“Under a cloud,” he repeated, thoughtfully; “under a cloud. That may mean anything—murder, arson5, theft, elopement. I’m a fugitive6 from justice, I suppose. That much Frothingham made very clear when he urged my stopping those cables.” And then his mood changed, and he argued that he was unnecessarily agitated7. It could not be so bad. In his senses or out of them he would never, he felt sure, have committed a crime—some indiscretion, possibly, but not a crime.
When at length the file of the newspaper was before him and he was turning the pages, he noted8 that his fingers were unsteady and that perspiration9 was oozing10 from every pore. Carefully he scanned20 each headline, running down column after column with keen scrutiny11. Ten minutes passed and he had reached nearly the middle of the month without finding so much as a line of what he sought. Much of the matter, however, was familiar, from which he argued that the date of revelation must be farther on. Each leaf of the book of days he turned now with dread12 expectation. He had been standing13, the file on a table at arm’s length, but suddenly he sat down, stunned14 by the message of the types that faced him:
“Carey Grey an Embezzler—Well-known Wall Street Broker16 Hypothecates Firm’s Securities and Disappears—Upwards of a Hundred Thousand Dollars Gone.”
His heart was pounding very hard and his head was bursting.
“It’s a lie,” he muttered, inaudibly, “an outrageous17, despicable lie. It’s impossible. It’s preposterous18. Embezzle15 from my own firm? It’s ridiculous.”
He leaned forward and pulled the file of papers down until one end rested in his lap, and then he read hastily, but with the scrupulous19 heed20 of absolute21 concentration, every word of the two columns that told with minute detail the story of his defalcation21 and flight.
“Carey Grey, of the firm of Mallory & Grey, stockbrokers22, with offices in the Mills Building,” began the account, “has been missing for a week and securities to the value of $110,000, it was discovered yesterday, have disappeared from the firm’s safe deposit vault23. Most of the securities, including first mortgage bonds of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, to the amount of $40,000, and Brooklyn Rapid Transit24 5s, worth $40,000 more, Grey hypothecated, personally, with the Shoe and Leather Bank on the day prior to his flight.
“The news of the defalcation caused a sensation in the Street and in society as well. Carey Grey was one of the most popular members of the Stock Exchange and his character had always been regarded as beyond reproach. A member of an old New York family—his mother was a Livingstone—his social position was of the best. He occupied bachelor apartments in the Dunscombe, on Sixty-sixth street, near Madison avenue, and22 his name appears on the membership lists of the union, Knickerbocker, and other clubs.
“Mr. Mallory, his partner, said yesterday: ‘Mr. Grey was at his desk last Wednesday when I reached the office, and he was there when I went away at half-past three. There was nothing unusual in his manner. He discussed with me several matters of business and spoke25 of a certain directors’ meeting that he should attend the next day. I have not seen or heard from him since. When he did not appear on Thursday I feared he was ill and telephoned to his rooms, but the answer came that he was not in. The whole business is to me inexplicable26. I have known Carey Grey from childhood, and I would have been willing to swear that there was not a dishonest bone in his body. But the evidence against him is simply indisputable. The loss struck us at an especially bad time, but we shall pull through all right.’
“Inspector McClusky admitted that he was all at sea concerning Grey’s whereabouts. The case was not reported to him for a week—not until the securities were missed—and so it was quite possible the absconder27 had left the country; nevertheless23 he was doing all in his power to locate him.
“At Grey’s apartments yesterday Franz Lutz, his valet, was preparing to seek employment elsewhere.
“‘Mr. Grey,’ he said, ‘slept here last Wednesday night. He rose about eight o’clock Thursday morning, saying he had an urgent business appointment at the Waldorf-Astoria at ten sharp. He went away in a cab, and I have not seen him since.’
“Grey’s mother, who lives with her sister, Mrs. Hermann Valkenburgh, in Washington Square, North, has been prostrated28 by the revelations of the past twenty-four hours, and is under the care of her physician, Dr. Elbridge Bond.
“A rumour29 that Grey was engaged to be married to Miss Hope Van Tuyl, daughter of Nicholas Van Tuyl, president of the Consolidated30 Mortgage Company, was current yesterday. Miss Van Tuyl when seen last night denied the report.”
There was more of it, much more, all of which Grey read with deep and astonished interest; but it was merely repetition and speculation31. When24 he finished the two columns he turned to the paper of the day following, and found a column there. As Frothingham had told him, the newspapers had kept up the sensation for weeks, and the Herald was as energetic as any. At length came a report that a man answering his description had jumped overboard from a steamer in the Gulf32 of Mexico and had been drowned before assistance could reach him. There was nothing in his effects to give a hint as to his identity, but the world, with one accord, apparently33, had accepted the suggestion that it was the missing Grey, and then the subject was dropped.
He ran through the files for another month, but other matters of more immediate34 interest had crowded the Grey affair out of the public thought.
He returned the papers to the clerk who had provided them, and went out onto the Avenue de l’Opéra, horrified35 and perplexed36. He was a felon37, hiding from the law. And yet never, so far as he could remember, had he harboured a dishonest impulse. He was disguised to escape detection, and the disguise when he had discovered it had been, and still was, more mystifying to himself25 than it could possibly be to others. Then he began to wonder what his cables would bring forth38. He would be arrested, of course, and tried, and in all probability found guilty. The evidence against him as set forth in the newspaper account was not merely strong—it was irrefutable. Against the testimony39 of Mallory and of the bank officials what could he offer in refutation? To fancy any court or jury would put faith in his asseveration that he was unconscious when the act was committed was to count on the impossible. Nevertheless it was clearly his duty now to return at once to America and do all in his power to make reparation. And then it occurred to him that in spite of his alleged40 embezzlement41 he was, apparently, practically without funds. If he had taken the money, as charged, it must, of course, be somewhere, but of its location he had not the faintest idea. That he had disposed of a hundred or even eighty thousand dollars in five months was in the highest degree improbable.
At the corner of the Rue42 de la Paix is the office of Thomas Cook & Sons, and Grey entered and inquired as to the sailing of transatlantic liners.26 The Celtic, he learned, was to sail the next day from Liverpool, but he could make better time probably, the clerk told him, by taking the Deutschland from Boulogne, or the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse from Cherbourg, on Saturday. The tide of travel was all the other way at this season and he would have no difficulty in securing a stateroom, even at the last minute.
Resuming his stroll he had very nearly reached his hotel when a young man, pale and evidently much agitated, halted before him, and raising his hat, deferentially43, said:
“A thousand pardons, Herr Arndt, but I beg you to make haste. Herr Schlippenbach—he is dying.”
He spoke in German, and Grey noted that in feature and manner he was Teutonic. For an instant the American imagined the youth had addressed him by mistake, but he had sufficient presence of mind to give no sign. A second later he was reassured44.
“I went to your room, Herr Arndt, as usual at four-thirty, but you were gone out, and the portier told me you left no message.”
27 Grey hesitated over a reply. He realized that he was on the verge45 of a discovery. It was very evident now that he was not alone in Paris—that he had acquaintances, at least; probably companions; and that one of them was dying. In order to learn more he must give no indication of the change that had been wrought46 in him in the last few hours.
“Dying!” he exclaimed, in a tone of surprise; “I had no idea it was so serious.”
His German was excellent. In his early youth he had spent two years at G?ttingen, and had lived for one winter with a German family in Vienna.
“Yes,” went on the young man, excitedly, “the Herr Doctor says it is a matter now of hours only, perhaps minutes. They have sent for a priest. Herr Schlippenbach—poor old Herr Schlippenbach—he is quite unconscious.”
“He can recognise no one?”
“No, Herr Arndt, he just lies staring at the ceiling, and breathing very hard and loud. Oh, it is so pitiful! And the Fr?ulein, she is sobbing47, sobbing, sobbing all the time.”
28 Herr Arndt. So that is the name he is known by here in Paris, at the H?tel Grammont, by those he has met—those he has travelled with, perhaps! And there is a Fr?ulein in the party! Herr Schlippenbach’s daughter, probably. A hundred questions crowded for utterance48, but he held them back.
“It was the Fr?ulein who sent for the priest, I suppose?” he ventured.
“Yes, Herr Arndt; she and Herr Captain Lindenwald. When Herr Schlippenbach dies Fr?ulein von Altdorf will have a great fortune; yes?”
“Surely,” Grey hazarded. Then the girl was not the old German’s daughter, after all, though she was to inherit his property. The affair was growing a trifle complicated.
“And Herr Captain Lindenwald—will he, do you think, Herr Arndt, marry the Fr?ulein?”
Grey was silent. If this fellow was a servant he was evidently forgetting his place, and it was well to remind him of it.
“How odd it is I never can remember your name!” he said, at length, ignoring the question and scowling49 a little.
29 “Johann, Herr Arndt.”
“Yes, yes, to be sure. How stupid!”
And then they turned in at the broad marble entrance of the hotel.
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1
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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arson
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| n.纵火，放火 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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7
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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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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13
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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14
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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15
embezzle
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| vt.贪污，盗用；挪用(公款；公物等) | |
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broker
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| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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18
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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19
scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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20
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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defalcation
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| n.盗用公款，挪用公款，贪污 | |
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22
stockbrokers
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| n.股票经纪人( stockbroker的名词复数 ) | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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24
transit
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| n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过 | |
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25
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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26
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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27
absconder
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| n.潜逃者，逃跑者 | |
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28
prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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29
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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30
consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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32
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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33
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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felon
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| n.重罪犯；adj.残忍的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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39
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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40
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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41
embezzlement
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| n.盗用，贪污 | |
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42
rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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43
deferentially
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| adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地 | |
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44
reassured
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| 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) | |
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45
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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46
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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47
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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48
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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49
scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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