My uncle’s impatience1 would not suffer him to wait for the slow rotation2 which would bring us to the door, but he flung the reins3 and a crown-piece to one of the rough fellows who thronged4 the side-walk, and pushing his way vigorously through the crowd, he made for the entrance. As he came within the circle of light thrown by the windows, a whisper ran round as to who this masterful gentleman with the pale face and the driving-coat might be, and a lane was formed to admit us. I had never before understood the popularity of my uncle in the sporting world, for the folk began to huzza as we passed with cries of “Hurrah for Buck5 Tregellis! Good luck to you and your man, Sir Charles! Clear a path for a bang-up noble Corinthian!” whilst the landlord, attracted by the shouting, came running out to greet us.
“Good evening, Sir Charles!” he cried. “I hope I see you well, sir, and I trust that you will find that your man does credit to the George.”
“How is he?” asked my uncle, quickly.
“Never better, sir. Looks a picture, he does—and fit to fight for a kingdom.”
My uncle gave a sigh of relief.
“Where is he?” he asked.
“He’s gone to his room early, sir, seein’ that he had some very partic’lar business to-morrow mornin’,” said the landlord, grinning.
“Where is Belcher?”
“Here he is, in the bar parlour.”
He opened a door as he spoke6, and looking in we saw a score of well-dressed men, some of whose faces had become familiar to me during my short West End career, seated round a table upon which stood a steaming soup-tureen filled with punch. At the further end, very much at his ease amongst the aristocrats7 and exquisites8 who surrounded him, sat the Champion of England, his superb figure thrown back in his chair, a flush upon his handsome face, and a loose red handkerchief knotted carelessly round his throat in the picturesque9 fashion which was long known by his name. Half a century has passed since then, and I have seen my share of fine men. Perhaps it is because I am a slight creature myself, but it is my peculiarity10 that I had rather look upon a splendid man than upon any work of Nature. Yet during all that time I have never seen a finer man than Jim Belcher, and if I wish to match him in my memory, I can only turn to that other Jim whose fate and fortunes I am trying to lay before you.
“Come in, Tregellis!” “We were expecting you!” “There’s a devilled bladebone ordered.” “What’s the latest from London?” “What is the meaning of the long odds13 against your man?” “Have the folk gone mad?” “What the devil is it all about?” They were all talking at once.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” my uncle answered. “I shall be happy to give you any information in my power a little later. I have a matter of some slight importance to decide. Belcher, I would have a word with you!”
The Champion came out with us into the passage.
“Where is your man, Belcher?”
“He has gone to his room, sir. I believe that he should have a clear twelve hours’ sleep before fighting.”
“What sort of day has he had?”
“I did him lightly in the matter of exercise. Clubs, dumbbells, walking, and a half-hour with the mufflers. He’ll do us all proud, sir, or I’m a Dutchman! But what in the world’s amiss with the betting? If I didn’t know that he was as straight as a line, I’d ha’ thought he was planning a cross and laying against himself.”
“It’s about that I’ve hurried down. I have good information, Belcher, that there has been a plot to cripple him, and that the rogues14 are so sure of success that they are prepared to lay anything against his appearance.”
Belcher whistled between his teeth.
“I’ve seen no sign of anything of the kind, sir. No one has been near him or had speech with him, except only your nephew there and myself.”
“Four villains15, with Berks at their head, got the start of us by several hours. It was Warr who told me.”
“Red Ike, Fighting Yussef, and Chris McCarthy.”
“A pretty gang, too! Well, sir, the lad is safe, but it would be as well, perhaps, for one or other of us to stay in his room with him. For my own part, as long as he’s my charge I’m never very far away.”
“It is a pity to wake him.”
“He can hardly be asleep with all this racket in the house. This way, sir, and down the passage!”
We passed along the low-roofed, devious17 corridors of the old-fashioned inn to the back of the house.
“This is my room, sir,” said Belcher, nodding to a door upon the right. “This one upon the left is his.” He threw it open as he spoke. “Here’s Sir Charles Tregellis come to see you, Jim,” said he; and then, “Good Lord, what is the meaning of this?”
The little chamber18 lay before us brightly illuminated19 by a brass20 lamp which stood upon the table. The bedclothes had not been turned down, but there was an indentation upon the counterpane which showed that some one had lain there. One-half of the lattice window was swinging on its hinge, and a cloth cap lying upon the table was the only sign of the occupant. My uncle looked round him and shook his head.
“It seems that we are too late,” said he.
