Chapter 6 part two

two Mathias shook his head, not knowing whether to joke or show sympathy.The landlady didn't take the matter too seriously, but she didn't smile either; her air was completely neutral—on the one hand she understood what she was saying, but she didn't pay much attention to it—with a faint smile on her face. With the usual smile of someone in her line of business, as if talking about the weather. "Seems like she's hard to get," said the traveling salesman. "What a rascal! Her sister came all the way here on her bicycle to ask if anyone saw her. If she doesn't take her home, nothing will happen."

"Having children is troublesome," said the traveling salesman. They both had to speak at the top of their voices to drown out the sound of ground coffee.After a short pause, the sound of grinding coffee immediately took over.Maria, going to the village of Black Rock, must have crossed the road when Mathias visited the weary couple.Before that, when she crossed the field from the main road to the place where the sheep grazed on the cliff, she could not have taken the path he took, but it must have been the path that forked from the bend of the road.In fact, it takes a young girl quite a while to go back and forth from the road to the cliff, and to linger there a little longer.This time greatly exceeds the few minutes it takes Mathias to sell a watch while visiting a lonely house on the road between the fork leading to Malik's farmhouse and the village. watch only.The distance from the fork to the house does not account for the difference in time, not to mention that this distance is less than five or six hundred meters, and it is both of them—she and him—to walk.

So, Maria was heading towards the cliff before he even got on his bike.If she had gone on the opposite path from Malik's farmhouse, she should have found Mathias stopped in the middle of the road talking to the old lady—MH Mathias was watching the bike. A chain, a cloud in the sky, or the dead body of Bright Hamo—for the spot where he had been standing there for a long time was visible from the fork, so to speak, only two steps away from it (this supposition—one --It must be that the young girl went to the cliff by the same road as Mathias had taken--nor does it mean that she passed the fork before he stopped, for in that case she would have been at the I met Mathieu Yasi on the small road).

She must have come by another way.But why did she speak of him to the landlady?Because of the unevenness of the moor, it seemed unlikely—not at all—at all—not at all possible that she would see him from one lane to the other, even though he had just Come back from the cliff.She must have been only one step behind him in the hollow where the sheep were grazing.There she hurriedly searched around, shouted several times, hesitated for a few seconds, and then returned to the main road—this time probably took the path he had taken (he only knew There is this trail), but the trail is full of ruts, and the bicycle marks are not deep, and it is impossible for her to recognize which ruts belong to which car.It seems that between the flock and Black Rock Village, it is difficult to have a new shortcut—at least not a very useful shortcut, because the area of ​​the harbor that bends into the land in the northwest of the lighthouse is very small.

In the previous layers of reasoning, Mathias ignored the last possibility. At this time, he was afraid that he would repeat the whole reasoning again.But after thinking about it, he decided that even if there was such an improbable shortcut, it would not be enough to change his conclusion-although it could undoubtedly overturn his reasoning. "I came here as soon as I entered the village," said he, "and if Maria had been here before I did, she must have gone ahead of me, and I did not see her—my Visiting customers from time to time: in the little house on the side of the road, the only one between the village and the corner of the two-kilometer bend. Before visiting this family, I went to the house of my old friend Malick-- I waited a long time in the yard of the farmhouse: there was no one in the house, I had to say hello to them, find out how everyone was doing, talk about the local situation before I could leave them. You know, I was born on this island On. Robert Malick was a schoolmate of mine when I was a boy. He was in town early this morning. His mother—still as strong as ever—was down here at Black Rock Village to do some shopping. Maybe you met her? Coincidentally. Well, I met her on her way back, right at the cross--I mean at the cross--but it was really a cross-road, too, because the road from the farmhouse could pick up after the main road. Take a path that leads into the moor. If Maria came from there, she must have walked while I was waiting at the farmhouse. Didn't you say that following the road to the back of the corner leads to the cliff— —to the point where she reached the cliff—the hollow where she grazed her sheep?”

It's best not to say anything.Such a detailed account of time and route—whether unsolicited or presented to you—is useless, dubious even, or worse, a sham.What's more, the fat woman never said that Maria walked past the two-kilometer turn. She only said that Leduc's sheep grazed "behind the turn"—the so-called "behind the turn" is vague. No one knew whether she spoke from the side of her own village or that of the town in which the Leducs lived. The hostess did not answer his questions.She did not look again at the traveling salesman.Mathias thought he hadn't raised his voice high enough to overpower the sound of the coffee being ground for her to understand what he was saying.He didn't hold on anymore, and just pretended to drink what was left in the glass.He later even wondered if he had ever spoken aloud.

He was therefore glad that if the details which he had said in order to excuse himself were of no use to the indifferent listeners, then to invent something about the sister in this passage could only be dangerous. , because she can fully remember the route she really walked.As it turned out, she had come to the cliff by another route than the one he had taken—a short cut, and the shopkeeper should have known there was a short cut.In such a case it would be foolish to mention that the young girl did go the other way at the crossroads. Then the traveling salesman remembered that the fat woman hadn't said "behind the corner".She speaks as if "below the corner" - the meaning of which is also unclear - or even nonsensical.The last thing left to him was... He had to concentrate for a moment before it became clear that in this, too, all falsification was useless, because the control of the flock was indisputably sure.Perhaps the sheep always graze in this place, and Maria often visits this place.In any case, she had time today to observe the place in detail.Moreover, the flock left there alone constitutes an undeniable mark.Besides, Mathias was as familiar with the depression below the cliff as anyone.It was obviously impossible for him to pretend to misinterpret an indirect witness and move the place elsewhere.

On the other hand, these arguments about places and routes are not of the slightest importance.What Huayi needed to remember was that there was no way Maria could have seen him across the wilderness, or he might have seen her himself, especially since they were definitely going in opposite directions.All his arguments serve one purpose: to explain why they did not meet, not even her when he stopped in the middle of the road, very close to the shriveled corpse of the toad—would they have met in such a place? is irrelevant.It would be useless to try to prove further that they had not met because he was waiting at the door of Malick's farmhouse at this moment.

It would be more reasonable and plausible to believe that Maria Leduc had overtaken him long before he had reached the corner; The one at the mill - showing the wares.In fact, Mathias was only delayed for a few minutes at Malick's house, and the time to come and go on the path was not enough time for the young girl to walk around the corners of the cliff to find her mother. younger sister. Mathias hadn't been to the farmhouse--that was true--but the time spent talking to the old lady at the crossroads seemed shorter than the visit to the farmhouse once.So there is no doubt that the statement at the mill is more reasonable.

Unfortunately, this statement is also completely false and must be discarded.There are at least two reasons, one of which is that Mathias has never been to the mill or the farmhouse. Another reason is that, in this case, it must be assumed that Maria's search time is only equal to the time it would take to sell a watch—the one sold near the intersection—or rather, the time required can only be spent on repairing it. Driving in a new robe, discerning the difference between the skin of a frog and the skin of a toad, discovering the fixed eyes of a seagull in the shifting clouds, watching the movements of the antennae of an ant in the dust.

