Pumpkins' Glow: 200+ Eerie Tales for Halloween. Джек Лондон

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СКАЧАТЬ made a blaze that illuminated the whole room, and which showed me the sharp, thin visage of my visitor, who was a dark man with keen grey eyes that were very restless.

      '"Will you have a glass of wine?" said I; "the night is cold as well as wet."

      '"Yes, I will," he replied; "I am cold with riding. You have a lonely place about here; your house, I see, stands alone too. You have not many neighbours."

      "No, sir," said I; "we hadn't need, for when any of the poor things set to screaming, it would make them feel very uncomfortable indeed."

      '"So it would; there is an advantage in that both to yourself as well as to them. It would be disagreeable to you to know that you were disturbing your neighbours, and they would feel equally uncomfortable in being disturbed, and yet you must do your duty."

      '"Ay! to be sure," said I; "I must do my duty, and people won't pay me for letting madmen go, though they may for keeping them; and besides that, I think some on 'em would get their throats cut if I did."

      '"You are right - quite right," said he; "I am glad to find you of that mind, for I came to you about an affair that requires some delicacy about it, since it is a female patient."

      '"Ah!" said I, "I always pay a great attention, very great attention, and I don't recollect a case, however violent it may be, but what I can overcome. I always make 'em acknowledge me, and there's much art in that."

      '"To be sure, there must be."

      '"And moreover, they wouldn't so soon crouch and shrink away from me, and do what I tell 'em, if I did not treat them with kindness, that is, as far as is consistent with one's duty, for I mustn't forget that."

      '"Exactly," he replied; "those are my sentiments exactly."

      '"And now, sir, will you inform me in what way I can serve you?"

      '"Why, I have a relative - a female relative, who is unhappily affected with a brain disease; we have tried all we can do, without any effect. Do what we will, it comes to the same thing in the end."

      '"Ah!" said I; "poor thing - what a dreadful thing it must be to you or any of her friends, who have the charge of her, to see her day by day an incurable maniac. Why, it is just as bad as when a friend or relative was dead, and you were obliged to have the dead body constantly in your house before your eyes.

      '"Exactly, my friend," replied the stranger, "exactly, you are a man of discernment, Mr Fogg. I see that is truly the state of the case. You may then guess at the state of our feelings, when we have to part with one beloved by us."

      'As he spoke, he turned right round, and faced me, looking very hard into my face.

      '"Well," said I, "yours is a hard case; but to have one afflicted about you in the manner the young lady is, is truly distressing: it is like having a perpetual lumbago in your back."

      '"Exactly," said the stranger. "I tell you what, you are the very man to do this thing for me."

      "I am sure of it," said I.

      '"Then we understand each other, eh?" said the stranger. "I must say I like your appearance; it is not often such people as you and I meet."

      '"I hope it will be to our mutual advantage," said I, "because such people don't meet every day, and we oughtn't to meet to no purpose; so, in anything delicate and confidential, you may command me."

      '"I see you are a clever man," said he; "well, well, I must pay you in proportion to your talents. How do you do business - by the job, or by the year?"

      '"Well," said I, "where it's a matter of some nicety it maybe both -but it entirely depends upon circumstances. I had better know exactly what it is I have to do."

      '"Why, you see, it is a young female about eighteen, and she is somewhat troublesome, takes to screaming and all that kind of thing. I want her taken care of, though you must be very careful she neither runs away, or suddenly commits any mischief, as her madness does not appear to me to have any particular form, and would, at times, completely deceive the best of us, and then suddenly she will break out violently, and snap or fly at anybody with her teeth."

      "Is she so bad as that?"

      '"Yes, quite. So, it is quite impossible to keep her at home; and I expect it will be a devil of a job to get her here. I tell you what you shall have; I'll pay you your yearly charge for board and care, and you'll come and assist me in securing her, and bringing her down. It will take some trouble."

      '"Very well," said I, "that will do; but you must double the note and make it twenty, if you please; it will cost something to come and do the job well."

      '"I see - very well - we won't disagree about a ten-pound note; but you'll know how to dispose of her if she comes here."

      "Oh, yes - very healthy place."

      '"But I don't know that health is a very great blessing to anyone under such circumstances; indeed, who would begrudge an early grave to one severely afflicted?"

      '"Nobody ought," said I; "if they know what mad people went through, they would not, I'm sure."

      '"That is very true again, but the fact is, they don't, and they only look at one side of the picture; for my own part, I think that it ought to be so ordained, that when people are so afflicted, nature ought to sink under the affliction, and so insensibly to revert to the former state of nonentity."

      '"Well," said I, "that may be as you please, I don't understand all that; but I tell you what, I hope if she were to die much sooner than you expect, you would not think it too much trouble to afford me some compensation for my loss."

      '"Oh dear no! and to show you that I shall entertain no such illiberal feeling, I will give you two hundred pounds, when the certificate of her burial can be produced. You understand me?"

      '"Certainly."

      '"Her death will be of little value to me, without the legal proof," said the stranger; "so she must die at her own pleasure, or live while she can."

      '"Certainly," said I.

      '"But what terrifies me," said the stranger, "most is, her terror-stricken countenance, always staring us in our faces; and it arose from her being terrified; indeed, I think if she were thoroughly frightened, she would fall dead. I am sure, if any wickedly disposed person were to do so, death would no doubt result."

      '"Ah!" said I, "it would be a bad job; now tell me where Jam to see you, and how about the particulars."

      '"Oh, I will tell you; now, can you be at the corner of Grosvenor-street, near Park-lane?"

      '"Yes," I replied, "I will."

      '"With a coach, too. I wish you to have a coach, and one that you can depend upon, because there may be a little noise. I will try to avoid it, if possible, but we can always do what we desire; but you must have good horses."

      '"Now, I tell you what is my plan; that is, if you don't mind the damages, if any happen."

      '"What are they?"

      '"This: suppose a horse falls, and is hurt, or an upset - would you stand the racket?"

      '"I would, of СКАЧАТЬ