Visitors in want of breakfast — unless they were horses or cattle, for which class of guests there was preparation enough in the way of water-trough and hay — were so unusual at the sign of The Tilted3 Wagon4, that it took a long time to get the wagon into the track of tea and toast and bacon. Neville in the interval5, sitting in a sanded parlour, wondering in how long a time after he had gone, the sneezy fire of damp fagots would begin to make somebody else warm.
Indeed, The Tilted Wagon, as a cool establishment on the top of a hill, where the ground before the door was puddled with damp hoofs6 and trodden straw; where a scolding landlady7 slapped a moist baby (with one red sock on and one wanting), in the bar; where the cheese was cast aground upon a shelf, in company with a mouldy tablecloth8 and a green-handled knife, in a sort of cast-iron canoe; where the pale-faced bread shed tears of crumb9 over its shipwreck10 in another canoe; where the family linen11, half washed and half dried, led a public life of lying about; where everything to drink was drunk out of mugs, and everything else was suggestive of a rhyme to mugs; The Tilted Wagon, all these things considered, hardly kept its painted promise of providing good entertainment for Man and Beast. However, Man, in the present case, was not critical, but took what entertainment he could get, and went on again after a longer rest than he needed.
He stopped at some quarter of a mile from the house, hesitating whether to pursue the road, or to follow a cart track between two high hedgerows, which led across the slope of a breezy heath, and evidently struck into the road again by-and-by. He decided12 in favour of this latter track, and pursued it with some toil13; the rise being steep, and the way worn into deep ruts.
He was labouring along, when he became aware of some other pedestrians14 behind him. As they were coming up at a faster pace than his, he stood aside, against one of the high banks, to let them pass. But their manner was very curious. Only four of them passed. Other four slackened speed, and loitered as intending to follow him when he should go on. The remainder of the party (half-a-dozen perhaps) turned, and went back at a great rate.
He looked at the four behind him, and he looked at the four before him. They all returned his look. He resumed his way. The four in advance went on, constantly looking back; the four in the rear came closing up.
When they all ranged out from the narrow track upon the open slope of the heath, and this order was maintained, let him diverge15 as he would to either side, there was no longer room to doubt that he was beset16 by these fellows. He stopped, as a last test; and they all stopped.
‘Why do you attend upon me in this way?’ he asked the whole body. ‘Are you a pack of thieves?’
‘Don’t answer him,’ said one of the number; he did not see which. ‘Better be quiet.’
‘Better be quiet?’ repeated Neville. ‘Who said so?’
Nobody replied.
‘It’s good advice, whichever of you skulkers gave it,’ he went on angrily. ‘I will not submit to be penned in between four men there, and four men there. I wish to pass, and I mean to pass, those four in front.’
They were all standing17 still; himself included.
‘If eight men, or four men, or two men, set upon one,’ he proceeded, growing more enraged18, ‘the one has no chance but to set his mark upon some of them. And, by the Lord, I’ll do it, if I am interrupted any farther!’
Shouldering his heavy stick, and quickening his pace, he shot on to pass the four ahead. The largest and strongest man of the number changed swiftly to the side on which he came up, and dexterously19 closed with him and went down with him; but not before the heavy stick had descended20 smartly.
‘Let him be!’ said this man in a suppressed voice, as they struggled together on the grass. ‘Fair play! His is the build of a girl to mine, and he’s got a weight strapped21 to his back besides. Let him alone. I’ll manage him.’
After a little rolling about, in a close scuffle which caused the faces of both to be besmeared with blood, the man took his knee from Neville’s chest, and rose, saying: ‘There! Now take him arm-in-arm, any two of you!’
It was immediately done.
‘As to our being a pack of thieves, Mr. Landless,’ said the man, as he spat22 out some blood, and wiped more from his face; ‘you know better than that at midday. We wouldn’t have touched you if you hadn’t forced us. We’re going to take you round to the high road, anyhow, and you’ll find help enough against thieves there, if you want it. — Wipe his face, somebody; see how it’s a-trickling down him!’
When his face was cleansed23, Neville recognised in the speaker, Joe, driver of the Cloisterham omnibus, whom he had seen but once, and that on the day of his arrival.
‘And what I recommend you for the present, is, don’t talk, Mr. Landless. You’ll find a friend waiting for you, at the high road — gone ahead by the other way when we split into two parties — and you had much better say nothing till you come up with him. Bring that stick along, somebody else, and let’s be moving!’
Utterly24 bewildered, Neville stared around him and said not a word. Walking between his two conductors, who held his arms in theirs, he went on, as in a dream, until they came again into the high road, and into the midst of a little group of people. The men who had turned back were among the group; and its central figures were Mr. Jasper and Mr. Crisparkle. Neville’s conductors took him up to the Minor25 Canon, and there released him, as an act of deference27 to that gentleman.
‘What is all this, sir? What is the matter? I feel as if I had lost my senses!’ cried Neville, the group closing in around him.
‘Where is my nephew?’ asked Mr. Jasper, wildly.
‘Where is your nephew?’ repeated Neville, ‘Why do you ask me?’
‘I ask you,’ retorted Jasper, ‘because you were the last person in his company, and he is not to be found.’
‘Not to be found!’ cried Neville, aghast.
‘Stay, stay,’ said Mr. Crisparkle. ‘Permit me, Jasper. Mr. Neville, you are confounded; collect your thoughts; it is of great importance that you should collect your thoughts; attend to me.’
‘I will try, sir, but I seem mad.’
‘You left Mr. Jasper last night with Edwin Drood?’
‘Yes.’
‘At what hour?’
‘Was it at twelve o’clock?’ asked Neville, with his hand to his confused head, and appealing to Jasper.
‘Quite right,’ said Mr. Crisparkle; ‘the hour Mr. Jasper has already named to me. You went down to the river together?’
‘Undoubtedly. To see the action of the wind there.’
‘What followed? How long did you stay there?’
‘About ten minutes; I should say not more. We then walked together to your house, and he took leave of me at the door.’
‘Did he say that he was going down to the river again?’
‘No. He said that he was going straight back.’
The bystanders looked at one another, and at Mr. Crisparkle. To whom Mr. Jasper, who had been intensely watching Neville, said, in a low, distinct, suspicious voice: ‘What are those stains upon his dress?’
All eyes were turned towards the blood upon his clothes.
‘And here are the same stains upon this stick!’ said Jasper, taking it from the hand of the man who held it. ‘I know the stick to be his, and he carried it last night. What does this mean?’
‘In the name of God, say what it means, Neville!’ urged Mr. Crisparkle.
‘That man and I,’ said Neville, pointing out his late adversary29, ‘had a struggle for the stick just now, and you may see the same marks on him, sir. What was I to suppose, when I found myself molested30 by eight people? Could I dream of the true reason when they would give me none at all?’
They admitted that they had thought it discreet31 to be silent, and that the struggle had taken place. And yet the very men who had seen it looked darkly at the smears32 which the bright cold air had already dried.
‘We must return, Neville,’ said Mr. Crisparkle; ‘of course you will be glad to come back to clear yourself?’
‘Of course, sir.’
‘Mr. Landless will walk at my side,’ the Minor Canon continued, looking around him. ‘Come, Neville!’
They set forth on the walk back; and the others, with one exception, straggled after them at various distances. Jasper walked on the other side of Neville, and never quitted that position. He was silent, while Mr. Crisparkle more than once repeated his former questions, and while Neville repeated his former answers; also, while they both hazarded some explanatory conjectures33. He was obstinately34 silent, because Mr. Crisparkle’s manner directly appealed to him to take some part in the discussion, and no appeal would move his fixed35 face. When they drew near to the city, and it was suggested by the Minor Canon that they might do well in calling on the Mayor at once, he assented36 with a stern nod; but he spake no word until they stood in Mr. Sapsea’s parlour.
Mr. Sapsea being informed by Mr. Crisparkle of the circumstances under which they desired to make a voluntary statement before him, Mr. Jasper broke silence by declaring that he placed his whole reliance, humanly speaking, on Mr. Sapsea’s penetration37. There was no conceivable reason why his nephew should have suddenly absconded38, unless Mr. Sapsea could suggest one, and then he would defer26. There was no intelligible39 likelihood of his having returned to the river, and been accidentally drowned in the dark, unless it should appear likely to Mr. Sapsea, and then again he would defer. He washed his hands as clean as he could of all horrible suspicions, unless it should appear to Mr. Sapsea that some such were inseparable from his last companion before his disappearance40 (not on good terms with previously), and then, once more, he would defer. His own state of mind, he being distracted with doubts, and labouring under dismal41 apprehensions42, was not to be safely trusted; but Mr. Sapsea’s was.
Mr. Sapsea expressed his opinion that the case had a dark look; in short (and here his eyes rested full on Neville’s countenance), an Un–English complexion43. Having made this grand point, he wandered into a denser44 haze45 and maze46 of nonsense than even a mayor might have been expected to disport47 himself in, and came out of it with the brilliant discovery that to take the life of a fellow-creature was to take something that didn’t belong to you. He wavered whether or no he should at once issue his warrant for the committal of Neville Landless to jail, under circumstances of grave suspicion; and he might have gone so far as to do it but for the indignant protest of the Minor Canon: who undertook for the young man’s remaining in his own house, and being produced by his own hands, whenever demanded. Mr. Jasper then understood Mr. Sapsea to suggest that the river should be dragged, that its banks should be rigidly48 examined, that particulars of the disappearance should be sent to all outlying places and to London, and that placards and advertisements should be widely circulated imploring49 Edwin Drood, if for any unknown reason he had withdrawn50 himself from his uncle’s home and society, to take pity on that loving kinsman’s sore bereavement51 and distress52, and somehow inform him that he was yet alive. Mr. Sapsea was perfectly53 understood, for this was exactly his meaning (though he had said nothing about it); and measures were taken towards all these ends immediately.
It would be difficult to determine which was the more oppressed with horror and amazement54: Neville Landless, or John Jasper. But that Jasper’s position forced him to be active, while Neville’s forced him to be passive, there would have been nothing to choose between them. Each was bowed down and broken.
With the earliest light of the next morning, men were at work upon the river, and other men — most of whom volunteered for the service–-were examining the banks. All the livelong day the search went on; upon the river, with barge55 and pole, and drag and net; upon the muddy and rushy shore, with jack-boots, hatchet56, spade, rope, dogs, and all imaginable appliances. Even at night, the river was specked with lanterns, and lurid57 with fires; far-off creeks58, into which the tide washed as it changed, had their knots of watchers, listening to the lapping of the stream, and looking out for any burden it might bear; remote shingly59 causeways near the sea, and lonely points off which there was a race of water, had their unwonted flaring60 cressets and rough-coated figures when the next day dawned; but no trace of Edwin Drood revisited the light of the sun.
All that day, again, the search went on. Now, in barge and boat; and now ashore61 among the osiers, or tramping amidst mud and stakes and jagged stones in low-lying places, where solitary62 watermarks and signals of strange shapes showed like spectres, John Jasper worked and toiled63. But to no purpose; for still no trace of Edwin Drood revisited the light of the sun.
Setting his watches for that night again, so that vigilant64 eyes should be kept on every change of tide, he went home exhausted65. Unkempt and disordered, bedaubed with mud that had dried upon him, and with much of his clothing torn to rags, he had but just dropped into his easy-chair, when Mr. Grewgious stood before him.
‘This is strange news,’ said Mr. Grewgious.
