登陆注册
20268200000130

第130章

He rendered what help he could, but when they had laid the poor woman on her bed, Miss Garland motioned him away.

"I think you make her worse," she said.

Rowland went to his own chamber.The partitions in Swiss mountain-inns are thin, and from time to time he heard Mrs.Hudson moaning, three rooms off.Considering its great fury, the storm took long to expend itself; it was upwards of three hours before the thunder ceased.But even then the rain continued to fall heavily, and the night, which had come on, was impenetrably black.This lasted till near midnight.

Rowland thought of Mary Garland's challenge in the porch, but he thought even more that, although the fetid interior of a high-nestling chalet may offer a convenient refuge from an Alpine tempest, there was no possible music in the universe so sweet as the sound of Roderick's voice.

At midnight, through his dripping window-pane, he saw a star, and he immediately went downstairs and out into the gallery.

The rain had ceased, the cloud-masses were dissevered here and there, and several stars were visible.In a few minutes he heard a step behind him, and, turning, saw Miss Garland.

He asked about Mrs.Hudson and learned that she was sleeping, exhausted by her fruitless lamentations.Miss Garland kept scanning the darkness, but she said nothing to cast doubt on Roderick's having found a refuge.Rowland noticed it.

"This also have I guaranteed!" he said to himself.

There was something that Mary wished to learn, and a question presently revealed it.

"What made him start on a long walk so suddenly?" she asked.

"I saw him at eleven o'clock, and then he meant to go to Engelberg, and sleep.""On his way to Interlaken?" Rowland said.

"Yes," she answered, under cover of the darkness.

"We had some talk," said Rowland, "and he seemed, for the day, to have given up Interlaken.""Did you dissuade him?"

"Not exactly.We discussed another question, which, for the time, superseded his plan."Miss Garland was silent.Then--"May I ask whether your discussion was violent?" she said.

"I am afraid it was agreeable to neither of us.""And Roderick left you in--in irritation?""I offered him my company on his walk.He declined it."Miss Garland paced slowly to the end of the gallery and then came back.

"If he had gone to Engelberg," she said, "he would have reached the hotel before the storm began."Rowland felt a sudden explosion of ferocity."Oh, if you like,"he cried, "he can start for Interlaken as soon as he comes back!"But she did not even notice his wrath."Will he come back early?"she went on.

"We may suppose so."

"He will know how anxious we are, and he will start with the first light!"Rowland was on the point of declaring that Roderick's readiness to throw himself into the feelings of others made this extremely probable;but he checked himself and said, simply, "I expect him at sunrise."Miss Garland bent her eyes once more upon the irresponsive darkness, and then, in silence, went into the house.Rowland, it must be averred, in spite of his resolution not to be nervous, found no sleep that night.When the early dawn began to tremble in the east, he came forth again into the open air.

The storm had completely purged the atmosphere, and the day gave promise of cloudless splendor.Rowland watched the early sun-shafts slowly reaching higher, and remembered that if Roderick did not come back to breakfast, there were two things to be taken into account.

One was the heaviness of the soil on the mountain-sides, saturated with the rain; this would make him walk slowly:

the other was the fact that, speaking without irony, he was not remarkable for throwing himself into the sentiments of others.

Breakfast, at the inn, was early, and by breakfast-time Roderick had not appeared.Then Rowland admitted that he was nervous.

Neither Mrs.Hudson nor Miss Garland had left their apartment;Rowland had a mental vision of them sitting there praying and listening;he had no desire to see them more directly.There were a couple of men who hung about the inn as guides for the ascent of the Titlis;Rowland sent each of them forth in a different direction, to ask the news of Roderick at every ch; afalet door within a morning's walk.

Then he called Sam Singleton, whose peregrinations had made him an excellent mountaineer, and whose zeal and sympathy were now unbounded, and the two started together on a voyage of research.

By the time they had lost sight of the inn, Rowland was obliged to confess that, decidedly, Roderick had had time to come back.

He wandered about for several hours, but he found only the sunny stillness of the mountain-sides.Before long he parted company with Singleton, who, to his suggestion that separation would multiply their resources, assented with a silent, frightened look which reflected too vividly his own rapidly-dawning thought.The day was magnificent;the sun was everywhere; the storm had lashed the lower slopes into a deeper flush of autumnal color, and the snow-peaks reared themselves against the near horizon in glaring blocks and dazzling spires.

Rowland made his way to several chalets, but most of them were empty.

He thumped at their low, foul doors with a kind of nervous, savage anger;he challenged the stupid silence to tell him something about his friend.

Some of these places had evidently not been open in months.

The silence everywhere was horrible; it seemed to mock at his impatience and to be a conscious symbol of calamity.

