Chapter 33 whisper

The first time Miles Benton saw the bastard was on the train.He was sitting alone in a second-class cab on his way to his office in the city.The scorpion walked into his compartment and sat down in another corner.Benton glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and saw that he was ugly, with a sideways bump on his back, dark, or dirty like a land lord gypsy.On his head was a soft black wide-brimmed hat, which hung down and covered the whole half of his face.He was wearing a black overcoat that was longer than his body and fell to the floor. Benton immediately caught a whiff of it.To be honest, it was a stench that could only be smelled in the yard of the poorest farmhouse, and Benton deduced its source with certainty.Despite the dry, pungent smell of stale tobacco in the ashtrays and the lingering stench from the filthy station, by contrast, before the hunchback came, the train The air in the room seemed almost perfumed.It was very cold outside, but Benton couldn't care less about that.He got up and opened the window, pulling it down so that the air could blow back the stench from his traveling companion.Then he helplessly put away the flapping newspaper, leaned back, and turned up his collar to keep out the sudden cold wind, while secretly cursing that smelly man in his heart. Furious bastard because this guy stained "his" car interior.

Five minutes later, Benton made up his mind to change to another car cabin, so as to stay far away from the pungent stench and not have to endure the unbearable biting cold wind.But no sooner had he made up his mind than the conductor on the train arrived.He pushed the compartment door aside, and immediately put his familiar and kind face in. "Good morning, sir," he greeted Benton in a breezy tone, and he only glanced at another passenger in the cab. "Please show me your ticket." Benton took out the ticket and handed it to the conductor for inspection.At this moment, he saw with satisfaction that the conductor wrinkled his nose, sniffed the air suspiciously, and eyed the hunchback curiously.Benton withdrew his ticket, and the conductor turned to the bum in the corner. "Excuse me...your ticket...sir..." With a disapproving expression, he looked the little boy up and down.

The hunchback looked up at him from under the drooping black hat, and grinned.His eyes were as black and bright as the eyeballs of a bird.Blinking, he motioned for the ticket inspector to bend over.He evidently wanted to have a few private words with the ticket inspector.He didn't look like he wanted to take out the train ticket. The ticket inspector frowned sullenly, but he still bent over and put his ear close to the slut's face.Xiaozi whispered in his ear with a clucking sound like a hen crowing from his hoarse throat, and the ticket inspector listened for a while.It actually seemed to Benton now that the hunchback was laughing gleefully as he whispered dirty secrets into the conductor's ears.He could almost hear the hunchback saying, "Naw postcards! Dirty pictures!"

The ticket inspector's expression suddenly changed, and his face turned cold. "Hey!" Benton thought secretly. "The scumbag doesn't have a ticket. Now he's out of luck." But this is not the case.The ticket inspector didn't say a word to the annoying little bastard, but straightened up and turned to talk to Benton. "Excuse me, sir," said he, "this is a private carriage, and I must ask you to leave." "But," Benton was breathless in astonishment, he couldn't believe it. "I've been riding in this cabin for a few years and it was never - er - never a 'private' cabin!"

"Yes, sir, perhaps so," said the conductor, but he was unmoved. "It's a private compartment now, though. There's only one or two gentlemen sitting in the next compartment. I'm sure it's the same as sitting here." He opened the door for Benton. , Putting on a posture of "I'm sorry you don't dare to argue with me". "Please, sir?" "Oh, well," Benton thought submissively, "I was just thinking about changing places." However, when he walked past the hunchback, he stared at him provocatively, and looked at the soft-spoken man. The top of Bu Liuqiu's hat glared hard.The scorpion seemed to be aware of this.He raised his head, grinned, and tilted his head to one side, grinning grimly at him.

Benton walked out of the car quickly to the aisle, and took a deep breath. "Go to hell!" he cursed loudly. "What are you talking about, sir?" asked the ticket inspector, who had already swaggered down the aisle while speaking. "Nothing!" Benton replied angrily, and then walked into the smoky and crowded compartment where the conductor asked him to go. On the very next morning, Benton mustered up his courage (he had never been a very courageous man before) and stopped the ticket inspector and asked him what the hell was going on.What is that little guy?What right does a grotesque, filthy villain like him have to seal up the entire car room for his own use?

The ticket inspector replied, "Eh? There's a hunchback? Are you sure he's on this train, sir? Since this train was designated as a commuter car, it never had any private cars." Shelter or garage or something! Speaking of hunchbacks—hey!" "But, you should always remember that you asked me to leave the compartment I was in—this is the compartment—right?" Benton asked stubbornly. "Has such a thing happened? Are you kidding me, sir?" The ticket inspector laughed softly, slammed the door of the compartment, and strode away with a smile before Benton could answer. It was gone, leaving Benton alone, wondering.

"Ouch, I've never had anything like this happen to me!" murmured the commuter passenger worriedly to himself.He scratched his scalp, and then he chanted philosophically a line or two from a ditty he still remembered.Those were two lines from a ditty his mother used to sing to him when he was a boy: When Benton met the hunchbacked bastard reeking like sewage again, Benton had almost forgotten about him.That was one day about three months later.Spring has just arrived.In order to enjoy the bright sunshine well, Benton decided to change his usual habit of eating sandwiches for lunch in the office and go to Bull and Bush Inn for a glass of noon wine.

The entire hotel seemed crowded, with the exception of one corner.But Benton didn't understand why no one was there until he was squeezed into that corner—or rather, why there was only one person sitting here: none other than the man in the black overcoat. The one with the floppy wide-brimmed hat.He sat on a stool, his deformed hunched back facing the regular customers of the hotel.Just as Benton caught a glimpse of him, he smelled the stench again. Apparently, the other customers had noticed the stench that seemed to emanate from the cesspit—Benton was surprised to see at least a dozen pairs of nostrils shrunken around him—but no one There are complaints about this.What was even more astonishing was that no one tried to encroach on the territory of the bastard in the corner of the hotel, which is to say, no one except Benton wanted to.

Benton stepped forward, holding his breath, and tapped loudly with his knuckles on the counter to the left of the hunchback's seat. "Pint beer, buddy, the best." The hotel waiter greeted him.With a big smile on his face, he reached for the beer pump and put a mug under the tap.But at this moment, the hunchback made a slight movement of his head, indicating that he wanted to say a few words... Benton had seen all this before.At this moment, as he focused all his attention on the clerk and the bastard in the floppy hat, all kinds of sounds in the tavern—people talking, the clink of coins , the clinking of cups—everything seemed to fall silent around him.The hotel waiter seemed to be slowly bending his head towards the hunchback, and once again Benton heard strange whispering voices as the hideous bastard issued secret instructions to the clerk.

