登陆注册
26298800000009

第9章 CHAPTER III(1)

So he thinks he shall take to the sea again For one more cruise with his buccaneers, To singe the beard of the King of Spain, And capture another Dean of Jaen And sell him in Algiers.--A Dutch Picture. Longfellow THE SOUDAN campaign and ****'s broken head had been some months ended and mended, and the Central Southern Syndicate had paid **** a certain sum on account for work done, which work they were careful to assure him was not altogether up to their standard. **** heaved the letter into the Nile at Cairo, cashed the draft in the same town, and bade a warm farewell to Torpenhow at the station.

'I am going to lie up for a while and rest,' said Torpenhow. 'I don't know where I shall live in London, but if God brings us to meet, we shall meet.

Are you starying here on the off-chance of another row? There will be none till the Southern Soudan is reoccupied by our troops. Mark that.

Good-bye; bless you; come back when your money's spent; and give me your address.'

**** loitered in Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia, and Port Said,--especially Port Said. There is iniquity in many parts of the world, and vice in all, but the concentrated essence of all the iniquities and all the vices in all the continents finds itself at Port Said. And through the heart of that sand-bordered hell, where the mirage flickers day long above the Bitter Lake, move, if you will only wait, most of the men and women you have known in this life. **** established himself in quarters more riotous than respectable. He spent his evenings on the quay, and boarded many ships, and saw very many friends,--gracious Englishwomen with whom he had talked not too wisely in the veranda of Shepherd's Hotel, hurrying war correspondents, skippers of the contract troop-ships employed in the campaign, army officers by the score, and others of less reputable trades.

He had choice of all the races of the East and West for studies, and the advantage of seeing his subjects under the influence of strong excitement, at the gaming-tables, saloons, dancing-hells, and elsewhere. For recreation there was the straight vista of the Canal, the blazing sands, the procession of shipping, and the white hospitals where the English soldiers lay. He strove to set down in black and white and colour all that Providence sent him, and when that supply was ended sought about for fresh material. It was a fascinating employment, but it ran away with his money, and he had drawn in advance the hundred and twenty pounds to which he was entitled yearly. 'Now I shall have to work and starve!' thought he, and was addressing himself to this new fate when a mysterious telegram arrived from Torpenhow in England, which said, 'Come back, quick; you have caught on. Come.'

A large smile overspread his face. 'So soon! that's a good hearing,' said he to himself. 'There will be an orgy to-night. I'll stand or fall by my luck. Faith, it's time it came!' He deposited half of his funds in the hands of his well-known friends Monsieur and Madame Binat, and ordered himself a Zanzibar dance of the finest. Monsieur Binat was shaking with drink, but Madame smiles sympathetically--'Monsieur needs a chair, of course, and of course Monsieur will sketch;Monsieur amuses himself strangely.'

Binat raised a blue-white face from a cot in the inner room. 'Iunderstand,' he quavered. 'We all know Monsieur. Monsieur is an artist, as I have been.' **** nodded. 'In the end,' said Binat, with gravity, 'Monsieur will descend alive into hell, as I have descended.' And he laughed.

'You must come to the dance, too,' said ****; 'I shall want you.'

'For my face? I knew it would be so. For my face? My God! and for my degradation so tremendous! I will not. Take him away. He is a devil. Or at least do thou, Celeste, demand of him more.' The excellent Binat began to kick and scream.

'All things are for sale in Port Said,' said Madame. 'If my husband comes it will be so much more. Eh, 'how you call--'alf a sovereign.'

The money was paid, and the mad dance was held at night in a walled courtyard at the back of Madame Binat's house. The lady herself, in faded mauve silk always about to slide from her yellow shoulders, played the piano, and to the tin-pot music of a Western waltz the naked Zanzibari girls danced furiously by the light of kerosene lamps. Binat sat upon a chair and stared with eyes that saw nothing, till the whirl of the dance and the clang of the rattling piano stole into the drink that took the place of blood in his veins, and his face glistened. **** took him by the chin brutally and turned that face to the light. Madame Binat looked over her shoulder and smiled with many teeth. **** leaned against the wall and sketched for an hour, till the kerosene lamps began to smell, and the girls threw themselves panting on the hard-beaten ground. Then he shut his book with a snap and moved away, Binat plucking feebly at his elbow. 'Show me,' he whimpered. 'I too was once an artist, even I!' **** showed him the rough sketch. 'Am I that?' he screamed. 'Will you take that away with you and show all the world that it is I,--Binat?' He moaned and wept.

'Monsieur has paid for all,' said Madame. 'To the pleasure of seeing Monsieur again.'

The courtyard gate shut, and **** hurried up the sandy street to the nearest gambling-hell, where he was well known. 'If the luck holds, it's an omen; if I lose, I must stay here.' He placed his money picturesquely about the board, hardly daring to look at what he did. The luck held.

Three turns of the wheel left him richer by twenty pounds, and he went down to the shipping to make friends with the captain of a decayed cargo-steamer, who landed him in London with fewer pounds in his pocket than he cared to think about.

A thin gray fog hung over the city, and the streets were very cold; for summer was in England.

'It's a cheerful wilderness, and it hasn't the knack of altering much,' **** thought, as he tramped from the Docks westward. 'Now, what must Ido?'

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 中国商帮600年

    中国商帮600年

    这是一部追溯中国商帮600年变迁的大著作。
  • 传奇系列混沌

    传奇系列混沌

    暗藏的毁灭计划!传奇系列第一部!改变世界的两种方式!以日记的形式开始每一天的生活!
  • 都市之国术系统

    都市之国术系统

    郭树得到了国术系统,拳震七大洲五大洋,弘扬传统国术,从此走上一条教练之路。牛牪犇逼的人生即将开启……国术即国内传统武术,止戈为武,通过武的方式来强身健体、保家卫国。满地打滚、卖萌求打赏,求收藏,求推荐~~
  • 万法蛊神

    万法蛊神

    当某个家族少爷为自己灵气境所需的各种灵药发愁时,辰逸已经懒得收下那些年份低于千年的‘草本植物’了。当某个绝世天才为自己元气境的兽魂早作打算时,辰逸已经苏醒了第五只属于自己的远古毒灵。在外人眼里,辰逸是一位救人无数的医者,但很可惜“比起救人,我更擅长杀人!”辰逸。一条修毒至神的道路...
  • 易生只要你安好

    易生只要你安好

    简介:【四年的时光,我们都还安好。“千玺,我眼睛好了。”她康复了,她说她即将离开,却被卷入一场大风暴,最后,他问她:“岳安安,你还是那安好吗?”最后的最后,他低声问她:“你怕吗?”她笑道:“怕,但我还有你。”】
  • 另一半是外星人

    另一半是外星人

    这是一个地球老婆受不了外星老公的死脑筋,一心想离婚却被法院拒绝受理的囧囧故事。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 阴疯

    阴疯

    阴疯非仙非道非佛非灵。阴疯,民间称为某种精神病。《阴疯》讲的是二个女孩成阴疯记,故事的女主角历多事成阴疯,女二号早早成疯。故事中各方面为图一利,使手段致疯。其中内外各势力力角的故事穿插其中,影出社会一面。
  • 细痒

    细痒

    他爱我,我爱你,你爱她,她爱他,最痛的故事情节上演,缠绵不休细细疼痒,网友杜撰分娩为12级痛,爱情是种毒药,当毒性爆发会疼的人失去活下的执念,但是熬过去往后想起,骨头里还带着恐惧的后遗症,残余的毒液细细发痒。
  • 秘藏通玄变化六阴洞微遁甲真经

    秘藏通玄变化六阴洞微遁甲真经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 阅读现代——论鲁迅与中国现代文学

    阅读现代——论鲁迅与中国现代文学

    本书分“中国现代文学史的若干问题”、“鲁迅的思想与作品”、“其他中国现代作家作品阅读记录”、“中国现代文学与西方文化问题”四卷,收录了《赋与中国现代新诗》、《郭沫若与巴蜀文化》、《鲁迅旧诗新论》等28篇文章。