福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第11章Part11

"Well, you had best give me a night or two that I may see the house and make my plans. Then--"
"Very good," said McGinty, shaking him by the hand. "I leave it with you. It will be a great day when you bring us the news. It's just the last stroke that will bring them all to their knees."
McMurdo thought long and deeply over the commission which had been so suddenly placed in his hands. The isolated house in which Chester Wilcox lived was about five miles off in an adjacent valley. That very night he started off all alone to prepare for the attempt. It was daylight before he returned from his reconnaissance. Next day he interviewed his two subordinates, Manders and Reilly, reckless youngsters who were as elated as if it were a deer-hunt.
Two nights later they met outside the town, all three armed, and one of them carrying a sack stuffed with the powder which was used in the quarries. It was two in the morning before they came to the lonely house. The night was a windy one, with broken clouds drifting swiftly across the face of a three-quarter moon. They had been warned to be on their guard against bloodhounds; so they moved forward cautiously, with their pistols cocked in their hands. But there was no sound save the howling of the wind, and no movement but the swaying branches above them.
McMurdo listened at the door of the lonely house; but all was still within. Then he leaned the powder bag against it, ripped a hole in it with his knife, and attached the fuse. When it was well alight he and his two companions took to their heels, and were some distance off, safe and snug in a sheltering ditch, before the shattering roar of the explosion, with the low, deep rumble of the collapsing building, told them that their work was done. No cleaner job had ever been carried out in the bloodstained annals of the society.
But alas that work so well organized and boldly carried out should all have gone for nothing! Warned by the fate of the various victims, and knowing that he was marked down for destruction, Chester Wilcox had moved himself and his family only the day before to some safer and less known quarters, where a guard of police should watch over them. It was an empty house which had been torn down by the gunpowder, and the grim old colour sergeant of the war was still teaching discipline to the miners of Iron Dike.
"Leave him to me," said McMurdo. "He's my man, and I'll get him sure if I have to wait a year for him."
A vote of thanks and confidence was passed in full lodge, and so for the time the matter ended. When a few weeks later it was reported in the papers that Wilcox had been shot at from an ambuscade, it was an open secret that McMurdo was still at work upon his unfinished job.
Such were the methods of the Society of Freemen, and such were the deeds of the Scowrers by which they spread their rule of fear over the great and rich district which was for so long a period haunted by their terrible presence. Why should these pages be stained by further crimes? Have I not said enough to show the men and their methods?
These deeds are written in history, and there are records wherein one may read the details of them. There one may learn of the shooting of Policemen Hunt and Evans because they had ventured to arrest two members of the society--a double outrage planned at the Vermissa lodge and carried out in cold blood upon two helpless and disarmed men. There also one may read of the shooting of Mrs. Larbey when she was nursing her husband, who had been beaten almost to death by orders of Boss McGinty. The killing of the elder Jenkins, shortly followed by that of his brother, the mutilation of James Murdoch, the blowing up of the Staphouse family, and the murder of the Stendals all followed hard upon one another in the same terrible winter.
Darkly the shadow lay upon the Valley of Fear. The spring had come with running brooks and blossoming trees. There was hope for all Nature bound so long in an iron grip; but nowhere was there any hope for the men and women who lived under the yoke of the terror. Never had the cloud above them been so dark and hopeless as in the early summer of the year 1875.

“啊，你最好給我一兩個晚上時間，我可以看看這所房子，擬定計劃，然後……”
“太好了，"麥金蒂和他握手，說道，“我把這事交給你了。你把消息帶回來時，我們就要很好慶祝。這正是最後的一着，使他們全都向我們屈膝。”
麥克默多突然接受這樣的委託，不由久久地深思。切斯特·威爾科克斯居住的孤零零的房屋，在鄰近的山谷裏，離這裏有五英里左右。就在這天夜晚，麥克默多獨自一人去爲暗殺活動做準備。他偵察完情況回來時，天色已經大亮。第二天他去看他的兩個助手曼德斯和賴利，這是兩個鹵莽輕率的年輕人，他們興高采烈，彷彿要去打圍逐鹿一樣。
兩夜以後，他們在鎮外相會，三個人都帶了武器，其中一人帶了一袋採石場用的炸藥。他們來到這所孤零零的房前時，已是半夜兩點鐘。夜裏風勢迅猛，亂雲急馳，半輪明月時隱時現。他們深恐有獵犬出來，十分小心地向前走去，手中的槍機頭大張。可是隻聽疾風怒吼，別無聲息，只見樹枝搖曳，毫無動靜。
麥克默多站在這所孤零零的房屋門外靜聽了一陣，裏面寂靜無聲，便把炸藥包放到門邊，用小刀挖了一個小洞，點燃了導火索，和兩個同夥走到遠處安全地帶，伏在溝裏觀看。炸藥爆炸的轟鳴聲以及房屋倒坍的低沉的隆隆聲，說明他們已經完成了任務。在這個社團的血腥史上還從來不曾有過這麼幹淨利落的傑作呢。
然而，可惜他們的精心策劃和大膽執行都白費了！原來切斯特·威爾科克斯聽到許多人被害的消息，知道死酷黨人也要來謀害自己，就在前一天把家搬到比較安全而又無人知曉的地方去了。那裏還有一隊警察防守。炸藥所炸燬的只是一所空房子，而這位剛毅堅強的老海軍陸戰隊上士依然嚴格地管理戴克鋼鐵廠的礦工。
“待我來收拾他，"麥克默多說道，“把他交給我，即使我等他一年，也一定結果他。”
會裏的人都對他表示感激和信任，於是這件事就暫時結束了。幾星期以後，報上報道說，威爾科克斯被人暗殺。而麥克默多在繼續完成他未結束的工作，這已經是人所周知的了。
這就是自由人會所用的一些手法，這就是死酷黨人的所作所爲。他們對這一廣袤富庶的地區施行着恐怖的統治，而由於存在着死酷黨人的恐怖行動，長期以來，人們總是提心吊膽地生活着。爲什麼用這麼多罪惡的事實來玷污這些紙張呢？難道我還沒有完全說清這些人和他們的手法嗎？
這些人的所作所爲已經載入歷史，人們可以從記載裏看到詳細情節。讀者可以在那裏看到，他們還槍殺警察亨特和伊萬斯，因爲他們竟斗膽逮捕過兩個死酷黨徒——這兩件暴行是維爾米薩分會策劃的，並且殘忍地殺害了兩名孤立無援手無寸鐵的人；讀者還可以讀到，拉貝太太被槍殺，因爲首領麥金蒂命人將她丈夫打得半死，她緊抱着丈夫不放；老詹金斯被害，不久他弟弟也慘遭殺害；詹姆斯·默多克被弄得肢體殘廢；斯塔普霍斯全家被炸；斯坦德魯斯被謀殺；慘案一件接一件地發生在這恐怖的寒冬裏。
陰霾暗無天日地籠罩着恐怖谷。春天來了，溪水潺潺，草木發芽。長時間受到束縛的大自然恢復了生氣；可是生活在恐怖之中的男女卻依然毫無希望。他們頭上的陰雲從未象一八七五年初夏那樣黑暗而令人絕望。