福尔摩斯探案集第5季 福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第13章Part4

福尔摩斯探案经典:《恐怖谷》第13章Part4  

"I'd like to say a word to you before we separate
" said the man who had trapped them. "I guess we may not meet again until you see me on the stand in the courthouse. I'll give you something to think over beeen now and then. You know me now for what I am. At last I can put my cards on the table. I am Birdy Edwards of Pinkerton's. I was chosen to break up your gang. I had a hard and dangerous game to play. Not a soul
not one soul
not my nearest and dearest
knew that I was playing it. Only Captain Marvin here and my employers knew that. But it's over to-night
thank God
and I am the winner!"
The seven pale
rigid faces looked up at him. There was unappeasable hatred in their eyes. He read the relentless threat."Maybe you think that the game is not over yet. Well
I take my chance of that. Anyhow
some of you will take no further hand
and there are sixty more besides yourselves that will see a jail this night. I'll tell you this
that when I was put upon this job I never believed there was such a society as yours. I thought it was paper talk
and that I would prove it so. They told me it was to do with the Freemen; so I went to Chicago and was made one. Then I was surer than ever that it was just paper talk; for I found no harm in the society
but a deal of good.
"Still
I had to carry out my job
and I came to the coal valleys. When I reached this place I learned that I was wrong and that it wasn't a dime novel after all. So I stayed to look after it. I never killed a man in Chicago. I never minted a dollar in my life. Those I gave you were as good as any others; but I never spent money better. But I knew the way into your good wishes and so I pretended to you that the law was after me. It all worked just as I thought.
"So I joined your infernal lodge
and I took my share in your councils. Maybe they will say that I was as bad as you. They can say what they like
so long as I get you. But what is the truth? The night I joined you beat up old man Stanger. I could not warn him
for there was no time; but I held your hand
Baldwin
when you would have killed him. If ever I have suggested things
so as to keep my place among you
they were things which I knew I could prevent. I could not save Dunn and Menzies
for I did not know enough; but I will see that their murderers are hanged. I gave Chester Wilcox warning
so that when I blew his house in he and his folk were in hiding. There was many a crime that I could not stop; but if you look back and think how often your man came home the other road
or was down in town when you went for him
or stayed indoors when you thought he would e out
you'll see my work."
"You blasted traitor!" hissed McGinty through his closed teeth.
"Ay
John McGinty
you may call me that if it eases your smart. You and your like have been the enemy of God and man in these parts. It took a man to get beeen you and the poor devils of men and women that you held under your grip. There was just one way of doing it
and I did it. You call me a traitor; but I guess there's many a thousand will call me a deliverer that went down into hell to save them. I've had three months of it. I wouldn't have three such months again if they let me loose in the treasury at Washington for it. I had to stay till I had it all
every man and every secret right here in this hand. I'd have waited a little longer if it hadn't e to my knowledge that my secret was ing out. A letter had e into the town that would have set you wise to it all. Then I had to act and act quickly.
"I've nothing more to say to you
except that when my time es I'll die the easier when I think of the work I have done in this valley. Now
Marvin
I'll keep you no more. Take them in and get it over."
There is little more to tell. Scanlan had been given a sealed note to be left at the address of Miss Ettie Shafter
a mission which he had accepted with a wink and a knowing smile. In the early hours of the morning a beautiful woman and a much muffled man boarded a special train which had been sent by the railroad pany
and made a swift
unbroken journey out of the land of danger. It was the last time that ever either Ettie or her lover set foot in the Valley of Fear. Ten days later they were married in Chicago
with old Jacob Shafter as witness of the wedding.