×

We use cookies to help make LingQ better. By visiting the site, you agree to our cookie policy.


image

Way Station, Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Dr. Erwin Hardwicke rolled the pencil back and forth between his palms, an irritating business. He eyed the man across the desk from him with some calculation.

“What I can't figure out,” said Hardwicke, “is why you should come to us.”

“Well, you're the National Academy and I thought …”

“And you're Intelligence.”

“Look, Doctor, if it suits you better, let's call this visit unofficial. Pretend I'm a puzzled citizen who dropped in to see if you could help.”

“It's not that I wouldn't like to help, but I don't see how I can. The whole thing is so hazy and so hypothetical.”

“Damn it, man,” Claude Lewis said, “you can't deny the proof—the little that I have.”

“All right, then,” said Hardwicke, “let's start over once again and take it piece by piece. You say you have this man …”

“His name,” said Lewis, “is Enoch Wallace: Chronologically, he is one hundred and twenty-four years old. He was born on a farm a few miles from the town of Millville in Wisconsin, April 22, 1840, and he is the only child of Jedediah and Amanda Wallace. He enlisted among the first of them when Abe Lincoln called for volunteers. He was with the Iron Brigade, which was virtually wiped out at Gettysburg in 1863. But Wallace somehow managed to get transferred to another fighting outfit and fought down across Virginia under Grant. He was in on the end of it at Appomattox …”

“You've run a check on him.”

“I've looked up his records. The record of enlistment at the State Capitol in Madison. The rest of it, including discharge here in Washington.”

“You say he looks like thirty.”

“Not a day beyond it. Maybe even less than that.”

“But you haven't talked with him.”

Lewis shook his head.

“He may not be the man. If you had fingerprints …”

“At the time of the Civil War,” said Lewis, “they'd not thought of fingerprints.”

“The last of the veterans of the Civil War,” said Hardwicke, “died several years ago. A Confederate drummer boy, I think. There must be some mistake.”

Lewis shook his head. “I thought so myself, when I was assigned to it.”

“How come you were assigned? How does Intelligence get involved in a deal like this?”

“I'll admit,” said Lewis, “that it's a bit unusual. But there were so many implications …”

“Immortality, you mean.”

“It crossed our mind, perhaps. The chance of it. But only incidentally. There were other considerations. It was a strange setup that bore some looking into.”

“But Intelligence …”

Lewis grinned. “You are thinking, why not a scientific outfit? Logically, I suppose it should have been. But one of our men ran afoul of it. He was on vacation. Had relatives back in Wisconsin. Not in that particular area, but some thirty miles away. He heard a rumor—just the vaguest rumor, almost a casual mention. So he nosed around a bit. He didn't find out too much but enough to make him think there might be something to it.”

“That's the thing that puzzles me,” said Hardwicke. “How could a man live for one hundred and twenty-four years in one locality without becoming a celebrity that the world would hear about? Can you imagine what the newspapers could do with a thing like this?”

“I shudder,” Lewis said, “when I think about it.”

“You haven't told me how.”

“This,” said Lewis, “is a bit hard to explain. You'd have to know the country and the people in it. The southwestern corner of Wisconsin is bounded by two rivers, the Mississippi on the west, the Wisconsin on the north. Away from the rivers there is flat, broad prairie land, rich land, with prosperous farms and towns. But the land that runs down to the river is rough and rugged; high hills and bluffs and deep ravines and cliffs, and there are certain areas forming bays or pockets that are isolated. They are served by inadequate roads and the small, rough farms are inhabited by a people who are closer, perhaps, to the pioneer days of a hundred years ago than they are to the twentieth century. They have cars, of course, and radios, and someday soon, perhaps, even television. But in spirit they are conservative and clannish—not all the people, of course, not even many of them, but these little isolated neighborhoods.

“At one time there were a lot of farms in these isolated pockets, but today a man can hardly make a living on a farm of that sort. Slowly the people are being squeezed out of the areas by economic circumstances. They sell their farms for whatever they can get for them and move somewhere else, to the cities mostly, where they can make a living.”

Hardwicke nodded. “And the ones that are left, of course, are the most conservative and clannish.”

“Right. Most of the land now is held by absentee owners who make no pretense of farming it. They may run a few head of cattle on it, but that is all. It's not too bad as a tax write-off for someone who needs that sort of thing. And in the land-bank days a lot of the land was put into the bank.”

“You're trying to tell me these backwoods people—is that what you'd call them?—engaged in a conspiracy of silence.”

“Perhaps not anything,” said Lewis, “as formal or elaborate as that. It is just their way of doing things, a holdover from the old, stout pioneer philosophy. They minded their own business. They didn't want folks interfering with them and they interfered with no one else. If a man wanted to live to be a thousand, it might be a thing of wonder, but it was his own damned business. And if he wanted to live alone and be let alone while he was doing it, that was his business, too. They might talk about it among themselves, but to no one else. They'd resent it if some outsider tried to talk about it.

“After a time, I suppose, they came to accept the fact that Wallace kept on being young while they were growing old. The wonder wore off it and they probably didn't talk about it a great deal, even among themselves. New generations accepted it because their elders saw in it nothing too unusual—and anyhow no one saw much of Wallace because he kept strictly to himself.

“And in the nearby areas the thing, when it was thought of at all, grew to be just a sort of legend—another crazy tale that wasn't worth looking into. Maybe just a joke among those folks down Dark Hollow way. A Rip Van Winkle sort of business that probably didn't have a word of truth in it. A man might look ridiculous if he went prying into it.”

“But your man looked into it.”

“Yes. Don't ask me why.”

“Yet he wasn't assigned to follow up the job.”

“He was needed somewhere else. And besides he was known back there.”

“And you?”

“It took two years of work.”

“But now you know the story.”

“Not all of it. There are more questions now than there were to start with.”

“You've seen this man.”

“Many times,” said Lewis. “But I've never talked with him. I don't think he's ever seen me. He takes a walk each day before he goes to get the mail. He never moves off the place, you see. The mailman brings out the little stuff he needs. A bag of flour, a pound of bacon, a dozen eggs, cigars, and sometimes liquor.”

“But that must be against the postal regulations.”

“Of course it is. But mailmen have been doing it for years. It doesn't hurt a thing until someone screams about it. And no one's going to. The mailmen probably are the only friends he has ever had.”

“I take it this Wallace doesn't do much farming.”

“None at all. He has a little vegetable garden, but that is all he does. The place has gone back pretty much to wilderness.”

“But he has to live. He must get money somewhere.”

“He does,” said Lewis. “Every five or ten years or so he ships off a fistful of gems to an outfit in New York.”

“Legal?”

“If you mean, is it hot, I don't think so. If someone wanted to make a case of it, I suppose there are illegalities. Not to start with, when he first started sending them, back in the old days. But laws change and I suspect both he and the buyer are in defiance of any number of them.”

“And you don't mind?”

“I checked on this firm,” said Lewis, “and they were rather nervous. For one thing, they'd been stealing Wallace blind. I told them to keep on buying. I told them that if anyone came around to check, to refer them straight to me. I told them to keep their mouths shut and not change anything.”

“You don't want anyone to scare him off,” said Hardwicke.

“You're damned right, I don't. I want the mailman to keep on acting as a delivery boy and the New York firm to keep on buying gems. I want everything to stay just the way it is. And before you ask me where the stones come from, I'll tell you I don't know.”

“He maybe has a mine.”

“That would be quite a mine. Diamonds and rubies and emeralds, all out of the same mine.”

“I would suspect, even at the prices that he gets from them, he picks up a fair income.”

Lewis nodded. “Apparently he only sends a shipment in when he runs out of cash. He wouldn't need too much. He lives rather simply, to judge from the grub he buys. But he subscribes to a lot of daily papers and news magazines and to dozens of scientific journals. He buys a lot of books.”

“Technical books?”

“Some of them, of course, but mostly keeping up with new developments. Physics and chemistry and biology—all that sort of stuff.”

“But I don't …”

“Of course you don't. Neither do I. He's no scientist. Or at least he has no formal education in the sciences. Back in the days when he went to school there wasn't much of it—not in the sense of today's scientific education. And whatever he learned then would be fairly worthless now in any event. He went through grade school—one of those one-room country schools—and spent one winter at what was called an academy that operated for a year or two down in Millville village. In case you don't know, that was considerably better than par back in the 1850s. He was, apparently, a fairly bright young man.”

Hardwicke shook his head. “It sounds incredible. You've checked on all of this?”

“As well as I could. I had to go at it gingerly. I wanted no one to catch on. And one thing I forgot—he does a lot of writing. He buys these big, bound record books, in lots of a dozen at the time. He buys ink by the pint.”

Hardwicke got up from his desk and paced up and down the room.

“Lewis,” he said, “if you hadn't shown me your credentials and if I hadn't checked on them, I'd figure all of this to be a very tasteless joke.”

He went back and sat down again. He picked up the pencil and started rolling it between his palms once more.

“You've been on the case two years,” he said. “You have no ideas?”

“Not a one,” said Lewis. “I'm entirely baffled. That is why I'm here.”

“Tell me more of his history. After the war, that is.”

“His mother died,” said Lewis, “while he was away. His father and the neighbors buried her right there on the farm. That was the way a lot of people did it then. Young Wallace got a furlough, but not in time to get home for the funeral. There wasn't much embalming done in those days and the traveling was slow. Then he went back to the war. So far as I can find, it was his only furlough. The old man lived alone and worked the farm, batching it and getting along all right. From what I can pick up, he was a good farmer, an exceptionally good farmer for his day. He subscribed to some farm journals and was progressive in his ideas. He paid attention to such things as crop rotation and the prevention of erosion. The farm wasn't much of a farm by modern standards, but it made him a living and a little extra he managed to lay by.

Chapter Two

Dr. Erwin Hardwicke rolled the pencil back and forth between his palms, an irritating business. El Dr. Erwin Hardwicke hizo rodar el lápiz de un lado a otro entre sus palmas, un asunto irritante. Le Dr Erwin Hardwicke faisait rouler le crayon entre ses paumes, une tâche irritante. He eyed the man across the desk from him with some calculation. Miró al hombre al otro lado del escritorio con algo de cálculo. Il regarda l'homme en face de lui avec un calcul.

“What I can't figure out,” said Hardwicke, “is why you should come to us.” "Lo que no puedo entender", dijo Hardwicke, "es por qué debería venir a nosotros". "Ce que je n'arrive pas à comprendre", a déclaré Hardwicke, "c'est pourquoi vous devriez venir nous voir."

“Well, you're the National Academy and I thought …” “Bueno, eres de la Academia Nacional y pensé…”

“And you're Intelligence.” Y tú eres Inteligencia.

“Look, Doctor, if it suits you better, let's call this visit unofficial. “Mire, doctor, si le parece mejor, llamemos a esta visita no oficial. Pretend I'm a puzzled citizen who dropped in to see if you could help.” Finge que soy un ciudadano perplejo que vino a ver si podías ayudar”. Imaginez que je suis un citoyen perplexe qui est venu voir si vous pouviez aider.

“It's not that I wouldn't like to help, but I don't see how I can. “No es que no me gustaría ayudar, pero no veo cómo puedo hacerlo. The whole thing is so hazy and so hypothetical.” Todo es tan confuso y tan hipotético”.

“Damn it, man,” Claude Lewis said, “you can't deny the proof—the little that I have.” "Maldita sea, hombre", dijo Claude Lewis, "no puedes negar la prueba, lo poco que tengo". "Merde, mec", a déclaré Claude Lewis, "vous ne pouvez pas nier la preuve - le peu que j'ai."

“All right, then,” said Hardwicke, “let's start over once again and take it piece by piece. “Muy bien, entonces”, dijo Hardwicke, “empecemos de nuevo y analicemos las cosas pieza por pieza. "Très bien, alors," dit Hardwicke, "recommençons une fois de plus et prenons-le morceau par morceau. You say you have this man …” Dices que tienes a este hombre...

“His name,” said Lewis, “is Enoch Wallace: Chronologically, he is one hundred and twenty-four years old. —Su nombre —dijo Lewis— es Enoch Wallace: cronológicamente, tiene ciento veinticuatro años. « Son nom », dit Lewis, « est Enoch Wallace : Chronologiquement, il a cent vingt-quatre ans. He was born on a farm a few miles from the town of Millville in Wisconsin, April 22, 1840, and he is the only child of Jedediah and Amanda Wallace. Nació en una granja a pocas millas del pueblo de Millville en Wisconsin, el 22 de abril de 1840, y es el único hijo de Jedediah y Amanda Wallace. He enlisted among the first of them when Abe Lincoln called for volunteers. Se alistó entre los primeros cuando Abe Lincoln pidió voluntarios. He was with the Iron Brigade, which was virtually wiped out at Gettysburg in 1863. Estuvo con la Brigada de Hierro, que fue prácticamente aniquilada en Gettysburg en 1863. Il faisait partie de la Brigade de fer, qui a été pratiquement anéantie à Gettysburg en 1863. But Wallace somehow managed to get transferred to another fighting outfit and fought down across Virginia under Grant. Pero Wallace de alguna manera se las arregló para ser transferido a otro equipo de combate y peleó en Virginia bajo las órdenes de Grant. Mais Wallace a réussi à être transféré dans une autre équipe de combat et a combattu à travers la Virginie sous Grant. He was in on the end of it at Appomattox …” Estuvo al final en Appomattox…” Il était à la fin à Appomattox… »

“You've run a check on him.” Has hecho un control sobre él. "Vous avez exécuté un contrôle sur lui."

“I've looked up his records. He consultado sus registros. « J'ai consulté ses dossiers. The record of enlistment at the State Capitol in Madison. El registro de alistamiento en el Capitolio del Estado en Madison. Le record d'enrôlement au State Capitol à Madison. The rest of it, including discharge here in Washington.” El resto, incluido el alta aquí en Washington. Le reste, y compris la décharge ici à Washington.

“You say he looks like thirty.” Dices que parece de treinta.

“Not a day beyond it. “Ni un día más allá. Maybe even less than that.” Tal vez incluso menos que eso”.

“But you haven't talked with him.” Pero no has hablado con él.

Lewis shook his head. Lewis negó con la cabeza.

“He may not be the man. Puede que no sea el hombre. If you had fingerprints …” Si tuvieras huellas dactilares…”

“At the time of the Civil War,” said Lewis, “they'd not thought of fingerprints.” “En el momento de la Guerra Civil”, dijo Lewis, “no habían pensado en las huellas dactilares”. "Au moment de la guerre civile", a déclaré Lewis, "ils n'avaient pas pensé aux empreintes digitales."

“The last of the veterans of the Civil War,” said Hardwicke, “died several years ago. “El último de los veteranos de la Guerra Civil”, dijo Hardwicke, “murió hace varios años. A Confederate drummer boy, I think. Un baterista confederado, creo. Un garçon batteur confédéré, je pense. There must be some mistake.” Debe haber algún error."

Lewis shook his head. Lewis negó con la cabeza. “I thought so myself, when I was assigned to it.” "Yo mismo lo pensé, cuando me lo asignaron". "Je le pensais moi-même, quand j'y ai été affecté."

“How come you were assigned? “¿Cómo es que te asignaron? « Comment se fait-il que vous ayez été affecté ? How does Intelligence get involved in a deal like this?” ¿Cómo se involucra Inteligencia en un trato como este?

“I'll admit,” said Lewis, “that it's a bit unusual. “Admito”, dijo Lewis, “que es un poco inusual. But there were so many implications …” Pero había tantas implicaciones...

“Immortality, you mean.” Inmortalidad, querrás decir.

“It crossed our mind, perhaps. “Pasó por nuestra mente, tal vez. The chance of it. La oportunidad de ello. But only incidentally. Pero sólo de paso. There were other considerations. Había otras consideraciones. It was a strange setup that bore some looking into.” Fue una configuración extraña que llevó a algunos a investigar”. C'était une configuration étrange qui nécessitait d'être examinée.

“But Intelligence …” “Pero Inteligencia…”

Lewis grinned. Lewis sonrió. “You are thinking, why not a scientific outfit? “Estás pensando, ¿por qué no un equipo científico? « Vous pensez, pourquoi pas une tenue scientifique ? Logically, I suppose it should have been. Lógicamente, supongo que debería haberlo sido. But one of our men ran afoul of it. Pero uno de nuestros hombres se topó con eso. Mais l'un de nos hommes est tombé à l'eau. He was on vacation. estaba de vacaciones Had relatives back in Wisconsin. Tenía parientes en Wisconsin. Not in that particular area, but some thirty miles away. No en esa área en particular, sino a unas treinta millas de distancia. He heard a rumor—just the vaguest rumor, almost a casual mention. Escuchó un rumor, solo un vago rumor, casi una mención casual. So he nosed around a bit. Así que husmeó un poco. Alors il fouilla un peu. He didn't find out too much but enough to make him think there might be something to it.” No descubrió demasiado, pero lo suficiente como para hacerle pensar que podría haber algo en eso”.

“That's the thing that puzzles me,” said Hardwicke. “Eso es lo que me desconcierta”, dijo Hardwicke. “How could a man live for one hundred and twenty-four years in one locality without becoming a celebrity that the world would hear about? “¿Cómo podría un hombre vivir durante ciento veinticuatro años en una localidad sin convertirse en una celebridad de la que el mundo se entere? Can you imagine what the newspapers could do with a thing like this?” ¿Te imaginas lo que los periódicos podrían hacer con algo como esto?

“I shudder,” Lewis said, “when I think about it.” “Me estremezco”, dijo Lewis, “cuando pienso en eso”.

“You haven't told me how.” "No me has dicho cómo".

“This,” said Lewis, “is a bit hard to explain. “Esto”, dijo Lewis, “es un poco difícil de explicar. You'd have to know the country and the people in it. Tendrías que conocer el país y la gente que lo habita. The southwestern corner of Wisconsin is bounded by two rivers, the Mississippi on the west, the Wisconsin on the north. La esquina suroeste de Wisconsin está delimitada por dos ríos, el Mississippi al oeste y el Wisconsin al norte. Le coin sud-ouest du Wisconsin est délimité par deux rivières, le Mississippi à l'ouest, le Wisconsin au nord. Away from the rivers there is flat, broad prairie land, rich land, with prosperous farms and towns. Lejos de los ríos hay llanuras, amplias praderas, tierras ricas, con granjas y pueblos prósperos. Loin des rivières, il y a une vaste prairie plate, une terre riche, avec des fermes et des villes prospères. But the land that runs down to the river is rough and rugged; high hills and bluffs and deep ravines and cliffs, and there are certain areas forming bays or pockets that are isolated. Pero la tierra que baja hasta el río es áspera y accidentada; altas colinas y acantilados y profundos barrancos y acantilados, y hay ciertas áreas que forman bahías o bolsillos que están aislados. Mais la terre qui descend vers la rivière est rude et accidentée ; hautes collines et falaises et ravins et falaises profonds, et certaines zones formant des baies ou des poches sont isolées. They are served by inadequate roads and the small, rough farms are inhabited by a people who are closer, perhaps, to the pioneer days of a hundred years ago than they are to the twentieth century. Están servidas por caminos inadecuados y las pequeñas y toscas granjas están habitadas por un pueblo que está más cerca, quizás, de los días pioneros de hace cien años que del siglo XX. Ils sont desservis par des routes inadéquates et les petites fermes rudimentaires sont habitées par un peuple qui est peut-être plus proche de l'époque des pionniers d'il y a cent ans que du XXe siècle. They have cars, of course, and radios, and someday soon, perhaps, even television. Tienen autos, por supuesto, y radios, y algún día pronto, tal vez, incluso televisión. But in spirit they are conservative and clannish—not all the people, of course, not even many of them, but these little isolated neighborhoods. Pero en espíritu son conservadores y clandestinos; no toda la gente, por supuesto, ni siquiera muchos de ellos, sino estos pequeños barrios aislados. Mais dans l'esprit, ils sont conservateurs et claniques - pas tout le monde, bien sûr, pas même beaucoup d'entre eux, mais ces petits quartiers isolés.

“At one time there were a lot of farms in these isolated pockets, but today a man can hardly make a living on a farm of that sort. “Hubo un tiempo en que había muchas granjas en estos lugares aislados, pero hoy en día un hombre difícilmente puede ganarse la vida en una granja de ese tipo. « À une époque, il y avait beaucoup de fermes dans ces poches isolées, mais aujourd'hui, un homme peut difficilement gagner sa vie dans une ferme de ce genre. Slowly the people are being squeezed out of the areas by economic circumstances. Lentamente, la gente está siendo expulsada de las áreas por las circunstancias económicas. Lentement, les gens sont évincés des régions par les circonstances économiques. They sell their farms for whatever they can get for them and move somewhere else, to the cities mostly, where they can make a living.” Venden sus granjas por lo que puedan conseguir y se mudan a otro lugar, principalmente a las ciudades, donde pueden ganarse la vida”.

Hardwicke nodded. Hardwicke asintió. “And the ones that are left, of course, are the most conservative and clannish.” “Y los que quedan, por supuesto, son los más conservadores y clandestinos”.

“Right. "Derecha. Most of the land now is held by absentee owners who make no pretense of farming it. La mayor parte de la tierra ahora está en manos de propietarios ausentes que no pretenden cultivarla. La plupart des terres sont maintenant détenues par des propriétaires absents qui ne prétendent pas les cultiver. They may run a few head of cattle on it, but that is all. Puede que corran unas pocas cabezas de ganado, pero eso es todo. Ils y font peut-être passer quelques têtes de bétail, mais c'est tout. It's not too bad as a tax write-off for someone who needs that sort of thing. No es tan malo como una deducción de impuestos para alguien que necesita ese tipo de cosas. Ce n'est pas trop mal comme déduction fiscale pour quelqu'un qui a besoin de ce genre de chose. And in the land-bank days a lot of the land was put into the bank.” Y en los días del banco de tierras, mucha tierra se puso en el banco”. Et à l'époque de la banque foncière, une grande partie de la terre a été mise à la banque.

“You're trying to tell me these backwoods people—is that what you'd call them?—engaged in a conspiracy of silence.” “Estás tratando de decirme que esta gente del bosque, ¿así es como los llamarías?, están involucrados en una conspiración de silencio”. "Vous essayez de me dire que ces gens de l'arrière-pays - c'est comme ça que vous les appelleriez? - engagés dans une conspiration du silence."

“Perhaps not anything,” said Lewis, “as formal or elaborate as that. “Tal vez nada”, dijo Lewis, “tan formal o elaborado como eso. "Peut-être rien", a déclaré Lewis, "d'aussi formel ou élaboré que cela. It is just their way of doing things, a holdover from the old, stout pioneer philosophy. Es simplemente su forma de hacer las cosas, un vestigio de la antigua y sólida filosofía pionera. C'est juste leur façon de faire les choses, un vestige de la vieille philosophie pionnière. They minded their own business. Se ocupaban de sus propios asuntos. Ils s'occupaient de leurs affaires. They didn't want folks interfering with them and they interfered with no one else. No querían que la gente interfiriera con ellos y no interfirieron con nadie más. If a man wanted to live to be a thousand, it might be a thing of wonder, but it was his own damned business. Si un hombre quisiera vivir hasta los mil años, podría ser una maravilla, pero era su maldito negocio. Si un homme voulait vivre jusqu'à mille ans, c'était peut-être étonnant, mais c'était sa foutue affaire. And if he wanted to live alone and be let alone while he was doing it, that was his business, too. Y si quería vivir solo y que lo dejaran solo mientras lo hacía, también era asunto suyo. They might talk about it among themselves, but to no one else. Podrían hablar de ello entre ellos, pero con nadie más. They'd resent it if some outsider tried to talk about it. Les molestaría que algún forastero tratara de hablar de ello. Ils s'en voudraient si un étranger essayait d'en parler.

“After a time, I suppose, they came to accept the fact that Wallace kept on being young while they were growing old. “Después de un tiempo, supongo, llegaron a aceptar el hecho de que Wallace seguía siendo joven mientras ellos envejecían. The wonder wore off it and they probably didn't talk about it a great deal, even among themselves. El asombro se disipó y probablemente no hablaron mucho de eso, incluso entre ellos. L'émerveillement s'est dissipé et ils n'en ont probablement pas beaucoup parlé, même entre eux. New generations accepted it because their elders saw in it nothing too unusual—and anyhow no one saw much of Wallace because he kept strictly to himself. Las nuevas generaciones lo aceptaron porque sus mayores no vieron en él nada demasiado inusual y, de todos modos, nadie vio mucho de Wallace porque se mantuvo estrictamente para sí mismo. Les nouvelles générations l'acceptèrent parce que leurs aînés n'y voyaient rien de trop inhabituel — et d'ailleurs personne ne voyait grand-chose de Wallace parce qu'il était strictement réservé à lui-même.

“And in the nearby areas the thing, when it was thought of at all, grew to be just a sort of legend—another crazy tale that wasn't worth looking into. “Y en las áreas cercanas, la cosa, cuando se pensaba en ella, se convirtió en una especie de leyenda, otra historia loca que no valía la pena investigar. « Et dans les régions voisines, la chose, quand on y pensait, est devenue une sorte de légende – une autre histoire folle qui ne valait pas la peine d'être examinée. Maybe just a joke among those folks down Dark Hollow way. Tal vez solo una broma entre esa gente de Dark Hollow. Peut-être juste une blague parmi ces gens du côté de Dark Hollow. A Rip Van Winkle sort of business that probably didn't have a word of truth in it. Un tipo de negocio de Rip Van Winkle que probablemente no tenía ni una palabra de verdad. Une sorte d'entreprise de Rip Van Winkle qui n'avait probablement pas un mot de vérité. A man might look ridiculous if he went prying into it.” Un hombre podría parecer ridículo si se metiera en eso”. Un homme pourrait avoir l'air ridicule s'il s'en mêlait.

“But your man looked into it.” Pero tu hombre lo investigó.

“Yes. "Sí. Don't ask me why.” No me preguntes por qué.

“Yet he wasn't assigned to follow up the job.” “Sin embargo, no fue asignado para seguir el trabajo”. "Pourtant, il n'a pas été chargé de suivre le travail."

“He was needed somewhere else. “Lo necesitaban en otro lugar. And besides he was known back there.” Y además era conocido allá atrás. Et puis il était connu là-bas.

“And you?” "¿Y tú?"

“It took two years of work.” “Fueron dos años de trabajo”.

“But now you know the story.” “Pero ahora ya conoces la historia”.

“Not all of it. "No todo. There are more questions now than there were to start with.” Hay más preguntas ahora que las que había al principio”. Il y a plus de questions maintenant qu'il n'y en avait au départ.

“You've seen this man.” "Has visto a este hombre".

“Many times,” said Lewis. “Muchas veces”, dijo Lewis. “But I've never talked with him. “Pero nunca he hablado con él. I don't think he's ever seen me. No creo que me haya visto nunca. He takes a walk each day before he goes to get the mail. Da un paseo todos los días antes de ir a buscar el correo. He never moves off the place, you see. Él nunca se mueve del lugar, ya ves. The mailman brings out the little stuff he needs. El cartero saca las pequeñas cosas que necesita. Le facteur sort les petites choses dont il a besoin. A bag of flour, a pound of bacon, a dozen eggs, cigars, and sometimes liquor.” Una bolsa de harina, una libra de tocino, una docena de huevos, puros y, a veces, licor.

“But that must be against the postal regulations.” “Pero eso debe estar en contra de las regulaciones postales”.

“Of course it is. "Por supuesto que es. But mailmen have been doing it for years. Pero los carteros lo han estado haciendo durante años. It doesn't hurt a thing until someone screams about it. Ça ne fait rien de mal jusqu'à ce que quelqu'un crie à ce sujet. And no one's going to. The mailmen probably are the only friends he has ever had.”

“I take it this Wallace doesn't do much farming.” "Je suppose que Wallace ne fait pas beaucoup d'agriculture."

“None at all. He has a little vegetable garden, but that is all he does. The place has gone back pretty much to wilderness.”

“But he has to live. He must get money somewhere.”

“He does,” said Lewis. “Every five or ten years or so he ships off a fistful of gems to an outfit in New York.” "Tous les cinq ou dix ans environ, il expédie une poignée de pierres précieuses à une tenue à New York."

“Legal?”

“If you mean, is it hot, I don't think so. « Si vous voulez dire, est-ce qu'il fait chaud, je ne pense pas. If someone wanted to make a case of it, I suppose there are illegalities. Si quelqu'un voulait en faire un cas, je suppose qu'il y a des illégalités. Not to start with, when he first started sending them, back in the old days. Sans commencer, quand il a commencé à les envoyer, à l'époque. But laws change and I suspect both he and the buyer are in defiance of any number of them.” Mais les lois changent et je soupçonne que lui et l'acheteur défient un certain nombre d'entre eux.

“And you don't mind?” « Et ça ne te dérange pas ?

“I checked on this firm,” said Lewis, “and they were rather nervous. "J'ai vérifié sur cette entreprise", a déclaré Lewis, "et ils étaient plutôt nerveux. For one thing, they'd been stealing Wallace blind. D'une part, ils avaient volé Wallace à l'aveugle. I told them to keep on buying. Je leur ai dit de continuer à acheter. I told them that if anyone came around to check, to refer them straight to me. I told them to keep their mouths shut and not change anything.”

“You don't want anyone to scare him off,” said Hardwicke. "Vous ne voulez pas que quelqu'un l'effraie", a déclaré Hardwicke.

“You're damned right, I don't. I want the mailman to keep on acting as a delivery boy and the New York firm to keep on buying gems. I want everything to stay just the way it is. And before you ask me where the stones come from, I'll tell you I don't know.”

“He maybe has a mine.”

“That would be quite a mine. Diamonds and rubies and emeralds, all out of the same mine.”

“I would suspect, even at the prices that he gets from them, he picks up a fair income.” "Je soupçonnerais, même aux prix qu'il obtient d'eux, qu'il perçoit un revenu équitable."

Lewis nodded. “Apparently he only sends a shipment in when he runs out of cash. « Apparemment, il n'envoie une cargaison que lorsqu'il n'a plus d'argent. He wouldn't need too much. Il n'en aurait pas besoin de trop. He lives rather simply, to judge from the grub he buys. Il vit assez simplement, à en juger par la bouffe qu'il achète. But he subscribes to a lot of daily papers and news magazines and to dozens of scientific journals. He buys a lot of books.”

“Technical books?”

“Some of them, of course, but mostly keeping up with new developments. Physics and chemistry and biology—all that sort of stuff.”

“But I don't …”

“Of course you don't. Neither do I. He's no scientist. Or at least he has no formal education in the sciences. Back in the days when he went to school there wasn't much of it—not in the sense of today's scientific education. À l'époque où il allait à l'école, il n'y en avait pas beaucoup, pas au sens de l'éducation scientifique d'aujourd'hui. And whatever he learned then would be fairly worthless now in any event. He went through grade school—one of those one-room country schools—and spent one winter at what was called an academy that operated for a year or two down in Millville village. Il est allé à l'école primaire - une de ces écoles de campagne à classe unique - et a passé un hiver dans ce qu'on appelait une académie qui a fonctionné pendant un an ou deux dans le village de Millville. In case you don't know, that was considerably better than par back in the 1850s. Au cas où vous ne le sauriez pas, c'était bien mieux que la normale dans les années 1850. ご存じないかもしれませんが、それは1850年代のパーよりもかなり良かったです。 He was, apparently, a fairly bright young man.” 彼は明らかに、かなり明るい青年でした。」

Hardwicke shook his head. “It sounds incredible. You've checked on all of this?”

“As well as I could. I had to go at it gingerly. J'ai dû y aller avec précaution. I wanted no one to catch on. Je voulais que personne ne s'accroche. And one thing I forgot—he does a lot of writing. He buys these big, bound record books, in lots of a dozen at the time. Il achète ces gros livres de disques reliés, par lots d'une douzaine à l'époque. He buys ink by the pint.” Il achète de l'encre à la pinte.

Hardwicke got up from his desk and paced up and down the room.

“Lewis,” he said, “if you hadn't shown me your credentials and if I hadn't checked on them, I'd figure all of this to be a very tasteless joke.” "Lewis", a-t-il dit, "si vous ne m'aviez pas montré vos références et si je ne les avais pas vérifiées, je penserais que tout cela n'est qu'une blague de très mauvais goût."

He went back and sat down again. He picked up the pencil and started rolling it between his palms once more.

“You've been on the case two years,” he said. “You have no ideas?”

“Not a one,” said Lewis. “I'm entirely baffled. That is why I'm here.”

“Tell me more of his history. After the war, that is.”

“His mother died,” said Lewis, “while he was away. His father and the neighbors buried her right there on the farm. That was the way a lot of people did it then. Young Wallace got a furlough, but not in time to get home for the funeral. Le jeune Wallace a obtenu un congé, mais pas à temps pour rentrer chez lui pour les funérailles. There wasn't much embalming done in those days and the traveling was slow. Il n'y avait pas beaucoup d'embaumement fait à cette époque et les déplacements étaient lents. Then he went back to the war. Puis il est retourné à la guerre. So far as I can find, it was his only furlough. The old man lived alone and worked the farm, batching it and getting along all right. Le vieil homme vivait seul et travaillait dans la ferme, la mettant en lots et s'entendant bien. From what I can pick up, he was a good farmer, an exceptionally good farmer for his day. D'après ce que j'ai compris, c'était un bon fermier, un fermier exceptionnellement bon pour son époque. He subscribed to some farm journals and was progressive in his ideas. He paid attention to such things as crop rotation and the prevention of erosion. The farm wasn't much of a farm by modern standards, but it made him a living and a little extra he managed to lay by. La ferme n'était pas vraiment une ferme selon les normes modernes, mais cela lui faisait vivre et un petit plus qu'il réussissait à vivre.