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肩書を与える: 黒人／ボイコット Talons (Talons in the Dark)
Author: Robert E. Howard
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黒人／ボイコット Talons
[Talons in the Dark]

by

Robert E. Howard

First published in Strange 探偵，刑事 Stories, December 1933

Also published as "Talons in the Dark"

Strange 探偵，刑事 Stories, December 1933

JOEL BRILL slapped shut the 調書をとる／予約する he had been scanning, and gave vent to his 不満 in language more appropriate for the deck of a 捕鯨 ship than for the library of the 排除的 Corinthian Club. Buckley, seated in an alcove nearby, grinned 静かに. Buckley looked more like a college professor than a 探偵，刑事, and perhaps it was いっそう少なく because of a studious nature than a 願望（する） to play the part he looked, that 原因（となる）d him to loaf around the library of the Corinthian.

"It must be something unusual to drag you out of your lair at this time of the day," he 発言／述べるd. "This is the first time I ever saw you in the evening. I thought you spent your evenings secluded in your rooms, 注ぐing over musty tomes in the 利益／興味s of that museum you're connected with."

"I do, ordinarily." Brill looked as little like a scientist as Buckley looked like a 刑事. He was squarely built, with 厚い shoulders and the jaw and 握りこぶしs of a prizefighter; low browed, with a mane of tousled 黒人／ボイコット hair contrasting with his 冷淡な blue 注目する，もくろむs.

"You've been 押すing your nose into 調書をとる／予約するs here since six o'clock," 主張するd Buckley.

"I've been trying to get some （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） for the directors of the museum," answered Brill. "Look!" He pointed an 告発する／非難するing finger at the 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of lavishly bound 容積／容量s. "調書をとる／予約するs till it would sicken a dog—and not a 爆破d one can tell me the 推論する／理由 for a 確かな 儀式の dance practiced by a 確かな tribe on the West African Coast."

"A lot of the members have knocked around a bit," 示唆するd Buckley. "Why not ask them?"

"I'm going to." Brill took 負かす／撃墜する a phone from its hook.

"There's John Galt—" began Buckley.

"Too hard to 位置を示す. He flits about like a mosquito with the St. Vitus. I'll try Jim Reynolds." He twirled the dial.

"Thought you'd done some 調査するing in the tropics yourself," 発言／述べるd Buckley.

"Not worthy of the 指名する. I hung around that God-forsaken Hell 穴を開ける of the West African Coast for a few months until I （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する with malaria—Hello!"

A suave 発言する／表明する, too perfectly accented, （機の）カム along the wire.

"Oh, is that you, Yut Wuen? I want to speak to Mr. Reynolds."

Polite surprise tinged the meticulous トン.

"Why, Mr. Reynolds went out in 返答 to your call an hour ago, Mr. Brill."

"What's that?" 需要・要求するd Brill. "Went where?"

"Why, surely you remember, Mr. Brill." A faint uneasiness seemed to 辛勝する／優位 the Chinaman's 発言する／表明する. "At about nine o'clock you called, and I answered the phone. You said you wished to speak to Mr. Reynolds. Mr. Reynolds talked to you, then told me to have his car brought around to the 味方する 入り口. He said that you had requested him to 会合，会う you at the cottage on White Lake shore."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Brill. "This is the first time I've phoned Reynolds for weeks! You've mistaken somebody else for me."

There was no reply, but a polite stubbornness seemed to flow over the wire. Brill 取って代わるd the phone and turned to Buckley, who was leaning 今後 with 誘発するd 利益／興味.

"Something fishy here," scowled Brill. "Yut Wuen, Jim's Chinese servant, said I called, an hour ago, and Jim went out to 会合，会う me. Buckley, you've been here all evening. Did I call up anybody? I'm so infernally absent-minded—"

"No, you didn't," emphatically answered the 探偵，刑事. "I've been sitting 権利 here の近くに to the phone ever since six o'clock. Nobody's used it. And you 港／避難所't left the library during that time. I'm so accustomed to 秘かに調査するing on people, I do it unconsciously."

"井戸／弁護士席, say," said Brill, uneasily, "suppose you and I 運動 over to White Lake. If this is a joke, Jim may be over there waiting for me to show up."

As the city lights fell behind them, and houses gave way to clumps of trees and bushes, velvet 黒人／ボイコット in the 星／主役にする-light, Buckley said: "Do you think Yut Wuen made a mistake?"

"What else could it be?" answered Brill, irritably.

"Somebody might have been playing a joke, as you 示唆するd. Why should anybody impersonate you to Reynolds?"

"How should I know? But I'm about the only 知識 he'd bestir himself for, at this time of night. He's reserved, 怪しげな of people. Hasn't many friends. I happen to be one of the few."

"Something of a 旅行者, isn't he?"

"There's no corner of the world with which he isn't familiar."

"How'd he make his money?" Buckley asked, 突然の.

"I've never asked him. But he has plenty of it."

The clumps on each 味方する of the road grew denser, and scattered pinpoints of light that 示すd 孤立するd farm houses faded out behind them. The road 攻撃するd 徐々に as they climbed higher and higher into the wild hill 地域 which, an hour's 運動 from the city, locked the 幅の広い crystalline sheet of silver that men called White Lake. Now ahead of them a glint shivered の中で the trees, and topping a wooded crest, they saw the lake spread out below them, 反映するing the 星／主役にするs in myriad flecks of silver. The road meandered along the curving shore.

"Where's Reynolds' 宿泊する?" 問い合わせd Buckley.

Brill pointed. "See that 厚い clump of 影をつくる／尾行するs, within a few yards of the water's 辛勝する／優位? It's the only cottage on this 味方する of the lake. The others are three or four miles away. 非，不，無 of them 占領するd, this time of the year. There's a car drawn up in 前線 of the cottage."

"No light in the shack," grunted Buckley, pulling up beside the long low roadster that stood before the 狭くする stoop. The building 後部d dark and silent before them, 封鎖するd against the rippling silver sheen behind it.

"Hey, Jim!" called Brill. "Jim Reynolds!"

No answer. Only a vague echo shuddering 負かす／撃墜する from the blackly wooded hills.

"Devil of a place at night," muttered Buckley, peering at the dense 影をつくる／尾行するs that 国境d the lake. "We might be a thousand miles from civilization."

Brill slid out of the car. "Reynolds must be here—unless he's gone for a midnight boat ride."

Their steps echoed loudly and emptily on the tiny stoop. Brill banged the door and shouted. Somewhere 支援する in the 支持を得ようと努めるd a night bird 解除するd a drowsy 公式文書，認める. There was no other answer.

Buckley shook the door. It was locked from the inside.

"I don't like this," he growled. "Car in 前線 of the cottage—door locked on the inside—nobody answering it. I believe I'll break the door in—"

"No need." Brill fumbled in his pocket. "I'll use my 重要な."

"How comes it you have a 重要な to Reynolds' shack?" 需要・要求するd Buckley.

"It was his own idea. I spent some time with him up here last summer, and he 主張するd on giving me a 重要な, so I could use the cottage any time I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. Turn on your flash, will you? I can't find the lock. All 権利, I've got it. Hey, Jim! Are you here?"

Buckley's flash played over 議長，司会を務めるs and card （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs, coming to 残り／休憩（する） on a の近くにd door in the opposite 塀で囲む. They entered and Buckley heard Brill fumbling about with an arm elevated. A faint click followed and Brill swore.

"The juice is off. There's a line running out from town to 供給（する） the cottage owners with electricity, but it must be dead. As long as we're in here, let's go through the house. Reynolds may be sleeping somewhere—"

He broke off with a sharp intake of breath. Buckley had opened the door that led to the bedroom. His flash played on the 内部の—on a broken 議長，司会を務める, a 粉砕するd （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する—a crumpled 形態／調整 that lay in the 中央 of a dark 広げるing pool.

"Good God, it's Reynolds!"

Buckley's gun glinted in his 手渡す as he played the flash around the room, 精査するing the 影をつくる／尾行するs for lurking 形態／調整s of menace; it 残り／休憩（する）d on a bolted 後部 door; 残り／休憩（する）d longer on an open window, the 審査する of which hung in tatters.

"We've got to have more light," he grunted. "Where's the switch? Maybe a fuse has blown."

"Outside, 近づく that window." Stumblingly Brill led the way out of the house and around to the window. Buckley flashed his light, grunted.

"The switch has been pulled!" He 押し進めるd it 支援する in place, and light flooded the cottage. The light streaming through the windows seemed to 強調する the blackness of the whispering 支持を得ようと努めるd around them. Buckley glared into the 影をつくる／尾行するs, seemed to shiver. Brill had not spoken; he shook as with ague.

支援する in the house they bent over the man who lay in the middle of the red- splashed 床に打ち倒す.

Jim Reynolds had been a stocky, 堅固に built man of middle age. His 肌 was brown and 天候-beaten, hinting of tropic suns. His features were masked with 血; his 長，率いる lolled 支援する, 公表する／暴露するing an awful 負傷させる beneath his chin.

