“I beg your pardon,” stammered1 Sweetwater, starting aside and losing on the instant all further disposition2 to leave the room.
Indeed, he had not the courage to do so, even if he had had the will. The joint3 appearance of these two men in this place, and at an hour so far in advance of that which usually saw Mr. Sutherland enter the town, was far too significant in his eyes for him to ignore it. Had any explanation taken place between them, and had Mr. Sutherland’s integrity triumphed over personal considerations to the point of his bringing Frederick here to confess?
Meanwhile Dr. Talbot had risen with a full and hearty4 greeting which proved to Sweetwater’s uneasy mind that notwithstanding Knapp’s disquieting5 reticence6 no direct suspicion had as yet fallen on the unhappy Frederick. Then he waited for what Mr. Sutherland had to say, for it was evident he had come there to say something. Sweetwater waited, too, frozen almost into immobility by the fear that it would be something injudicious, for never had he seen any man so changed as Mr. Sutherland in these last twelve hours, nor did it need a highly penetrating7 eye to detect that the relations between him and Frederick were strained to a point that made it almost impossible for them to more than assume their old confidential8 attitude. Knapp, knowing them but superficially, did not perceive this, but Dr. Talbot was not blind to it, as was shown by the inquiring look he directed towards them both while waiting.
Mr. Sutherland spoke9 at last.
“Pardon me for interrupting you so early,” said he, with a certain tremble in his voice which Sweetwater quaked to hear. “For certain reasons, I should be very glad to know, WE should be very glad to know, if during your investigations10 into the cause and manner of Agatha Webb’s death, you have come upon a copy of her will.”
“No.”
Talbot was at once interested, so was Knapp, while Sweetwater withdrew further into his corner in anxious endeavour to hide his blanching11 cheek. “We have found nothing. We do not even know that she has made a will.”
“I ask,” pursued Mr. Sutherland, with a slight glance toward Frederick, who seemed, at least in Sweetwater’s judgment12, to have braced13 himself up to bear this interview unmoved, “because I have not only received intimation that she made such a will, but have even been entrusted14 with a copy of it as chief executor of the same. It came to me in a letter from Boston yesterday. Its contents were a surprise to me. Frederick, hand me a chair. These accumulated misfortunes — for we all suffer under the afflictions which have beset15 this town — have made me feel my years.”
Sweetwater drew his breath more freely. He thought he might understand by this last sentence that Mr. Sutherland had come here for a different cause than he had at first feared. Frederick, on the contrary, betrayed a failing ability to hide his emotion. He brought his father a chair, placed it, and was drawing back out of sight when Mr. Sutherland prevented him by a mild command to hand the paper he had brought to the coroner.
There was something in his manner that made Sweetwater lean forward and Frederick look up, so that the father’s and son’s eyes met under that young man’s scrutiny16. But while he saw meaning in both their regards, there was nothing like collusion, and, baffled by these appearances, which, while interesting, told him little or nothing, he transferred his attention to Dr. Talbot and Knapp, who had drawn17 together to see what this paper contained.
“As I have said, the contents of this will are a surprise to me,” faltered18 Mr. Sutherland. “They are equally so to my son. He can hardly be said to have been a friend even of the extraordinary woman who thus leaves him her whole fortune.”
“I never spoke with her but twice,” exclaimed Frederick with a studied coldness, which was so evidently the cloak of inner agitation19 that Sweetwater trembled for its effect, notwithstanding the state of his own thoughts, which were in a ferment20. Frederick, the inheritor of Agatha Webb’s fortune! Frederick, concerning whom his father had said on the previous night that he possessed21 no motive22 for wishing this good woman’s death! Was it the discovery that such a motive existed which had so aged23 this man in the last twelve hours? Sweetwater dared not turn again to see. His own face might convey too much of his own fears, doubts, and struggle.
But the coroner, for whose next words Sweetwater listened with acute expectancy24, seemed to be moved simply by the unexpectedness of the occurrence. Glancing at Frederick with more interest than he had ever before shown him, he cried with a certain show of enthusiasm:
“A pretty fortune! A very pretty fortune!” Then with a deprecatory air natural to him in addressing Mr. Sutherland, “Would it be indiscreet for me to ask to what our dear friend Agatha alludes25 in her reference to your late lamented26 wife?” His finger was on a clause of the will and his lips next minute mechanically repeated what he was pointing at:
“‘In remembrance of services rendered me in early life by Marietta Sutherland, wife of Charles Sutherland of Sutherlandtown, I bequeath to Frederick, sole child of her affection, all the property, real and personal, of which I die possessed.’ Services rendered! They must have been very important ones,” suggested Dr. Talbot.
Mr. Sutherland’s expression was one of entire perplexity and doubt.
“I do not remember my wife ever speaking of any special act of kindness she was enabled to show Agatha Webb. They were always friends, but never intimate ones. However, Agatha could be trusted to make no mistake. She doubtless knew to what she referred. Mrs. Sutherland was fully27 capable of doing an extremely kind act in secret.”
For all his respect for the speaker, Dr. Talbot did not seem quite satisfied. He glanced at Frederick and fumbled28 the paper uneasily.
“Perhaps you were acquainted with the reason for this legacy29 — this large legacy,” he emphasised.
Frederick, thus called upon, nay30, forced to speak, raised his head, and without perhaps bestowing31 so much as a thought on the young man behind him who was inwardly quivering in anxious expectancy of some betrayal on his part which would precipitate32 disgrace and lifelong sorrow on all who bore the name of Sutherland, met Dr. Talbot’s inquiring glance with a simple earnestness surprising to them all, and said:
“My record is so much against me that I am not surprised that you wonder at my being left with Mrs. Webb’s fortune. Perhaps she did not fully realise the lack of estimation in which I am deservedly held in this place, or perhaps, and this would be much more like her, she hoped that the responsibility of owing my independence to so good and so unfortunate a woman might make a man of me.”
There was a manliness33 in Frederick’s words and bearing that took them all by surprise. Mr. Sutherland’s dejection visibly lightened, while Sweetwater, conscious of the more than vital interests hanging upon the impression which might be made by this event upon the minds of the men present, turned slightly so as to bring their faces into the line of his vision.
The result was a conviction that as yet no real suspicion of Frederick had seized upon either of their minds. Knapp’s face was perfectly34 calm and almost indifferent, while the good coroner, who saw this and every other circumstance connected with this affair through the one medium of his belief in Amabel’s guilt35, was surveying Frederick with something like sympathy.
“I fear,” said he, “that others were not as ignorant of your prospective36 good fortune as you were yourself,” at which Frederick’s cheek turned a dark red, though he said nothing, and Sweetwater, with a sudden involuntary gesture indicative of resolve, gazed for a moment breathlessly at the ship, and then with an unexpected and highly impetuous movement dashed from the room crying loudly:
“I’ve seen him! I’ve seen him! he’s just going on board the ship. Wait for me, Dr. Talbot. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes with such a witness —”
Here the door slammed. But they could hear his hurrying footsteps as he plunged37 down the stairs and rushed away from the building.
It was an unexpected termination to an interview fast becoming unbearable38 to the two Sutherlands, but no one, not even the old gentleman himself, took in its full significance.
He was, however, more than agitated39 by the occurrence and could hardly prevent himself from repeating aloud Sweetwater’s final word, which after their interview at Mr. Halliday’s gate, the night before, seemed to convey to him at once a warning and a threat. To keep himself from what he feared might prove a self-betrayal, he faltered out in very evident dismay:
“What is the matter? What has come over the lad?”
“Oh!” cried Dr. Talbot, “he’s been watching that ship for an hour. He is after some man he has just seen go aboard her. Says he’s a new and important witness in this case. Perhaps he is. Sweetwater is no man’s fool, for all his small eyes and retreating chin. If you want proof of it, wait till he comes back. He’ll be sure to have something to say.”
Meanwhile they had all pressed forward to the window. Frederick, who carefully kept his face out of his father’s view, bent40 half-way over the sill in his anxiety to watch the flying figure of Sweetwater, who was making straight for the dock, while Knapp, roused at last, leaned over his shoulder and pointed41 to the sailors on the deck, who were pulling in the last ropes, preparatory to sailing.
“He’s too late: they won’t let him aboard now. What a fool to hang around here till he saw his man, instead of being at the dock to nab him! That comes of trusting a country bumpkin. I knew he’d fail us at the pinch. They lack training, these would-be detectives. See, now! He’s run up against the mate, and the mate pushes him back. His cake is all dough42, unless he’s got a warrant. Has he a warrant, Dr. Talbot?”
“No,” said the coroner, “he didn’t ask for one. He didn’t even tell me whom he wanted. Can it be one of those two passengers you see on the forward deck, there?”
It might well be. Even from a distance these two men presented a sinister43 appearance that made them quite marked figures among the crowd of hurrying sailors and belated passengers.
“One of them is peering over the rail with a very evident air of anxiety. His eye is on Sweetwater, who is dancing with impatience44. See, he is gesticulating like a monkey, and — By the powers, they are going to let him go aboard!”
Mr. Sutherland, who had been leaning heavily against the window-jamb in the agitation of doubt and suspense45 which Sweetwater’s unaccountable conduct had evoked46, here crossed to the other side and stole a determined47 look at Frederick. Was his son personally interested in this attempt of the amateur detective? Did he know whom Sweetwater sought, and was he suffering as much or more than himself from the uncertainty48 and fearful possibilities of the moment? He thought he knew Frederick’s face, and that he read dread49 there, but Frederick had changed so completely since the commission of this crime that even his father could no longer be sure of the correct meaning either of his words or expression.
The torture of the moment continued.
“He climbs like a squirrel,” remarked Dr. Talbot, with a touch of enthusiasm. “Look at him now — he’s on the quarterdeck and will be down in the cabins before you can say Jack50 Robinson. I warrant they have told him to hurry. Captain Dunlap isn’t the man to wait five minutes after the ropes are pulled in.”
“Those two men have shrunk away behind some mast or other,” cried Knapp. “They are the fellows he’s after. But what can they have to do with the murder? Have you ever seen them here about town, Dr. Talbot?”
“Not that I remember; they have a foreign air about them. Look like South Americans.”
“Well, they’re going to South America. Sweetwater can’t stop them. He has barely time to get off the ship himself. There goes the last rope! Have they forgotten him? They’re drawing up the ladder.”
“No: the mate stops them; see, he’s calling the fellow. I can hear his voice, can’t you? Sweetwater’s game is up. He’ll have to leave in a hurry. What’s the rumpus now?”
“Nothing, only they’ve scattered51 to look for him; the fox is down in the cabins and won’t come up, laughing in his sleeve, no doubt, at keeping the vessel52 waiting while he hunts up his witness.”
“If it’s one of those two men he’s laying a trap for he won’t snare53 him in a hurry. They’re sneaks54, those two, and — Why, the sailors are coming back shaking their heads. I can almost hear from here the captain’s oaths.”
“And such a favourable55 wind for getting out of the harbour! Sweetwater, my boy, you are distinguishing yourself. If your witness don’t pan out well you won’t hear the last of this in a hurry.”
“It looks as if they meant to sail without waiting to put him ashore,” observed Frederick in a low tone, too carefully modulated56 not to strike his father as unnatural57.
“By jingoes, so it does!” ejaculated Knapp. “There go the sails! The pilot’s hand is on the wheel, and Dr. Talbot, are you going to let your cunning amateur detective and his important witness slip away from you like this?”
“I cannot help myself,” said the coroner, a little dazed himself at this unexpected chance. “My voice wouldn’t reach them from this place; besides they wouldn’t heed58 me if it did. The ship is already under way and we won’t see Sweetwater again till the pilot’s boat comes back.”
Mr. Sutherland moved from the window and crossed to the door like a man in a dream. Frederick, instantly conscious of his departure, turned to follow him, but presently stopped and addressing Knapp for the first time, observed quietly:
“This is all very exciting, but I think your estimate of this fellow Sweetwater is just. He’s a busybody and craves59 notoriety above everything. He had no witness on board, or, if he had, it was an imaginary one. You will see him return quite crestfallen60 before night, with some trumped-up excuse of mistaken identity.”
The shrug61 which Knapp gave dismissed Sweetwater as completely from the affair as if he had never been in it.
“I think I may now regard myself as having this matter in my sole charge,” was his curt62 remark, as he turned away, while Frederick, with a respectful bow to Dr. Talbot, remarked in leaving:
“I am at your service, Dr. Talbot, if you require me to testify at the inquest in regard to this will. My testimony63 can all be concentrated into the one sentence, ‘I did not expect this bequest64, and have no theories to advance in explanation of it.’ But it has made me feel myself Mrs. Webb’s debtor65, and given me a justifiable66 interest in the inquiry67 which, I am told, you open to-morrow into the cause and manner of her death. If there is a guilty person in this case, I shall raise no barrier in the way of his conviction.”
And while the coroner’s face still showed the embarrassment68 which this last sentence called up, his mind being now, as ever, fixed69 on Amabel, Frederick offered his arm to his father, whose condition was not improved by the excitements of the last half-hour, and proceeded to lead him from the building.
Whatever they thought, or however each strove to hide their conclusions from the other, no words passed between them till they came in full sight of the sea, on a distant billow of which the noble-ship bound for the Brazils rode triumphantly70 on its outward course. Then Mr. Sutherland remarked, with a suggestive glance at the vessel:
“The young man who has found an unexpected passage on that vessel will not come back with the pilot.”
Was the sigh which was Frederick’s only answer one of relief? It certainly seemed so.
收听单词发音 |
1
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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disquieting
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| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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blanching
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| adj.漂白的n.热烫v.使变白( blanch的现在分词 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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expectancy
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| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
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alludes
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| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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bestowing
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| 砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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54
sneaks
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| abbr.sneakers (tennis shoes) 胶底运动鞋（网球鞋）v.潜行( sneak的第三人称单数 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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modulated
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| 已调整[制]的，被调的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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craves
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| 渴望，热望( crave的第三人称单数 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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61
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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63
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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64
bequest
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| n.遗赠；遗产，遗物 | |
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debtor
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| n.借方，债务人 | |
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justifiable
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| adj.有理由的，无可非议的 | |
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67
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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68
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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69
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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70
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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