Things had gone well with Captain George Jernam, and in the whole of the trading navy there were few richer men than the owner of the ‘Pizarro’, ‘Stormy Petrel’, and ‘Albatross’.
With these three vessels1 constantly afloat. George Jernam was on the high road to fortune.
His life had not been by any means uneventful since the death of his brother, though that mysterious calamity2 had taken away the zest3 from his success for many a day, and though he no longer cherished the same visions of a happy home in England, when his circumstances should have become so prosperous as to enable him to “settle down.” This same process of settling down was one by no means congenial to George Jernam’s disposition4 at any time; and he was far less likely to take to it kindly5 now, than when “dear old Val”— as he began to call his brother in his thoughts once more, when the horror of the murder had begun to wear off, and the lost friend seemed again familiar — had been the prospective6 sharer of the retirement7 which was to be so tranquil8, so comfortable, and so well-earned. It had no attraction for George at all; for many a long day after Joyce Harker’s letter had reached him he never dwelt upon it; he set his face hard against his grief, and worked on, as men must work, fortunately for them, under all chances and changes of this mortal life, until the last change of all. At first, the thirst for revenge upon his brother’s murderers had been hot and strong upon George Jernam — almost as hot and strong as it had been, and continued to be, upon Joyce Harker; but the natures of the men differed materially. George Jernam had neither the dogged persistency9 nor the latent fierceness of his dead brother’s friend and protégé; and the long, slow, untiring watching to which Harker devoted10 himself would have been a task so uncongenial as to be indeed impossible to the more open, more congenial temperament11 of the merchant-captain.
He had responded warmly to Harker’s letters; he had more than sanctioned the outlay12 which he had made, in money paid and money promised, to the skilled detective to whom Harker had entrusted13 the investigation14 of the murder of Valentine Jernam. He had awaited every communication with anxious interest and suspense15, and he had never landed after a voyage, and received the letters which awaited his arrival, without a keen revival16 of the first sharp pang17 that had smote18 him with the tidings of his brother’s fate.
Happily George Jernam was a busy man, and his life was full of variety, adventure, and incident. In time he began, not to forget, indeed, but to remember less frequently and less painfully, the manner of his brother’s death, and to regard the fixed19 purpose of Joyce Harker’s life as more or less of a harmless delusion20. A practical man in his own way, George Jernam had very vague ideas concerning the lives of the criminal classes, and the faculties21 and facilities of the science of detection; and the hope of finding out the secret of his brother’s fate had long ago deserted22 him.
Only once had he and Joyce Harker met since the murder of Valentine Jernam. George had landed a cargo23 at Hamburg, and had given his brother’s friend rendezvous24 there. Then the two men had talked of all that had been done so vainly, and all that remained to be done, Harker hoped, so effectively. Joyce had never been able to bring his suspicions concerning Black Milsom to the test of proof. Unwearied search had been made for the old man who had played the part of grandfather to the beautiful ballad-singer; but it had been wholly ineffectual. All that could be ascertained25 concerning him was, that he had died in a hospital, in a country town on the great northern road, and that the girl had wandered away from there, and never more been heard of. Of Black Milsom, Joyce Harker had never lost sight, until his career received a temporary check by the sentence of transportation, which had sent the ruffian out of the country. But all efforts of the faithful watcher had failed to discover the missing link in the evidence which connected Black Milsom with Valentine Jernam’s death. All his watching and questioning — all his silent noting of the idle talk around him — all his eager endeavour to take Dennis Wayman unawares, failed to enable him to obtain evidence of that one fact of which he was convinced — the fact that Valentine Jernam had been at the public-house in Ratcliff Highway on the day of his death.
When the inutility of his endeavours became clear to Joyce Harker, he gave up his lodging26 in Wayman’s house, and located himself in modest apartments at Poplar, where he transacted27 a great deal of business for George Jernam, and maintained a constant, though unprofitable, communication with the detective officer to whom he had confided28 the task of investigation, and who was no other than Mr. Andrew Larkspur.
In one of the earliest of the numerous letters which George Jernam addressed to Harker, after the death of Valentine, the merchant-captain had given his zealous29 friend and assistant certain instructions concerning the old aunt to whom the two desolate30 boys had owed so much in their ill-treated childhood, and whom they had so well and constantly requited31 in their prosperous manhood. These instructions included a request that Joyce Harker would visit Susan Jernam in person, and furnish George with details relative to that venerable lady’s requirements, looks, health, and general circumstances.
“I should have seen the good old soul, you know,” wrote George, “when I was to have seen poor Val; but it didn’t please God that the one thing should come off any more than the other, and it can’t be helped. But I should like you to run down to Allanbay and look her up, and let her know that she is neither neglected nor forgotten by her vagabond nephew.”
So Joyce Harker went down to the Devonshire village, and introduced himself to George Jernam’s aunt. The old lady was much altered since she had last welcomed a visitor to her pretty, cheerful cottage, and had listened with simple surprise and pleasure to her nephew Valentine’s tales of the sea, and they had talked together over the troublous days of his unhappy childhood. The untimely and tragic32 death of the merchant-captain had afflicted33 her deeply, and had filled her mind with sentiments which, though they differed in degree, closely resembled in their nature those of Joyce Harker. The determination to be revenged upon the murderers of “her boy” which Harker expressed, found a ready echo in the breast of his hearer, and she thanked him warmly for his devotion to the master he had lost. Strong mutual34 liking35 grew up between these two, and when her visitor left her — after having carried out all George’s wishes in respect to her, on the scale of liberality which the grateful nephew had dictated36 — Susan Jernam gave him a cordial invitation to pass any leisure time he might have at the cottage, though, as she remarked —
“I am not very lively company, Mr. Harker, for you or anybody, for I can’t talk of anything but George and poor Valentine.”
“And I don’t care to talk of much else either, Mrs. Jernam,” said Harker, in reply; “so, you see, we couldn’t possibly be better company for each other.”
Thus it happened that a second tie between George Jernam and Joyce Harker arose, in the person of the sole surviving relative of the former, and that Joyce had made three visits to the pretty sea-side village in which the childhood of his dead friend and his living patron had been passed, before he and George Jernam met again on English ground.
When at length that long-deferred meeting took place, Valentine Jernam’s murder was a mystery rather more than five years old, and Mr. Andrew Larkspur had made no progress towards its solution. He had been obliged to acknowledge to Joyce Harker that he had not struck the right trail, and to confess that he had begun to despond. The disappearance37 of Black Milsom from among the congenial society of thieves and ruffians which he frequented was, of course, easily accounted for by Mr. Larkspur, and the absence of any, even the slightest, additional clue to the fate of Jernam, confirmed that astute38 person in the conviction, which he had reached early in the course of his confabulations with Harker, that the convict was the guilty man. There was, on this hypothesis, nothing for it but to wait until the worthy39 exile should have worked out his time and once more returned to grace his mother-country, and then to resume the close watch which, though hitherto ineffectual, might in time bring some of his former deeds to light.
Such was the state of affairs when Captain Duncombe bought the deserted house which had had such undesirable40 tenants41, first in the person of old Screwton, the miser42, and, secondly43, of Black Milsom. Joyce Harker was aware of the transaction, and had watched with some interest the transformation44 of the dreary45, dismal46, doomed47 place, into the cheery, comfortable, middle-class residence it had now become. If he had known that the last hours of Valentine Jernam’s life had been passed on that spot, that there his beloved master had met with a violent and cruel death, with what different feelings he would have watched the work! But though, as the former dwelling48 of Black Milsom, the cottage had a dreary attraction for him, he was far from imagining that within its walls lay hidden one infallible clue to the secret for which he had sought so long and so vainly.
The new occupant of River View Cottage was acquainted with Joyce Harker, and held the solitary49 old man in some esteem50. Captain Joe Duncombe and the protégé of the Jernams had nothing whatever in common in character, disposition, or manners, and the distance in the social scale which divided the prosperous merchant-captain from the poor, though clever, dependent, was considerable, even according to the not very strict standard of manners observed by persons of their respective classes. But Joe Duncombe knew and heartily51 liked George Jernam. He had been in England at the time of Valentine’s murder, and he had then learned the faithful and active part played by Harker. He had lost sight of the man for some time, but when he had bought the cottage, and during the progress of the changes and improvements he had made in that unprepossessing dwelling, accident had thrown Harker in his way, and they had found much to discuss in George Jernam’s prosperity, in his generous treatment of Harker, in the general condition of the merchant service, which the two men declared to be going to the dogs, after the manner of all professions, trades, and institutions of every age and every clime, when contemplated52 from a conversational53 point of view; and in the honest captain’s plans, hopes, and prospects54 concerning his daughter.
Joyce Harker had seen Rosamond Duncombe occasionally, but had not taken much notice of her. Nor had Miss Duncombe been much impressed by that gentleman. Joyce was not a lady’s man, and Rosamond, who entertained a rather disrespectful notion of her father’s acquaintances in general, classing them collectively as “old fogies,” contented55 herself with distinguishing Mr. Harker as the ugliest and grimmest of the lot. Joyce came and went, not very often indeed, but very freely to River View Cottage, and there was much confidence and good-fellowship between the bluff56 old seaman57 and the more acute, but not less honest, adventurer.
There was, however, one circumstance which Captain Duncombe never mentioned to Harker. That circumstance was the apparition58 of old Screwton’s ghost. Joe Duncombe was, to tell the truth, a little ashamed of his credulity on that occasion. He entertained no doubt that he had been victimized by a clever practical joke, and while he chuckled59 over the recollection that it had been an expensive jest to the perpetrator, who had lost a valuable gold coin by the transaction, he had no fancy for exposing himself to any further ridicule60 on the occasion. So the bluff, imperious, soft-hearted captain issued an ukase commanding silence on the subject; and silence was observed, not in the least because Rosamond Duncombe or Susan Trott were afraid of him, but because Rosamond loved her father, and Susan Trott respected her master too much to disobey his lightest wish.
There was also one circumstance which Joyce Harker never mentioned to Captain Duncombe. This circumstance was the identity of the former occupant of the cottage with the man whom he believed to be the murderer of Valentine Jernam.
“It is bad enough to live in a place that’s said to be haunted,” said Harker to himself, when he visited the cottage for the first time; “without my telling him that he comes after a man who is certainly a convict, and probably a murderer.”
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1
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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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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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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persistency
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| n. 坚持(余辉, 时间常数) | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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outlay
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| n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费 | |
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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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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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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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revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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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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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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25
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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transacted
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的过去式和过去分词 )；交易，谈判 | |
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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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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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30
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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31
requited
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| v.报答( requite的过去式和过去分词 )；酬谢；回报；报复 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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36
dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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38
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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40
undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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41
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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42
miser
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| n.守财奴，吝啬鬼 (adj.miserly) | |
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43
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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44
transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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45
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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47
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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48
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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49
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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50
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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51
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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52
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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53
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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54
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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56
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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57
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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58
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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59
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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