登陆注册
5362400000006

第6章 II I ENTER(4)

My first glance showed me little save the ponderous outlines of an old settle, which jutted from the corner of the fireplace half way out into the room. As it was seemingly from this seat that the men, who at various times had been found lying here, had fallen to their doom, a thrill passed over me as I noted its unwieldy bulk and the deep shadow it threw on the ancient and dishonored hearthstone. To escape the ghastly memories it evoked and also to satisfy myself that the room was really as empty as it seemed, I took another step forward. This caused the light from the lantern I carried to spread beyond the point on which it had hitherto been so effectively concentrated; but the result was to emphasize rather than detract from the extreme desolation of the great room. The settle was a fixture, as I afterwards found, and was almost the only article of furniture to be seen on the wide expanse of uncarpeted floor. There was a table or two in hiding somewhere amid the shadows at the other end from where I stood, and possibly some kind of stool or settee; but the general impression made upon me was that of a completely dismantled place given over to moth and rust.

I do not include the walls. They were not bare like the floor, but covered with books from floor to ceiling. These books were not the books of to-day; they had stood so long in their places unnoted and untouched, that they had acquired the color of fungus, and smelt - Well, there is no use adding to the picture. Every one knows the spirit of sickening desolation pervading rooms which have been shut up for an indefinite length of time from air and sunshine.

The elegance of the heavily stuccoed ceiling, admitted to be one of the finest specimens of its kind in Washington, as well as the richness of the carvings ornamenting the mantel of Italian marble rising above the accursed hearthstone, only served to make more evident the extreme neglect into which the rest of the room had sunk.

Being anything but anxious to subject myself further to its unhappy influence and quite convinced that the place was indeed as empty as it looked, I turned to leave, when my eyes fell upon something so unexpected and so extraordinary, seen as it was under the influence of the old tragedies with which my mind was necessarily full, that I paused, balked in my advance, and well-nigh uncertain whether I looked upon a real thing or on some strange and terrible fantasy of my aroused imagination.

A form lay before me, outstretched on that portion of the floor which had hitherto been hidden from me by the half-open door - a woman's form, which even in that first casual look impressed itself upon me as one of aerial delicacy and extreme refinement; and this form lay as only the dead lie; the dead! And I had been looking at the hearthstone for just such a picture! No, not just such a picture, for this woman lay face uppermost, and, on the floor beside her was blood.

A hand had plucked my sleeve. It was Hibbard's. Startled by my immobility and silence, he had stepped in with quaking members, expecting he hardly knew what. But no sooner did his eyes fall on the prostrate form which held me spellbound, than an unforeseen change took place in him. What had unnerved me, restored him to full self-possession. Death in this shape was familiar to him. He had no fear of blood. He did not show surprise at encountering it, but only at the effect it appeared to produce on me.

"Shot!" was his laconic comment as he bent over the prostrate body.

"Shot through the heart! She must have died before she fell."

Shot!

That was a new experience for this room. No wound had ever before disfigured those who had fallen here, nor had any of the previous victims been found lying on any other spot than the one over which that huge settle kept guard. As these thoughts crossed my mind, I instinctively glanced again toward the fireplace for what I almost refused to believe lay outstretched at my feet. When nothing more appeared there than that old seat of sinister memory, I experienced a thrill which poorly prepared me for the cry which I now heard raised by Hibbard.

"Look here! What do you make of this?"

He was pointing to what, upon closer inspection, proved to be a strip of white satin ribbon running from one of the delicate wrists of the girl before us to the handle of a pistol which had fallen not far away from her side. "It looks as if the pistol was attached to her. That is something new in my experience. What do you think it means?"

Alas! there was but one thing it could mean. The shot to which she had succumbed had been delivered by herself. This fair and delicate creature was a suicide.

But suicide in this place! How could we account for that? Had the story of this room's ill-acquired fame acted hypnotically on her, or had she stumbled upon the open door in front and been glad of any refuge where her misery might find a solitary termination? Closely scanning her upturned face, I sought an answer to this question, and while thus seeking received a fresh shock which I did not hesitate to communicate to my now none-too-sensitive companion.

"Look at these features," I cried. "I seem to know them, do you?"

He growled out a dissent, but stooped at my bidding and gave the pitiful young face a pro longed stare. When he looked up again it was with a puzzled contraction of his eyebrows.

"I've certainly seen it somewhere," he hesitatingly admitted, edging slowly away toward the door. "Perhaps in the papers. Isn't she like -?"

"Like!" I interrupted, "it is Veronica Moore herself; the owner of this house and she who was married here two weeks since to Mr. Jeffrey.

Evidently her reason was unseated by the tragedy which threw so deep a gloom over her wedding."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 狼穴

    狼穴

    乘着日本人修改和平宪法,企图突破集体自卫权;潜藏地球空洞内的外星人化妆成纳粹分子勾结东京都的黑龙会分子窃取了51区的A级机密;绑架活人做实验,企图打造生化超人。为了确保并夺回涉及研究的失窃机密,X私人机构用神秘宇宙科技打造的超级小特工悄悄潜入了日本列岛,邂逅了东京都分支机构的两名日裔关门弟子。从东京都出发,勇闯人工岛下的海底城,勇破月球基地,而后面等待他们的又会是什么样的惊天阴谋……
  • The Silverado Squatters

    The Silverado Squatters

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 闪击鏖战(第二次世界大战史丛书)

    闪击鏖战(第二次世界大战史丛书)

    德国在法、比、荷的胜利,不仅将英国的势力逐出西欧,同时也大大地削弱它在东南欧的影响。东南欧诸国在现代军备方面都很落后,因此竭力避免与这个欧洲大陆的头号军事强国发生冲突。匈牙利、保加利亚、罗马尼亚等巴尔干国家间的紧张关系,因德意两国(没有苏联参加)于1940年8月30日在维也纳强行裁决而趋于缓和。这个裁决使罗马尼亚损失最大。尽管如此,它却寻求和德国建立更加亲密的关系。这是因为它清楚地认识到由于英国在欧洲大陆的势力已不复存在,德国便成了能保卫它的剩余领土和对付苏俄威胁的唯一强国。希特勒准备在一定程度上满足罗马尼亚的愿望,因为首先他对普洛耶什蒂油田感兴趣,德国继续作战的能力在很大程度上就是要依赖它。
  • 月光下的银匠

    月光下的银匠

    在故乡河谷,每当满月升起,人们就在说,听,银匠又在工作了。满月满满的升上天空,朦胧的光芒使河谷更加空旷,周围的一切变得模糊而又遥远。这时,你就听吧,月光里,或是月亮上就传来了银匠锻打银子的声音……《月光下的银匠》是一部短篇小说集,共收作者阿来的短篇小说13篇,包括《野人》、《槐花》、《群蜂飞舞》、《阿古顿巴》、《月光下的银匠》、《格拉长大》等。
  • 礼仪常识(现代生活百科)

    礼仪常识(现代生活百科)

    有很多人都非常羡慕那些有风度、有气质、待人彬彬有礼的人,并且渴望着自己有一天也可以成为那样被人羡慕、受人尊敬的人。可是,却很少有人去认真、仔细地思考过,他们怎样才能成长为那样具有风度和气质、且待人彬彬有礼的人呢?其实,那些人之所以在人群中显得与众不同,显得耀眼,全是因为他们独有的人格魅力,那是一种由内而外散发出来的韵味,而“知礼”便是促成这种魅力的重要因素。正是因为他们注意一些礼仪上极为细小的问题,才获得意想不到的收获。
  • 楼之诗

    楼之诗

    《楼之诗》极富特色,无论是其内容和艺术传达都富于个性特色。兹拈出数点,以概其余。
  • Ban and Arriere Ban

    Ban and Arriere Ban

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 绯色女王要逆袭

    绯色女王要逆袭

    如果当初没有遇见那个人,那么一切会不会不同呢?她曾经问过自己这个问题很多遍。只是答案都是同一个该走的路你不能忘。因为我知道后来可以与你相遇,所以之前有再多的痛苦与悲伤,我也甘之如饴。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 都是寂寞惹的祸

    都是寂寞惹的祸

    是不是所有女人都要和寂寞抗争?爱是奢侈,承诺像沙。太用力、心会碎。如果我爱你,为何还会如此寂寞?苍白、随意的爱情,在生活中追寻那一点点可怜的温存。剩男剩女圣斗士——不要因为寂寞说爱我。
  • 无敌黑龙进化系统

    无敌黑龙进化系统

    几千年前的洪荒出现了一份先天至宝,各大种族出手争夺,雷蛟魔霄意外获得至宝,却被斩杀,现重生于一条小蛇,他拥有进化的经验,依靠这系统,他将无敌于这世界。