“Now, Gudge,” the old man began, “I want you to tell me all about it. To begin with, how did you come to be among these Reds? Begin at the beginning.”
So Peter told how he had happened to get interested in the radical1 movement, laying particular stress upon the dangerousness of these Reds, and his own loyalty2 to the class which stood for order and progress and culture in the country. “It ought to be stopped, Mr. Ackerman!” he exclaimed, with a fine show of feeling; and the old banker nodded. Yes, yes, it ought to be stopped!
“Well,” said Peter, “I said to myself, ‘I’m going to find out about them fellows.’ I went to their meetings, and little by little I pretended to get converted, and I tell you, Mr. Ackerman, our police are asleep; they don’t know what these agitators3 are doing, what they’re preaching. They don’t know what a hold they’ve got on the mobs of the discontented!”
Peter went on to tell in detail about the propaganda of social revolution, and about conspiracies4 against law and order, and the property and even the lives of the rich. Peter noticed that when the old man took a sip5 of water his hand trembled so that he could hardly keep the water from spilling; and presently, when the phone rang again, his voice became shrill6 and imperious. “I understand they’re applying for bail7 for those men. Now Angus, that’s an outrage8! We’ll not hear to anything like that! I want you to see the judge at once, and make absolutely certain that those men are held in jail.”
Then again the old banker had a coughing fit. “Now, Gudge,” he said, “I know more or less about all that. What I want to know is about this conspiracy9 against me. Tell me how you came to find out about it.”
And Peter told; but of course he embellished10 it, in so far as it related to Mr. Ackerman—these fellows were talking about Mr. Ackerman all the time, they had a special grudge11 against him.
“But why?” cried the old man. “Why?”
“They think you’re fighting them, Mr. Ackerman.”
“But I’m not! That’s not true!”
“Well, they say you put up money to hang Goober. They call you—you’ll excuse me?”
“Yes, yes, of course.”
“They call you the ‘head money devil.’ They call you the financial king of American City.”
“King!” cried the banker. “What rubbish! Why, Gudge, that’s fool newspaper talk! I’m a poor man today. There are two dozen men in this city richer than I am, and who have more power. Why—” But the old man fell to coughing and became so exhausted12 that he sank back into his pillows until he recovered his breath. Peter waited respectfully; but of course he wasn’t fooled. Peter had carried on bargaining many times in his life, and had heard people proclaim their poverty and impotence.
“Now, Gudge,” the old man resumed. “I don’t want to be killed; I tell you I don’t want to be killed.”
“No, of course not,” said Peter. It was perfectly13 comprehensible to him that Mr. Ackerman didn’t want to be killed. But Mr. Ackerman seemed to think it necessary to impress the idea upon him; in the course of the conversation he came back to it a number of times, and each time he said it with the same solemn assurance, as if it were a brand new idea, and a very unusual and startling idea. “I don’t want to be killed, Gudge; I tell you I don’t want to let those fellows get me. No, no; we’ve got to circumvent14 them, we’ve got to take precautions—every precaution—I tell you every possible precaution.”
“I’m here for that purpose, Mr. Ackerman,” said Peter, solemnly. “I’ll do everything. We’ll do everything, I’m sure.”
“What’s this about the police?” demanded the banker. “What’s this about Guffey’s bureau? You say they’re not competent?”
“Well now, I’ll tell you, Mr. Ackerman,” said Peter, “It’s a little embarrassing. You see, they employ me—”
“Nonsense!” exclaimed the other. “I employ you! I’m putting up the money for this work, and I want the facts!—I want them all.”
“Well,” said Peter, “they’ve been very decent to me—”
“I say tell me everything!” exclaimed the old man. He was a most irritable15 old man, and couldn’t stand for a minute not having what he asked for. “What’s the matter with them?”
Peter answered, as humbly16 as he could: “I could tell you a great deal that’d be of use to you, Mr. Ackerman, but you got to keep it between you and me.”
“All right!” said the other, quickly. “What is it?”
“If you give a hint of it to anybody else,” persisted Peter, “then I’ll get fired.”
“You’ll not get fired, I’ll see to that. If necessary I’ll hire you direct.”
“Ah, but you don’t understand, Mr. Ackerman. It’s a machine, and you can’t run against it; you gotta understand it, you gotta handle it right. I’d like to help you, and I know I can help you, but you gotta let me explain it, and you gotta understand some things.”
“All right,” said the old man. “Go ahead, what is it?”
“Now,” said Peter, “it’s like this. These police and all these fellows mean well, but they don’t understand; it’s too complicated, they ain’t been in this movement long enough. They’re used to dealing17 with criminals; but these Reds, you see, are cranks. Criminals ain’t organized, at least they don’t stand together; but these Reds do, and if you fight ‘em, they fight back, and they make what they call ‘propaganda.’ And that propaganda is dangerous—if you make a wrong move, you may find you’ve made ‘em stronger than they were before.”
