suppose I must have made some tart16 rejoinder. He leaped from his chair and grappled me; I had to fight, without exaggeration, for my life; and it was only with a great effort that I mastered him, for he was near as strong in body as myself, and seemed filled with the devil. The next morning, we met on our usual terms; but I judged it more delicate to withdraw; nor did he attempt to dissuade17 me.
It was nine years before I revisited the neighbourhood. I travelled at that time with a tilt18 cart, a tent, and a cooking-stove, tramping all day beside the waggon19, and at night, whenever it was possible, gipsying in a cove20 of the hills, or by the side of a wood. I believe I visited in this manner most of the wild and desolate21 regions both in England and Scotland; and, as I had neither friends nor relations, I was troubled with no correspondence, and had nothing in the nature of headquarters, unless it was the office of my solicitors22, from whom I drew my income twice a year. It was a life in which I delighted; and I fully23 thought to have grown old upon the march, and at last died in a ditch.
It was my whole business to find desolate corners, where I could camp without the fear of interruption; and hence, being in another part of the same shire, I bethought me suddenly of the Pavilion on the Links. No thoroughfare passed within three miles of it. The nearest town, and that was but a fisher village, was at a distance of six or seven. For ten miles of length, and from a depth varying from three miles to half a mile, this belt of barren country lay along the sea. The beach, which was the natural approach, was full of quicksands. Indeed I may say there is hardly a better place of concealment24 in the United Kingdom. I determined25 to pass a week in the Sea-Wood of Graden Easter, and making a long stage, reached it about sundown on a wild September day.
The country, I have said, was mixed sand-hill and links; LINKS being a Scottish name for sand which has ceased drifting and become more or less solidly covered with turf. The Pavilion stood on an even space; a little behind it, the wood began in a hedge of elders huddled26 together by the wind; in front, a few tumbled sand-hills stood between it and the sea. An outcropping of rock had formed a bastion for the sand, so that there was here a promontory27 in the coast-line between two shallow bays; and just beyond the tides, the rock again cropped out and formed an islet of small dimensions but strikingly designed. The quicksands were of great extent at low water, and had an infamous28 reputation in the country. Close in shore, between the islet and the promontory, it was said they would swallow a man in four minutes and a half; but there may have been little ground for this precision. The district was alive with rabbits, and haunted by gulls29 which made a continual piping about the pavilion. On summer days the outlook was bright and even gladsome; but at sundown in September, with a high wind, and a heavy surf rolling in close along the links, the place told of nothing but dead mariners30 and sea disaster. A ship beating to windward on the horizon, and a huge truncheon of wreck31 half buried in the sands at my feet, completed the innuendo32 of the scene.
The pavilion — it had been built by the last proprietor33, Northmour’s uncle, a silly and prodigal34 virtuoso35 — presented little signs of age. It was two storeys in height, Italian in design, surrounded by a patch of garden in which nothing had prospered36 but a few coarse flowers; and looked, with its shuttered windows, not like a house that had been deserted37, but like one that had never been tenanted by man. Northmour was plainly from home; whether, as usual, sulking in the cabin of his yacht, or in one of his fitful and extravagant38 appearances in the world of society, I had, of course, no means of guessing. The place had an air of solitude39 that daunted40 even a solitary like myself; the wind cried in the chimneys with a strange and wailing41 note; and it was with a sense of escape, as if I were going indoors, that I turned away and, driving my cart before me, entered the skirts of the wood.
The Sea-Wood of Graden had been planted to shelter the cultivated fields behind, and check the encroachments of the blowing sand. As you advanced into it from coastward, elders were succeeded by other hardy42 shrubs43; but the timber was all stunted44 and bushy; it led a life of conflict; the trees were accustomed to swing there all night long in fierce winter tempests; and even in early spring, the leaves were already flying, and autumn was beginning, in this exposed plantation. Inland the ground rose into a little hill, which, along with the islet, served as a sailing mark for seamen45. When the hill was open of the islet to the north, vessels46 must bear well to the eastward47 to clear Graden Ness and the Graden Bullers. In the lower ground, a streamlet ran among the trees, and, being dammed with dead leaves and clay of its own carrying, spread out every here and there, and lay in stagnant48 pools. One or two ruined cottages were dotted about the wood; and, according to Northmour, these were ecclesiastical foundations, and in their time had sheltered pious49 hermits50.
I found a den1, or small hollow, where there was a spring of pure water; and there, clearing away the brambles, I pitched the tent, and made a fire to cook my supper. My horse I picketed51 farther in the wood where there was a patch of sward. The banks of the den not only concealed52 the light of my fire, but sheltered me from the wind, which was cold as well as high.
The life I was leading made me both hardy and frugal53. I never drank but water, and rarely ate anything more costly54 than oatmeal; and I required so little sleep, that, although I rose with the peep of day, I would often lie long awake in the dark or starry55 watches of the night. Thus in Graden Sea-Wood, although I fell thankfully asleep by eight in the evening I was awake again before eleven with a full possession of my faculties56, and no sense of drowsiness57 or fatigue58. I rose and sat by the fire, watching the trees and clouds tumultuously tossing and fleeing overhead, and hearkening to the wind and the rollers along the shore; till at length, growing weary of inaction, I quitted the den, and strolled towards the borders of the wood. A young moon, buried in mist, gave a faint illumination to my steps; and the light grew brighter as I walked forth59 into the links. At the same moment, the wind, smelling salt of the open ocean and carrying particles of sand, struck me with its full force, so that I had to bow my head.
