She stood by him while he bought his ticket, and then pinned it inside his coat pocket with the end sticking out a little so the conductor could see it.
“If the end don’t show,” she said to him, “you’ll never find it, and like as not you’ll git put off the train. Now when the conductor comes along he can see it and tell you where it is.”
Mr. Tidd smiled at her as patient as could be and patted her hand. Then he felt to see that the Decline and Fall was in his pocket all right, and smiled again at everybody. He was one of the smilingest men I ever saw, and as soon as you saw him do it you liked him right off, whether you knew him or not.
“I’ve put a paper in your satchel2, right on the top, telling you just what to do. When you git there you pin it on the wall right over the washstand, and don’t you dare to go out of the hotel without readin’ it. It tells about puttin’ on a clean collar, and to be sure not to go traipsin’ around without a tie, and such-like. Don’t you go neglectin’ it, now.”
“I won’t, my dear, I won’t.”
The train came snorting in, and Mr. Tidd got aboard all right without forgetting his satchel. We reminded him of it. He sat down in the smoking-car and smiled at us through the windows, and Mrs. Tidd shook her finger at him like she was warning him not to forget anything. Then the bell rang and the conductor hollered “All aboard,” and he was gone.
“I’ll never draw an easy breath till he’s back again” said Mrs. Tidd, and she came close to the truth, for she did draw a lot of uneasy breaths before she saw Mr. Tidd again, and so did the rest of us. In fact, I guess there aren’t many folks who have drawn3 as many uneasy ones as we did for the next several days.
We took Mrs. Tidd home and then looked around for something to do. First we thought we’d go up to see Sammy at the cave, but Mark said he’d gone off up the river fishing and maybe wouldn’t be back that night, so we all sat down on Tidd’s front fence and whittled4 and talked and wished something would turn up.
“I guess I could git our horse and rig,” Binney said, after a while, “and we could take a ride out into the country if we wanted to.”
“That’s better’n nothin’,” I told him; and the other fellows seemed to agree, so we went off to Binney’s house, and his mother, after arguing a while and telling him the horse would run away and break all our necks, finished up by saying we could go. We took the two-seated rig. Plunk and Binney sat in the front seat, and Mark and I got in behind, which made it pretty crowded for me.
“Which way’ll we go?” Binney wanted to know.
“Let’s go up the river-road,” Plunk said. “Maybe we’ll meet Sammy somewheres with a string of fish and he’ll give us some.”
We started off and drove along slow, because Binney’s horse couldn’t be made to go any faster, past where the cave is and on around the bend of the river where the banks get flatter and flatter until they are a sort of marsh5 with the river flowing through the middle of it. I guess the road must be a quarter of a mile from the water along there. We must have driven four or five miles, and I know I’d never been so far along this road before. It was like seeing a new country, and we pretended we were explorers and had to keep a lookout6 for savages7 and wild animals and such things. Mark was great for that kind of games; and, for a fact, when you got interested in them they were a lot of fun. You could come pretty close to imagining the things really were happening that you were imagining were happening.
“There’s a house,” said Mark, pointing. “Looks like the chief lived there. Maybe we can make friends with him; or maybe there’s gold piled up there that we can g-git away with.”
“There’ll be guards hangin’ around with bows and arrers and spears,” Plunk objected. “They’ll up and stick us full of holes before we can wink9.”
“Seems like I hear one of them savage8 war-drums a-beatin’,” says Binney. “Maybe he’s gatherin’ together his army to make an ambush10 for us.”
“We better go cautious. Tallow, you sneak11 ahead like a scout12 to see we don’t run into no trap.”
I got out and went slinking along by the side of the road, keeping hidden as much as I could in the bushes. After a minute I passed an orchard13 and came to an evergreen14 hedge. I poked15 up my head, cautious-like, and looked over. I never saw a yard with so many evergreens16 in it, all trimmed in funny shapes and sticking up everywhere. They were so close together you couldn’t see anything of the house but the roof. I watched quite a spell, but I couldn’t see anybody moving, so I sneaked17 back and reported that we weren’t being watched.
