Momentarily I saw—a black mote1 in that flickering2 violet transparency—the figure of Duke as he ran before me bobbing up and down like the shadow of the invisible man. Drawn3 by a sure instinct, he was heading for the mill, and every nerve must I strain to overtake him, now goaded4 by fear and triumph to maniacal5 frenzy6.
But half the distance was covered when the rain swept down in one blinding sheet, that lashed7 the gutters8 into froth a foot high and numbed9 the soul with its terrific uproar10.
On I staggered, knowing only for my comfort that the pursued must needs labor11 against no less resistance than the pursuer. Inch by inch I fought my way, taking advantage of every buttress12 and coign of shelter that presented itself; leaping aside with thump-heart from the crash of falling tiles or dropping swing of branches, as the wind flung them right and left in its passing; now stumbling and regaining13 my feet, shoulder to the storm, now driven back a pace by some gust—a giant among its fellows—inch by inch I drove on till the mill yard was reached; and all the way I gained never a foot upon him I strove to run down.
Then, rushing along the yard, where comparative shelter was, I found a thrill of fear, in the midmost confusion of my thoughts, for the safety of the building itself. For the voice of the mill-tail smote14 the roar of the elements and seemed to silence it, and the foam15 of its fury sprung and danced above the high-walled channel and flung itself against the parapet of the bridge in gusts16 of frosty whiteness. And in the little lulls17 came the whistle of sliding tiles from the roof or snap of them breaking from the walls; so that it seemed before long nothing but a skeleton of ancient timbers like the ribs18 and spars of the phantom19 death-ship would stand for the blast to scream through.
Then I came panting to the mill, my soul so whelmed in the roar of all things that room scarcely was for thought of those two stark20 sleepers21 lying quiet above and deaf forevermore to the hateful tumults22 of life—came to the mill, and on the instant abandoned hope. For so it appeared that in rushing from the door none had thought to shut it, and the tempest had caught and, near battering23 it from its hinges, had dashed it, wrenched24 and splintered, against the wall of the passage beyond, and in such way that no immediate25 human power might close it. And there lay the way into the building; open to all who listed, and if Jason had run thither26, as I bade him——
These thoughts were in passing. I never stayed my progress for them, but without pause leaped into the inclosed darkness, and only then I stood still.
Instantly with my plunge27 into that pit of blackness the hosts of the storm without seemed to break and scatter28 before the wind, shaken with low spasms29 of thunder as they fled; but under my feet the racing30 waters took up great chords of sound, so that the whole building trembled and vibrated with their awful music.
Overstrung to a pitch of madness, I felt my way to the foot of the stairs, and, stumbling, mounted in the darkness, and reached the first landing.
All was still as death. Perhaps it was death come in a new shape, and stealthily lying somewhere to trip up my feet in a ghastly game of clowns. I dared not go further; dared hardly to breathe.
As I stood, a rat began gnawing31 at the skirting. The jar of his teeth was like the turning of a rusty32 lock. The old superstition33 about falling houses passed through my mind. What if the close night about me were to be suddenly rent with the explosive splintering of great beams—with the raining thunder of roof and chimney-stack pouring downward in one vast ruin, of which I should be the mangled34 palpitating core?
My body burst into a cold sweat. Perhaps above all the fear in me was that death should find me with my mission unaccomplished; that I should have striven and waited in vain.
Shrinking, I would not push further to the upper rooms, but felt my way down the stairs once more. It was, at least, hardly probable that Jason would have rushed for asylum35 to the very death chambers36 above. More likely was I to find him crouching37 unnerved, if still alive, in some dark corner of one of the lower rooms.
As I descended38 into the passage I fancied I heard a step coming toward me; and the next moment a dusky shape stood up between me and the dim oblong of lesser39 darkness that marked where the front door gaped40 open. I ran forward—grasped at it blindly; and long arms were crooked41 about me and held me as in a vise.
“Who’s here?” cried Dr. Crackenthorpe, in a mad voice. “Who is it? Say, Renalt Trender, and let me choke the cursed life out of him!”