“Yes, I see that,” said the old man. “Well?”
“Then again, the police dunno how dangerous they are. You try to tell them things, they won’t really believe you. I’ve known for a long time there was a group of these people getting together to kill off all the rich men, the big men all over the country. They’ve been spying on these rich men, getting ready to kill them. They know a lot about them that you can’t explain their knowing. That’s how I got the idea they had somebody in your house, Mr. Ackerman.”
“Tell me what you mean. Tell me at once.”
“Mac?”
“That’s McCormick, the one who’s in jail. He’s an I. W. W. leader, and I think the most dangerous of all. I heard him whispering to another fellow, and it scared me, because it had to do with killing19 a rich man. He’d been watching this rich man, and said he was going to shoot him down right in his own house! I didn’t hear the name of the man—I walked away, because I didn’t want him to think I was trying to listen in. They’re awful suspicious, these fellows; if you watch Mac you see him looking around over his shoulder every minute or two. So I strolled off, and then I strolled back again, and he was laughing about something, and I heard him say these words; I heard him say, ‘I was hiding behind the curtain, and there was a Spanish fellow painted on the wall, and every time I peeked20 out that bugger was looking at me, and I wondered if he wasn’t going to give me away.’”
And Peter stopped. His eyes had got used to the twilight21 now, and he could see the old banker’s eyes starting out from the crescents of dark, puffy flesh underneath22. “My God!” whispered Nelse Ackerman.
“Now, that was all I heard,” said Peter. “And I didn’t know what it meant. But when I learned about that drawing that Mac had made of your house, I thought to myself, Jesus, I bet that was Mr. Ackerman he was waiting to shoot!”
“Good God! Good God!” whispered the old man; and his trembling fingers pulled at the embroidery23 on the coverlet. The telephone rang, and he took up the receiver, and told somebody he was too busy now to talk; they would have to call him later. He had another coughing spell, so that Peter thought he was going to choke, and had to help him get some medicine down his throat. Peter was a little bit shocked to see such obvious and abject24 fear in one of the gods. After all, they were just men, these Olympians, as much subject to pain and death as Peter Gudge himself!
Also Peter was surprised to find how “easy” Mr. Ackerman was. He made no lofty pretence25 of being indifferent to the Reds. He put himself at Peter’s mercy, to be milked at Peter’s convenience. And Peter would make the most of this opportunity.
“Now, Mr. Ackerman,” he began, “You can see it wouldn’t be any use to tell things like that to the police. They dunno how to handle such a situation; the honest truth is, they don’t take these Reds serious. They’ll spend ten times as much money to catch a plain burglar as they will to watch a whole gang like this.”
“How can they have got into my home?” cried the old man.
“They get in by ways you’d never dream of, Mr. Ackerman. They have people who agree with them. Why, you got no idea, there’s some preachers that are Reds, and some college teachers, and some rich men like yourself.”
“I know, I know,” said Ackerman. “But surely—”
So Peter went on, spreading the Red Terror in the soul of this old millionaire who did not want to be killed. He said again that he did not want to be killed, and explained his reluctance27 in some detail. So many people were dependent upon him for their livings, Peter could have no conception of it! There were probably a hundred thousand men with their families right here in American City, whose jobs depended upon plans which Ackerman was carrying, and which nobody but Ackerman could possibly carry. Widows and orphans28 looked to him for protection of their funds; a vast net-work of responsibilities required his daily, even his hourly decisions. And sure enough, the telephone rang, and Peter heard Nelse Ackerman declare that the Amalgamated29 Securities Company would have to put off a decision about its dividends30 until tomorrow, because he was too busy to sign certain papers just then. He hung up the receiver and said: “You see, you see! I tell you, Gudge, we must not let them get me!”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
radical
|
|
| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
agitators
|
|
| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
conspiracies
|
|
| n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
sip
|
|
| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
shrill
|
|
| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
bail
|
|
| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
outrage
|
|
| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
conspiracy
|
|
| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
embellished
|
|
| v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 )；装饰；修饰；润色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
grudge
|
|
| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
circumvent
|
|
| vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
irritable
|
|
| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
humbly
|
|
| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
dealing
|
|
| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
scraps
|
|
| 油渣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
peeked
|
|
| v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
underneath
|
|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
embroidery
|
|
| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
abject
|
|
| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
pretence
|
|
| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
traitor
|
|
| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
reluctance
|
|
| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
orphans
|
|
| 孤儿( orphan的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
amalgamated
|
|
| v.（使）（金属）汞齐化( amalgamate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）合并；联合；结合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
dividends
|
|
| 红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |