For twenty-two years Mark Melcher had walked from his drugstore to his house at exactly five o'clock. Methodical1, Mark was. For twenty-two years he had been greeted respectfully along the way by men and women who had grown old with him. Dignified2, Mark was. For twenty-two years he had stopped to pat the heads of children, and give them penny candies. Kindly, Mark was. “Wouldn't hurt a fly,” as Bob Barstow, the sheriff3, often said.
Mark was Willowville's best-loved citizen, all right. People came to him with their troubles. Behind his old, dusty prescription4 counter he listened to the secrets of human beings who trusted him. He had a way about him, Mark had, so that you listened to his advice, and carried it out, and found yourself the better for it.
Emily Holden was a mighty pretty girl of about twenty-two. The schoolteacher, and a good one. Even the pupils liked her. She had come to Willowville early in September and by Christmas she was dead in love with Andrew Fellows. Old Man Fellows—he wasn't so very old, though, if you come to think of it was the richest man in town and head of the school board. So, naturally, he saw a lot of Emily Holden. She went up to his house now and then to talk over school matters, and it was plain to see, after a spell5, that she was gone over6 him. Not just in love, you understand, but crazy about him—like some women get over a man.
Well, Emily came into Mark Melcher's drugstore one day and got behind the prescription counter and began to talk on something awful. Mark listened to her story, and while she was telling it his eyes got to looking mighty ugly.
“And you say Andrew Fellows is the man?” he demanded when she got through7.
“Oh, I have been such a fool!” Emily sobbed. “But I loved him so, and he promised to marry me. And now he threatens to tell something he says he knows about me, Mr. Melcher. Something he says is terrible. Oh, what shall I do, Mr. Melcher?”
Mark put his arms around Emily Holden and held her close and cried. It was awful. Pretty soon he pulled himself together8 and went to the bank and cashed a fat check9. Then he came back and gave Emily the money.
“You go,” he said, “to this address”—he gave her the name of somebody in New York —“and tell the lady there all about it. Tell her Mark Melcher sent you. And don't you ever come back to Willowville, Emily.”
Emily insisted she couldn't take the money, of course. But Mark just took her in his arms and kissed her mighty tenderly10 and made her do it. Then, when she had gone, he got behind his prescription counter again and waited.
He had made up his mind to kill Old Man Fellows, to confess11, and to let them hang him if they wanted to.
Pretty soon Old Man Fellows came in to ask for some of the eyewash12 he usually bought. “Got a new kind, Andrew,” Mark said slowly. “Smells nice, too.” He went behind the counter and got a half ounce of prussic acid13.“ The pure stuff, undiluted14.” Then he let Old Man Fellows take a little whiff15 of it.
“Smells sort of like peach blossoms16,” said Old Man Fellows. “Kind of nice, isn't it?”
“It's nice,” said Mark, “and just as good for the eyes as it smells. I've only got this much, but I'll let you have it, same price as the other.”
Old Man Fellows smiled. Mark did too, for he knew that a single drop of pure prussic acid inside the eye would kill Old Man Fellows almost as quick as lightning17.
Old Man Fellows paid over his money and started to leave. It was five o'clock, so Mark went along with him. At his house Mark turned in and bade18 his friend goodbye.
Early next morning the news spread like wildfire19. Mrs. Thompson, Old Man Fellows' housekeeper, had found him deader than a doom ail when she went upstairs to see what had kept him so long before breakfast. Near her master in the bathroom she had found a little bottle gripped20 in Old Man Fellows' hand, so tightly that he had crushed21 it, it was an eyedropper22.
At five o'clock that afternoon Mark Melcher closed his store, locked it, and walked over to the sheriff’s office. He was going to confess, and clear his conscience23, and make his peace with God, even if they hanged him for it. He didn't care now what happened.
“Bob,” he said to the sheriff, “I've come to give myself up. I killed Andrew Fellows.”
The sheriff started to laugh, but one look at Mark's eyes stopped him. Wild-looking and sort of glassy24 they were like crazy people's eyes. The sheriff told Mark to sit down and went outside for a minute to whisper something to his deputy25.
“Mark Melcher's goin' crazy,” he said. “He thinks he killed Old Man Fellows. Can you beat it? Why, Mark wouldn't hurt a fly. Too bad. They were friends for years, those two. Guess it must have hit Mark pretty hard.”
That news spread like wildfire, too. Mark Melcher had gone kind of crazy over Old Man Fellows' death! Wasn't it a shame? And Mark such a fine man. So sympathetic. Too sympathetic, he was, worrying himself crazy over his friend's death because he had sold him some poison. As if he could have known that Old Man Fellows was going to commit suicide26, like the coroner27 said!
He got to wandering around Willowville, telling everybody he had killed Old Man Fellows. Folks would listen, shake their heads, and say, “That's too bad, Mark. That's too bad. ” Then they'd walk on. Pretty soon Mark got so he would wake up at night and scream. His housekeeper left him.
They put Mark away in Doc Smith's sanitarium28. Everybody says it's too bad, and they can't imagine how Mark Melcher ever got the idea that he killed Old Man Fellows.
But then, Willowville folks don't know to this day that Emily Holden was Mark Melcher's daughter, that Mark had never been married, and that Old Man Fellows was the only human being on earth who knew those things.
22年来，马克·梅切尔总是在5点钟准时离开他的药店走回家。他办事很老练。22年来，在街上遇到镇里和他一同变老的男男女女，无论谁都会恭敬地同他打招呼。马克很威严。22年来，遇到小孩子，他都要停下来拍拍他们的脑袋，给他们一些糖果。马克很和善。正如警长鲍勃·巴斯托常说的，“马克连一只苍蝇都不会伤害。”
马克理所当然成了威罗维尔镇最受爱戴的公民。只要遇到麻烦，人们就会来找他。他总是站在陈旧不堪、落满灰尘的柜台后，耐心倾听这些非常信赖他的人们倾诉心中的秘密。他处理事情自有办法。只要照他的建议去做，你就会发现情况大有好转。
22岁的埃米莉·霍顿是一名出色的小学女教师，长得非常漂亮，学生都很喜欢她。她9月初才来到威罗维尔镇，但到了圣诞节，她狂热地爱上了安德鲁·费罗斯——威罗维尔镇上的一个小老头。其实安德鲁·费罗斯并不算太老，你想啊，他是镇上最富有的人，而且还是埃米莉任教的小学董事长。因此，自然而然地他就能经常见到埃米莉。埃米莉也不时到他家里向他汇报学校的事情。这一切无疑表明，埃米莉·霍顿着了魔似的被安德鲁·费罗斯迷住了——岂只是爱他，简直就是疯狂——像大多数女人被某个男人迷住后表现出来的疯狂一样。
然而有一天，埃米莉·霍顿小姐来到了马克·梅切尔的药店，径直走到了柜台后面，开始向马克讲述她的糟糕情况。马克目光阴郁，一声不吭地听着她的倾诉。
埃米莉讲完之后，马克问：“你说的那个人是安德鲁·费罗斯？”
“哦，是的。我真是太傻了。”埃米莉哭了起来，啜泣着，“可我偏偏就那么爱他。而且他也答应要娶我。可是现在，他却威胁我，说他要把他所知道的关于我的秘密张扬出去。哦，梅切尔先生，他说的简直太可怕了！我该怎么办呢，梅切尔先生？”
