There was a light in Simon’s room as I entered my house. A vague impulse urged me to visit him. As I opened the door of his sitting-room1 unannounced, he was bending, with his back toward me, over a Carcel lamp, apparently2 engaged in minutely examining some object which he held in his hands. As I entered, he started suddenly, thrust his hand into his breast pocket, and turned to me with a face crimson3 with confusion.
“What!” I cried, “poring over the miniature of some fair lady? Well, don’t blush so much; I won’t ask to see it.”
Simon laughed awkwardly enough, but made none of the negative protestations usual on such occasions. He asked me to take a seat.
“Simon,” said I, “I have just come from Madame Vulpes.”
This time Simon turned as white as a sheet, and seemed stupefied, as if a sudden electric shock had smitten4 him. He babbled5 some incoherent words, and went hastily to a small closet where he usually kept his liquors. Although astonished at his emotion, I was too preoccupied6 with my own idea to pay much attention to anything else.
“You say truly when you call Madame Vulpes a devil of a woman,” I continued. “Simon, she told me wonderful things to-night, or rather was the means of telling me wonderful things. Ah! if I could only get a diamond that weighed one hundred and forty carats!”
Scarcely had the sigh with which I uttered this desire died upon my lips when Simon, with the aspect of a wild beast, glared at me savagely7, and, rushing to the mantelpiece, where some foreign weapons hung on the wall, caught up a Malay creese, and brandished8 it furiously before him.
“No!” he cried in French, into which he always broke when excited. “No! you shall not have it! You are perfidious9! You have consulted with that demon10, and desire my treasure! But I will die first! Me, I am brave! You can not make me fear!”
All this, uttered in a loud voice, trembling with excitement, astounded11 me. I saw at a glance that I had accidentally trodden upon the edges of Simon’s secret, whatever it was. It was necessary to reassure12 him.
“My dear Simon,” I said, “I am entirely13 at a loss to know what you mean. I went to Madame Vulpes to consult with her on a scientific problem, to the solution of which I discovered that a diamond of the size I just mentioned was necessary. You were never alluded14 to during the evening, nor, so far as I was concerned, even thought of. What can be the meaning of this outburst? If you happen to have a set of valuable diamonds in your possession, you need fear nothing from me. The diamond which I require you could not possess; or, if you did possess it, you would not be living here.”
Something in my tone must have completely reassured15 him, for his expression immediately changed to a sort of constrained16 merriment, combined however, with a certain suspicious attention to my movements. He laughed, and said that I must bear with him; that he was at certain moments subject to a species of vertigo17, which betrayed itself in incoherent speeches, and that the attacks passed off as rapidly as they came.
He put his weapon aside while making this explanation, and endeavored, with some success, to assume a more cheerful air.
All this did not impose on me in the least. I was too much accustomed to analytical18 labors19 to be baffled by so flimsy a veil. I determined20 to probe the mystery to the bottom.
“Simon,” I said gayly, “let us forget all this over a bottle of Burgundy. I have a case of Lausseure’s Clos Vougeot downstairs, fragrant21 with the odors and ruddy with the sunlight of the C?te d’Or. Let us have up a couple of bottles. What say you?”
“With all my heart,” answered Simon smilingly.
I produced the wine and we seated ourselves to drink. It was of a famous vintage, that of 1848, a year when war and wine throve together, and its pure but powerful juice seemed to impart renewed vitality22 to the system. By the time we had half finished the second bottle, Simon’s head, which I knew was a weak one, had begun to yield, while I remained calm as ever, only that every draught23 seemed to send a flush of vigor24 through my limbs. Simon’s utterance25 became more and more indistinct. He took to singing French chansons of a not very moral tendency. I rose suddenly from the table just at the conclusion of one of those incoherent verses, and, fixing my eyes on him with a quiet smile, said, “Simon, I have deceived you. I learned your secret this evening. You may as well be frank with me. Mrs. Vulpes — or rather, one of her spirits — told me all.”
He started with horror. His intoxication26 seemed for the moment to fade away, and he made a movement toward the weapon that he had a short time before laid down, I stopped him with my hand.
“Monster!” he cried passionately27, “I am ruined! What shall I do? You shall never have it! I swear by my mother!”
“I don’t want it,” I said; “rest secure, but be frank with me. Tell me all about it.”
The drunkenness began to return. He protested with maudlin28 earnestness that I was entirely mistaken — that I was intoxicated29; then asked me to swear eternal secrecy30, and promised to disclose the mystery to me. I pledged myself, of course, to all. With an uneasy look in his eyes, and hands unsteady with drink and nervousness, he drew a small case from his breast and opened it. Heavens! How the mild lamplight was shivered into a thousand prismatic arrows as it fell upon a vast rose-diamond that glittered in the case! I was no judge of diamonds, but I saw at a glance that this was a gem31 of rare size and purity. I looked at Simon with wonder and — must I confess it?— with envy. How could he have obtained this treasure? In reply to my questions, I could just gather from his drunken statements (of which, I fancy, half the incoherence was affected) that he had been superintending a gang of slaves engaged in diamond-washing in Brazil; that he had seen one of them secrete32 a diamond, but, instead of informing his employers, had quietly watched the negro until he saw him bury his treasure; that he had dug it up and fled with it, but that as yet he was afraid to attempt to dispose of it publicly — so valuable a gem being almost certain to attract too much attention to its owner’s antecedents — and he had not been able to discover any of those obscure channels by which such matters are conveyed away safely. He added that, in accordance with oriental practice, he had named his diamond with the fanciful title of “The Eye of Morning.”
While Simon was relating this to me, I regarded the great diamond attentively33. Never had I beheld34 anything so beautiful. All the glories of light ever imagined or described seemed to pulsate35 in its crystalline chambers36. Its weight, as I learned from Simon, was exactly one hundred and forty carats. Here was an amazing coincidence. The hand of destiny seemed in it. On the very evening when the spirit of Leeuwenhoek communicates to me the great secret of the microscope, the priceless means which he directs me to employ start up within my easy reach! I determined, with the most perfect deliberation, to possess myself of Simon’s diamond.
I sat opposite to him while he nodded over his glass, and calmly revolved37 the whole affair. I did not for an instant contemplate38 so foolish an act as a common theft, which would of course be discovered, or at least necessitate39 flight and concealment40, all of which must interfere41 with my scientific plans. There was but one step to be taken — to kill Simon. After all, what was the life of a little peddling42 Jew in comparison with the interests of science? Human beings are taken every day from the condemned43 prisons to be experimented on by surgeons. This man, Simon, was by his own confession44 a criminal, a robber, and I believed on my soul a murderer. He deserved death quite as much as any felon45 condemned by the laws: why should I not, like government, contrive46 that his punishment should contribute to the progress of human knowledge?
The means for accomplishing everything I desired lay within my reach. There stood upon the mantelpiece a bottle half full of French laudanum. Simon was so occupied with his diamond, which I had just restored to him, that it was an affair of no difficulty to drug his glass. In a quarter of an hour he was in a profound sleep.
I now opened his waistcoat, took the diamond from the inner pocket in which he had placed it, and removed him to the bed, on which I laid him so that his feet hung down over the edge. I had possessed47 myself of the Malay creese, which I held in my right hand, while with the other I discovered as accurately48 as I could by pulsation49 the exact locality of the heart. It was essential that all the aspects of his death should lead to the surmise50 of self-murder. I calculated the exact angle at which it was probable that the weapon, if leveled by Simon’s own hand, would enter his breast; then with one powerful blow I thrust it up to the hilt in the very spot which I desired to penetrate51. A convulsive thrill ran through Simon’s limbs. I heard a smothered52 sound issue from his throat, precisely53 like the bursting of a large air-bubble sent up by a diver when it reaches the surface of the water; he turned half round on his side, and, as if to assist my plans more effectually, his right hand, moved by some mere54 spasmodic impulse, clasped the handle of the creese, which it remained holding with extraordinary muscular tenacity55. Beyond this there was no apparent struggle. The laudanum, I presume, paralyzed the usual nervous action. He must have died instantly.
There was yet something to be done. To make it certain that all suspicion of the act should be diverted from any inhabitant of the house to Simon himself, it was necessary that the door should be found in the morning locked on the in-side. How to do this, and afterward56 escape myself? Not by the window; that was a physical impossibility. Besides, I was determined that the windows also should be found bolted. The solution was simple enough. I descended57 softly to my own room for a peculiar58 instrument which I had used for holding small slippery substances, such as minute spheres of glass, etc. This instrument was nothing more than a long, slender hand-vise, with a very powerful grip and a considerable leverage59, which last was accidentally owing to the shape of the handle. Nothing was simpler than, when the key was in the lock, to seize the end of its stem in this vise, through the keyhole, from the outside, and so lock the door. Previously60, however, to doing this, I burned a number of papers on Simon’s hearth61. Suicides almost always burn papers before they destroy themselves. I also emptied some more laudanum into Simon’s glass — having first removed from it all traces of wine — cleaned the other wine-glass, and brought the bottles away with me. If traces of two persons drinking had been found in the room, the question naturally would have arisen, Who was the second? Besides, the wine-bottles might have been identified as belonging to me. The laudanum I poured out to account for its presence in his stomach, in case of a post-mortem examination. The theory naturally would be that he first intended to poison himself, but, after swallowing a little of the drug, was either disgusted with its taste, or changed his mind from other motives62, and chose the dagger64. These arrangements made, I walked out, leaving the gas burning, locked the door with my vise, and went to bed.
Simon’s death was not discovered until nearly three in the afternoon. The servant, astonished at seeing the gas burning — the light streaming on the dark landing from under the door — peeped through the keyhole and saw Simon on the bed.
She gave the alarm. The door was burst open, and the neighborhood was in a fever of excitement.
Every one in the house was arrested, myself included. There was an inquest; but no clew to his death beyond that of suicide could be obtained. Curiously65 enough, he had made several speeches to his friends the preceding week that seemed to point to self-destruction. One gentleman swore that Simon had said in his presence that “he was tired of life.” His landlord affirmed that Simon, when paying him his last month’s rent, remarked that “he should not pay him rent much longer.” All the other evidence corresponded — the door locked inside, the position of the corpse66, the burned papers. As I anticipated, no one knew of the possession of the diamond by Simon, so that no motive63 was suggested for his murder. The jury, after a prolonged examination, brought in the usual verdict, and the neighborhood once more settled down to its accustomed quiet.
收听单词发音 |
1
sitting-room
|
|
| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
crimson
|
|
| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
smitten
|
|
| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
babbled
|
|
| v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
preoccupied
|
|
| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
savagely
|
|
| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
brandished
|
|
| v.挥舞( brandish的过去式和过去分词 )；炫耀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
perfidious
|
|
| adj.不忠的，背信弃义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
demon
|
|
| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
astounded
|
|
| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
reassure
|
|
| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
alluded
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
reassured
|
|
| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
constrained
|
|
| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
vertigo
|
|
| n.眩晕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
analytical
|
|
| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
labors
|
|
| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
fragrant
|
|
| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
vitality
|
|
| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
draught
|
|
| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
vigor
|
|
| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
utterance
|
|
| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
intoxication
|
|
| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
passionately
|
|
| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
maudlin
|
|
| adj.感情脆弱的，爱哭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
intoxicated
|
|
| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
secrecy
|
|
| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
gem
|
|
| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
secrete
|
|
| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
attentively
|
|
| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
beheld
|
|
| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
pulsate
|
|
| v.有规律的跳动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
chambers
|
|
| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
revolved
|
|
| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
contemplate
|
|
| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
necessitate
|
|
| v.使成为必要，需要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
concealment
|
|
| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
peddling
|
|
| 忙于琐事的，无关紧要的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
condemned
|
|
| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
confession
|
|
| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
felon
|
|
| n.重罪犯；adj.残忍的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
contrive
|
|
| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
accurately
|
|
| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
pulsation
|
|
| n.脉搏，悸动，脉动；搏动性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
surmise
|
|
| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
penetrate
|
|
| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
smothered
|
|
| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
tenacity
|
|
| n.坚韧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
afterward
|
|
| adv.后来；以后 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
leverage
|
|
| n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
previously
|
|
| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
hearth
|
|
| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
motives
|
|
| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
motive
|
|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
dagger
|
|
| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
curiously
|
|
| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
corpse
|
|
| n.尸体，死尸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |