CHAPTER X

TWICE during the journey to London Leloir entered the compartment¹ where Sir Anthony was, once bringing him tea, and again, just after leaving Normanton, bringing him the evening papers.

One of the dining-car attendants, who was a friend of Leloir’s, afterwards deposed² that there was something very strange about the man’s manner.

“He looked startled and white,” ran his deposition³, “looked like a man who had seen a ghost. I’ve known him a year, met him first on the run to Carlisle, then I met him in town by appointment and we went to a music hall together. He was always a good companion, and spent his money freely, but when he came into the car-kitchen for his master’s tea he had no sense in him; I asked him how his master was, he took me by the buttonhole and he says, ‘Parsons, do you believe in the supernatural?’

“‘No,’ I says, ‘I don’t. What makes you ask me?’

“‘Because,’ he says, and then he stopped, for the head attendant was calling to me.

“I’d give a dollar,” concluded Mr Parsons, “to know what he did mean, and I’d bet a dollar it was something queer.”

At St Pancras two broughams were waiting; Gyde got into the first, Leloir got on the box, and they drove off; the secretary and the dispatch boxes followed in the second brougham.

It was half-past eleven when they arrived at 110B Piccadilly.

Sir Anthony went to his own room, followed by his valet; the secretary went to his own room and to bed, as did Raymond the butler who was a man who kept early hours.

At midnight the house was as silent as the tomb.

Now, Mr Folgam’s apartments were on the same floor as Sir Anthony’s bedroom, and he was lying in bed reading The Count of Monte Cristo, when, very shortly after midnight, he heard a cry.

It was exactly like the howl of a dog. It was not like the sound a human being would emit, he afterwards deposed; and in this Mr Folgam, who was not a student of inarticulate sounds, was wholly wrong; for it was exactly like the cry of a man in the extremity⁴ of terror or mental agony. A sound which, fortunately, very few of us have ever heard.

But it was in the house, he was sure of that, and getting out of bed he came down the corridor towards Sir Anthony’s room.

The electric lamps were shut off in the corridor, but the place was dimly illuminated⁵ by the flood of light streaming through the secretary’s bedroom door.

He had reached the door of Sir Anthony’s room, when it was opened, and Sir Anthony himself, fully⁶ dressed and carrying a black bag in his hand, appeared.

On seeing Folgam he started, like a person who has received a shock.

“I thought I heard a cry,” said Folgam. “I thought some one might be ill, sir—”

“Ah!” said the other, “I heard nothing. Go to your room and tell them in the morning not to awaken⁷ me till ten. I shall be at work till late.”

Folgam apologized for his mistake and withdrew, and Sir Anthony, retiring into his room, shut the door.

Ten minutes later, had anyone been watching, they would have perceived Gyde, bag in hand, passing down the corridor.

He was holding one of those small electric lamps that light on pressure of a button. He came down the broad staircase, making as little sound as a cat.

He unbarred and unchained the front door, and if the bars and chains had been covered with velvet⁸ he could not have made less noise.

Closing the door behind him, he stood upon the steps.

A late hansom was passing; he hailed it, gave an address to the cabman, and drove away.

The clocks chimed the hours away, and the night-prowler and the policeman passed the house in Piccadilly, the house with the great marble pillars on either side the door, which every habitué of the West End knew to be the mansion⁹ of Gyde, the millionaire.

Two o’clock, three and four o’clock passed, and the dawn peeped into the bedroom of Sir Anthony Gyde, where, on his back, upon the floor, lay the valet, Leloir, dead, without scratch or wound, his arms outspread, and upon his face an expression of horror, caught and made immutable¹⁰ by death.

1 compartment   

n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间

参考例句：

• We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴，整个客车隔间由我们独享。
• The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。

2 deposed   

v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证

参考例句：

• The president was deposed in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被废黜。
• The head of state was deposed by the army. 国家元首被军队罢免了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 deposition   

n.免职，罢官；作证；沉淀；沉淀物

参考例句：

• It was this issue which led to the deposition of the king.正是这件事导致了国王被废黜。
• This leads to calcium deposition in the blood-vessels.这导致钙在血管中沉积。

4 extremity   

n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度

参考例句：

• I hope you will help them in their extremity.我希望你能帮助在穷途末路的他们。
• What shall we do in this extremity?在这种极其困难的情况下我们该怎么办呢？

5 illuminated   

adj.被照明的；受启迪的

参考例句：

• Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
• the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 awaken   

vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起

参考例句：

• Old people awaken early in the morning.老年人早晨醒得早。
• Please awaken me at six.请于六点叫醒我。

8 velvet   

n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的

参考例句：

• This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
• The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。

9 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

10 immutable   

adj.不可改变的，永恒的

参考例句：

• Nothing in the world is immutable.世界没有一成不变的东西。
• They free our minds from considering our world as fixed and immutable.它们改变着人们将世界看作是永恒不变的观点。