Mark called a council of war, and we decided18 to go ahead in a body, the real object being to get a drink of water, but we made believe we were after the chief’s gold. Just like Indians we wormed and squirmed along to the hedge and poked our way through where a bush had died out. It was a close squeeze for Mark, and he got scratched up considerable, but he got through just the same. Right off we began prowling around among all those evergreens, getting closer and closer to the house. We were all so interested in the game we clean forgot about the water and everything else.
At last we were crouching19 behind two bushes not more than ten feet from the steps. Mark raised his hand and pointed20 around one side of the house, motioning for Plunk and Binney to reconnoiter that way while he and I would go the other way. At that we rushed sudden from our cover to the corners of the house and went spying around, peeking21 in the windows, looking for savages or signs of the gold. At one window in the wing Mark stopped and looked careful. He waited for me to come along and pointed. I peeked22 in and saw that the room was all fixed23 up for somebody to do mechanical drawing. There were the same kind of tables and drawing boards and instruments the engineer had who built the city waterworks in Wicksville. But everything was new, you could see that, and hadn’t ever been used.
“Funny thing to be in a chief’s wigwam,” I whispered, and he nodded. He sat down with his back against the foundation and with his chin in his hands, the way he always does when he wants to figure out something he doesn’t understand. I could see he was puzzled about the drawing things way out there in that farmhouse24, and if I left him alone he’d sit there maybe an hour trying to fit sort of an answer to it.
“Come on,” I whispered. “No tellin’ when these savages’ll come rampagin’ back. Let’s git out of this.”
So he came along until we met Binney and Plunk. They hadn’t seen a sign of life, and it was pretty clear the chief was off on some sort of expedition; but we were worried because there wasn’t even a little lump of gold to be seen through any of the windows—not a smidgin!
“Maybe he’s got a secret hidin’-place.”
“Prob’ly with some horrible image a-stand-in’ guard over it,” Binney said, and shivered like he was a little chilly25. “They always have them awful-lookin’ images with grinnin’ mouths and maybe seventeen arms and legs a-guardin’ their secret and sacred places.” He’d got so interested that he could almost see a whopping big carving26 of some scary thing standing27 right there in front of him.
“Most likely we’ll have to find a hidden spring to touch. There’ll be a huge stone stuck against the openin’.”
I was getting tired of talking about it so much, so I up and said: “Well, let’s git to lookin’ for the place. We can study how to bust28 into it when we find where it is.”
We started off toward the back of the yard, when all at once Mark halted us and pointed off to the left. “Th-there it is!” he hissed29. “The cave! Up that precipice30! See the openin’?”
We looked and, sure enough, we saw what Mark meant. It was the icehouse with a little square opening up near the very top and a ladder nailed to the wall running up to it.
“It ain’t guarded,” says Binney, his mouth open like he was surprised most to death.
“How in the world did they ever come to neglect that?”
“The guard’s there,” Mark says, contemptuous-like. “Don’t you see him a-stand-in’, leanin’ on his spear? We got to hide around the corner and git him before he gives the a-a-alarm.”
We hid and waited for the guard to come along, and then we pounced31 out on him, and I guess he’d have been a pretty surprised guard if there’d been one at all. We knocked him down, and Mark sat on him and held his mouth shut while the rest of us tied him up tight. When he was taken care of Mark says, “Now for the treasure!” and commenced climbing up the ladder.
We all followed and scrambled32 through the little door in on top of the sawdust that the ice was packed in to keep it from melting during the summer. It was almost dark in there, and just like a great cavern33.
“It’s g-g-gold!” shouts Mark, picking up a handful of sawdust and letting it run through his fingers. “Millions and millions of dollars worth of it. We’re rich men.” He said it just like some fellers we read about in a story of hidden treasure did. When they found theirs they got all excited and said lots of things like that, and Mark was always for doing things the way the books said.
I crawled over to the door to look down the precipice and see if our guard was still tied up all right, and I tell you I jerked in my head quick, for there was a man standing right at the foot of the ladder looking up, and he had the biggest dog with him I ever saw.
“Fellers,” I whispered, and I was scared, all right, “the guard’s got loose, and he’s waitin’ for us to come down with a trained lion to help him.”
They thought I was still playing, and partly I was, but the man was there, all right, as they saw when they looked. Pretty soon we knew he’d seen us, for he hollered, and his voice sounded old and mean and squeaky. “I got ye, all right, consarn ye. Come sneakin’ and spyin’ around a feller’s house, will you? I’ll learn ye what’s what ’fore I git shut of ye.” He waited a minute, then he spoke34 to the dog. “Watch, Obed, watch!” I thought that was a funny name for a dog. “Git ’em if they come down.” And then he went off leaving that whopper of a dog sitting right under us where he could gobble us if we came down.
“FELLERS, THE GUARD’S GOT LOOSE, AND HE’S WAITIN’ FOR US TO COME DOWN”
“Well!” says Plunk, like somebody had poked him between wind and water. “Well!”
We all crowded to the little door and looked down at the dog. He was lying with his muzzle35 between his paws, and it looked like he was all ready to go to sleep.
“Don’t look like he amounted to much as a watcher,” said Binney. “I bet we could walk right past him.”
“Wait till he’s fast asleep and try,” Mark said, and kind of grinned.
We waited maybe fifteen minutes, and I can tell you it was beginning to get pretty chilly in there with all that ice and gold that had gone and turned back into damp sawdust. We were getting more game than we had figured on.
“Don’t see what the man was so—riled about,” Plunk grumbled36. “We hadn’t done nothing to him.”
“Thought we come to coon somethin’, I guess,” I told him; and that seemed likely, but when we got all through with the man and the house we knew that wasn’t the reason at all.
“I’m a-goin’ to try,” says Binney, and he shoved his legs through the door and begins crawling down the ladder. He was about halfway37 down when the dog grunted38 and cocked his ears and sat up on his haunches and looked at Binney with his big eyes. Then he yawned, and we could see right down into his red throat, and every tooth in his head stared at us and we stared at them. Binney began to climb back again, and never said a word when he was through the door and sitting on the sawdust once more.
“Better watch-dog than you c-c-calc’lated,” says Mark, slyly-like, with his face as sober as Deacon Barns’s when he asks for offerings for the heathen.
Nobody thought of anything to say, and we kept getting chillier39 and chillier and uncomfortabler and uncomfortabler. Binney was uneasiest of all, because there was his father’s horse and rig standing by the side of the road, and no telling when somebody’d come along and borrow it, or something would come along and scare the creature till he ran off. It was a nice pickle40 to be in, any way you looked at it, and when the way you looked was toward that dog it was prettier than ever.
“We got to git out,” I said.
“S-s-sure,” Mark chattered41. “Show us how and we’ll come right along.”
But that wasn’t so easy. It began to look as though we would have to stay and take our medicine—whatever medicine the mean-looking, wizened-up old man intended to give us a dose of.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
depot
|
|
| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
satchel
|
|
| n.(皮或帆布的)书包 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
whittled
|
|
| v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
marsh
|
|
| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
lookout
|
|
| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
savages
|
|
| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
wink
|
|
| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
ambush
|
|
| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
sneak
|
|
| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
scout
|
|
| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
orchard
|
|
| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
evergreen
|
|
| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
poked
|
|
| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
evergreens
|
|
| n.常青树，常绿植物，万年青( evergreen的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
sneaked
|
|
| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
crouching
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
peeking
|
|
| v.很快地看( peek的现在分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
peeked
|
|
| v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
farmhouse
|
|
| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
chilly
|
|
| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
carving
|
|
| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
bust
|
|
| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
hissed
|
|
| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
precipice
|
|
| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
pounced
|
|
| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
scrambled
|
|
| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
cavern
|
|
| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
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： |
|
|
|
|
35
muzzle
|
|
| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
grumbled
|
|
| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
halfway
|
|
| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
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： |
|
|
|
|
39
chillier
|
|
| adj.寒冷的，冷得难受的( chilly的比较级 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
pickle
|
|
| n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
chattered
|
|
| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |