第 7 页

实 验

12月末的一天，乡村牧师霍尔医生正在书房工作，突然仆人十分惊慌地进了屋。

“噢，霍尔医生，”她叫道，“你说怎么的，那可怜的乡绅死了！”

“什么？乡绅鲍尔斯？你在说些什么呀？”牧师说，“我昨天还见到他了呢——”

“是啊，先生，我知道，”仆人说，“可这的确是真的。教堂执事威克姆先生刚刚在去教堂敲钟的路上送来的信儿，一会儿您就会亲耳听到钟声。听！钟声响了。”果真如此，这时钟声开始响起来，声音悠长而缓慢，告诉村里人有人去世了。

霍尔医生站起身来。“太糟糕了，”他说，“我必须马上到他府上去一趟。他昨天好多了。这事儿似乎挺突然的。”

“是的，先生，”仆人附和说，“威克姆先生说那可怜的乡绅突然发病，疼痛难忍，接着很快就死了。威克姆先生还说他们希望能很快把他葬了。”

“是啊，是啊。哦，我得去问问鲍尔斯太太本人或约瑟夫先生，”牧师说，“请把我的大衣和帽子拿来。对了，告诉威克姆先生敲完钟后我想见见他。”说完他便急匆匆地赶往乡绅府了。

一个小时后他回来了，执事正等着他呢。

“威克姆，你需要做的事情很多，”他说，“可是时间并不多。”

“是的，先生，”威克姆说，“当然，您是想找人挖开他家的坟……”

“不，不，不是的，”霍尔医生答道，“那可怜的乡绅死前说他不想葬在家族的坟里。他要葬身于教堂墓地里的土坟。”

“对不起，先生，”威克姆十分惊讶地问，“不知我理解得对不对，您是说，不要墓，只要个土坟？那可怜的乡绅一定是病得太重，不知自己在说些什么了吧？”

“是的，威克姆，我也觉得很奇怪，”牧师说，“可约瑟夫先生告诉我说他父亲，或者我该说是他继父，身体还好时就明确表达了自己的愿望：他要干净的泥土露天地。当然你也知道这位乡绅的一些想法很怪，虽然他从没告诉过我这个想法。对了还有，威克姆，他不要棺材。”

“天啊！天啊！”威克姆说，“人们会对此议论纷纷的。我知道老赖特先生为给乡绅做棺材准备了些很不错的木材，而且已经给他保存了好多年了。”

“唉，”霍尔医生说，“那都是乡绅的愿望，人家是这么告诉我的，我们就必须这么做。明天晚上10点以前你必须让人挖好坟并且把一切准备就绪，跟赖特说我们需要几盏灯。”

“好吧，先生，如果您吩咐我做，我一定尽力去做，”威克姆说，“用不用我从村里找几个女人来把尸体弄好准备下葬呀？”

“不用，威克姆，这事儿他们没提，”牧师说，“如果需要，约瑟夫先生肯定会派人去找她们。你要做的事情已经不少了。晚安，威克姆。”停了一下，他接着说：“我刚刚在写教堂记录中关于今年葬礼那部分。我没料到还得把乡绅鲍尔斯的名字加进去。”

乡绅的葬礼按计划进行了。全村的人和几个邻村的人都去了。尸体被抬到教堂墓地，乡绅的继子约瑟夫跟在后面。按当时风俗乡绅的妻子用不着来参加葬礼。除了妻子和继子，乡绅家中没有其他人，他把所有的东西都留给了妻子。

这所有的东西是什么呢？地产、房子、家具、绘画作品和银器都有，可就是找不到钱。这就怪了。乡绅鲍尔斯是很富有的，每年从地产上能收入许多钱，他的律师们也很老实，可就是找不到钱。这位乡绅花钱并不吝啬。妻子需要什么就有什么，他供约瑟夫上学，后来又上大学，他自己日子过得也不错。可他挣的钱还是花不了，可钱在哪儿呢？

鲍尔斯夫人和儿子把屋子和地面翻找了好几遍都没找到钱，他们感到不可理解。一天晚上俩人坐在书房里，第20次谈起这件事。

“约瑟夫，你是不是又翻了一遍他的各种材料？”母亲问道。

“是呀，妈妈，可什么也没找到。”

“你知道他死的前一天写了些什么吗？他为什么总给格洛斯特的福勒先生写信？”

“你知道他对人死后灵魂会如何看法很奇怪，他就这个问题给福勒先生写了封信，可是还没写完。来，我给你读一读。”

他从乡绅的写字台上拿起一些材料开始读起来。

我亲爱的朋友：

听听我最近的研究成果，你会感兴趣的。虽然我不敢肯定这些东西有多准确。一位作家说人死后一段时间，灵魂就在他生前熟悉的那些地方附近游荡——近得能把他唤来与活着的人说话。如果用合适的词语叫他，他一定会来的。穆尔博士书里的一个实验中列出了这些词语，我已经给你抄下来了。那灵魂来了就张嘴说话，叫他的人通常是想知道那死人生前把钱财藏在了什么地方，可他看到和听到的可能还不止这些。

约瑟夫不读了。俩人沉默了一会儿，他母亲问：“没有别的了？”

“没有了，妈妈，没有别的了。”

“你见过这位福勒先生吗？”

“见过，他来牛津讲过一两次课。”

“好吧，”母亲说，“既然他俩是朋友，我想你应该给他写封信，告诉他……出了什么事情。你知道该说些什么。不管怎么说信是写给他的。”

“你说得对，妈妈，”约瑟夫答道，“我马上给他写。”那天晚上他便写了。

过了一段时间，格洛斯特那个人发来了回信，还有个大包裹。乡绅府书房里夜晚的谈话更多了。一天晚上，母亲说：

“好了，如果你觉得没问题，今天晚上就干吧，绕过那片旷野，那里不会有人看见你的。噢，你可以用这块布。”

“这是什么布呀，妈妈？”约瑟夫问。

“就是一块布。”母亲回答。

约瑟夫从花园的门出来，他母亲站在门口，手捂着嘴想着事儿。接着她小声说：“用这块布盖住他的脸。噢，我当时不那么慌张多好呀！”

那天晚上天很黑，大风刮过黑暗的旷野，声音大得能把所有的喊叫和回答声淹没——假如真有人喊叫或回答的话。

次日早晨，约瑟夫母亲急进他的卧室。“把布给我，”她说，“千万别让仆人们发现。告诉我，快告诉我情况怎么样！”

儿子双手托着头坐在床边，红着眼睛激动地望着她。

“我们使他开了口，”他说，“为什么，噢，妈妈，你为什么没把他的脸盖上？”

“你知道那天我是多么手忙脚乱，”她回答，“我当时没有时间呀。你是说你看见他的脸没盖上？”

约瑟夫双手掩面说：“是的，妈妈，他说你也会看见的。”

他母亲发出一声可怕的叫声，一把抓住了床柱。

“他生气了，”约瑟夫接着说，“我确信他在等着我叫他。我刚说完那些话，就听见他的声音，就像一条狗在地下嗥叫。”

他突然站起身，在屋里踱起步来。

“现在他自由了！可我们怎么办呢？我不能再去见他了。我不能喝他喝的那种东西，到他去的地方去！我太怕在这里再躺上一夜了！噢，妈妈，你为什么要这样做呢？我们得到的已经够多了。”

“别说了！”他母亲的嘴唇都干了，“这不仅是我的罪过也是你的罪过。还说什么呢？听我的。现在才6点。雅茅斯离这儿不算远，我们的钱足够过海的——他是不能跟着我们过水域的。我们坐夜班船去荷兰。你去准备好马匹，我把包打好。”

约瑟夫盯着她问：“这儿的人会怎么说呢？”

“你一定要跟牧师说我们听说乡绅在阿姆斯特丹有些钱，得去收回来。走吧，走吧！如果你不敢这么做，今天晚上就躺在这儿再等着他吧。”

约瑟夫浑身哆嗦着离开了房间。

那天晚上天黑后，一个船夫走进了雅茅斯的一家小旅馆，那里一男一女正在等着，身边地上放着他们的提包。

“准备好了吗，先生和夫人？”他问。“我们一小时之内就开船。另一位旅客已经在船旁等着呢。这是你们所有的行李吗？”他提起了包。

“是的，我们轻装旅行，”约瑟夫说，“你是说还有其他旅客要去荷兰？”

“只有一位，”船夫回答，“他似乎比你们更轻装。”

“你认识他吗？”鲍尔斯夫人问。她把手放在儿子胳膊上，俩人都在门口停下了。

“不认识，”船夫说，“他掩着脸，可我能听出他的声音——他说话声音很怪，像狗叫。不过你们会发现他认识你们。'去把他们带出来，'他对我说，'我在这儿等着他们。'他现在正往这边走过来呢。”

那时候毒死丈夫的女人是要被烧死的。据载，有一年在诺里奇一个女人受到了这样的惩罚，后来她的儿子被绞死了。没人告发他们的罪行，可他们跟村里的牧师交代了自己干的事。那个村的名字还必须保密，因为人们说那儿还藏着钱呢。

