“Think it over, think it over, think it over.”
Twice she decided5 to go to Bucks6 and then she knew it would be hopeless. They couldn’t help if a big story broke. They didn’t make the news. They ... they were like buzzards ... and she must do something to keep them ... from....
Murdering patients.... Oh God! Oh God! ... No! ... They are wrong!
She pushed her curly bright hair back from her sweating forehead, and at The Call building gave the driver the dollar, and slipped unnoticed into a crowded elevator and out again in the main hallway of the sixth floor.
This wouldn’t do. Somebody might come along.
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She leaned against the wall for a moment, then decided to walk up to the seventh floor. There was a vacant suite7 of offices on the corner; perhaps if she went where there was plenty of room her brain would get ... wider....
Half way up the marble stairs began rising and hitting her in the face, and then slipping back so that she couldn’t quite reach them when she stepped. She slumped8 and rested.
If Cub9’s arms were only around her now. How many murders had there been? Four! Jumbo had said four, and the last a nurse. The night he brought the last cigarettes. She hadn’t seen him since the morning after ... the nurse.... Not since Dr. Bear began dying ... but she knew! She knew!
Oh God! God! It wasn’t Cub! It wasn’t! A murderer couldn’t kiss you so that your soul ran up and spread out flat under his lips.... A murderer couldn’t look at you so that you said you were sorry, even when you tried not to be.... A murderer’s hair wouldn’t fold into little waves where it spread under the curve at the back of his neck.
But how could you tell a paper that? How could you make a city editor understand ... when you had no proof ... that a man was innocent and framed?
There must be some way! You had to think clearly to see it, and the place to think was upstairs 294 with the whole world spread out below in orderly rows and streets. Just as the sun spread over the city, and strengthened it, so control made it possible.... Two hours! Less than that now....
She clenched10 her fists tightly and rose with studied steadiness. Necessity cleared the brain. Working in a newspaper office taught that the best ideas came under pressure. She had gone out on enough murder stories to know the person who worked his brain ... could beat anything ... even newspaper reporters and ... police.
By the time Sally reached the door of the vacant suite, the seams of her stockings were straightened and her reddening eyes carefully and painstakingly11 dry. There was an air of jauntiness12 about her small figure.
She had a head and was going to use it!
Her violet eyes had changed to the deep purple and iridescent13 white of orchids14. She closed the door and stood against it. Then her irises15 focused.
A stooped, intent figure was silhouetted16 between the rows of windows and the long city vistas17 below. For a second her artistic18 sense forebade speech.
Like an apple tree, gnarled and buffeted19 by too much winter, the thin shoulders, flat chest, beak20 nose, and long hands ribboned with purple veins21, strained after the peering eyes which were hidden by a pair of binoculars22. The dirty white hair drawn24 into a tightly furled knot, on the upper front of 295 the head, helped Sally recognize the next-to-the-oldest-employe of The Morning Call. She momentarily forgot Cub Sterling25.
“Emma! What are you doing?”
Emma wheeled around, and the binoculars fell from her hands. Sally moved with extended palms to catch them.
“Oh, it’s you!” Emma’s voice was pleased and birdlike. “They don’t drop, Miss Ferguson. Mr. Bucks told me you was on vacation. Did you have a nice time, dearie?” She reached toward the long leather thong27 which held the binoculars around her scrawny neck and then embarrassment28 replaced pleasure.
“What are you doing?”
“Well, I tell you, dearie. Whin I can’t git inta th’ offices on six ri-away, I jes’ comes here for a little while and takes in the city ... kinda. It helps a lot, sometimes, for bein’ lonesum, Miss Ferguson.”
The news-story instinct welled up. Sally eased down into a window sill. Perhaps, if you shifted the mind completely....
“Where did you get them?”
“Well, dearie, it’s like this: My boy ... you know ... what was killed at the Argonah, had ’em.” Emma’s lower jaw29 dropped. “His buddy30 ... my boy had got ’em off’n a dead German General, and you kno’ what fine things Germans makes 296 ... well, his buddy took ’em off’n my boy’s body after ... and brought ’em back to me. And, Miss Ferguson, he seys whin he give ’em to me, he seys, ‘These is t’gif ye a chancst t’see life.’
“Ain’t that sweet, dearie? And they’se bin23 the greates’ consterashun thu m’sorrow. Whin I gits t’thinkin’ ’bout my boy and wishin’ f’ gran’chillrin ... you kno’ ... I jes’ comes up here and takes in a few lifes.”
A swell31 newspaper story! “Vicarious living,” Sally muttered.
Emma, heard it and protested:
“No mam! Nuthin’ like that! I never looks beyond Second Street, Miss Ferguson. Two blocks this side of Beeker Street is an awful nice I-talyan neighb-hood. It’s sweet t’see th’women nursin’ babies on do’steps. That’s helped me an awful lot ... sometimes....
“Wouldn’t you like to take a look, dearie?”
Emma removed the thong from her neck with the care a concert master saves for his violin. Her face had now a deep, sweet warmth. Miss Ferguson had given her five dollars at Easter and at Christmas and this was a chancst....
Sally saw the look and rose. The folds of her blue crepe dress molded the curve of her slender thighs33 as she lifted the thong carefully over her head, adroitly34 around her white cowl collar, and walked toward the window.
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Emma stood proudly by and suggested:
“If you look tword the sout’wes’ down by Sears, Roebuck, you kin1’ jes’ catch a piece of the bridge ’roun’ th’corner buildin’. It’s awful prutty at sunset.”
Sally, who was something of a football fan, realized these were eight-power Zeiss binoculars. They brought the city out with startling clearness. She looked for the University, and on out toward Sears, Roebuck and across the river. Then she began picking out the Italian district near Becker Street and the Speakeasy just around the corner near Pershing Road.
“They’re wond-er-ful, Emma!”
“Ain’t they gran’?”
Suddenly she remembered about Cub, and trained the glasses upon the Elijah Wilson four blocks uphill. Cub was over there ... somewhere.... Cub was....
She began going over the building carefully. How pink the bricks were in the afternoon sun! The trees up Wilson Boulevard looked so green and feathery! How....
Her eyes found the cupola upon the top of the Administration Building. She had always wanted to see what was in that cupola! She unscrewed the lenses to their full power. They came into focus. One of the grimy windows was open. How lucky! She trained them into it.
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Scissored against the far white wall was Cub Sterling sitting at a small table. His hand held a hypodermic syringe. He was laughing....
God Almighty35!
Sally staggered as if she had been struck. Emma, supporting her, soothed36:
“I orta told you, dearie. If you looks too much you gits dizzy.”
“Emma,” her tone was parched37 and pleading, “look through these at the cupola of the Elijah Wilson Hospital and tell me what you see.”
The old woman took the binoculars, readjusted them ... it seemed to Sally that she used a thousand years ... and said:
“Shucks, honey, I don’t see nuthin’ but a curly-headed man settin’ at a little table writin’ in a book.... H’m ... he’s awful nice lookin’!, too....”
Sally snatched the glasses and spread her feet to prop38 herself while she projected them. Her eyes, as she stiffly moved the dials, were filmy, but within seconds she had the lenses magnifying the cupola and as a man might repeat by rote32 what he knew by heart, she forced her horror-stricken eyes to focus again.
What they saw was Cub Sterling sitting at the same small table, a pen in his hand, writing swiftly and absorbedly in a small book. Behind him was the same big red splotch ... as if a bucket of blood 299 had been thrown against the wall ... the same ... small medicine case between two of the sooty windows.
But before him, upon the table, was the hypodermic syringe. Her eyes kept coming back to it over, over and over, as the eyes of a bird fascinated come back to a snake. And upon his face, as he wrote, was the awful look which she had never seen there, until he held that syringe up and laughed.
As she gazed, like an echo in the distance, little things about him began to be unfamiliar39. There wasn’t so much distance under his ear and collar, where she had buried her nose. And his hair wasn’t that long ... not nearly.... He had just had his hair cut ... Tuesday....
Maybe that was somebody else.... Maybe....
The glasses began slipping from her hands and while they fell, with the rapidity of a panic-stricken brain, she decided.
If it was Cub and she telephoned him and told him she needed him terribly and to come right away and he came, then it wasn’t Cub. And if he didn’t come, but stayed right there in that chair all the time....
Well, you had to know ... sometime....
“Emma,” her voice was crisp and had lost its note of friendly equality, “put those binoculars to your eyes and watch that man in the top of the 300 hospital till I come back.... Don’t take your eyes off of him for one second. It’s ... it’s ... whether I’m ever happy depends on his sitting in that chair till I come back.”
The bent40 old woman took the glasses, tremblingly, and Sally was halfway41 down the hall of the seventh floor before the cupola was in focus again.
As she ran she debated whether to take a chance and call from the newspaper office. The open door of a suite of legal offices flashed by. She wheeled and entered. None of the stenographers was in the outer office.
Steadying herself against a typewriter desk she snatched up the telephone:
“Wilson 2000. Hurry, please!”
She had called it two weeks ago for a news story!
In response to the hospital operator’s, “Lijah-Wilsin,” she said:
“Dr. Ethridge Sterling, Junior.”
The voice died away and then came back:
“Dr. Sterling’s ’phone doesn’t answer.”
“Call him on the loud speaker, please. It’s terribly important.”
