登陆注册
5386000000017

第17章

In a minute more the silence was broken again by Mr. Armadale.

"Where is she?" he asked, looking angrily at his wife's empty chair. The doctor pointed to the place. She had no choice but to come forward. She came slowly and stood before him.

"You promised to go when I told you," he said. "Go now."Mr. Neal tried hard to control his hand as it kept his place between the leaves of the manuscripts but it trembled in spite of him. A suspicion which had been slowly forcing itself on his mind , while he was reading, became a certainty when he heard those words. From one revelation to another the letter had gone on, until it had now reached the brink of a last disclosure to come.

At that brink the dying man had predetermined to silence the reader's voice, before he had permitted his wife to hear the narrative read. There was the secret which the son was to know in after years, and which the mother was never to approach. From that resolution, his wife's tenderest pleadings had never moved him an inch--and now, from his own lips, his wife knew it.

She made him no answer. She stood there and looked at him; looked her last entreaty--perhaps her last farewell. His eyes gave her back no answering glance: they wandered from her mercilessly to the sleeping boy. She turned speechless from the bed. Without a look at the child--without a word to the two strangers breathlessly watching her--she kept the promise she had given, and in dead silence left the room.

There was something in the manner of her departure which shook the self-possession of both the men who witnessed it. When the door closed on her, they recoiled instinctively from advancing further in the dark. The doctor's reluctance was the first to express itself. He attempted to obtain the patient's permission to withdraw until the letter was completed. The patient refused.

Mr. Neal spoke next at greater length and to more serious purpose.

"The doctor is accustomed in his profession," he began, "and I am accustomed in mine, to have the secrets of others placed in our keeping. But it is my duty, before we go further, to ask if you really understand the extraordinary position which we now occupy toward one another. You have just excluded Mrs. Armadale, before our own eyes, from a place in your confidence. And you are now offering that same place to two men who are total strangers to you.""Yes," said Mr. Armadale, "_because_ you are strangers."Few as the words were, the inference to be drawn from them was not of a nature to set distrust at rest. Mr. Neal put it plainly into words.

"You are in urgent need of my help and of the doctor's help," he said. "Am I to understand (so long as you secure our assistance)that the impression which the closing passages of this letter may produce on us is a matter of indifference to you?""Yes. I don't spare you. I don't spare myself. I _do_ spare my wife.""You force me to a conclusion, sir, which is a very serious one,"said Mr. Neal. "If I am to finish this letter under your dictation, I must claim permission--having read aloud the greater part of it already--to read aloud what remains, in the hearing of this gentleman, as a witness.""Read it."

Gravely doubting, the doctor resumed his chair. Gravely doubting, Mr. Neal turned the leaf, and read the next words:

"There is more to tell before I can leave the dead man to his rest. I have described the finding of his body. But I have not described the circumstances under which he met his death.

"He was known to have been on deck when the yacht's boats were seen approaching the wreck; and he was afterward missed in the confusion caused by the panic of the crew. At that time the water was five feet deep in the cabin, and was rising fast. There was little doubt of his having gone down into that water of his own accord. The discovery of his wife's jewel box, close under him, on the floor, explained his presence in the cabin. He was known to have seen help approaching, and it was quite likely that he had thereupon gone below to make an effort at saving the box. It was less probable--though it might still have been inferred--that his death was the result of some accident in diving, which had for the moment deprived him of his senses. But a discovery made by the yacht's crew pointed straight to a conclusion which struck the men, one and all, with the same horror. When the course of their search brought them to the cabin, they found the scuttle bolted, and the door locked on the outside. Had some one closed the cabin, not knowing he was there? Setting the panic-stricken condition of the crew out of the question, there was no motive for closing the cabin before leaving the wreck. But one other conclusion remained. Had some murderous hand purposely locked the man in, and left him to drown as the water rose over him?

"Yes. A murderous hand had locked him in, and left him to drown.

That hand was mine. "

The Scotchman started up from the table; the doctor shrank from the bedside. The two looked at the dying wretch, mastered by the same loathing, chilled by the same dread. He lay there, with his child's head on his breast; abandoned by the sympathies of man, accursed by the justice of God--he lay there, in the isolation of Cain, and looked back at them.

At the moment when the two men rose to their feet, the door leading into the next room was shaken heavily on the outer side, and a sound like the sound of a fall, striking dull on their ears, silenced them both. Standing nearest to the door, the doctor opened it, passed through, and closed it instantly. Mr.

Neal turned his back on the bed, and waited the event in silence.

The sound, which had failed to awaken the child, had failed also to attract the father's notice. His own words had taken him far from all that was passing at his deathbed. His helpless body was back on the wreck, and the ghost of his lifeless hand was turning the lock of the cabin door.

A bell rang in the next room--eager voices talked; hurried footsteps moved in it--an interval passed, and the doctor returned. "Was she listening?" whispered Mr. Neal, in German.

同类推荐
  • Child of Storm

    Child of Storm

    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。
  • A Footnote to History

    A Footnote to History

    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。
  • 甲乙日历

    甲乙日历

    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。
  • 归有园麈谈

    归有园麈谈

    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。
  • 御定佩文斋书画谱

    御定佩文斋书画谱

    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。
热门推荐
  • 才不是替身龙套

    才不是替身龙套

    一个沉迷演戏的龙套,一个冷漠矜持的总裁所谱写的爱情乐章。
  • 徒儿再上:师父,你有毒

    徒儿再上:师父,你有毒

    新文《快穿:男主攻略计划》已发布。场面一:贺公子:徒儿,救命啊,嘤嘤嘤~~有人嫉妒为师的美貌,居然暗杀为师啊……云云一水涧:师父,你确实不是因为你劫了人家的镖车又泡了人家的妹子?场面二:贺公子:像我这般完美的容颜,只能用一种动物来形容我,那就是国宝熊猫,而且属于越胖越招人喜欢的那种……云云一水涧:国宝?我觉得猪更适合你呢师父,也是越胖越招人喜欢。场面三:贺公子:徒儿,最近为师夜观天象,发现我们乃是天造地设的一对。云云一水涧:是么?那么师父你知道我现实是谁恩?贺公子:不管你是谁?天意不可违,我们的结合必将造福国家、造福世界、造福全人类。云云一水涧:我是你前妻。
  • 牧心人

    牧心人

    牧心者牧天下,做风一样的自己。本书没有跌宕起伏的情节,行文不甚严谨,史料不够真实,所谓看点应该有两个,一是语言,一是语言所涵盖的内容。本书结尾喜剧,通篇也是喜剧的调侃和暗讽风格,气氛轻松,语言幽默,但表达的内容却值得现代社会和现代人的深醒。如果你是一个牧心人,你也应该具备这样的品味。欢迎加入网文读者交流会:182220421
  • 神木传说

    神木传说

    神秘的金丝楠木,复杂的人物情感,令人匪夷所思的奇幻场景,桃源、洞葬、汉墓、尸坑、木棺、异兽、苗蛊……一切皆因神木而起。
  • 葛底斯堡的雄狮:美国南北战争传奇将军张伯伦回忆录

    葛底斯堡的雄狮:美国南北战争传奇将军张伯伦回忆录

    《葛底斯堡的雄狮(美国南北战争传奇将军张伯伦回忆录)》是第一次在中国大陆介绍张伯伦将军。张伯伦将军的勇敢精神,尤其是他的宽容精神,无论是对美国内战,还是当今中国都具有积极的教育意义。
  • 姜少,你老婆又跑了

    姜少,你老婆又跑了

    合法的丈夫不能人道,还丧心病狂地为别的女人把她卖给姜少换取好处!这种恶心的男人不离婚难道还留着过年用吗?可她没想到买了她一夜的姜少竟然还会找上门来!他说:“离婚,跟了我。”她气急败坏,谁不知道姜大少心里有个白月光,她才不要给人当替身!谁料这个霸道的男人竟然布下天罗地网让她无法逃离--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 乾坤剑神

    乾坤剑神

    景言曾是景家最优秀的天才,十六岁突破武道九重天踏入先天之境,整个东临城无人能比,却莫名其妙在进入神风学院后境界跌落,成为笑柄。解开乾坤戒封印,重新崛起,最终制霸天元大陆,成为无数武者仰望的存在。
  • 逃婚指南之魔妃太轻狂

    逃婚指南之魔妃太轻狂

    一夕瞬变,所有的一切仿佛都回到了起点。可怜?这个词是给失败者的。怜悯?这个词是给可怜者的。这些我都不需要,我会用自己的手创造一片属于自己的天地人不为己,天诛地灭;人若犯我,我必百倍还之。可当那个看似清冷淡漠的男子出现时,她....才觉得世上原来还有最美好的事,那就是你!
  • 针灸节要

    针灸节要

    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。
  • 凤凰琴

    凤凰琴

    发现家有上古祭礼大器伏羲凤凰琴,是钟成十三岁发生的大事件——那时节,钟成正沉迷于历史研究。钟成的父亲钟磬声是历史老师,不过他并没有因为儿子历史学得好就让他当历史课代表。钟磬声认为,官员是钟家忌讳的职业,他不想培养儿子这方面的才能。眼看着儿子买回了一大堆纸张泛黄的历史书籍,钟磬声只能借故压缩儿子的零用钱。可钟成很快就学会从爷爷那里讨钱。钟老爷子是个老兵,月月有工资和津贴,加上侍弄二儿子钟磬伟的几亩薄田,身上没怎么缺过钱。孙子喜欢看书,钟老爷子看着喜欢,一听孙子要钱买几本旧书,自然是心甘情愿把兜里所有钱都拿出来,还直夸钟成节俭,花小钱买大书,是了不起的读书人