His passion would hardly allow him to articulate. He dragged me unresisting to the door, up the yard, and thrust his ugly face down till it almost touched mine.
“It is!” he cried, with a scream of fury. “Look—look there! See what you’ve done!”
I had marked it already—a dull glow rising over the houses and chimney pots that lay between us and Chis’ll street—a glow writhed42 with twisted skeins of smoke, that rolled heavily upward, coiling sluggishly43 in the calm that had fallen.
“Look!” he screeched45; “the priceless treasures of a life—the glories I bartered46 my soul for—doomed, in a moment, and by your act! Oh, dog, for revenge!”
“You lie!” I cried, outshrieking his rage with a fury that half-shook him from his hold on me. “I had no part in it! You saw it and you know! Go! Attend to your own. I’ve deadlier work in hand.”
I tore myself free of him with a violence that brought him on his knees, and hurried up the yard once more and into the pitchy house. He came upon me again while I was fumbling48 in my pockets for a match, but he put out no hand to me a second time.
“Listen, you,” he said, and the words rose and burst from his throat like bubbles. “You have been a thorn in my foot ever since I trod this city. If yours wasn’t the act, you were the cause. I would have killed you both on the spot—you and your accomplice—if the fire, blazing out on the curtains, had left me time. Now you shall know what it is to have made me desperate—desperate, do you understand, you fulsome49 cur? Better take a viper50 to bed with you than the thought of my revenge.”
“Dr. Crackenthorpe,” I said, very coolly, “you are a ruffian and a blackguard. Which is the more desperate of us two is an open question. Anyhow, I fancy myself the stronger. There’s the door. If you remain this side of it after I have counted twelve you try conclusions with the mill-tail yonder.”
I had struck a match while I spoke51 and kindled52 an oil lamp standing53 on a bracket. This wrestle54 with an evil soul had braced55 my nerves like a tonic56.
He slapped back against the passage wall, staring at me and gasping57. His face, I saw, was grimed with smoke, and his coat scorched58 in places.
I began to count, looking into his eyes, with a grim smile—had got as far as nine, without awakening59 movement on his part, when a deathly yell rung through the house and the words died on my lips.
I felt the blood leave my face, sinking like water in snow. There was no mistaking the direction from which the sound had come. It issued from the haunted room—there from the black end of the passage—from the core of hideous60 night, whose silence no storm could penetrate61.
Once I looked at the face before me and saw my own terror reflected in it; then I sprung for the dreadful place, sick, at whatever cost, to solve the mystery of the cry.
Groping for the heavy timbered door, I came suddenly upon a wide luminous62 square and almost fell into it. Then I saw, indeed, that the door itself was open and that a dim glow lighted the interior of the room. Something else I saw in the same instant—Duke, standing at the open mouth of the cupboard that inclosed the wheel—Duke, with a fearful smile on his white face, and his head bent63 as if he listened. And his black glowing eyes, set in pools of shadow, alone moved, fixing their gaze steadily64 on mine as I came into their vision.
“Stop!” he said, in a clear, low voice. He need not have bidden me. My limbs seemed paralyzed—my heart stiffening65 with deadly foreboding of some approaching wickedness.
A lighted lantern stood near him on the floor and threw a gigantic distorted shadow of him on the wall against the window.
“Did you hear?” he said, in a whisper that thrilled to me where I stood. “Is it haunted, this room of yours? It seems so. Listen!”
He leaned over and looked down into the pit, so that the upper half of his body was plunged66 in black shadow. Simultaneously67 an appalling68 scream rose from the depths and echoed away among the rafters above.
The marrow69 froze in my bones. I struggled vainly to rush forward, but my feet would not obey my will.
“My God!” I muttered from a crackled throat—“my God!”
“If you move to come at me,” he said, “I leap down there and end it. He won’t thank you, though.”
“Duke,” I forced myself to mutter, at length, in uncontrollable horror. “Is it Jason? Oh! be satisfied at last and God will forgive you.”
“Why, so I am!” he cried, with a whispering laugh. “But I never sent him down there. He went of his own accord—a secret, snug71 hiding-place. But he should have waited longer; and who would have thought of looking so deep! It was his leaning over, as he came up, to put the lantern where it stands that drew me.”
In the sickness of my terror I saw it all. Jason, flying back to the mill, mad with fear, mad for the means of escape—Jason, who had already solved the mystery of the treasure, and had only hitherto lacked the courage necessary to a descent upon it—Jason, in his despair, had seized a light, burst into the room of silence; had found the wheel stopped and the key in the lock, as I had left them; had, summoning his last of manliness72, gone down into the pit and, returning, had met his fearful enemy face to face.
I read it all and, utterly73 hopeless and demoralized as I was—knowing that a movement on my part would precipitate74 the tragedy—yet found voice to break the spell, and delivered my agony in a shriek47.
“Jason!” I screamed; “Jason! Climb up! You are as strong as he! Climb up and defy him! We are two to one!”
Even as the volume of my cry seemed to strike a responsive weak echo from the bowels75 of the pit, I was conscious that Dr. Crackenthorpe was breathing behind me over my shoulder. And while the sound of my voice ran from beam to beam in devilish harmonics, the cripple suddenly threw up his arms with a quavering screech44 and leaped upon the threshold of the cupboard.
“The man!” he yelled; “the dog, and now the man! I know him at last!”
Dr. Crackenthorpe broke past me with an answering cry:
“He fired my house! Stop him! The hound! Stop him!”
As he sprang forward Duke, with a sudden swoop76, seized the lantern from the floor and flung it at him; and at the same instant—as I saw by the flaming arc of light it made—clutched the rope and swung himself into the vault77. The lantern crashed and was extinguished. The doctor uttered a fierce oath. Spellbound I stood, and for half a dozen seconds the weltering blackness eddied78 with a ghastly silence. Then I heard the doctor fling past me, running out of the room with a fearful exclamation79 on his lips, and, as he went, scream after scream rise from the depths, so that my soul seemed to faint with the agony of it.
Groping, staggering, my brain reeling, I stumbled toward the sound.
“God forgive me!” I whispered. “Death is better than this.”
Even with the thought a new uproar broke upon my senses—the thunderous heaving onrush of a mighty80 torrent81 of water underfoot.
In a flash I knew what had happened. The hideous creature had lifted the sluice82 and turned the swollen83 flood upon the wheel.
Who killed Modred—How did he die?
What is the mystery of Duke Straw?
What was the sin of my mother?
Whose portrait was it that my father nailed to the axle of the wheel?
These and many other of the problems haunting my life came to me in swift succession, only to be passed in dullness and left unanswered.
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1
mote
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| n.微粒；斑点 | |
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flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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4
goaded
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| v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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maniacal
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| adj.发疯的 | |
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frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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8
gutters
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| （路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地 | |
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9
numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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12
buttress
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| n.支撑物；v.支持 | |
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13
regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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14
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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lulls
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| n.间歇期（lull的复数形式）vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的第三人称单数形式） | |
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ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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tumults
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| 吵闹( tumult的名词复数 )； 喧哗； 激动的吵闹声； 心烦意乱 | |
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battering
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| n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
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24
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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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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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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spasms
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| n.痉挛( spasm的名词复数 )；抽搐；（能量、行为等的）突发；发作 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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36
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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37
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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38
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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41
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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42
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
sluggishly
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| adv.懒惰地；缓慢地 | |
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44
screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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screeched
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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46
bartered
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| v.作物物交换，以货换货( barter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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48
fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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fulsome
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| adj.可恶的，虚伪的，过分恭维的 | |
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50
viper
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| n.毒蛇；危险的人 | |
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51
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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52
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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53
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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wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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59
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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61
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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62
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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63
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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64
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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65
stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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66
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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67
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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70
twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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71
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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72
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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73
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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74
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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75
bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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76
swoop
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| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
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77
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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78
eddied
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| 起漩涡，旋转( eddy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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80
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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81
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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82
sluice
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| n.水闸 | |
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83
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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84
panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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