There were fivein the immediate neighbourhood, and the only thing was to go to all of them.Stroeve accompanied me unwillingly. His own plan was to run up and down thestreets that led out of the Avenue de Clichy and ask at every house ifStrickland lived there. My commonplace scheme was, after all, effective, for inthe second shop we asked at the woman behind the counter acknowledged that sheknew him. She was not certain where he lived, but it was in one of the threehouses opposite. Luck favoured us, and in the first we tried the concierge toldus that we should find him on the top floor.

"Itappears that he's ill, " said Stroeve.

"It maybe, " answered the concierge indifferently. " En effet, I have notseen him for several days. "

Stroeve ran upthe stairs ahead of me, and when I reached the top floor I found him talking toa workman in his shirt-sleeves who had opened a door at which Stroeve hadknocked. He pointed to another door. He believed that the person who livedthere was a painter. He had not seen him for a week. Stroeve made as though hewere about to knock, and then turned to me with a gesture of helplessness. Isaw that he was panic-stricken.

"Supposinghe's dead?"

"Not he," I said.

I knocked.There was no answer. I tried the handle, and found the door unlocked. I walkedin, and Stroeve followed me. The room was in darkness. I could only see that itwas an attic, with a sloping roof; and a faint glimmer, no more than a lessprofound obscurity, came from a skylight.

"Strickland," I called.

我一共找到了五家，唯一的办法是挨家去打听一遍。施特略夫心有不甘地跟在我后面。他本来打算在同克利舍路相通的几条街上前后跑一通，只要碰到一家寄宿公寓就进去打听。结果证明，还是我的平凡的计划奏效了。就在我们走进的第二家面包店，柜台后面的一个女人说她认识他。她不太知道他到底住在哪儿，但是肯定是对面三座楼房中的一座。我们的运气不坏，头一幢楼的门房就告诉我们可以在最顶上的一层找到他。

“他可能害病了，”施特略夫说。

“可能是吧，”门房冷冷地说，“事实上①，我有几天没看见他了。”

①原文为法语。

施特略夫在我前面抢先跑上楼梯，当我走到最高的一层时，他已经敲开一个房间的门正在同一个穿着衬衫的工人讲话。这个人指了指另外一扇门。他相信住在那里的人是个画家。他已经有一个星期没有看见他了。施特略夫刚准备去敲门，但是马上又转过身来对我做了个手势，表示他不知道该怎么办。我发现他害怕得要命。

“要是他已经死了怎么办？”

“他死不了。”我说。

我敲了敲门。没有人应声。我扭了一下门柄，门并没有锁着。我走了进去，施特略夫跟在我后面。屋子很黑，我只能看出来这是一间阁楼，天花板是倾斜的。从天窗上射进一道朦胧的光线，并不比室内的昏暗亮多少。

“思特里克兰德。”我叫了一声。