The pavement was so hot that the heat seemed to rise up, flouting2 itself in your very face.
In one particular alley3, known as Mulliner's Rents, the heat seemed almost tropical. Possibly the dense4 overcrowding of this quarter with human life enhanced the burning sensation of the thick air breathed out and breathed in again, unrefreshed, by multitudes of lungs. Here, there, and everywhere human beings stood about idly. Groups of untidy women, in twos and threes, gossiped; lazy men lolled against the houses, smoking in sullen5 silence; and for every grown-up person there were fully6 a dozen of squalid children playing, shouting, staring, and squabbling with a vigour7 no heat could abate8.
There was little traffic, so to say, in Mulliner's Rents; it was quite select in that one single respect. Nothing on wheels penetrated9 the unlovely quarter save a coster's barrow of fruit; unwholesome little yellow pears and cruelly green apples of the lowest type of apple-kind being the wares11 of the moment. It was truly a sad and sorrowful haunt, this of the man-made town; and so it seemed to the two travellers fresh from the God-made country—from the wholesome10 breezes of the caller salt air of Northbourne—when they plunged12 into its midst.
'Courage, captain!' said Philip Price, when he noticed the blanching13 of the elder man's brown face and the unutterable loathing14 of horror that spoke15 out of every feature. 'We've got to put our shoulder to the wheel, and leave no stone unturned to find Alick, and carry him out of this pestilent hole.'
Philip Price, before his health broke down, had been for a few months doing duty as curate in a still more squalid colony of human nests than even this. When the sailor flinched16, and hung back, Philip strode forward, determined17 to conquer, unheeding the battery of stares turned upon himself and his companion by the inhabitants, and the free-and-easy comments, of which they were by no means chary18.
Already the captain and Philip had that day spent many fruitless hours in the search, when they hit on a fresh clue and an address in Mulliner's Rents. But here, even, difficulties bristled19, and the tide of hopelessness was setting in upon both men when a wretched old crone was dragged out of a public-house to confront them, with dazed eyes and with a hateful odour of gin oozing20 from her whole person.
'Yes—well, yes,' she grudgingly21 admitted, in answer to the eager questions of the searchers; 'I does know a boy down with fever. What o' that? I ain't done no harm to him! He's 'ad the best I could offer; and five shillin's don't go far when there's sickness,' she ended, with a whimper, for she was maudlin22 with drink.
'Take us to that boy at once!' commanded Philip Price; for the captain's agitation23 unmanned him for the moment.
The wretched woman, awed24 by Philip's tone, complied. Perhaps, also, she obeyed, half in fear of the policeman, who had stepped up to join the gentlemen, and half in hope of getting more silver to spend on more drink.
Before half an hour was over Alick Carnegy was found. It was a terrible shock to the captain to recognise his boy in the squalid, dirty, delirious25 sufferer tossing wearily on a heap of sacks, on the grimy floor of an attic26 at the top of an evil-smelling, dilapidated house, to which the crone stumblingly conducted them.
'Merciful powers!' he groaned27 in dismayed horror.
'Hush28!' enjoined29 Philip. 'Be as calm as you can. I believe the poor little chap is off his head; but, if there's a gleam of consciousness, it would send him over the precipice30 again to witness your agitation.'
There was small fear of the captain doing any further mischief31; he was stunned32 into helplessness, and stood mute, trying to force himself to believe that the huddled33 heap of squalid misery34 was his very own son—smart, manly35-looking Alick Carnegy. Though the captain was thus helpless, Philip Price seemed to know exactly what to do, and how to do it.
Getting the address of a doctor, he rushed off, in the first place, to fetch him. Then a bedstead and clean bedding were hired in. In an hour or two more the grimy room was swept and tidied as far as possible; the window propped36 up to stay open; the hapless, dirty sufferer cleansed37 and made straight; and beside his bed sat a gentle-faced, trained nurse, whose wholesome presence seemed to transform the room.
'Now, captain,' cheerily said Philip, who looked another man in the excitement, 'you are going to take a bit of advice from me, I hope. You will go straight back to Brattlesby by the night train. Your invalid38 at home must not be forgotten; anxiety is not the best sort of tonic39 for her. And I mean to remain here with your boy.'
'God bless you, Price!' The old sailor's voice trembled as he wrung40 Philip's hand. 'I never knew it was in you! Man, how one can be deceived! I thought your head was in the clouds, and that you didn't know your right hand from your left, practically speaking. Yes, yes! I'll run down to-night, and to-morrow I can return. I can trust my boy to you. Let nothing be spared; there's my purse. The doctor seemed a downright good sort of chap and she is worth a gold-mine!' He pointed41 to the nurse, who was deftly42 bathing Alick's burning brow.
'What a splendid lad that Price is! He's the very salt of the earth!' murmured the old captain, as he threaded his way later through the unsavoury streets, now ablaze43 with lights that enticed44 and beckoned45 forth46 misery to stalk out from every dark corner. 'He is a true Christian—that's what it is! To think how my boys have ill-treated him, and here he is caring for Alick so tenderly that the poor boy's mother couldn't have done more, had she been spared! That's what you call returning good for evil, with a vengeance47! Well, well, please God, I'll mend my own ways too! If I have my girl and my boy both restored to me, I'll be a different father to them from what I have been.'
It had been borne in upon the captain's mind, during the cloud of sorrow overshadowing his home, that he had, somehow, failed in his duty. And, with the courage that belongs only to the brave heart, he admitted his shortcomings.
