"Herrgott!" cried Grundt, "it's as dark as pitch in this hole. Cut away this cursed plant, some of you, and let's have some light!"
The creeper fell away. The golden sunlight that flooded the cave showed me Clubfoot, his black-tufted hands folded across the crutch1 handle of his heavy stick, grim and lowering.
Black Pablo and a regular Hercules of a man, a broad-chested, yellow-bearded giant, a good type of the German bluejacket from the Frisian seaboard, were holding me. Grundt made a quick gesture of the hand.
"Take away his gun!" he ordered.
The fair young man I had seen at the graveside stepped forward. Roughly, vindictively2, he ran his hands over me. He found Carstairs' automatic in my side pocket and transferred it to his own.
"You see these men," said Clubfoot, bending his bushy eyebrows3 at me. "Their orders are to shoot to kill in the event of any attempt on your part to escape. And whatever your private views on suicide may be you will probably bear in mind that Miss Garth—the charming Miss Garth—will, in any case, be left to mourn you...."
This allusion4 to Marjorie frightened me. There was no suavity5 about Clubfoot now. He was in his blackest, most menacing mood. His face was positively6 baleful; and there was a twitching7 of his black-bristled nostrils8 which warned me that he was on the verge9 of a paroxysm of fury.
"Leave me alone with him!" he commanded brusquely—his voice was harsh and snarling—"but remain outside within call!"
Nervously11 Grundt's great fist beat a little tattoo12 on his open palm. He appeared to be making an effort to control himself.
"You would play a double game with me, would you?" he said. "No man has ever double-crossed me and got away with it, do you hear? My master may be in exile, my country fallen from greatness; but I am king here. Do you understand that?"
His pale lips trembled and he stuttered as he strove to master his rising passion.
"This cipher13 message is useless, as well you know. Without the preliminary indication, it is unintelligible14. So Itzig, who in his day was the greatest cipher expert the Russian Okhrana ever had, has reported to me. And you knew it, you.... you...."
He pawed the air with his huge hand, the fingers outstretched.
"They have examined his grave again. There are signs that something was attached to the timber-work. What that was the drunken Englishman who first visited the grave must have known. And he confided15 it to you. 'I know when I'm beaten, Herr Doktor'; and 'I'll give you the cipher,' say you! You thought you were too clever for old Clubfoot, the cripple, the beaten Hun. But I'm master here, Herr Major, and you shall do my bidding!...."
"You are misinformed, Herr Doktor!" I said, trying to speak calmly. My lips were dry and my heart-beats thumped16 in my ears. But I was not thinking of myself. I was tormented17 with anxiety for Marjorie—Marjorie in the hands of those men.
"Don't answer hastily!" counselled Grundt changing to a tone of deadly calm that struck chill on my heart. "Ulrich von Hagel, who wrote that message, left it for one who should come after him, who would be a naval18 officer like himself. He wrote it so that it should be unintelligible to the casual person into whose hands it might fall, yet as clear as day to one of his own caste. And you would tell me that the message as it stands is all he left behind! Nein, nein, Herr Major, es geht nicht! I know that you have this information"—he crashed his fist into his open hand—"and you are going to give it to me!"
I shrugged19 my shoulders. I would not speak yet. Sooner or later, I knew, they would use Marjorie to break my silence. Then it would be time to speak. Till then I must await developments. After all, time was on my side.
My gesture seemed to rekindle20 all Grundt's rage. Slowly the colour faded out of his face, leaving it livid save where that hideous21 scar beneath the cheek-bone made an angry patch of red. His bushy eyebrows drew together and his mouth trembled.
"So you'd still play with me, would you, you scum?" he shouted, his voice rising to a roar. "You'd pit your wits against mine, would you? Herrgott, I have an account to settle with you and that brother of yours, and, by God! I'm going to settle it! And you shall pay double for the pair of you! Do you know...."—his voice dropped to a savage22 whisper—"that these German seamen23 of mine would cheerfully abandon all claim to the treasure for the pleasure of taking vengeance24 on you for all your country has made them suffer in these long years, hunted, degraded, outcast?
"Do you realise that I have but to raise my hand and you're a doomed25 man, and not the whole might of the British Empire could save you? But we shall take our time. You will not die too soon, my friend. First you shall speak! And if you remain obstinate26, there is always the charming English girl...."
He clapped his hands. On a sudden the cave seemed filled with angry, shouting men. My head swam for I was worn out with want of sleep and faint with hunger. Something struck me on the back of the neck a violent blow. I felt myself falling, falling....
*****
How long I remained unconscious I don't know. When I regained27 my senses it was to find myself in semi-darkness in a long, low-roofed shed. It was dimly lit by a ruddy light which fell through some kind of grating in the roof. I could see no windows. The atmosphere was stifling28 and the floor and walls fairly swarmed29 with enormous cockroaches30.
They had laid me down on a pile of sail-cloth in a corner. My head was splitting and I had a raging thirst. My pockets had been rifled and my brandy-flask was gone. I leaned back on my hard couch, my head against the rough wall of planks31, and idly watched the flickering33 reddish light that filtered through the grating. I was vaguely34 aware of some unpleasant news that lurked35, like a robber in ambush36, in some unfrequented corner of my brain ready to pounce37 out upon my first conscious thought....
Somewhere outside a guitar was thrumming random38 passages of Spanish dances, punctuated39, now and then, by a little burst of castanets. The soft murmur40 of voices became audible every time the guitar stopped, with here a laugh and there an exclamation41. Presently a voice called "Pablo!": the lilting rhythm of a dance theme stopped—suddenly in the middle of a bar—and the click of the castanets was stilled. Then, to soft, plaintive42 chords heavily stressed, an exquisite43 liquid tenor44 voice began to sing.