In the midst of it, at the door of one of the chalets, quite alone, sat a hideous cretin, who grinned at Rowland over his goitre when, hardly knowing what he did, he questioned him.The creature's family was scattered on the mountain-sides; he could give Rowland no help to find them.Rowland climbed into many awkward places, and skirted, intently and peeringly, many an ugly chasm and steep-dropping ledge.

同类推荐
  • 贝多树下思惟十二因缘经

    贝多树下思惟十二因缘经

    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。
  • 佛古闻禅师语录

    佛古闻禅师语录

    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。
  • 五家宗旨纂要

    五家宗旨纂要

    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。
  • 百佛名经

    百佛名经

    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。
  • 杂曲歌辞 火凤辞

    杂曲歌辞 火凤辞

    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
  • 农家伪爷:权门主母

    农家伪爷:权门主母

    父亲骤逝,母亲临盆,一家人愁云密布。她排行老四,上有刻薄兄嫂,下有幼小弟妹,谁来顾一家生计。为母改嫁,她自废左手解除竹马婚约,种花养草,上山下河,正待努力成就一番事业,却成了兄嫂眼中浪费粮食的废物,嫂子天天让人来问:张家老三是个瘸子,家境殷实,你嫁不嫁?李家老四死了老婆,为人倒是忠厚,你嫁不嫁?奶奶可忍,爷爷不可忍,她决定奋发图强。男娃有什么了不起,爷不是男娃偏要闯出个锦绣钱程,让尔等看看。后来,她还是嫁了人,生了孩子,帮着母亲拉扯大了弟妹,嫁了个人人羡慕腹黑夫婿。(本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。)
  • 行走的新闻:走进宁波教育管理名家

    行走的新闻:走进宁波教育管理名家

    本书是对宁波市20位教育管理名家进行采访,挖掘教育管理名家的办学故事、治学理念,记录宁波教育的发展,推广一批教育管理名家的办学思想。此前“行走的新闻”已连续出版多次,取得了良好的社会反响,并在宁波教育界引发关注。此次的走近宁波教育管理名家是服务型教育理念的一次生动诠释,通过采访挖掘宁波教育特色。也是宁波首次对优秀教育工作者办学、治学故事进行集中梳理,对宁波教育的科学发展有特殊的意义。
  • 伪少女异星求生记

    伪少女异星求生记

    这是一个史上最苦逼的穿越女的故事。没有空间,没有异能,没有神兽萌宠!乞丐版标配不包含金手指。亲,请自行加价购买吧!
  • 美女战队

    美女战队

    他是杀戮的象征,他是死亡的代名词,他是敌人的噩梦,他就是“张冲”几年前的王者天下,曾流传着这样一句话“宁见阎罗哭,莫见冥王怒”,在他的带领下,修罗军团所向披靡,即将登顶这片奇异大陆的顶峰……
  • 网游之巅峰征途

    网游之巅峰征途

    我,站在这世界的巅峰!人们叫我虚拟之神!剑与魔法的世界,鲜血铺就的征途!没有谁是永恒的王者!只有永不停歇的杀伐!
  • 猛豹骑驴记

    猛豹骑驴记

    她是外号叫小驴,可从没想过自己……还真是条驴啊!【此文致真爱——谢谢】
  • 击天

    击天

    天覆大地,如同牢笼,困万族于其中。万族不甘!先有凤凰,怒而飞,其翼化作千里火云,焚天百年,直至陨落方休。后有真龙,倾尽东海,凝方圆万米水龙卷直贯天穹,持续冲击,龙珠枯竭方才作罢。而后人族领悟修真之法,强势崛起,只五百年成就大陆霸主,再五百年隐为万族之首,一千五百年后,琼华慕容迈入前无古人之境,于昆仑之巅挥剑击天。其时鸾鸟盘空,蛟龙行云,山精仰望,人鱼凝眸,万族瞩目,其剑气滞留天际三月不散,剑势之浩大凌厉仿佛真的要撕裂天穹之上的那道无形壁垒,但最终却只是在那片天穹上留下了三日剑痕……五千年后,一少年自深山村落进入了世间,前所未有的浩然盛世骤然开启!
  • 灵明小六荡仙魔

    灵明小六荡仙魔

    “金斗引得祥云至,自有仙道从中来”一个金斗,一句谶语,让原本平静的神州大地,变得血雨腥风!听灵明小子孙小六给您讲诉一个故事,一个发生在斗圣孙悟空陨落千年后的故事,自有让你想象不到的因果,让你喟然长叹的宿命,让你沉溺其中的姻缘,和让你血脉喷张的战斗。不要急,慢慢来,听小六给你慢慢讲述....
  • 唏嘘相见恨晚

    唏嘘相见恨晚

    咒骂人生太短唏嘘相见恨晚让女人把妆哭花了也不管遗憾我们从未成熟还没能晓得就已经老了尽力却仍不明白身边的年轻人给自己随便找个理由向情爱的挑逗命运的左右不自量力地还手直至死方休
  • 人子须知

    人子须知

    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。