Not often in a life-time does a man stand on the edge of eternity1, but when I spoke2 those words in that East End cellar I was perfectly3 certain that they were my last words on earth. I braced4 myself for the shock of those black, rushing waters beneath, and experienced in advance the horror of that breath-choking fall.
But to my surprise a low laugh fell on my ears. I opened my eyes. Obeying a sign from the man on the divan5, my two jailers brought me back to my old seat facing him.
"You are a brave man, Captain Hastings," he said. "We of the East appreciate bravery. I may say that I expected you to act as you have done. That brings us to the appointed second act of our little drama. Death for yourself you have faced—will you face death for another?"
"Surely you have not forgotten the lady who is in our power—the Rose of the Garden."
I stared at him in dumb agony.
"I think, Captain Hastings, that you will write that letter. See, I have a cable form here. The message I shall write on it depends on you, and means life or death for your wife."
The sweat broke out on my brow. My tormentor8 continued, smiling amiably9, and speaking with perfect sangfroid:—
"There, captain, the pen is ready to your hand. You have only to write. If not—"
"If not?" I echoed.
"If not, that lady that you love dies—and dies slowly. My master, Li Chang Yen10, amuses himself in his spare hours by devising new and ingenious methods of tortures—"
"My God!" I cried. "You fiend! Not that—you wouldn't do that—"
"Shall I recount to you some of his devices?"
Without heeding12 my cry of protest, his speech flowed on—evenly, serenely—till with a cry of horror I clapped my hands to my ears.
"It is enough, I see. Take up the pen and write."
"You would not dare—"
"Your speech is foolishness, and you know it. Take up the pen and write."
"If I do?"
"Your wife goes free. The cable shall be despatched immediately."
"How do I know that you will keep faith with me?"
"I swear it to you on the sacred tombs of my ancestors. Moreover, judge for yourself—why should I wish to do her harm? Her detention14 will have answered its purpose."
"And—and Poirot?"
"We will keep him in safe custody15 until we have concluded our operations. Then we will let him go."
"Will you swear that also on the tombs of your ancestors?"
"I have sworn one oath to you. That should be sufficient."
My heart sank. I was betraying my friend—to what? For a moment I hesitated—then the terrible alternative rose like a nightmare before my eyes. Cinderella—in the hands of these Chinese devils, dying by slow torture—
A groan16 rose to my lips. I seized the pen. Perhaps by careful wording of the letter, I could convey a warning, and Poirot would be enabled to avoid the trap. It was the only hope.
"Dear Poirot, I think I'm on the track of Number Four. A Chinaman came this afternoon and lured22 me down here with a bogus message. Luckily I saw through his little game in time, and gave him the slip. Then I turned the tables on him, and managed to do a bit of shadowing on my own account—rather neatly23 too, I flatter myself. I'm getting a bright young lad to carry this to you. Give him a half a crown, will you? That's what I promised him if it was delivered safely. I'm watching the house, and daren't leave. I shall wait for you until six o'clock, and if you haven't come then, I'll have a try at getting into the house on my own. It's too good a chance to miss, and, of course, the boy mightn't find you. But if he does, get him to bring you down here right away. And cover up those precious moustaches of yours in case any one's watching out from the house and might recognise you.
"Yours in haste,
"A. H."
Every word that I wrote plunged24 me deeper in despair. The thing was diabolically25 clever. I realised how closely every detail of our life must be known. It was just such an epistle as I might have penned myself. The acknowledgment that the Chinaman who had called that afternoon had endeavoured to "lure21 me away" discounted any good I might have done by leaving my "sign" of four books. It had been a trap, and I had seen through it, that was what Poirot would think. The time, too, was cleverly planned. Poirot, on receiving the note, would have just time to rush off with his innocent-looking guide, and that he would do so, I knew. My determination to make my way into the house would bring him post haste. He always displayed a ridiculous distrust of my capacities. He would be convinced that I was running into danger without being equal to the situation, and would rush down to take command of the situation.
But there was nothing to be done. I wrote as bidden. My captor took the note from me, read it, then nodded his head approvingly and handed it to one of the silent attendants who disappeared with it behind one of the silken hangings on the wall which masked a doorway26.
With a smile the man opposite to me picked up a cable form and wrote. He handed it to me.
I gave a sigh of relief.
"You will send it at once?" I urged.
He smiled, and shook his head.
"When M. Hercule Poirot is in my hands it shall be sent. Not until then."
"But you promised—"
"If this device fails, I may have need of our white bird—to persuade you to further efforts."
I grew white with anger.