"Se murio, y sobre su cara"
"Un panuelito le heche...."
"Por que no toque la tierra...."
"Esa bocca que yo bese!...."
The chords broke off abruptly45 on a single string that sung reverberatingly. There was laughter, applause, the confusion of men speaking together. Then a voice said distinctly in German:
"He hadn't come round when I looked in ten minutes ago. Karl knows how to send them to sleep with that blow of his...."
"He'll come out of dreamland quick enough when der Stelze gives Black Pablo the word!" another voice replied.
"O Pablo," cried one in Spanish, "O Pablo! You shall try your little persuasions46 on the Se?or!"
"Si, si," came from many throats.
"Madre de Dios," answered a voice in guttural Spanish. "He shall speak for me, muchachos! And if he will not speak, then, caramba! maybe he'll sing for us and for the lovely Se?orita as well!"
Then followed a roar of acclamation. Then Black Pablo said:
"Patience a little while, amigos, until the chief comes. I go to make ready the fire!...."
I sprang to my feet. I heard no more of the talk outside, the cries, the laughter, the chaff47. The time had come for action. I must decide at once between complete capitulation to Grundt or one last bid for liberty.
But what guarantees had I that Grundt, with the heliograph in his possession, would respect any promise he might give me as the price of surrender? None. I could not trust him and, as he had told me, he had an old score to pay off. And if anything should happen to me before the yacht returned what would become of Marjorie? Free I might help her; therefore any risk was justifiable48 to secure my escape.
Escape? But how?
The shed was solidly built of heavy logs, the door the only visible means of egress49. The grating which admitted the air was a steel-bound frame too narrow, as I could see at a glance, to admit the passage of my body. I scrutinised the floor. It was of planking, well-made and seemingly in good condition. It struck hollow to the foot and I surmised50 that, as is generally the case with sheds of this kind, the structure was laid on a concrete foundation.
In the course of my examination of the boarding I moved the pile of sail-cloth. Beneath it was a plank32 in which an iron ring was sunk. The sheer unexpectedness of my discovery, the prospect51 of escape it opened to me, left me with brain numbed, irresolute52. The talk and laughter had died down outside, but, from time to time, my ear caught a measured foot-tread as though a guard were walking up and down before the shed....
The plank came up easily enough. My heart sank within me. It revealed merely a shallow trough about three feet deep going down to the foundations of the shed which, as I had guessed, were set in concrete.
I got down into the hole and crawled in under the floor. It was pitch-dark and abominably53 hot down there under the boards with a strong smell of rats. Face downwards54, my head frequently scraping the planks above me, I crawled along the concrete bed, hoping against hope that I might find some hole, where the outer wall of the shed rested on the concrete base, which would enable me to scramble55 through to freedom.
But I was doomed to disappointment. Here and there I found a cranny wide enough for the flat of my hand to pass. But nowhere was there an opening large enough to take anything bigger than a cat. I could only conclude that the trap I had found was made for the purpose of allowing repairs to be effected to the lower woodwork of the shed.
Half-suffocated with the heat and almost blinded with dust, I was painfully crawling back to my trap when my head hit a plank along the wall with more than usual violence. The beam, seemingly rotten underneath56, eaten perhaps by ants, splintered like touch-wood and my head came up through the floor. I found myself looking into the shed.
Then germinated57 in my mind the seed of a great idea. The next best thing to escaping is to give the appearance of having escaped, a theory which many of our war prisoners in Germany turned to good account. If my captors were not acquainted with the construction of the shed, if, as I calculated, they would, from the discovery of a large hole in the floor, jump to the conclusion, without further investigation58, that I had burrowed59 my way out under the floor, the guard over the shed would be relaxed and I should, at any rate, have a little breathing-space in which to think out the next move. There were a lot of "ifs" about my plan. But it was the only one I could think of for the moment and I set about putting it into operation at once.
Where the rotten plank had given way I enlarged the hole as much as possible. Then I climbed back through it into the shed, replaced the plank with the ring and covered it up again with the pile of sail-cloth, and without further delay dived down again through the hole I had made under the floor. I crawled away among the beams and joists as far as I could go in the direction of the other side of the shed and then lay still.
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1
crutch
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| n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱 | |
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2
vindictively
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| adv.恶毒地；报复地 | |
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3
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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suavity
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| n.温和；殷勤 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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7
twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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8
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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9
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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10
numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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12
tattoo
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| n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于 | |
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13
cipher
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| n.零；无影响力的人；密码 | |
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14
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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15
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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16
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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18
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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19
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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20
rekindle
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| v.使再振作；再点火 | |
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21
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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22
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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23
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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24
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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25
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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26
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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27
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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29
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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30
cockroaches
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| n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 ) | |
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31
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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32
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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33
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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34
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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35
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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36
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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37
pounce
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| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
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38
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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39
punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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40
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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41
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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42
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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43
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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44
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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45
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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46
persuasions
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| n.劝说，说服（力）( persuasion的名词复数 )；信仰 | |
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47
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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48
justifiable
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| adj.有理由的，无可非议的 | |
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49
egress
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| n.出去；出口 | |
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50
surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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51
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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52
irresolute
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| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
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53
abominably
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| adv. 可恶地，可恨地，恶劣地 | |
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54
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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55
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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56
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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57
germinated
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| v.（使）发芽( germinate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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59
burrowed
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| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的过去式和过去分词 )；翻寻 | |
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