There was tremendous excitement in Northbourne when it was known that Alick had actually been found. The Bunk48 was besieged49 by an ever-growing crowd, anxious to have the news verified. And where was Ned Dempster? The captain himself had to assure them his next step would be to discover the hapless Ned. Yes, yes; Ned also should be found and brought back. Not a stone should be left unturned until he rescued Ned likewise.
And the old sailor kept his word. On his return to London he and Philip Price took it in turn, between their spells of watching beside Alick's sick-bed, to seek out the wandering half of the show-circus. Time went on, but they were still unsuccessful, however. Not until the fever died out, and Alick, weak and exhausted50, almost beyond building up, began to show faint signs of interest in his surroundings, could any questions be put to him. It was Philip Price who managed, without agitating51 the sufferer, to win from his feeble lips the name of the show. After that it was a tolerably easy matter to unearth52 its whereabouts.
On demanding Ned's release, a series of denials met them as to the boy being with the establishment at all. A storm of furious resistance which followed had to be quelled53 by the stern detective who accompanied the captain in his raid upon the show. Back in triumph to the Whitechapel attic they carried the trembling Ned, who had to be scoured54 and fed and clothed into his 'right mind' once again.
And this was running away secretly! thought each humiliated55 adventurer as they gazed, stony-eyed, at one another.
Shortly after, when Alick had crept sufficiently56 far out of the fever, looking a white shadow of his former self, the two boys were conveyed back to Northbourne, where a genuinely hearty57 welcome awaited them from the fisher-folk. Jerry Blunt, indeed, had suggested a triumphal arch with WELCOME in letters tall and wide. But that notion was instantly quashed by wiser heads.
'We be thankful to see 'em back,' judicially58 said Northbourne; 'but we ain't a-goin' to make "conquerin' heroes" of such young limbs!'
So it came to pass that the boys who thought it such a fine, manly thing to run away to sea, as boys will think, returned meekly59, with shamed eyes, and hearts bounding joyfully60 at sight of the homes they had not dreamed were so dear until they had forfeited61 them, as they thought, for ever.
点击收听单词发音
1 stifling | |
a.令人窒息的 | |
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2 flouting | |
v.藐视,轻视( flout的现在分词 ) | |
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3 alley | |
n.小巷,胡同;小径,小路 | |
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4 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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5 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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6 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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7 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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8 abate | |
vi.(风势,疼痛等)减弱,减轻,减退 | |
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9 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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10 wholesome | |
adj.适合;卫生的;有益健康的;显示身心健康的 | |
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11 wares | |
n. 货物, 商品 | |
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12 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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13 blanching | |
adj.漂白的n.热烫v.使变白( blanch的现在分词 );使(植物)不见阳光而变白;酸洗(金属)使有光泽;用沸水烫(杏仁等)以便去皮 | |
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14 loathing | |
n.厌恶,憎恨v.憎恨,厌恶( loathe的现在分词);极不喜欢 | |
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15 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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16 flinched | |
v.(因危险和痛苦)退缩,畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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18 chary | |
adj.谨慎的,细心的 | |
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19 bristled | |
adj. 直立的,多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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20 oozing | |
v.(浓液等)慢慢地冒出,渗出( ooze的现在分词 );使(液体)缓缓流出;(浓液)渗出,慢慢流出 | |
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21 grudgingly | |
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22 maudlin | |
adj.感情脆弱的,爱哭的 | |
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23 agitation | |
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动 | |
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24 awed | |
adj.充满敬畏的,表示敬畏的v.使敬畏,使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25 delirious | |
adj.不省人事的,神智昏迷的 | |
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26 attic | |
n.顶楼,屋顶室 | |
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27 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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28 hush | |
int.嘘,别出声;n.沉默,静寂;v.使安静 | |
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29 enjoined | |
v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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31 mischief | |
n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
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32 stunned | |
adj. 震惊的,惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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33 huddled | |
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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34 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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35 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
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36 propped | |
支撑,支持,维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 cleansed | |
弄干净,清洗( cleanse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 invalid | |
n.病人,伤残人;adj.有病的,伤残的;无效的 | |
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39 tonic | |
n./adj.滋补品,补药,强身的,健体的 | |
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40 wrung | |
绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 ); 握紧(尤指别人的手); 把(湿衣服)拧干; 绞掉(水) | |
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41 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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42 deftly | |
adv.灵巧地,熟练地,敏捷地 | |
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43 ablaze | |
adj.着火的,燃烧的;闪耀的,灯火辉煌的 | |
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44 enticed | |
诱惑,怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45 beckoned | |
v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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47 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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48 bunk | |
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话 | |
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49 besieged | |
包围,围困,围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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51 agitating | |
搅动( agitate的现在分词 ); 激怒; 使焦虑不安; (尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而)激烈争论 | |
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52 unearth | |
v.发掘,掘出,从洞中赶出 | |
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53 quelled | |
v.(用武力)制止,结束,镇压( quell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54 scoured | |
走遍(某地)搜寻(人或物)( scour的过去式和过去分词 ); (用力)刷; 擦净; 擦亮 | |
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55 humiliated | |
感到羞愧的 | |
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56 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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57 hearty | |
adj.热情友好的;衷心的;尽情的,纵情的 | |
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58 judicially | |
依法判决地,公平地 | |
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59 meekly | |
adv.温顺地,逆来顺受地 | |
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60 joyfully | |
adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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61 forfeited | |
(因违反协议、犯规、受罚等)丧失,失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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