Curious and frightened, Benton observed the change in the fat clerk's face with an almost horrifying feeling, heard the hiss of the beer pump, saw a full glass of beer pouring out from under the counter. It was brought up...but it was placed in front of the hunchback with a bang!The hotel clerk stared blankly, and put his hand in front of Benton's nose: "There's a half-dollar drink, sir." "But..." Benton panted, opening and closing his mouth.He couldn't believe it.He had already held a coin in his hand, intending to use it to pay for the drink, but now he withdrew his hand. "Half dollar, sir," repeated the clerk viciously, snatching the coin from Benton's retracting hand. "Would you please sit over there? It's too crowded." Benton jerked his gaze from the clerk's face to his now-empty hand, and from his own to the sitting hunchback.At this moment, the little boy also turned his head to Benton, grinning ferociously.All Benton was aware of were his bright, bird-like eyes under the broad brim of his hat—not the darkness around them.Suddenly one of the eyes closed in the blink of an eye, and the bastard turned back to drink his beer. "But," Benton protested hoarsely to the innkeeper again, "he's drinking my beer!" He stretched out his hand and grabbed the rolled up sleeve of the innkeeper, and walked behind him, It wasn't until he had to let go because the customers were too crowded.The shopkeeper finally turned around again. "Beer, sir?" His plump face broke into a smile again. "Of course—here's half-dollar booze, sir." As Benton pushed violently and almost hysterically from the crowd to the door, the noise from the hotel suddenly reached his ears again.Benton noticed out of the corner of his eye that the bastard had also left the hotel.A throng of thirsty people had already crowded into the corner of the hotel he had just occupied. In the fresh air outside the hotel, Benton scanned the busy street eagerly with wide-eyed eyes, but was a little afraid to see the figure he was looking for.But the scorpion had apparently disappeared into thin air long ago. "This damned guy!" Benton suddenly cursed angrily.A passing policeman stared at him very strangely. He noticed with exasperation that the policeman had been keeping a close eye on him all the way back to his office. At noon the next day, Benton rushed out of the office like an athlete hearing the gunshots at the start.He ran almost all the way across four avenues to the Bull and Bush Inn.On the way, he stopped in front of a shop window just to straighten his tie and tilt his bowler hat a little more imposingly on one side.The place was crowded, as usual, but he made his way through the crowd to the hotel without hesitation.He first checked that the air here was very fresh - so he knew that the hunchbacked scorpion was really not in it. The hotel owner noticed him immediately. "Master, a beer, please. Well,"—he lowered his voice—"if you don't mind, I'd like to speak to you." The store owner leaned over the counter trustingly, and Benton lowered his voice.Whispered into his ear, "Well, who is he-er-that little bastard? He's a local boss of some kind, I suppose? He's very--queer--isn't he?" "What?" the hotel owner asked, looking around with a puzzled look on his face. "Who are you talking about, sir?" It stands to reason that the unmistakable bewilderment on the chubby shop owner's face had told him everything Benton needed to know.But Benton refused to believe it—even though this was his second similar experience, "I'm talking about the hunchback." He amplified his voice recklessly, "It's the one who wears a limp hat. The little guy in the black hat. He was sitting in that corner of the tavern yesterday—the fellow stinks and drank all my beer! Of course you remember his?" The hotel owner shook his head slowly, frowned, and then called out to a group of standing people: "Joe, come here." Get out of the noisy crowd and go to the counter. "Joe," said the tavernkeeper, "you were here at lunch yesterday. Did you see a—er,—a—what kind of man, sir?" He turned to Benton. . "A hunchbacked bastard in a limp black hat," Benton repeated patiently, worried. "He was sitting in that corner of the hotel yesterday, and he stinks like a dead mouse." Jo thought for a moment, then said: "You sure you've got the right hotel, man? I mean, we don't get beggars or cranks here. Harry wouldn't let them in, would he, Harry?" he asked the hotel owner. "Yes, he's right, sir. I can't stand queers. I won't let them in." "But . . . this is the Bull and Bush Inn. Do you think so?" Benton almost stammered, looking around.He felt himself having an unprecedented difficulty in speaking. "Yes, sir," replied Harry, the shopkeeper.At this time, his brows were more tightly frowned, and he squinted at Benton. "But--" "I'm sorry, old man," said stout Joe decisively, "but you've got the wrong place. It must be another hotel." After Joe finished speaking, he and the shop owner didn't turn their heads and ignored him.It seemed to Benton that there was something unnatural in their manner.Benton then walked away from the counter in a daze and walked towards the door, feeling that the two of them were staring at him.At this moment, those old lyrics in his memory appeared in his mind again: He wasn't there again today— Oh, how I wish he would go away from me! "Wait a minute, sir!" shouted the shopkeeper, suddenly remembering Benton's purpose. "Would you like a glass of beer, then?" "No!" replied Benton gruffly, and then he couldn't help adding, "You just give him the beer!—the next time he comes in..." Over the next month or so, Benton experienced some changes.To anyone who had known him before, these changes appeared striking.Among other things, in the first place he had completely broken two long-standing habits: first, he no longer sat in his compartment reading the newspaper when he took the train to work in the morning—for nearly nine years he had Always did this—now, for the first half hour of his journey, he wandered along the long aisle, peering into each compartment, with a mixture of confusion and apology on his face Second, he seldom eats lunch in the office anymore, but often goes out to wander the streets, where he can go to a convenient restaurant to have a drink and eat a sandwich. (But he was no longer at the Bull and Bush Inn, though he still managed to walk near it; if anyone was particularly interested in him, he might find Benton keeping an eye on it , almost as if it was being watched.) Summer gradually approached, but the strange man Benton had been worrying about did not reappear, and he stopped thinking about it, thinking it was just It belonged to what people called "daydreaming" or something, although he had never experienced such strange things before.Summer has entered its peak, and the hidden worries hidden in his heart have gradually faded away.In the end, he was convinced that those daydreams of his were gone forever. But he was wrong... If the first two unintended disasters were nothing more than dreams, then his third encounter can only be considered a nightmare! In July, the holidays were approaching, and Benton had already booked a vacation place for his wife in a luxurious and expensive seaside resort.It was a long way from the Midlands town he called home.They both go there for vacation every year.This annual "indulgence" allowed Benton to indulge in the escapist fantasies he usually suppressed.For a fortnight he could pretend that he was more than a mere clerk, and that his fantasies were intoxicated by the fact that the people he was on vacation with believed them to be real. He couldn't wait for the evening of the last Friday before the holiday.This moment finally made him look forward to it.He was very excited when he got on the commuter train home.Tomorrow he can go to the beach to play and sunbathe.The suitcases have been packed and the tickets have been bought.Get a good night's rest tonight--and then, tomorrow morning... He was whistling happily as he walked in the front door, but as soon as he stepped into the hall his whistle was out of tune.He stopped in frustration, wrinkled his nose and sniffed.He said aloud, "Hey, there must be something wrong with the drain again." But there was something peculiar about the hideous smell, which he found familiar--it was a bad omen.Immediately, not knowing what was going on, Benton felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.Out of thin air, there was a bone-piercing chill hitting him. He hurried from the hall into the living room, where the air seemed even worse.He paused again, and for a moment, a terrible memory flashed in his mind.He understood what this stench was all about, and he remembered where and when he had experienced it before. He saw a very familiar hat--a limp black wide-brimmed hat!It was thrown carelessly on the back of his own easy chair.Suddenly, he felt the whole room spinning around him! He seemed to be hypnotized, staring blankly at the hat—it grew bigger and bigger until it almost filled the whole house and his whole brain, but , trying to avert his gaze, broke the obsession, when a low, soft sound came from the upstairs bedroom: a moan of pain—or joy.Then he heard, in horror, a slight, unbelievably vile cluck, and he clearly recalled hearing it before.So he broke free from the shock like the invisible shackles, and rushed upstairs desperately. "Ellen!" He yelled and pushed the bedroom door open, just at this time there was a second whimpering sound—suddenly, his legs couldn't stand still, and he quickly put his hands on the wall. He didn't fall down, because the scene in the bedroom was a severe blow to him! The hunchback was completely naked, lying prone on Benton's bed with all four limbs sprawled, his deformed back with blue veins, disgustingly dirty.His matted hair fell forward over Ellen's white breasts, and his filthy hands moved like crabs over Ellen's arched flesh.Ellen closed her eyes and opened her lips, panting.There was a bohemian frivolity and sensuality about her.Her slender hands were convulsively grabbing the squirming shameless thigh of the hunchback... Benton yelled at the top of his lungs, pulling his hair frantically.His eyes were about to pop out of his head.For an instant, even time stopped.Then he rushed forward suddenly and grabbed the hunchback with his hands.A tremendous energy erupted from his body, and all the power of justice and vengeance was concentrated on his raised fingers—but at this moment, the hunchback slid off the other side of the bed, and Benton failed. catch him.Ruzi put on his clothes with unimaginable speed, and while Benton was stumbling across the room like a drunk to catch him, he turned and slid across the bed like a gray bat. .In the process, his face moved closer to Ellen's.Just as the hunchback jumped off the floor and rushed out of the room, Benton heard that unbearable slight clucking sound again. Benton was so angry that he couldn't care less about anything.He didn't notice that his wife's eyes suddenly narrowed into a slit, nor did he notice that a transparent film appeared on her eyes.Just as he was rushing after the hunchback, Ellen stuck out a bare leg and intentionally tripped him, causing him to fall so violently that he fell on the landing. He stood up, leaning against the railing of the terrace and gasping for breath, by this time the slut was at the entrance to the hall, his hat still drooping on his monstrous shoulders.Xiaozi glanced up at him, his eyes like a pair of daunting jewels against the shadow of his hat.The hunchback came out, closing the door softly behind him, and the last thing the tormented head of the household saw at this moment was that the hunchback's omniscient eyes blinked at him odiously again. one time! After about thirty or forty seconds, Benton chased him to the gate of the garden.Sure enough, the hunchback was nowhere to be seen... In the next two weeks, Benton often tried to recall the scene that happened in his house immediately after the hunchback left.But he couldn't find a solution that would satisfy him.He thought of his wild accusations against his wife, his hurtful words; After going to slap her, Ellen's red face showed an extremely shocked expression.He remembered Ellen's denial, and how she yelled after she locked herself in the bathroom: "Crazy! Crazy!" He waited until Monday—most of which he was in a state of bewilderment—to leave the house.He went to a local blacksmith shop and bought a sharp Italian long knife... It was the fourteenth day and Benton was still wandering the streets.He was scruffy and bearded.He was hungry, but his will was strong.Somewhere, somewhere, he believed, he would find the short fellow in the coat that was too big for him and the black hat that didn't droop.Once he's found, he's going to drive the long knife all the way into that hunchback's nasty belly, and he's going to take that wicked piggy out of those repulsively blinking eyes. Come on brains!Even when he was wandering the streets at night, he could still see in his mind those eyeballs shining like jewels, so fast, so bright, filled with muddy eyes; In Benton's nostrils, there still seemed to be a faint remnant of the stench emanating from the bastard with such a pair of eyeballs on his face. Besides, his mother's ditty kept haunting him: But, no, Benton no longer wanted that bastard far away from him.On the contrary, he is desperate to find him! Fourteen days, fourteen days of madness and trance.But in this state of insanity, a strong idea kept burning like a beacon.Who was that, for what, for what reason?Benton knew nothing, and he didn't want to know any more.But, always somewhere, always somewhere... From the first Tuesday after his waking nightmare that night, he took the commuter train every morning as usual. The special train, and wandering on the winding aisle of the train, looked viciously from the window of one of the compartments.Every day at lunch he waited at the door of a store across the street from the Bull and Bush Inn.Didn't leave until it was closing time.During the rest of those hours he walked the streets of every village between his home and the city.Because it's always somewhere, always somewhere... "Home," he tasted the word bitterly. "Home" - Ha!How ridiculous!And all this happened after eleven years of Qinser's harmonious marriage.Suddenly, he thought of Ellen again, then the hunchback, and then the scene when the two of them were together... Suddenly, a new idea flashed into his mind. Fourteen days—fourteen days including today—today is Saturday night!If this nightmare had never happened, where would he be now?Of course, he and his wife are coming home on the train together from the holidays! Will it- Benton looked at his watch, his hands trembling.Eight fifty!In just ten minutes, the nine o'clock train will arrive at the station! He eagerly looked around, but found that he had come to the small alley of the town where his home was located, and the ruthless reality broke his plan again.The wild light in his eyes slowly faded away.But when he realized that the alley he was in was only a few blocks from the train station, he had a strange smile on his face...Ellen and the hunchback didn't see him when they left the train station.Ellen wore high heels and a stylish outfit.The hunchback wore his ridiculous overcoat and limp black hat as usual.But Benton found them.They were arm in arm (which still looked utterly unbelievable), Ellen's face glowing like a young bride's, the dwarf filthy and reeking.Benton heard the unbearable rattling sound again, and he hid in the dark doorway, his chest clogged with anger, and he felt dizzy for a while. At this moment, the short man stopped and peered into the shadow where Benton crouched.Benton cursed himself and drew back.Even though the streets were empty, he didn't want anyone to know he was hiding here just yet. But they already knew he was here! The hunchback, with a curious air of chivalry, raised Ellen's hand to his lips and kissed it.A few whispered words were disgusting.Then, when Ellen walked away down the street without a word, he turned his head again and looked at the door of Benton's store with two firefly eyes.The person hiding inside couldn't bear it anymore, he rushed out suddenly, holding the shining big knife high in his hand.The hunchback fled in a panic along the cobbled street.The coat flapped behind him like the wings of a huge, crippled moth. Benton also galloped. He spread his legs with vengeful anger. The distance between them was shrinking rapidly. His breathing became more and more rapid, and he was getting closer and closer to the running hunchback.He held the long knife high in his hand, ready to give him a fatal blow at any time. In a blink of an eye, the dwarf turned a corner and slipped into an alley.Benton also rushed into the dark alley.His shoe slipped on the pebbles, and he swayed to a standstill, trying to catch his breath. silence... The dwarf disappeared without a trace again!he-- No, there he was - crouching in the shadows at the foot of the wall like a cornered mouse. Benton rushed forward, his knife drawing a bright arc as it stabbed the hunchback's chest.But the bastard dodged like quicksilver, and he squatted under Benton's arms and got out, and ran away towards the street again.There was only an echo of his terrible clucking sound. That weak cluck pushed Benton's frenzied desire to kill to a new climax.He can't care about anything now except desperately chasing after him.He followed the trail of the hunchback in hot pursuit.He rushed into the street, but he didn't see the taxi's lights, he didn't hear the taxi's loud horn--in fact, he was only vaguely aware of the screeching brakes and tires. The grinding sound on the ground—totally beyond his expectations.A burst of pitch-black unconsciousness rushed towards him... The pitch-black turbidity was fleeting.Benton came back from a coma and found himself huddled in a ball in a street ditch.Blood was running down his face and there was a rumble in his ears.The street revolved round and round around him. "Oh, my God!" he moaned, his words broken and muffled like his body.Afterwards, he felt the street leveled off and stopped spinning.A terrible dull pain stretched from Benton's waist up to his head and neck.He struggled, trying to move his body, but he couldn't.Hearing the chaotic footsteps, he turned his head and stuck his head out of the gutter with effort and pain.Blood dripped from a torn ear.He wiggled one arm slightly, his fingers twitching. "My God, sir, what were you doing--what were you doing?" asked the taxi driver hurriedly and vaguely. "Oh, my God--God, you're hurt--you're hurt. It's not my fault--I didn't do it!" "It doesn't... um... matter," Benton panted.A new burst of pain broke out in his lower body, and he was on the verge of passing out again. "You just...just take me—uh—into...your car, the...hospital or...doctor." "Okay, sure!" The driver said loudly, and immediately knelt down. Had Benton's nose not been clogged with snot and drying blood, he would never have known the hunchback was there until he heard the horrible clucking from the pavement.On hearing the sound, under the circumstances, he turned his bruised head around with all his might, which caused him another pang of excruciating pain.He looked up, and in the shadows under the floppy hat, two lights were staring down at him. "Uh... I think, uh... you're... satisfied now?" he asked bitterly, as his hands fumbled vainly for the knife, but it had fallen. In the heart of the street. Then he froze.In spite of his body aches--despite the pain of his wounds--the sight of the hunchback shaking his shadowed head slowly, in refutation of his staccato question Answering, Benton's entire body and consciousness froze! Benton lay in the gutter, watching in despair those familiar tricks--memory of scenes from the past now indelible in his mind--again before him: the hunchback to the taxi. The driver whispered dirty words into his ears, his bright bird eyes blinked, and the bewildered look on the frightened driver's face spread out like gray mud.Benton couldn't help being dumbfounded, so surprised that he could only open his mouth wide in horror, and even completely forgot about his excruciating pain.Watching the taxi driver sleepwalk back to his car, Benton felt the street begin to spin around him again. Benton tried to shout, but all he could get was a shaky cough.His hand twitched to the hunched, filthy anklebone, and he clung to it desperately.The scorpion stood there motionless, like a stone, like an iron stake.本顿挣扎着血肉模糊的身体，徒劳无益地想要站立起来。这时，他们周围的大街再一次平稳下来，不再旋转了。可是他站立不起来，他的背不听使唤，脊背上有个部位被车子撞断了。他咳嗽起来，接着又呻吟着松开了手。他的两眼再一次向上望去，眼光和那驼子的凝视相遇。 “请……”他说道。但是他的话淹没在突然启动的引擎声里、淹没在猛烈地倒转的车轮所发出的尖厉的打滑声里了。除了隐隐约约的出租汽车的巨大黑影和它的红色尾灯以外，本顿看到的最后一个场面就是：在那对邪恶的眼睛里，其中有一只倏然合上，以此来向他告别……几分钟后，警察来到了现场。这是得由他们处理的一件最为费解的人命事故。他们是被一个头发苍白、精神完全失常了的出租汽车司机的疯狂叫喊吸引过来的。