"His throat's been 削減（する）!" stammered Brill. Buckley shook his 長，率いる.

"Not 削減（する）—torn. Good God, it looks like a big cat had ripped him."

The whole throat had literally been torn out; muscles, arteries, windpipe and the 広大な／多数の／重要な jugular vein had been 厳しいd; the bones of the vertebrae showed beneath.

"He's so 血まみれの I wouldn't have 認めるd him," muttered the 探偵，刑事. "How did you know him so quickly? The instant we saw him, you cried out that it was Reynolds."

"I 認めるd his 衣料品s and his build," answered the other. "But what in God's 指名する killed him?"

Buckley straightened and looked about. "Where does that door lead to?"

"To the kitchen; but it's locked on this 味方する."

"And the outer door of the 前線 room was locked on the inside," muttered Buckley. "Doesn't take a genius to see how the 殺害者 got in—and he—or it—went out the same way."

"What do you mean, it?"

"Does that look like the work of a human 存在?" Buckley pointed to the dead man's mangled throat. Brill winced.

"I've seen 黒人／ボイコット boys mauled by the big cats on the West Coast—"

"And whatever tore Reynolds' gullet out, tore that window 審査する. It wasn't 削減（する） with a knife."

"Do you suppose a panther from the hills—" began Brill.

"A panther smart enough to throw the electric switch before he slid through the window?" scoffed Buckley.

"We don't know the 殺し屋 threw the switch."

"Was Reynolds fooling around in the dark, then? No; when I 押し進めるd the switch 支援する in place, the light （機の）カム on in here. That shows it had been on; the button hadn't been 押し進めるd 支援する. Whoever killed Reynolds had a 推論する／理由 for wanting to work in the dark. Maybe this was it!" The 探偵，刑事 示すd, with a square-shod toe, a stubby chunk of blue steel that lay not far from the 団体／死体.

"From what I hear about Reynolds, he was quick enough on the 誘発する／引き起こす." Buckley slipped on a glove, carefully 解除するd the revolver, and scanned the 議会. His gaze, roving about the room again, 停止（させる）d at the window, and with a 選び出す／独身 long stride, he reached it and bent over the sill.

"One 発射's been 解雇する／砲火／射撃d from this gun. The 弾丸's in the window sill. At least, one 弾丸 is, and it's 論理（学）の to suppose it's the one from the empty 議会 of Reynolds' gun. Here's the way I 再建する the 罪，犯罪: something こそこそ動くd up to the shack, threw the switch, and （機の）カム 破産した／（警察が）手入れするing through the window. Reynolds 発射 once in the dark and 行方不明になるd, and then the 殺し屋 got in his work. I'll take this gun to （警察，軍隊などの）本部; don't 推定する／予想する to find any 指紋s except Reynolds', however. We'll 診察する the light switch, too, though maybe my dumb pawing erased any 指紋s that might have been there. Say, it's a good thing you have an アイロンをかける-覆う？ アリバイ."

Brill started violently. "What the Hell do you mean?"

"Why, there's the Chinaman to 断言する you called Reynolds to his death."

"Why the devil should I do such a thing?" hotly 需要・要求するd the scientist.

"井戸／弁護士席," answered Buckley, "I know you were in the library of the club all evening. That's an unshakable アリバイ—I suppose."

* * *

Brill was tired as he locked the door of his garage and turned toward the house which rose dark and silent の中で the trees. He 設立する himself wishing that his sister, with whom he was staying, had not left town for the 週末 with her husband and children. Dark empty houses were ばく然と repellent to him after the happenings of the night before.

He sighed wearily as he trudged toward the house, under the dense 影をつくる／尾行するs of the trees that lined the driveway. It had been a morbid, and harrying day. Tag ends of thoughts and worries flitted through his mind. Uneasily he remembered Buckley's cryptic 発言／述べる: "Either Yut Wuen is lying about that telephone call, or—" The 探偵，刑事 had left the 宣告，判決 unfinished, casting a ちらりと見ること at Brill that was as inscrutable as his speech. Nobody believed the Chinaman was deliberately lying. His devotion to his master was 井戸／弁護士席 known—a devotion 株d by the other servants of the dead man. Police 疑惑 had failed to connect them in any way with the 罪，犯罪. 明らかに 非，不，無 of them had left Reynolds' town house during the day or the night of the 殺人. Nor had the 殺人-cottage given up any 手がかり（を与える）s. No 跡をつけるs had been 設立する on the hard earth, no 指紋s on the gun other than the dead man's nor any except Buckley's on the light switch. If Buckley had had any luck in trying to trace the mysterious phone call, he had not divulged anything.

Brill remembered, with a twinge of nervousness, the way in which they had looked at him, those inscrutable Orientals. Their features had been immobile, but in their dark 注目する，もくろむs had gleamed 疑惑 and a 脅し. He had seen it in the 注目する，もくろむs of Yut Wuen, the stocky yellow man; of Ali, the Egyptian, a lean, sinewy statue of bronze; of Jugra Singh, the tall, 幅の広い shouldered, turbaned Sikh. They had not spoken their thoughts; but their 注目する，もくろむs had followed him, hot and 燃やすing, like beasts of prey.

Brill turned from the meandering driveway to 削減（する） across the lawn. As he passed under the 黒人／ボイコット 影をつくる／尾行する of the trees, something sudden, 粘着するing and smothering, enveloped his 長，率いる, and steely 武器 locked ひどく about him. His reaction was as 直感的に and violent as that of a 罠にかける ヒョウ. He 爆発するd into a galvanized burst of frantic 活動／戦闘, a bucking heave that tore the stifling cloak from his 長，率いる, and 解放する／自由なd his 武器 from the 武器 that pinioned him. But another pair of 武器 hung like grim 運命／宿命 to his 脚s, and 人物／姿／数字s 殺到するd in on him from the 不明瞭. He could not tell the nature of his 加害者s; they were like denser, moving 影をつくる／尾行するs in the blackness.

Staggering, fighting for balance, he 攻撃するd out blindly, felt the 揺さぶる of a solid 攻撃する，衝突する shoot up his arm, and saw one of the 影をつくる／尾行するs sway and pitch backward. His other arm was caught in a savage しっかり掴む and 新たな展開d up behind his 支援する so violently that he felt as if the tendons were 存在 ripped from their roots. Hot breath hissed in his ear, and bending his 長，率いる 今後, he jerked it backward again with all the 力／強力にする of his 厚い neck muscles. He felt the 支援する of his skull 衝突，墜落 into something softer—a man's 直面する. There was a groan, and the 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうing 支配する on his 拘留するd arm relaxed. With a desperate wrench he tore away, but the 武器 that clung to his 脚s tripped him. He pitched headlong, spreading his 武器 to break his 落ちる, and even before his fingers touched the ground, something 爆発するd in his brain, にわか雨ing a suddenly starless night of blackness with red 誘発するs that were （海，煙などが）飲み込むd 突然の in formless oblivion.

Joel Brill's first conscious thought was that he was 存在 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd about in an open boat on a 嵐の sea. Then as his dazed mind （疑いを）晴らすd, he realized that he was lying in an automobile which was スピード違反 along an uneven road. His 長，率いる throbbed; he was bound 手渡す and foot, and 一面に覆う／毛布d in some 肉親，親類d of a cloak. He could see nothing; could hear nothing but the purr of the racing モーター. Bewilderment clouded his mind as be sought for a 手がかり（を与える） to the 身元 of the kidnappers. Then a sudden 疑惑 brought out the 冷淡な sweat on his 肌.

The car lurched to a 停止（させる）. Powerful 手渡すs 解除するd him, cloak and all, and he felt himself 存在 carried over a short stretch of level ground, and 明らかに up a step or so. A 重要な grated in a lock, a door rasped on its hinges. Those carrying him 前進するd; there was a click, and light shone through the 倍のs of the cloth over Brill's 長，率いる. He felt himself 存在 lowered の上に what felt like a bed. Then the cloth was ripped away, and he blinked in the glare of the light. A 冷淡な premonitory shudder passed over him.

He was lying on the bed in the room in which James Reynolds had died. And about him stood, 武器 倍のd, three grim and silent 形態／調整s: Yut Wuen, Ali the Egyptian, and Jugra Singh. There was 乾燥した，日照りのd 血 on the Chinaman's yellow 直面する, and his lip was 削減（する）. A dark blue bruise showed on Jugra Singh's jaw.

"The sahib awakes," said the Sikh, in his perfect English.

"What the devil's the idea, Jugra?" 需要・要求するd Brill, trying to struggle to a sitting posture. "What do you mean by this? Take these ropes off me—" His 発言する／表明する 追跡するd away, a 不安定な resonance of futility as he read the meaning in the hot dark 注目する，もくろむs that regarded him.

"In this room our master met his doom," said Ali.

"You called him 前へ／外へ," said Yut Wuen.

"But I didn't!" 激怒（する）d Brill, jerking wildly at the cords which 削減（する） into his flesh. "Damn it, I knew nothing about it!"

"Your 発言する／表明する （機の）カム over the wire and our master followed it to his death," said Jugra Singh.

A panic of helplessness swept over Joel Brill. He felt like a man （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing at an insurmountable 塀で囲む—the 塀で囲む of inexorable Oriental fatalism, of 有罪の判決 unchangeable. If even Buckley believed that somehow he, Joel Brill, was connected with Reynolds' death, how was he to 納得させる these immutable Orientals? He fought 負かす／撃墜する an impulse to hysteria.

"The 探偵，刑事, Buckley, was with me all evening," he said, in a 発言する／表明する unnatural from his 成果／努力s at 支配（する）／統制する. "He has told you that he did not see me touch a phone; nor did I leave his sight. I could not have killed my friend, your master, because while he was 存在 killed, I was either in the library of the Corinthian Club, or 運動ing from there with Buckley."

"How it was done, we do not know," answered the Sikh, tranquilly. "The ways of the sahibs are beyond us. But we know that somehow, in some manner, you 原因（となる）d our master's death. And we have brought you here to expiate your 罪，犯罪."

"You mean to 殺人 me?" 需要・要求するd Brill, his flesh はうing.

"If a sahib 裁判官 宣告，判決d you, and a sahib hangman dropped you through a 黒人／ボイコット 罠（にかける）, white men would call it 死刑執行. So it is 死刑執行 we work upon you, not 殺人."

Brill opened his mouth, then の近くにd it, realizing the utter futility of argument. The whole 事件／事情／状勢 was like a fantastic nightmare from which he would presently awaken.

Ali （機の）カム 今後 with something, the sight of which shook Brill with a nameless foreboding. It was a wire cage, in which a 広大な／多数の／重要な gaunt ネズミ squealed and bit at the wires. Yut Wuen laid upon a card （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する a 巡査 bowl, furnished with a slot on each 味方する of the 縁, to one of which was made 急速な／放蕩な a long leather ひもで縛る. Brill turned suddenly sick.

"These are the 道具s of 死刑執行, sahib," said Jugra Singh, somberly. "That bowl shall be laid on your naked belly, the ひもで縛る drawn about your 団体／死体 and made 急速な／放蕩な so that the bowl shall not slip. Inside the bowl the ネズミ will be 拘留するd. He is ravenous with hunger, wild with 恐れる and 激怒（する）. For a while he will only run about the bowl, treading on your flesh. But with アイロンをかけるs hot from the 解雇する／砲火／射撃, we shall 徐々に heat the bowl, until, driven by 苦痛, the ネズミ begins to gnaw his way out. He can not gnaw through 巡査; he can gnaw through flesh—through flesh and muscles and intestines and bones, sahib."

Brill wet his lips three times before he 設立する 発言する／表明する to speak.

"You'll hang for this!" he gasped, in a 発言する／表明する he did not himself 認める.

"If it be the will of Allah," assented Ali calmly. "This is your 運命／宿命; what ours is, no man can say. It is the will of Allah that you die with a ネズミ in your bowels. If it is Allah's will, we shall die on the gallows. Only Allah knows."

Brill made no reply. Some 痕跡 of pride still remained to him. He 始める，決める his jaw hard, feeling that if he opened his mouth to speak, to 推論する／理由, to argue, he would 崩壊（する） into shameful shrieks and entreaties. One was useless as the other, against the abysmal fatalism of the Orient.

Ali 始める，決める the cage with its grisly Occupant on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する beside the 巡査 bowl—without 警告 the light went out.

In the 不明瞭 Brill's heart began to 続けざまに猛撃する suffocatingly. The Orientals stood still, 根気よく, 推定する／予想するing the light to come on again. But Brill instinctively felt that the 行う／開催する／段階 was 始める，決める for some 演劇 darker and more hideous than that which menaced him. Silence 統治するd; somewhere off in the 支持を得ようと努めるd a night bird 解除するd a drowsy 公式文書，認める. There was a faint scratching sound, somewhere—

"The electric たいまつ," muttered a ghostly 発言する／表明する which Brill 認めるd as Jugra Singh's. "I laid it on the card （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Wait!"

He heard the Sikh fumbling in the dark; but he was watching the window, a square of 薄暗い, 星／主役にする-flecked sky 封鎖するd out of blackness. And as Brill watched, he saw something dark and bulky 後部 up in that square. Etched against the 星／主役にするs he saw a misshapen 長，率いる, vague monstrous shoulders.

A 叫び声をあげる sounded from inside the room, the 衝突，墜落 of a wildly thrown ミサイル. On the instant there was a 緊急発進するing sound, and the 反対する blotted out the square of starlight, then 消えるd from it. It was inside the room.

Brill, lying frozen in his cords, heard all Hell and bedlam break loose in that dark room. 叫び声をあげるs, shouts, strident cries of agony mingled with the 粉砕するing of furniture, the 衝撃 of blows, and a hideous, worrying, 涙／ほころびing sound that made Brill's flesh はう. Once the 戦う／戦いing pack staggered past the window, but Brill made out only a 薄暗い writhing of 四肢s, the pale glint of steel, and the terrible 炎 of a pair of 注目する，もくろむs he knew belonged to 非，不，無 of his three captors.

Somewhere a man was moaning horribly, his gasps growing 女性 and 女性. There was a last convulsion of movement, the groaning 衝撃 of a 激しい 団体／死体; then the starlight in the window was for an instant blotted out again, and silence 統治するd once more in the cottage on the lake shore; silence broken only by the death gasps in the dark, and the labored panting of a 負傷させるd man.

Brill heard some one つまずくing and floundering in the 不明瞭, and it was from this one that the racking, panting was emanating. A circle of light flashed on, and in it Brill saw the 血-smeared 直面する of Jugra Singh.

The light wandered erratically away, dancing crazily about the 塀で囲むs. Brill heard the Sikh 失敗ing across the room, moving like a drunken man, or like one 負傷させるd unto death. The flash shone 十分な in the scientist's 直面する, blinding him. Fingers tugged awkwardly at his cords, a knife 辛勝する／優位 was dragged across them, slicing 肌 as 井戸／弁護士席 as hemp.

Jugra Singh sank to the 床に打ち倒す. The flash 強くたたくd beside him and went out. Brill groped for him, 設立する his shoulder. The cloth was soaked with what Brill knew was 血.

"You spoke truth, sahib," the Sikh whispered. "How the call （機の）カム in the likeness of your 発言する／表明する, I do not know. But I know, now, what slew Reynolds, sahib. After all these years—but they never forget, though the 幅の広い sea lies between. Beware! The fiend may return. The gold—the gold was 悪口を言う／悪態d—I told Reynolds, sahib—had he 注意するd me, he—"

A sudden 井戸／弁護士席ing of 血 溺死するd the laboring 発言する／表明する. Under Brill's 手渡す the 広大な／多数の／重要な 団体／死体 強化するd and 新たな展開d in a 簡潔な／要約する convulsion, then went limp.

Groping on the 床に打ち倒す, the scientist failed to find the flashlight. He groped along the 塀で囲む, 設立する the switch and flooded the cottage with light.

Turning 支援する into the room, a stifled cry escaped his lips.

Jugra Singh lay 低迷d 近づく the bed; 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd in a corner was Yut Wuen, his yellow 手渡すs, palms 上昇傾向d, limp on the 床に打ち倒す at his 味方するs; Ali sprawled 直面する 負かす／撃墜する in the middle of the room. All three were dead. Throats, breasts and bellies were 削除するd to 略章s; their 衣料品s were in （土地などの）細長い一片s, and の中で the rags hung 血まみれの tatters of flesh. Yut Wuen had been disemboweled, and the gaping 負傷させるs of the others were like those of sheep after a mountain lion has 範囲d through the 倍の.

A blackjack still stuck in Yut Wuen's belt. Ali's dead 手渡す clutched a knife, but it was unstained. Death had struck them before they could use their 武器s. But on the 床に打ち倒す 近づく Jugra Singh lay a 広大な／多数の／重要な curved dagger, and it was red to the hilt. 血まみれの stains led across the 床に打ち倒す and up over the window sill. Brill 設立する the flash, snapped it on, and leaned out the window, playing the white beam on the ground outside. Dark, 不規律な splotches showed, 主要な off toward the dense 支持を得ようと努めるd.

With the flash in one 手渡す and the Sikh's knife in the other, Brill followed those stains. At the 辛勝する／優位 of the trees he （機の）カム upon a 跡をつける, and the short hairs 解除するd on his scalp. A foot, 工場／植物d in a pool of 血, had limned its imprint in crimson on the hard loam. And the foot, 明らかにする and splay, was that of a human.

That print upset vague theories of a feline or anthropoid 殺し屋, stirred nebulous thoughts at the 支援する of his mind—薄暗い and awful race memories of 半分-human ghouls, of werewolves who walked like men and slew like beasts.

A low groan brought him to a 停止（させる）, his flesh はうing. Under the 黒人／ボイコット trees in the silence, that sound was 妊娠している with grisly probabilities. Gripping the knife 堅固に, he flashed the beam ahead of him. The thin light wavered, then 焦点（を合わせる）d on a 黒人／ボイコット heap that was not part of the forest.

