Chapter 2 part one two

two He needed the money badly.For nearly three months, far fewer watches had been sold than usual; and if things didn't go his way, he would soon have to sell the stock at a low price--perhaps at a loss--and once again find another occupation. .He imagined a lot of ways to solve the problem, and immediately going to this island to solicit a business is a very important one of these ways.At this moment, eighteen thousand cash was more important than the 30 per cent profit he could make: he was not going to buy another batch of watches immediately, so this money would allow him to wait patiently. Better days are coming.If he had not included this particular place in his program of work at first, it must have been to preserve it for future difficult times.Circumstances now compelled him to make this trip; and, as he had feared in advance, countless unpleasant things happened since his departure.

The steamer departed at seven o'clock in the morning, which first of all forced Mathias to get up earlier than usual.Normally, he would not leave the city by bus or regional train until almost eight o'clock.Secondly, his residence is very close to the station, but far away from the pier, and none of the various buses in the city can really shorten the distance for him. At this hour of the morning, the streets of the Saint-Jacques were still deserted.Mathias wanted to take a shortcut and walked into an alley when he seemed to hear a groan—a very weak groan, but it seemed to come from beside him, making him have to turn around.There was no one; the front and back of the street were empty.He was about to continue walking when he heard the same groan again; the sound was very clear and close to his ear.At this time he noticed that there was a window of a one-story house within reach on the right, and there was still light shining through it, although it was now broad daylight, and the thin sheer curtain hanging behind the window pane could not prevent the light from outside the house. into the house.The room in the house appears to be very large, but the only window is relatively small: it may be a meter wide and not more than a meter high; This window is more suitable for a farmhouse than for this city house.The ruffles of the curtains made it impossible to see the furniture in the room, except for those things in the back of the room that were particularly brightly lit by electric lights: the conical shade of a bedside lamp, the fainter shade of a messy bed. contour.The silhouette of a man stands by the bed, leaning slightly towards the bed, with one arm raised towards the ceiling.

The whole scene is static.Although the man's gesture was not completed, he remained as motionless as a statue.On the small bedside table under the lamp was a small blue rectangular object - probably a pack of cigarettes. Mathias didn't have time to wait here to see what happened next - if what happened next at all.He couldn't even be sure that the groan came from within this room; he judged it must have come from somewhere nearer, and not so muffled as through the closed windows.Thinking back carefully, he wondered if what he heard was just a muffled moan, and now he believed that what he heard was discernible speech, although he could no longer remember what the speech was.The cry was melodious, and without any melancholy; judging from its tone, the person who uttered it was probably a very young woman, or a girl.She stood leaning against an iron post that supported a corner of the deck; her hands were clasped together, her hands were clasped over the back of her waist, her legs were stiff and slightly apart, and her head rested on the post.Her large eyes were wide open (while all the passengers were more or less blinking as the sun began to shine), and she continued to stare straight ahead in the same manner as she had just gazed into his eyes. so calm.

Seeing her steadfast gaze, at first he thought the little rope belonged to her.She may also have a solution for storing small ropes.But then he saw that the idea was ridiculous; it was not a game for little girls.Boys, on the contrary, always have pockets full of knives and little ropes, chains and hoops, and those perforated prickly pear stalks which they light and smoke as cigarettes. But he could not remember that his own love was encouraged by many people.Those beautiful ropes that he brought home were usually confiscated by the family and kept as practical things.If he protested, people didn't seem to understand his displeasure: "Anyway, what's the use of those ropes?" The shoebox was on the bottom shelf of the largest wardrobe in the back room; Locked, and the box was given to him only after he had done all his homework and mastered his lessons.Sometimes he had to wait days before he could put in his new little rope.Before putting it in the box, he kept the little cord in his right pocket, along with the little brass chain which he always kept there.Under such conditions, even a very fine little rope will soon lose some of its luster or cleanliness: the outermost circle is blackened, the twisted twine is loose, and threads show here and there.The result of constant friction with the small copper chain naturally accelerated the damage of the rope.Sometimes, after waiting too long, even recently found rope becomes useless for throwing away or binding things.

