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

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СКАЧАТЬ but a frail door between him and his enemies, and yet he stood profoundly still and listened.

      Mr Fogg was speaking.

      'You quite understand me, Watson: I think,' he said, 'as concerns that little viper Tobias Ragg, he is too cunning, and much too dangerous, to live long. He almost staggered old superannuated Popplejoy.'

      'Oh, confound him!' replied Watson, 'and he quite staggered me.'

      'Why, certainly your face is rather scratched.'

      'Yes, the little devil! but it's all in the way of business that, Mr Fogg, and you never heard me grumble at such little matters yet; and I'll be bound never will, that's more.'

      'I give you credit for that, Watson; but between you and I, I think the disease of that boy is of a nature that will carry him off very suddenly.'

      'I think so too,' said Watson, with a chuckle.

      'It strikes me forcibly that he will be found dead in his bed some morning, and I should not in the least wonder if that was tomorrow morning: what's your opinion, Watson?'

      'Oh, damn it, what's the use of all this round-about nonsense between us? the boy is to die, and there's an end of it, and die he shall, during the night - I owe him a personal grudge of course now.'

      'Of course you do - he has disfigured you.'

      'Has he? Well, I can return the compliment, and I say, Mr Fogg, my opinion is, that it's very dangerous having these medical inspections you have such a fancy for.'

      'My dear fellow, it is dangerous, that I know as well as you can tell me, but it is from that danger we gather safety. If anything in the shape of a disturbance should arise about any patient, you don't know of what vast importance a report from such a man as old Dr Popplejoy might be.'

      'Well, well, have it your own way. I shall not go near Master Tobias for the whole day, and shall see what starvation and solitude does towards taming him down a bit.'

      'As you please; but it is time you went your regular rounds.'

      'Yes, of course.'

      Tobias heard Watson rise. The crisis was a serious one. His eye fell upon a bolt that was outside the door, and, with the quickness of thought, he shot it into its socket, and then made his way down the passage towards his cell, the door of which he shut close.

      His next movement was to run to the end of the passage and descend some stairs. A door opposed him, but a push opened it, and he found himself in a small, dimly-lighted room, in one corner of which, upon a heap of straw, lay a woman, apparently sleeping.

      The noise which Tobias made in entering the cell, for such it was, roused her up, and she said,-

      'Oh! no, no, not the lash! not the lash! I am quiet. God, how quiet I am, although the heart within is breaking. Have mercy upon me!'

      'Have mercy upon me,' said Tobias, 'and hide me if you can.'

      'Hide you! hide you! God of Heavens, who are you?'

      'A poor victim, who has escaped from one of the cells, and I-'

      'Hush!' said the woman; and she made Tobias shrink down in the corner of the cell, cleverly covering him up with the straw, and then lying down herself in such a position that he was completely screened. The precaution was not taken a moment too soon, for by the time it was completed, Watson had burst open the door of the room which Tobias had bolted, and stood in the narrow passage.

      'How the devil,' he said, 'came that door shut, I wonder?'

      'Oh! save me,' whispered Tobias.

      'Hush! hush! He will only look in,' was the answer. 'You are safe. I have been only waiting for someone who could assist me, in order to attempt an escape. You must remain here until night, and then I will show you how it may be done. Hush! - he comes.'

      Watson did come, and looked into the cell, muttering an oath, as he said,-

      'Oh, you have enough bread and water till tomorrow morning, I should say; so you need not expect to see me again till then.'

      'Oh! we are saved! we shall escape,' said the poor creature, after Watson had been gone some minutes.

      'Do you think so?'

      'Yes, yes! Oh, boy, I do not know what brought you here, but if you have suffered one-tenth part of the cruelty and oppression I have suffered, you are indeed to be pitied.'

      'If we are to stay here,' said Tobias, 'till night, before making any attempt to escape, it will, perhaps, ease your mind, and beguile the time, if you were to tell me how you came here.'

      'God knows! it might - it might!'

      Tobias was very urgent upon the poor creature to tell her story, to beguile the tedium of the time of waiting, and after some amount of persuasion she consented to do so.

      The Mad Woman's Tale

      You shall now hear (she said to Tobias), if you will listen, such a catalogue of wrongs, unredressed and still enduring, that would indeed drive any human being mad; but I have been able to preserve so much of my mental faculties as will enable me to recollect and understand the many acts of cruelty and injustice I have endured here for many a long and weary day.

      My persecutions began when I was very young - so young that I could not comprehend their cause, and used to wonder why I should be treated with greater rigour or with greater cruelty than people used to treat those who were really disobedient and wayward children.

      I was scarcely seven years old when a maiden aunt died; she was the only person whom I remember as being uniformly kind to me, though I can only remember her indistinctly, yet I know she was kind to me. I know also I used to visit her, and she used to look upon me as her favourite, for I used to sit at her feet upon a stool, watching her as she sat amusing herself by embroidering, silent and motionless sometimes, and then I asked her some questions which she answered.

      This is the chief feature of my recollection of my aunt: she soon after died, but while she lived, I had no unkindness from anybody; it was only after that that I felt the cruelty and coldness of my family.

      It appeared that I was a favourite with my aunt above all others whether in our family or any other; she loved me, and promised that, when she died, she would leave me provided for, and that I should not be dependent upon anyone.

      Well, I was, from the day after the funeral, an altered being. I was neglected, and no one paid any attention to me whatsoever; I was thrust about, and nobody appeared to care even if I had the necessaries of life.

      Such a change I could not understand. I could not believe the evidence of my own senses; I thought it must be something that I did not understand; perhaps my poor aunt's death had caused this distress and alteration in people's demeanour to me.

      However, I was a child, and though I was quick enough at noting all this, yet I was too young to feel acutely the conduct of my friends.

      My father and mother were careless of me, and let me run where I would; they cared not when I was hurt, they cared not when I was in danger. Come what would, I was left to take my chance.

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