‘Strange and fearful news.’
Jasper had merely lifted up his heavy eyes to say it, and now dropped them again as he drooped66, worn out, over one side of his easy-chair.
Mr. Grewgious smoothed his head and face, and stood looking at the fire.
‘How is your ward28?’ asked Jasper, after a time, in a faint, fatigued67 voice.
‘Poor little thing! You may imagine her condition.’
‘Have you seen his sister?’ inquired Jasper, as before.
‘Whose?’
The curtness68 of the counter-question, and the cool, slow manner in which, as he put it, Mr. Grewgious moved his eyes from the fire to his companion’s face, might at any other time have been exasperating69. In his depression and exhaustion70, Jasper merely opened his eyes to say: ‘The suspected young man’s.’
‘Do you suspect him?’ asked Mr. Grewgious.
‘I don’t know what to think. I cannot make up my mind.’
‘Nor I,’ said Mr. Grewgious. ‘But as you spoke71 of him as the suspected young man, I thought you had made up your mind. — I have just left Miss Landless.’
Mr. Grewgious has his suspicions
‘What is her state?’
‘Defiance of all suspicion, and unbounded faith in her brother.’
‘Poor thing!’
‘However,’ pursued Mr. Grewgious, ‘it is not of her that I came to speak. It is of my ward. I have a communication to make that will surprise you. At least, it has surprised me.’
Jasper, with a groaning72 sigh, turned wearily in his chair.
‘Shall I put it off till to-morrow?’ said Mr. Grewgious. ‘Mind, I warn you, that I think it will surprise you!’
More attention and concentration came into John Jasper’s eyes as they caught sight of Mr. Grewgious smoothing his head again, and again looking at the fire; but now, with a compressed and determined73 mouth.
‘What is it?’ demanded Jasper, becoming upright in his chair.
‘To be sure,’ said Mr. Grewgious, provokingly slowly and internally, as he kept his eyes on the fire: ‘I might have known it sooner; she gave me the opening; but I am such an exceedingly Angular man, that it never occurred to me; I took all for granted.’
‘What is it?’ demanded Jasper once more.
Mr. Grewgious, alternately opening and shutting the palms of his hands as he warmed them at the fire, and looking fixedly74 at him sideways, and never changing either his action or his look in all that followed, went on to reply.
‘This young couple, the lost youth and Miss Rosa, my ward, though so long betrothed75, and so long recognising their betrothal76, and so near being married —’
Mr. Grewgious saw a staring white face, and two quivering white lips, in the easy-chair, and saw two muddy hands gripping its sides. But for the hands, he might have thought he had never seen the face.
‘— This young couple came gradually to the discovery (made on both sides pretty equally, I think), that they would be happier and better, both in their present and their future lives, as affectionate friends, or say rather as brother and sister, than as husband and wife.’
Mr. Grewgious saw a lead-coloured face in the easy-chair, and on its surface dreadful starting drops or bubbles, as if of steel.
‘This young couple formed at length the healthy resolution of interchanging their discoveries, openly, sensibly, and tenderly. They met for that purpose. After some innocent and generous talk, they agreed to dissolve their existing, and their intended, relations, for ever and ever.’
Mr. Grewgious saw a ghastly figure rise, open-mouthed, from the easy-chair, and lift its outspread hands towards its head.
‘One of this young couple, and that one your nephew, fearful, however, that in the tenderness of your affection for him you would be bitterly disappointed by so wide a departure from his projected life, forbore to tell you the secret, for a few days, and left it to be disclosed by me, when I should come down to speak to you, and he would be gone. I speak to you, and he is gone.’
Mr. Grewgious saw the ghastly figure throw back its head, clutch its hair with its hands, and turn with a writhing77 action from him.
‘I have now said all I have to say: except that this young couple parted, firmly, though not without tears and sorrow, on the evening when you last saw them together.’