马克伸出胳膊，紧紧地搂住埃米莉哭了，确实很糟糕。但是，很快，他振作起精神，立即跑到银行取了一大笔钱，然后又匆匆回店，把钱交给了埃米莉。
“你去这个地方，”他一边说，一边递给埃米莉一张写有纽约某人地址的纸条，“把这里所发生的一切都告诉这位女士，告诉她是马克·梅切尔让你找她的。然后，你就再也不要回到威罗维尔镇来了。”
埃米莉小姐决不要梅切尔先生的钱。但是马克再次伸出胳膊紧紧搂住她，并且温柔地吻她，让她收下了这笔钱。埃米莉走了之后，马克又回到柜台后面等待着。
他拿定了主意——决定干掉费罗斯，然后去自首，如果他们愿意就把他送上绞刑架好了。
不一会，老头费罗斯走进了药店，他来买平时用的眼药水。
“啊，安德鲁，”马克平静地说，“我这儿刚来了一种新药，闻起来味道相当不错。”他走到柜台后面，拿出半盎司氰化氢（剧毒物）。“瞧，纯正的眼药，没稀释的。”说着他让费罗斯闻了闻。
“嗯，闻起来有点像桃花的香味，的确不错，你认为呢？”费罗斯笑眯眯地说。
“是的，是不错！”马克说，“它不但闻起来不错，而且对眼睛的疗效更好，我只剩下这些了，你都拿去吧，价格嘛，就和其他牌子的一样吧。”
费罗斯高兴地笑了。马克也笑了—— 因为他明白，只要在眼睛里滴上一滴氰化氢，费罗斯马上就会下地狱。
费罗斯付了钱，准备离开。此时已经是5点整了，于是马克和他一起走出药店。到了费罗斯家门口，马克向他道了别。
第二天一大早，一个惊人的消息迅速传遍了威罗维尔镇：费罗斯的管家汤普森夫人见主人很长时间没有下楼来吃早餐，于是就上楼去看个究竟，结果却发现，费罗斯躺在卫生间的地上，身体僵硬，已经魂归西天。她发现费罗斯的一只手里牢牢地握着一个玻璃瓶，一个因为握得太紧而被捏碎的眼药瓶。
那天下午5点，马克·梅切尔关店，然后向警察局走去。他决定去自首，他希望能无愧于良心，求得心灵上的安宁，即使他们绞死自己，他也毫无怨言。他现在不在乎发生任何事情了。
“鲍勃，我是来自首的，”他对警长说，“是我杀死了安德鲁·费罗斯。”
警长禁不住大笑起来，但是他看了一下马克的眼睛，立即止住了笑声。马克目光呆滞，充满疯狂——像疯子的眼睛。警长让马克坐下，然后走出去和副警长耳语了一番。
“马克·梅切尔快疯了。”他说，“他认为费罗斯是他杀死的。这怎么可能呢？要知道，平时他连一只苍蝇都不愿意打死的。哦，真是太糟糕了。他们俩人是多年的老朋友。我看一定是费罗斯的死对马克的打击太大了。”
这个消息很快又传遍了小镇：马克·梅切尔由于老朋友费罗斯的死，伤心过度，现在快疯了。太不幸了！要知道，马克可是一个大好人呀！又有同情心，太有同情心了。费罗斯的死使他快疯了，因为毒药是他卖给费罗斯的。马克怎么会料到费罗斯自杀呢。验尸官如是说！
他整天在镇上漫无目的地转悠，他要告诉每个人，费罗斯是他杀死的。人们听后无不摇头叹息，“哦，马克，真是不幸，太不幸了。”然后便走开。不久，马克经常半夜惊醒，然后大声狂叫。管家吓得离他而去。
人们只好将马克送进了史密斯疗养院。人人都感到很惋惜。他们简直无法想象，马克怎么会认为费罗斯是他杀害的呢？
然而，威罗维尔镇的人们至今也想不到，埃米莉·霍顿其实是马克·梅切尔的女儿，而马克却从来没有结过婚，还有，费罗斯是世上惟一知道这些秘密的人。
1. methodical adj． 有条不紊的
2． dignified adj． 有尊严的
3． sheriff n． 警长
4． prescription n． 处方，药方
5． spell [spel] n． 符咒
6． get over 克服，此处意为“赢得某人芳心”
7． get through 结束
8． pull together 竭尽全力
9． a fat check 一大笔支票
10． tenderly adv． 温柔地
11． confess v． 承认，坦白
12． eyewash n． 洗眼水
13． prussic acid 氰氢酸
14． undiluted adj． 未搀水的
15． whiff [hwif] n． 一吸
16． blossom n． 花
17． as quick as lightning 像闪电一样快
18． bade （bid的过去式）sb． goodbye＝bade sb． farewell 道别
19． wildfire n． 散布极快的事物
20． grip [grip] v． 紧握
21． crush v． 碾碎
22． eyedropper n． 点眼药器
23． conscience n． 良心
24． glassy adj． 像玻璃的
25． deputy n． 代理人
26． commit suicide 自杀
27． coroner n． 验尸官
28． sanitarium n． 疗养院