"My God! If you—"
He waved a long slim yellow hand.
"Be reassured28, I do not think it will fail. And the moment M. Poirot is in our hands, I will keep my oath."
"If you play me false."
"I have sworn it by my honoured ancestors. Have no fear. Rest here awhile. My servants will see to your needs whilst I am absent."
I was left alone in this strange underground nest of luxury. The second Chinese attendant had reappeared. One of them brought food and drink and offered it to me, but I waved them aside. I was sick—sick—at heart—
And then suddenly the master reappeared tall and stately in his silken robes. He directed operations. By his orders I was hustled29 back through the cellar and tunnel into the original house I had entered. There they took me into a ground floor room. The windows were shuttered, but one could see through the cracks into the street. An old ragged30 man was shuffling31 along the opposite side of the road, and when I saw him make a sign to the window, I understood that he was one of the gang on watch.
"It is well," said my Chinese friend. "Hercule Poirot has fallen into the trap. He approaches now—and alone except for the boy who guides him. Now, Captain Hastings, you have still one more part to play. Unless you show yourself he will not enter the house. When he arrives opposite, you must go out on the step and beckon32 him in."
"What?" I cried, revolted.
"You play that part alone. Remember the price of failure. If Hercule Poirot suspects anything is amiss and does not enter the house, your wife dies by the Seventy lingering Deaths! Ah! Here he is."
With a beating heart, and a feeling of deathly sickness, I looked through the crack in the shutters33. In the figure walking along the opposite side of the street I recognised my friend at once, though his coat collar was turned up and an immense yellow muffler hid the bottom part of his face. But there was no mistaking that walk, and the poise34 of that egg-shaped head.
It was Poirot, coming to my aid in all good faith, suspecting nothing amiss. By his side ran a typical London urchin35, grimy of face and ragged of apparel.
Poirot paused, looking across at the house, whilst the boy spoke to him eagerly and pointed6. It was the time for me to act. I went out in the hall. At a sign from the tall Chinaman, one of the servants unlatched the door.
"Remember the price of failure," said my enemy in a low voice.
"Aha! So all is well with you, my friend. I was beginning to be anxious. You managed to get inside? Is the house empty, then?"
"Yes," I said, in a voice I strove to make natural. "There must be a secret way out of it somewhere. Come in and let us look for it."
And then something seemed to snap in my head. I saw only too clearly the part I was playing—the part of Judas.
"Back, Poirot!" I cried. "Back for your life. It's a trap. Never mind me. Get away at once."
Even as I spoke—or rather shouted my warning hands gripped me like a vice11. One of the Chinese servants sprang past me to grab Poirot.
I saw the latter spring back, his arm raised, then suddenly a dense38 volume of smoke was rising round me, choking me—killing me—
I felt myself falling—suffocating—this was death—
I came to myself slowly and painfully—all my senses dazed. The first thing I saw was Poirot's face. He was sitting opposite me watching me with an anxious face. He gave a cry of joy when he saw me looking at him.
"Ah, you revive—you return to yourself. All is well! My friend—my poor friend!"
"Where am I?" I said painfully.
"Where? But chez vous!"
I looked round me. True enough, I was in the old familiar surroundings. And in the grate were the identical four knobs of coal I had carefully spilt there.
Poirot had followed my glance.
"But yes, that was a famous idea of yours—that and the books. See you, if they should say to me any time. 'That friend of yours, that Hastings, he has not the great brain, is it not so?' I shall reply to them: 'You are in error.' It was an idea magnificent and superb that occurred to you there."
"You understood their meaning then?"
"Am I an imbecile? Of course I understood. It gave me just the warning I needed, and the time to mature my plans. Somehow or other the Big Four had carried you off. With what object? Clearly not for your beaux yeux—equally clearly not because they feared you and wanted to get you out of the way. No, their object was plain. You would be used as a decoy to get the great Hercule Poirot into their clutches. I have long been prepared for something of the kind. I make my little preparations, and presently, sure enough, the messenger arrives—such an innocent little street urchin. Me, I swallow everything, and hasten away with him, and, very fortunately, they permit you to come out on the doorstep. That was my one fear, that I should have to dispose of them before I had reached the place where you were concealed39, and that I should have to search for you—perhaps in vain—afterwards."
"Dispose of them, did you say?" I asked feebly. "Single-handed."
"Oh, there is nothing very clever about that. If one is prepared in advance all is simple—the motto of the Boy Scout40, is it not? And a very fine one. Me, I was prepared. Not so long ago, I rendered a service to a very famous chemist, who did a lot of work in connection with poison gas during the war. He devised for me a little bomb—simple and easy to carry about—one has but to throw it and poof, the smoke—and then the unconsciousness. Immediately I blow a little whistle and straightway some of Japp's clever fellows who were watching the house here long before the boy arrived, and who managed to follow us all the way to Limehouse, came flying up and took charge of the situation."
"But how was it you weren't unconscious too?"
"Another piece of luck. Our friend Number Four (who certainly composed that ingenious letter) permitted himself a little jest at my moustaches, which rendered it extremely easy for me to adjust my respirator under the guise41 of a yellow muffler."
"I remember," I cried eagerly, and then with the word "Remember" all the ghastly horror that I had temporarily forgotten came back to me. Cinderella—
I fell back with a groan.
I must have lost consciousness again for a minute or two. I awoke to find Poirot forcing some brandy between my lips.
"What is it, mon ami? But what is it—then? Tell me." Word by word, I got the thing told, shuddering42 as I did so. Poirot uttered a cry.
"My friend! My friend! But what you must have suffered! And I who knew nothing of all this! But reassure27 yourself! All is well!"
"You will find her, you mean? But she is in South America. And by the time we get there—long before, she will be dead—and God knows how and in what horrible way she will have died."
"No, no, you do not understand. She is safe and well. She has never been in their hands for one instant."
"But I got a cable from Bronsen?"
"No, no, you did not. You may have got a cable from South America signed Bronsen—that is a very different matter. Tell me, has it never occurred to you that an organisation43 of this kind, with ramifications44 all over the world, might easily strike at us through that little girl, Cinderella, whom you love so well?"
"No, never," I replied.
"Well, it did to me. I said nothing to you because I did not want to upset you unnecessarily—but I took measures of my own. Your wife's letters all seem to have been written from the ranch45, but in reality she has been in a place of safety devised by me for over three months."
I looked at him for a long time.
"You are sure of that?"
"Parbleu! I know it. They tortured you with a lie!"
I turned my head aside. Poirot put his hand on my shoulder. There was something in his voice that I had never heard there before.
"You like not that I should embrace you or display the emotion, I know well. I will be very British. I will say nothing—but nothing at all. Only this—that in this last adventure of ours, the honours are all with you, and happy is the man who has such a friend as I have!"
点击收听单词发音
1 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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2 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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3 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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4 braced | |
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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5 divan | |
n.长沙发;(波斯或其他东方诗人的)诗集 | |
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6 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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7 hoarsely | |
adv.嘶哑地 | |
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8 tormentor | |
n. 使苦痛之人, 使苦恼之物, 侧幕 =tormenter | |
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9 amiably | |
adv.和蔼可亲地,亲切地 | |
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10 yen | |
n. 日元;热望 | |
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11 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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12 heeding | |
v.听某人的劝告,听从( heed的现在分词 ) | |
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13 despatch | |
n./v.(dispatch)派遣;发送;n.急件;新闻报道 | |
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14 detention | |
n.滞留,停留;拘留,扣留;(教育)留下 | |
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15 custody | |
n.监护,照看,羁押,拘留 | |
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16 groan | |
vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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17 suave | |
adj.温和的;柔和的;文雅的 | |
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18 courteous | |
adj.彬彬有礼的,客气的 | |
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19 dictate | |
v.口授;(使)听写;指令,指示,命令 | |
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20 dictated | |
v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 );口授;支配;摆布 | |
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21 lure | |
n.吸引人的东西,诱惑物;vt.引诱,吸引 | |
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22 lured | |
吸引,引诱(lure的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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23 neatly | |
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地 | |
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24 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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25 diabolically | |
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26 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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27 reassure | |
v.使放心,使消除疑虑 | |
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28 reassured | |
adj.使消除疑虑的;使放心的v.再保证,恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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29 hustled | |
催促(hustle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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30 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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31 shuffling | |
adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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32 beckon | |
v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意,召唤 | |
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33 shutters | |
百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 ); (照相机的)快门 | |
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34 poise | |
vt./vi. 平衡,保持平衡;n.泰然自若,自信 | |
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35 urchin | |
n.顽童;海胆 | |
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36 beckoned | |
v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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38 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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39 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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40 scout | |
n.童子军,侦察员;v.侦察,搜索 | |
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41 guise | |
n.外表,伪装的姿态 | |
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42 shuddering | |
v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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43 organisation | |
n.组织,安排,团体,有机休 | |
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44 ramifications | |
n.结果,后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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45 ranch | |
n.大牧场,大农场 | |
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