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肩書を与える: The Grisly Horror (Moon Of Zambebwei) Author: Robert E. Howard * A 事業/計画(する) Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0601691h.html Language: English Date first 地位,任命するd: Jun 2006 Most 最近の update: Jul 2017 This eBook was produced by Richard Scott and Colin Choat, and updated by Roy Glashan. 事業/計画(する) Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意/服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み/提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業/計画(する) Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解(をとる)d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業/計画(する) Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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Weird Tales, February 1935
THE SILENCE of the pine 支持を得ようと努めるd lay like a brooding cloak about the soul of Bristol McGrath. The 黒人/ボイコット 影をつくる/尾行するs seemed 直す/買収する,八百長をするd, immovable as the 負わせる of superstition that overhung this forgotten 支援する-country. Vague ancestral dreads stirred at the 支援する of McGrath's mind; for he was born in the pine 支持を得ようと努めるd, and sixteen years of roaming about the world had not erased their 影をつくる/尾行するs. The fearsome tales at which he had shuddered as a child whispered again in his consciousness; tales of 黒人/ボイコット 形態/調整s stalking the midnight glades...
悪口を言う/悪態ing these childish memories, McGrath quickened his pace. The 薄暗い 追跡する 負傷させる tortuously between dense 塀で囲むs of 巨大(な) trees. No wonder he had been unable to 雇う anyone in the distant river village to 運動 him to the Ballville 広い地所. The road was impassable for a 乗り物, choked with rotting stumps and new growth. Ahead of him it bent はっきりと.
McGrath 停止(させる)d short, frozen to immobility. The silence had been broken at last, in such a way as to bring a 冷気/寒がらせる tingling to the 支援するs of his 手渡すs. For the sound had been the unmistakable groan of a human 存在 in agony. Only for an instant was McGrath motionless. Then he was gliding about the bend of the 追跡する with the noiseless slouch of a 追跡(する)ing panther.
A blue 無視する,冷たく断わる-nosed revolver had appeared as if by 魔法 in his 権利 手渡す. His left involuntarily clenched in his pocket on the bit of paper that was 責任がある his presence in that grim forest. That paper was a frantic and mysterious 控訴,上告 for 援助(する); it was 調印するd by McGrath's worst enemy, and 含む/封じ込めるd the 指名する of a woman long dead.
McGrath 一連の会議、交渉/完成するd the bend in the 追跡する, every 神経 緊張した and 警報, 推定する/予想するing anything—except what he 現実に saw. His startled 注目する,もくろむs hung on the grisly 反対する for an instant, and then swept the forest 塀で囲むs. Nothing stirred there. A dozen feet 支援する from the 追跡する visibility 消えるd in a ghoulish twilight, where anything might lurk unseen. McGrath dropped to his 膝 beside the 人物/姿/数字 that lay in the 追跡する before him.
It was a man, spread-eagled, 手渡すs and feet bound to four pegs driven 深く,強烈に in the hard-packed earth; a 黒人/ボイコット-bearded, hook-nosed, swarthy man. "Ahmed!", muttered McGrath. "Ballville's Arab Servant! God!"
For it was not the binding cords that brought the glaze to the Arab's 注目する,もくろむs. A 女性 man than McGrath might have sickened at the mutilations which keen knives had wrought on the man's 団体/死体. McGrath 認めるd the work of an 専門家 in the art of 拷問. Yet a 誘発する of life still throbbed in the 堅い でっちあげる,人を罪に陥れる of the Arab. McGrath's gray 注目する,もくろむs grew bleaker as he 公式文書,認めるd the position of the 犠牲者's 団体/死体, and his mind flew 支援する to another, grimmer ジャングル, and a half-flayed 黒人/ボイコット man pegged out on a path as a 警告 to the white man who dared 侵略する a forbidden land.
He 削減(する) the cords, 転換d the dying man to a more comfortable position. It was all he could do. He saw the delirium ebb momentarily in the bloodshot 注目する,もくろむs, saw 承認 微光 there. Clots of 血まみれの 泡,激怒すること splashed the matted 耐えるd. The lips writhed soundlessly, and McGrath glimpsed the 血まみれの stump of a 厳しいd tongue.
The 黒人/ボイコット-nailed fingers began scrabbling in the dust. They shook, clawing erratically, but with 目的. McGrath bent の近くに, 緊張した with 利益/興味, and saw crooked lines grow under the quivering fingers. With the last 成果/努力 of an アイロンをかける will, the Arab was tracing a message in the characters of his own language. McGrath 認めるd the 指名する: "Richard Ballville"; it was followed by "danger," and the 手渡す waved weakly up the 追跡する; then—and McGrath 強化するd convulsively—"Constance." One final 成果/努力 of the dragging finger traced "John De Al—".
Suddenly the 血まみれの でっちあげる,人を罪に陥れる was convulsed by one last sharp agony; the lean, sinewy 手渡す knotted spasmodically and then fell limp. Ahmed ibn Suleyman was beyond vengeance or mercy.
McGrath rose, dusting his 手渡すs, aware of the 緊張した stillness of the grim 支持を得ようと努めるd around him; aware of a faint rustling in their depths that was not 原因(となる)d by any 微風. He looked 負かす/撃墜する at the mangled 人物/姿/数字 with involuntary pity, though he knew 井戸/弁護士席 the foulness of the Arab's heart, a 黒人/ボイコット evil that had matched that of Ahmed's master, Richard Ballville. 井戸/弁護士席, it seemed that master and man had at last met their match in human fiendishness. But who, or what? For a hundred years the Ballvilles had 支配するd 最高の over this 支援する-country, first over their wide 農園s and hundreds of slaves, and later over the submissive 子孫s of those slaves. Richard, the last of the Ballvilles, had 演習d as much 当局 over the pinelands as any of his 独裁的な ancestors. Yet from this country where men had 屈服するd to the Ballvilles for a century, had come that frenzied cry of 恐れる, a 電報電信 that McGrath clenched in his coat pocket.
Stillness 後継するd the rustling, more 悪意のある than any sound.
McGrath knew he was watched; knew that the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where Ahmed's 団体/死体
lay was the invisible 最終期限 that had been drawn for him. He
believed that he would be 許すd to turn and retrace his steps
unmolested to the distant village. He knew that if he continued on
his way, death would strike him suddenly and unseen. Turning, he
strode 支援する the way he had come.
He made the turn and kept straight on until he had passed another crook in the 追跡する. Then he 停止(させる)d, listened. All was silent. Quickly he drew the paper from his pocket, smoothed out the wrinkles and read, again, in the cramped scrawl of the man he hated most on earth:
Bristol:
If you still love Constance Brand, for God's sake forget your hate and come to Ballville Manor as quickly as the devil can 運動 you.
RICHARD BALLVILLE.
That was all. It reached him by telegraph in that Far Western city where McGrath had resided since his return from Africa. He would have ignored it, but for the について言及する of Constance Brand. That 指名する had sent a choking, agonizing pulse of amazement through his soul, had sent him racing toward the land of his birth by train and 計画(する), as if, indeed, the devil were on his heels. It was the 指名する of one he thought dead for three years; the 指名する of the only woman Bristol McGrath had ever loved.
取って代わるing the 電報電信, he left the 追跡する and 長,率いるd 西方の, 押し進めるing his powerful でっちあげる,人を罪に陥れる between the thickset trees. His feet made little sound on the matted pine needles. His 進歩 was all but noiseless. Not for nothing had he spent his boyhood in the country of the big pines.
Three hundred yards from the old road he (機の)カム upon that which he sought—an 古代の 追跡する 平行のing the road. Choked with young growth, it was little more than a trace through the 厚い pines. He knew that it ran to the 支援する of the Ballville mansion; did not believe the secret 選挙立会人s would be guarding it. For how could they know he remembered it?
He hurried south along it, his ears whetted for any sound. Sight alone could not be 信用d in that forest. The mansion, he knew, was not far away, now. He was passing through what had once been fields, in the days of Richard's grandfather, running almost up to the spacious lawns that girdled the Manor. But for half a century they had been abandoned to the 前進する of the forest.
But now he glimpsed the Manor, a hint of solid 本体,大部分/ばら積みの の中で the pine 最高の,を越すs ahead of him. And almost 同時に his heart 発射 into his throat as a 叫び声をあげる of human anguish knifed the stillness. He could not tell whether it was a man or a woman who 叫び声をあげるd, and his thought that it might be a woman winged his feet in his 無謀な dash toward the building that ぼんやり現れるd starkly up just beyond the straggling fringe of trees.
The young pines had even 侵略するd the once generous lawns. The whole place wore an 面 of decay. Behind the Manor, the barns, and outhouses which once housed slave families, were 崩壊するing in 廃虚. The mansion itself seemed to totter above the litter, a creaky 巨大(な), ネズミ-gnawed and rotting, ready to 崩壊(する) at any untoward event. With the stealthy tread of a tiger Bristol McGrath approached a window on the 味方する of the house. From that window sounds were 問題/発行するing that were an affront to the tree-filtered sunlight and a はうing horror to the brain.
神経ing himself for what he might see, he peered within.
He was looking into a 広大な/多数の/重要な dusty 議会 which might have served as a ballroom in antebellum days; its lofty 天井 was hung with cobwebs, its rich oak パネル盤s showed dark and stained. But there was a 解雇する/砲火/射撃 in the 広大な/多数の/重要な fireplace—a small 解雇する/砲火/射撃, just large enough to heat to a white glow the slender steel 棒s thrust into it.
But it was only later that Bristol McGrath saw the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and the things that glowed on the hearth. His 注目する,もくろむs were gripped like a (一定の)期間 on the master of the Manor; and once again he looked on a dying man.
A 激しい beam had been nailed to the パネル盤d 塀で囲む, and from it jutted a rude cross-piece. From this cross-piece Richard Ballville hung by cords about his wrists. His toes barely touched the 床に打ち倒す, tantalizingly, 招待するing him to stretch his でっちあげる,人を罪に陥れる continually in an 成果/努力 to relieve the agonizing 緊張する on his 武器. The cords had 削減(する) 深く,強烈に into his wrists; 血 trickled 負かす/撃墜する his 武器; his 手渡すs were 黒人/ボイコット and swollen almost to bursting. He was naked except for his trousers, and McGrath saw that already the white-hot アイロンをかけるs had been horribly 雇うd. There was 推論する/理由 enough for the deathly pallor of the man, the 冷淡な beads of agony upon his 肌. Only his 猛烈な/残忍な vitality had 許すd him thus long to 生き残る the 恐ろしい 燃やすs on his 四肢s and 団体/死体.
On his breast had been 燃やすd a curious symbol—a 冷淡な 手渡す laid itself on McGrath's spine. For he 認めるd that symbol, and once again his memory raced away across the world and the years to a 黒人/ボイコット, grim, hideous ジャングル where 派手に宣伝するs bellowed in 解雇する/砲火/射撃-発射 不明瞭 and naked priests of an abhorred 教団 traced a frightful symbol in quivering human flesh.
Between the fireplace and the dying man squatted a 厚い-始める,決める 黒人/ボイコット man, 覆う? only in ragged, muddy trousers.
His 支援する was toward the window, 現在のing an impressive pair of shoulders. His 弾丸-長,率いる was 始める,決める squarely between those gigantic shoulders, like that of a frog, and he appeared to be avidly watching the 直面する of the man on the cross-piece.
Richard Ballville's bloodshot 注目する,もくろむs were like those of a 拷問d animal, but they were fully sane and conscious: they 炎d with desperate vitality. He 解除するd his 長,率いる painfully and his gaze swept the room. Outside the window McGrath instinctively shrank 支援する. He did not know whether Ballville saw him or not. The man showed no 調印する to betray the presence of the 選挙立会人 to the bestial 黒人/ボイコット who scrutinized him. Then the brute turned his 長,率いる toward the 解雇する/砲火/射撃, reaching a long ape-like arm toward a glowing アイロンをかける—and Ballville's 注目する,もくろむs 炎d with a 猛烈な/残忍な and 緊急の meaning the 選挙立会人 could not mistake. McGrath did not need the agonized 動議 of the 拷問d 長,率いる that …を伴ってd the look. With a tigerish bound he was over the window-sill and in the room, even as the startled 黒人/ボイコット 発射 築く, whirling with apish agility.
McGrath had not drawn his gun. He dared not 危険 a 発射 that might bring other 敵s upon him. There was a butcher-knife in the belt that held up the ragged, muddy trousers. It seemed to leap like a living thing into the 手渡す of the 黒人/ボイコット as he turned. But in McGrath's 手渡す gleamed a curved Afghan dagger that had served him 井戸/弁護士席 in many a bygone 戦う/戦い.
Knowing the advantage of instant and relentless attack, he did not pause. His feet scarcely touched the 床に打ち倒す inside before they were 投げつけるing him at the astounded 黒人/ボイコット man.
An inarticulate cry burst from the 厚い red lips. The 注目する,もくろむs rolled wildly, the butcher-knife went 支援する and hissed 今後 with the swiftness of a striking cobra that would have disembowled a man whose thews were いっそう少なく steely than those of Bristol McGrath.
But the 黒人/ボイコット was involuntarily つまずくing backward as he struck, and that 直感的に 活動/戦闘 slowed his 一打/打撃 just enough for McGrath to 避ける it with a 雷-like 新たな展開 of his torso. The long blade hissed under his arm-炭坑,オーケストラ席, slicing cloth and 肌—and 同時に the Afghan dagger ripped through the 黒人/ボイコット, bull throat.
There was no cry, but only a choking gurgle as the man fell, spouting 血. McGrath had sprung 解放する/自由な as a wolf springs after 配達するing the death-一打/打撃. Without emotion he 調査するd his handiwork. The 黒人/ボイコット man was already dead, his 長,率いる half 厳しいd from his 団体/死体. That slicing sidewise 肺 that slew in silence, 厳しいing the throat to the spinal column, was a favorite 一打/打撃 of the hairy hillmen that haunt the crags overhanging the Khyber Pass. いっそう少なく than a dozen white men have ever mastered it. Bristol McGrath was one.
McGrath turned to Richard Ballville. 泡,激怒すること dripped on the seared, naked breast, and 血 trickled from the lips. McGrath 恐れるd that Ballville had 苦しむd the same mutilation that had (判決などを)下すd Ahmed speechless; but it was only 苦しむing and shock that numbed Ballville's tongue. McGrath 削減(する) his cords and 緩和するd him 負かす/撃墜する on a worn old divan 近づく by. Ballville's lean, muscle-corded 団体/死体 quivered like taut steel strings under McGrath's 手渡すs. He gagged, finding his 発言する/表明する.
"I knew you'd come!" he gasped, writhing at the 接触する of the divan against his seared flesh. "I've hated you for years, but I knew—"
McGrath's 発言する/表明する was 厳しい as the rasp of steel. "What did you mean by your について言及する of Constance Brand? She is dead."
A 恐ろしい smile 新たな展開d the thin lips.
"No, she's not dead! But she soon will be, if you don't hurry. Quick! Brandy! There on the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する—that beast didn't drink it all."
McGrath held the 瓶/封じ込める to his lips; Ballville drank avidly. McGrath wondered at the man's アイロンをかける 神経. That he was in 恐ろしい agony was obvious. He should be 叫び声をあげるing in a delirium of 苦痛. Yet he held to sanity and spoke lucidly, though his 発言する/表明する was a laboring croak.
"I 港/避難所't much time," he choked. "Don't interrupt. Save your 悪口を言う/悪態s till later. We both loved Constance Brand. She loved you. Three years ago she disappeared. Her 衣料品s were 設立する on the bank of a river. Her 団体/死体 was never 回復するd. You went to Africa to 溺死する your 悲しみ; I retired to the 広い地所 of my ancestors and became a recluse.
"What you didn't know—what the world didn't know—was that Constance Brand (機の)カム with me! No, she didn't 溺死する. That ruse was my idea. For three years Constance Brand has lived in this house!" He 達成するd a 恐ろしい laugh. "Oh, don't look so stunned, Bristol. She didn't come of her own 解放する/自由な will. She loved you too much. I kidnapped her, brought her here by 軍隊—Bristol!" His 発言する/表明する rose to a frantic shriek. "If you kill me you'll never learn where she is!"
The frenzied 手渡すs that had locked on his corded throat relaxed and sanity returned to the red 注目する,もくろむs of Bristol McGrath.
"Go on," he whispered in a 発言する/表明する not even he 認めるd.
"I couldn't help it," gasped the dying man. "She was the only woman I ever loved—oh, don't sneer, Bristol. The others didn't count. I brought her here where I was king. She couldn't escape, couldn't get word to the outside world. No one lives in this section except nigger 子孫s of the slaves owned by my family. My word is—was—their only 法律.
"I 断言する I didn't 害(を与える) her. I only kept her 囚人, trying to 軍隊 her to marry me. I didn't want her any other way. I was mad, but I couldn't help it. I come of a race of autocrats who took what they 手配中の,お尋ね者, 認めるd no 法律 but their own 願望(する)s. You know that. You understand it. You come of the same 産む/飼育する yourself.
"Constance hates me, if that's any なぐさみ to you, damn you. She's strong, too. I thought I could break her spirit. But I couldn't, not without the whip, and I couldn't 耐える to use that." He grinned hideously at the wild growl that rose unbidden to McGrath's lips. The big man's 注目する,もくろむs were coals of 解雇する/砲火/射撃; his hard 手渡すs knotted into アイロンをかける mallets.
A spasm racked Ballville, and 血 started from his lips. His grin faded and he hurried on.
"All went 井戸/弁護士席 until the foul fiend 奮起させるd me to send for John De Albor. I met him in Vienna, years ago. He's from East Africa—a devil in human form! He saw Constance—lusted for her as only a man of his type can. When I finally realized that, I tried to kill him. Then I 設立する that he was stronger than I; that he'd made himself master of the niggers—my niggers, to whom my word had always been 法律. He told them his devilish 教団—"
"Voodoo," muttered McGrath involuntarily.
"No! Voodoo is infantile beside this 黒人/ボイコット fiendishness. Look at the symbol on my breast, where De Albor 燃やすd it with a white-hot アイロンをかける. You have been in Africa. You understand the brand of Zambebwei.
"De Albor turned my negroes against me. I tried to escape with Constance and Ahmed. My own 黒人/ボイコットs hemmed me in. I did 密輸する a 電報電信 through to the village by a man who remained faithful to me—they 嫌疑者,容疑者/疑うd him and 拷問d him until he 認める it. John De Albor brought me his 長,率いる.
"Before the final break I hid Constance in a place where no one will ever find her, except you. De Albor 拷問d Ahmed until he told that I had sent for a friend of the girl's to 援助(する) us. Then De Albor sent his men up the road with what was left of Ahmed, as a 警告 to you if you (機の)カム. It was this morning that they 掴むd us; I hid Constance last night. Not even Ahmed knew where. De Albor 拷問d me to make me tell—" the dying man's 手渡すs clenched and a 猛烈な/残忍な 熱烈な light 炎d in his 注目する,もくろむs. McGrath knew that not all the torments of all the hells could ever have wrung that secret from Ballville's アイロンをかける lips.
"It was the least you could do," he said, his 発言する/表明する 厳しい with 相反する emotions. "I've lived in hell for three years because of you—and Constance has. You deserve to die. If you weren't dying already I'd kill you myself."
"Damn you, do you think I want your forgiveness?" gasped the dying man. "I'm glad you 苦しむd. If Constance didn't need your help, I'd like to see you dying as I'm dying—and I'll be waiting for you in hell. But enough of this. De Albor left me awhile to go up the road and 保証する himself that Ahmed was dead. This beast got to swilling my brandy and decided to 拷問 me some himself.
"Now listen—Constance is hidden in Lost 洞穴. No man on earth knows of its 存在 except you and me—not even the negroes. Long ago I put an アイロンをかける door in the 入り口, and I killed the man who did the work; so the secret is 安全な. There's no 重要な. You've got to open it by working 確かな knobs."
It was more and more difficult for the man to enunciate intelligibly. Sweat dripped from his 直面する, and the cords of his 武器 quivered.
"Run your fingers over the 辛勝する/優位 of the door until you find three knobs that form a triangle. You can't see them; you'll have to feel. 圧力(をかける) each one in 反対する-clockwise 動議, three times, around and around. Then pull on the 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業. The door will open. Take Constance and fight your way out. If you see they're going to get you, shoot her! Don't let her 落ちる into the 手渡すs of that 黒人/ボイコット beast—"
The 発言する/表明する rose to a shriek, 泡,激怒すること spattered from the livid writhing lips, and Richard Ballville heaved himself almost upright, then 倒れるd limply 支援する. The アイロンをかける will that had animated the broken 団体/死体 had snapped at last, as a taut wire snaps.
McGrath looked 負かす/撃墜する at the still form, his brain a maelstrom of seething emotions, then wheeled, glaring, every 神経 atingle, his ピストル springing into his 手渡す.
A man stood in the doorway that opened upon the 広大な/多数の/重要な outer hall—a tall man in a strange 外国人 garb. He wore a turban and a silk coat belted with a gay-hued girdle. Turkish slippers were on his feet. His 肌 was not much darker than McGrath's, his features distinctly oriental in spite of the 激しい glasses he wore.
"Who the devil are you?" 需要・要求するd McGrath, covering him.
"Ali ibn Suleyman, effendi," answered the other in faultless Arabic. "I (機の)カム to this place of devils at the 勧めるing of my brother, Ahmed ibn Suleyman, whose soul may the Prophet 緩和する. In New Orleans the letter (機の)カム to me. I 急いでd here. And lo, stealing through the 支持を得ようと努めるd, I saw 黒人/ボイコット men dragging my brother's 死体 to the river. I (機の)カム on, 捜し出すing his master."
McGrath mutely 示すd the dead man. The Arab 屈服するd his 長,率いる in stately reverence.
"My brother loved him," he said. "I would have vengeance for my brother and my brother's master. Effendi, let me go with you."
"All 権利." McGrath was afire with impatience. He knew the fanatical 一族/派閥-忠義 of the Arabs, knew that Ahmed's one decent trait had been a 猛烈な/残忍な devotion for the scoundrel he served. "Follow me."
With a last ちらりと見ること at the master of the Manor and the 黒人/ボイコット 団体/死体 sprawling like a human sacrifice before him, McGrath left the 議会 of 拷問. Just so, he 反映するd, one of Ballville's 軍人-king ancestors might have lain in some 薄暗い past age, with a 虐殺(する)d slave at his feet to serve his spirit in the land of ghosts.
With the Arab at his heels, McGrath 現れるd into the girdling pines that slumbered in the still heat of the noon. Faintly to his ears a distant pulse of sound was borne by a 浮浪者 drift of 微風. It sounded like the throb of a faraway 派手に宣伝する.
"Come on!" McGrath strode through the cluster of outhouses and 急落(する),激減(する)d into the 支持を得ようと努めるd that rose behind them. Here, too, had once stretched the fields that built the wealth of the aristocratic Ballvilles; but for many years they had been abandoned. Paths straggled aimlessly through the ragged growth, until presently the growing denseness of the trees told the invaders that they were in forest that had never known the woodsman's ax. McGrath looked for a path. Impressions received in childhood are always 耐えるing. Memory remains, overlaid by later things, but unerring through the years. McGrath 設立する the path he sought, a 薄暗い trace, 新たな展開ing through the trees.
They were 軍隊d to walk 選び出す/独身 とじ込み/提出する; the 支店s 捨てるd their 着せる/賦与するing, their feet sank into the carpet of pine needles. The land 傾向d 徐々に lower. Pines gave way to cypresses, choked with underbrush. Scummy pools of 沈滞した water 微光d under the trees. Bullfrogs croaked, mosquitoes sang with maddening 主張 about them. Again the distant 派手に宣伝する throbbed across the pinelands.
McGrath shook the sweat out of his 注目する,もくろむs. That 派手に宣伝する roused memories 井戸/弁護士席 fitted to these somber surroundings. His thoughts 逆戻りするd to the hideous scar seared on Richard Ballville's naked breast. Ballville had supposed that he, McGrath, knew its meaning; but he did not. That it portended 黒人/ボイコット horror and madness he knew, but its 十分な significance he did not know. Only once before had he seen that symbol, in the horror-haunted country of Zambebwei, into which few white men had ever 投機・賭けるd, and from which only one white man had ever escaped alive. Bristol McGrath was that man, and he had only 侵入するd the fringe of that abysmal land of ジャングル and 黒人/ボイコット 押し寄せる/沼地. He had not been able to 急落(する),激減(する) 深い enough into that forbidden realm either to 証明する or to disprove the 恐ろしい tales men whispered of an 古代の 教団 生き残るing a 先史の age, of the worship of a monstrosity whose mold 侵害する/違反するd an 受託するd 法律 of nature. Little enough he had seen; but what he had seen had filled him with shuddering horror that いつかs returned now in crimson nightmares.
No word had passed between the men since they had left the Manor. McGrath 急落(する),激減(する)d on through the vegetation that choked the path. A fat, blunt-tailed moccasion slithered from under his feet and 消えるd. Water could not be far away; a few more steps 明らかにする/漏らすd it. They stood on the 辛勝する/優位 of a dank, slimy 沼 from which rose a 毒気/悪影響 of rotting vegetable 事柄. Cypresses 影をつくる/尾行するd it. The path ended at its 辛勝する/優位. The 押し寄せる/沼地 stretched away and away, lost to sight 速く in twilight dimness.
"What now, effendi?" asked Ali. "Are we to swim this
morass?"
"It's 十分な of bottomless quagmires," answered McGrath. "It would be 自殺 for a man to 急落(する),激減(する) into it. Not even the piny 支持を得ようと努めるd niggers have ever tried to cross it. But there is a way to get to the hill that rises in the middle of it. You can just barely glimpse it, の中で the 支店s of the cypresses, see? Years ago, when Ballville and I were boys—and friends—we discovered an old, old Indian path, a secret, 潜水するd road that led to that hill. There's a 洞穴 in the hill, and a woman is 拘留するd in that 洞穴. I'm going to it. Do you want to follow me, or to wait for me here? The path is a dangerous one."
"I will go, effendi," answered the Arab.
McGrath nodded in 評価, and began to ざっと目を通す the trees about him. Presently he 設立する what he was looking for a faint 炎 on a 抱擁する cypress, an old 示す, almost imperceptible. Confidently then, he stepped into the 沼 beside the tree. He himself had made that 示す, long ago. Scummy water rose over his shoe 単独のs, but no higher. He stood on a flat 激しく揺する, or rather on a heap of 激しく揺するs, the topmost of which was just below the 沈滞した surface. 位置を示すing a 確かな gnarled cypress far out in the 影をつくる/尾行する of the 沼, he began walking 直接/まっすぐに toward it, spacing his strides carefully, each carrying him to a rockstep invisible below the murky water. Ali ibn Suleyman followed him, imitating his 動議s.
Through the 押し寄せる/沼地 they went, に引き続いて the 示すd trees that were their guide-地位,任命するs. McGrath wondered もう一度 at the 動機s that had impelled the 古代の 建設業者s of the 追跡する to bring these 抱擁する 激しく揺するs from afar and 沈む them like piles into the slush. The work must have been stupendous, 要求するing no mean 工学 技術. Why had the Indians built this broken road to Lost Island? Surely that 小島 and the 洞穴 in it had some 宗教的な significance to the red men; or perhaps it was their 避難 against some stronger 敵.
The going was slow; a misstep meant a 急落(する),激減(する) into marshy ooze, into 安定性のない 苦境に陥る that might swallow a man alive. The island grew out of the trees ahead of them—a small knoll, girdled by a vegetation-choked beach. Through the foliage was 明白な the rocky 塀で囲む that rose sheer from the beach to a 高さ of fifty or sixty feet. It was almost like a granite 封鎖する rising from a flat sandy 縁. The pinnacle was almost 明らかにする of growth.
McGrath was pale, his breath coming in quick gasps. As they stepped upon the beach-like (土地などの)細長い一片, Ali, with a ちらりと見ること of commiseration, drew a flask from his pocket.
"Drink a little brandy, effendi," he 勧めるd, touching the mouth to his own lips, oriental-fashion. "It will 援助(する) you."
McGrath knew that Ali thought his evident agitation was a result of exhaustion. But he was scarcely aware of his 最近の exertions. It was the emotions that 激怒(する)d within him—the thought of Constance Brand, whose beautiful form had haunted his troubled dreams for three dreary years. He gulped 深く,強烈に of the アルコール飲料, scarcely tasting it, and 手渡すd 支援する the flask.
"Come on!"
The 続けざまに猛撃するing of his own heart was 窒息させるing, 溺死するing the distant 派手に宣伝する, as he thrust through the choking vegetation at the foot of the cliff. On the gray 激しく揺する above the green mask appeared a curious carven symbol, as he had seen it years ago, when its 発見 led him and Richard Ballville to the hidden cavern. He tore aside the 粘着するing vines and fronds, and his breath sucked in at the sight of a 激しい アイロンをかける door 始める,決める in the 狭くする mouth that opened in the granite 塀で囲む.
McGrath's fingers were trembling as they swept over the metal, and behind him he could hear Ali breathing ひどく. Some of the white man's excitement had imparted itself to the Arab. McGrath's 手渡すs 設立する the three knobs, forming the apices of a triangle—mere protuberances, not 明らかな to the sight. Controlling his jumping 神経s, he 圧力(をかける)d them as Ballville had 教えるd him, and felt each give わずかに at the third 圧力. Then, 持つ/拘留するing his breath, he しっかり掴むd the 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業 that was welded in the middle of the door, and pulled. 滑らかに, on oiled hinges, the 大規模な portal swung open.
They looked into a wide tunnel that ended in another door, this a 取調べ/厳しく尋問する of steel 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業s. The tunnel was not dark; it was clean and roomy, and the 天井 had been pierced to 許す light to enter, the 穴を開けるs covered with 審査するs to keep out insects and reptiles. But through the 取調べ/厳しく尋問する he glimpsed something that sent him racing along the tunnel, his heart almost bursting through his ribs. Ali was の近くに at his heels.
The 取調べ/厳しく尋問する-door was not locked. It swung outward under his fingers.
He stood motionless, almost stunned with the 衝撃 of his
emotions.
His 注目する,もくろむs were dazzled by a gleam of gold; a sunbeam slanted 負かす/撃墜する through the pierced 激しく揺する roof and struck mellow 解雇する/砲火/射撃 from the glorious profusion of golden hair that flowed over the white arm that pillowed the beautiful 長,率いる on the carved oak (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する.
"Constance!" It was a cry of hunger and yearning that burst from his livid lips.
Echoing the cry, the girl started up, 星/主役にするing wildly, her 手渡すs at her 寺s, her lambent hair rippling over her shoulders. To his dizzy gaze she seemed to float in an aureole of golden light.
"Bristol! Bristol McGrath!" she echoed his call with a haunting, incredulous cry. Then she was in his 武器, her white 武器 clutching him in a frantic embrace, as if she 恐れるd he were but a phantom that might 消える from her.
For the moment the world 中止するd to 存在する for Bristol McGrath. He might have been blind, deaf and dumb to the universe 捕まらないで. His dazed brain was cognizant only of the woman in his 武器, his senses drunken with the softness and fragrange of her, his soul stunned with the 圧倒的な 現実化 of a dream he had thought dead and 消えるd for ever.
When he could think consecutively again, he shook himself like a man coming out of a trance, and 星/主役にするd stupidly around him. He was in a wide 議会, 削減(する) in the solid 激しく揺する. Like the tunnel, it was illumined from above, and the 空気/公表する was fresh and clean. There were 議長,司会を務めるs, (米)棚上げする/(英)提議するs and a hammock, carpets on the rocky 床に打ち倒す, cans of food and a water-cooler. Ballville had not failed to 供給する for his 捕虜's 慰安. McGrath ちらりと見ることd around at the Arab, and saw him beyond the 取調べ/厳しく尋問する. Considerately he had not intruded upon their 再会.
"Three years!" the girl was sobbing. "Three years I've waited. I knew you'd come! I knew it! But we must be careful, my darling. Richard will kill you if he finds you—kill us both!"
"He's beyond 殺人,大当り anyone," answered McGrath. "But just the same, we've got to get out of here."
Her 注目する,もくろむs ゆらめくd with new terror.
"Yes! John De Albor! Ballville was afraid of him. That's why he locked me in here. He said he'd sent for you. I was afraid for you—"
"Ali!" McGrath called. "Come in here. We're getting out of here now, and we'd better take some water and food with us. We may have to hide in the 押し寄せる/沼地s for—"
突然の Constance shrieked, tore herself from her lover's 武器. And McGrath, frozen by the sudden, awful 恐れる in her wide 注目する,もくろむs, felt the dull 揺さぶるing 衝撃 of a savage blow at the base of his skull. Consciousness did not leave him, but a strange paralysis gripped him. He dropped like an empty 解雇(する) on the 石/投石する 床に打ち倒す and lay there like a dead man, helplessly 星/主役にするing up at the scene which tinged his brain with madness—Constance struggling frenziedly in the しっかり掴む of the man he had known as Ali ibn Suleyman, now terribly transformed.
The man had thrown off his turban and glasses. And in the murky whites of his 注目する,もくろむs, McGrath read the truth with its grisly 関わりあい/含蓄s—the man was not an Arab. He was a negroid mixed 産む/飼育する. Yet some of his 血 must have been Arab, for there was a わずかに Semitic cast to his countenance, and this cast, together with his oriental garb and his perfect 事実上の/代理 of his part, had made him seem 本物の. But now all this was discarded and the negroid 緊張する was uppermost; even his 発言する/表明する, which had enunciated the sonorous Arabic, was now the throaty gutturals of the negro.
"You've killed him!" the girl sobbed hysterically, 努力する/競うing vainly to break away from the cruel fingers that 刑務所,拘置所d her white wrists.
"He's not dead yet," laughed the octoroon. "The fool quaffed drugged brandy—a 麻薬 設立する only in the Zambebwei ジャングルs. It lies inactive in the system until made 効果的な by a sharp blow on a 神経 中心."
"Please do something for him!" she begged.
The fellow laughed 残酷に.
"Why should I? He has served his 目的. Let him 嘘(をつく) there until the 押し寄せる/沼地 insects have 選ぶd his bones. I should like to watch that—but we will be far away before nightfall." His 注目する,もくろむs 炎d with the bestial gratification of 所有/入手. The sight of this white beauty struggling in his しっかり掴む seemed to rouse all the ジャングル lust in the man. McGrath's wrath and agony 設立する 表現 only in his bloodshot 注目する,もくろむs. He could not move 手渡す or foot.
"It was 井戸/弁護士席 I returned alone to the Manor," laughed the octoroon. "I stole up to the window while this fool talked with Richard Ballville. The thought (機の)カム to me to let him lead me to the place where you were hidden. It had never occurred to me that there was a hiding-place in the 押し寄せる/沼地. I had the Arab's coat, slippers and turban; I had thought I might use them いつか. The glasses helped, too. It was not difficult to make an Arab out of myself. This man had never seen John De Albor. I was born in East Africa and grew up a slave in the house of an Arab—before I ran away and wandered to the land of Zambebwei.
"But enough. We must go. The 派手に宣伝する has been muttering all day. The 黒人/ボイコットs are restless. I 約束d them a sacrifice to Zemba. I was going to use the Arab, but by the time I had 拷問d out of him the (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状) I 願望(する)d, he was no longer fit for a sacrifice. 井戸/弁護士席, let them bang their silly 派手に宣伝する. They'd like to have you for the Bride of Zemba, but they don't know I've 設立する you. I have a モーター-boat hidden on the river five miles from here—"
"You fool!" shrieked Constance, struggling passionately. "Do you think you can carry a white girl 負かす/撃墜する the river, like a slave?"
"I have a 麻薬 which will make you like a dead woman," he said. "You will 嘘(をつく) in the 底(に届く) of the boat, covered by 解雇(する)s. When I board the steamer that shall 耐える us from these shores, you will go into my cabin in a large, 井戸/弁護士席-ventilated trunk. You will know nothing of the 不快s of the voyage. You will awake in Africa—"
He was fumbling in his shirt, やむを得ず 解放(する)ing her with one 手渡す. With a frenzied 叫び声をあげる and a desperate wrench, she tore loose and sped out through the tunnel. John De Albor 急落(する),激減(する)d after her, bellowing. A red 煙霧 floated before McGrath's maddened 注目する,もくろむs. The girl would 急落(する),激減(する) to her death in the 押し寄せる/沼地s, unless she remembered the guide-示すs—perhaps it was death she sought, in preference to the 運命/宿命 planned for her by the fiendish negro.
They had 消えるd from his sight, out of the tunnel; but suddenly Constance 叫び声をあげるd again, with a new poignancy. To McGrath's ears (機の)カム an excited jabbering of negro gutturals. De Albor's accents were 解除するd in angry 抗議する. Constance was sobbing hysterically. The 発言する/表明するs were moving away. McGrath got a vague glimpse of a group of 人物/姿/数字s through the masking vegetation as they moved across the line of the tunnel mouth. He saw Constance 存在 dragged along by half a dozen 巨大(な) 黒人/ボイコットs typical pineland dwellers, and after them (機の)カム John De Albor, his 手渡すs eloquent in dissension. That glimpse only, through the fronds, and then the tunnel mouth gaped empty and the sound of splashing water faded away through the 沼.
In the brooding silence of the cavern Bristol McGrath lay 星/主役にするing blankly 上向き, his soul a seething hell. Fool, fool, to be taken in so easily! Yet, how could he have known? He had never seen De Albor; he had supposed he was a fullblooded negro. Ballville had called him a 黒人/ボイコット beast, but he must have been referring to his soul. De Albor, but for the betraying murk of his 注目する,もくろむs, might pass anywhere for a white man.
The presence of those 黒人/ボイコット men meant but one thing: they had followed him and De Albor, had 掴むd Constance as she 急ぐd from the 洞穴. De Albor's evident 恐れる bore a hideous 関わりあい/含蓄; he had said the 黒人/ボイコットs 手配中の,お尋ね者 to sacrifice Constance—now she was in their 手渡すs.
"God!" The word burst from McGrath's lips, startling in the stillness, startling to the (衆議院の)議長. He was electrified; a few moments before he had been dumb. But now he discovered he could move his lips, his tongue. Life was stealing 支援する through his dead 四肢s; they stung as if with returning 循環/発行部数. Frantically he encouraged that 不振の flow. Laboriously he worked his extremities, his fingers, 手渡すs, wrists and finally, with a 殺到する of wild 勝利, his 武器 and 脚s. Perhaps De Albor's hellish 麻薬 had lost some of its 力/強力にする through age. Perhaps McGrath's unusual stamina threw off the 影響s as another man could not have done.
The tunnel door had not been の近くにd, and McGrath knew why; they did not want to shut out the insects which would soon 配置する/処分する/したい気持ちにさせる of a helpless 団体/死体; already the pests were streaming through the door, a noisome horde.
McGrath rose at last, staggering drunkenly, but with his vitality 殺到するing more 堅固に each second. When he tottered from the 洞穴, no living thing met his glare. Hours had passed since the negroes had 出発/死d with their prey. He 緊張するd his ears for the 派手に宣伝する. It was silent. The stillness rose like an invisible 黒人/ボイコット もや around him. Stumblingly he splashed along the 激しく揺する-追跡する that led to hard ground. Had the 黒人/ボイコットs taken their 捕虜 支援する to the death-haunted Manor, or deeper into the pinelands?
Their 跡をつけるs were 厚い in the mud: half a dozen pairs of 明らかにする, splay feet, the slender prints of Constance's shoes, the 示すs of De Albor's Turkish slippers. He followed them with 増加するing difficulty as the ground grew higher and harder.
He would have 行方不明になるd the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where they turned off the 薄暗い 追跡する but for the ぱたぱたするing of a bit of silk in the faint 微風. Constance had 小衝突d against a tree-trunk there, and the rough bark had shredded off a fragment of her dress. The 禁止(する)d had been 長,率いるd east, toward the Manor. At the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where the bit of cloth hung, they had turned はっきりと southward. The matted pine needles showed no 跡をつけるs, but disarranged vines and 支店s bent aside 示すd their 進歩, until McGrath, に引き続いて these 調印するs, (機の)カム out upon another 追跡する 主要な southward.
Here and there were marshy 位置/汚点/見つけ出すs, and these showed the prints of feet, 明らかにする and shod. McGrath 急いでd along the 追跡する, ピストル in 手渡す, in 十分な 所有/入手 of his faculties at last. His 直面する was grim and pale. De Albor had not had an 適切な時期 to 武装解除する him after striking that 背信の blow. Both the octoroon and the 黒人/ボイコットs of the pinelands believed him to be lying helpless 支援する in Lost 洞穴. That, at least, was to his advantage.
He kept 緊張するing his ears in vain for the 派手に宣伝する he had heard earlier in the day. The silence did not 安心させる him. In a voodoo sacrifice 派手に宣伝するs would be 雷鳴ing, but he knew he was 取引,協定ing with something even more 古代の and abhorrent than voodoo.
Voodoo was comparatively a young 宗教, after all, born in the hills of Haiti. Behind the froth of voodooism rose the grim 宗教s of Africa, like granite cliffs glimpsed through a mask of green fronds. Voodooism was a mewling 幼児 beside the 黒人/ボイコット, immemorial colossus that had 後部d its terrible 形態/調整 in the older land through uncounted ages, Zambebwei! The very 指名する sent a shudder through him, 象徴的な of horror and 恐れる. It was more than the 指名する of a country and the mysterious tribe that 住むd that country; it 示す something fearfully old and evil, something that had 生き残るd its natural 時代—a 宗教 of the Night, and a deity whose 指名する was Death and Horror.
He had seen no negro cabins. He knew these were さらに先に to the east and south, most of them, 密談する/(身体を)寄せ集めるing along the banks of the river and the 支流 creeks. It was the instinct of the 黒人/ボイコット man to build his habitation by a river, as he had built by the Congo, the Nile and the Niger since Time's first gray 夜明け. Zambebwei! The word (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域 like a throb of a tom-tom through the brain of Bristol McGrath. The soul of the 黒人/ボイコット man had not changed, through the slumberous centuries. Change might come in the clangor of city streets, in the raw rhythms of Harlem; but the 押し寄せる/沼地s of the Mississippi do not 異なる enough from the 押し寄せる/沼地s of the Congo to work any 広大な/多数の/重要な transmutation in the spirit of a race that was old before the first white king wove the thatch of his wattled hut-palace.
に引き続いて that winding path through the twilight dimness of the big pines, McGrath did not find it in his soul to marvel that 黒人/ボイコット slimy tentacles from the depths of Africa had stretched across the world to 産む/飼育する nightmares in an 外国人 land. 確かな natural 条件s produce 確かな 影響s, 産む/飼育する 確かな pestilences of 団体/死体 or mind, 関わりなく their geographical 状況/情勢. The river-haunted pinelands were as abysmal in their way as were the reeking African ジャングルs.
The 傾向 of the 追跡する was away from the river. The land sloped very 徐々に 上向き, and all 調印するs of 沼 消えるd.
The 追跡する 広げるd, showing 調印するs of たびたび(訪れる) use. McGrath became
nervous. At any moment he might 会合,会う someone. He took to the 厚い
支持を得ようと努めるd と一緒に the 追跡する, and 軍隊d his way onward, each movement
sounding 大砲-loud to his whetted ears. Sweating with nervous
緊張, he (機の)カム presently upon a smaller path, which meandered in
the general direction he wished to go. The pinelands were
crisscrossed by such paths.
He followed it with greater 緩和する and stealth, and presently, coming to a crook in it, saw it join the main 追跡する. 近づく the point of junction stood a small スピードを出す/記録につける cabin, and between him and the cabin squatted a big 黒人/ボイコット man. This man was hidden behind the bole of a 抱擁する pine beside the 狭くする path, and peering around it toward the cabin. 明白に he was 秘かに調査するing on someone, and it was quickly 明らかな who this was, as John De Albor (機の)カム to the door and 星/主役にするd despairingly 負かす/撃墜する the wide 追跡する. The 黒人/ボイコット 選挙立会人 強化するd and 解除するd his fingers to his mouth as if to sound a far-carrying whistle, but De Albor shrugged his shoulders helplessly and turned 支援する into the cabin again. The negro relaxed, though he did not alter his vigilance.
What this portended, McGrath did not know, nor did he pause to 推測する. At the sight of De Albor a red もや turned the sunlight to 血, in which the 黒人/ボイコット 団体/死体 before him floated like an ebony goblin.
A panther stealing upon its kill would have made as much noise as McGrath made in his glide 負かす/撃墜する the path toward the squatting 黒人/ボイコット. He was aware of no personal animosity toward the man, who was but an 障害 in his path of vengeance. 意図 on the cabin, the 黒人/ボイコット man did not hear that stealthy approach. Oblivious to all else, he did not move or turn—until the ピストル butt descended on his woolly skull with an 衝撃 that stretched him senseless の中で the pine needles.
McGrath crouched above his motionless 犠牲者, listening. There was no sound 近づく by—but suddenly, far away, there rose a long-drawn shriek that shuddered and died away. The 血 congealed in McGrath's veins. Once before he had heard that sound—in the low forest-covered hills that fringe the 国境s of forbidden Zambebwei; his 黒人/ボイコット boys had turned the color of ashes and fallen on their 直面するs. What it was he did not know; and the explanation 申し込む/申し出d by the shuddering natives had been too monstrous to be 受託するd by a 合理的な/理性的な mind. They called it the 発言する/表明する of the god of Zambebwei.
Stung to 活動/戦闘, McGrath 急ぐd 負かす/撃墜する the path and 投げつけるd himself against the 支援する door of the cabin. He did not know how many 黒人/ボイコットs were inside; he did not care. He was beserk with grief and fury.
The door 衝突,墜落d inward under the 衝撃. He lit on his feet inside, crouching, gun leveled hip-high, lips asnarl.
But only one man 直面するd him—John De Albor, who sprang to his feet with a startled cry. The gun dropped from McGrath's fingers. Neither lead nor steel could glut his hate now. It must be with naked 手渡すs, turning 支援する the pages of civilization to the red 夜明け days of the primordial.
With a growl that was いっそう少なく like the cry of a man than the grunt of a 非難する lion, McGrath's 猛烈な/残忍な 手渡すs locked about the octoroon's throat. De Albor was borne backward by the hurtling 衝撃, and the men 衝突,墜落d together over a (軍の)野営地,陣営 cot, 粉砕するing it to 廃虚s. And as they 宙返り/暴落するd on the dirt 床に打ち倒す, McGrath 始める,決める himself to kill his enemy with his 明らかにする fingers.
The octoroon was a tall man, rangy and strong. But against the berserk white man he had no chance. He was 投げつけるd about like a 解雇(する) of straw, 乱打するd and 粉砕するd savagely against the 床に打ち倒す, and the アイロンをかける fingers that were 鎮圧するing his throat sank deeper and deeper until his tongue protruded from his gaping blue lips and his 注目する,もくろむs were starting from his 長,率いる. With death no more than a 手渡す's breadth from the octoroon, some 手段 of sanity returned to McGrath.
He shook his 長,率いる like a dazed bull; 緩和するd his terrible 支配する a trifle, and snarled: "Where is the girl? Quick, before I kill you!"
De Albor retched and fought for breath, ashen-直面するd. "The 黒人/ボイコットs!" he gasped. "They have taken her to be the Bride of Zemba! I could not 妨げる them. They 需要・要求する a sacrifice. I 申し込む/申し出d them you, but they said you were 麻ひさせるd and would die anyway—they were cleverer than I thought. They followed me 支援する to the Manor from the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where we left the Arab in the road—followed us from the Manor to the island.
"They are out of 手渡す—mad with 血-lust. But even I, who know 黒人/ボイコット men as 非,不,無 else knows them, I had forgotten that not even a priest of Zambebwei can 支配(する)/統制する them when the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 of worship runs in their veins. I am their priest and master—yet when I sought to save the girl, they 軍隊d me into this cabin and 始める,決める a man to watch me until the sacrifice is over. You must have killed him; he would never have let you enter here."
With a 冷気/寒がらせる grimness, McGrath 選ぶd up his ピストル.
"You (機の)カム here as Richard Ballville's friend," he said unemotionally. "To get 所有/入手 of Constance Brand, you made devil-worshippers out of the 黒人/ボイコット people. You deserve death for that. When the European 当局 that 治める/統治する Africa catch a priest of Zambebwei, they hang him. You have 認める that you are a priest. Your life is 没収される on that 得点する/非難する/20, too. But it is because of your hellish teachings that Constance Brand is to die, and it's for that 推論する/理由 that I'm going to blow out your brains."
John De Albor shriveled. "She is not dead yet," he gasped, 広大な/多数の/重要な 減少(する)s of perspiration dripping from his ashy 直面する. "She will not die until the moon is high above the pines. It is 十分な tonight, the Moon of Zambebwei. Don't kill me. Only I can save her. I know I failed before. But if I go to them, appear to them suddenly and without 警告, they'll think it is because of supernatural 力/強力にするs that I was able to escape from the hut without 存在 seen by the watchman. That will 新たにする my prestige.
"You can't save her. You might shoot a few 黒人/ボイコットs, but there would still be 得点する/非難する/20s left to kill you—and her. But I have a 計画(する)—yes, I am a priest of Zambebwei. When I was a boy I ran away from my Arab master and wandered far until I (機の)カム to the land of Zambebwei. There I grew to manhood and became a priest, dwelling there until the white 血 in me drew me out in the world again to learn the ways of the white men. When I (機の)カム to America I brought a Zemba with me—I can not tell you how.
"Let me save Constance Brand!" He was clawing at McGrath, shaking as if with an ague. "I love her, even as you love her. I will play fair with you both, I 断言する it! Let me save her! We can fight for her later, and I'll kill you if I can."
The frankness of that 声明 swayed McGrath more than anything else the octoroon could have said. It was a desperate 賭事—but after all, Constance would be no worse off with John De Albor alive than she was already. She would be dead before midnight unless something was done 速く.
"Where is the place of sacrifice?" asked McGrath.
"Three miles away, in an open glade," answered De Albor. "South on the 追跡する that runs past my cabin. All the 黒人/ボイコットs are gathered there except my guard and some others who are watching the 追跡する below the cabin. They are scattered out along it, the nearest out of sight of my cabin, but within sound of the loud, shrill whistle with which these people signal one another.
"This is my 計画(する). You wait here in my cabin, or in the 支持を得ようと努めるd, as you choose. I'll 避ける the 選挙立会人s on the 追跡する, and appear suddenly before the 黒人/ボイコットs at the House of Zemba. A sudden 外見 will impress them 深く,強烈に, as I said. I know I can not 説得する them to abandon their 計画(する), but I will make them 延期する the sacrifice until just before 夜明け. And before that time I will manage to steal the girl and 逃げる with her. I'll return to your hiding-place, and we'll fight our way out together."
McGrath laughed. "Do you think I'm an utter fool? You'd send your 黒人/ボイコットs to 殺人 me, while you carried Constance away as you planned. I'm going with you. I'll hide at the 辛勝する/優位 of the (疑いを)晴らすing, to help you if you need help. And if you make a 誤った move, I'll get you, if I don't get anybody else."
The octoroon's murky 注目する,もくろむs glittered, but he nodded acquiescence.
"Help me bring your guard into the cabin," said McGrath. "He'll be coming to soon. We'll tie and gag him and leave him here."
The sun was setting and twilight was stealing over the pinelands as McGrath and his strange companion stole through the shadowy 支持を得ようと努めるd. They had circled to the west to 避ける the 選挙立会人s on the 追跡する, and were now に引き続いて on the many 狭くする footpaths which traced their way through the forest. Silence 統治するd ahead of them, and McGrath について言及するd this.
"Zemba is a god of silence," muttered De Albor. "From sunset to sunrise on the night of the 十分な moon, no 派手に宣伝する is beaten. If a dog barks, it must be 殺害された; if a baby cries, it must be killed. Silence locks the jaws of the people until Zemba roars. Only his 発言する/表明する is 解除するd on the night of the Moon of Zemba."
McGrath shuddered. The foul deity was an intangible spirit, of course, 具体的に表現するd only in legend; but De Albor spoke of it as a living thing.
A few 星/主役にするs were blinking out, and 影をつくる/尾行するs crept through the 厚い 支持を得ようと努めるd, blurring the trunks of the trees that melted together in 不明瞭. McGrath knew they could not be far from the House of Zemba. He sensed the の近くに presence of a throng of people, though he heard nothing.
De Albor, ahead of him, 停止(させる)d suddenly, crouching. McGrath stopped, trying to pierce the surrounding mask of interlacing 支店s.
"What is it?" muttered the white man, reaching for his ピストル.
De Albor shook his 長,率いる, straightening. McGrath could not see the 石/投石する in his 手渡す, caught up from the earth as he stooped.
"Do you hear something?" 需要・要求するd McGrath.
De Albor 動議d him to lean 今後, as if to whisper in his ear. Caught off his guard, McGrath bent toward him—even so he divined the 背信の African's 意向, but it was too late. The 石/投石する in De Albor's 手渡す 衝突,墜落d sickeningly against the white man's 寺. McGrath went 負かす/撃墜する like a 虐殺(する)d ox, and De Albor sped away 負かす/撃墜する the path to 消える like a ghost in the gloom.
In the 不明瞭 of the woodland path McGrath stirred at last, and staggered groggily to his feet. That desperate blow might have 鎮圧するd the skull of a man whose physique and vitality were not that of a bull. His 長,率いる throbbed and there was 乾燥した,日照りのd 血 on his 寺; but his strongest sensation was 燃やすing 軽蔑(する) at himself for having again fallen 犠牲者 to John De Albor. And yet, who would have 嫌疑者,容疑者/疑うd that move? He knew De Albor would kill him if he could, but he had not 推定する/予想するd an attack before the 救助(する) of Constance. The fellow was dangerous and 予測できない as a cobra. Had his 嘆願s to be 許すd to 試みる/企てる Constance's 救助(する) been but a ruse to escape death at the 手渡すs of McGrath?
McGrath 星/主役にするd dizzily at the 星/主役にするs that gleamed through the ebon 支店s, and sighed with 救済 to see that the moon had not yet risen. The pinewoods were 黒人/ボイコット as only pinelands can be, with a 不明瞭 that was almost 有形の, like a 実体 that could be 削減(する) with a knife.
McGrath had 推論する/理由 to be 感謝する for his rugged 憲法. Twice that day had John De Albor outwitted him, and twice the white man's アイロンをかける でっちあげる,人を罪に陥れる had 生き残るd the attack. His gun was in his scabbard, his knife in its sheath. De Albor had not paused to search, had not paused for a second 一打/打撃 to make sure. Perhaps there had been a tinge of panic in the African's 活動/戦闘s.
井戸/弁護士席, this did not change 事柄s a 広大な/多数の/重要な 取引,協定. He believed that De Albor would make an 成果/努力 to save the girl. And McGrath ーするつもりであるd to be on 手渡す, whether to play a 孤独な 手渡す, or to 援助(する) the octoroon. This was no time to 持つ/拘留する grudges, with the girl's life at 火刑/賭ける. He groped 負かす/撃墜する the path, spurred by a rising glow in the east.
He (機の)カム upon the glade almost before he knew it. The moon hung in the low 支店s, 血-red, high enough to illumine it and the throng of 黒人/ボイコット people who squatted in a 広大な semicircle about it, 直面するing the moon. Their rolling 注目する,もくろむs gleamed milkily in the 影をつくる/尾行するs, their features were grotesque masks. 非,不,無 spoke. No 長,率いる turned toward the bushes behind which he crouched.
He had ばく然と 推定する/予想するd 炎ing 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, a 血-stained altar, 派手に宣伝するs and the 詠唱する of maddened worshippers; that would be voodoo. But this was not voodoo, and there was a 広大な 湾 between the two 教団s. There were no 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, no altars. But the breath hissed through his locked teeth. In a far land he had sought in vain for the rituals of Zambebwei; now he looked upon them within forty miles of the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where he was born.
In the 中心 of the glade the ground rose わずかに to a flat level. On this stood a 激しい アイロンをかける-bound 火刑/賭ける that was indeed but the sharpened trunk of a good-sized pine driven 深い into the ground. And there was something living chained to that 火刑/賭ける—something which 原因(となる)d McGrath to catch his breath in horrified unbelief.
He was looking upon a god of Zambebwei. Stories had told of such creatures, wild tales drifting 負かす/撃墜する from the 国境s of the forbidden country, repeated by shivering natives about ジャングル 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, passed along until they reached the ears of skeptical white 仲買人s. McGrath had never really believed the stories, though he had gone searching for the 存在 they 述べるd. For they spoke of a beast that was a blasphemy against nature—a beast that sought food strange to its natural 種類.
The thing chained to the 火刑/賭ける was an ape, but such an ape as the world 捕まらないで never dreamed of, even in nightmares. Its shaggy gray hair was 発射 with silver that shone in the rising moon; it looked gigantic as it squatted ghoulishly on its haunches. Upright, on its bent, gnarled 脚s, it would be as tall as a man, and much broader and 厚い. But its prehensile fingers were 武装した with talons like those of a tiger—not the 激しい blunt nails of the natural anthropoid, but the cruel simitar-curved claws of the 広大な/多数の/重要な carnivora. Its 直面する was like that of a gorilla, low browed, ゆらめくing-nostriled, chinless; but when it snarled, its wide flat nose wrinkled like that of a 広大な/多数の/重要な cat, and the cavernous mouth 公表する/暴露するd saber-like fangs, the fangs of a beast of prey. This was Zemba, the creature sacred to the people of the land of Zambebwei—a monstrosity, a 違反 of an 受託するd 法律 of nature—a carnivorous ape. Men had laughed at the story, hunters and zoologists and 仲買人s.
But now McGrath knew that such creatures dwelt in 黒人/ボイコット Zambebwei and were worshipped, as 原始の man is 傾向がある to worship an obscenity or perversion of nature. Or a 生き残り of past eons: that was what the flesh-eating apes of Zambebwei were—生存者s of a forgotten 時代, 残余s of a 消えるd 先史の age, when nature was 実験ing with 事柄, and life took many monstrous forms.
The sight of the monstrosity filled McGrath with revulsion; it was abysmal, a 思い出の品 of that brutish and horror-影をつくる/尾行するd past out of which mankind はうd so painfully, eons ago. This thing was an affront to sanity; it belonged in the dust of oblivion with the dinosaur, the mastodon, and the saber-toothed tiger.
It looked 大規模な beyond the stature of modern beasts—形態/調整d on the 計画(する) of another age, when all things were cast in a mightier mold. He wondered if the revolver at his hip would have any 影響 on it; wondered by what dark and subtle means John De Albor had brought the monster from Zambebwei to the pinelands.
But something was happening in the glade, 先触れ(する)d by the shaking of the brute's chain as it thrust 今後 its nightmare-長,率いる.
From the 影をつくる/尾行するs of the trees (機の)カム a とじ込み/提出する of 黒人/ボイコット men and women,
young, naked except for a mantle of monkeyskins and parrot-feathers
thrown over the shoulders of each. More regalia brought by John De
Albor, undoubtedly. They formed a semicircle at a 安全な distance
from the chained brute, and sank to their 膝s, bending their
長,率いるs to the ground before him. Thrice this 動議 was repeated.
Then, rising, they formed two lines, men and women 直面するing one
another, and began to dance; at least it might by 儀礼 be
called a dance. They hardly moved their feet at all, but all other
parts of their 団体/死体s were in constant 動議, 新たな展開ing, 回転/交替ing,
writhing. The 手段d, rhythmical movements had no 関係 at
all with the voodoo dances McGrath had 証言,証人/目撃するd. This dance was
disquietingly archaic in its suggestion, though even more depraved
and bestial—naked 原始の passions でっちあげる,人を罪に陥れるd in a 冷笑的な
debauchery of 動議.
No sound (機の)カム from the ダンサーs, or from the votaries squatting about the (犯罪の)一味 of trees. But the ape, 明らかに infuriated by the continued movements, 解除するd his 長,率いる and sent into the night the frightful shriek McGrath had heard once before that day—he had heard it in the hills that 国境 黒人/ボイコット Zambebwei. The brute 急落(する),激減(する)d to the end of his 激しい chain, 泡,激怒することing and gnashing his fangs, and the ダンサーs fled like spume blown before a gust of 勝利,勝つd. They scattered in all directions—and then McGrath started up in his covert, barely stifling a cry.
From the 深い 影をつくる/尾行するs had come a 人物/姿/数字, gleaming tawnily in contrast to the 黒人/ボイコット forms about it. It was John De Albor, naked except for a mantle of 有望な feathers, and on his 長,率いる a circlet of gold that might have been (1)偽造する/(2)徐々に進むd in Atlantis. In his 手渡す he bore a gold 病弱なd that was the scepter of the high priests of Zambebwei.
Behind him (機の)カム a pitiful 人物/姿/数字, at the sight of which the moon-lit forest reeled to McGrath's sight.
Constance had been drugged. Her 直面する was that of a sleep-walker; she seemed not aware of her 危険,危なくする, or the fact that she was naked. She walked like a robot, mechanically 答える/応じるing to the 勧める of the cord tied about her white neck. The other end of that cord was in John De Albor's 手渡す, and he half led, half dragged her toward the horror that squatted in the 中心 of the glade. De Albor's 直面する was ashy in the moonlight that now flooded the glade with molten silver. Sweat beaded his 肌. His 注目する,もくろむs gleamed with 恐れる and ruthless 決意. And in a staggering instant McGrath knew that the man had failed, that he had been unable to save Constance, and that now, to save his own life from his 怪しげな 信奉者s, he himself was dragging the girl to the gory sacrifice.
No 声の sound (機の)カム from the votaries, but hissing intake of breath sucked through 厚い lips, and the 列/漕ぐ/騒動s of 黒人/ボイコット 団体/死体s swayed like reeds in the 勝利,勝つd. The 広大な/多数の/重要な ape leaped up, his 直面する a slavering devil's mask; he howled with frightful 切望, gnashing his 広大な/多数の/重要な fangs, that yearned to 沈む into that soft white flesh, and the hot 血 beneath. He 殺到するd against his chain, and the stout 地位,任命する quivered. McGrath, in the bushes, stood frozen, 麻ひさせるd by the imminence of horror. And then John De Albor stepped behind the unresisting girl and gave her a powerful 押し進める that sent her reeling 今後 to pitch headlong on the ground under the monster's talons.
And 同時に McGrath moved. His move was 直感的に rather than conscious. His .44 jumped into his 手渡す and spoke, and the 広大な/多数の/重要な ape 叫び声をあげるd like a man death-stricken and reeled, clapping misshapen 手渡すs to its 長,率いる.
An instant the throng crouched frozen, white 注目する,もくろむs bulging, jaws hanging slack. Then before any could move, the ape, 血 噴出するing from his 長,率いる, wheeled, 掴むd the chain in both 手渡すs and snapped it with a wrench that 新たな展開d the 激しい links apart as if they had been paper.
John De Albor stood 直接/まっすぐに before the mad brute, 麻ひさせるd in his 跡をつけるs. Zemba roared and leaped, and the african went 負かす/撃墜する under him, disembowled by the razorlike talons, his 長,率いる 鎮圧するd to a crimson 低俗雑誌 by a sweep of the 広大な/多数の/重要な paw.
Ravening, the monster 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金d の中で the votaries, clawing and ripping and smiting, 叫び声をあげるing intolerably. Zambebwei spoke, and death was in his bellowing. 叫び声をあげるing, howling, fighting, the 黒人/ボイコット people 緊急発進するd over one another in their mad flight. Men and women went 負かす/撃墜する under those shearing talons, were dismembered by those gnashing fangs. It was a red 演劇 of the 原始の—破壊 amuck and ariot, the primordial 具体的に表現するd in fangs and talons, gone mad and 急落(する),激減(する)ing in 虐殺(する). 血 and brains deluged the earth, 黒人/ボイコット 団体/死体s and 四肢s and fragments of 団体/死体s littered the moonlighted glade in 恐ろしい heaps before the last of the howling wretches 設立する 避難 の中で the trees. The sounds of their 失敗ing, panic-stricken flight drifted 支援する.
McGrath had leaped from his covert almost as soon as he had 解雇する/砲火/射撃d.
Unnoticed by the terrified negroes, and himself scarcely cognizant
of the 虐殺(する) 激怒(する)ing around him, he raced across the glade
toward the pitiful white 人物/姿/数字 that lay limply beside the
アイロンをかける-bound 火刑/賭ける.
"Constance!" he cried, 集会 her to his breast.
Languidly she opened her cloudy 注目する,もくろむs. He held her の近くに, heedless of the 叫び声をあげるs and 荒廃 殺到するing about them. Slowly 承認 grew in those lovely 注目する,もくろむs.
"Bristol!" she murmured, incoherently. Then she 叫び声をあげるd, clung to him, sobbing hysterically. "Bristol! They told me you were dead! The 黒人/ボイコットs! The horrible 黒人/ボイコットs! They're going to kill me! They were going to kill De Albor too, but he 約束d to sacrifice—"
"Don't, girl, don't!" He subdued her frantic tremblings. "It's all 権利, now—" 突然の he looked up into the grinning bloodstained 直面する of nightmare and death. The 広大な/多数の/重要な ape had 中止するd to rend his dead 犠牲者s and was slinking toward the living pair in the 中心 of the glade. 血 oozed from the 負傷させる in its sloping skull that had maddened it.
McGrath sprang toward it, 保護物,者ing the prostrate girl; his ピストル spurted 炎上, 注ぐing a stream of lead into the mighty breast as the beast 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金d.
On it (機の)カム, and his 信用/信任 病弱なd. 弾丸 after 弾丸 he sent 衝突,墜落ing into its 決定的なs, but it did not 停止(させる). Now he dashed the empty gun 十分な into the gargoyle 直面する without 影響, and with a lurch and a roll it had him in its しっかり掴む. As the 巨大(な) 武器 の近くにd crushingly about him, he abandoned all hope, but に引き続いて his fighting instinct to the last, he drove his dagger hilt-深い in the shaggy belly.
But even as he struck, he felt a shudder run through the gigantic でっちあげる,人を罪に陥れる. The 広大な/多数の/重要な 武器 fell away—and then he was 投げつけるd to the ground in the last death throe of the monster, and the thing was swaying, its 直面する a death-mask. Dead on its feet, it crumpled, 倒れるd to the ground, quivered and lay still. Not even a man-eating ape of Zambebwei could 生き残る that の近くに- 範囲 ボレー of mushrooming lead.
As the man staggered up, Constance rose and reeled into his 武器, crying hysterically.
"It's all 権利 now, Constance," he panted, 鎮圧するing her to him. "The Zemba's dead; De Albor's dead; Ballville's dead; the negroes have run away. There's nothing to 妨げる us leaving now. The Moon of Zambebwei was the end for them. But it's the beginning of life for us."
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