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The Night Horseman by Max Brand, CHAPTER IV. THE CHAIN

CHAPTER IV. THE CHAIN

They had hardly passed the front door of the house when they were met by a tall man with dark hair and dark, deep-set eyes. He was tanned to the bronze of an Indian, and he might have been termed handsome had not his features been so deeply cut and roughly finished. His black hair was quite long, and as the wind from the opened door stirred it, there was a touch of wildness about the fellow that made the heart of Randall Byrne jump. When this man saw the girl his face lighted, briefly; when his glance fell on Byrne the light went out.

"Couldn't get the doc, Kate?" he asked.

"Not Doctor Hardin," she answered, "and I've brought Doctor Byrne instead." The tall man allowed his gaze to drift leisurely from head to foot of Randall Byrne.

Then: "H'ware you, doc?" he said, and extended a big hand. It occurred to Byrne that all these men of the mountain-desert were big; there was something intensely irritating about their mere physical size; they threw him continually on the defensive and he found himself making apologies to himself and summing up personal merits. In this case there was more direct reason for his anger. It was patent that the man did not weight the strange doctor against any serious thoughts.

"And this," she was saying, "is Mr. Daniels. Buck, is there any change?" "Nothin' much," answered Buck Daniels. "Come along towards evening and he said he was feeling kind of cold. So I wrapped him up in a rug. Then he sat some as usual, one hand inside of the other, looking steady at nothing. But a while ago he began getting sort of nervous." "What did he do?" "Nothing. I just felt he was getting excited. The way you know when your hoss is going to shy." "Do you want to go to your room first, doctor, or will you go in to see him now?" "Now," decided the doctor, and followed her down the hall and through a door. The room reminded the doctor more of a New England interior than of the mountain-desert. There was a round rag rug on the floor with every imaginable colour woven into its texture, but blended with a rude design, reds towards the centre and blue-greys towards the edges. There were chairs upholstered in green which looked mouse-coloured where the high lights struck along the backs and the arms—shallow-seated chairs that made one's knees project foolishly high and far. Byrne saw a cabinet at one end of the room, filled with sea-shells and knicknacks, and above it was a memorial cross surrounded by a wreath inside a glass case. Most of the wall space thronged with engravings whose subjects ranged from Niagara Falls to Lady Hamilton. One entire end of the room was occupied by a painting of a neck and neck finish in a race, and the artist had conceived the blooded racers as creatures with tremendous round hips and mighty-muscled shoulders, while the legs tapered to a faun-like delicacy. These animals were spread-eagled in the most amazing fashion, their fore-hoofs reaching beyond their noses and their rear hoofs striking out beyond the tips of the tails. The jockey in the lead sat quite still, but he who was losing had his whip drawn and looked like an automatic doll—so pink were his cheeks. Beside the course, in attitudes of graceful ease, stood men in very tight trousers and very high stocks and ladies in dresses which pinched in at the waist and flowed out at the shoulders. They leaned upon canes or twirled parasols and they had their backs turned upon the racetrack as if they found their own negligent conversation far more exciting than the breathless, driving finish.

Under the terrific action and still more terrific quiescence of this picture lay the sick man, propped high on a couch and wrapped to the chest in a Navajo blanket.

"Dad," said Kate Cumberland, "Doctor Hardin was not in town. I've brought out Doctor Byrne, a newcomer." The invalid turned his white head slowly towards them, and his shaggy brows lifted and fell slightly—a passing shadow of annoyance. It was a very stern face, and framed in the long, white hair it seemed surrounded by an atmosphere of Arctic chill. He was thin, terribly thin—not the leanness of Byrne, but a grim emaciation which exaggerated the size of a tall forehead and made his eyes supernally bright. It was in the first glance of those eyes that Byrne recognized the restlessness of which Kate had spoken; and he felt almost as if it were an inner fire which had burned and still was wasting the body of Joseph Cumberland. To the attentions of the doctor the old man submitted with patient self-control, and Byrne found a pulse feeble, rapid, but steady. There was no temperature. In fact, the heat of the body was a trifle sub-normal, considering that the heart was beating so rapidly.

Doctor Byrne started. Most of his work had been in laboratories, and the horror of death was not yet familiar, but old Joseph Cumberland was dying. It was not a matter of moment. Death might be a week or a month away, but die soon he inevitably must; for the doctor saw that the fire was still raging in the hollow breast of the cattleman, but there was no longer fuel to feed it.

He stared again, and more closely. Fire without fuel to feed it!

Doctor Byrne gave what seemed to be an infinitely muffled cry of exultation, so faint that it was hardly a whisper; then he leaned closer and pored over Joe Cumberland with a lighted eye. One might have thought that the doctor was gloating over the sick man.

Suddenly he straightened and began to pace up and down the room, muttering to himself. Kate Cumberland listened intently and she thought that what the man muttered so rapidly, over and over to himself, was: "Eureka! Eureka! I have found it!" Found what? The triumph of mind over matter!

On that couch was a dead body. The flutter of that heart was not the strong beating of the normal organ; the hands were cold; even the body was chilled; yet the man lived.

Or, rather, his brain lived, and compelled the shattered and outworn body to comply with its will. Doctor Byrne turned and stared again at the face of Cumberland. He felt as if he understood, now, the look which was concentrated so brightly on the vacant air. It was illumined by a steady and desperate defiance, for the old man was denying his body to the grave.

The scene changed for Randall Byrne. The girl disappeared. The walls of the room were broken away. The eyes of the world looked in upon him and the wise men of the world kept pace with him up and down the room, shaking their heads and saying: "It is not possible!" But the fact lay there to contradict them.

Prometheus stole fire from heaven and paid it back to an eternal death. The old cattleman was refusing his payment. It was no state of coma in which he lay; it was no prolonged trance. He was vitally, vividly alive; he was concentrating with a bitter and exhausting vigour day and night, and fighting a battle the more terrible because it was fought in silence, a battle in which he could receive no aid, no reinforcement, a battle in which he could not win, but in which he might delay defeat.

Ay, the wise men would smile and shake their heads when he presented this case to their consideration, but he would make his account so accurate and particular and so well witnessed that they would have to admit the truth of all he said. And science, which proclaimed that matter was indestructible and that the mind was matter and that the brain needed nourishment like any other muscle—science would have to hang the head and wonder!

The eyes of the girl brought him to halt in his pacing, and he stopped, confronting her. His excitement had transformed him. His nostrils were quivering, his eyes were pointed with light, his head was high, and he breathed fast. He was flushed as the Roman Conqueror. And his excitement tinged the girl, also, with colour.

She offered to take him to his room as soon as he wished to go. He was quite willing. He wanted to be alone, to think. But when he followed her she stopped him in the hall. Buck Daniels lumbered slowly after them in a clumsy attempt at sauntering.

"Well?" asked Kate Cumberland.

She had thrown a blue mantle over her shoulders when she entered the house, and the touch of boyish self-confidence which had been hers on the ride was gone. In its place there was something even more difficult for Randall Byrne to face. If there had been a garish brightness about her when he had first seen her, the brilliancy of a mirror playing in the sun against his feeble eyes, there was now a blending of pastel shades, for the hall was dimly illumined and the shadow tarnished her hair and her pallor was like cold stone; even her eyes were misted by fear. Yet a vital sense of her nearness swept upon Byrne, and he felt as if he were surrounded—by a danger.

"Opinions," said the doctor, "based on so summary an examination are necessarily inexact, yet the value of a first impression is not negligible. The best I can say is that there is probably no immediate danger, but Mr. Cumberland is seriously ill. Furthermore, it is not old age." He would not say all he thought; it was not yet time.

She winced and clasped her hands tightly together. She was like a child about to be punished for a crime it has not committed, and it came vaguely to the doctor that he might have broached his ill tidings more gently.

He added: "I must have further opportunities for observance before I give a detailed opinion and suggest a treatment." Her glance wandered past him and at once the heavy step of Buck Daniels approached.

"At least," she murmured, "I am glad that you are frank. I don't want to have anything kept from me, please. Buck, will you take the doctor up to his room?" She managed a faint smile. "This is an old-fashioned house, Doctor Byrne, but I hope we can make you fairly comfortable. You'll ask for whatever you need?" The doctor bowed, and was told that they would dine in half an hour, then the girl went back towards the room in which Joe Cumberland lay. She walked slowly, with her head bent, and her posture seemed to Byrne the very picture of a burden-bearer. Then he followed Daniels up the stairs, led by the jingling of the spurs, great-rowelled spurs that might grip the side of a refractory horse like teeth.

A hall-light guided them, and from the hall Buck Daniels entered a room and fumbled above him until he had lighted a lamp which was suspended by two chains from the ceiling, a circular burner which cast a glow as keen as an electric globe. It brought out every detail of the old-fashioned room—the bare, painted floor; the bed, in itself a separate and important piece of architecture with its four tall posts, a relic of the times when beds were built, not simply made; and there was a chest of drawers with swelling, hospitable front, and a rectangular mirror above with its date in gilt paint on the upper edge. A rising wind shook the window and through some crack stirred the lace curtains; it was a very comfortable retreat, and the doctor became aware of aching muscles and a heavy brain when he glanced at the bed.

The same gust of wind which rattled the window-pane now pushed, as with invisible and ghostly hand, a door which opened on the side of the bedroom, and as it swung mysteriously and gradually wide the doctor found himself looking into an adjoining chamber. All he could see clearly was a corner on which struck the shaft of light from the lamp, and lying on the floor in that corner was something limp and brown. A snake, he surmised at first, but then he saw clearly that it was a chain of formidable proportions bolted against the wall at one end and terminating at the other in a huge steel collar. A chill started in the boots of the doctor and wriggled its uncomfortable way up to his head.

"Hell!" burst out Buck Daniels. "How'd that door get open?" He slammed it with violence. "She's been in there again, I guess," muttered the cowpuncher, as he stepped back, scowling. "Who?" ventured the doctor.

Buck Daniels whirled on him.

"None of your—" he began hotly, but checked himself with choking suddenness and strode heavily from the room.

CHAPTER IV. THE CHAIN CAPITOLO IV. LA CATENA IV SKYRIUS. ŽENKLAS ROZDZIAŁ IV. ŁAŃCUCH CAPÍTULO IV. A CORRENTE ГЛАВА IV. ЦЕПЬ РОЗДІЛ IV. ЛАНЦЮГ 第四章。连锁,链条

They had hardly passed the front door of the house when they were met by a tall man with dark hair and dark, deep-set eyes. Mal haviam passado pela porta da frente da casa, foram recebidos por um homem alto de cabelos escuros e olhos escuros e profundos. He was tanned to the bronze of an Indian, and he might have been termed handsome had not his features been so deeply cut and roughly finished. Ele estava bronzeado como o bronze de um índio, e poderia ter sido considerado bonito se suas feições não fossem tão profundamente cortadas e grosseiramente acabadas. His black hair was quite long, and as the wind from the opened door stirred it, there was a touch of wildness about the fellow that made the heart of Randall Byrne jump. Seu cabelo preto era bastante comprido, e quando o vento da porta aberta o agitava, havia um toque de selvageria no sujeito que fez o coração de Randall Byrne pular. When this man saw the girl his face lighted, briefly; when his glance fell on Byrne the light went out. Quando este homem viu a garota, seu rosto se iluminou brevemente; quando seu olhar caiu sobre Byrne, a luz se apagou.

"Couldn't get the doc, Kate?" "Não conseguiu o médico, Kate?" he asked.

"Not Doctor Hardin," she answered, "and I've brought Doctor Byrne instead." The tall man allowed his gaze to drift leisurely from head to foot of Randall Byrne. O homem alto permitiu que seu olhar vagasse vagarosamente da cabeça aos pés de Randall Byrne.

Then: "H'ware you, doc?" he said, and extended a big hand. It occurred to Byrne that all these men of the mountain-desert were big; there was something intensely irritating about their mere physical size; they threw him continually on the defensive and he found himself making apologies to himself and summing up personal merits. Ocorreu a Byrne que todos aqueles homens do deserto montanhoso eram grandes; havia algo intensamente irritante em seu mero tamanho físico; eles o colocaram continuamente na defensiva e ele se viu pedindo desculpas a si mesmo e somando méritos pessoais. Бирну пришло в голову, что все эти мужчины горной пустыни были крупными; в их физических размерах было что-то крайне раздражающее; они постоянно заставляли его обороняться, и он вынужден был извиняться перед самим собой и подводить итоги личных заслуг. In this case there was more direct reason for his anger. It was patent that the man did not weight the strange doctor against any serious thoughts. Era evidente que o homem não comparava o estranho médico a nenhum pensamento sério. Было заметно, что мужчина не испытывает к странному доктору никаких серьезных чувств.

"And this," she was saying, "is Mr. Daniels. "E este," ela estava dizendo, "é o Sr. Daniels. Buck, is there any change?" Buck, há alguma mudança?" "Nothin' much," answered Buck Daniels. "Come along towards evening and he said he was feeling kind of cold. "Venha à noite e ele disse que estava sentindo um pouco de frio. So I wrapped him up in a rug. Então eu o enrolei em um tapete. Then he sat some as usual, one hand inside of the other, looking steady at nothing. Então ele se sentou como de costume, uma mão dentro da outra, olhando firme para o nada. But a while ago he began getting sort of nervous." "What did he do?" "Nothing. I just felt he was getting excited. Eu só senti que ele estava ficando excitado. The way you know when your hoss is going to shy." A maneira como você sabe quando seu hoss vai ficar tímido." "Do you want to go to your room first, doctor, or will you go in to see him now?" "Now," decided the doctor, and followed her down the hall and through a door. "Agora", decidiu o médico, e a seguiu pelo corredor e por uma porta. The room reminded the doctor more of a New England interior than of the mountain-desert. O quarto lembrava ao médico mais um interior da Nova Inglaterra do que um deserto montanhoso. There was a round rag rug on the floor with every imaginable colour woven into its texture, but blended with a rude design, reds towards the centre and blue-greys towards the edges. Havia um tapete redondo de trapos no chão com todas as cores imagináveis entrelaçadas em sua textura, mas misturadas com um design grosseiro, vermelho no centro e cinza-azulado nas bordas. There were chairs upholstered in green which looked mouse-coloured where the high lights struck along the backs and the arms—shallow-seated chairs that made one's knees project foolishly high and far. Havia cadeiras estofadas em verde que pareciam cor de rato onde as luzes altas batiam ao longo das costas e dos braços - cadeiras de assentos rasos que faziam os joelhos se projetarem absurdamente para cima e para longe. Byrne saw a cabinet at one end of the room, filled with sea-shells and knicknacks, and above it was a memorial cross surrounded by a wreath inside a glass case. Byrne viu um armário em uma extremidade da sala, cheio de conchas e bugigangas, e acima dele havia uma cruz memorial cercada por uma coroa de flores dentro de uma caixa de vidro. Most of the wall space thronged with engravings whose subjects ranged from Niagara Falls to Lady Hamilton. A maior parte do espaço da parede estava repleta de gravuras cujos temas variavam de Niagara Falls a Lady Hamilton. One entire end of the room was occupied by a painting of a neck and neck finish in a race, and the artist had conceived the blooded racers as creatures with tremendous round hips and mighty-muscled shoulders, while the legs tapered to a faun-like delicacy. Uma extremidade inteira da sala estava ocupada por uma pintura de pescoço e pescoço em uma corrida, e o artista havia concebido os corredores sangrentos como criaturas com enormes quadris redondos e ombros musculosos, enquanto as pernas se estreitavam em forma de fauno. delicadeza. These animals were spread-eagled in the most amazing fashion, their fore-hoofs reaching beyond their noses and their rear hoofs striking out beyond the tips of the tails. Esses animais estavam de braços abertos da maneira mais incrível, seus cascos dianteiros ultrapassando seus narizes e seus cascos traseiros ultrapassando as pontas das caudas. The jockey in the lead sat quite still, but he who was losing had his whip drawn and looked like an automatic doll—so pink were his cheeks. O jóquei na liderança ficou quieto, mas aquele que estava perdendo estava com o chicote desembainhado e parecia uma boneca automática – tão rosadas eram suas bochechas. Beside the course, in attitudes of graceful ease, stood men in very tight trousers and very high stocks and ladies in dresses which pinched in at the waist and flowed out at the shoulders. Ao lado do curso, em atitudes de graciosa facilidade, estavam homens de calças muito justas e meias muito altas e senhoras de vestidos que apertavam na cintura e escorriam pelos ombros. They leaned upon canes or twirled parasols and they had their backs turned upon the racetrack as if they found their own negligent conversation far more exciting than the breathless, driving finish. Eles se apoiavam em bengalas ou guarda-sóis girando e estavam de costas para a pista de corrida como se achassem sua própria conversa negligente muito mais excitante do que o final de corrida sem fôlego.

Under the terrific action and still more terrific quiescence of this picture lay the sick man, propped high on a couch and wrapped to the chest in a Navajo blanket. Sob a ação terrível e a quietude ainda mais terrível dessa imagem estava o homem doente, apoiado no alto de um sofá e enrolado no peito em um cobertor navajo.

"Dad," said Kate Cumberland, "Doctor Hardin was not in town. I've brought out Doctor Byrne, a newcomer." Trouxe o Doutor Byrne, um recém-chegado." The invalid turned his white head slowly towards them, and his shaggy brows lifted and fell slightly—a passing shadow of annoyance. O inválido virou lentamente a cabeça branca para eles, e suas sobrancelhas desgrenhadas se ergueram e baixaram levemente — uma sombra passageira de aborrecimento. It was a very stern face, and framed in the long, white hair it seemed surrounded by an atmosphere of Arctic chill. Era um rosto muito severo, e emoldurado pelos longos cabelos brancos parecia cercado por uma atmosfera de frio ártico. He was thin, terribly thin—not the leanness of Byrne, but a grim emaciation which exaggerated the size of a tall forehead and made his eyes supernally bright. Ele era magro, terrivelmente magro — não a magreza de Byrne, mas uma emaciação sombria que exagerava o tamanho de uma testa alta e fazia seus olhos brilharem sobrenaturalmente. It was in the first glance of those eyes that Byrne recognized the restlessness of which Kate had spoken; and he felt almost as if it were an inner fire which had burned and still was wasting the body of Joseph Cumberland. Foi à primeira vista daqueles olhos que Byrne reconheceu a inquietação de que Kate havia falado; e ele sentiu quase como se fosse um fogo interior que queimava e ainda consumia o corpo de Joseph Cumberland. To the attentions of the doctor the old man submitted with patient self-control, and Byrne found a pulse feeble, rapid, but steady. Aos cuidados do médico, o velho se submeteu com paciente autocontrole, e Byrne encontrou um pulso fraco, rápido, mas firme. There was no temperature. In fact, the heat of the body was a trifle sub-normal, considering that the heart was beating so rapidly. Na verdade, o calor do corpo era um pouco abaixo do normal, considerando que o coração batia tão rápido.

Doctor Byrne started. Most of his work had been in laboratories, and the horror of death was not yet familiar, but old Joseph Cumberland was dying. It was not a matter of moment. Não foi uma questão de momento. Death might be a week or a month away, but die soon he inevitably must; for the doctor saw that the fire was still raging in the hollow breast of the cattleman, but there was no longer fuel to feed it. A morte pode demorar uma semana ou um mês, mas morrer logo ele inevitavelmente deve; pois o médico viu que o fogo ainda ardia no peito oco do vaqueiro, mas não havia mais combustível para alimentá-lo.

He stared again, and more closely. Ele olhou novamente, e mais de perto. Fire without fuel to feed it!

Doctor Byrne gave what seemed to be an infinitely muffled cry of exultation, so faint that it was hardly a whisper; then he leaned closer and pored over Joe Cumberland with a lighted eye. O doutor Byrne deu o que parecia ser um grito infinitamente abafado de exultação, tão fraco que mal era um sussurro; então ele se inclinou para mais perto e examinou Joe Cumberland com os olhos iluminados. Доктор Бирн издал, казалось, бесконечно приглушенный возглас ликования, настолько слабый, что его едва можно было назвать шепотом; затем он наклонился ближе и вперил в Джо Камберленда горящий взгляд. One might have thought that the doctor was gloating over the sick man. Poder-se-ia pensar que o médico se gabava do doente.

Suddenly he straightened and began to pace up and down the room, muttering to himself. De repente, ele se endireitou e começou a andar de um lado para o outro na sala, murmurando para si mesmo. Kate Cumberland listened intently and she thought that what the man muttered so rapidly, over and over to himself, was: "Eureka! Kate Cumberland ouviu atentamente e pensou que o que o homem murmurou tão rapidamente, repetidas vezes para si mesmo, foi: "Eureka! Eureka! I have found it!" Found what? The triumph of mind over matter! O triunfo da mente sobre a matéria!

On that couch was a dead body. The flutter of that heart was not the strong beating of the normal organ; the hands were cold; even the body was chilled; yet the man lived. A palpitação daquele coração não era a batida forte do órgão normal; as mãos estavam frias; até o corpo estava gelado; mas o homem viveu.

Or, rather, his brain lived, and compelled the shattered and outworn body to comply with its will. Ou melhor, seu cérebro viveu e obrigou o corpo destroçado e desgastado a cumprir sua vontade. Doctor Byrne turned and stared again at the face of Cumberland. He felt as if he understood, now, the look which was concentrated so brightly on the vacant air. Ele sentiu como se entendesse, agora, o olhar que estava tão brilhantemente concentrado no ar vago. It was illumined by a steady and desperate defiance, for the old man was denying his body to the grave. Foi iluminado por um desafio firme e desesperado, pois o velho estava negando seu corpo à sepultura.

The scene changed for Randall Byrne. A cena mudou para Randall Byrne. The girl disappeared. The walls of the room were broken away. As paredes da sala foram quebradas. The eyes of the world looked in upon him and the wise men of the world kept pace with him up and down the room, shaking their heads and saying: "It is not possible!" Os olhos do mundo olharam para ele e os sábios do mundo o acompanharam de um lado para o outro da sala, balançando a cabeça e dizendo: "Não é possível!" But the fact lay there to contradict them. Mas o fato estava lá para contradizê-los.

Prometheus stole fire from heaven and paid it back to an eternal death. Prometeu roubou o fogo do céu e o devolveu à morte eterna. The old cattleman was refusing his payment. O velho pecuarista estava recusando seu pagamento. It was no state of coma in which he lay; it was no prolonged trance. Não era nenhum estado de coma em que ele estava; não era um transe prolongado. He was vitally, vividly alive; he was concentrating with a bitter and exhausting vigour day and night, and fighting a battle the more terrible because it was fought in silence, a battle in which he could receive no aid, no reinforcement, a battle in which he could not win, but in which he might delay defeat. Ele estava vitalmente, vividamente vivo; ele se concentrava com um vigor amargo e exaustivo dia e noite, e travava uma batalha tanto mais terrível porque era travada em silêncio, uma batalha na qual ele não podia receber ajuda, nenhum reforço, uma batalha na qual não podia vencer, mas em que ele poderia retardar a derrota.

Ay, the wise men would smile and shake their heads when he presented this case to their consideration, but he would make his account so accurate and particular and so well witnessed that they would have to admit the truth of all he said. Sim, os sábios sorririam e balançariam a cabeça quando ele apresentasse este caso à sua consideração, mas ele faria seu relato tão preciso e particular e tão bem testemunhado que eles teriam que admitir a verdade de tudo o que ele disse. And science, which proclaimed that matter was indestructible and that the mind was matter and that the brain needed nourishment like any other muscle—science would have to hang the head and wonder! E a ciência, que proclamava que a matéria era indestrutível e que a mente era matéria e que o cérebro precisava de nutrição como qualquer outro músculo — a ciência teria que abaixar a cabeça e maravilhar-se!

The eyes of the girl brought him to halt in his pacing, and he stopped, confronting her. Os olhos da garota o fizeram parar em seu ritmo, e ele parou, confrontando-a. His excitement had transformed him. Sua excitação o transformou. His nostrils were quivering, his eyes were pointed with light, his head was high, and he breathed fast. Suas narinas estavam tremendo, seus olhos estavam pontiagudos com luz, sua cabeça estava erguida e ele respirava rápido. He was flushed as the Roman Conqueror. Ele estava corado como o conquistador romano. And his excitement tinged the girl, also, with colour. E sua excitação tingiu a garota, também, de cor.

She offered to take him to his room as soon as he wished to go. Ela se ofereceu para levá-lo ao quarto dele assim que ele quisesse ir. He was quite willing. Ele estava bem disposto. He wanted to be alone, to think. Ele queria ficar sozinho, para pensar. But when he followed her she stopped him in the hall. Mas quando ele a seguiu, ela o parou no corredor. Buck Daniels lumbered slowly after them in a clumsy attempt at sauntering. Buck Daniels caminhou lentamente atrás deles em uma tentativa desajeitada de passear.

"Well?" asked Kate Cumberland.

She had thrown a blue mantle over her shoulders when she entered the house, and the touch of boyish self-confidence which had been hers on the ride was gone. Ela havia jogado um manto azul sobre os ombros quando entrou na casa, e o toque de autoconfiança juvenil que tinha durante o passeio se foi. In its place there was something even more difficult for Randall Byrne to face. Em seu lugar havia algo ainda mais difícil para Randall Byrne enfrentar. If there had been a garish brightness about her when he had first seen her, the brilliancy of a mirror playing in the sun against his feeble eyes, there was now a blending of pastel shades, for the hall was dimly illumined and the shadow tarnished her hair and her pallor was like cold stone; even her eyes were misted by fear. Se havia um brilho berrante sobre ela quando ele a viu pela primeira vez, o brilho de um espelho brincando ao sol contra seus olhos fracos, agora havia uma mistura de tons pastel, pois o salão estava fracamente iluminado e a sombra a embaciava. cabelo e sua palidez eram como pedra fria; até seus olhos estavam embaçados pelo medo. Yet a vital sense of her nearness swept upon Byrne, and he felt as if he were surrounded—by a danger. No entanto, uma sensação vital de sua proximidade tomou conta de Byrne, e ele sentiu como se estivesse cercado por um perigo.

"Opinions," said the doctor, "based on so summary an examination are necessarily inexact, yet the value of a first impression is not negligible. "Opiniões", disse o médico, "baseadas em um exame tão sumário são necessariamente inexatas, mas o valor de uma primeira impressão não é desprezível. The best I can say is that there is probably no immediate danger, but Mr. Cumberland is seriously ill. O melhor que posso dizer é que provavelmente não há perigo imediato, mas o Sr. Cumberland está gravemente doente. Furthermore, it is not old age." Além disso, não é a velhice." He would not say all he thought; it was not yet time. Ele não diria tudo o que pensava; ainda não era hora.

She winced and clasped her hands tightly together. Ela estremeceu e apertou as mãos com força. She was like a child about to be punished for a crime it has not committed, and it came vaguely to the doctor that he might have broached his ill tidings more gently. Ela era como uma criança prestes a ser punida por um crime que não cometeu, e ocorreu vagamente ao médico que ele poderia ter abordado suas más notícias com mais delicadeza.

He added: "I must have further opportunities for observance before I give a detailed opinion and suggest a treatment." Ele acrescentou: "Devo ter mais oportunidades de observação antes de dar uma opinião detalhada e sugerir um tratamento". Her glance wandered past him and at once the heavy step of Buck Daniels approached. Seu olhar passou por ele e imediatamente o passo pesado de Buck Daniels se aproximou.

"At least," she murmured, "I am glad that you are frank. "Pelo menos," ela murmurou, "eu estou feliz que você seja franco. I don't want to have anything kept from me, please. Eu não quero ter nada escondido de mim, por favor. Buck, will you take the doctor up to his room?" Buck, você pode levar o médico até o quarto dele? She managed a faint smile. Ela conseguiu dar um leve sorriso. "This is an old-fashioned house, Doctor Byrne, but I hope we can make you fairly comfortable. "Esta é uma casa antiquada, doutor Byrne, mas espero que possamos deixá-lo bastante confortável. You'll ask for whatever you need?" Você vai pedir o que precisar?" The doctor bowed, and was told that they would dine in half an hour, then the girl went back towards the room in which Joe Cumberland lay. O médico fez uma reverência e foi informado de que jantariam em meia hora, então a garota voltou para o quarto em que Joe Cumberland estava. She walked slowly, with her head bent, and her posture seemed to Byrne the very picture of a burden-bearer. Ela andava devagar, com a cabeça baixa, e sua postura parecia a Byrne a própria imagem de um carregador de fardos. Then he followed Daniels up the stairs, led by the jingling of the spurs, great-rowelled spurs that might grip the side of a refractory horse like teeth. Então ele seguiu Daniels escada acima, liderado pelo tilintar das esporas, esporas de grandes remadas que poderiam agarrar a lateral de um cavalo refratário como dentes.

A hall-light guided them, and from the hall Buck Daniels entered a room and fumbled above him until he had lighted a lamp which was suspended by two chains from the ceiling, a circular burner which cast a glow as keen as an electric globe. Uma luz do corredor os guiou, e do corredor Buck Daniels entrou em uma sala e se atrapalhou acima dele até acender uma lâmpada que estava suspensa por duas correntes no teto, um queimador circular que emitia um brilho tão intenso quanto um globo elétrico. It brought out every detail of the old-fashioned room—the bare, painted floor; the bed, in itself a separate and important piece of architecture with its four tall posts, a relic of the times when beds were built, not simply made; and there was a chest of drawers with swelling, hospitable front, and a rectangular mirror above with its date in gilt paint on the upper edge. Destacou todos os detalhes da sala antiquada — o chão nu e pintado; a cama, em si uma peça distinta e importante de arquitetura com seus quatro postes altos, uma relíquia dos tempos em que as camas eram construídas, não simplesmente feitas; e havia uma cômoda com frente volumosa e hospitaleira, e um espelho retangular acima com sua data em tinta dourada na borda superior. A rising wind shook the window and through some crack stirred the lace curtains; it was a very comfortable retreat, and the doctor became aware of aching muscles and a heavy brain when he glanced at the bed. Um vento crescente sacudiu a janela e por alguma fresta mexeu as cortinas de renda; foi um retiro muito confortável, e o médico percebeu os músculos doloridos e o cérebro pesado quando olhou para a cama.

The same gust of wind which rattled the window-pane now pushed, as with invisible and ghostly hand, a door which opened on the side of the bedroom, and as it swung mysteriously and gradually wide the doctor found himself looking into an adjoining chamber. A mesma rajada de vento que sacudia a vidraça agora empurrava, como com mão invisível e fantasmagórica, uma porta que se abria na lateral do quarto, e ao se abrir misteriosa e gradualmente, o médico se viu olhando para um quarto contíguo. All he could see clearly was a corner on which struck the shaft of light from the lamp, and lying on the floor in that corner was something limp and brown. Tudo o que ele podia ver claramente era um canto no qual batia o facho de luz da lâmpada, e deitado no chão naquele canto havia algo flácido e marrom. A snake, he surmised at first, but then he saw clearly that it was a chain of formidable proportions bolted against the wall at one end and terminating at the other in a huge steel collar. Uma cobra, ele supôs a princípio, mas depois viu claramente que era uma corrente de proporções formidáveis presa à parede em uma extremidade e terminando na outra em um enorme colar de aço. A chill started in the boots of the doctor and wriggled its uncomfortable way up to his head. Um calafrio começou nas botas do médico e percorreu seu caminho desconfortável até sua cabeça.

"Hell!" burst out Buck Daniels. explodiu Buck Daniels. "How'd that door get open?" "Como essa porta se abriu?" He slammed it with violence. Ele bateu com violência. "She's been in there again, I guess," muttered the cowpuncher, as he stepped back, scowling. "Ela esteve lá de novo, eu acho", murmurou o vaqueiro, enquanto recuava, carrancudo. "Who?" ventured the doctor. aventurou o médico.

Buck Daniels whirled on him. Buck Daniels virou-se para ele.

"None of your—" he began hotly, but checked himself with choking suddenness and strode heavily from the room. "Nenhum dos seus..." ele começou acaloradamente, mas se conteve com asfixia repentina e caminhou pesadamente para fora da sala. "Никто из вас..." - горячо начал он, но внезапно сдержался и резко вышел из комнаты.