But there were matters even more urgent to be disposed of, for her sake too, before he could set himself right with her. He pulled himself together, with a great effort.
It was clear that he must not permit Captain Dove and his two confederates to decamp. He had heard enough already to justify2 him in taking the law into his own hands for the nonce and detaining them there. It was equally clear that he must not delay for a moment in finding out as much more as he might from Farish M'Kissock, who looked as if he could scarcely live for another hour.
He whispered to Herries to take such steps as would ensure that no one whosoever should be allowed to leave the castle, and to shut the three accomplices3 up together in the North Keep if that could be done quietly, without any scandal. Then, having got rid of Captain Dove and the other two, he was left in the banquet-hall with only the Marquis of Ingoldsby, in a state of apparent coma4, old Janet M'Kissock, grief-stricken to the very verge5 of endurance, and her unfortunate brother, still standing6 motionless, with bent7 head and hands clasped, staring down at the dead man—so near in semblance8 and yet so far beyond reach of his animosity.
The grey-haired housekeeper9 was pleading with Farish M'Kissock to come away, but he resisted all her attempts to get him to leave that spot.
"Let me bide10 where I am," he answered her querulously. "In a very little, Janet, I'll be away off after his foolish lordship there, that thinks he has slipped through my feckless fingers again—as he did once before. But I'll soon be on his track again, for they'll have to streek me on the same stretching-board that serves him. Let me bide beside him till then."
Carthew looked anxiously across at the Marquis of Ingoldsby. There was nobody who might better serve as a witness to whatever M'Kissock might still be induced to tell concerning that nightmare past in which the poor corpse11 on the floor and the girl who had gone away weeping and he himself had all been involved.
"There's somethin' doosid fishy12 about all these goin's-on," Lord Ingoldsby commented with a good deal more candour than tact13, when Carthew made that suggestion to him. "And I'm for Lady Josceline, right through from start to finish. I don't believe a word of that goat-bearded fellow's yarn14. He's been and caught sunstroke somewhere—that's what's the matter with him, eh? He's mad as a hatter.
"But, all the same, I'm willin' to listen to anything more he has to say—and take a mental note of it, so to speak. I want to know who's who and what's what myself."
Carthew turned to Farish M'Kissock then, and the latter looked him over with a frown as of dim remembrance which gradually changed to a scowl15 of hate.
"And so," said the ex-Emir in a rancorous voice, "you have come to your own at last amid it all. Is there no end to your ill race? My men told me that you were safely buried and dead—they showed me the mound16 that they said covered you. How—"
"Come away from here," said Carthew steadily17, "and I'll tell you how I escaped." And Farish M'Kissock, leaning heavily on his sister's shoulder, at last allowed her to lead him to her own room.
Carthew told him then, in few words, while Lord Ingoldsby, listening gloomily, scowled18 over it, the story of Sallie's daring and his own escape from death, on the African coast.
The ex-Emir's heavy eyes lighted up a little.
"Ay," said Farish M'Kissock, musingly19. "And so it was—her—that helped you past your dug grave! I knew her for a mettlesome20 filly the first time I ever clapped eyes on her. And now—to think that but for you and me she'd be cosily21 settled, knowing nothing, in this old nest—that should by rights have been my wife's and mine! It's a damned upside-down world this, my fine doctor! But—you'll make it up to her, maybe, in another way?"
He was gazing at Carthew with something of his old imperious, indomitable spirit. "You owe—her—your very coronet, my new Lord Jura," said he.
"I'll pay all I owe," said Carthew, to humour him, "if she'll take any payment from me." And at that the Marquis of Ingoldsby scowled still more blackly.
The ex-Emir made a gruesome effort to laugh sardonically22.
"She'll take it," said he, "if you're man enough, if you're man enough to master her," said he and sank back on his couch.
"And now—about Captain Dove," Carthew suggested as he brought paper and ink to the table from the desk in one corner. And the dying man sat up again as if spurred to a final effort.
He looked round at his stricken sister. "Leave us for a little, Janet, woman," said he in a more kindly23 tone. "There is that to be told now which you would like ill to hear, and his lordship will call you back when I'm through with it."
Carthew nodded hastily to the old housekeeper. "We'll be as quick as we can," he promised: "and you can stay within call."
She went, however unwillingly24, and then her brother began the story of all his dealings with Captain Dove, speaking slowly, in a low voice, husbanding his strength, while Carthew wrote down every word of it.
In his eagerness to ensure the downfall of his surviving enemy, he had no hesitation25 in incriminating himself. Lord Ingoldsby listened as if stricken dumb and Carthew had hard work to contain himself as he heard, among other infamies26, of the bargain the ex-Emir had driven with Captain Dove over Sallie. He would have thrown down his pen during M'Kissock's laboured, self-compassionate account of how Captain Dove had outwitted him, had not the man on the couch at the other side of the table been almost across death's threshold already. M'Kissock's rabid thirst for revenge, his obvious impenitence27 for all his own crimes and misdeeds, excited repugnance28 in place of the pity his plight29 might otherwise have inspired. Carthew was devoutly30 thankful when that most distasteful task was at length completed, and Farish M'Kissock's feeble, straggling signature attached to the document he had drawn31 up. Lord Ingoldsby and he both added their names as witnesses, and then he called the housekeeper in again. Her brother, having thus accomplished32 his final object in life, was evidently sinking fast.
In the corridor outside, Lord Ingoldsby called a halt as Carthew would have turned to leave him with a few hurried words of thanks for the jealous service he had just rendered.
"Half a mo'," interposed his lordship, very morosely33. "We might just as well come to an understandin' now as later on. I want to tell you that, whoever Lady Josceline is or is not, I've asked her to marry me—and, if you're goin' to see her now—I don't know what your ideas are, but—we might just as well start fair."