She could hear the weary, raucous42 rasping, which was penetrating43 every corridor of the whole hospital:
“Docterr Ste-earling. Doct-terr Eth-err-ridge Ste-earling-Junyior....”
Every day of the month on the calendar tacked44 301 to the far wall hit her in the face ... Monday, the ninth ... Monday, the sixteenth ... before she heard Cub’s:
“Dr. Ethridge Sterling, speaking.”
“Cub ... can you come to room 708 in The Call building, right away...?”
“What? ... Salscie...? Where are you? How did you...?”
A terrible calm invaded her.
“It’s me, Cub! I walked out of the hospital. I had to...! Something awful...!”
“What?” the rising concern of his voice seemed to be put on, and then his, “I can’t leave Father. He’s....”
She braced45 herself for a final effort and begged:
“I know. But I’m in terrible ... I need you, darling!”
“But, Salscie....”
“Room 708, Cub! ...”
She threw the telephone from her and reeled into the hall and toward the vacant suite. Her eyes were right! Cub was not coming. Cub was ... was....
With a listlessness which portrayed46 great physical effort, she pushed the door open and looked toward the stooped back of Emma; then she swayed steadily47 toward a low Window sill and sat down. Her eyes were the color of clouds before a thunder storm and she leaned her head against the casing.
Then with that funny clearness which is always 302 part of terror, she began to count the carpet tacks48 on both sides of two planks49 in the floor. One, two ... his voice was foggy and distant ... six, seven, eight ... he was irritated.... “I can’t come. I can’t come!”... Cub Sterling was a murderer ... a maniac51....
As the thought began forming in her mind she revolted, and the revolt brought energy. Within half a minute after entering the room, she was at Emma’s side, begging:
“He didn’t move, did he? He didn’t move, Emma?”
“Not as I seen, but twicest I sneezed and los’ him, Miss Ferguson. But whin I got him back in, agin, he was settin’ jes th’ same and writin’ away ... liken he is....”
Sally grabbed the binoculars and twisted them painstakingly as she placed the strap52 over her head. If he hadn’t moved, then perhaps ... but he might have heard the loud Speaker and gone to a ’phone while Emma was sneezing ... would the loud speaker penetrate53 into that cupola...?
When she focused the figure again she began scrutinizing54 it. He had turned. Only his back and high shoulder ... but the distance from his ear to his collar wasn’t wasn’t....
Nobody but Cub had shoulders like that! Nobody except Cub sat that way....
There was only one Cub Sterling in the world 303 and in spite of every little thing which wasn’t right this was he. And if he sat in that chair another ten minutes she would never walk and talk again ... and if he didn’t sit there but came to her....
She staggered back at that thought and Emma ran to her.
“Don’t git yourself so excited, dearie. What’s that big-headed man to you? He ain’t nuthin’ but a doctor’s helper, doin’ his regular....”
Sally kept the glasses carefully focused and said, quite calmly:
“Did you ever seen him before, Emma?”
“Not as I kin recklek. But thin I ain’t no jedge. I ain’t no crazier ’bout lookin’ at hossbittles thin I is ’bout bein’ in thim, Miss Ferguson. I tell you lots of my frin’s done gone up to thet hossbittle and ain’t never bin heard frum since. Ef a body’s goin’ to die, he’s goin’ die, hossbittle or no hossbittle, I says. Look at my boy en the Argonah! I recklek whin he got hurt in a football scrimpage, over at Western High and they tried to take him to....”
Her chatter55, like water in a distant bathtub during a bad dream, splashed past Sally’s brain. Then it ceased to register, for the man at the table had risen and was opening a drawer in the medicine cabinet.
And hope sprang suddenly high in Sally’s heart. His shoulders squared and were flat! Cub stooped....
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But the shape of the head and the way the hair curled at the back of the neck sickened her, horribly. It was only when he reached in a hip56 pocket and drew out a handkerchief ... Cub carried his in his white coat breast pocket....
Then he reached back toward the table for the hypodermic syringe, and held it up to the light again.... And his left shoulder rose ... and Sally Ferguson’s eyes floated hopelessly, the stiff tensity of her body began to relax ... she staggered forward....
Coming up the hall was the sound of running feet and they sounded like the feet of running men....
The door swung open. The note of relief in Cub Sterling’s voice as he said “Salscie!” stiffened57 her relaxing muscles and gave her the power to turn.
Matthew Higgins had come out of the Administration Building as the long, lank50 body of Cub Sterling shot into a taxi at the stand.
Higgins had jumped another cab.
Sally Ferguson turned and swayed toward Sterling as Matthew Higgins stepped inside the door and it was he who caught the incredulity, the anguish58, the blind hope of her voice.
“Cub! Are you really Cub?”
As Sterling reached her his voice was stern.
“What is it? You must tell me,” his eyes cut into 305 her clouding ones and Matthew Higgins stepped alongside and said curtly59:
“Poison her too?”
Sally Ferguson’s lids began lowering and she gasped60, holding up the glasses with her ebbing61 strength:
“Look, Cub! The cu-po-la!”
The words faded with her closing eyes, and the final horror in them made Cub Sterling lay her head against his chest, place his long arms under her breasts and raise the binoculars, which were still suspended around her neck.
“Lan’ sakes. It’s only a man. Jes, a doctor’s helper. And I seys....” Emma had found her voice at last, but Cub Sterling cut in:
“God Almighty! Look! And tell me what you....”
His words were directed toward Emma.
Matthew Higgins took the glasses from Cub’s hands and Sally’s neck before Cub said, “Tell me....” The expression on his face had convinced Higgins that he saw ... something ... vile62.
A silence, like the high hysteria after a buoy-bell, spread over the waiting doctor. His eyes, livid with fear, turned upon the florid, gray figure of Matthew Higgins. And it was Higgins’ voice that brought Sally Ferguson out of her purple palaces. 306 Its steadiness was more hysterical63 than any word that had been uttered.
“A man with his head turned away from me ... sitting at a small table writing in a book, his left shoulder is ... he is reaching for a hypodermic syringe and holding it up and.... The murderer! ... The murderer! The crazy doctor! The other Cub Sterling!”
The glasses hit the floor with a thud and Matthew Higgins started down the hallway before Cub Sterling and Sally Ferguson turned around. He must reach Snod ... reach Snod. In the same legal offices from which Sally had telephoned he grabbed the receiver and ordered:
“Elijah Wilson Hospital, immediately!”
“Number? Number? Number?”
“Give it to me. I don’t know it.”
Sally reached the doorway64 and sighed:
“Wilson 2000.”
When the connection was through Higgins rasped:
“Dr. Henry MacArthur.”
The nasal whine65 of the placid66 operator came back:
“Dr. MacArthur’s ’phone doesn’t answer.”
“Then give me Ward26 B, Medicine Clinic.”
“We never connect ‘outside’ with the wards67.”
“To hell with you!” Higgins threw the ’phone from him and followed the running figure of Cub 307 Sterling toward the elevator shaft68. Sally Ferguson eased in as the door slipped to, and said to the operator:
“Will, non-stop one. For God’s sake, quick!”
Higgins’ head cleared. “Who is he?” Cub nodded vacantly.
As they ran from the building Cub Sterling jumped in beside the driver of a cruising taxi and ordered:
“Elijah Wilson. To hell with traffic lights! Five dollars if you do it in two minutes!”
Matt Higgins pulled Sally Ferguson into the back seat and slammed the door.
They began their wild, uphill snaking in and out.
Matt Higgins said:
“If we are not there in seconds, that devil will be.... Who is it, Sterling?”
Cub took his panic-stricken eyes from the approaching hospital and said:
“I don’t know, Mr. Immer....”
“Higgins. Hired by Dr. MacArthur to ... a New York dick, doc.”
Sally’s “Oh” was spontaneous.
Higgins turned and smiled.
“But it took a lady...!”
The cab drew up at the hospital. Cub Sterling was out and up the steps before the driver applied69 the brakes. Matt Higgins tossed him the money 308 and he and Sally caught Cub before he was halfway up the main staircase in the Administration Building. They reached the second floor and ran around the octagonal railing, through which Sally caught a glimpse of the statue of Elijah Wilson, far below, and on to the third floor. There Cub turned, wild eyed.
“Damn it!”
“Which way?” Higgins demanded.
“I don’t know.... I’ve never been....”
Higgins began systematically70 opening doors and looking for an outlet71. Little streams of late afternoon sun filtered through the cracks. The hospital was deathly still. All of the people off duty were preparing to go to Rose Standish’s funeral.
Sally’s hands continued wringing72 themselves, and she begged:
“Cub, isn’t there some way ... another stairs, Cub?”
He swirled73 without a word and ran down to the second floor again. Higgins and Sally followed, hopefully.
Another stairs ... behind the pharmacy74 ... where Rose Standish had kissed his interne ... perhaps that went up as well as down....
They reached the door that opened onto the enclosed stairway. Cub pulled the knob savagely75. The door flew open. He peered into the darkness. Matthew Higgins thick body brushed him aside. 309 The detective pushed onto the narrow landing and struck a match. Caticornered from the stairway that led down to the pharmacy, a rusty76 door-knob caught the reflection.
“Locked!” his discovery was like a curse.
Sally stood in the doorway that led to the second floor and moaned. Fatigue77. Blinding fatigue was beginning to....
Cub Sterling moved over to Higgins’ side and said “Let’s bust78 it!”
They propped79 their feet upon the opposite wall and laid their shoulders against the flimsy panels. The match was out and the veins in their necks began choking them.
Far down below Sally heard the clanking bell of an approaching ambulance; it hid the scrunching80 of the wood from her ears.
She stepped onto the landing and tried to see. Before her eyes were accustomed to the dark, the heavy breathing of the two men seeped81 into her like a narcotic82. She lay weakly against the wall.
The breathing had ceased for half a second before she opened her eyes. Through the final screech83 of the bulging84 door she heard Higgins’ voice.
“Footprints!”
He and Cub were through the hole and halfway up the narrow, winding85 stairway. She could see Higgins’ match ahead as she scrambled86 through the jagged panelling.
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The steps were high and horrible. She lost all light when Higgins rounded the turn. When she staggered up, again, Higgins had his hand upon a knob and was ordering, in the heavy darkness:
“Stand over there, Sterling!” and then, “It opens out and is....”
He turned the knob, and a rush of yellow sunlight filled the twisting stairs. They pushed on into it. The last three steps extended past the cupola door and into the octagonal room.
Higgins, Cub and Sally stood upon these steps and looked.
Their gray, brown and violet eyes mirrored beside the white medicine case, a raised glass in hand, the counterpart of Cub Sterling ... gone insane.
The late afternoon sun played upon the bushy hair, upon the similar, yet dissimilar faces. It caught each feature, as it catches mountain crags and emphasized it. The same white coat, the same carriage, but not the same eyes.
It was the eyes which froze all three spectators into a paralyzed horror. They were the color of Cub Sterling’s, except that they centered upon his own eyes with a blistering87, venomous, consuming hate, and that hate was confirmed in the crooked88, violent twist of the almost rigid89 lips.
The lips opened, the man gave his left shoulder the hysterical twist and drained the glass, but even with his head thrown back, his eyes bored into and 311 scorched90 the brain of Cub Sterling, and held Matthew Higgins inert91 with horror.
It was Sally’s, “Peaches! I smell peaches!” that brushed past their fear.
“Cyanide!”
As Cub barked the word, the tall man stiffened gauntly, his eyes still intent upon Sterling’s; then his body, like a palm tree in a hurricane, cracked suddenly forward.
The medicine cabinet was within ten feet of the steps upon which Higgins, Cub and Sally stood, and the man fell so that his head just brushed the railing. His hands automatically spread through the railing and caught Sterling’s knee.
The fall threw his hair forward and Matthew Higgins snapped:
“Who is he?”
Cub’s eyes began disentangling themselves from the glassy vileness92 of the dead man’s stare. Matthew Higgins reached down and savagely yanked at the stiffening93 hands around Cub’s knees.
Sterling, his own hands gripping the railing for support, endeavored vainly to make his reeling mind bring his tortured eyes into focus.
Matthew Higgins threw the dead man’s hand heavily back upon the floor; the body rolled half over.
Higgins rasped:
“Doctor who?”
312
Cub’s brain snapped. His eyes focused.
“God! Baldy! It’s Baldy!”
He lay upon the railing and carefully repeated in a dead monotone:
“Baldy Rath ... bone ... Baldy....”
“Who’s he?”
The sentence did not cut through and Higgins bellowed94 into Cub’s ear:
“Doctor Rathbone ... who’s he?”
It reached. Cub stood straight and clipped:
“Baldy Rathbone. Not doctor. Chief pharmacist of the Elijah Wilson. But why in God’s name! Baldy Rathbone!”
The incredulity returned. He looked again at the inert body with its eerie95 features.
Higgins nodded slowly....
The long hair had flopped96 so that the wide part again led to the shiny spot....
“The book!”
When the sentence finally reached Sally’s lips, it whipped both Sterling and Higgins into action. They ran across the room and the sun took their gray and brown heads and played upon them. Through the cob-webbed windows it shone with prismatic beauty onto the now expressionless face of the dead man.
A terrible desire to get away from that hideous97 beauty gave Sally the will to mount the remaining steps and run to the table and to Cub.
313
Through the single open window, the late spring breeze played gently. It brought a hush98 to the horror-stricken air and a single fly entered, flew directly to the dead man’s face and began walking upon his crooked lips, up his relaxed cheek and around his glassy eyes.
Matthew Higgins held, in his blunt hairy hand, a small stiff-backed notebook, such as the Elijah Wilson used for ward-addresses. The back was checkered99 and the pages ruled. It was open at a half-written page. The ink was still wet and the small, finely formed script stood out heavily.
Cub read over his shoulder:
“Cupola.... May 19th, 3:55 P. M. I have just failed to administer to the patient in Bed 11, Ward B, Medicine Clinic, a hypodermic of coniine. She opened her eyes suddenly and recognized me as ... Cub Sterling! Nothing could be more fortunate.
“Beforehand I presented to Bessie Ellis my usual token. I was followed by an orderly whom I suspect as a detective. I got away ... but at last ... at last ... my brother may be arrested.... It has worked, perfectly100!”
“My God! Lil!” Higgins said savagely as he dropped the book onto the plain deal table.
Nobody paid him any attention.
314
Cub Sterling said, “‘My brother?’”
And Sally Ferguson picked up the book and began reading aloud from the first page. Her voice was thin and pointed101 and she read:
“In 1883 there came to Heidelberg as a medical student a young American named Ethridge Sterling. He had studied at the Hotel Dieu and in New York. He lived at the Eagle Inn and attended lectures in surgery under Klotz.
“As a chambermaid at the Eagle Inn, there was a young Bavarian girl, Gretchen Seinrich. She was fair to gaze upon and full of country spirits.”
Cub Sterling had sat down, his head buried in his cupped hands. Matthew Higgins rested against a corner of the table. He was suddenly old. Lil Parkins ... for many years....
They both listened, vacant of expression, and at the same time horrified102 with interest, to Sally’s voice:
“From the spring of 1883 to the fall of 1884 young Sterling prevailed upon Gretchen Seinrich to live with him and she did so. I like to believe they were in love. I know she always was in love with him.
“In October 1884, Sterling was suddenly 315 called back to New York by the unexpected death of his father. He promised to write. He never did so. He promised to send his address. He did not do so.
“The last night he spent in Heidelberg he spent with her. While she was still asleep he arose and wrote the note containing all of the above promises, and before she woke he had packed and gone....
“And I was conceived....
“She returned to Bavaria and went to work as a seamstress. After my birth, my mother determined103 to come to America and find my father ... and so she went to work at a more profitable profession ... the oldest.”
The utter and terrible stillness of Cub Sterling was more frightful104 than any words would have been.
“Go on!” Matthew Higgins was relentless105 and Sally continued.
“It took three years to earn enough money to come to America and then it took years of blind wandering to reach this hospital and....
“When she reached it, her great love had grown, through endless pain and privation, to a great bitterness. She determined to reveal the Great Dr. Sterling and ruin him, and by mistake 316 when she asked to see him, she was taken, instead, to his father-in-law, Dr. Jemison, and it was through the door of Dr. Jemison’s office that she saw Ethridge Sterling standing106 with his arm around Dr. Jemison’s daughter.
“She had a heart attack. Dr. Jemison pronounced her dead, and she was carted back through the dispensary door and handed over to a German Society for burial. The president of the society was Otto Weber. He burned her papers and I, then nine, was put into an orphan107 asylum108.
“My father was already famous. He was Otto’s best customer. But what we learn in the first eight years of our lives ... if it is bitter ... we never forget....
“At the asylum we had candy at Christmas and mush for breakfast, and the Elijah Wilson operated upon us, free, when necessary. I remember quite vividly109 when I was operated upon. Double hernia, and endless pain, and a dispensary consultation110. Dr. Sterling was designated to do the operation.
“Upon the day slated111, his son was born and my case was turned over to an assistant resident. A man killed in the War....”
“Fegus,” Cub’s voice was low.
“The doctor had never done the operation before. 317 I was his first ... the incisions112 were too deep.
“I lost my mother before I really knew her and my manhood before it began....
“I lost both of them because my father was Dr. Ethridge Sterling, of the famous hands.
“At sixteen, when the boys in the orphanage113 discovered my inabilities, I determined to ruin my father ... and began studying pharmacy with an idea of becoming connected, eventually, with his hospital.
“The orphanage farmed me out to a pharmacist. Otto Weber had become a political influence. I went to him and worked upon his sentiment. It was he, and the excellency of my work ... and why not? I am the son of Dr. Sterling ... that persuaded the Attorney-General to recommend me to Dr. Barton and Dr. MacArthur as assistant pharmacist.
“I passed my state boards brilliantly. I entered the pharmacy of the Elijah Wilson, the same year that Cub Sterling entered medical school.
“He spent ten years studying the science of medicine. I spent those ten years perfecting myself in the science of murder. At first I intended murdering the patients of my father, slowly, occasionally, over a period of years. Then I perceived if I waited until Wilkins died, 318 became promoted as Chief Pharmacist and murdered my brother’s patients, I would doubly ruin my father....
“Then the gods smiled...! Through the losing of my top hair, I, unconsciously, grew a nickname. For five years now, I have catered114 to that nickname. I shaved my center part to accentuate115 my bald spot. I pomaded my long front hair, which naturally is curly as my brother’s, to slick behind my ears ... to change my forehead line.
“There is not a famous doctor around this hospital who would not testify as to my baldness....
“Around a hospital where so many people are constantly passing at stated intervals116 to stated places, the eyes of even a good observer become dulled into ‘seeing,’ when a person resembling a familiar doctor passes at an unexpected time, that doctor!
“It is upon that knowledge, a sudden assumption of my brother’s queer angularity, and the combing of my recently washed hair to cover my bald spot, that I have built my resemblance ... not upon the features....
“Some day I shall be caught. When I am caught my father will be caught also.”
“Is that all?” Higgins was still relentless....
319
Cub Sterling’s head jerked up from his folded arms and he said:
“God! It’s enough!”
Sally Ferguson’s voice out into him:
“There is a diary of the murders, too.”
Both men rose and came to her side. Their movement disturbed the fly and he began circling around the dead man’s head.
Sally’s voice drowned out his buzzing.
“Cupola, Friday, May 13th ... 1:00 A.M. I have just committed my first murder upon the patient in Bed 11, Ward B. I know I have just completed it, because I filled, myself, the prescription117 to which I added Datura stramonium. The medicine was to be administered at midnight. The dose should, with the heavy bromide I included, have acted in an hour. It is unexpected and therefore not likely to cause an autopsy118.
“The patient is one of my father’s and also under the care of my brother.
“And she is now dead.”
“Cupola, Sunday, May 15th ... 1:00 A.M. The murder of the second patient in Bed 11, Ward B, is now completed. I tripled the prescription dose of Digitalis. It was to be administered at 12 M.
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“She is a patient of my brother and observed by my father. Though autopsy is performed the condition of the organs will be such as not to suggest chemical analysis. Therefore I am protected.
“So far suspicion is not aroused, but patience is not a virtue119 in which I have been lacking. It takes time to make a reputation and time ... to ... my candle is almost gone....”
“Cupola, Tuesday, May 17th ... 1:15 A. M. I have just returned from Ward B where by the use of coniine administered with a hypodermic syringe, I have murdered the patient in Bed 11. My first traceable murder. Peters and Paton nearly caught me. If murdering ugly women is so much pleasure; a pretty woman.... Tonight I began an intriguing120 custom. I left upon the crib of Bessie Ellis a Ma-ma doll.
“Miss Kerr was on the ward at the time. She is stealing morphia again. So ... even should she have recognized me, she will deny all knowledge. Most fortunate!
“The staff meeting yesterday, at which my brother escaped all censure121, forces me into action. This autopsy will reveal murder and begin, I hope, the suspicion. My plan is working splendidly! But why not? Fifteen years’ patient study 321 are behind it. I am tired and it is late.... Seeing Peters and Paton was luck....”
“My eyes ... I can’t....” Sally wailed122.
Matthew Higgins took the book from her hands; the fading light was eerie. Cub Sterling put his arms around the girl and drew her into his lap. She began to shiver and Higgins read:
“Cupola, Wednesday, May 18th ... 1:30 A.M. The Gods are on my side. I have just murdered Rose Standish. She was a pretty woman, and my father had ordered a sleeping potion ... then he came by and asked me privately123 to make it bread pills. I did ... plus an African sleeping drug. Ah! the murder drugs are so fascinating and Heddis searched for the obvious potions, only.
“Ah, luck! Ah, irony124! Bear Sterling helping125 his illegitimate son to ruin his legitimate126 one.
“Rose Standish was asleep by midnight. The student nurse nearly caught me. It was exciting! She will testify against my brother.
“Yesterday I was called before the staff to check drugs after Heddis settled upon coniine. It is all so damnably easy. Of course no house sold the supply. I made it from the hemlock127 I gathered in the mountains of Pennsylvania when I was east on vacation. I had thought so 322 long about what to use. Something which we did not keep in the pharmacy. I used to think something untraceable ... and then when I met Heddis I saw he would discover....
“Then coniine came to me. Out of a volume of Plato I found in a pullman seat in the Broad Street Station coniine came to me. Coniine, such a word! Coniine!
“The suspicion is growing. My brother and my father are panicky.
“I put another doll upon Bessie’s crib. I passed no one in the corridor. Rose Standish was a pretty woman....”
“Crazy. Dead crazy!”
Higgins’ nerves were jumpy too.
“Anything else?” Cub’s voice had become relentless, now.
“Yes?”
“Cupola, Wednesday, May 18th, Noon. My father has pneumonia128 and will die without the knowledge of my brother’s ruination unless I act quickly.
“There must be a daylight murder within the next twenty-four hours. If there is no patient in Bed 11, then upon the patient in a corresponding bed upon another floor.
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“Before he dies, my brother must be under arrest....
“It will take careful planning to execute a daylight murder ... but years of careful planning prepare one....”
“God! It makes me sick to read it! Lil Parkins, the best woman....”
“A detective you put in the bed...?”
Higgins nodded flatly, and turned the pages. At the back of the book was written, upon the stiff cover:
Murder Chart:
May 13th, 1:00 A. M.—goitre—E.S. & E.S. Jr.—Datura stramonium
May 15th, 1:00 A. M.—heart—E.S. & E.S. Jr.—overdose Digitalis
May 17th, 1:15 A. M.—operative E.S. obs. S. Jr.—Coniine
May 18th, 1:30 A. M.—nurse—E.S. Jr. obs. E.S.—Coniine
May 19th, 3:40 P. M.—heart—House & E.S. Jr.—failed to murder but ruined E.S. Jr.
The sunset breeze wound in the window and loosened the bands of Higgins’ heated brain, and the hysterical tears of Sally Ferguson. She buried 324 her head in Cub’s shoulder and sobbed129 horribly.
Her sobs130 were long and rending131 and they forced Matthew Higgins into instant action. He struck a match, tore the pages from the front of the blank book and put them over the match.
The yellow-red flames ran up the crinkling paper as Cub Sterling’s legs began untangling themselves and he threw Sally aside.
“Aw, what’s the use?” Higgins’ gray eyes shot into Cub. “He’s dead and your father’s dying. The body and the murder chart’s all we need.”
The contact with Cub had revived Sally’s fight.
“How can we stop The Call?”
Higgins snapped around.
“Who owns it?”
Cub was half across the room toward Sally. He swerved132.
“Barton told me half an hour ago that the Attorney-General had just bought it.... Now I see....” His voice shattered.
Sally ran toward him. Higgins pushed a chair under his bending legs.
The fly rose from the dead man’s face and slipped with the curling smoke out of the open window toward the distant river.
The End
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收听单词发音
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1
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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2
butted
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| 对接的 | |
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3
concussions
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| n.震荡( concussion的名词复数 )；脑震荡；冲击；震动 | |
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4
reverberating
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的现在分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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5
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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6
bucks
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| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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7
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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8
slumped
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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9
cub
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| n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人 | |
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10
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
painstakingly
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| adv. 费力地 苦心地 | |
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12
jauntiness
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| n.心满意足；洋洋得意；高兴；活泼 | |
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13
iridescent
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| adj.彩虹色的，闪色的 | |
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14
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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15
irises
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| n.虹( iris的名词复数 )；虹膜；虹彩；鸢尾（花） | |
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16
silhouetted
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| 显出轮廓的，显示影像的 | |
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17
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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18
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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19
buffeted
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| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
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20
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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21
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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22
binoculars
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| n.双筒望远镜 | |
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23
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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24
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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25
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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26
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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27
thong
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| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
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28
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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29
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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30
buddy
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| n.（美口）密友，伙伴 | |
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31
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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32
rote
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| n.死记硬背，生搬硬套 | |
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33
thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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34
adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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35
almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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36
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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37
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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38
prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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39
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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40
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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41
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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42
raucous
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| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
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43
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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44
tacked
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| 用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝 | |
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45
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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46
portrayed
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| v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画 | |
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47
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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48
tacks
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| 大头钉( tack的名词复数 )； 平头钉； 航向； 方法 | |
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49
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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50
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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51
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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52
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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53
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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54
scrutinizing
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
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55
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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56
hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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57
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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58
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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59
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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60
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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61
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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62
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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63
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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64
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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65
whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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66
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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67
wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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68
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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69
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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70
systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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71
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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72
wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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73
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74
pharmacy
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| n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品 | |
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75
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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76
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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77
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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78
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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79
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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80
scrunching
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| v.发出喀嚓声( scrunch的现在分词 )；蜷缩；压；挤压 | |
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81
seeped
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| v.（液体）渗( seep的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出 | |
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82
narcotic
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| n.麻醉药，镇静剂；adj.麻醉的，催眠的 | |
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83
screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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84
bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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85
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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86
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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87
blistering
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| adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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88
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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89
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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90
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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91
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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92
vileness
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| n.讨厌，卑劣 | |
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93
stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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94
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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95
eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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flopped
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| v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅 | |
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97
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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checkered
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| adj.有方格图案的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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106
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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108
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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111
slated
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| 用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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incisions
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| n.切开，切口( incision的名词复数 ) | |
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113
orphanage
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| n.孤儿院 | |
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114
catered
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| 提供饮食及服务( cater的过去式和过去分词 )； 满足需要，适合 | |
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115
accentuate
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| v.着重，强调 | |
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116
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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117
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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118
autopsy
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| n.尸体解剖；尸检 | |
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119
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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120
intriguing
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| adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心 | |
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121
censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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122
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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126
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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127
hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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128
pneumonia
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| n.肺炎 | |
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129
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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130
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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131
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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