Chapter 7 part two three

three In a recess sheltered by a sloping rock, the sea was calmer and lapped gently by back waves; a thick layer of yellowish moss had accumulated there, part of it being blown away by the wind. , rolled into a vortex, and spread all the way to the top of the hanging rock.Mathias walked quickly along the path by the edge of the cliff, with a small case in his hand and his shorts buttoned; he followed the fisherman.The fishermen were a few meters away from him.The fisherman held a full bottle of wine in each hand; he was silent because of the noise of the tide.From time to time he turned his head and yelled at the traveling salesman, and made some indefinite movements with his hands--the beginning of larger gestures which were not completed.It was impossible for Mathias to imagine how these gestures would look when they were completed, because every time he turned his ear to hear what he said, he had to look away.For a moment he even paused, trying to hear better.In the corner of a narrow walkway between two almost straight walls, the water rises and falls with the waves; in this corner there are neither waves nor back waves; the flowing sea is here smooth, blue , slapping the rocks now and then.The position of the nearby rocks tends to bring water suddenly into the path, causing the water to rise much higher than the original wave that rushed in.But the water went down at once, and in a few seconds lowered the water level in the same place so much that one wondered why there was no bottom sand, pebbles, or the flickering tips of seaweed.The surface of the water, on the contrary, remained a deep blue throughout, tinged with purple along the walls of the water.But as long as you look away from the coast for a while, you can feel that the sea water is a piece of emerald green under the cloud-covered sky, dull and opaque, as if frozen.

A reef farther out from the shore is not subject to regular inundation, although the reef itself is not very high, because it is already located in a region where the waves are not very rough.It is surrounded only by a ring of foam.Three gulls perched motionlessly on the slightly exposed part of the reef, one being a little higher than the other two.They were all profiled in the same direction, and had exactly the same shape, as if drawn with the same stencil on the same canvas against the same background—the feet stiffened, the body horizontal, the head raised, the eyes fixed, the mouth pointed. Point to the horizon.

The road now dropped along a little bay to a little reedy beach at the end of a very narrow valley.The triangular sandy beach is completely occupied by a fishing boat without a mast and five or six crabbing baskets stranded on the beach; those crabbing baskets are round baskets with sparse grids, made of slender sticks and wicker knots.A little farther from the beach, where the reeds began to grow, there was a small lonely house in the middle of a flat meadow connected by a steep path to the beach.The fisherman pointed to the slate roof of the house with a bottle of wine in his hand and said, "Here we are."

The sound suddenly returned to normal, which surprised Mathias: now he no longer needed to shout loudly to be heard, the deafening noise of the wind and the sea had completely disappeared, giving the impression that he was several kilometers away from the sea .He looked back and the ground was just beginning to fall, but the narrowness of the cove and the crest of the overhanging rock above the path were sufficient to provide cover for the path by a series of hillocks.There are no waves to be seen here—neither their continuous pounding nor their splashing, not even their highest spray—they are lost by the jutting rocks that cut the cove Three-quarters of the population is closed.The sea water here seems to be protected by a series of staggered left and right dams, very soft and calm, like the sea water in a calm period.Mathias stooped to look down the steep edge.

Below he saw a platform, slightly above the water, hewn carelessly out of the rock, long and wide enough for a man to lie on in comfort.Whether the platform was natural or man-made, it was being used—or had been used in the past—probably for mooring small fishing boats at high tide.It is not very difficult to get from the trail to the platform, as there are many notches in the rock that form just the steps, only a few of which lack footholds.This prototype pier also has four iron rings to complement its equipment: the four iron rings are inlaid on the straight rock body, the first two are at the bottom, as high as the platform, and the distance between the two iron rings is about one kilometer. ruler; the other two devices are at the height of a person, slightly separated.The posture of the arms and legs resting on the four hoops is abnormal, showing that the person who used the hoops was very slender.The traveling salesman recognized Violet at once.

