Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
The jail before the river!" called a cool, sharp, sour voice; and on the edge of the trembling platform overhanging the river, Hugo Stolphe was dragged back from the plunge downward he was about to take, with Jean Jacques' hand at his throat.
Suddenly Stolphe laughed outright, a crackling, mirthless, ironical laugh; for it really was absurdity made sublime that this man, who had been abandoned by his wife, should now want to kill one who had abandoned her! This outdid Don Quixote over and over. "Well, what do you want?" he asked. "I want you to fight," said Jean Jacques. "That is the way. That was Carmen's view.
Jean Jacques was smaller than Stolphe, but he was all whipcord and leather; the other was sleek and soft, but powerful too; and he had one of those savage natures which go blind with hatred, and which fight like beasts. He glanced swiftly round the room. "There is no weapon here," said Jean Jacques, nodding. "I have put everything away so you could not hurt me if you wanted. . . . Sit down!"
To gain time Stolphe sat down, for he had a fear that Jean Jacques was armed, and might be a madman armed there were his feet bare on the brown painted boards. They looked so strange, so uncanny.
You shall have your chance to live, but I shall throw you in the river, and you can then fight the river. The current is swift, the banks are steep and high as a house down below there. Now, I am ready. . . . !" He had need to be, for Stolphe was quick, kicking the chair from beneath him, and throwing himself heavily on Jean Jacques.
Stolphe had heard the door of the bedroom forced, but Jean Jacques had not heard it; he was only conscious of hands dragging him back just at the moment of Stolphe's deadly peril. "What is it?" asked Jean Jacques, seeing Stolphe in the hands of two men, and hearing the snap of steel.
He surely must be a madman if he wanted to do harm to Hugo Stolphe; for Hugo Stolphe had only "kept" the woman who had left her husband, not because of himself, but because of another man altogether one George Masson. Had not Carmen herself told him that before she and he lived together? What grudge could Carmen's husband have against Hugo Stolphe?
To gain time Stolphe sat down, for he had a fear that Jean Jacques was armed, and might be a madman armed there were his feet bare on the brown painted boards. They looked so strange, so uncanny.
"Wanted for firing a house for insurance wanted for falsifying the accounts of a Land Company wanted for his own good, Mr. Hugo Stolphe, C.O.D. collect on delivery!" said the officer of the law. "And collected just in time!"
"My wife always and always and at the last there in my arms." Stolphe temporized. "I never knew you. She did not leave you because of me. She came to me because because I was there for her to come to, and you weren't there. Why do you want to do me any harm?" He still must be careful, for undoubtedly the man was mad his eyes were too bright.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking