"No," said she, "I want to think first. Give me time to think. I dare not say a word without thinking."
"Truth needs no consideration. If you wish to denounce this man——"
Her look said she did.
"Then now is the time."
"You are no doctor," she declared. "Are you a police-officer?"
"I am a detective."
"Oh!" and she hesitated for a moment, shrinking from him with very natural distrust and aversion. "I have been in the toils3 then without knowing it; no wonder I am caught. But I am no criminal, sir; and if you are the one most in authority here, I beg the privilege of a few words with you before I am put into confinement4."
"I will take you before the Superintendent5," said Mr. Gryce. "But do you wish to go alone? Shall not Mr. Van Burnam accompany you?"[Pg 346]
"Mr. Van Burnam?"
"Is it not he you wish to denounce?"
"I do not wish to denounce any one to-day."
"What do you wish?" asked Mr. Gryce.
"Let me see the man who has power to hold me here or let me go, and I will tell him."
"Very well," said Mr. Gryce, and led her into the presence of the Superintendent.
She was at this moment quite a different person from what she had been in the carriage. All that was girlish in her aspect or appealing in her bearing had faded away, evidently forever, and left in its place something at once so desperate and so deadly, that she seemed not only a woman but one of a very determined6 and dangerous nature. Her manner, however, was quiet, and it was only in her eye that one could see how near she was to frenzy7.
"Sir," said she, "I have been brought here on account of a fearful crime I was unhappy enough to witness. I myself am innocent of that crime, but, so far as I know, there is no other person living save the guilty man who committed it, who can tell you how or why or by whom it was done. One man has been arrested for it and another has not. If you will give me two weeks of complete freedom, I will point out to you which is the veritable man of blood, and may Heaven have mercy on his soul!"
"She is mad," signified the Superintendent in by-play to Mr. Gryce.
But the latter shook his head; she was not mad yet.
"I know," she continued, without a hint of the[Pg 347] timidity which seemed natural to her under other circumstances, "that this must seem a presumptuous10 request from one like me, but it is only by granting it that you will ever be able to lay your hand on the murderer of Mrs. Van Burnam. For I will never speak if I cannot speak in my own way and at my own time. The agonies I have suffered must have some compensation. Otherwise I should die of horror and my grief."
"And how do you hope to gain compensation by this delay?" expostulated the Superintendent. "Would you not meet with more satisfaction in denouncing him here and now before he can pass another night in fancied security?"
But she only repeated: "I have said two weeks, and two weeks I must have. Two weeks in which to come and go as I please. Two weeks!" And no argument they could advance succeeded in eliciting11 from her any other response or in altering in any way her air of quiet determination with its underlying12 suggestion of frenzy.
Acknowledging their mutual13 defeat by a look, the Superintendent and detective drew off to one side, and something like the following conversation took place between them.
"I do."
"And will remain so two weeks?"
"If humored."
"You are sure she is implicated15 in this crime?"
"She was a witness to it."
"And that she speaks the truth when she declares that she is the only person who can point out the criminal?"[Pg 348]
"Yes; that is, she is the only one who will do it. The attitude taken by the Van Burnams, especially by Howard just now in the presence of this girl, shows how little we have to expect from them."
"Yet you think they know as much as she does about it?"
"I do not know what to think. For once I am baffled, Superintendent. Every passion which this woman possesses was roused by her unexpected meeting with Howard Van Burnam, and yet their indifference16 when confronted, as well as her present action, seems to argue a lack of connection between them which overthrows17 at once the theory of his guilt9. Was it the sight of Franklin, then, which really affected18 her? and was her apparent indifference at meeting him only an evidence of her self-control? It seems an impossible conclusion to draw, and indeed there are nothing but hitches19 and improbable features in this case. Nothing fits; nothing jibes20. I get just so far in it and then I run up against a wall. Either there is a superhuman power of duplicity in the persons who contrived21 this murder or we are on the wrong tack22 altogether."
"In other words, you have tried every means known to you to get at the truth of this matter, and failed."
"I have, sir; sorry as I may be to acknowledge it."
"Then we must accept her terms. She can be shadowed?"
"Every moment."
"Very well, then. Extreme cases must be met by extreme measures. We will let her have her swing, and see what comes of it. Revenge is a great weapon in the hands of a determined woman, and from her look I think she will make the most of it."[Pg 349]
And returning to where the young girl stood, the Superintendent asked her whether she felt sure the murderer would not escape in the time that must elapse before his apprehension23.
Instantly her cheek, which had looked as if it could never show color again, flushed a deep and painful scarlet24, and she cried vehemently25:
"If any hint of what is here passing should reach him I should be powerless to prevent his flight. Swear, then, that my very existence shall be kept a secret between you two, or I will do nothing towards his apprehension,—no, not even to save the innocent."
"We will not swear, but we will promise," returned the Superintendent. "And now, when may we expect to hear from you again?"
"Two weeks from to-night as the clock strikes eight. Be wherever I may chance to be at that hour, and see on whose arm I lay my hand. It will be that of the man who killed Mrs. Van Burnam."
点击收听单词发音
1 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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2 bestowed | |
赠给,授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3 toils | |
网 | |
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4 confinement | |
n.幽禁,拘留,监禁;分娩;限制,局限 | |
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5 superintendent | |
n.监督人,主管,总监;(英国)警务长 | |
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6 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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7 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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8 spoke | |
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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9 guilt | |
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责 | |
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10 presumptuous | |
adj.胆大妄为的,放肆的,冒昧的,冒失的 | |
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11 eliciting | |
n. 诱发, 引出 动词elicit的现在分词形式 | |
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12 underlying | |
adj.在下面的,含蓄的,潜在的 | |
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13 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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14 sane | |
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的 | |
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15 implicated | |
adj.密切关联的;牵涉其中的 | |
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16 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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17 overthrows | |
n.推翻,终止,结束( overthrow的名词复数 )v.打倒,推翻( overthrow的第三人称单数 );使终止 | |
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18 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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19 hitches | |
暂时的困难或问题( hitch的名词复数 ); 意外障碍; 急拉; 绳套 | |
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20 jibes | |
n.与…一致( jibe的名词复数 );(与…)相符;相匹配v.与…一致( jibe的第三人称单数 );(与…)相符;相匹配 | |
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21 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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22 tack | |
n.大头钉;假缝,粗缝 | |
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23 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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24 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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25 vehemently | |
adv. 热烈地 | |
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