For my own part, I had not yet recovered power of speech; but:
"Dr. Damar Greefe," said the Inspector1, closely watching the man who sat there collapsed2 in the chair, "I arrest you on a charge of murder. I have to warn you that anything you now say will be used in evidence against you."
The Eurasian exerted a supreme3 effort, straightening his gaunt body, and fixing the gaze of those hawk4 eyes upon Inspector Gatton. When he spoke5 his harsh voice had gained strength and his manner was imperious.
"Detective-Inspector Gatton," he replied, "you do no more than your duty. I have come here only with the utmost difficulty in my weak state. Therefore, you need apprehend6 no attempt at escape on my part. I have come with a purpose. This purpose I shall fulfill7; after which"—he shrugged8 his square shoulders—"I shall be at your service."
"Very good," said Gatton shortly, but I noted9 that his face was flushed in a way which betokened10 repressed excitement.
Giving me a significant glance, he went out to the ante-room, and:
"Sydenham 1448," I heard him call.
Damar Greefe closed his eyes and lay back in the chair; and a moment later:
"Hullo!" said Gatton. "Detective-Inspector Gatton, C.I.D., speaking from Willow11 Cottage, College Road. Send two men in a cab here at once to remove a prisoner.... Right! Good-by."
He came in again, and closing the door behind him, stood staring at Damar Greefe in a sort of wonderment. The Eurasian wearily opened his eyes and looked slowly from side to side. Then:
"Pray be seated, Inspector Gatton," he said. "I have a communication to make."
Gatton, with never a word, drew up a chair and sat down.
"I do not desire to be interrupted," continued Damar Greefe, "until my communication is finished. You understand? It will not be repeated."
"I am afraid," murmured Gatton dryly, "it will have to be."
"It will not be repeated," he said harshly. "If I am misunderstood, inform me."
His peremptory13 manner in the circumstances was extraordinary—uncanny. As I had perceived in the first hour of our meeting, Dr. Damar Greefe was a man possessing tremendous force of character and a pride of intellect which clearly rendered him indifferent even of retribution.
"This point being settled," he continued, "be good enough, Inspector Gatton, and"—he turned his eyes in my direction—"Mr. Addison, to give me your undivided attention."
His manner was that of a lecturer—of a lecturer who takes it for granted that his discourse14 is above the heads of his audience; but when I say that the statement now made by this strange and terrible man held Gatton and me spellbound I say no more than the truth. Wearily, and more often than not having his eyes closed, Dr. Damar Greefe commenced to unfold a story of nameless horrors—and save that his harsh voice grew ever weaker and weaker, he displayed not the slightest trace of emotion throughout his appalling15 revelations.
"I am informing you," he said, "of these facts concerning my inquiries16 in the realm of teratology and the subjoined province of animism because I know that my life-work upon this subject can never now be completed. It having been necessary for me to destroy my papers and those specimens17 which, at hideous18 cost, I had accumulated during twenty years of travel through some of the most barbaric as well as the most civilized19 parts of the world, this present brief verbal account of the most important inquiry20 of all shall alone survive me. You are privileged. Therefore listen:
"Two important facts contributed to my choice of a special study: the social ostracism21 which very early in my professional career I found to be my lot; and the fact that in myself I afforded a living example of the hybrid22. It has been said and not untruly that the Eurasian hates his father and scorns his mother. Certainly, this unnatural23 passion is reciprocated24 by the parent stock; for the Eurasian is barely acknowledged by his dark brethren and hardly tolerated by the white.
"In spite of my qualifications—I am a Doctor of Medicine, a Master of Arts, and hold other degrees of Leipzig, the Sorbonne, and elsewhere—I recognized very early in my career that ordinary practice was impossible for me. I therefore turned my attention to the special study of embryology, as I fortunately possessed25 sufficient private means to enable me—by careful living—to dispense26 with the usual proceeds of my profession.
"In short, I hoped to triumph over my hereditary27 handicap and to build for myself a reputation which should rise above the petty disabilities of caste and place my name upon a level with those of Haeckel, Weismann, Wallace, Focke and the other great students who have helped to advance our knowledge of the science of evolution.
"I early turned my attention to the traditions associated with the Cynocephalus hamadryas, or Sacred Baboon28 of Abyssinia. I took up my quarters on the banks of the Hawash and succeeded in ingratiating myself with the Amharûn. The result of my sojourn29 amongst these strange people is embodied30 in my work 'The Ape-Men of Shoa.'
"This work is unpublished and may never see the light, but briefly31 I may state that the Amharûn are a Semitic tribe allied32 to the Falashas and have been settled for many generations in this southern province of Abyssinia. Claiming descent from Menelek, son of Suleiman and the Queen of Sheba, they have always been regarded as unclean pariahs33. In part this is due to their bestial34 custom of eating meat cut from living animals, but it is more particularly attributable to the periodical appearance among them of these cynocephalytes, or man-apes, which form the subject of my work.
"My close inquiries into the physiological35 history of these monstrosities were only conducted with the utmost difficulty. In the first place I found that it was customary among the Amharûn to slay36 the creatures at birth, but in those rare cases of survival the cynocephalytes were banished37 from the community and were compelled to lead a wild life, subsisting38 as best they might in the foothills of the desolate39 mountain region.
"Thus, in the first place these creatures were difficult of access; in the second place, they readily contracted tuberculosis40, even in that warm, dry climate; and in the third place their ferocity rendered them more formidable to approach than any tiger in its lair41. I may add here that this predisposition to pulmonary disease is (and this I have definitely established) a characteristic of all mammalian hybrids42.
"Nevertheless, my studies were by no means unfruitful, since they resulted in a triumphant43 vindication44 of my theory, which, contrary to that universally received and more closely allied to the 'exploded' Mendel's Law, ascribed the appearance of such monsters not to any strict physiological process but to a hitherto unclassified law of embryology which I had hoped would one day take its place in science under my name.
"Armed with the results of my Abyssinian inquiry, I next proceeded to Syria; for among certain desert tribes I hoped to find further evidence to support my theory. In short, in the Arabic tradition of the jackal-man (which is allied to the medieval and universal belief in the were-wolf or loup-garou) and in the Indian myth of the woman who, possessing an ordinary human form by day, assumes that of a tigress by night, I thought I detected a profound truth.
"Since my life-work is destroyed, I am egotist enough to desire that credit for it should not accrue45 to another. I do not propose, therefore, more than lightly to touch upon the Damar Greefe Law, but I may say that in its essentials it is this:
"Such strange hybrids do actually occur periodically and in rare cases survive; but their animal proclivities46 which are physically47 demonstrable, and the possession of certain animal attributes (as the furry48 body of the cynocephalyte, the claws and teeth of the jackal-man, etc.), are physical reflections of a mental process taking place in the female parent."
He glared at me wildly, as if anticipating contradiction, but Gatton and I remaining silent:
"There is no physical association," he continued, "between the hybrid and that creature whose qualities and peculiarities49 he seemingly inherits. I have proved by a long series of elaborate experiments that a true hybrid of this description is a physiological impossibility. But that a false hybrid such as I have indicated may appear is a fact which does not rest solely51 upon my studies amongst the Amharûn, nor upon my subsequent inquiries throughout Assyria, Somaliland and the middle valleys of the Yellow River."
He paused, and suddenly turning a glance of the hawk-like eyes upon me:
"As an explorer of the Dark Continent, Mr. Addison," he said, "and also, if I mistake not, something of an Orientalist, the significance of this itinerary52 may possibly be apparent to you. But I waste time:
"The discovery which triumphantly53 crowned my life's work by what some may deem poetic54 justice was destined55 also to destroy it. This brings me to the matter which has led to my presence here to-night. My preceding remarks were a necessary foreword. I come to the year 1902, when I was established in Cairo, whither I had conveyed the results of the labor50 of many years and where I had taken up my quarters in a large native house not twenty yards from the Bâb-es-Zuwêla."
Gatton stirred restlessly in his chair and my own curiosity knew no bounds.
"My inquiries at this time had nearly exhausted56 my always slender financial resources, and the proceeds of a small practice which I succeeded in establishing (exclusively amongst the extensive half-caste colony resident in this neighborhood) proved a welcome addition to my income. It was due to the fact that at this time I was an active practitioner57 that I came in touch with the most perfect and notable example of a psycho-hybrid which I had ever encountered, indeed which, so far as I am aware, has ever appeared."
He paused again, as if overcome with faintness, and in anticipation58 of what was to come I could scarcely contain myself, when:
"At this time," he resumed, in a yet lower voice, "and indeed until quite recently, there were but few reliable European medical men in Cairo, and during the summer of 1902 an outbreak of cholera59 temporarily depleted60 their already scanty61 ranks. It happened then that one night, whilst I sat in the huge, lofty room, once the principal harem apartment of the house, which I had appropriated as a study, Cassim, my Nubian servant, communicated to me (by means of a sign-language which I had taught him) some startling news. My immediate62 presence was desired at the residence of Sir Burnham Coverly, then newly appointed to a government office, and who with his wife had only arrived in the country some few months earlier.
"I thought I knew the nature of the services required of me, but my employment by this typical English aristocrat63, hide-bound with caste traditions as he could not fail to be, since he had spent five years of his official life in India, surprised me very greatly. I was later to learn that the services of no other medical man (or of no medical man so highly qualified64 as myself) were available; but even had I known this at the time I should have put my pride in my pocket, and for this reason:
"I had learned from a native acquaintance of a certain occurrence which had taken place on the very day of the baronet's arrival in Egypt; and it led me to look for a particular manifestation65, in fact, I will boldly declare, since science is admittedly a callous66 mistress, that it had led me to hope for this manifestation, however unpleasant it might prove for those intimately concerned. Accordingly, having made suitable preparation I accompanied Sir Burnham's servant back to the residence of the baronet...."
I heard the door-bell ring, and I heard Coates's regular tread as he proceeded along the passage. There was a brief, muttered colloquy67, a rap on the study-door, and Coates entered.
Damar Greefe raised his thin, yellow hand. His voice, when next he spoke, exhibited no trace of emotion.
"Let them be told to wait," he said. "I have not finished."
It was wildly bizarre, that scene in my study, with the dignified70 white-haired Eurasian doctor, palpably laboring71 against some deathly sickness, sitting there unperturbed, his brilliant, perverted72 intellect holding him aloof73 from the ordinary things of life—whilst those who came to hale him to a felon's cell waited in the ante-room!
I glanced swiftly at Gatton, and he nodded impatiently.
"Let them stay in the dining-room, Coates," I said. "Make them comfortable."
"Very good, sir."
Unmoved, Coates withdrew—and I saw Gatton glance at his watch. Throughout the latter part of his strange narrative74, neither Gatton nor I interrupted the narrator, therefore I give his story, so far as I remember it, in his own words. He no longer addressed either of us directly; he seemed, indeed, to be thinking aloud.
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1
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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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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apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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7
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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9
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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betokened
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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peremptory
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| adj.紧急的，专横的，断然的 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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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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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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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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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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ostracism
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| n.放逐；排斥 | |
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hybrid
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| n.(动，植）杂种，混合物 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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reciprocated
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| v.报答，酬答( reciprocate的过去式和过去分词 )；（机器的部件）直线往复运动 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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baboon
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| n.狒狒 | |
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sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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pariahs
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| n.被社会遗弃者( pariah的名词复数 )；贱民 | |
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bestial
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| adj.残忍的；野蛮的 | |
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physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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subsisting
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的现在分词 ) | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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tuberculosis
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| n.结核病，肺结核 | |
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lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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hybrids
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| n.杂交生成的生物体( hybrid的名词复数 )；杂交植物（或动物）；杂种；（不同事物的）混合物 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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vindication
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| n.洗冤，证实 | |
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accrue
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| v.(利息等)增大，增多 | |
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proclivities
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| n.倾向，癖性( proclivity的名词复数 ) | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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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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51
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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itinerary
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| n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划 | |
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53
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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54
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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practitioner
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| n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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59
cholera
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| n.霍乱 | |
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depleted
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| adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词 | |
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61
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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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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aristocrat
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| n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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callous
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| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
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colloquy
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| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
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68
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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72
perverted
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| adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 )；腐蚀；败坏；使堕落 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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