They are so alike that they cannot be more alike.Not only was the still childish face exactly the same as those big eyes, round and thin neck, and golden hair, but there were also the same indentations near the cell fossa, and the same fine texture on the skin.A little below her right waist, she has a protruding dimple, which is red and black, the size of an ant, and shaped like a three-pointed star, very similar to a V or Y. It was hot in the sun, in this little valley sheltered from the wind on all sides.Mathias unfastened his short belt; although the sky was still cloudy, the wind was out of the way, and it felt less cool.Looking out to sea beyond the rocks that blocked the mouth of the cove, I could still see the rock a little above the water, with its fringe of foam around it, and the three motionless gulls.The gulls did not change direction; as they were far from the cove, their angle remained the same—that is to say, they were still seen in profile, even though the viewer moved around.A pale ray of sunlight fell through an invisible fissure in the clouds, adding a pallor to the scene.The white color of seagulls is originally dull, and under this light, it is difficult to estimate their distance; you can imagine that they are miles away, you can imagine them twenty steps away, and you can even imagine that they are not far away. You can touch them with a little effort.

"Here we are," said the fisherman in a cheerful voice.The sunlight is gone.The gray-white feathers of the seagull returned to a distance of about sixty meters.The path on the edge of the steep cliff--in some places the path is too close to the edge of the cliff, because the edge of the cliff has recently collapsed in places--the path suddenly drops almost vertically, down to the edge of the house. On a flat lawn.The house had only one window, a narrow, square window.The roof was paved with thick, irregular slates, hewn by hand. "Here we are," said the fisherman again. They go into the house.The sailor went in first, followed by the traveling salesman, who closed the door behind him, and the latch shut itself.In fact, this small house is quite far from the village, and it is not "only a thirty-second walk" as the owner said.The owner's name was written in chalk on the door: "Jean Robin".The calligraphy is clumsy, written too carefully, and seems to be completely unsure, reminiscent of the calligraphy homework of elementary school students; but even if a child is on tiptoe, it is impossible for a child to reach the height of the door panel.The vertical side of the letter b is not straight and falls backward; the upper circle is too round, as if an overturned round-bellied vase is connected to the neck of the bottle.As Mathias groped his way through the unlit corridor, he wondered whether the sailor had written the name on it himself—and for what purpose. "Jean Robin," the name was familiar to him, but it did not remind him of anything connected with the sailor.The inside of the room was very dark and complicated. Outside, even though he saw the narrowness of the room and only one window, he would not have imagined that the inside of the room would be so complicated.He groped along the sailor's back in the dark--several sudden turns--and he could not see at all whether he was crossing rooms or corridors, or merely passing doors.

"Attention," said the man, "here is a stone step." Now his voice was low and soft, as if afraid of waking a sleeping person, a sick person, or a vicious dog. This room gave Mathias the impression that it was quite spacious - certainly not as cramped as he imagined.From the small square window—it must have been the one facing the little bay—there came a strong, blinding, yet limited light—which did not reach the perimeter of the room, nor even reach the center of it.All that stood out from the darkness were the corner of a heavy table and a floor that was uneven in places.Mathias moved towards the window to look out through the dirty panes.

He didn't have time to recognize the view from the window, for his attention was immediately drawn in the opposite direction by the sound of a utensil—a kitchen utensil, presumably—suddenly falling to the floor.He could make out the silhouettes of two figures in the corner farthest from the window, one was the fisherman, and the other was a girl or young woman; this woman, whom he had not seen so far, was slender, frail, and dressed in a A tight-fitting robe, if not black, then dark in color.She bent down and bent her knees to pick up the fallen utensils.The sailor stood motionless, above her, with his hands on his hips and his head bent a little—as if gazing at her.

Behind them flames protruded from a circular opening in a flat surface, the flames were yellow, very short, and spread out to the sides so as not to go out of the opening; from the mouth of the big furnace, one of the two round cast-iron covers of which had been removed. Mathias went round the big table to meet them both; but the host made no attempt to introduce his guest, nor did he say anything else.His exuberant emotion had completely faded away, and the master's face was now stern, with a hint of worry, or perhaps anger, in the half-closed eyes of his face.He and the young cook—his daughter? —his wife? —his maid? ——In between, something must have happened.

Everyone sat down at the dinner table in silence.The only tableware is two soup pots placed directly on the wooden table, two wine glasses and a medium-sized hammer.Two men sat facing the window at either end of a bench that ran parallel to the table.The sailor took out a knife from his pocket, and opened two bottles of red wine one after the other with the corkscrew on the knife.The woman set Mathias a wine glass and a basin; she then brought a pan of boiling potatoes, and finally brought two boiled "spider crabs" with her bare hands, without bothering to use one of the basins.Then she sat on a stool facing the traveling salesman—so she sat between Mathias and the window, against the light. Mathias tried to look out through the glass window.The sailor poured wine for everyone.Two upside-down crabs lay side by side on the table in front of them, their knobby legs pointing skyward and retracting slightly inward.Mathias looked at the woman on the opposite side and saw that she was only wearing a donut. He felt that he was too hot.He took off his jacket, threw it on a box behind the bench, and unbuttoned his jacket.Now he regrets being dragged into this poor house. He feels himself a stranger here, annoying and distrustful; There is no hope of selling any watches here. His two tablemates started peeling potatoes with their fingernails without haste, and he reached into the pot to grab some potatoes, following their example. Suddenly the fisherman laughed, so unexpectedly that Mathias was startled; he turned his eyes from the black robe to the suddenly calm face of his master.The host's glass was dry again.Mathias also took a sip from his glass. "It's fun to think about it!" said the man. The traveling salesman considered whether to answer.He thought it best to get down to peeling potatoes, which his unusually long nails made easy for him.He looked at the thin tight-fitting black shirt, at the light on the nape of the neck with the light behind it. "When I remember," said the man, "we're sitting here quietly peeling potatoes...?" He laughed and didn't finish his sentence.Then he pointed to the crab on the table with his chin and asked: "Do you like this thing?" Mathias answered in the affirmative, then asked himself the same question, and came to the conclusion that his answer had been a lie.However, he did not think the smell of crabs was unpleasant.The sailor took a crab, and tore off the claws one by one; he took a knife, pierced the belly of the crab in two places with the blade, and with one strong, crisp gesture, detached the body from the shell. Coming out, he held the crab shell in his left hand and the crab body in his right hand. He paused to watch the crab meat carefully. "They also said the crabs had no meat!" Immediately after this sentence came some cursing of the fisherman, and finally, of course, as usual, some blaming the cheap price of spider crabs.As he spoke, he struck the claws with a hammer, using the tabletop between the basin in front of him and the traveling salesman's basin as an anvil.The hammer made a short and sharp knocking sound. One of the crab legs was not easy to break, and he hit it hard, and some of the juice splashed out and shot into the young girl's face.Without saying a word, she wiped the juice away with the back of her index finger.On her ring finger she wore a gold ring that might have been a wedding ring. The sailor continued his monologue, sometimes talking about the increasingly difficult life of the residents on the island, the gradual development of the Black Rock Village, and sometimes talking about the fact that electric lights can be used in most parts of the island in the future, and he himself refused to connect the wires to his house In this corner of the hanging rock, he lived a "good life" with the "little girl" and fishing nets, fishing gear, etc.During the whole conversation, Mathias was not asked any questions at all, and if the other party asked a question, Mathias was never required to answer; on such occasions, just wait a few seconds, and the sailor's monologue will continue. It proceeded as if there had been no pause at all. It was evident that the sailor was always speaking of general circumstances, and did not wish to speak of his personal history.Not once did he mention when he had known Mathias, or the friendship that had united them during that indefinable period, while the traveling salesman was trying to contemplate how far away that period was, and continued. How long, but he couldn't figure it out.Sometimes fishermen talk to him like a brother, and suddenly treat him like a first-time guest.Nor did the sailor in his informality call him "Old Horse" in his attempt to make sense of their friendship, since so far—if his memory serves—no one had ever called him that. . Not only was he unable to remember the date and duration of their friendship, but he was also unclear about the location and the circumstances at that time.In Mathias' opinion the place could not have been on an island--and there were various reasons for this--unless it had been in his youth.But the sailor did not speak of his own youth either.On the contrary, the sailor talked at length of the concave-convex mirrors installed in the lighthouse last autumn, which were so powerful that they cut through the thickest fogs.He began to explain how the device worked, but his description of the apparatus, even if mixed with some technical jargon, was so vague from the outset that the traveling salesman didn't want to listen to it.He felt that the master was repeating words he had heard from others, and he did not understand the meaning of these words at all, but he just used them to decorate his speech at will, and the speech itself was even more confusing.When he spoke, he mostly used rapid, grand and complicated gestures to strengthen his tone, and these gestures seemed to have little connection with the content of his speech.So the various joints of a large crab's sting flew to and fro over the table at his gestures, tracing circles, spirals, rings, and figures of eight; , falling around the table.The eaten basket and too much talking made him thirsty, and he kept stopping to pour himself a drink. In the young woman's glass, on the contrary, the wine seemed untouched.She said nothing and ate very little.In order to keep clean, every time you eat a piece of crab meat, you must carefully suck your fingers clean-perhaps as a respect to the guests.She elongated her lips, pursed her mouth into a circle, and stretched her fingers in and out several times in a row.In order to see these postures of himself clearly, he half turned his body towards the window. "The light illuminates the hanging rock like daytime." The fisherman concluded this sentence. This statement is obviously wrong: the light of the lighthouse never reaches the shore at the foot of the lighthouse.It is a marvelous mistake for a man who calls himself a sailor, who seems to think it is the duty of a lighthouse, to show details of rocks to navigators, and to avoid them.He probably never used a fishing boat at night. The "little girl" turned sideways, motionless, with her middle finger stuck in her mouth.She leaned forward, her head bowed; the round nape of her neck was taut and glistened in the sunlight coming from behind her. But she turned half of her body to the side of the sun, not to see if her fingers were clean.From Mathias's position, her eyes were looking sideways at a corner of the window, as if trying to see something outside through the dirty pane. "This little prostitute should really give her a whip!" The traveling salesman at first did not know who the host was talking about, because he did not pay attention to the first few words.When he realized that he was speaking of the youngest daughter of the Leduc family, he could not help asking himself how the sailor had come to this subject.He took advantage of his master's silence to add a word of assent, for from what he had heard since morning it seemed that the little girl needed a whipping, or even a worse punishment. Then he became aware of the sailor's eyes shooting in his direction.He ventured a glance to the left, and saw that the sailor was looking at him with such astonishment that Mathias himself was astonished.But he didn't say anything special.Is it just because the other party doesn't want him to answer?Mathias tried to recall what else had been said since he entered the room.He couldn't be sure, maybe he'd said it was hot in the room—maybe he'd said something in general about the lighthouse... He took a sip of his wine, put down his glass, and sighed: "Having a baby is such a hassle." He felt relieved when he saw that the fishermen stopped looking at him.The fisherman returned to his preoccupied look, said nothing, kept his hands empty and motionless, and rested his forearms on the edge of the table.His gaze—over the leftover crab, an empty wine bottle, a full bottle, the shoulder of a young woman in a black robe—was unmistakably directed at the little square window. "It's bound to rain tomorrow," he said. He still didn't move.After about twenty seconds, he corrected himself: "Tomorrow...or the day after tomorrow, that's right." Anyway, by then the traveling salesman had gone far. The fisherman did not move his body, and went on to say: "If you are looking at Jacqueline...,, Mathias guessed that he had addressed the young woman, but could find no proof.As for her, she began to eat crabs again, as if she hadn't heard anything.The man continued: "You may hope that I will receive her well." He emphasized the word "very well", clearly showing that it should be understood from the negative side.Moreover, he, like many on the island, used the word "hope" instead of "imagined"—in this case, "imagined" really meant "afraid." "Now she will never come again," said the traveling salesman. He wished to take back the clumsy remark, and at the same time added too hastily, "I mean, she's probably back for lunch by now," which only made him feel more embarrassed. He glanced around uneasily: fortunately no one seemed to notice his words, or his embarrassment.The girl looked down at a piece of crab shell, and she wanted to stick the tip of her tongue into the crab shell.The man looked over her shoulders—which were divided by the thin cloth robe into two parts: one of flesh, the other of black robe—at the window. The man said three words in a low and clear voice: "...Embrace crabs..." These three words seemed to have nothing to do with what he said before, and he laughed for the second time after burning. Mathias was suddenly frightened just now, but now he feels at a loss and tired.He was looking for something to cling to, but found only fragments.He asked himself what he was doing here.He asked himself what he had been doing an hour ago and what he had been doing an hour ago, in a fisherman's hut...along the hanging rock...in the village tavern.... At this moment, in this poor house, a man is sitting at a table, facing a small window, with his eyes half closed.His very strong hands were free and motionless, half-open, half-closed, revealing long, curved nails like claws.As he looked toward the window, he also glanced at the thin, smooth neck of a very young woman who, like himself, sat motionless, looking down at her hands. Mathias himself was sitting on the right side of the man, opposite the young woman, apparently at the same distance from them both; he was imagining what he could see from where the owner of the house was sitting... At this moment , in the fisherman's shabby house, he was eating lunch while waiting for the time to continue visiting customers.When he came here, he had to follow the owner of the house - a former classmate he met in the village - along the hanging rock.As for being in the hotel, didn't he sell a watch? But these excuses did not satisfy him.What had he done earlier on the road between the lighthouse and the town?Then in town?How about earlier? Anyway, what had he been doing since morning?The whole period seemed to him to be long, indefinite, and misused—perhaps not only because of the small number of watches sold, but also because the success of these transactions was occasional rather than regular—but the circumstances of those that failed were also Same goes for even those temporarily added routes. He really wanted to get out of here right now.But he couldn't leave them so suddenly, because he didn't know whether the meal was over or not.The arrangement for this meal is complete.Without any form, it is even more difficult for the traveling salesman to understand what kind of situation he is in.In this situation, he could not act by any rules which, in retrospect, should have been practicable--a guideline in an emergency--protecting him if necessary. The state of things around him gave him no clues: the meal had no reason to think it was over, nor should it continue.An empty wine bottle and a full bottle (albeit uncorked) side by side; one crab has been scattered into so many fragments that no part can be identified, while the other remains intact , lying on his back as in the beginning, his spiny back turned over, his knobby crab legs bent in towards a central point of his stomach, his grayish-white long navel in the shape of a Y; there was almost half of the potatoes left in the pot. But no one ate any more. The regular sound of the waves lapping on the rocks at the mouth of the cove whispered their regular sound, at first invading the silence from a distance, and soon filling the room with a louder and louder sound. Her downturned face, wishing to come back against the sun in front of the window, now turned stealthily to the left—so that she could fully see the four square panes—and turned her body over again, this time to the other side. Turn in one direction, with the forehead facing the darkest corner, and the nape of the neck fully exposed to the sun.At the nape of the neck at the top of the black bean, a long freshly scratched scar appeared, like a thorn scar on too tender skin.The tiny blood spots on the scar seemed to be still wet. A wave rushed to the foot of the hanging rock.Mathias counted to nine at the rate of his heartbeat; another wave was coming.Raindrops could still be seen streaming from the dust on the windowpanes.Once upon a rainy day he sat in front of this window and spent the whole afternoon painting a seagull perched on a fence post at the end of the garden.People often tell him about it. The face with downcast eyes turned back to its original position, with its back to the window pane, facing a basin containing crab legs, which had been reduced to countless red and white fragments. Farther on, a wave breaks, hardly audible—perhaps it's just breathing—like that of a traveling salesman? He seemed to see the rising and falling of the sea water rhythmically hitting the straight wall of the breakwater again. Closer, in his basin, he saw the same red and white mass of blades and needles.The sea water submerged the trace left by the iron ring again. He was about to make some gestures and say a few words so that he could leave in a natural way—like looking at his watch, saying: "What time is it?" Wait—but at this moment, the sailor suddenly made up his mind, stretched out his right hand to pick a potato from the pot, and brought it to his eyes—so close—as if he wanted to see clearly like a nearsighted person— But his mind may be elsewhere.Mathias thought he was going to peel the potatoes.The fact is not the case.The tip of his thumb slowly stroked a rough sore on the potato, and after a few minutes of silent inspection the potato was returned to the pile of potatoes in the pot. "The old problem has struck again." The fisherman murmured to himself. There was no doubt that the subject was always on his mind, so he immediately returned to it.He said he met one of the Leduc's two eldest daughters: Maria Leduc, who was out "again" to find her sister, Jacqueline.He called Jacqueline various insulting names, the most violent of which ranged from "ghost" to "little vampire". He himself became more and more passionate in his monologue, and he loudly said that she would not be allowed to come to his house in the future. He even forbade her to set foot in the vicinity of his little house, and advised "this one," the young woman who sat across from Mathias, not to meet her surreptitiously elsewhere. She didn't move, she didn't even react when the man stood up angrily and leaned over the table to her, as if he was about to hit her. When his anger had subsided a little, he began to speak of the girl's crimes--always a few--in vague terms, which left the traveling salesman more bewildered on this rehearsal than on previous occasions.His conversation did not use clear and direct language to describe one by one, but used some very vague hints belonging to the scope of psychology or morality as usual, and added countless indescribable causal relationships, which made people feel uncomfortable. It is not at all clear who is primarily responsible. ... Julien, the baker's apprentice, nearly drowned last week.Besides Jacqueline Leduc, several people were involved in the affair, at least according to the sailor's account; a young fisherman named "Little Louis" and his fiancée--or rather It was his "ex-fiancée" because now she refused to marry him.Louis had just turned twenty, and Julien was two years younger.On Sunday night, the two of them had an argument... But Mathias was not sure to what extent the girl had anything to do with the quarrel, whether it was an attempted murder, an attempted suicide, or just an accident.Moreover, the fiancée's role was not limited to the eventual break of the engagement (in fact, only the threat of it); as for the older friend who relayed the alleged rival's story to the baker's apprentice - allegedly distorted up... Mathias thought the sailor meant mainly to reproach the two young men for drowning the young girl without agreement.Fearing that not taking part in the discussion of Violet's bad behavior and her deserved punishment might arouse his master's suspicions, he stopped talking about going away.He even believed that it would be better to actively participate in the discussion.He was tempted to tell of his morning visit to Mrs. Leduc and her three daughters, when the master began to praise "that poor Mrs. Leduc"; Any details have to be temporarily fabricated.Then he spoke of his friendship with their uncle, who worked for the city steamship company.Talking about his latest meeting with this uncle on the dock, it was natural to talk about his experience of the whole day today.He said he got up early this morning to catch the boat because he had to walk a long way from his home to the pier.He walked very fast, without stopping.When he arrived at the pier too early, he used the time before sailing to sell his first watch to a sailor of a steamship company.After he arrived on the island, business didn't go so smoothly—at least at first.But on the whole, the business in the morning wasn't too bad - obviously thanks to his careful and detailed arrangements for the visit route in advance.According to the plan he drew up yesterday, he started with a few houses on the wharf; then he rented a very good bicycle, rode on the bicycle and drove towards the village of Black Rock, stopping along the way to visit houses, several times He even left the main roads to visit the individual households, and visited all that he thought worth visiting.That's how he sold a watch of the best quality at Malick's.These twists and turns on the road took him very little time, because the rented bicycle was very light, and it was a joy to ride such a bicycle.The sale of the watch is sometimes surprisingly fast: he just needs to open the box (unlock the lock, open the lid, etc...), and the quality of the goods immediately attracts the customer.It only takes a few minutes to close the deal.This was the case, for example, in the couple's house, which was situated on the side of the road not far from the entrance of the village of Big Lighthouse.A little further on, he sold another watch in a coffee shop, and as he was getting ready for lunch, he met his childhood friend, Jean Robin, who immediately invited him here for dinner. So Mathias followed Robin to this little house, which was far from the village and very near the sea, in the depths of a little bay.They sat down at once to eat, and as they ate they chatted about the old days, and talked about the changes, though few, on the island since they parted.After lunch, Mathias showed his watch to the owners, but he couldn't stay here too late, because he had to sell the watch according to the timetable he had planned so that he could return to the port before sailing—that is, , before a quarter past four. He began by making systematic door-to-door visits in the village of Black Rock, where he sold several watches—three of them to a family that owned a grocery store.He visited the two fishermen whom he had met an hour before in the hotel, and one of them bought one of his watches. After leaving the village, the road stretched east along the coast, but at a considerable distance from the hanging rocks, and halfway across a wilderness with neither trees nor houses, which was exposed to wind and rain.Due to the uneven terrain, the sea is often not visible from the main road.Mathias was walking fast, and the wind did not hinder him, but helped him to move forward.The sky was completely covered with clouds.The weather is neither cold nor hot.