chapter 30

A shaft¹ of sunlight tickled² one of my ankles. I opened my eyes and saw the crown of a tree moving gently against a hazed³ blue sky. I rolled over and leather touched mycheek. An axe⁴ split my head. I sat up. There was a rug over me. I threw that off and got my feet on the floor. I scowled⁵ at a clock. The clock said a minute short of six-thirty. I got up on my feet and it took character. It took will power. It took a lot out of me, and there wasn't as much to spare as there once had been. The hard heavy years had worked me over. I plowed⁶ across to the half bath and stripped off my tie and shirt and sloshed cold water in my face with both hands and sloshed it on my head. When I was dripping wet I toweled myself off savagely⁷. I put my shirt and tie back on and reached for my jacket and the gun in the pocket banged against the wall. I took it out and swung the cylinder⁸ away from the frame and tipped the cartridges⁹ into my hand, five full, one just a blackened shell. Then I thought, what's the use, there are always more of them. So I put them back where they had been before and carried the gun into the study and put it away in one of the drawers of the desk. When I looked up Candy was standing¹⁰ in the doorway¹¹, spick and span in his white coat, his hair brushed back and shining black, his eyes bitter. "You want some coffee?" "Thanks." "I put the lamps out. The boss is okay. Asleep. I shut his door. Why you get drunk?" "I had to." He sneered¹² at me. "Didn't make her, huh? Got tossed out on your can, shamus." "Have it your own way." "You ain't tough this morning, shamus. You ain't tough at all." "Get the goddain coffee," I yelled at him. "Hijo de puta!" In one jump I had him by the arm. He didn't move. He just looked at me contemptuously. I laughed and let go of his arm. "You're right, Candy. I'm not tough at all." He turned and went out. In no time at all he was back with a silver tray and a imall silver pot of coffee on it and sugar and cream and a neat triangular¹³ napkin. He set it down on the cocktail¹⁴ table and removed the empty bottle and the rest of the drinking materials. He picked another bottle off the floor. "Fresh. Just made," he said, and went out. I drank two cups black. Then I tried a cigarette. It was all right. I still belonged to the human race. Then Candy was back in the room again. "You want breakfast?" he asked morosely¹⁵. "No, thanks." "Okay, scram out of here. We don't want you around." "Who's we?" He lifted the lid of a box and helped himself to a cigarette. He lit it and blew smoke at me insolently¹⁶. "I take care of the boss," he said. "You making it pay?" He frowned, then nodded. "Oh yes. Good money." "How much on the side—for not spilling what you know?" He went back to Spanish. "No entendido." "You understand all right. How much you shake him for? I bet it's not more than a couple of yards." "What's that? Couple of yards." "Two hundred bucks¹⁷." He grinned. "You give me couple of yards, shamus. So I don't tell the boss you come out of her room last night." "That would buy a whole busload of wetbacks like you." He shrugged¹⁸ that off. "The boss gets pretty rough when he blows his top. Better pay up, shamus." "Pachuco stuff," I said contemptuously. "All you're touching¹⁹ is the small money. Lots of men play around when they're lit. Anyhow she knows all about it. You don't have anything to sell." There was a gleam in his eye. "Just don't come round any more, tough boy." "I'm leaving." I stood up and walked around the table. He moved enough to keep facing towards me. I watched his hand but he evidently wasn't wearing a knife this morning. When I was close enough I slapped a hand across his face. "I don't get called a son of a whore by the help, greaseball. I've got business here and I come around whenever I feel like it. Watch your lip from now on. You might get pistol-whipped. That pretty face of yours would never look the same again." He didn't react at all, not even to the slap. That and being called a greaseball must have been deadly insults to him. But this time he just stood there wooden-faced, motionless. Then without a word he picked up the coffee tray and carried it out. "Thanks for the coffee," I said to his back. He kept going. When he was gone I felt the bristles²⁰ on my chin, shook myself, and decided²¹ to be on my way. I had had a skinful of the Wade²² family. As I crossed the living room Eileen was coming down the stairs in white slacks and open-toed sandals and a pale blue shirt. She looked at me with complete surprise. "I didn't know you were here, Mr. Marlowe," she said, as though she hadn't seen me for a week and at that time I had just dropped in for tea. "I put his gun in the desk," I said. "Gun?" Then it seemed to dawn on her. "Oh, last night was a little hectic²³, wasn't it? But I thought you had gone home." I walked over closer to her. She had a thin gold chain around her neck and some kind of fancy pendant in gold and blue on white enamel²⁴. The blue enameled²⁵ part looked like a pair of wings, but not spread out. Against these there was a broad white enamel and gold dagger²⁶ that pierced a scroll²⁷. I couldn't read the words. It was some kind of military insigne. "I got drunk," I said. "Deliberately²⁸ and not elegantly. I was a little lonely." "You didn't have to be," she said, and her eyes were as clear as water. There wasn't a trace of guile²⁹ in them. "A matter of opinion," I said. "I'm leaving now and I'm not sure I'll be back. You heard what I said about the gun?" "You put it in his desk. It might be a good idea to put it somewhere else. But he didn't really mean to shoot himself, did he?" "I can't answer that. But next time he might." She shook her head. "I don't think so. I really don't. You were a wonderful help last night, Mr. Marlowe. I don't know how to thank you." "You made a pretty good try." She got pink. Then she laughed. "I had a very curious dream in the night," she said slowly, looking off over my shoulder. "Someone I used to know was here in the house. Someone who has been dead for ten years." Her fingers went up and touched the gold and enamel pendant. "That's why I am wearing this today. He gave it to me." "I had a curious dream myself," I said. "But I'm not telling mine. Let me know how Roger gets on and if there is anything I can do." She lowered her eyes and looked into mine. "You said you were not coming back." "I said I wasn't sure. I may have to come back. I hope I won't. There is something very wrong in this house. And only part of it came out of a bottle." She stared at me, frowning. "What does that mean?" "I think you know what I'm talking about." She thought it over carefully. Her fingers were still touching the pendant gently. She let out a slow patient sigh. "There's always another woman," she said quietly. "At some time or other. It's not necessarily fatal. We're talking at cross purposes, aren't we? We are not even talking about the same thing, perhaps." "Could be," I said. She was still standing on the steps, the third step from the bottom. She still had her fingers on the pendant. She still looked like a golden dream. "Especially if you have in mind that the other woman is Linda Loring." She dropped her hand from the pendant and came down one more step of the stairs. "Dr. Loring seems to agree with me," she said indifferently. "He must have some source of information." "You said he had played that scene with half the males in the valley." "Did I? Well — it was the conventional sort of thing to say at the time." She came down another step. "I haven't shaved," I said. That startled her. Then she laughed. "Oh, I wasn't expecting you to make love to me." "Just what did you expect of me, Mrs. Wade—in the beginning, when you first persuaded me to go hunting? Why me — what have I got to offer?" "You kept faith," she said quietly. "When it couldn't have been very easy." "I'm touched. But I don't think that was the reason." She came down the last step and then she was looking up at me. "Then what was the reason?" "Or if it was — it was a damn poor reason. Just about the worst reason in the world." She frowned a tiny frown. "Why?" "Because what I did — this keeping faith — is something even a fool doesn't do twice." "You know," she said lightly, "this is getting to be a very enigmatic conversation." "You're a very enigmatic person, Mrs. Wade. So long and good luck and if you really care anything about Roger, you'd better find him the right kind of doctor—and quick." She laughed again. "Oh, that was a mild attack last night. You ought to see him in a bad one. He'll be up and working by this afternoon." "Like hell he will." "But believe me he will. I know him so well." I gave her the last shot right in the teeth and it sounded pretty nasty. "You don't really want to save him, do you? You just want to look as if you are trying to save him." "That," she said deliberately, "was a very beastly thing to say to me." She stepped past me and walked through the dining room doors and then the big room was empty and I crossed to the front door and let myself out. It was a perfect summer morning in that bright secluded³⁰ valley. It was too far from the city to get any smog and cut off by the low mountains from the dampness of the ocean. It was going to be hot later, but in a nice refined exclusive sort of way, nothing brutal³¹ like the heat of the desert, not sticky and rank like the heat of the city. Idle Valley was a perfect place to live. Perfect. Nice people with nice homes, nice cars, nice horses, nice dogs, possibly even nice children. But all a man named Marlowe wanted from it was out. And fast.

1 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

2 tickled   

（使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐

参考例句：

• We were tickled pink to see our friends on television. 在电视中看到我们的一些朋友，我们高兴极了。
• I tickled the baby's feet and made her laugh. 我胳肢孩子的脚，使她发笑。

3 hazed   

v.（使）笼罩在薄雾中( haze的过去式和过去分词 )；戏弄，欺凌（新生等，有时作为加入美国大学生联谊会的条件）

参考例句：

• I've had a' most enough of Cap'n Smollett; he's hazed me long enough, by thunder! 我已经受够了这个遭雷劈的斯摩莱特船长，再也不愿意听他使唤了！ 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• His eyes hazed over when he thought of her. 他想起她来时，眼前一片模糊。 来自互联网

4 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。

5 scowled   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scowled his displeasure. 他满脸嗔色。
• The teacher scowled at his noisy class. 老师对他那喧闹的课堂板着脸。

6 plowed   

v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• They plowed nearly 100,000 acres of virgin moorland. 他们犁了将近10万英亩未开垦的高沼地。 来自辞典例句
• He plowed the land and then sowed the seeds. 他先翻土，然后播种。 来自辞典例句

7 savagely   

adv. 野蛮地，残酷地

参考例句：

• The roses had been pruned back savagely. 玫瑰被狠狠地修剪了一番。
• He snarled savagely at her. 他向她狂吼起来。

8 cylinder   

n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸

参考例句：

• What's the volume of this cylinder?这个圆筒的体积有多少？
• The cylinder is getting too much gas and not enough air.汽缸里汽油太多而空气不足。

9 cartridges   

子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头

参考例句：

• computer consumables such as disks and printer cartridges 如磁盘、打印机墨盒之类的电脑耗材
• My new video game player came with three game cartridges included. 我的新电子游戏机附有三盘游戏带。

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

11 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

12 sneered   

讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sneered at people who liked pop music. 他嘲笑喜欢流行音乐的人。
• It's very discouraging to be sneered at all the time. 成天受嘲讽是很令人泄气的。

13 triangular   

adj.三角（形）的，三者间的

参考例句：

• It's more or less triangular plot of land.这块地略成三角形。
• One particular triangular relationship became the model of Simone's first novel.一段特殊的三角关系成了西蒙娜第一本小说的原型。

14 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

15 morosely   

adv.愁眉苦脸地，忧郁地

参考例句：

• Everybody, thought Scarlett, morosely, except me. 思嘉郁郁不乐地想。除了我，人人都去了。 来自飘（部分）
• He stared at her morosely. 他愁容满面地看着她。 来自辞典例句

16 insolently   

adv.自豪地，自傲地

参考例句：

• No does not respect, speak insolently,satire, etc for TT management team member. 不得发表对TT管理层人员不尊重、出言不逊、讽刺等等的帖子。 来自互联网
• He had replied insolently to his superiors. 他傲慢地回答了他上司的问题。 来自互联网

17 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

20 bristles   

短而硬的毛发，刷子毛( bristle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the bristles on his chin 他下巴上的胡楂子
• This job bristles with difficulties. 这项工作困难重重。

21 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

22 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

23 hectic   

adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的

参考例句：

• I spent a very hectic Sunday.我度过了一个忙乱的星期天。
• The two days we spent there were enjoyable but hectic.我们在那里度过的两天愉快但闹哄哄的。

24 enamel   

n.珐琅，搪瓷，瓷釉；(牙齿的)珐琅质

参考例句：

• I chipped the enamel on my front tooth when I fell over.我跌倒时门牙的珐琅质碰碎了。
• He collected coloured enamel bowls from Yugoslavia.他藏有来自南斯拉夫的彩色搪瓷碗。

25 enameled   

涂瓷釉于，给…上瓷漆，给…上彩饰( enamel的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The grey walls were divided into artificial paneling by strips of white-enameled pine. 灰色的墙壁用漆白的松木条隔成镶板的模样。
• I want a pair of enameled leather shoes in size 38. 我要一双38号的亮漆皮鞋。

26 dagger   

n.匕首，短剑，剑号

参考例句：

• The bad news is a dagger to his heart.这条坏消息刺痛了他的心。
• The murderer thrust a dagger into her heart.凶手将匕首刺进她的心脏。

27 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

28 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

29 guile   

n.诈术

参考例句：

• He is full of guile.他非常狡诈。
• A swindler uses guile;a robber uses force.骗子用诈术；强盗用武力。

30 secluded   

adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• Some people like to strip themselves naked while they have a swim in a secluded place. 一些人当他们在隐蔽的地方游泳时，喜欢把衣服脱光。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This charming cottage dates back to the 15th century and is as pretty as a picture, with its thatched roof and secluded garden. 这所美丽的村舍是15世纪时的建筑，有茅草房顶和宁静的花园，漂亮极了，简直和画上一样。 来自《简明英汉词典》

31 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。