Mathias began to revisit his actions since he left the coffee shop and garage on his rented bicycle.It was ten past eleven or quarter past eleven.It is not so difficult to arrange the places he stopped in the future one by one; but it is not so easy to determine the time of each stop, because he did not write it down.As for the time required to travel from one place to another, it did not have any influence on his calculations, because the total distance from the town to the lighthouse was less than four kilometers-in other words, the time required for the whole journey was almost No more than fifteen minutes. The distance from the beginning to the first stop is almost insignificant, and the time of the stop can be determined to be exactly 11:15. What needs to be calculated now is the time spent by the last family in the town.Mrs. Leduc opened the door for him almost at once.Everything in the beginning went quickly: the younger brother worked for the steamship company, his cheap and fine watches were better than any other brand of watches, the corridor that divided the room in half from the middle, the door on the right, the large kitchen, the middle of the room Oval table, linoleum top printed with colorful flowers, fingers scattered on the latch of the small box, the lid of the box bounced back, black memos, instructions, placed on the sideboard, with shiny metal supports The rectangular photo frame at the feet, the photos, the path down the mountain, the depression on the cliff where the wind cannot blow, it is secret and quiet, as if there is a thick wall separating it from the outside world... as if there is a thick wall The wall cuts it off from the outside world... The oval table in the middle of the room, the lacquered wood top printed with colorful flowers, the fingers locked on the clasp, the lid of the box springs back like clockwork, the black memo , the instructions, the shiny metal photo frame, the photo on it... the photo on it, the photo, the photo, the photo... The sound of grinding coffee suddenly stopped.The shopkeeper got up from her stool.Mathias pretended to drink what little wine was left in the woods.To his left, a worker says something to his companion.The traveling salesman listened; but again no one could be heard talking. That short sentence ends with the words "drink soup"; and maybe "go home."It's a bit like "...go home for soup" plus: "It's time for...", or "It's time for...".This statement is probably just customary, because for generations fishermen have stopped shouting at lunch.The hostess took the two empty wine glasses of the two workmen, dipped them in the large wooden bucket of the dish basin, rinsed them quickly, rinsed them under the tap, and let the water drip dry on the shelf.The worker near Mathias reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. "This time we're late for soup again," he said as he counted the money, which lay on the zinc counter in front of him. The traveling salesman looked at his watch for the first time since he left town: one o'clock had passed--it was seven minutes past one.Three hours and one minute had passed since he landed on the island.And he only sold two watches, one hundred and fifty-five crowns each. "I have to hurry up," said the second worker, "because the kids have to go to school." The shopkeeper took the money with quick gestures and said with a smile: "Thank you both!" She picked up the coffee grinder again and put the grinder back in the cupboard. Pour out the powder. "Really, it's really troublesome to have a child." Mathias added. The two lighthouse workers walked out while greeting the people around them.He thought it would be more reasonable to sell them watches, but it was too late now.He still had two things to figure out: where would Maria Leduc go after leaving Black Rock?Why did she mention him?He wondered how to say it so that these issues seemed irrelevant to him. "Sometimes the kids make you happy too," said the fat woman. The traveling salesman nodded: "Yes, of course!" After a silence, he spoke again: "People's misfortunes..." He stopped talking.This sentence is simply not appropriate. 'Maria went home,' continued the woman, 'and she took the path along the cliff. " "It's not a shortcut," said Mathias, trying to find out if there was a shortcut. "Walk, it's a shortcut; but ride a bicycle, it's more time-consuming than taking the road. She wants to see if Jacqueline is playing in the rocks near the Devil's Hole." "Perhaps she hasn't gone that far. Because of the direction of the wind, she may not hear her sister's cry. They'll find her quietly watching over the sheep in her old place." Stay obediently and quietly in the quiet depression. "Maybe," the woman said, "they'll find her around the lighthouse. Lucky. Maybe she's not alone. Only thirteen, well, it's unbelievable." "Forget it! She won't do anything too bad... She won't go too close to the edge to play, where the rocks are dangerous? In that area, sometimes the rocks will fall down. But you have to Watch where you step." "Don't worry about that, she's flexible." flexible.She is.flexible.Live.Burned alive. 'No one can insure against slipping. said the traveling salesman. He took his wallet from the inside pocket of his coat and took out a ten-crown note.He took this opportunity to put away a newspaper clipping because the edge of that clipping protruded slightly from the rest of the paper.Then he handed the note to the shopkeeper.When the shopkeeper gave him change, he saw that she was putting coins on the counter with her left hand. Then she took his wine glass, and also performed a series of washing and wiggling actions at a very fast speed: the big wooden barrel, scrubbing around it, flushing it under the faucet, and putting it on the shelf to drip dry.Now the three glasses of the same shape are lined up on the shelf again - just as they were lined up on the liquor counter before - but this time the place is obviously lower, and the glasses are lower than each other. approaching, the cups are all empty (that is to say, they are transparent and colorless, not as opaque as before; the brown liquid just filled them with no more and no less), and they are all placed upside down of.But their shapes—legless, cylindrical cups with a bulge in the middle——Htu they all look the same when placed upside down. Mathias' situation remains unchanged.Neither his own reasoning nor the words of the shopkeeper had made him understand the main point: why did Maria, when speaking of her missing sister, mention that he was also on the island?That was the only thing he wanted to know, and he could not get any further into the matter, though he speculated whether there were some shortcuts among the countless paths that criss-crossed the entire cliff. Why did the young girl mention him?Was it not because she had seen him walking across the moor--"below the turn"--and that was where he had no reason to go?It is quite easy to explain that he himself did not see her.The two trails they followed were separated by a patch of wildly rolling land.There are only a few places where both sides can see each other.At a certain moment, he and she are in a position where they can see each other, but only she turns her head to his side, so the eyes of the two parties do not meet.At that moment, if Mathias's eyes were turned elsewhere—for example, looking down on the ground, or looking up at the sky, or looking in any direction, but not in her direction, the eyes of the two parties could not meet. The young girl, on the other hand, recognized the man she saw as soon as she saw his shiny bicycle and the little colored suitcase her mother had told her about.That is absolutely unmistakable.Now maybe she also wanted him to know where her sister was hiding, because he looked as if he had come back from where her sister was supposed to be.If Maria thought her mother had misremembered the traveling salesman's intended route, she might even have been convinced that he had come back from the cliff.In fact, he also remembered that when he was considering how he could politely leave the talkative Mrs. Leduc, who had said that he might meet her youngest daughter.This statement is of course absurd.What was he doing on that rough path?There are no houses there, and the path is also a source road? —unless he is going to the sea, to the steep rocks, to a narrow depression where the wind does not blow, where five sheep graze on stakes, a thirteen-year-old Girls watch over them redundantly. He recognized Violet at once, in the costume of a little country girl in the photograph.Her thin black bodice—the one in the photograph—was more appropriate in the height of summer, but it was hot here in the valley, almost as in August.Violet was half sitting and half kneeling on the grass under the sun, with her legs bent under her body, and the rest of her body straightened, slightly twisted to the right, in an unnatural posture.Her right ankle and right foot stick out from her hip; the other leg is completely covered from the knee down.Raise your arms, elbows up, and gather your hands behind your neck—as if you're tidying your hair at the back.A gray woolen coat lay on the ground beside her.Her sleeveless gown made her armpits visible. She turned to look at him, and she did not move as he approached, her wide eyes boldly meeting his gaze.But, after careful consideration, Mathias could not help asking himself whether she was looking at him, or at something behind him—something of a very large size.Her eyeballs were frozen; nothing changed in any part of her face.She did not lower her eyelids, nor change her unnatural posture, but turned her upper body to the left. He had to say something anyway.The three wine glasses on the shelf were almost completely drained.The woman took them one by one, fingered them quickly with a rag, and put them under the cash drawer from where she had just taken them.There they lined up again, at the end of a long row of similar cups—they were invisible to the customer. But it is inconvenient to use them in long rows, so they are arranged in rectangles.The three glasses that had just passed were lined up next to the other three like glasses, forming the first row of six glasses; the other six glasses behind them formed the second row; then the third row, the fourth row, Wait?,...? The back rows are sunk in darkness, in the deepest part of the closet.On the left, right and upper and lower shelves of this group of wine glasses, there are other groups of rectangular wine glasses arranged in groups according to the height and shape of the glasses, and rarely arranged according to color. Here and there, of course, there are small variations: the cup for drinking alcoholic beverages is missing one in the last row; The cups are slightly different.So this row of cups of different kinds includes (from west to east): three cups of the same type, two reddish cups, and one empty seat.The cups in this group are footless; they are shaped somewhat like small cylinders with a protrusion in the middle.The glass from which the traveling salesman had just drank--colorless--was one of them. He looked up at the fat gray-haired woman and realized that she was watching him—perhaps had been watching him for a while. "Then, Maria...why is he looking for me? Just now you said...why did she mention me?" The shopkeeper continued to study him.She waited almost a minute before answering: "No reason. She's just asking if anyone has seen you. She wants to see you in the village. That's one reason she's here." After another pause, she continued: "I believe she wanted to see your watch." "So it is!" said the traveling salesman. "See for yourself and you'll see it's worth the miles. Her mother must have told her. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to admire expensive watches, please prepare..." Continuing his boasting in a tone that was almost comical, he took the little case between his feet, turned and walked over to put it on the table next to the table where the three sailors were drinking. .All three sailors turned to look in his direction; one of them moved his seat to get a better view.The woman went around the counter and went to the table. Lifting the copper-plated clasp, the lid of the box, and the black memo, everything went on as normal, without detours or obstacles.As always, words were not as effective as actions, but on the whole he said nothing that was too difficult to listen to.The female shopkeeper wanted to try several styles of watches, so she had to take the watch off the cardboard and put it back on again with great difficulty.She put the watches on her wrists one by one, and stretched her hands in all directions to see which one would suit her better; The personality suddenly revealed.In the end, she bought a bulky watch with so many decorations on the face that the hours were not written with numbers, but with little messy pictures made up of little intertwined circles.At the beginning, the painter may have drawn in the shape of twelve numbers, but later on the twelve numbers are so invisible that people can't really see the hour unless they study carefully. Two sailors wanted to consult their wives, and they asked the traveling salesman to come to their house after lunch.They lived in a village, and the topography of the village was not complicated at all, but they made a very lengthy narrative, trying to describe the location of their residence very accurately.It seemed that they gave him a great deal of useless or superfluous detail, but they were so accurate and repeated that Mathias was completely bewildered.Even a deliberate error in describing these dwellings would not have confused him any more; in fact he half suspected that they had mixed together a lot of contradictory words and a lot of nonsense.Several times it occurred to him that one of the sailors used the words "left" and "right" as if at random and indiscriminately.As long as you draw a simple diagram of the houses in the village, you can make everything clear; unfortunately, the two sailors did not have paper and pens with them, and the female shopkeeper was only concerned about the watch she had just bought, and did not think of giving them a piece of paper. And Mathias definitely didn't want them scribbling on the memo he used to keep his books.Now that he was going to visit every family in the village, he quickly decided to pretend he understood and nodded, but in fact he was not listening, but they talked for a while, and he replied "yes" word or the word "yes" to express consent. From the point of view of the coffee shop, the two of them lived in the same direction.The two sailors spoke in turn at first, and the one who lived further away began to narrate as soon as his companion stopped.The first one felt that he was not relieved enough, and when the second one reached the destination, he repeated what he had said from the beginning.Of course, there are differences between these different descriptions of the same journey - and the differences seem to be large.But later, when talking about how to start walking, there was a sudden disagreement between the two sailors; they began to talk at the same time, each trying to make Mathias accept his opinion, and Mathias did not even share their views. I don't understand the difference between them.They would still be arguing if it hadn't been for lunch time, forcing them to take a temporary truce.They agree that it is up to the traveling salesman to choose the better road when he arrives at the scene; and since the traveling salesman has spent his whole life on the road, he should be an expert in this field. They paid for the drinks and went out; the third sailor—who remained silent—followed them.Mathias can't start visiting customers until quarter past one or two (because the island's work and rest time is obviously later than that of the mainland), so he has plenty of time to eat his two sandwiches.He arranged the little case carefully, closed it, and sat down at a table to wait for the landlady who had entered the inner room to come out and order another glass of wine. He was alone in the shop now, and he looked ahead, through the glass door, at the road that crossed the village.The road was wide and dusty—and deserted.At the other end was a doorless stone wall, taller than a man, behind which must have been an outbuilding to the lighthouse.He closed his eyes, trying to doze off.He got up very early in order to catch the steamer.There is no bus from his house to the port.In an alley in the Quarter Saint-Jacques, looking through a downstairs window, I saw a deep room, which was quite dark even though it was broad daylight; On a disheveled bed sheet; an upraised arm is illuminated from the side and below by light, casting enlarged shadows on the walls and ceiling.But he couldn't miss the boat; a day of marketing on the island might save everything.Even counting the one he sold in town before he got on the ship, he had only sold four watches.He will write the numbers down in a memo later.He feels very tired.Nothing disturbs the present silence, both inside and outside