“Awake, my wife,” crooned Sin Sin Wa. “Only a fool seeks the black smoke when the jackals sit in a ring.”
Mrs. Sin gave him a glance of smiling contempt—a glance which, passing him, rested finally upon the prone6 body of Chief Inspector7 Kerry lying stretched upon the floor before the stove. Her pupils contracted to mere8 pin-points and then dilated9 blackly. She recoiled10 a step, fighting with the stupor11 which her ill-timed indulgence had left behind.
At this moment Kerry groaned12 loudly, tossed his arm out with a convulsive movement, and rolled over on to his side, drawing up his knees.
The eye of Sin Sin Wa gleamed strangely, but he did not move, and Sam Tuk who sat huddled14 in his chair where his feet almost touched the fallen man, stirred never a muscle. But Mrs. Sin, who still moved in a semi-phantasmagoric world, swiftly raised the hem15 of her kimona, affording a glimpse of a shapely silk-clad limb. From a sheath attached to her garter she drew a thin stilletto. Curiously16 feline17, she crouched18, as if about to spring.
Sin Sin Wa extended his hand, grasping his wife's wrist.
“No, woman of indifferent intelligence,” he said in his queer sibilant language, “since when has murder gone unpunished in these British dominions19?”
Mrs. Sin snatched her wrist from his grasp, falling back wild-eyed.
“One more?” crooned Sin Sin Wa, glancing curiously at Kerry.
“They are here! We are trapped!”
“No, no,” said Sin Sin Wa. “He is a brave man; he comes alone.”
He paused, and then suddenly resumed in pidgin English:
“You likee killa him, eh?”
Perhaps unconscious that she did so, Mrs. Sin replied also in English:
“No, I am mad. Let me think, old fool!”
“You gotchee tired of knifee chop, eh?” murmured Sin Sin Wa.
Mrs. Sin clenched22 her hands, holding them rigidly23 against her hips; and, nostrils24 dilated, she stared at the smiling Chinaman.
“What do you mean?” she demanded.
“You putta topside pidgin on Sir Lucy alla lightee,” he murmured. “Givee him hell alla velly proper.”
The pupils of the woman's eyes contracted again, and remained so. She laughed hoarsely and tossed her head.
“Who told you that?” she asked contemptuously. “It was the doll-woman who killed him—I have said so.”
“You tella me so—hoi, hoi! But old Sin Sin Wa catchee wonder. Lo!”—he extended a yellow forefinger26, pointing at his wife—“Mrs. Sin make him catchee die! No bhobbery, no palaber. Sin Sin Wa gotchee you sized up allee timee.”
Mrs. Sin snapped her fingers under his nose then stooped, picked up the stiletto, and swiftly restored it to its sheath. Her hands resting upon her hips, she came forward, until her dark evil face almost touched the yellow, smiling face of Sin Sin Wa.
“Listen, old fool,” she said in a low, husky voice; “I have done with you, ape-man, for good! Yes! I killed Lucy, I killed him! He belonged to me—until that pink and white thing took him away. I am glad I killed him. If I cannot have him neither can she. But I was mad all the same.”
She glanced down at Kerry, and:
“Tie him up,” she directed, “and send him to sleep. And understand, Sin, we've shared out for the last time—You go your way and I go mine. No stinking27 Yellow River for me. New York is good enough until it's safe to go to Buenos Ayres.”
“Smartest leg in Buenos Ayres,” croaked28 the raven29 from his wicker cage, which was set upon the counter.
Sin Sin Wa regarded him smilingly.
“Yes, yes, my little friend,” he crooned in Chinese, while Tling-a-Ling rattled30 ghostly castanets. “In Ho-Nan they will say that you are a devil and I am a wizard. That which is unknown is always thought to be magical, my Tling-a-Ling.”
Mrs. Sin, who was rapidly throwing off the effects of opium and recovering her normal self-confident personality, glanced at her husband scornfully.
“Tell me,” she said, “what has happened? How did he come here?”
“Blinga filly doggy,” murmured Sin Sin Wa. “Knockee Ah Fung on him head and comee down here, lo. Ah Fung allee lightee now—topside. Chasee filly doggy. Allee velly proper. No bhobbery.”
“Talk less and act more,” said Mrs. Sin. “Tie him up, and if you must talk, talk Chinese. Tie him up.”
She pointed31 to Kerry. Sin Sin Wa tucked his hands into his sleeves and shuffled32 towards the masked door communicating with the inner room.
“Only by intelligent speech are we distinguished33 from the other animals,” he murmured in Chinese.
Entering the inner room, he began to extricate34 a long piece of thin rope from amid a tangle35 of other materials with which it was complicated. Mrs. Sin stood looking down at the fallen man. Neither Kerry nor Sam Tuk gave the slightest evidence of life. And as Sin Sin Wa disentangled yard upon yard of rope from the bundle on the floor by the bed where Rita Irvin lay in her long troubled sleep, he crooned a queer song. It was in the Ho-Nan dialect and intelligible36 to himself alone.
“Shoa, the evil woman (he chanted), the woman of
many strange loves....
Shoa, the ghoul....
of the mountain god....
Shoa, the betrayer of men....
Blood is on her brow.
Lo, the betrayer is betrayed. Death sits at her elbow.
Dead men hear her secret.
Shoa, the ghoul....
Shoa, the evil woman. Death sits at her elbow.
Black, the vultures flock about her....
Lo, the Yellow River leaps forth from the nostrils
of the mountain god.”
Meanwhile Kerry, lying motionless at the feet of Sam Tuk was doing some hard and rapid thinking. He had recovered consciousness a few moments before Mrs. Sin had come into the vault from the inner room. There were those, Seton Pasha among them, who would have regarded the groan13 and the convulsive movements of Kerry's body with keen suspicion. And because the Chief Inspector suffered from no illusions respecting the genius of Sin Sin Wa, the apparent failure of the one-eyed Chinaman to recognize these preparations for attack nonplussed39 the Chief Inspector. His outstanding vice40 as an investigator41 was the directness of his own methods and of his mental outlook, so that he frequently experienced great difficulty in penetrating42 to the motives43 of a tortuous44 brain such as that of Sin Sin Wa.
That Sin Sin Wa thought him to be still unconscious he did not believe. He was confident that his tactics had deceived the Jewess, but he entertained an almost superstitious45 respect for the cleverness of the Chinaman. The trick with the ball of leaf opium was painfully fresh in his memory.
Kerry, in common with many members of the Criminal Investigation46 Department, rarely carried firearms. He was a man with a profound belief in his bare hands—aided when necessary by his agile47 feet. At the moment that Sin Sin Wa had checked the woman's murderous and half insane outburst Kerry had been contemplating48 attack. The sudden change of language on the part of the Chinaman had arrested him in the act; and, realizing that he was listening to a confession49 which placed the hangman's rope about the neck of Mrs. Sin, he lay still and wondered.
Why had Sin Sin Wa forced his wife to betray herself? To clear Mareno? To clear Mrs. Irvin—or to save his own skin?
It was a frightful50 puzzle for Kerry. Then—where was Kazmah? That Mrs. Irvin, probably in a drugged condition, lay somewhere in that mysterious inner room Kerry felt fairly sure. His maltreated skull51 was humming like a bee-hive and aching intensely, but the man was tough as men are made, and he could not only think clearly, but was capable of swift and dangerous action.
He believed that he could tackle the Chinaman with fair prospects52 of success; and women, however murderous, he habitually53 disregarded as adversaries54. But the mummy-like, deceptive55 Sam Tuk was not negligible, and Kazmah remained an unknown quantity.
From under that protective arm, cast across his face, Kerry's fierce eyes peered out across the dirty floor. Then quickly he shut his eyes again.
Sin Sin Wa, crooning his strange song, came in carrying a coil of rope—and a Mauser pistol!
“P'licemanee gotchee catchee sleepee,” he murmured, “or maybe he catchee die!”
He tossed the rope to his wife, who stood silent tapping the floor with one slim restless foot.
“Number one top-side tie up,” he crooned. “Sin Sin Wa watchee withum gun!”
Kerry lay like a dead man; for in the Chinaman's voice were menace and warning.
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收听单词发音
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1
opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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5
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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8
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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9
dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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12
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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13
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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14
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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feline
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| adj.猫科的 | |
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18
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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dazedly
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| 头昏眼花地，眼花缭乱地，茫然地 | |
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22
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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23
rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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24
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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25
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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26
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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27
stinking
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| adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
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28
croaked
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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29
raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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30
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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31
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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32
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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33
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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34
extricate
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| v.拯救，救出；解脱 | |
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35
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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36
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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37
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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39
nonplussed
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| adj.不知所措的，陷于窘境的v.使迷惑( nonplus的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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41
investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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42
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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43
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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44
tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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45
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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46
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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47
agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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48
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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49
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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50
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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51
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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52
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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53
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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54
adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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55
deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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