福尔摩斯探案全集哪个版本最好 福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第13章Part2

福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第13章Part2  

"Well
there are no papers. But I filled him up about constitutions and books of rules and forms of membership. He expects to get right down to the end of everything before he leaves."
"Faith
he's right there
" said McGinty grimly. "Didn't he ask you why you didn't bring him the papers?"
"As if I would carry such things
and me a suspected man
and Captain Marvin after speaking to me this very day at the depot!"
"Ay
I heard of that
" said McGinty. "I guess the heavy end of this business is ing on to you. We could put him down an old shaft when we've done with him; but however we work it we can't get past the man living at Hobson's Patch and you being there to-day."
McMurdo shrugged his shoulders. "If we handle it right
they can never prove the killing
" said he. "No one can see him e to the house after dark
and I'll lay to it that no one will see him go. Now see here
Councillor
I'll show you my plan and I'll ask you to fit the others into it. You will all e in good time. Very well. He es at ten. He is to tap three times
and me to open the door for him. Then I'll get behind him and shut it. He's our man then."
"That's all easy and plain."
"Yes; but the next step wants considering. He's a hard proposition. He's heavily armed. I've fooled him proper
and yet he is likely to be on his guard. Suppose I show him right into a room with seven men in it where he expected to find me alone. There is going to be shooting
and somebody is going to be hurt."
"That's so."
"And the noise is going to bring every damned copper in the township on top of it."
"I guess you are right."
"This is how I should work it. You will all be in the big room--same as you saw when you had a chat with me. I'll open the door for him
show him into the parlour beside the door
and leave him there while I get the papers. That will give me the chance of telling you how things are shaping. Then I will go back to him with some faked papers. As he is reading them I will jump for him and get my grip on his pistol arm. You'll hear me call and in you will rush. The quicker the better; for he is as strong a man as I
and I may have more than I can manage. But I allow that I can hold him till you e."
"It's a good plan
" said McGinty. "The lodge will owe you a debt for this. I guess when I move out of the chair I can put a name to the man that's ing after me."
"Sure
Councillor
I am little more than a recruit
" said McMurdo; but his face showed what he thought of the great man's pliment.
When he had returned home he made his own preparations for the grim evening in front of him. First he cleaned
oiled
and loaded his Smith & Wesson revolver. Then he surveyed the room in which the detective was to be trapped. It was a large apartment
with a long deal table in the centre
and the big stove at one side. At each of the other sides were windows. There were no shutters on these: only light curtains which drew across. McMurdo examined these attentively. No doubt it must have struck him that the apartment was very exposed for so secret a meeting. Yet its distance from the road made it of less consequence. Finally he discussed the matter with his fellow lodger. Scanlan
though a Scowrer
was an inoffensive little man who was too weak to stand against the opinion of his rades
but was secretly horrified by the deeds of blood at which he had sometimes been forced to assist. McMurdo told him shortly what was intended.
"And if I were you
Mike Scanlan
I would take a night off and keep clear of it. There will be bloody work here before morning."
"Well
indeed then
Mac
" Scanlan answered. "It's not the will but the nerve that is wanting in me. When I saw Manager Dunn go down at the colliery yonder it was just more than I could stand. I'm not made for it
same as you or McGinty. If the lodge will think none the worse of me
I'll just do as you advise and leave you to yourselves for the evening."
The men came in good time as arranged. They were ouardly respectable citizens
well clad and cleanly; but a judge of faces would have read little hope for Birdy Edwards in those hard mouths and remorseless eyes. There was not a man in the room whose hands had not been reddened a dozen times before. They were as hardened to human murder as a butcher to sheep.
Foremost
of course
both in appearance and in guilt
was the formidable Boss. Harraway
the secretary
was a lean
bitter man with a long
scraggy neck and nervous
jerky limbs
a man of incorruptible fidelity where the finances of the order were concerned
and with no notion of justice or honesty to anyone beyond. The treasurer
Carter
was a middle-aged man
with an impassive
rather sulky expression
and a yellow parchment skin. He was a capable anizer
and the actual details of nearly every outrage had sprung from his plotting brain. The o Willabys were men of action
tall
lithe young fellows with determined faces
while their panion
Tiger Cormac
a heavy
dark youth
was feared even by his own rades for the ferocity of his disposition. These were the men who assembled that night under the roof of McMurdo for the killing of the Pinkerton detective.
Their host had placed whisky upon the table
and they had hastened to prime themselves for the work before them. Baldwin and Cormac were already half-drunk
and the liquor had brought out all their ferocity. Cormac placed his hands on the stove for an instant--it had been lighted
for the nights were still cold.
"That will do
" said he
with an oath.
"Ay
" said Baldwin
catching his meaning. "If he is strapped to that
we will have the truth out of him."
"We'll have the truth out of him
never fear
" said McMurdo. He had nerves of steel
this man; for though the whole weight of the affair was on him his manner was as cool and unconcerned as ever. The others marked it and applauded.
"You are the one to handle him
" said the Boss approvingly. "Not a warning will he get till your hand is on his throat. It's a pity there are no shutters to your windows."
McMurdo went from one to the other and drew the curtains tighter.
"Sure no one can spy upon us now. It's close upon the hour."