This was where I found her. She did not seem surprised at my return—nothing, for that matter, ever surprised or perturbed4 her—and I at once saw that she was still living outside the course of events and that she would be unable to tell me anything useful. I gathered, however, that my uncle and Bérangère had gone out half an hour earlier.
"Together?" I asked.
"Good gracious, no! The master came through the kitchen and said, 'I'm going to post a letter. Then I shall go to the Yard.' He left a bottle behind him, you know, one of those blue medicine-bottles which he uses for his experiments."
"Where did he leave it, Valentine?"
"Why, over there, on the dresser. He must have forgotten it when he put on his overcoat, for he never parts with those bottles of his."
"It's not there, Valentine."
"Now that's a funny thing! M. Dorgeroux hasn't been back, I know."
"And has no one else been?"
"No. Yes, there has, though; a gentleman, a gentleman who came for Mlle. Bérangère a little while after."
"And did you go to fetch her?"
"Yes."
"Then it must have been while you were away . . ."
"You don't mean that! Oh, how M. Dorgeroux will scold me!"
"But who is the gentleman?"
"Upon my word, I couldn't tell you. . . . My sight is so bad. . . ."
"Do you know him?"
"No, I didn't recognize his voice."
"And did they both go out, Bérangère and he?"
"Yes, they crossed the road . . . opposite."
Opposite meant the path in the wood.
I thought for a second or two; and then, tearing a sheet of paper from my note-book, I wrote:
"My Dear Uncle,
"Wait for me, when you come back, and don't leave the Lodge on any account. The danger is imminent5.
"Victorien."
"Give this to M. Dorgeroux as soon as you see him, Valentine. I shall be back in half an hour."
The path ran in a straight line through dense6 thickets7 with tiny leaves burgeoning8 on the twigs9 of the bushes. It had rained heavily during the last few days, but a bright spring sun was drying the ground and I could distinguish no trace of footsteps. After walking three hundred yards, however, I met a small boy of the neighbourhood, whom I knew by sight, coming back to the village and pushing his bicycle, which had burst a tyre.
"You don't happen to have seen Mlle. Bérangère, have you?" I asked.
"Yes," he said, "with a gentleman."
"A gentleman wearing glasses?"
"Yes, a tall chap, with a big beard."
"Are they far away?"
"When I saw them, they were a mile and a quarter from here. I turned back later . . . they had taken the old road . . . the one that goes to the left."
I quickened my pace, greatly excited, for I was conscious of an increasing dread10. I reached the old road. But, a little farther on, it brought me to an open space crossed by a number of paths. Which was I to take?
Feeling more and more anxious, I called out:
"Bérangère! . . . Bérangère!"
Presently I heard the hum of an engine and the sound of a motor-car getting under way. It must have been five hundred yards from where I was. I turned down a path in which, almost at once, I saw footsteps very clearly marked in the mud, the footsteps of a man and of a woman. These led me to the entrance of a cemetery11 which had not been used for over twenty years and which, standing2 on the boundary of two parishes, had become the subject of claims, counterclaims and litigation generally.
I made my way in. The tall grass had been trampled12 down along two lines which skirted the wall, passed before the remnants of what had once been the keeper's cottage, joined around the kerb of a cistern13 fitted up as a well and were next continued to the wall of a half-demolished little mortuary chapel14.
Between the cistern and the chapel the soil had been trodden several times over. Beyond the chapel there was only one track of footsteps, those of a man.
I confess that just then my legs gave way beneath me, although there was no trace of a definite idea in my mind. I examined the inside of the chapel and then walked round it.
Something lying on the ground, at the foot of the only wall that was left wholly standing, attracted my attention. It was a number of bits of loose plaster which had fallen there and which were of a dark-grey colour that at once reminded me of the sort of wash with which the screen in the Yard was coated.
I looked up. More pieces of plaster of the same colour, placed flat against the wall and held in position by clamp-headed nails, formed another screen, an incomplete, broken screen, on which I could plainly see that a quite fresh layer of substance had been spread.
By whom? Evidently by one of the two persons whom I was tracking, by the man with the eye-glasses or by Bérangère, perhaps even by both. But with what object? Was it to conjure15 up the miraculous16 vision? And was I to believe—the supposition really forced itself upon me as a certainty—that the fragments of plaster had first been stolen from the rubbish in the Yard and then pieced together like a mosaic17?
In that case, if the conditions were the same, if the necessary substance was spread precisely18 in accordance with the details of the discovery, if I was standing opposite a screen identical at all points with the other, it was possible . . . it was possible. . . .
While this question was taking shape, my mind received so plain an answer that I saw the Three Eyes before they emerged from the depths whence I was waiting for them to appear. The image which I was evoking19 blended gradually with the real image which was forming and which presently opened its threefold gaze upon me, a fixed20 and gloomy gaze.