Carthew contemplated34 him for a moment in surprised silence, and then nodded curtly35. He was going to see Sallie at once, if he could, as his rival had divined.
"All right," he assented36. "Come on."
He looked into the banquet-hall in passing. Herries was there, with the butler and all his assistants. The dinner-table had been cleared and draped with a great black mort-cloth. And on it lay, recumbent, with clasped hands, in the clear, mellow37 light of the tall, white tapers38 at its head and feet, the unheeding shape of Carthew's predecessor39 in the earldom of Jura, still dressed in its disreputable, greasy40 blue uniform and burst boots, with a red smudge, as of iron-rust, on its forehead.
The fires had both been raked out and their hearth-stones strewn with the ashes, not to be rekindled41 before that night on which the dead earl should be carried away by the water-gate from his catafalque to the great black burial-barge, with the pipes wailing42 a wild lament43 for the mountains to echo, and the waves or the still sea-surface, as might befall, crimson44 under the twinkling torches of those who would follow, with muffled45 oars46.
Herries came forward to speak to Carthew. "I'm seeing to everything here now, my lord, and we'll soon have all as it should be," said he. "Captain Dove and his friends are fast, in the North Keep. And your other orders have all been observed."
"I'll see you again in a little, then," Carthew returned, and went on his way, by no means inspirited.
It was the Duchess of Dawn, her blue eyes still blurred47 and showing traces of tears, who came to the door of the boudoir in Sallie's suite48 in the distant West Wing, in response to Carthew's knock.
"Have you not brought her back with you?" she asked, and looked surprisedly past him at Lord Ingoldsby.
"Where is she?" Carthew asked, in sudden alarm. "I haven't seen her."
"She went along to the gun-room a little ago—a note came to say she was wanted there. And—I supposed it would be from you."
"I'll find her there, then," declared Carthew, and turned and retraced49 his steps very hurriedly. An instant dread50 of some unforeseen mischance among his over-rapid plans for her welfare had filled his mind; and his face grew dark as he hobbled back along that endless corridor and across the deserted51 main hall again, with Lord Ingoldsby at his elbow.
Of the sleepy servants they passed by the way he asked no questions, for only the butler and his immediate52 underlings knew anything as yet of what had happened. It had been Carthew's own idea to prevent any garbled53 report being spread about till he should have devised some means to save Sallie from pain and scandal.
He found the gun-room empty, and stared about it in dire54 distress55. Then he sniffed56 the air, frowning. And then he noticed a half-smoked cigarette smouldering in the fireplace. He picked it up hastily and saw Jasper Slyne's monogram57 upon it.
"Must have been a long time burning," he thought, and a concrete suspicion flashed through his mind. But that seemed so far-fetched at first that he shook his head impatiently over it.
"They could scarcely escape from the North Keep," said he to himself. "But—I may as well make sure that everything's safe here while I'm about it," he muttered, and limped across to the panel that covered the passage to the water-gate.
It was unlocked.
He pulled it open and looked down into the darkness, listening intently. Then he swung round and, snatching up the lighted lamp on the table beside the fire, made off down the steps, leaving Lord Ingoldsby in the dark.
But his gaping58 lordship was not to be left behind. He followed hot-foot, uttering foolish oaths as he barked an elbow on the rock wall.
Carthew stopped suddenly. He could hear voices not very far ahead and the movement of some heavy weight. The tunnel curved a little there, and he knew he must be near the bridge that crosses the oubliette. He went on again, very cautiously, keeping close to one wall and shading the lamp as well as he could, till he came to a point where further precaution was idle. For, fifty yards away, straight ahead, he could see Slyne holding a candle beside Captain Dove, who was stooping over the roughly carpentered tree-trunk which still stretched from lip to lip of the intervening chasm59. Its former neighbour had disappeared.
Captain Dove looked up and caught sight of Carthew in his turn. He had got his hands under the heavy trunk, and staggered sideways, straddling it, till its butt-end was close to the brink60. Carthew had all but reached the opposite edge of the pit between them when he let it go with a breathless grunt61 and it fell almost soundlessly into the void below.
Slyne blew out his candle then, with a bitter, mocking laugh, but not before Carthew had observed Mr. Jobling and Ambrizette in the background, with a drooping62 figure between them.
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收听单词发音
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1
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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coma
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| n.昏迷，昏迷状态 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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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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7
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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8
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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10
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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15
scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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16
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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17
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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18
scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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20
mettlesome
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| adj.（通常指马等）精力充沛的，勇猛的 | |
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21
cosily
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| adv.舒适地，惬意地 | |
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22
sardonically
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| adv.讽刺地，冷嘲地 | |
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23
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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24
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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26
infamies
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| n.声名狼藉( infamy的名词复数 )；臭名；丑恶；恶行 | |
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27
impenitence
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| n.不知悔改，顽固 | |
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repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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29
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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30
devoutly
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| adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地 | |
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31
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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32
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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33
morosely
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| adv.愁眉苦脸地，忧郁地 | |
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34
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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35
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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36
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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38
tapers
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| （长形物体的）逐渐变窄( taper的名词复数 )； 微弱的光； 极细的蜡烛 | |
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39
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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40
greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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41
rekindled
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| v.使再燃( rekindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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43
lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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44
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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45
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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46
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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48
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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49
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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50
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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51
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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52
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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53
garbled
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| adj.（指信息）混乱的，引起误解的v.对（事实）歪曲，对（文章等）断章取义，窜改( garble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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55
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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56
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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57
monogram
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| n.字母组合 | |
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58
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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59
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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60
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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61
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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62
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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