Mr. Grewgious heard a terrible shriek78, and saw no ghastly figure, sitting or standing; saw nothing but a heap of torn and miry clothes upon the floor.
Not changing his action even then, he opened and shut the palms of his hands as he warmed them, and looked down at it.
点击收听单词发音
1 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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2 tavern | |
n.小旅馆,客栈;小酒店 | |
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3 tilted | |
v. 倾斜的 | |
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4 wagon | |
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车 | |
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5 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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6 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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7 landlady | |
n.女房东,女地主 | |
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8 tablecloth | |
n.桌布,台布 | |
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9 crumb | |
n.饼屑,面包屑,小量 | |
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10 shipwreck | |
n.船舶失事,海难 | |
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11 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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12 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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13 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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14 pedestrians | |
n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 ) | |
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15 diverge | |
v.分叉,分歧,离题,使...岔开,使转向 | |
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16 beset | |
v.镶嵌;困扰,包围 | |
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17 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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18 enraged | |
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤 | |
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19 dexterously | |
adv.巧妙地,敏捷地 | |
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20 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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21 strapped | |
adj.用皮带捆住的,用皮带装饰的;身无分文的;缺钱;手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词);用皮带抽打;包扎;给…打绷带 | |
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22 spat | |
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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23 cleansed | |
弄干净,清洗( cleanse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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25 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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26 defer | |
vt.推迟,拖延;vi.(to)遵从,听从,服从 | |
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27 deference | |
n.尊重,顺从;敬意 | |
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28 ward | |
n.守卫,监护,病房,行政区,由监护人或法院保护的人(尤指儿童);vt.守护,躲开 | |
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29 adversary | |
adj.敌手,对手 | |
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30 molested | |
v.骚扰( molest的过去式和过去分词 );干扰;调戏;猥亵 | |
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31 discreet | |
adj.(言行)谨慎的;慎重的;有判断力的 | |
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32 smears | |
污迹( smear的名词复数 ); 污斑; (显微镜的)涂片; 诽谤 | |
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33 conjectures | |
推测,猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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34 obstinately | |
ad.固执地,顽固地 | |
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35 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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36 assented | |
同意,赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 penetration | |
n.穿透,穿人,渗透 | |
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38 absconded | |
v.(尤指逃避逮捕)潜逃,逃跑( abscond的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39 intelligible | |
adj.可理解的,明白易懂的,清楚的 | |
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40 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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41 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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42 apprehensions | |
疑惧 | |
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43 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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44 denser | |
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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45 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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46 maze | |
n.迷宫,八阵图,混乱,迷惑 | |
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47 disport | |
v.嬉戏,玩 | |
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48 rigidly | |
adv.刻板地,僵化地 | |
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49 imploring | |
恳求的,哀求的 | |
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50 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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51 bereavement | |
n.亲人丧亡,丧失亲人,丧亲之痛 | |
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52 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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53 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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54 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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55 barge | |
n.平底载货船,驳船 | |
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56 hatchet | |
n.短柄小斧;v.扼杀 | |
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57 lurid | |
adj.可怕的;血红的;苍白的 | |
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58 creeks | |
n.小湾( creek的名词复数 );小港;小河;小溪 | |
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59 shingly | |
adj.小石子多的 | |
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60 flaring | |
a.火焰摇曳的,过份艳丽的 | |
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61 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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62 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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63 toiled | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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64 vigilant | |
adj.警觉的,警戒的,警惕的 | |
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65 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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66 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67 fatigued | |
adj. 疲乏的 | |
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68 curtness | |
n.简短;草率;简略 | |
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69 exasperating | |
adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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70 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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71 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 | |
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72 groaning | |
adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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73 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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74 fixedly | |
adv.固定地;不屈地,坚定不移地 | |
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75 betrothed | |
n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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76 betrothal | |
n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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77 writhing | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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78 shriek | |
v./n.尖叫,叫喊 | |
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