the coffee shop.But suddenly he realized that he could hear—albeit at a distance and with the shop door closed—the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks in front of the lighthouse with regularity.The sound came all the way to him, so loud and clear that he wondered why he hadn't noticed it earlier. He opened his eyes.Of course you can't see the sea here.There was a fisherman standing outside the glass door looking into the coffee shop - holding the handle of the door with one hand and an empty wine bottle in the other.Mathias thought he was one of the sailors who had just been drinking (the one who had never spoken) came back.But it wasn't until the fisherman entered the shop that the traveling salesman realized that he had made a mistake.He also noticed that the newcomer was very happy to see him.In fact the fisherman walked up to him and asked aloud: "Is it really you? I don't have vertigo, do I?" Mathias stood up and took the other's extended hand.He shortened the handshake as much as possible, and hastily clenched his fist and drew his hand back so that his nails were hidden in the palm. "Yes!" he said, "it's me." "Old friend Matthias! It's been a long time since we saw each other, huh?" The traveling salesman took his seat.He didn't know what attitude to take.At first he suspected deception: the guy was just pretending to know him.But he could not see what advantage the fisherman could gain by resorting to this method, and he immediately abandoned the initial idea and agreed unconditionally: "Yes! It can be said for a long time. At this time the fat woman came back; Maronyas was also happy: this time he could prove to her that he was not a stranger on the island, but had many friends, and people should trust him.Pointing to the female shopkeeper as a witness, the fisherman said: "I came here to drink a liter of wine, and I met this old friend Mathias. I haven't seen him for a long time. It's amazing!" The traveling salesman didn't know how long it had been since he had seen him; he also felt surprised.But he searched in vain in his memory, not even knowing what to search for. "Such things happen often," said the shopkeeper. She removed the empty wine bottle and gave him a full one.After the sailor took the wine, he said to the landlady that it would be "best" to charge his account "with a few other bottles".The hostess pouted dissatisfiedly, but did not raise any objections.The sailor looked at the wall with a vague air and said: One more liter of wine and he can invite the "old horse" to his house for lunch.His words were not addressed to any particular person.No one answered him. There is no doubt that Mathias should speak at this time.But the man had already turned to face him, and began to ask him about the situation "since we parted" with even greater enthusiasm.It seems difficult to answer this question if it is not possible to determine which time the so-called "separation" refers to.But the question did not trouble the traveling salesman for long, for it was evident that the other party had no intention of waiting for his answer.His newly acquainted old classmate spoke faster and faster, and made various gestures with his arms, with a wide range and force, which made people afraid that he would not break the bottle of wine under his left arm.Mathias soon gave up trying to find in his eloquent, meaningless but incoherent speech some clue to the supposed past of his and this man's days together.His full attention was too late to follow the gestures the other made with an empty hand and the liter of red wine—movements that were sometimes separate, sometimes combined, and sometimes apparently unrelated.The free hand is more flexible, and drives the other; if the right arm is given the same load as the left, the movement of both arms is reduced to almost nothing—only small movements, slower and more rapid. Regular, less extensive, perhaps more desirable, and in short, easier to discern for a careful observer. But to do this, first of all, there must be a pause in his speech and gestures, which increased in intensity and astonishment every minute.Even if there are occasional small pauses in it, they cannot be exploited, because they can only be noticed at a distance, and then it is too late, and the continuous torrent resumes.Mathias regretted that he hadn't offered to buy another bottle of wine for him when he had an obvious opportunity just now.Doing so now would require a very quick reaction, which he felt utterly incapable of.He closes his eyes.Behind the sailor, beyond his menacing—or liberating—bottle of wine, beyond the glass door, across the road and the stone wall that stood there, was the sea.The sea continued to pound the cliffs with great regularity.After every wave hit the uneven rock, there was the sound of water falling from everywhere like a waterfall, and then countless small white waterfalls flowed down from the concave hole of the rock to the protruding place of the rock, that This kind of warm and humid sound gradually weakened until the next wave rushed up. The sun has completely disappeared.As long as you look away from the coast for a while, you will feel that the sea water is green, dull, opaque, as if frozen.The wave seemed to be generated very close to the shore, and suddenly it rose into a huge wave, which submerged the huge rocks protruding from the shore at once, and collapsed behind the rocks into fan-shaped white foam, which continued to boil and rush. Into the recesses of the bank, gushing out of unexpected holes, crashing against other waves in channels and caves, or suddenly plume up into the sky at unexpected heights-but every wave This action will be repeated at the same location.