He had fully3 another hour of leave if he cared to avail himself of it, but, whilst every pedestrian assumed, in his eyes, the form of a detective, whilst every dark corner seemed to conceal7 an ambush8, whilst every passing instant he anticipated feeling a heavy hand upon his shoulder, and almost heard the words:—“Luke Soames, I arrest you”... Whilst this was his case, freedom had no joys for him.
No light guided him to the garage door, and he was forced to seek for the handle by groping along the wall. Presently, his hand came in contact with it, he turned it—and the way was open before him.
Being far from familiar with the geography of the place, he took out a box of matches, and struck one to light him to the shelf above which the bell-push was concealed9.
Its feeble light revealed, not only the big limousine10 near which he was standing11 and the usual fixtures12 of a garage, but, dimly penetrating13 beyond into the black places, it also revealed something else....
Soames, who had advanced to seek the bell-push, stopped short. The match burnt down almost to his fingers, whereupon he blew it out and carefully crushed it under his foot. A faint reflected light rendered perceptible the stone steps below. At the top, Soames stood looking down. Nothing stirred above, below, or around him. What did it mean? Dimly to his ears came the hooting15 of some siren from the river—evidently that of a large vessel16. Still he hesitated; why he did so, he scarce knew, save that he was afraid—vaguely afraid.
Then, he asked himself what he had to fear, and conjuring17 up a mental picture of his white bedroom below, he planted his foot firmly upon the first step, and from thence, descended18 to the bottom, guided by the faint light which shone out from the doorway19 beneath.
But the door proved to be only partly opened, and Soames knocked deferentially20. No response came to his knocking, and he so greatly ventured as to push the door fully open.
The cave of the golden dragon was empty. Half frightfully, Soames glanced about the singular apartment, in amid the mountainous cushions of the leewans, behind the pedestal of the dragon; to the right and to the left of the doorway wherein he stood.
There was no one there; but the door on the right—the door inlaid with ebony and green stone, which he had never yet seen open was open now, widely opened. He glided22 across the floor, his wet boots creaking unmusically, and peeped through. He saw a matting-lined corridor identical with that known as Block A. The door of one apartment, that on the extreme left, was opened. Sickly fumes23 were wafted24 out to him, and these mingled25 with the incense-like odor which characterized the temple of the dragon.
An outcry—the outcry of a woman, of a woman whose very soul is assailed27—split the stillness. Not from the passageway before him, but from somewhere behind him—from the direction of Block A—it came.
“For God's sake—oh! for God's sake, have mercy! Let me go!... let me go!” Higher, shriller, more fearful and urgent, grew the voice—“LET ME GO!”...
Soames' knees began to tremble beneath him; he clutched at the black wall for support; then turned, and with unsteady footsteps crossed to the door communicating with the corridor which contained his room. It had a lever handle of the Continental28 pattern, and, trembling with apprehension29 that it might prove to be locked, Soames pressed down this handle.
The door opened...
“Hina, effendi!—hina!”
The voice sounded like that of Said....
“Oh! God in Heaven help me!... Help!—help!”...
“Imsik!”...
Footsteps were pattering upon the stone stairs; someone was descending30 from the warehouse! The frenzied31 shrieks33 of the woman continued. Soames broke into a cold perspiration34; his heart, which had leaped wildly, seemed now to have changed to a cold stone in his breast. Just at the entrance to the corridor he stood, frozen with horror at those cries.
“Ikfil el-bab!” came now, in the voice of Ho-Pin,—and nearer.
“Let me go!... only let me go, and I will never breathe a word. ... Ah! Ah! Oh! God of mercy! not the needle again! You are killing35 me!... not the needle!”...
Soames staggered on to his own room and literally36 fell within—as across the cave of the golden dragon, behind him, SOMEONE—one whom he did not see but only heard, one whom with all his soul he hoped had not seen HIM—passed rapidly.
Another shriek32, more frightful21 than any which had preceded it, struck the trembling man as an arrow might have struck him. He dropped upon his knees at the side of the bed and thrust his fingers firmly into his ears. He had never swooned in his life, and was unfamiliar37 with the symptoms, but now he experienced a sensation of overpowering nausea38; a blood-red mist floated before his eyes, and the floor seemed to rock beneath him like the deck of a ship....
That soul-appalling outcry died away, merged39 into a sobbing40, moaning sound which defied Soames' efforts to exclude it.... He rose to his feet, feeling physically41 ill, and turned to close his door....
They were dragging someone—someone who sighed, shudderingly42, and whose sighs sank to moans, and sometimes rose to sobs,—across the apartment of the dragon. In a faint, dying voice, the woman spoke43 again:—
“Not Mr. King!... NOT MR. KING!... Is there no God in Heaven!... AH! spare me... spare”...
Soames closed the door and stood propped44 up against it, striving to fight down the deathly sickness which assailed him. His clothes were sticking to his clammy body, and a cold perspiration was trickling45 down his forehead and into his eyes. The sensation at his heart was unlike anything that he had ever known; he thought that he must be dying.
The awful sounds died away... then a muffled46 disturbance47 drew his attention to a sort of square trap which existed high up on one wall of the room, but which admitted no light, and which hitherto had never admitted any sound. Now, in the utter darkness, he found himself listening—listening...
He had learnt, during his duties in Block A, that each of the minute suites48 was rendered sound-proof in some way, so that what took place in one would be inaudible to the occupant of the next, provided that both doors were closed. He perceived, now, that some precaution hitherto exercised continuously had been omitted to-night, and that the sounds which he could hear came from the room next to his own—the room which opened upon the corridor that he had never entered, and which now he classified, mentally, as Block B.
What did it mean?
Obviously there had been some mishap49 in the usually smooth conduct of Ho-Pin's catacombs. There had been a hurried outgoing in several directions... a search?
And by the accident of his returning an hour earlier than he was expected, he was become a witness of this incident, or of its dreadful, concluding phases. He had begun to move away from the door, but now he returned, and stood leaning against it.
That stifling50 room where roses shed their petals51, had been opened to-night; a chill touched the very center of his being and told him so. The occupant of that room—the Minotaur of this hideous52 labyrinth—was at large to-night, was roaming the passages about him, was perhaps outside his very door....
Dull moaning sounds reached him through the trap. He realized that if he had the courage to cross the room, stand upon a chair and place his ear to the wall, he might be able to detect more of what was passing in the next apartment. But craven fear held him in its grip, and in vain he strove to shake it off. Trembling wildly, he stood with his back to the door, whilst muttered words, and moans, ever growing fainter, reached him from beyond. A voice, a harsh, guttural voice—surely not that of Ho-Pin—was audible, above the moaning.
For two minutes—three minutes—four minutes—he stood there, tottering53 on the brink54 of insensibility, then... a faint sound—a new sound,—drew his gaze across the room, and up to the corner where the trap was situated55.
A very dim light was dawning there; he could just detect the outline of an opening—a half-light breaking the otherwise impenetrable darkness.
He felt that his capacity for fear was strained to its utmost; that he could support nothing more, yet a new horror was in store for him; for, as he watched that gray patch, in it, as in a frame, a black silhouette56 appeared—the silhouette of a human head... a woman's head!
A whistle, an eerie60, minor61 whistle, subscribed62 the ultimate touch of terror to the night. The silhouette disappeared, and, shortly afterwards, the gray luminance. A faint click told of some shutter63 being fastened; complete silence reigned64.
Soames groped his way to the bed and fell weakly upon it, half lying down and burying his face in the pillow. For how long, he had no idea, but for some considerable time, he remained so, fighting to regain65 sufficient self-possession to lie to Ho-Pin, who sooner or later must learn of his return.
At last he managed to sit up. He was not trembling quite so wildly, but he still suffered from a deathly sickness. A faint streak66 of light from the corridor outside shone under his door. As he noted67 it, it was joined by a second streak, forming a triangle.
There was a very soft rasping of metal. Someone was opening the door!
Soames lay back upon the bed. This time he was past further panic and come to a stage of sickly apathy68. He lay, now, because he could not sit upright, because stark69 horror had robbed him of physical strength, and had drained the well of his emotions dry.
Gradually—so that the operation seemed to occupy an interminable time, the door opened, and in the opening a figure appeared.
The switch clicked, and the room was flooded with electric light.
Ho-Pin stood watching him.
Soames—in his eyes that indescribable expression seen in the eyes of a bird placed in a cobra's den—met the Chinaman's gaze. This gaze was no different from that which habitually70 he directed upon the people of the catacombs. His yellow face was set in the same mirthless smile, and his eyebrows71 were raised interrogatively. For the space of ten seconds, he stood watching the man on the bed. Then:—
“You wreturn vewry soon, Mr. Soames?” he said, softly.
“I was... taken ill—very ill.”...
“So you wreturn befowre the time awranged for you?”
“Yes... sir,” whispered Soames, his hair clammily adhering to his brow and beads77 of perspiration trickling slowly down his nose.
“And when you wreturn, you see and you hear—stwrange things, Mr. Soames?”
“No, sir,” he whispered,—tremulously, “I've been—in here all the time.”
Ho-Pin nodded, slowly and sympathetically, but never removed the glittering eyes from the face of the man on the bed.
“So you hear nothing, and see nothing?”
The words were spoken even more softly than he had spoken hitherto.
“Nothing,” protested Soames. He suddenly began to tremble anew, and his trembling rattled80 the bed. “I have been—very ill indeed, sir.”
Ho-Pin nodded again slowly, and with deep sympathy.
“Some medicine shall be sent to you, Mr. Soames,” he said.
He turned and went out slowly, closing the door behind him.
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1
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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pitfalls
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| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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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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drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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limousine
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| n.豪华轿车 | |
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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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fixtures
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| （房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动 | |
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13
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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14
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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15
hooting
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩 | |
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16
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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18
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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20
deferentially
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| adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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22
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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23
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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24
wafted
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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26
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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27
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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28
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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30
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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31
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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32
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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33
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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34
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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35
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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37
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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38
nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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39
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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40
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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41
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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42
shudderingly
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43
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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44
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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46
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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47
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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48
suites
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| n.套( suite的名词复数 )；一套房间；一套家具；一套公寓 | |
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49
mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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50
stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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51
petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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52
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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53
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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54
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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55
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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56
silhouette
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| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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57
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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58
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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59
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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60
eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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61
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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62
subscribed
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| v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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63
shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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64
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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65
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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66
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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67
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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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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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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71
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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72
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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73
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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74
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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75
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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76
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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77
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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78
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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79
gulped
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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