The doctor removed his coat with absent-minded slowness, and all the time that he was removing the dust and the stains of travel, he kept narrowing the eye of his mind to visualise more clearly that cumbersome1 chain which lay on the floor of the adjoining room. Now, the doctor was not of a curious or gossipy nature, but if someone had offered to tell him the story of that chain for a thousand dollars, the doctor at that moment would have thought the price ridiculously small.
Then the doctor went down to the dinner table prepared to keep one eye upon Buck2 Daniels and the other upon Kate Cumberland. But if he expected to learn through conversation at the table he was grievously disappointed, for Buck Daniels ate with an eye to strict business that allowed no chatter3, and the girl sat with a forced smile and an absent eye. Now and again Buck would glance up at her, watch her for an instant, and then turn his attention back to his plate with a sort of gloomy resolution; there were not half a dozen words exchanged from the beginning to the end of the meal.
After that they went in to the invalid4. He lay in the same position, his skinny hands crossed upon his breast, and his shaggy brows were drawn5 so low that the eyes were buried in profound shadow. They took positions in a loose semi-circle, all pointing towards the sick man, and it reminded Byrne with grim force of a picture he had seen of three wolves waiting for the bull moose to sink in the snows: they, also, were waiting for a death. It seemed, indeed, as if death must have already come; at least it could not make him more moveless than he was. Against the dark wall his profile was etched by a sharp highlight which was brightest of all on his forehead and his nose; while the lower portion of the face was lost in comparative shadow.
So perfect and so detailed6 was the resemblance to death, indeed, that the lips in the shadow smiled—fixedly. It was not until Kate Cumberland shifted a lamp, throwing more light on her father, that Byrne saw that the smile was in reality a forcible compression of the lips. He understood, suddenly, that the silent man on the couch was struggling terribly against an hysteria of emotion. It brought beads8 of sweat out upon the doctor's tall forehead; for this perfect repose9 suggested an agony more awful than yells and groans10 and struggles. The silence was like acid; it burned without a flame. And Byrne knew, that moment, the quality of the thing which had wasted the rancher. It was this acid of grief or yearning11 which had eaten deep into him and was now close to his heart. The girl had said that for six months he had been failing. Six months! Six eternities of burning at the stake!
He lay silent, waiting; and his resignation meant that he knew death would come before that for which he waited. Silence, that was the key-note of the room. The girl was silent, her eyes dark with grief; yet they were not fixed7 upon her father. It came thrilling home to Byrne that her sorrow was not entirely12 for her dying parent, for she looked beyond him rather than at him. Was she, too, waiting? Was that what gave her the touch of sad gravity, the mystery like the mystery of distance?
And Buck Daniels. He, also, said nothing. He rolled cigarettes one after another with amazing dexterity13 and smoked them with half a dozen Titanic14 breaths. His was a single-track mind. He loved the girl, and he bore the sign of his love on his face. He wanted her desperately15; it was a hunger like that of Tantalus, too keen to be ever satisfied. Yet, still more than he looked at the girl, he, also, stared into the distance. He, also, was waiting!
It was the deep suspense16 of Cumberland which made him so silently alert. He was as intensely alive as the receiver of a wireless17 apparatus18; he gathered information from the empty air.
So that Byrne was hardly surprised, when, in the midst of that grim silence, the old man raised a rigid19 forefinger20 of warning. Kate and Daniels stiffened21 in their chairs and Byrne felt his flesh creep. Of course it was nothing. The wind, which had shaken the house with several strong gusts22 before dinner, had now grown stronger and blew with steadily23 increasing violence; perhaps the sad old man had been attracted by the mournful chorus and imagined some sound he knew within it.
But now once more the finger was raised, the arm extended, shaking violently, and Joe Cumberland turned upon them a glance which flashed with a delirious24 and unhealthy joy.
"Listen!" he cried. "Again!"
"What?" asked Kate.
"I hear them, I tell you."
Her lips blanched25, and parted to speak, but she checked the impulse and looked swiftly about the room with what seemed to Byrne an appeal for help. As for Buck Daniels, he changed from a dark bronze to an unhealthy yellow; fear, plain and grimly unmistakable, was in his face. Then he strode to the window and threw it open with a crash. The wind leaped in and tossed the flame in the throat of the chimney, so that great shadows waved suddenly through the room, and made the chairs seem afloat. Even the people were suddenly unreal. And the rush of the storm gave Byrne an eerie26 sensation of being blown through infinite space. For a moment there was only the sound of the gale27 and the flapping of a loose picture against the wall, and the rattling28 of a newspaper. Then he heard it.
First it was a single note which he could not place. It was music, and yet it was discordant29, and it had the effect of a blast of icy wind.
Once he had been in Egypt and had stood in a corridor of Cheops' pyramid. The torch had been blown out in the hand of his guide. From somewhere in the black depths before them came a laugh, made unhuman by echoes. And Byrne had visioned the mummied dead pushing back the granite30 lids of their sarcophagi and sitting upright.
But that was nothing compared with this. Not half so wild or strange.
He listened again, breathless, with the sharp prickling running up and down his spine31. It was the honking32 of the wild geese, flying north. And out of the sound he builded a picture of the grey triangle cleaving33 through the cold upper sky, sent on a mission no man could understand.
"Was I right? Was I right?" shrilled34 the invalid, and when Byrne turned towards him, he saw the old man sitting erect35, with an expression of wild triumph. There came an indescribable cry from the girl, and a deep throated curse from Buck Daniels as he slammed down the window.
With the chill blast shut off and the flame burning steadily once more in the lamp, a great silence besieged36 the room, with a note of expectancy37 in it. Byrne was conscious of being warm, too warm. It was close in the room, and he was weighted down. It was as if another presence had stepped into the room and stood invisible. He felt it with unspeakable keenness, as when one knows certainly the thoughts which pass in the mind of another. And, more than that, he knew that the others in the room felt what he felt. In the waiting silence he saw that the old man lay on his couch with eyes of fire and gaping38 lips, as if he drank the wine of his joyous39 expectancy. And big Buck Daniels stood with his hand on the sash of the window, frozen there, his eyes bulging40, his heart thundering in his throat. And Kate Cumberland sat with her eyes closed, as she had closed them when the wind first rushed upon her, and she still smiled as she had smiled then. And to Byrne, more terrible than the joy of Joseph Cumberland or the dread41 of Buck Daniels was the smile and the closed eyes of the girl.
But the silence held and the fifth presence was in the room, and not one of them dared speak.
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收听单词发音
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1
cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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2
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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4
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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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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6
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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7
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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8
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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9
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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14
titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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15
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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16
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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18
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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19
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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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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23
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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24
delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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25
blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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27
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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28
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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29
discordant
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| adj.不调和的 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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31
spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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32
honking
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| v.（使）发出雁叫似的声音，鸣（喇叭），按（喇叭）( honk的现在分词 ) | |
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33
cleaving
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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34
shrilled
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| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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36
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
expectancy
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| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
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38
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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39
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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40
bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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41
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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