Section 47

 It was all up with Peter. He would go back into the hole! He would be tortured for the balance of his days! In his ears rang the shrieks¹ of ten thousand lost souls and the clang of ten thousand trumpets² of doom³; and yet, in the midst of all the noise and confusion, Peter managed somehow to hear the voice of Nell, whispering over and over again: “Stick it out, Peter; stick it out!”

He flung out his hands and started toward his accuser. “Mr. Guffey, as God is my witness, I don’t know a thing about it but what I’ve told you. That’s what happened, and if Joe Angell tells you anything different he’s lying.”

“But why should he lie?”

“I don’t know why; I don’t know anything about it!”

Here was where Peter reaped the advantage of his lifelong training as an intriguer⁴. In the midst of all his fright and his despair, Peter’s subconscious⁵ mind was working, thinking of schemes. “Maybe Angell was framing something up on you! Maybe he was fixing some plan of his own, and I come along and spoiled it; I sprung it too soon. But I tell you it’s straight goods I’ve given you.” And Peter’s very anguish⁶ gave him the vehemence⁷ to check Guffey’s certainty. As he rushed on, Peter could read in the eyes of the detective that he wasn’t really as sure as he talked.

“Did you see that suit-case?” he demanded.

“No, I didn’t see no suit-case!” answered Peter. “I don’t even know if there was a suit-case. I only know I heard Joe Angell say ‘suit-case,’ and I heard him say ‘dynamite⁸.’”

“Did you see anybody writing anything in the place?”

“No, I didn’t,” said Peter. “But I seen Henderson sitting at the table working at some papers he had in his pocket, and I seen him tear something up and throw it into the trash-basket.” Peter saw the others look at one another, and he knew that he was beginning to make headway.

A moment later came a diversion that helped to save him. The telephone rang, and the Chief of Police answered and nodded to Guffey, who came and took the receiver. “A book?” he cried, with excitement in his tone. “What sort of a plan? Well, tell one of your men to take the car and bring that book and the plan here to the chief’s office as quick as he can move; don’t lose a moment, everything may depend on it.”

And then Guffey turned to the others. “He says they found a book on sabotage⁹ in the book-case, and in it there’s some kind of a drawing of a house. The book has McCormick’s name in it.”

There were many exclamations¹⁰ over this, and Peter had time to think before the company turned upon him again. The Chief of Police now questioned him, and then the deputy of the district attorney questioned him; still he stuck to his story. “My God!” he cried. “Would you think I’d be mad enough to frame up a job like this? Where’d I get all that stuff? Where’d I get that dynamite?”—Peter almost bit off his tongue as he realized the dreadful slip he had made. No one had ever told him that the suit-case actually contained dynamite! How had he known there was dynamite in it? He was desperately¹¹ trying to think of some way he could have heard; but, as it happened, no one of the five men caught him up. They all knew that there was dynamite in the suit-case; they knew it with overwhelming and tremendous certainty, and they overlooked entirely¹² the fact that Peter wasn’t supposed to know it. So close to the edge of ruin can a man come and yet escape!

Peter made haste to get away from that danger-spot. “Does Joe Angell deny that he was whispering to Jerry Rudd?”

“He doesn’t remember that,” said Guffey. “He may have talked with him apart, but nothing special, there wasn’t any conspiracy¹³.”

“Does he deny that he talked about dynamite?”

“They may have talked about it in the general discussion, but he didn’t whisper anything.”

“But I heard him!” cried Peter, whose quick wits had thought up a way of escape, “I know what I heard! It was just before they were leaving, and somebody had turned out some of the lights. He was standing¹⁴ with his back to me, and I went over to the book-case right behind him.”

Here the deputy district attorney put in. He was a young man, a trifle easier to fool than the others. “Are you sure it was Joe Angell?” he demanded.

“My God! Of course it was!” said Peter. “I couldn’t have been mistaken.” But he let his voice die away, and a note of bewilderment be heard in it.

