“Who has taken it? Describe the person at once. Tell what you know about the box, I did not finish the threat; but my looks must have been very fierce, for he edged off a bit, and cast a curious glance at the officer before he answered:
“You have, then, no ailing1 friend? Well, well; I expended2 some very good advice upon you. But you paid me, and so we are even.”
“The box!” I urged; “the box! Don’t waste words, for a man’s life is at stake.”
His surprise was marvelously assumed or very real.
“You are talking somewhat wildly, are you not?” he ventured, with a bland3 air. “A man’s life? I cannot believe that.”
“But you don’t answer me,” I urged.
He smiled; he evidently thought me out of my mind.
“That’s true; but there is so little I can tell you. I do not know what was in the box about which you express so much concern, and I do not know the names of its owners. It was brought here some six months ago and placed in the spot where you saw it this morning, upon conditions that were satisfactory to me, and not at all troublesome to my patients, whose convenience I was bound to consult. It has remained there till to-day, when——”
Here the officer interrupted him.
“What were these conditions? The matter calls for frankness.”
“The conditions,” repeated the doctor, in no wise abashed4, “were these: That it should occupy the large table in the window as long as they saw fit. That, though placed in my room, it should be regarded as the property of the society which owned it, and, consequently, free to the inspection5 of its members but to no one else. That I should know these members by their ability to open the box, and that so long as these persons confined their visits to my usual hours for patients, they were to be subject to no one’s curiosity, nor allowed to suffer from any one’s interference. In return for these slight concessions6, I was to receive five dollars for every day I allowed it to stay here, payment to be made by mail.”
“Good business! And you cannot tell the names of the persons with whom you entered into this contract?”
“No; the one who came to me first and saw to the placing of the box and all that, was a short, sturdy fellow, with a common face but very brilliant eye; he it was who made the conditions; but the man who came to get it, and who paid me twenty dollars for opening my office door at an unusual hour, was a more gentlemanly man, with a thick, brown mustache and resolute7 look. He was accompanied——”
“Why do you stop?”
The doctor smiled.
“I was wondering,” said he, “if I should say he was accompanied, or that he accompanied, a woman, of such enormous size that the doorway8 hardly received her. I thought she was a patient at first, for, large as she is, she was brought into my room in a chair, which it took four men to carry. But she only came about the box.”
“Madame!” I muttered; and being made still more eager by this discovery of her direct participation9 in its carrying off, I asked if she touched the box or whether it was taken away unopened.
The doctor’s answer put an end to every remaining hope I may have cherished.
“She not only touched but opened it. I saw the lid rise and heard a whirr. What is the matter, sir?”
“Nothing,” I made haste to say—“that is, nothing I can communicate just now. This woman must be followed,” I signified to the officer, and was about to rush from the room when my eye fell on the table where the box stood.
“See!” said I, pointing to a fine wire protruding10 from a small hole in the center of its upper surface; “this box had connection with some point outside of this room.”
The doctor’s face flushed, and for the first time he looked a trifle foolish.
“So I perceive now,” said he, “The workman who put up this box evidently took liberties in my absence. For that I was not paid.”
“This wire leads where?” asked the officer.
“Rip up the floor and see. I know no other way to find out.”
“But that would take time, and we have not a minute to lose,” said I, and was disappearing for the second time when I again stopped. “Doctor,” said I, “when you consented to harbor this box under such peculiar11 conditions and allowed yourself to receive such good pay for a service involving so little inconvenience to yourself, you must have had some idea of the uses to which so mysterious an article would be put. What did you suppose them to be?”
“To tell you the truth, I thought it was some new-fangled lottery12 scheme, and I have still to learn that I was mistaken.”
I gave him a look, but did not stop to undeceive him.
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1
ailing
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| v.生病 | |
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2
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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3
bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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4
abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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6
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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7
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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8
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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9
participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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10
protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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11
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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12
lottery
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| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
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