the uncommercial traveller-第40节
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dead; she divined the truth; and determined to be revenged。 So;
she went up to Captain Murderer's house; and knocked at the knocker
and pulled at the bell; and when the Captain came to the door;
said: 'Dear Captain Murderer; marry me next; for I always loved
you and was jealous of my sister。' The Captain took it as a
compliment; and made a polite answer; and the marriage was quickly
arranged。 On the night before it; the bride again climbed to his
window; and again saw him having his teeth filed sharp。 At this
sight she laughed such a terrible laugh at the chink in the
shutter; that the Captain's blood curdled; and he said: 'I hope
nothing has disagreed with me!' At that; she laughed again; a
still more terrible laugh; and the shutter was opened and search
made; but she was nimbly gone; and there was no one。 Next day they
went to church in a coach and twelve; and were married。 And that
day month; she rolled the pie…crust out; and Captain Murderer cut
her head off; and chopped her in pieces; and peppered her; and
salted her; and put her in the pie; and sent it to the baker's; and
ate it all; and picked the bones。
But before she began to roll out the paste she had taken a deadly
poison of a most awful character; distilled from toads' eyes and
spiders' knees; and Captain Murderer had hardly picked her last
bone; when he began to swell; and to turn blue; and to be all over
spots; and to scream。 And he went on swelling and turning bluer;
and being more all over spots and screaming; until he reached from
floor to ceiling and from wall to wall; and then; at one o'clock in
the morning; he blew up with a loud explosion。 At the sound of it;
all the milk…white horses in the stables broke their halters and
went mad; and then they galloped over everybody in Captain
Murderer's house (beginning with the family blacksmith who had
filed his teeth) until the whole were dead; and then they galloped
away。
Hundreds of times did I hear this legend of Captain Murderer; in my
early youth; and added hundreds of times was there a mental
compulsion upon me in bed; to peep in at his window as the dark
twin peeped; and to revisit his horrible house; and look at him in
his blue and spotty and screaming stage; as he reached from floor
to ceiling and from wall to wall。 The young woman who brought me
acquainted with Captain Murderer had a fiendish enjoyment of my
terrors; and used to begin; I remember … as a sort of introductory
overture … by clawing the air with both hands; and uttering a long
low hollow groan。 So acutely did I suffer from this ceremony in
combination with this infernal Captain; that I sometimes used to
plead I thought I was hardly strong enough and old enough to hear
the story again just yet。 But; she never spared me one word of it;
and indeed commanded the awful chalice to my lips as the only
preservative known to science against 'The Black Cat' … a weird and
glaring…eyed supernatural Tom; who was reputed to prowl about the
world by night; sucking the breath of infancy; and who was endowed
with a special thirst (as I was given to understand) for mine。
This female bard … may she have been repaid my debt of obligation
to her in the matter of nightmares and perspirations! … reappears
in my memory as the daughter of a shipwright。 Her name was Mercy;
though she had none on me。 There was something of a shipbuilding
flavour in the following story。 As it always recurs to me in a
vague association with calomel pills; I believe it to have been
reserved for dull nights when I was low with medicine。
There was once a shipwright; and he wrought in a Government Yard;
and his name was Chips。 And his father's name before him was
Chips; and HIS father's name before HIM was Chips; and they were
all Chipses。 And Chips the father had sold himself to the Devil
for an iron pot and a bushel of tenpenny nails and half a ton of
copper and a rat that could speak; and Chips the grandfather had
sold himself to the Devil for an iron pot and a bushel of tenpenny
nails and half a ton of copper and a rat that could speak; and
Chips the great…grandfather had disposed of himself in the same
direction on the same terms; and the bargain had run in the family
for a long; long time。 So; one day; when young Chips was at work
in the Dock Slip all alone; down in the dark hold of an old
Seventy…four that was haled up for repairs; the Devil presented
himself; and remarked:
'A Lemon has pips;
And a Yard has ships;
And I'll have Chips!'
(I don't know why; but this fact of the Devil's expressing himself
in rhyme was peculiarly trying to me。) Chips looked up when he
heard the words; and there he saw the Devil with saucer eyes that
squinted on a terrible great scale; and that struck out sparks of
blue fire continually。 And whenever he winked his eyes; showers of
blue sparks came out; and his eyelashes made a clattering like
flints and steels striking lights。 And hanging over one of his
arms by the handle was an iron pot; and under that arm was a bushel
of tenpenny nails; and under his other arm was half a ton of
copper; and sitting on one of his shoulders was a rat that could
speak。 So; the Devil said again:
'A Lemon has pips;
And a Yard has ships;
And I'll have Chips!'
(The invariable effect of this alarming tautology on the part of
the Evil Spirit was to deprive me of my senses for some moments。)
So; Chips answered never a word; but went on with his work。 'What
are you doing; Chips?' said the rat that could speak。 'I am
putting in new planks where you and your gang have eaten old away;'
said Chips。 'But we'll eat them too;' said the rat that could
speak; 'and we'll let in the water and drown the crew; and we'll
eat them too。' Chips; being only a shipwright; and not a Man…of…
war's man; said; 'You are welcome to it。' But he couldn't keep his
eyes off the half a ton of copper or the bushel of tenpenny nails;
for nails and copper are a shipwright's sweethearts; and
shipwrights will run away with them whenever they can。 So; the
Devil said; 'I see what you are looking at; Chips。 You had better
strike the bargain。 You know the terms。 Your father before you
was well acquainted with them; and so were your grandfather and
great…grandfather before him。' Says Chips; 'I like the copper; and
I like the nails; and I don't mind the pot; but I don't like the
rat。' Says the Devil; fiercely; 'You can't have the metal without
him … and HE'S a curiosity。 I'm going。' Chips; afraid of losing
the half a ton of copper and the bushel of nails; then said; 'Give
us hold!' So; he got the copper and the nails and the pot and the
rat that could speak; and the Devil vanished。 Chips sold the
copper; and he sold the nails; and he would have sold the pot; but
whenever he offered it for sale; the rat was in it; and the dealers
dropped it; and would have nothing to say to the bargain。 So;
Chips resolved to kill the rat; and; being at work in the Yard one
day with a great kettle of hot pitch on one side of him and the
iron pot with the rat in it on the other; he turned the scalding
pitch into the pot; and filled it full。 Then; he kept his eye upon
it till it cooled and hardened; and then he let it stand for twenty
days; and then he heated the pitch again and turned it back into
the kettle; and then he sank the pot in water for twenty days more;
and then he got the smelters to put it in the furnace for twenty
days more; and then they gave it him out; red hot; and looking like
red…hot glass instead of iron…yet there was the rat in it; just the
same as ever! And the moment it caught his eye; it said with a
jeer:
'A Lemon has pips;
And a Yard has ships;
And I'll have Chips!'
(For this Refrain I had waited since its last appearance; with
inexpressible horror; which now culminated。) Chips now felt
certain in his own mind that the rat would stick to him; the rat;
answering his thought; said; 'I will … like pitch!'
Now; as the rat leaped out of the pot when it had spoken; and made
off; Chips began to hope that it wouldn't keep its word。 But; a
terrible thing happened next day。 For; when dinner…time came; and
the Dock…bell rang to strike work; he put his rule into the long
pocket at the side of his trousers; and there he found a rat … not
that rat; but another rat。 And in his hat; he found another; and
in his pocket…handkerchief; another; and in the sleeves of his
coat; when he pulled it on to go to dinner; two more。 And from
that time he found himself so frightfully intimate with all the
rats in the Yard; that they climbed up his legs when he was at
work; and sat on his tools while he used them。 And they could all
speak to one another; and he understood what they said。 And they
got into his lodging; and into his bed; and into his teapot; and
into his beer; and into his boots。 And he was going to be ma