A sense of uneasiness suddenly passed over his heart: most of the ropes stored in the shoebox were put directly, without passing through the pocket, or only passed the test for a few hours in the pocket, so why? Can you trust their quality?Obviously, trust in them should be less than in those who have been tested.To counteract this shortcoming, perhaps a more rigorous review of them is long overdue.Mathias wanted to take out the figure-eight rope from the pocket of his jacket in order to re-examine its value.But his left hand couldn't reach into the right pocket, and his right hand held the small suitcase.Now he had time to get the box down, or even open it, and put that little piece of rope in, before the passengers landed in a frenzy and he couldn't help himself.Let that cord rub too much against rough copper or silver coins, and it won't do it any good.Mathias didn't feel the need for a companion to play the game with him, so he didn't take his best collection with him for the enjoyment of his schoolmates--and he didn't know Do they feel the slightest interest in these things.In fact, the little cords with which the other boys filled their pockets did not seem to have the slightest resemblance to his; at any rate, their little cords did not need their careful protection, and evidently caused them less trouble. lesser.It's a pity that the small box where the watch is placed is not a shoe box; he can't put some nonsensical things in it, so as not to give the customer a bad impression when he shows the goods to the customer.The sale of merchandise was more important than anything else, and if he wanted to sell his ninety watches among a population of less than two thousand—including children and the poor—he could not be negligent, nor could he Any carelessness.

Mathias tried to figure out in his mind what two thousand divided by ninety was.He was confused, and considering that he would not visit some dilapidated houses that were too remote, he would rather take the whole number of one hundred as the divisor.Calculated in this way, about every twenty residents buy one watch; in other words, assuming that there are five people in an average household, that is one watch for every four households.Of course, he knew from experience that it was one thing to talk about it and another thing to do it: when he met a family that liked him, he could sometimes sell two or three at a time.But the whole business is carried out at the rhythm of buying one watch for every four households, which is difficult-difficult, but not impossible.

Today, the key to success seems to lie in his rich imagination.He must claim that he has played on the cliffs with many children in the past, more children must be said than he has actually known; area.He used to teach other children how to make sea cucumbers and sea anemones open.They once picked up inexplicable flotsam on the beach.They had been there for hours watching the water beat rhythmically against the notch of the breakwater and the underside of the inclined bridge, watching the seaweed rise and fall, fall this way and that.He also once showed them his little rope, and created with them all kinds of complex and varied games.People don't remember so many things, and he just needs to make up some childhood stories for them to immediately entice them to buy a watch.For young people, it's easier, just get to know his father, mother, grandmother, or whatever.

For example, know his brother, his uncle.Mathias was at the pier long before sailing.He had talked with a sailor from the steamship company, who, like himself, was from the island; the sailor's family still lived on the island, especially his sister, who lived there with her three daughters.Two of the daughters were already betrothed, and only the youngest was a constant source of annoyance to her mother.No one can restrain her. At such a young age, she already has a large group of suitors, so many that it is worrying. "She's such a troublemaker," repeated the sailor with a smile that said he loved his niece anyway.Their house was the last one on the edge of the town, on the street leading to the Lighthouse.His sister was a widow—a widow with some money.The names of the three daughters are: Maria, Jeanne, Jacqueline.Mathias intends to use these materials soon, and he puts them together with what he has already collected yesterday.In his line of work, no detail is superfluous.He could call himself an old friend of the sailor, and, if necessary, say that he had once sold him a "six diamond" watch, which the sailor had worn for years without a single repair.

When the man on the bank raised his hand, Mathias clearly saw that he was not wearing a watch.He raised his arms to buckle the tarpaulin on the back of the mail truck so that his wrists were exposed from under the sailor jacket.There is not a single white mark on the skin of the left wrist; if he wears a watch a lot and only temporarily took it to a watch shop for repairs, or just took it off for other things, then there should be such a white mark on his wrist. white streaks.In fact the watch never needed repairing, but the sailor was afraid of breaking it while he was at work, so he never wore it except on Sundays.

The two arms are lowered.The man said something loudly, but he couldn't hear it clearly on the boat, because the machine was running loudly; at the same time, the man asked the side to take a step back, let the truck go, and made a farewell gesture to the driver.The truck's motor hadn't stopped before, but it started immediately, and made a quick turn around the small office building of the steamship company without hesitation. The clerk in the lace cap who had been checking the tickets on the steamer's staircase just now entered the office building and closed the door behind him.The sailor who had unmoored the steamer as she sailed, and threw the line onto the deck of the ship, took a tobacco pouch from his pocket, and began to roll a cigarette.The midshipman stood on his right, with his arms hanging down and pulled a little away from his body.There were only the two of them left on the pier, and the other was the man with the flawless watch; the man caught a glimpse of Mathias and waved to him and wished him a good journey.The stone embankment began to recede obliquely.

It was exactly seven o'clock then.Mathias found this to his satisfaction, for his time was very strictly counted.As long as the fog is not too thick, the ship will not be late. In any case, once you arrive at the island, you can't waste a minute of your time.His chief difficulty was that his sojourn on the island was, according to the terms of his trip, very brief.To tell the truth, the steamship company did not bring any convenience to his work: only two ships went to the island twice a week and returned on the same day, one on Tuesday and the other on Friday.It is impossible to live on an island for four days; four days is, in fact, a whole week; and all or a great part of the profit made by the business is lost in four days.So he had to stay for only one day, and it was too short a day, starting with the arrival of the ship at ten o'clock in the morning and leaving at four o'clock in the afternoon.What he could use was six hours and fifteen minutes—three hundred and sixty plus fifteen, or three hundred and seventy-five minutes.He had to calculate: If he were to sell eighty-nine watches during this time, how much time would each watch take? Three hundred and seventy-five divided by eighty-nine .If the actual figure is calculated, there is still a little extra time: first, the fifteen minutes that are not included in the calculation, and second, the time when the ninetieth watch is sold. Four minutes extra;--fifteen plus four is nineteen,--nineteen minutes extra, and you won't miss the return boat.Mathias tried to imagine how this four-minute quick sale would work: walk in, talk about the business, exhibit the goods, select the customer, pay the price, and walk out of the house.Even taking into account the customer's hesitation, necessary additional explanations, bargaining, etc., how can one hope to complete this whole set of tricks in such a short time? The last house on the street leading to the lighthouse at the entrance of the town is an ordinary house: a one-story house with only two small square windows and a low door sandwiched between them.Mathias knocked on the glass of the first window while thinking, and then walked to the gate without stopping.The door opened within a second of his reaching it; he didn't even have to slow down as he stepped onto the hallway, turned a forty-five-degree turn to the right into the kitchen, and immediately put the The little box lay flat on the big table.With one swift gesture he opened the lock, and the lid popped as if on a spring.The most expensive watches were placed on the top layer. He grabbed the first piece of cardboard with his left hand, peeled off the protective paper with his right hand, and pointed to the three beautiful ladies' watches, each worth four hundred Twenty-five crowns.The hostess stood not far from him, with her two eldest daughters (the daughter was a little shorter than the mother), and the three of them watched intently without moving.Then the three of them nodded in agreement in unison, and their movements were quick and uniform, without any difference.Mathias detached the three watches one by one from the cardboard—almost ripped off—and handed them to the three women; one by one they held out their hands to take them—the first The mother, then the daughter on the right, and finally the daughter on the left.The payment had been prepared and placed on the table: a thousand-crown bill, two hundred-crown notes, and three twenty-five-crown pieces—a total of twelve hundred and seventy-five crowns— —that is, three times four hundred and twenty-five crowns.The accounts were right.The suitcase snapped shut. Before leaving, he wanted to say a few words of farewell, but no sound came out of his mouth.He had discovered this himself--and it made him think at the same time that the business had been a foolish pantomime all along.Once on the road, with the closed door behind him and his little suitcase intact in his hand, he understood that he had to start all over again.He turned around and knocked on the door panel with the ring on his hand, and the door panel made a deep sound, like an empty box. The door panel has just been painted recently, and the pattern of the paint is completely imitated according to the texture and unevenness of the wood, so similar that it is almost impossible to distinguish.Judging from the knock on the door just now, there was no doubt that under the bewildering paint, it was indeed a wooden door.At the level of his face, painted side by side, were two round knots that looked like two large eyes—or rather, a pair of spectacles.The two circular knots are drawn with fine detail, which is usually not done so finely in this kind of fine arts; but although the painting technique is realistic, the two round knots But there are too perfect lines to exist in objective reality; and because the two rounded figures are too consistent, as if accidental phenomena must obey laws, they appear artificial.It is, however, rather difficult to prove the apparent impossibility of such an image in nature by extracting individual details from the whole drawing.All the details, down to the doubtful symmetry of the whole pattern, can be illustrated by popular carpentry techniques: if the paint is rubbed off where the two circular knots are drawn, it may be found that the plank is really There were two round knots, which happened to be sawn that way--if not two round knots, then two things of very similar shape. The wood grain forms two dark circles on the door panel, the upper and lower edges of the circles are gradually thickened, and each of the top ends of the two circles has a small knob facing upwards.It seems that the two circles are not so much like a pair of glasses as they are two iron rings painted to give people an illusion, the rest of the wood grain is the shadow they cast on the door panel, and the two knobs are the hangers. screw.Their position is indeed surprising, and their small size seems to be out of proportion to the thickness of the ropes usually used, and they can only be used to tie small ropes. Because of the green algae growing at the foot of the landing bridge, Mathias had to choose his footing carefully for fear that his foot would slip, lose his balance, and damage his valuables. He was out of danger after walking a few steps.Having reached the top of the inclined bridge, he continued along the causeway leading to the jetty's jetty.But the crowd of travelers walked slowly among the nets and gear, and Mathias could not move as fast as he wanted.It's no use pushing people around you because the road is narrow and full of mess.He can only let the crowd carry him forward.But gradually he became impatient.The people in the house opened the door too slowly.This time, raising his hand to face height, he knocked on the door again—between the eyes painted on the door.It must have been a very thick door, and it knocked so low that the people in the room probably didn't hear it at all.He was about to strike again with his thick ring when he heard a noise in the front porch. Now it was time to draw up a less absurd procedure.It is necessary to get the customer to speak; to do this, he himself has to speak first.Moving too quickly also constitutes a serious handicap: doing so quickly should not affect the naturalness of the attitude. The door was opened a little, revealing the mother's suspicious face.This unexpected visit disturbed her work, and the appearance of the visitor was unfamiliar again—the island was so small, and she knew all the inhabitants of the island—she was about to close the door with her hands.Mathias must have been in the wrong house—or a traveling salesman, or whatever. Obviously, she wouldn't ask him.It took him a lot of effort, he thought, before he could say, "How do you do, ma'am... how are you doing?" They slammed shut at him. The door didn't slam shut, it remained closed the entire time.Mathias began to feel dizzy. He found himself walking too close to the edge of the jetty, which had no railings.He stopped to let a crowd pass; empty boxes and baskets piled up along the side of the road narrowed the path and blocked the procession dangerously.He looked down from the unrailed embankment; below the straight wall the sea rose and fell against the stones.The shadow of the breakwater paints the water a deep green, almost black.As soon as the road cleared, he turned away from the embankment—moved to the left—and continued walking. A voice behind him repeatedly said that the ship arrived on time today.But this statement is not quite correct: in fact the ship docked five minutes late.Mathias raised his wrist and looked at his watch.This landing was simply unbearably long. By the time he was finally able to walk into someone's kitchen, he would have expected a good deal longer than that, and his business hadn't moved a step further.The mistress of the house evidently let him in with some reluctance.There was a large oval table in the middle of the kitchen, on which he laid his suitcase flat. "See for yourself," he forced himself to say; but hearing his own words, and the silence that followed, he felt how inappropriate they were.The statement lacked confidence - lacked weight - lacked to an almost unsettling degree; it was worse than saying nothing.On the table was spread a piece of oilcloth, on which were printed small flowers, just the same small flowers that should have been printed on the lining of his little case.As soon as he opened the lid, he took the memo and placed it on top of the overturned lid, trying to hide the dolls from the lady customer. As soon as I removed the memo, which was very prominently placed on the first cover sheet, the little string coiled into a figure 8 was revealed.Mathias stood outside the gate, admiring the two circles painted side by side in the middle of the door, and the symmetrical misshapen lines.Finally, he heard a noise in the front porch, and the door opened a little, revealing his mother's suspicious face. "Hello, ma'am." For an instant he thought she was going to answer, but he was mistaken, and she just continued to look at him without saying a word.Her tense, almost anxious expression expressed neither surprise, nor displeasure, nor suspicion, but something else;Her expression was exactly the same as when she had first seen him--as if it had been caught unexpectedly on a photographic film.This lack of expression, far from helping to explain the meaning of the expression on her face, can only make every explanation untenable: although her face clearly expresses a meaning-a very ordinary At the beginning, people thought it was easy to see the meaning, but when Mathias tried to use various quotations to grasp it, he couldn't grasp it no matter what.He wasn't even sure if it was him she was staring at—someone who aroused her suspicion, surprise, fear...—or something behind him—something on the road, a potato field by the side of the road, The wire fence, the field beyond the fence—something from the sea. From the look on her face she did not see him.He made what he considered to be a colossal effort: "How do you do, ma'am," he said, "I have some news for you..." Her eyeballs did not move a millimeter, but he had an impression—an impression he had imagined, an impression he had drawn as if he had pulled up a fishing net full of fish or a mass of seaweed. , or some mud—in his imagination, her eyes fell on him. The female customer's eyes fell on him. "I have news for you, about your brother, your brother who is a sailor." The woman opened her mouth several times and moved her lips as if to speak—with difficulty, but there was no sound Issued to. A few seconds later, a low voice was heard: "I have no brothers." This sentence was too brief and did not match the movement of her lips just now.Immediately afterwards, the expectant voices came like echoes. These voices were relatively clear, but with a normal tone, not like human voices, but like the voices of an inferior tape recorder: "Which brother? All my brothers are sailors." The eyes, like the lips, did not move at all.Always looking over there at the moor, at the cliffs, and over the fields and the wire fences, at the distant sea. Mathias was about to let it go, but he explained it all over again: he was talking about the brother who worked in the steamship company.The woman's voice became more normal, and she replied, "Oh, that's Joseph." Then she asked if he had brought any message. Fortunately, from this point on, the conversation grew alive and picked up pace.The tone of voice and the expression on the face began to return to normal, and the movements and words were performing their duties as usual: "...the watch... is the best one at present, and the price is also the cheapest; it is also sent to the buyer's quality assurance securities and the factory. Brand certificate, the certificate is printed with a registered trademark and a coded number; waterproof, anti-rust, anti-magnetic, shock-proof..." At this time, I should have counted how much time it took to say so many words, but she wanted to know The question of whether her brother also wore a watch, and when, would have created a new rupture which Mathias had to concentrate on avoiding. He finally made his way into the kitchen, walked up to the oval table, and continued his conversation while placing the small case on the table.Then there was the lacquered tablecloth and the little flowers printed on it.Things moved almost too quickly.Next, the finger is pressed on the switch of the box, the lid is wide open, the memo is on a stack of cardboard, the doll printed on the inner lining of the box, the memo is inside the lid, and the stack of hard On the cardboard lay the little rope coiled into a figure-of-eight leading to the straight wall of the jetty's breakwater.Mathias moved away from the water and moved a step closer to the wall. He looked in the long line of travelers ahead of him for the little girl gazing at the waves; he could never find her—unless he had seen her without recognizing her.He turned his head as he walked, trying to see her behind him.He was surprised to find that he was now the last person.Behind him, the jetty was empty again, a cluster of parallel lines demarcated a series of rectangular planes, alternating horizontally and vertically, some bright and some dark.At the very end stands the signal station that marks the entrance of the harbor. Before reaching the end of the breakwater, the transverse rectangle formed by the causeway underwent a change: a sudden notch reduced the width of the road by two-thirds; The route is still between the wall (facing the sea) and the embankment without railings; the embankment was shortened by two or three meters by the inclined bridge, and plunged straight into the black water.From where Mathias was standing, the landing bridge could not be seen at all, because the slope of the inclined bridge was very steep, and it seemed that the passage had been cut off for no reason at this point. From this point to the point where Mathias is, the road is in principle reserved for human travel, and it is filled with all kinds of things, so numerous that he cannot imagine the crowd of travelers and How the relatives who came to meet them made a way. When he turned around and continued walking towards the pier, there was no one in front of him.The crowd on the jetty disappeared in an instant.On the pier, in front of the rows of houses, I could only see three or four small groups of people parked here and there, and a few lonely people walking in various directions, each going to his own business.All the men wore more or less worn and patched blue trousers and loose fishermen's jackets.Women wear aprons and no hats.Muchan is worn on the feet of both men and women.These people could not have been travelers who had just arrived at the port and had already returned to their homes.The travelers had disappeared—either into their houses, or into the nearby alleys leading to the center of town. But the town center is not behind the houses along the harbour.The center of the town is a roughly triangular square with its apex pointing inland and the smallest side being the pier itself.In addition to the piers that form the base of the triangle, this triangle has four intersections: a road on each of the two longer (less important) sides of the triangle, and two roads on the apex of the triangle—the one on the right is the Leading to the fortress of Yantai, this road circles the fort, and then goes straight to the northwest along the coast; the left one leads to the Great Lighthouse. Mathias found a statue in the center of the square that he did not recognize—at least he had no memory of it.The statue of a woman in local dress (which is no longer worn now), facing the sea, gazing at the horizon, stands erect on a pedestal of granite carved with veins to imitate natural rock.Although there is no long list of names engraved on the four sides of the pedestal, it can be concluded that this is a monument to mourn the dead. The monument is surrounded by high iron railings, which are a circle formed by many equidistant linear vertical iron bars; there are also rectangular paved sidewalks around the railings, which are integrated with the entire statue .When he was walking along the iron railing, he found the shadow of the stone statue on the stone pavement under his feet.The shadow was projected distorted to the point of being illegible, but the line was very clear; compared with the dusty road beside it, the shadow was very dark in color, and the outline was so sharp that he stepped on a solid object by mistake. on the feeling.Instinctively, he shrank his feet to avoid the current obstacle. But before he could make the necessary turn, he realized his illusion and smiled.He stepped his foot into the center of the shadow.Around him, the shadows of the iron railings drew many straight lines on the ground, just like the thick black oblique parallel lines drawn on the notebooks used by elementary school students to practice calligraphy.Although Mathias was very unhappy, he had to turn to the right in order to get out of the net of shadows quickly.He walked out onto the uneven stone pavement of the square.It can be seen from the clear outline of the shadow that the sun has completely dispersed the morning fog.Such fine weather early in the morning is rare in this season.