“That’s his cap, sir. Where in the world can he have gone to with his head bare? I thought he was safe in his bed an hour ago. Jim! Jim!” he shouted.
“He has certainly gone through the window,” cried my uncle. “I believe these villains have enticed21 him out by some devilish device of their own. Hold the lamp, nephew. Ha! I thought so. Here are his footmarks upon the flower-bed outside.”
The landlord, and one or two of the Corinthians from the bar-parlour, had followed us to the back of the house. Some one had opened the side door, and we found ourselves in the kitchen garden, where, clustering upon the gravel22 path, we were able to hold the lamp over the soft, newly turned earth which lay between us and the window.
“That’s his footmark!” said Belcher. “He wore his running boots this evening, and you can see the nails. But what’s this? Some one else has been here.”
“A woman!” I cried.
“By Heaven, you’re right, nephew,” said my uncle.
“He never had a word to say to any girl in the village. I took partic’lar notice of that. And to think of them coming in like this at the last moment!”
“It’s clear as possible, Tregellis,” said the Hon. Berkeley Craven, who was one of the company from the bar-parlour. “Whoever it was came outside the window and tapped. You see here, and here, the small feet have their toes to the house, while the others are all leading away. She came to summon him, and he followed her.”
“That is perfectly24 certain,” said my uncle. “There’s not a moment to be lost. We must divide and search in different directions, unless we can get some clue as to where they have gone.”
“There’s only the one path out of the garden,” cried the landlord, leading the way. “It opens out into this back lane, which leads up to the stables. The other end of the lane goes out into the side road.”
The bright yellow glare from a stable lantern cut a ring suddenly from the darkness, and an ostler came lounging out of the yard.
“Who’s that?” cried the landlord.
“It’s me, master! Bill Shields.”
“How long have you been there, Bill?”
“Well, master, I’ve been in an’ out of the stables this hour back. We can’t pack in another ’orse, and there’s no use tryin’. I daren’t ’ardly give them their feed, for, if they was to thicken out just ever so little—”
“See here, Bill. Be careful how you answer, for a mistake may cost you your place. Have you seen any one pass down the lane?”
“There was a feller in a rabbit-skin cap some time ago. ’E was loiterin’ about until I asked ’im what ’is business was, for I didn’t care about the looks of ’im, or the way that ’e was peepin’ in at the windows. I turned the stable lantern on to ’im, but ’e ducked ’is face, an’ I could only swear to ’is red ’ead.”
I cast a quick glance at my uncle, and I saw that the shadow had deepened upon his face.
“What became of him?” he asked.
“’E slouched away, sir, an’ I saw the last of ’im.”
“You’ve seen no one else? You didn’t, for example, see a woman and a man pass down the lane together?”
“No, sir.”
“Or hear anything unusual?”
“Why, now that you mention it, sir, I did ’ear somethin’; but on a night like this, when all these London blades are in the village—”
“What was it, then?” cried my uncle, impatiently.
“Well, sir, it was a kind of a cry out yonder as if some one ’ad got ’imself into trouble. I thought, maybe, two sparks were fightin’, and I took no partic’lar notice.”
“Where did it come from?”
“From the side road, yonder.”
“Was it distant?”
“No, sir; I should say it didn’t come from more’n two hundred yards.”
“A single cry?”
“Well, it was a kind of screech25, sir, and then I ’eard somebody drivin’ very ’ard down the road. I remember thinking that it was strange that any one should be driving away from Crawley on a great night like this.”
My uncle seized the lantern from the fellow’s hand, and we all trooped behind him down the lane. At the further end the road cut it across at right angles. Down this my uncle hastened, but his search was not a long one, for the glaring light fell suddenly upon something which brought a groan26 to my lips and a bitter curse to those of Jem Belcher. Along the white surface of the dusty highway there was drawn27 a long smear28 of crimson29, while beside this ominous30 stain there lay a murderous little pocket-bludgeon, such as Warr had described in the morning.
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1
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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2
rotation
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| n.旋转；循环，轮流 | |
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3
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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4
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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6
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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7
aristocrats
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| n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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8
exquisites
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| n.精致的( exquisite的名词复数 )；敏感的；剧烈的；强烈的 | |
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9
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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10
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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11
jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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12
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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13
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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14
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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15
villains
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| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
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16
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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17
devious
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| adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的 | |
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18
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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20
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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21
enticed
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| 诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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23
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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24
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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25
screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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26
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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27
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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28
smear
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| v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑 | |
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29
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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