Captain Tangye owned a preponderance of shares in the Touch-me-not, and had no difficulty in getting Zeke (who now held a master’s certificate) appointed to succeed him. The old man hauled ashore6 to a cottage with a green door and a brass7 knocker and a garden high over the water-side. In this he spent the most of his time with a glittering brass telescope of uncommon8 length, and in the intervals9 of studying the weather and the shipping10, watched John Penaluna at work across the harbour.
The Touch-me-not made two successful voyages under Zeke’s command, and was home again and discharging beside the Town Quay11, when, one summer’s day, as John Penaluna leaned on his pitchfork beside a heap of weeds arranged for burning he glanced up and saw Captain Tangye hobbling painfully towards him across the slope. The old man had on his best blue cut-away coat, and paused now and then to wipe his brow.
“I take this as very friendly,” said John.
Captain Tangye grunted12. “P’rhaps ’tis, p’rhaps ‘tisn’. Better wait a bit afore you say it.”
“Stay and have a bit of dinner with me and the missus.”
“Dashed if I do! ’Tis about her I came to tell ‘ee.”
“Yes?” John, being puzzled, smiled in a meaningless way.
“Zeke’s home agen.”
“Yes; he was up here two evenin’s ago.”
“He was here yesterday; he’ll be here again today. He comes here too often. I’ve got a telescope, John Penaluna, and I sees what’s goin’ on. What’s more, I guess what’ll come of it. So I warn ‘ee — as a friend, of course.”
John stared down at the polished steel teeth of his pitchfork, glinting under the noonday sun.
“As a friend, of course,” he echoed vaguely13, still with the meaningless smile on his face.
“I b’lieve she means to be a good ‘ooman; but she’s listenin’ to ‘en. Now, I’ve got ‘en a ship up to Runcorn. He shan’t sail the Touch-me-not no more. ’Tis a catch for ‘en-a nice barquentine, five hundred tons. If he decides to take the post (and I reckon he will) he starts tomorrow at latest. Between this an’ then there’s danger, and ’tis for you to settle how to act.”
A long pause followed. The clock across the harbour struck noon, and this seemed to wake John Penaluna up. “Thank ‘ee,” he said. “I think I’ll be going in to dinner. I’ll — I’ll consider of it. You’ve took me rather sudden.”
“Well, so long! I mean it friendly, of course.”
“Of course. Better take the lower path; ’tis shorter, an’ not so many stones in it.”
John stared after him as he picked his way down the hill; then fell to rearranging his heaps of dried rubbish in an aimless manner. He had forgotten the dinner-hour. Something buzzed in his ears. There was no wind on the slope, no sound in the air. The shipwrights14 had ceased their hammering, and the harbour at his feet lay still as a lake. They were memories, perhaps, that buzzed so swiftly past his ears — trivial recollections by the hundred, all so little, and yet now immensely significant.
“John, John!”
It was Hester, standing15 at the top of the slope and calling him. He stuck his pitchfork in the ground, picked up his coat, and went slowly in to dinner.
Next day, by all usage, he should have travelled in to market: but he announced at breakfast that he was too busy, and would send Robert, the hind16 in his stead. He watched his wife’s face as he said it. She certainly changed colour, and yet she did not seem disappointed. The look that sprang into those grey eyes of her was more like one of relief, or, if not of relief, of a sudden hope suddenly snatched at; but this was absurd, of course. It would not fit in with the situation at all.
At dinner he said: “You’ll be up in the summer-house this afternoon? I shouldn’t wonder if Zeke comes to say good-bye. Tangye says he’ve got the offer of a new berth17, up to Runcorn.”
“Yes, I know.”
If she wished, or struggled, to say more he did not seem to observe it, but rose from his chair, stooped and kissed her on the forehead, and resolutely18 marched out to his garden. He worked that afternoon in a small patch which commanded a view of the ferry and also of the road leading up to Hall: and at half-past three, or a few minutes later, dropped his spade and strolled down to the edge of his property, a low cliff overhanging the ferry-slip.
“Hullo, Zeke!”
Zeke, as he stepped out of the ferry-boat, looked with some confusion on his face. He wore his best suit, with a bunch of sweet-william in his button-hole.
“Come to bid us good-bye, I s’pose? We’ve heard of your luck. Here, scramble19 up this way if you can manage, and shake hands on your fortune.”
Zeke obeyed. The climb seemed to fluster20 him; but the afternoon was a hot one, in spite of a light westerly breeze. The two men moved side by side across the garden-slope, and as they did so John caught sight of a twinkle of sunshine on Captain Tangye’s brass telescope across the harbour.
They paused beside one of the heaps of rubbish. “This is a fine thing for you, Zeke.”
“Ay, pretty fair.”
“I s’pose we sha’n’t be seein’ much of you now. ’Tis like an end of old times. I reckoned we’d have a pipe together afore partin’.” John pulled out a stumpy clay and filled it. “Got a match about you?”
Zeke passed him one, and he struck it on his boot. “There, now,” he went on, “I meant to set a light to these here heaps of rubbish this afternoon, and now I’ve come out without my matches.” He waited for the sulphur to finish bubbling, and then began to puff21.
Zeke handed him half-a-dozen matches.
“I dunno how many ’twill take,” said John. “S’pose we go round together and light up. ‘Twont’ take us a quarter of an hour, an’ we can talk by the way.”
Ten minutes later, Captain Tangye, across the harbour, shut his telescope with an angry snap. The smoke of five-and-twenty bonfires crawled up the hillside and completely hid John Penaluna’s garden — hid the two figures standing there, hid the little summer-house at the top of the slope. It was enough to make a man swear, and Captain Tangye swore.
John Penaluna drew a long breath.
“Well, good-bye and bless ‘ee, Zeke. Hester’s up in the summer-house. I won’t go up with ‘ee; my back’s too stiff. Go an’ make your adoos to her; she’s cleverer than I be, and maybe will tell ‘ee what we’ve both got in our minds.”
This was the third rash thing that John Penaluna did.
He watched Zeke up the hill, till the smoke hid him. Then he picked up his spade. “Shall I find her, when I step home this evening? Please God, yes.”
And he did. She was there by the supper-table? waiting for him. Her eyes were red. John pretended to have dropped something, and went back for a moment to look for it. When he returned, neither spoke22.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
relinquished
|
|
| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
highlander
|
|
| n.高地的人，苏格兰高地地区的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
thigh
|
|
| n.大腿；股骨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
scroll
|
|
| n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
effigy
|
|
| n.肖像 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
ashore
|
|
| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
uncommon
|
|
| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
intervals
|
|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
shipping
|
|
| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
quay
|
|
| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
grunted
|
|
| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
shipwrights
|
|
| n.造船者，修船者( shipwright的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
15
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
hind
|
|
| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
berth
|
|
| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
resolutely
|
|
| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
scramble
|
|
| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
fluster
|
|
| adj.慌乱，狼狈，混乱，激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
puff
|
|
| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |