Chapter 57 damn thing

There was a candle on the edge of the simple table, and a man was reading a notebook with the help of the dim candlelight.It's an old notepad, quite worn out.Apparently, the handwriting was also very illegible.Helpless, the man brought the notebook closer to the candle from time to time in order to see it more clearly.The shadow cast by the notepad covered half the room, darkening the faces and bodies of many.In addition to the man reading the notepad, there were eight other people present in the room.Seven of them sat quietly against the crude wooden wall, completely motionless.Because the house is small, they actually sit not far from the table, and any one of them can touch the eighth person just by stretching out their arms.The man was lying face up on a table, covered with a sheet, with his arms exposed, dead.

The person holding the book was reading quietly, no one spoke, everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen, only the dead person remained indifferent.From the empty darkness outside, through the crack of the window, there are all kinds of strange calls in the wilderness-the indescribable long howl of the wild wolf; the rhythmic call of the tireless insects in the trees; And the strange chirping of night birds; the humming of great beetles.All these voices formed a mysterious chorus, and suddenly they stopped abruptly, as if they too were aware of their indiscretion.But all this in no way distracted the group from being too preoccupied with their frivolous hobbies at the moment, and the expression of concentration was revealed from every wrinkle on their faces—even in the light of a candle. exposed in dim light.Apparently, they were local farmers and loggers.

The man who read was a little different, and people said he was worldly.Although, as evidenced by his attire, he bears a certain resemblance to those around him.His coat is almost unqualified in San Francisco, his shoes and socks are not like a city man, and his hat is on the floor next to him. He is the only one without a hat. If anyone thinks that If it's just a personal ornament, then he doesn't understand the meaning of the hat.In appearance the man was very agreeable, though he had a certain severity, which, though it may have been feigned or tempered, was befitting his official position, for he was a coroner.It was because of his official position that he held the book he was reading, one of the relics of the deceased, which had been found in his cabin.And the interrogation at this moment is going on in this cabin.

When the coroner had read it, he put the book in his breast pocket.At this moment the door was pushed open and a young man entered.Obviously he is not from the mountains in this area. Judging from his clothes, he lives in the city.His clothes were dusty, and he had evidently traveled arduously to attend the interrogation. The coroner nodded to him, but none of the others greeted him. "We are waiting for you," said the coroner, "and this must be dealt with this evening." The young man smiled, "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said, "I ran out, not to avoid your subpoena, but to send a report to my newspaper, and I want to come back and explain what was speculated in the report. content."

The coroner laughed. "What you're mailing to your newspaper is likely to be nothing like what you're going to say here under your oath." "Then," the young man blushed suddenly, and he replied excitedly: "You can do whatever you want. I wrote it on carbon paper and sent out a copy. What I wrote was not a news report, but a novel, because of this incident It's unbelievable. I swear, what I wrote is part of my evidence." "But you say it's unbelievable." "That's none of your business, sir, and it's true if I swear."

The coroner was silent for a moment, his eyes on the floor, and the people in the cabin were talking in low tones, but most of their eyes were on the dead body. After a while, the coroner raised his eyes and said: "Let's continue the interrogation." People took off their hats, new witnesses swore. "What's your name?" asked the coroner. "William Harker." "How old are you?" "Twenty-seven years old." "Did you know the dead Hadji Morgan?" "know." "Were you with him when he died?" "It's near him."

"What happened?—I mean, while you were there." "I came here to invite him to go hunting and fishing. Of course, another part of my vision was to know and study his temper and his solitary life. He seemed a good type as a character in a novel. I sometimes write writing a novel." "I read it occasionally." "thanks." "The novels I read are generally not written by you." The jury roared with laughter.Against a dull background, humor shows its charm.For example, between wars, soldiers are easy to laugh. In the execution room of the death row, a joke will unexpectedly ease the serious atmosphere.

"Regarding the circumstances of this person's death," said the coroner, "you may use any notes or memorandums you may make available." William understood what the coroner meant, and he took a manuscript from his breast pocket, held it to the candle, turned it over, and found the passage he wanted to read. "...the sun hadn't risen when we left the house. We were hunting for quail, all guns in hand, but we had only one dog. Our best hunting range was behind that hill, Morgan said, He pointed. We were going to follow a path through the undergrowth to the other side of the hill. Across the hill was a plain covered with a thick layer of wild oats. When we came out of the undergrowth, Morgan was A few yards ahead of me. Suddenly we heard the sounds of animals fighting in the bushes ahead to our right, which aroused us quite a bit.

"'We startled a deer,' said I, 'if only we had our rifles.' "Morgan stopped and stared intently at the unusually moving undergrowth, without saying a word, then erected the barrels of both guns, ready to aim at the target. He seemed a little excited at the time, which made me feel strange , because he is usually extremely calm, even in critical moments of emergencies. "'Oh, come on,' said I, 'you ain't going to use the quail gun on the deer, are you?' "He still didn't answer, but when he turned around and faced me, I paid attention to his face, and I was shocked by the intense expression. Only then did I understand that we had encountered something serious, and I My first feeling was that we had come across a grizzly. I ran up to Morgan as I pulled the bolt.

"There was no sound in the bush by this time, but Morgan kept his eye on the place as before. "'Damn it!' he replied, without turning his head. His voice was hoarse and unnatural, and he was visibly trembling. "I was about to speak when I saw, in that disturbing place, near by a clump of wild oats, which was moving in the most inexplicable way, and I was momentarily stunned. It seemed to have been stirred up by a gust of wind, which The gust of wind not only bent the wild oats, but held them down so that it could no longer stand up. The trace of the wild oats' fall was slowly extending, and it was moving straight towards us.

"I've never seen anything so weird and indescribable. Also, I can't recall any feeling of fear at the time. I remember - bringing this up here because it's so strange - that my Remembrances of previous similar phenomena—I used to look out of an open window carelessly: I kept mistaking a small tree so close at hand for one in the jungle a little farther away, and they It appears to be the same size, but on the whole the tree stands out more clearly, and the branches seem more distinct. This is purely an illusion of spatial perspective, but it astonishes me, and almost terrifies me, So much is our trust in the normal workings of the familiar laws of nature that any apparent pause becomes a threat to our safety, a warning of an unimaginable disaster. So now the vegetation is visibly devoid of It was moving slowly and steadily towards us, certainly disturbing. My companion looked very frightened when I saw him with his gun slung over his shoulder, heading towards the pile of I was startled when the quivering oat-bush fired, and the smoke hadn't cleared away when I heard a ferocious growl, like the cry of a wild animal—Morgan threw the gun on the ground and turned around. Run. At the same moment, I was thrown violently to the ground by a huge impact invisible in the smoke-something soft and heavy seemed to be sprayed at me rapidly. "Before I got up and retrieved my gun, the gun had already been shaken out of my hand, and I heard Morgan's cry, which seemed to be a cry of pain before death, and the hoarse, fierce voice reminded people of a fight. Dog. An indescribable terror seized me, and I struggled to look toward Morgan, God, forgive me! My friend was not thirty yards from me, and he was on his knees The angle between the head and the body is very scary, there is no hat on the head, the long hair is messy, the whole body moves back and forth in a violent way, his right arm is raised, it seems that there is no hand - at least, I couldn't see, and I couldn't see the other arm. Now, I'm narrating this particular scene from my own memory. At that time, I could only see part of his body, and part of his body seemed to no longer exist. —I can't put it in any other way—then he shifted, and the part of his body that was missing reappeared. "All of this seemed to happen in a matter of seconds. At that point, however, Morgan took the same stance as any determined wrestler, but he ended up being crushed by a weight and strength that he absolutely couldn't beat. At the time I saw nothing but Morgan, and it wasn't always clear to see him. Throughout the incident, I heard him yelling and cursing, so fierce and shrill that it seemed to come from within the hard shell I have never heard such a terrible sound from the throat of a man, or even a beast! "I stood there hesitantly for a while. Then, dropping the gun, I ran to help my friend. I had a vague idea that he was having a seizure, perhaps one of the convulsions. But before I could see him When I was around, he had fallen and was quiet. There was no sound around. At this time, I saw a scene ten times more terrifying than everything that had just happened-I saw the wild oats moving towards the edge of the forest again. Moving mysteriously, it was stretching out from where the lying man had made a mess, and I didn't look away until it got into the woods. Then I looked at my partner, and he was dead." The coroner got up and walked over to the body, and he lifted the sheet, exposing the body in its entirety.It was completely naked, showing a khaki color under the candlelight. The bruises were caused by bruises and bruises. The chest and sides seemed to have been hit with a bludgeon. There were fatal wounds there, and the skin was torn. The coroner went across the table and unwound a silk handkerchief which had passed under the deceased's jaw and tied a knot at the top of his head.After the handkerchief was removed, the throat of the deceased was exposed.Some jurors leaned over to see what happened.Then Huck the Witness walked up to an open window and leaned on the sill, looking weak and pale.The coroner put the handkerchief around the neck of the dead man, and going to the corner of the room, he selected a few clothes from a pile, all of which were frayed and stained with blood.The jurors didn't come over and take a closer look, they weren't interested.In fact, they had seen it all, and the only thing of interest to them was hearing Harker's testimony. "Gentlemen," said the coroner, "I think we have no further evidence. I have explained your duties, and if there is no question, you may go out and consider your sentence." The foreman stood up. He was a tall man: in his sixties, with a full beard and rather poor clothes. "I would like to ask a question, Mr. Coroner," said he, "from where did this witness finally escape?" "Mr Harker," said the coroner gravely and calmly, "what was your last escape?" Huck blushed again and made no answer.The seven jurors stood up and filed out of the cabin solemnly. "If you mean to injure my dignity, sir," said Huck, when he and the coroner stayed with the deceased, "I think I have a right to go now." "You go." Huck really meant to go, but he stopped again, his hand on the latch, his professional habits stronger than his pride, and he turned and said: "This notebook you're holding in your hand—I know it's Morgan's diary, and you seem to be very interested in it, and you were looking at it while I was giving my testimony. May I see it? The public wants to know— " "This notebook has nothing to do with the case," replied the coroner, putting it hastily into the pocket of his coat. "All the details in it were written by the author before his death." As Huck stepped out of the house, the jury re-entered, standing at the table.On the table lay the dead body, covered with a very bright sheet.The foreman himself, seated by the candle, took from his breast a pencil, and a scrap of paper, and with some difficulty wrote on it the following verdict, which was signed by all seven members of the jury, They all took some pains to sign. "We the jury did find that the body died at the foot of a mountain. We all thought he died of convulsions." In the diaries of the late Hadji Morgan there are certain interesting entries which may well be of scientific value as explanations.The notebook was not present when his body was examined.It is likely that the coroner misled the jury by considering it of no value. The earliest part of the diary can no longer be found, the upper part of the page has also been torn off, and the following content is written on the remaining paper: "...it ran half a circle, with its head always facing the center of the circle. When it stopped again, it barked continuously, and finally ran into the bushes quickly. I thought it was crazy at first, but when I went back to the room, I found it apparently motivated by fear of punishment. "Can a dog sniff out something with its nose? Can the exuded smell impress the center of the brain with some kind of image?  … "September 2nd - Last night I watched the stars as they rose over the ridge east of the house and watched them disappear one after the other - from left to right each at the same time but briefly, only a few stars at a time. Along the entire curve of the ridge, all the stars disappeared within a degree or a few degrees of the back of the mountain. Something seemed to pass between me and them for a moment. Gone, but I can't see. The stars are not so dense that I can't define their outlines. Ah! Who likes that." The account was missing pages for the next several weeks, three of which were torn from it. "September 27th - it came again - I can see it every day. Last night, I was on the watch all night in the shelter with a gun in my hand with double the amount of Buckshot. This morning, I saw fresh footprints again. I cursed it for keeping me awake--indeed, I hardly slept at all. Such a horrible experience was unbearable! If these strange things If they are all true, then I am going mad; if they are indeed the product of my imagination, then I am already mad. "October 3rd - I don't want to leave, it can't drive me away, no, this is my house, my land, God hates cowards... "October 5th - I can't take it anymore, I've invited Huck to join me for a few weeks - he has a cool head and I can tell from his attitude if he thinks I'm crazy up. "October 7th—I have a solution to this mysterious haunting thing. Last night, the idea came suddenly. It was like a revelation from God, so simple—how terribly simple! "There are some sounds that we humans cannot hear. The high and low sounds at the extreme ends of the scale cannot arouse the sense of the human ear, which is a defective instrument. I have observed a large group of crows scattered on the top of several trees, They all flew up at exactly the same moment. What's going on? It's impossible for these crows to see each other because of the treetops blocking the view, and it's impossible for the leader crow to be in the same position no matter how prominent it stands. It is within sight of all its subordinates. Then there must be a warning or command signal among them, which is louder than normal noise, and the human ear cannot hear it. I have also observed other birds, such as quail , they are scattered in the vast jungle, even on the other side of the mountain, they will all fly to the sky at the same time. "Sailors at sea are all familiar with this scene-on the sea miles away from the ship across the island, groups of whales can be seen cheering and playing, and suddenly, they all dive underwater and disappear in an instant. Disappeared. The signal from the school of whales was too low for the sailors' ears, but they felt it from the tremors of the ship's hull. It was like the low notes of an instrument playing in an empty cathedral. There is a reason behind the aftershocks stirred up in the stones of the wall. "Like sound, color also exists in nature in wonderful ways. Chemists can measure through instruments. At each end of the solar spectrum, there are 'actinic rays' invisible to the naked eye. They mix And the human eye is a flawed instrument, and the human eye can only see a small part of the spectrum. I'm not crazy, because there are many colors that humans can't see . "Oh, God help me, that's exactly the color of the damned thing."