Here, then, as yonder, in the abandoned cemetery as in the Yard where Noël Dorgeroux summoned his inexplicable21 phantoms22 from the void, the Three Eyes were awakening23 to life. Chipped in one place, cracked in another, they looked through the fragments of disjointed plaster as they had done through the carefully tended screen. They gazed in this solitude25 just as though Noël Dorgeroux had been there to kindle26 and feed their mysterious flame.
The gloomy eyes, however, were changing their expression. They became wicked, cruel, implacable, ferocious27 even. Then they faded away; and I waited for the spectacle which those three geometrical figures generally heralded28. And in fact, after a break, there was a sort of pulsating29 light, but so confused that it was difficult for me to make out any clearly defined scenes.
I could barely distinguish some trees, a river with an eyot in it, a low-roofed house and some people; but all this was vague, misty30, unfinished, broken up by the cracks in the screen, impeded31 by causes of which I was ignorant. One might have fancied a certain hesitation32 in the will that evoked33 the image. Moreover, after a few fruitless attempts and an effort of which I perceived the futility34, the image abruptly35 faded away and everything relapsed into death and emptiness.
"Death and emptiness," I said aloud.
I repeated the words several times over. They rang within me like a funereal36 echo with which the memory of Bérangère was mingled37. The nightmare of the Three Eyes became one with the nightmare that drove me in pursuit of her. And I remained standing in front of the gruesome chapel, uncertain, not knowing what to do.
Bérangère's footprints brought me back to the well, near which I found in four places the marks of both her slender soles and both her pointed38 heels. The well was covered with a small, tiled dome39. Formerly40 a bucket was lowered by means of a pulley to bring up the rainwater that had been gathered from the roof of the house.
There was of course no valid41 reason to make me believe that a crime had been committed. The footmarks did not constitute a sufficient clue. Nevertheless I felt myself bathed in perspiration42; and, leaning over the open mouth, from which floated a damp and mildewed43 breath I faltered44:
"Bérangère!"
I heard not a sound.
I lit a piece of paper, which I screwed into a torch, throwing a glimmer45 of light into the widened reservoir of the cistern. But I saw nothing save a sheet of water, black as ink and motionless.
"No," I protested, "it's impossible. I have no right to imagine such an atrocity46. Why should they have killed her? It was my uncle who was threatened, not she."
At all events I continued my search and followed the man's single track. This led me to the far side of the cemetery and then to an avenue of fir-trees, where I came upon some cans of petrol. The motor-car had started from here. The tracks of the tyres ran through the wood.
I went no farther. It suddenly occurred to me that I ought before all to think of my uncle, to defend him and to take joint24 measures with him.
I therefore turned in the direction of the post-office. But, remembering that this was Sunday and that my uncle after dropping his letter in the box, had certainly gone back to the Yard, I ran to the Lodge and called out to Valentine:
"Has my uncle come in? Has he had my note?"
"No, no," she said. "I told you, the master has gone to the Yard."
"Exactly: he must have come this way!"
"Not at all. Coming from the post-office, he would go straight through the new entrance to the amphitheatre."
"In that case," I said, "all I need do is to go through the garden."
I hurried away, but the little door was locked. And from that moment, though there was nothing to prove my uncle's presence in the Yard, I felt certain that he was there and also felt afraid that my assistance had come too late.
I called. No one answered. The door remained shut.
Then, terrified, I went back to the house and out into the street and ran round the premises47 on the left, in order to go in by the new entrance.
This turned out to be a tall gate, flanked on either side by a ticket-office and giving access to a large courtyard, in which stood the back of the amphitheatre.
This gate also was closed, by means of a strong chain which my uncle had padlocked behind him.
What was I to do? Remembering how Bérangère and then I myself had climbed over the wall one day, I followed the other side of the Yard, in order to reach the old lamp-post. The same deserted48 path skirted the same stout49 plank50 fence, the corner of which ran into the fields.
When I came to this corner, I saw the lamp-post. At that moment, a man appeared on the top of the wall, caught hold of the post and let himself down by it. There was no room for doubt; the man leaving the Yard in this way had just been with my uncle. What had passed between them?
The distance that separated us was too great to allow me to distinguish his features. As soon as he saw me, he turned down the brim of his soft hat and drew the two ends of a muffler over his face. A loose-fitting grey rain-coat concealed51 his figure. I received the impression, however, that he was shorter and thinner than the man with the eye-glasses.
"Stop!" I cried, as he moved away.
My summons only hastened his flight; and it was in vain that I darted52 forward in his pursuit, shouting insults at him and threatening him with a revolver which I did not possess. He covered the whole width of the fields, leapt over a hedge and reached the skirt of the woods.
I was certainly younger than he, for I soon perceived that the interval53 between us was decreasing; and I should have caught him up, if we had been running across open country. But I lost sight of him at the first clump54 of trees; and I was nearly abandoning the attempt to come up with him, when, suddenly, he retraced55 his steps and seemed to be looking for something.
I made a rush for him. He did not appear to be perturbed by my approach. He merely drew a revolver and pointed it at me, without saying a word or ceasing his investigations56.
I now saw what his object was. Something lay gleaming in the grass. It was a piece of metal which, I soon perceived, was none other than the steel plate on which Noël Dorgeroux had engraved57 the chemical formula.
We both flung ourselves on the ground at the same time. I was the first to seize the strip of steel. But a hand gripped mine; and on this hand, which was half-covered by the sleeve of the rain-coat, there was blood.
I was startled and suffered from a moment's faintness. The vision of Noël Dorgeroux dying, nay58, dead, had flashed upon me so suddenly that the man succeeded in overpowering me and stretching me underneath59 him.
As we thus lay one against the other, with our faces almost touching60, I saw only part of his, the lower half being hidden by the muffler. But his two eyes glared at me, under the shadow of his hat; and we stared at each other in silence, while our hands continued to grapple.
Those eyes of his were cruel and implacable, the eyes of a murderer whose whole being is bent61 upon the supreme62 effort of killing63. Where had I seen them before? For I certainly knew those fiercely glittering eyes. Their gaze penetrated64 my brain at a spot into which it had already been deeply impressed. It bore a familiar look, a look which had crossed my own before. But when? In what eyes had I seen that expression? In the eyes looming65 out of the wall perhaps? The eyes shown on the fabulous66 screen?
Yes, yes, those were the eyes! I recognized them now! They had shone in the infinite space that lay in the depths of the plaster! They had lived before my sight, a few minutes ago, on the ruined wall of the mortuary chapel. They were the same cruel, pitiless eyes, the eyes which had perturbed me then even as they were perturbing67 me now, sapping my last remnant of strength.
I released my hold. The man sprang up, caught me a blow on the forehead with the butt68 of his revolver and ran away, carrying the steel plate with him.
This time I did not think of pursuing him. Without doing me any great hurt, the blow which I received had stunned69 me. I was still tottering70 on my feet when I heard, in the woods, the same sound of an engine being started and a car getting under way which I had heard near the cemetery. The motor-car, driven by the man with the eye-glasses, had come to fetch my assailant. The two confederates, after having probably rid themselves of Bérangère and certainly rid themselves of Noël Dorgeroux, were making off. . . .
My heart wrung71 with anguish72, I hurried back to the foot of the old lamp-post, hoisted73 myself to the top of the fence and in this way jumped into the front part of the Yard, contained between the main wall and the new structure of the amphitheatre.
This wall, entirely74 rebuilt, taller and wider than it used to be, now had the size and the importance of the outer wall of a Greek or Roman amphitheatre. Two square columns and a canopy75 marked the place of the screen, whose plaster, from the distance at which I stood, did not seem yet to be coated with its layer of a dark-grey composition, which explained why my uncle had left it uncovered. Nor could I at first see the lower part, which was concealed by a heap of materials of all kinds. But how certain I felt of what I should see when I came nearer! How well I knew what was there, behind those planks76 and building-stones!
My legs were trembling. I had to seek a support. It cost me an untold77 effort to take a few steps forward.
Right against the wall, in the very middle of his Yard, Noël Dorgeroux lay prone78, his arms twisted beneath him.
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1
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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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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3
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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4
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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5
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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6
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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7
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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8
burgeoning
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| adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝） | |
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9
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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10
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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11
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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12
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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13
cistern
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| n.贮水池 | |
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14
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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15
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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16
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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17
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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18
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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19
evoking
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| 产生，引起，唤起( evoke的现在分词 ) | |
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20
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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21
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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22
phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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23
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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24
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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25
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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26
kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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27
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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28
heralded
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| v.预示( herald的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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29
pulsating
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| adj.搏动的，脉冲的v.有节奏地舒张及收缩( pulsate的现在分词 )；跳动；脉动；受（激情）震动 | |
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30
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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31
impeded
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| 阻碍，妨碍，阻止( impede的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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33
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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34
futility
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| n.无用 | |
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35
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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36
funereal
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| adj.悲哀的；送葬的 | |
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37
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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38
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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40
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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41
valid
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| adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的 | |
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42
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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43
mildewed
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| adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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45
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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46
atrocity
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| n.残暴，暴行 | |
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47
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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48
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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50
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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51
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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52
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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53
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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54
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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55
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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56
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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57
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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58
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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59
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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60
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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61
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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62
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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63
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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64
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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65
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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66
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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67
perturbing
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| v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的现在分词 ) | |
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68
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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69
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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70
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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71
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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72
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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73
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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75
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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76
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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77
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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78
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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79
cursory
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| adj.粗略的；草率的；匆促的 | |
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80
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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