ly and jealousy have reduced us. when i was a very
young man, mr. holmes, i loved with such a love as comes
only once in a lifetime. i offered the lady marriage,
but she refused it on the grounds that such a match might
mar my career. had she lived i would certainly never have
married anyone else. she died, and left this one child,
whom for her sake i have cherished and cared for. i could
not acknowledge the paternity to the world; but i gave him
the best of educations, and since he came to manhood i have
kept him near my person. he surprised my secret, and has
presumed ever since upon the claim which he has upon me and
upon his power of provoking a scandal, which would be
abhorrent to me. his presence had something to do with the
unhappy issue of my marriage. above all, he hated my young
legitimate heir from the first with a persistent hatred.
you may well ask me why, under these circumstances, i still
kept james under my roof. i answer that it was because i
could see his mother's face in his, and that for her dear
sake there was no end to my long-suffering. all her pretty
ways, too -- there was not one of them which he could not suggest
and bring back to my memory. i _could_ not send him away.
but i feared so much lest he should do arthur -- that is,
lord saltire -- a mischief that i dispatched him for safety
to dr. huxtable's school.
"james came into contact with this fellow hayes because the
man was a tenant of mine, and james acted as agent.
the fellow was a rascal from the beginning; but in some
extraordinary way james became intimate with him. he had
always a taste for low company. when james determined to
kidnap lord saltire it was of this man's service that he
availed himself. you remember that i wrote to arthur upon
that last day. well, james opened the letter and inserted
a note asking arthur to meet him in a little wood called
the ragged shaw, which is near to the school. he used the
duchess's name, and in that way got the boy to come.
that evening james bicycled over -- i am telling you what he has
himself confessed to me -- and he told arthur, whom he met in
the wood, that his mother longed to see him, that she was
awaiting him on the moor, and that if he would come back
into the wood at midnight he would find a man with a horse,
who would take him to her. poor arthur fell into the trap.
he came to the appointment and found this fellow hayes with
a led pony. arthur mounted, and they set off together.
it appears -- though this james only heard yesterday -- that they
were pursued, that hayes struck the pursuer with his stick,
and that the man died of his injuries. hayes brought
arthur to his public-house, the fighting cock, where he was
confined in an upper room, under the care of mrs. hayes,
who is a kindly woman, but entirely under the control of
her brutal husband.
"well, mr. holmes, that was the state of affairs when i
first saw you two days ago. i had no more idea of the
truth than you. you will ask me what was james's motive in
doing such a deed. i answer that there was a great deal
which was unreasoning and fanatical in the hatred which he
bore my heir. in his view he should himself have been heir
of all my estates, and he deeply resented those social laws
which made it impossible. at the same time he had a
definite motive also. he was eager that i should break the
entail, and he was of opinion that it lay in my power to do
so. he intended to make a bargain with me -- to restore
arthur if i would break the entail, and so make it possible
for the estate to be left to him by will. he knew well
that i should never willingly invoke the aid of the police
against him. i say that he would have proposed such a
bargain to me, but he did not actually do so, for events
moved too quickly for him, and he had not time to put his
plans into practice.
"what brought all his wicked scheme to wreck was your
discovery of this man heidegger's dead body. james was
seized with horror at the news. it came to us yesterday
as we sat together in this study. dr. huxtable had sent
a telegram. james was so overwhelmed with grief and
agitation that my suspicions, which had never been entirely
absent, rose instantly to a certainty, and i taxed him
with the deed. he made a complete voluntary confession.
then he implored me to keep his secret for three days longer,
so as to give his wretched accomplice a chance of saving his
guilty life. i yielded -- as i have always yielded -- to his
prayers, and instantly james hurried off to the fighting
cock to warn hayes and give him the means of flight.
i could not go there by daylight without provoking comment,
but as soon as night fell i hurried off to see my dear arthur.
i found him safe and well, but horrified beyond
expression by the dreadful deed he had witnessed.
本文链接:
http://m.picdg.com/38_38018/5748777.html