“You say he was whispering?”

“Yes, he was whispering.”

“But mightn’t it have been somebody else?”

“Why, I don’t know what to say,” said Peter. “I thought for sure it was Joe Angell; but I had my back turned, I’d been talking to Grady, the secretary, and then I turned around and moved over to the book-case.”

“How many men were there in the room?”

“About twenty, I guess.”

“Were the lights turned off before you turned around, or after?”

“I don’t remember that; it might have been after.” And suddenly poor bewildered Peter cried: “It makes me feel like a fool. Of course I ought to have talked to the fellow, and made sure it was Joe Angell before I turned away again; but I thought sure it was him. The idea it could be anybody else never crossed my mind.”

“But you’re sure it was Jerry Rudd that was talking to him?”

“Yes, it was Jerry Rudd, because his face was toward me.”

“Was it Rudd or was it the other fellow that made the reply about the ‘sab-cat’?” And then Peter was bewildered and tied himself up, and led them into a long process of cross-questioning; and in the middle of it came the detective, bringing the book on sabotage with McCormick’s name written in the fly-leaf, and with the ground plan of a house between the pages.

They all crowded around to look at the plan, and the idea occurred to several of them at once: Could it be Nelse Ackerman’s house? The Chief of Police turned to his phone, and called up the great banker’s secretary. Would he please describe Mr. Ackerman’s house; and the chief listened to the description. “There’s a cross mark on this plan—the north side of the house, a little to the west of the center. What could that be?” Then, “My God!” And then, “Will you come down here to my office right away and bring the architect’s plan of the house so we can compare them?” The Chief turned to the others, and said, “That cross mark in the house is the sleeping porch on the second floor where Mr. Ackerman sleeps!”

So then they forgot for a while their doubts about Peter. It was fascinating, this work of tracing out the details of the conspiracy, and fitting them together like a picture puzzle. It seemed quite certain to all of them that this insignificant¹⁵ and scared little man whom they had been examining could never have prepared so ingenious and intricate a design. No, it must really be that some master mind, some devilish intriguer was at work to spread red ruin in American City!

1 shrieks   

n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• shrieks of fiendish laughter 恶魔般的尖笑声
• For years, from newspapers, broadcasts, the stages and at meetings, we had heard nothing but grandiloquent rhetoric delivered with shouts and shrieks that deafened the ears. 多少年来， 报纸上， 广播里， 舞台上， 会场上的声嘶力竭，装腔做态的高调搞得我们震耳欲聋。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 trumpets   

喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花

参考例句：

• A wreath was laid on the monument to a fanfare of trumpets. 在响亮的号角声中花圈被献在纪念碑前。
• A fanfare of trumpets heralded the arrival of the King. 嘹亮的小号声宣告了国王驾到。

3 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

4 intriguer   

密谋者

参考例句：

5 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

6 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。

7 vehemence   

n.热切；激烈；愤怒

参考例句：

• The attack increased in vehemence.进攻越来越猛烈。
• She was astonished at his vehemence.她对他的激昂感到惊讶。

8 dynamite   

n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)

参考例句：

• The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
• The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。

9 sabotage   

n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏

参考例句：

• They tried to sabotage my birthday party.他们企图破坏我的生日晚会。
• The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.那家工厂的火灾是有人蓄意破坏引起的。

10 exclamations   

n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词

参考例句：

• The visitors broke into exclamations of wonder when they saw the magnificent Great Wall. 看到雄伟的长城，游客们惊叹不已。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After the will has been read out, angry exclamations aroused. 遗嘱宣读完之后，激起一片愤怒的喊声。 来自辞典例句

11 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

12 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

13 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 insignificant   

adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的

参考例句：

• In winter the effect was found to be insignificant.在冬季，这种作用是不明显的。
• This problem was insignificant compared to others she faced.这一问题与她面临的其他问题比较起来算不得什么。