穆尔博士关于实验的那本书现在存放在剑桥大学的图书馆里，书中第144页上写着：

这个实验通常被证明是可靠的——用它能找到藏在地下的黄金，并能发现抢劫、谋杀或其他一些行为。到死人的坟前，叫三声他的名字，并说：“我请你离开黑暗的坟墓，今晚来找我，告诉我金子到底藏在哪里。”然后从他坟上取些土包在一块干净布里，睡觉时把它放在右耳朵下面。不管你在哪儿躺着还是睡觉，也不管你是醒我还是睡着，那天晚上他一定会来对你以实相告的。

Chapter 5 The Picture

For several years Mr Williams worked for the museum at the University of Oxford，enlarging its already famous collection of drawings and pictures of English country houses and churches．It is hard to imagine anything less alarming than collecting pictures of houses and churches，but Mr Williams found that even this peaceful work had its unexpected dark corners．

He bought many pictures for the museum from the London shop of Mr J．W．Britnell．Twice a year Mr Britnell sent a list of pictures to all his regular customers，who could then choose which pictures they wanted to look at before deciding whether to buy．

In February 1895 Mr Williams received a list from Mr Britnell with the following letter：

Dear Sir，

I think you might be interested in Picture Number 978 in our list，which I will be happy to send to you if you wish．

J．W．Britnell

Mr Williams turned to Number 978 in the list and found the following note：

Number 978．Artist unknown．Picture of an English country house，early nineteenth century．25 centimetres by 40 centimetres．￡20．

It did not sound very interesting and the price seemed high． However，Mr Williams added it to the pictures that he asked Mr Britnell to send to him．

The pictures arrived at the museum one Saturday afternoon， just after Mr Williams had left．They were brought round to his rooms in college so that he could look at them over the weekend．Mr Williams found them on his table when he and his friend，Mr Binks，came in to have tea．

Picture Number978 showed the front of quite a large country house．It had three rows of windows with the door in the middle of the bottom row．There were trees on both sides of the house and a large lawn in front of it．The letters A．W．F． were written in the corner of the picture．Mr Williams thought that it was not very well done，probably the work of an amateur artist，and he could not understand why Mr Britnell thought it was worth twenty pounds．He turned it over and saw that there was a piece of paper on the back with part of a name on it．All he could read were the ends of two lines of Writing The first said，'—ngly Hall'；the second，'—ssex'．

Mr Williams thought that it would be interesting to see if he could find the name of the house in one of his guidebooks be－ fore sending the picture back on Monday morning． Meanwhile，he put the picture on the table，lit the lamp because it was now getting dark，and made the tea．

While they were having tea，his friend picked up the picture，looked at it and said，Where's this house， Williams？'

'That's just what I was going to find out，'said Williams， taking a book from the shelf．'If you look at the back，you'll see it's Something Hall in either Essex or Sussex．Half the name's missing，you see．I don't suppose you recognize the house，do you？'

'No，I don't，'said Mr Binks．'It's from Britnell，'I suppose，isn't it？Is it for the museum？'

'Well，I would buy it if the price was two pounds，'replied Mr Williams，'but for some reason he wants twenty pounds for it．I can't think why．It's not a very good picture and there aren't even any figures in it to make it more interesting．'

'I agree it's not worth twenty pounds，'said Binks，'but I don't think it's too bad．The light seems rather good to me and I think there is a figure here，just at the edge，in the front．'

'Let me see，'said Williams．'Well，it's true the light is quite well done．Where's the figure？Oh，yes！Just the head， in the very front of the picture．'

And indeed there was——right on the edge of the picture— just the head of a man or a woman，who was looking towards the house．Williams had not noticed it before．

'Still，'he said，'though it's better than I thought at first， I can't spend twenty pounds of the museum's money on a picture of a house I don't even know．'

Mr Binks，who had some work to finish，soon left and Mr Williams spent the time before dinner trying to find the name of the house in his guidebooks．

'If I knew the letter before the“—ngly”，'he said to himself，'it would be easy enough．But there are many more names ending in“—ngly”than I thought．'

Dinner in Mr Williams'college was at seven o'clock and afterwards a few of his friends came back to his rooms to play cards．During a pause in the game Mr Williams picked up the picture from the table without looking at it and passed it to a man named Garwood，who was interested in pictures．Garwood looked at it and said：

'This is really a very fine picture，you know，Williams． The light is very well done，in my opinion，and though the figure is rather unpleasant，it is quite interesting．'

'Yes，isn't it？'said Williams，who was too busy giving drinks to his guests to look at the picture again．

When his visitors had gone，Williams had to finish writing a letter，so it was after midnight before he was ready to go to bed．The picture lay face upwards on the table where Garwood had left it and，as Williams was putting out the lamp，he saw it．For a moment he was too surprised to move，then he slowly picked up the picture and stared at it in horror．In the middle of the lawn，in front of the unknown house，there was a figure where there had been no figure earlier．It was crawling on hands and knees towards the house，and it was covered in a strange black garment with a white cross on the back．

After a second or two Mr Williams took the picture by one corner and carried it to an empty room．There，he locked it， face downwards，in a cupboard，then closed and locked the door of the empty room．He went back to his own room and locked the door behind him．Before going to bed，he sat down and wrote a note describing in detail the extraordinary change in the picture since he had received it．

He was glad to remember that Mr Garwood，who had looked at the picture earlier in the evening，had also seen a 'rather unpleasant'figure．He decided that in the morning he must ask someone to look carefully at the picture with him， and he must try very hard to discover the name of the house． He would ask his neighbour，Mr Nisbet，to have breakfast with him．Then he would spend the morning looking for the house in his guidebooks．

Mr Nisbet arrived at nine o'clock and the two men sat down to breakfast．When they had finished，Mr Williams，feeling both nervous and excited，hurried to the empty room．He unlocked the cupboard，took out the picture，still face down- wards，and，without looking at it，went back to his own room and put it into Nisbet's hands．

'Now，Nisbet，'he said，'I want you to tell me what you see in that picture．Describe it，please，in detail．I'll tell you why afterwards．'

'Well，'said Nisbet，'I have here a picture of an English country house by moonlight．'

'Moonligh？Are you sure？'

'Oh，yes．The moon is shown quite clearly and there are clouds in the sky．'

'All right．Go on．But I'm sure，'added Williams quietly， 'that there was no moon when I first saw it．'

'Well，there's not much more I can say，'Nisbet continued． 'The house has three rows of windows，five in each row，except at the bottom，where there's a door instead of the middle one and…'

'But what about figures？'said Williams with great interest．

'Figures？'replied Nisbet．'There aren't any．'

'What？No figure on the grass in front？'

'No．Not a thing．'

'Are you sure？'

'Of course I am．But there's one other thing．'

'What's that？'

'One of me windows on the ground floor，on the left of the door，is open．'

'Is it really？Oh dear！I suppose he's got into the house，' said Williams，with great excitement．

He hurried across to where Nisbet was sitting and，taking the picture from him，saw for himself．It was quite true． There was no figure on the lawn，and there was the open win- dow．

For a moment williams was too surprised to speak，then he sat down at his desk and wrote for a few minutes．When he had finished，he brought two papers across to Nisbet．He asked him to sign the first one，which was Nisbet's own de－ scription of the picture，then to read the other one，which was the note Williams had written the night before．

'What can it all mean？'asked Nisbet．

'That's what I must find out，'said Williams．'Now，there are three things I must do．First，I must ask Garwood exactly what he saw when he looked at the picture last night，then I must have the picture photographed before it goes any further and，thirdly，I must find out where this house is．'

'I can take the photograph for you myself，'said Nisbet． 'But，you know，I think we are seeing something terrible happening here．The question is，has it already happened or is it going to happen？You really must find out where this house is．'He looked at the picture again and shook his head．'I think you are right，you know．He has got in．I'm sure there will be some trouble in that house．'

'I'll tell you what I'll do，'said Williams．'I'll show the picture to old Doctor Green．He grew up in Essex and he often goes to Sussex to see his brother who lives there．He's been going there for years．He must know both places quite well．'

'That's a very good idea，'agreed Nisbet．'But I think I heard Green say that he was going away this weekend．'

'You're right，said Williams．'I remember now—he's gone to Brighton for the weekend．I'll leave a note asking him to see me as soon as he returns．Meanwhile，you take the picture and photograph it and I'll see Garwood and ask him what he saw when he looked at it last night．'He paused．'You know，'he added，'I don't think twenty pounds is too much to ask for this picture，after all．'

In a short time Williams returned to his room，bringing Mr Garwood with him．Mr Garwood said that when he had looked at the picture the figure was just starting to crawl across the lawn．He remembered that it was wearing a black garment with something white on the back—he was not sure if it was a cross．While he was writing this down，Mr Nisbet returned and said that he had photographed the picture．

'What are you going to do now，Williams？'asked Mr Gar－ wood．'Are you going to sit and watch the picture all day？'

'No，I don't think we need to do that，'replied Williams．

'You see，there has been plenty of time since I looked at it last night for the creature in the picture to finish what he wants to do，but he has only gone into the house．The window is open and he must still be in there．I think he wants us to see what happens next．Anyway，I don't think the picture will change much during the day．I suggest that we all go for a walk after lunch and come back here for tea．I'll leave the picture on my table and lock the door．My servant has a key and can get in if he wants to，but nobody else can．'

The others agreed that this was a good plan．They also wanted to avoid talking to anyone about this extraordinary picture，knowing what excitement and argument it would cause．