Here was this soldier, who had faced war and its ugly realities open-eyed and fearless, picking, indeed, the most dangerous branch of service for his own, a modern if ever there was one, appreciative2 of most unmystical Broadway, and yet soberly and earnestly attesting3 to his belief in banshee, in shadowy people of the woods, and phantom4 harpers! I wondered what he would think if he could see the Dweller5 and then, with a pang6, that perhaps his superstitions7 might make him an easy prey8.
He shook his head half impatiently and ran a hand over his eyes; turned to me and grinned:
“Don’t think I’m cracked, Professor,” he said. “I’m not. But it takes me that way now and then. It’s the Irish in me. And, believe it or not, I’m telling you the truth.”
I looked eastward9 where the moon, now nearly a week past the full, was mounting.
“You can’t make me see what you’ve seen, Lieutenant,” I laughed. “But you can make me hear. I’ve always wondered what kind of a noise a disembodied spirit could make without any vocal10 cords or breath or any other earthly sound-producing mechanism11. How does the banshee sound?”
O’Keefe looked at me seriously.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll show you.” From deep down in his throat came first a low, weird12 sobbing13 that mounted steadily14 into a keening whose mournfulness made my skin creep. And then his hand shot out and gripped my shoulder, and I stiffened15 like stone in my chair — for from behind us, like an echo, and then taking up the cry, swelled16 a wail17 that seemed to hold within it a sublimation18 of the sorrows of centuries! It gathered itself into one heartbroken, sobbing note and died away! O’Keefe’s grip loosened, and he rose swiftly to his feet.
“It’s all right, Professor,” he said. “It’s for me. It found me — all this way from Ireland.”
Again the silence was rent by the cry. But now I had located it. It came from my room, and it could mean only one thing — Huldricksson had wakened.
“Forget your banshee!” I gasped19, and made a jump for the cabin.
Out of the corner of my eye I noted20 a look of half-sheepish relief flit over O’Keefe’s face, and then he was beside me. Da Costa shouted an order from the wheel, the Cantonese ran up and took it from his hands and the little Portuguese21 pattered down toward us. My hand on the door, ready to throw it open, I stopped. What if the Dweller were within — what if we had been wrong and it was not dependent for its power upon that full flood of moon ray which Throckmartin had thought essential to draw it from the blue pool!
From within, the sobbing wail began once more to rise. O’Keefe pushed me aside, threw open the door and crouched22 low within it. I saw an automatic flash dully in his hand; saw it cover the cabin from side to side, following the swift sweep of his eyes around it. Then he straightened and his face, turned toward the berth23, was filled with wondering pity.
Through the window streamed a shaft24 of the moonlight. It fell upon Huldricksson’s staring eyes; in them great tears slowly gathered and rolled down his cheeks; from his opened mouth came the woe-laden wailing25. I ran to the port and drew the curtains. Da Costa snapped the lights.
The Norseman’s dolorous26 crying stopped as abruptly27 as though cut. His gaze rolled toward us. And at one bound he broke through the leashes28 I had buckled29 round him and faced us, his eyes glaring, his yellow hair almost erect30 with the force of the rage visibly surging through him. Da Costa shrunk behind me. O’Keefe, coolly watchful31, took a quick step that brought him in front of me.
“Where do you take me?” said Huldricksson, and his voice was like the growl32 of a beast. “Where is my boat?”
I touched O’Keefe gently and stood before the giant.
“Listen, Olaf Huldricksson,” I said. “We take you to where the sparkling devil took your Helma and your Freda. We follow the sparkling devil that came down from the moon. Do you hear me?” I spoke33 slowly, distinctly, striving to pierce the mists that I knew swirled34 around the strained brain. And the words did pierce.
He thrust out a shaking hand.
“You say you follow?” he asked falteringly35. “You know where to follow? Where it took my Helma and my little Freda?”
“Just that, Olaf Huldricksson,” I answered. “Just that! I pledge you my life that I know.”
Da Costa stepped forward. “He speaks true, Olaf. You go faster on the Suwarna than on the Br-rw-un’ilda, Olaf, yes.”
The giant Norseman, still gripping my hand, looked at him. “I know you, Da Costa,” he muttered. “You are all right. Ja! You are a fair man. Where is the Brunhilda?”
“She follow be’ind on a big rope, Olaf,” soothed36 the Portuguese. “Soon you see her. But now lie down an’ tell us, if you can, why you tie yourself to your wheel an’ what it is that happen, Olaf.”
“If you’ll tell us how the sparkling devil came it will help us all when we get to where it is, Huldricksson,” I said.
On O’Keefe’s face there was an expression of well-nigh ludicrous doubt and amazement37. He glanced from one to the other. The giant shifted his own tense look from me to the Irishman. A gleam of approval lighted in his eyes. He loosed me, and gripped O’Keefe’s arm. “Staerk!” he said. “Ja — strong, and with a strong heart. A man — ja! He comes too — we shall need him — ja!”
“I tell,” he muttered, and seated himself on the side of the bunk38. “It was four nights ago. My Freda”— his voice shook —“Mine Yndling! She loved the moonlight. I was at the wheel and my Freda and my Helma they were behind me. The moon was behind us and the Brunhilda was like a swanboat sailing down with the moonlight sending her, ja.
“I heard my Freda say: ‘I see a nisse coming down the track of the moon.’ And I hear her mother laugh, low, like a mother does when her Yndling dreams. I was happy — that night — with my Helma and my Freda, and the Brunhilda sailing like a swan-boat, ja. I heard the child say, ‘The nisse comes fast!’ And then I heard a scream from my Helma, a great scream — like a mare39 when her foal is torn from her. I spun40 around fast, ja! I dropped the wheel and spun fast! I saw —” He covered his eyes with his hands.
The Portuguese had crept close to me, and I heard him panting like a frightened dog.
“I saw a white fire spring over the rail,” whispered Olaf Huldricksson. “It whirled round and round, and it shone like — like stars in a whirlwind mist. There was a noise in my ears. It sounded like bells — little bells, ja! Like the music you make when you run your finger round goblets41. It made me sick and dizzy — the hell noise.
“My Helma was — indeholde — what you say — in the middle of the white fire. She turned her face to me and she turned it on the child, and my Helma’s face burned into my heart. Because it was full of fear, and it was full of happiness — of glaede. I tell you that the fear in my Helma’s face made me ice here”— he beat his breast with clenched42 hand —“but the happiness in it burned on me like fire. And I could not move — I could not move.
“I said in here”— he touched his head —“I said, ‘It is Loki come out of Helvede. But he cannot take my Helma, for Christ lives and Loki has no power to hurt my Helma or my Freda! Christ lives! Christ lives!’ I said. But the sparkling devil did not let my Helma go. It drew her to the rail; half over it. I saw her eyes upon the child and a little she broke away and reached to it. And my Freda jumped into her arms. And the fire wrapped them both and they were gone! A little I saw them whirling on the moon track behind the Brunhilda — and they were gone!
“The sparkling devil took them! Loki was loosed, and he had power. I turned the Brunhilda, and I followed where my Helma and mine Yndling had gone. My boys crept up and asked me to turn again. But I would not. They dropped a boat and left me. I steered43 straight on the path. I lashed44 my hands to the wheel that sleep might not loose them. I steered on and on and on —
“Where was the God I prayed when my wife and child were taken?” cried Olaf Huldricksson — and it was as though I heard Throckmartin asking that same bitter question. “I have left Him as He left me, ja! I pray now to Thor and to Odin, who can fetter45 Loki.” He sank back, covering again his eyes.
“Olaf,” I said, “what you have called the sparkling devil has taken ones dear to me. I, too, was following it when we found you. You shall go with me to its home, and there we will try to take from it your wife and your child and my friends as well. But now that you may be strong for what is before us, you must sleep again.”
Olaf Huldricksson looked upon me and in his eyes was that something which souls must see in the eyes of Him the old Egyptians called the Searcher of Hearts in the Judgment46 Hall of Osiris.
“You speak truth!” he said at last slowly. “I will do what you say!”
He stretched out an arm at my bidding. I gave him a second injection. He lay back and soon he was sleeping. I turned toward Da Costa. His face was livid and sweating, and he was trembling pitiably. O’Keefe stirred.
“You did that mighty47 well, Dr. Goodwin,” he said. “So well that I almost believed you myself.”
“What did you think of his story, Mr. O’Keefe?” I asked.
His answer was almost painfully brief and colloquial48.
“Nuts!” he said. I was a little shocked, I admit. “I think he’s crazy, Dr. Goodwin,” he corrected himself, quickly. “What else could I think?”
I turned to the little Portuguese without answering.
“There’s no need for any anxiety tonight, Captain,” I said. “Take my word for it. You need some rest yourself. Shall I give you a sleeping draft?”
“I do wish you would, Dr. Goodwin, sair,” he answered gratefully. “Tomorrow, when I feel bettair — I would have a talk with you.”
I nodded. He did know something then! I mixed him an opiate of considerable strength. He took it and went to his own cabin.
I locked the door behind him and then, sitting beside the sleeping Norseman, I told O’Keefe my story from end to end. He asked few questions as I spoke. But after I had finished he cross-examined me rather minutely upon my recollections of the radiant phases upon each appearance, checking these with Throckmartin’s observations of the same phenomena49 in the Chamber50 of the Moon Pool.
“And now what do you think of it all?” I asked.
He sat silent for a while, looking at Huldricksson.
“Not what you seem to think, Dr. Goodwin,” he answered at last, gravely. “Let me sleep over it. One thing of course is certain — you and your friend Throckmartin and this man here saw — something. But —” he was silent again and then continued with a kindness that I found vaguely51 irritating —“but I’ve noticed that when a scientist gets superstitious52 it — er — takes very hard!
“Here’s a few things I can tell you now though,” he went on while I struggled to speak —“I pray in my heart that we’ll meet neither the Dolphin nor anything with wireless53 on board going up. Because, Dr. Goodwin, I’d dearly love to take a crack at your Dweller.
“And another thing,” said O’Keefe. “After this — cut out the trimmings, Doc, and call me plain Larry, for whether I think you’re crazy or whether I don’t, you’re there with the nerve, Professor, and I’m for YOU.
“Good night!” said Larry and took himself out to the deck hammock he had insisted upon having slung54 for him, refusing the captain’s importunities to use his own cabin.
And it was with extremely mixed emotions as to his compliment that I watched him go. Superstitious. I, whose pride was my scientific devotion to fact and fact alone! Superstitious — and this from a man who believed in banshees and ghostly harpers and Irish wood nymphs and no doubt in leprechauns and all their tribe!
Half laughing, half irritated, and wholly happy in even the part promise of Larry O’Keefe’s comradeship on my venture, I arranged a couple of pillows, stretched myself out on two chairs and took up my vigil beside Olaf Huldricksson.
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1
psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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3
attesting
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| v.证明( attest的现在分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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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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dweller
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| n.居住者，住客 | |
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pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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10
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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17
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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18
sublimation
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| n.升华，升华物，高尚化 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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24
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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25
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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dolorous
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| adj.悲伤的；忧愁的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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28
leashes
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| n.拴猎狗的皮带( leash的名词复数 ) | |
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buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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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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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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32
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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33
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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34
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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falteringly
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| 口吃地，支吾地 | |
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36
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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37
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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38
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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40
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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41
goblets
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| n.高脚酒杯( goblet的名词复数 ) | |
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42
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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44
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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45
fetter
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| n./vt.脚镣，束缚 | |
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46
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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47
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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48
colloquial
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| adj.口语的，会话的 | |
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49
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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50
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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51
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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52
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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53
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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54
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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