Brill bent over the 人物／姿／数字 and stood transfixed, 輸送（する）d 支援する across the years and across the world to another wilder, grimmer woodland.

It was a naked 黒人／ボイコット man that lay at his feet, his glassy 注目する，もくろむs 反映するing the 病弱なing light. His 脚s were short, 屈服するd and gnarled, his 武器 long, his shoulders abnormally 幅の広い, his shaven 長，率いる 始める，決める plump between them without 明白な neck. That 長，率いる was hideously malformed; the forehead 事業／計画（する）d almost into a peek, while the 支援する of the skull was unnaturally flattened. White paint banded 直面する, shoulders and breast. But it was at the creature's fingers which Brill looked longest. At first ちらりと見ること they seemed monstrously deformed. Then he saw that those 手渡すs were furnished with long curving steel hooks, sharp-pointed, and keen-辛勝する／優位d on the concave 味方する. To each finger one of these barbarous 武器s was made 急速な／放蕩な, and those fingers, like the hooks clotted and smeared with 血, twitched 正確に／まさに as the talons of a ヒョウ twitch.

A light step brought him 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. His dimming light played on a tall 人物／姿／数字, and Brill mumbled: "John Galt!" in no 広大な／多数の／重要な surprise. He was so numbed by bewilderment that the strangeness of the man's presence did not occur to him.

"What in God's 指名する is this?" 需要・要求するd the tall explorer, taking the light from Brill's 手渡す and directing it on the mangled 形態／調整. "What in Heaven's 指名する is that?"

"A 黒人／ボイコット nightmare from Africa!" Brill 設立する his tongue at last, and speech （機の）カム in a 急ぐ. "An Egbo! A ヒョウ man! I learned of them when I was on the West Coast. He belongs to a native 教団 which worships the ヒョウ. They take a male 幼児 and 支配する his 長，率いる to 圧力, to make it deformed; and he is brought up to believe that the spirit of a ヒョウ 住むs his 団体／死体. He does the bidding of the 教団's 長，率いる, which おもに consists of 遂行する／発効させるing the enemies of the 教団. He is, in 影響, a human ヒョウ!"

"What's he doing here?" 需要・要求するd Galt, in seeming incredulity.

"God knows. But he must have been the thing that killed Reynolds. He killed Reynolds' three servants tonight—would have killed me, too, I suppose, but Jugra Singh 負傷させるd him, and he evidently dragged himself away like a wild beast to die in the ジャングル—"

Galt seemed curiously uninterested in Brill's stammering narrative.

"Sure he's dead?" he muttered, bending closer to flash the light into the hideous 直面する. The 照明 was 薄暗い; the 殴打／砲列 was 速く 燃やすing out.

As Brill was about to speak, the painted 直面する was 簡潔に convulsed. The glazed 注目する，もくろむs gleamed as with a last 殺到する of life. A clawed 手渡す stirred, 解除するd feebly up toward Galt. A few gutturals seeped through the blubbery lips; the fingers writhed weakly, slipped from the アイロンをかける talons, which the 黒人／ボイコット man 解除するd, as if trying to 手渡す them to Galt. Then he shuddered, sank 支援する and lay still. He had been stabbed under the heart, and only a beast-like vitality had carried him so far.

Galt straightened and 直面するd Brill, turning the light on him. A （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 of silence 削減（する） between them, in which the atmosphere was electric with 緊張.

"You understand the Ekoi dialect?" It was more an 主張 than a question.

Brill's heart was 続けざまに猛撃するing, a new bewilderment 争う with a rising wrath. "Yes," he answered すぐに.

"What did that fool say?" softly asked Galt.

Brill 始める，決める his teeth and stubbornly took the 急落（する），激減（する） 推論する／理由 cried out against. "He said," he replied between his teeth, "'Master, take my 道具s to the tribe, and tell them of our vengeance; they will give you what I 約束d you.'"

Even as he ground out the words, his powerful 団体／死体 crouched, his 神経s taut for the grapple. But before he could move, the 黒人／ボイコット muzzle of an (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 trained on his belly.

"Too bad you had to understand that death-bed 自白, Brill," said Galt, coolly. "I don't want to kill you. I've kept 血 off my 手渡すs so far through this 事件／事情／状勢. Listen, you're a poor man, like most scientists—how'd you consider cutting in on a fortune? Wouldn't that be より望ましい to getting a slug through your guts and 存在 工場／植物d と一緒に those yellow-bellied stiffs 負かす／撃墜する in Reynolds' shack for them to get the 非難する?"

"No man wants to die," answered Brill, his gaze 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on the light in Galt's 手渡す—the glow which was 速く turning redder and dimmer.

"Good!" snapped Galt. "I'll give you the low 負かす／撃墜する. Reynolds got his money in the Kameroons—stole gold from the Ekoi, which they had 蓄える／店d in the ju-ju hut; he killed a priest of the Egbo 教団 in getting away. Jugra Singh was with him. But they didn't get all the gold. And after that the Ekoi took good care to guard it so nobody could steal what was left.

"I knew this fellow, Guja, when I was in Africa. I was after the Ekoi gold then, but I never had a chance to 位置を示す it. I met Guja a few months ago, again. He'd been 追放するd from his tribe for some 罪，犯罪, had wandered to the Coast and been 選ぶd up with some more natives who were brought to America for 展示 in the World's Fair.

"Guja was mad to get 支援する to his people, and he 流出／こぼすd the whole story of the gold. Told me that if he could kill Reynolds, his tribe would 許す him. He knew that Reynolds was somewhere in America, but he was helpless as a child to find him. I 申し込む／申し出d to arrange his 会合 with the gold-どろぼう, if Guja would agree to give me some of the gold his tribe hoarded.

"He swore by the skull of the 広大な／多数の／重要な ヒョウ. I brought him 内密に into these hills, and hid him up yonder in a shack the 存在 of which nobody 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs. It took me a wretched time to teach him just what he was to do—he'd no more brains than an ape. Night after night I went through the thing with him, until he learned the 手続き: to watch in the hills until he saw a light flash in Reynolds' shack. Then steal 負かす／撃墜する there, jerk the switch —and kill. These ヒョウ men can see like cats at night.

"I called Reynolds up myself; it wasn't hard to imitate your 発言する／表明する. I used to do impersonations in vaudeville. While Guja was 涙／ほころびing the life out of Reynolds, I was dining at a 井戸／弁護士席-known night club, in 十分な sight of all.

"I （機の）カム here tonight to 密輸する him out of the country. But his 血- lust must have betrayed him. When he saw the light flash on in the cottage again, it must have started a train of 協会s that led him once more to the cottage, to kill whoever he 設立する there. I saw the tag-end of the 商売／仕事 —saw him stagger away from the shack, and then you follow him.

"Now then, I've 発射 the 作品. Nobody knows I'm mixed up in this 商売／仕事, but you. Will you keep your mouth shut and take a 株 of the Ekoi gold?"

The glow went out. In the sudden 不明瞭, Brill, his pent-up feelings 爆発するing at last, yelled: "Damn you, no! You 殺人ing dog!" and sprang aside. The ピストル 割れ目d, an orange jet sliced the 不明瞭, and the 弾丸 fanned Brill's ear as he threw the 激しい knife blindly. He heard it 動揺させる futilely through the bushes, and stood frozen with the 現実化 that he had lost his desperate 賭事.

But even as he を締めるd himself against the 涙／ほころびing 衝撃 of the 弾丸 he 推定する／予想するd, a sudden beam 演習d the blackness, illuminating the convulsed features of John Galt.

"Don't move, Galt; I've got the 減少（する） on you."

It was the 発言する／表明する of Buckley. With a snarl, Galt took as desperate a chance as Brill had taken. He wheeled toward the source of the light, snapping 負かす／撃墜する his (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. But even as he did so, the 探偵，刑事's .45 衝突，墜落d, and 輪郭（を描く）d against the 簡潔な／要約する glare, Galt swayed and fell like a tall tree struck by 雷.

"Dead?" asked the scientist, mechanically.

"弾丸 tore through his forearm and 粉砕するd his shoulder," grunted Buckley. "Just knocked out 一時的に. He'll live to decorate the gallows."

"You—you heard—?" Brill stuttered.

"Everything. I was just coming around the bend of the lake shore and saw a light in Reynolds' cottage, then your flash bobbing の中で the trees. I （機の）カム こそこそ動くing through the bushes just in time to hear you give your translation of the nigger's dying words. I've been prowling around this lake all night."

"You 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd Galt all the time?"

The 探偵，刑事 grinned wryly.

"I せねばならない say yes, and 設立する myself as a 最高の sleuth. But the fact is, I 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd you all the time. That's why I （機の）カム up here tonight—trying to 人物／姿／数字 out your 関係 with the 殺人. That アリバイ of yours was so アイロンをかける-覆う？ it looked phony to me. I had a こそこそ動くing 疑惑 that I'd bumped into a master-mind trying to put over the 'perfect 罪，犯罪.' I わびる! I've been reading too many 探偵，刑事 stories lately!"

THE END

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