When I raised it again to look about me, I was aware of a light in the pavilion. It was not stationary60; but passed from one window to another, as though some one were reviewing the different apartments with a lamp or candle.
I watched it for some seconds in great surprise. When I had arrived in the afternoon the house had been plainly deserted; now it was as plainly occupied. It was my first idea that a gang of thieves might have broken in and be now ransacking61 Northmour’s cupboards, which were many and not ill supplied. But what should bring thieves to Graden Easter? And, again, all the shutters62 had been thrown open, and it would have been more in the character of such gentry63 to close them. I dismissed the notion, and fell back upon another. Northmour himself must have arrived, and was now airing and inspecting the pavilion.
I have said that there was no real affection between this man and me; but, had I loved him like a brother, I was then so much more in love with solitude that I should none the less have shunned64 his company. As it was, I turned and ran for it; and it was with genuine satisfaction that I found myself safely back beside the fire. I had escaped an acquaintance; I should have one more night in comfort. In the morning, I might either slip away before Northmour was abroad, or pay him as short a visit as I chose.
But when morning came, I thought the situation so diverting that I forgot my shyness. Northmour was at my mercy; I arranged a good practical jest, though I knew well that my neighbour was not the man to jest with in security; and, chuckling65 beforehand over its success, took my place among the elders at the edge of the wood, whence I could command the door of the pavilion. The shutters were all once more closed, which I remember thinking odd; and the house, with its white walls and green venetians, looked spruce and habitable in the morning light. Hour after hour passed, and still no sign of Northmour. I knew him for a sluggard66 in the morning; but, as it drew on towards noon, I lost my patience. To say the truth, I had promised myself to break my fast in the pavilion, and hunger began to prick67 me sharply. It was a pity to let the opportunity go by without some cause for mirth; but the grosser appetite prevailed, and I relinquished68 my jest with regret, and sallied from the wood.
The appearance of the house affected69 me, as I drew near, with disquietude. It seemed unchanged since last evening; and I had expected it, I scarce knew why, to wear some external signs of habitation. But no: the windows were all closely shuttered, the chimneys breathed no smoke, and the front door itself was closely padlocked. Northmour, therefore, had entered by the back; this was the natural and, indeed, the necessary conclusion; and you may judge of my surprise when, on turning the house, I found the back door similarly secured.
My mind at once reverted70 to the original theory of thieves; and I blamed myself sharply for my last night’s inaction. I examined all the windows on the lower storey, but none of them had been tampered71 with; I tried the padlocks, but they were both secure. It thus became a problem how the thieves, if thieves they were, had managed to enter the house. They must have got, I reasoned, upon the roof of the outhouse where Northmour used to keep his photographic battery; and from thence, either by the window of the study or that of my old bedroom, completed their burglarious entry.
I followed what I supposed was their example; and, getting on the roof, tried the shutters of each room. Both were secure; but I was not to be beaten; and, with a little force, one of them flew open, grazing, as it did so, the back of my hand. I remember, I put the wound to my mouth, and stood for perhaps half a minute licking it like a dog, and mechanically gazing behind me over the waste links and the sea; and, in that space of time, my eye made note of a large schooner72 yacht some miles to the north-east. Then I threw up the window and climbed in.
I went over the house, and nothing can express my mystification. There was no sign of disorder73, but, on the contrary, the rooms were unusually clean and pleasant. I found fires laid, ready for lighting74; three bedrooms prepared with a luxury quite foreign to Northmour’s habits, and with water in the ewers75 and the beds turned down; a table set for three in the dining-room; and an ample supply of cold meats, game, and vegetables on the pantry shelves. There were guests expected, that was plain; but why guests, when Northmour hated society? And, above all, why was the house thus stealthily prepared at dead of night? and why were the shutters closed and the doors padlocked?
I effaced76 all traces of my visit, and came forth from the window feeling sobered and concerned.
The schooner yacht was still in the same place; and it flashed for a moment through my mind that this might be the RED EARL bringing the owner of the pavilion and his guests. But the vessel’s head was set the other way.
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1
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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2
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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3
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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misanthropes
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| n.厌恶人类者( misanthrope的名词复数 ) | |
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8
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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11
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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13
plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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14
tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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15
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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16
tart
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| adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇 | |
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17
dissuade
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| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
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18
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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waggon
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| n.运货马车，运货车；敞篷车箱 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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21
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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solicitors
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| 初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 ) | |
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23
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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29
gulls
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| n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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31
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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innuendo
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| n.暗指，讽刺 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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virtuoso
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| n.精于某种艺术或乐器的专家，行家里手 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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38
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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39
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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40
daunted
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| 使（某人）气馁，威吓( daunt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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42
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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43
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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44
stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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45
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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46
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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47
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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48
stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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49
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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50
hermits
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| （尤指早期基督教的）隐居修道士，隐士，遁世者( hermit的名词复数 ) | |
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51
picketed
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| 用尖桩围住（picket的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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52
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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53
frugal
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| adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的 | |
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54
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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56
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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57
drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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59
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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61
ransacking
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| v.彻底搜查( ransack的现在分词 )；抢劫，掠夺 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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64
shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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sluggard
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| n.懒人；adj.懒惰的 | |
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67
prick
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| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
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68
relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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70
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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71
tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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72
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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73
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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74
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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75
ewers
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| n.大口水壶，水罐( ewer的名词复数 ) | |
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76
effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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