“Wave to the Cap’n,” Ho Ha urged her. Mermaid10 answered his smile with a smile of her own. The afternoon sun struck her coppery hair and framed the smile in a halo.
Of a sudden the chug-chugging stopped, the launch came about neatly11, and Ho Ha, hastily setting Mermaid down on the pier, caught the rope end Cap’n Smiley tossed him. Then he laid hold of the keeper’s bundles[11] while John Smiley picked up the little girl and carried her to the station.
Spring had not conquered the chill of nightfall yet. The big stove in the long living room of the station gave forth12 a happy warmth, and the front lids were red. In the kitchen, through which arrivals passed into the living room, Warren Avery, Surfman No. 4, was working, apron-clad, at the task of dinner. It was his week to cook and he thanked God the agony would soon be over. Cake! He had never been able to make cake with confidence since the day when he had put in salt instead of saleratus. The cake had not risen but his fellows had.
“What you trying to do, Avery?” Ha Ha had demanded. “This might have been made by Lot’s wife.”
In the living room sat the other members of the crew, all except Tom Lupton who was forth on the east patrol. All smoked pipes except the youngest, Joe Sayre, Surfman No. 7. Joe was eighteen and Cap’n Smiley suffered great anxiety lest cigarettes impair13 the physique inherited from generations of bay-going ancestors.
All smoked; at the word that dinner was ready all would cease to smoke and begin to eat. At the conclusion of dinner they would light up again. All were hungry, all were hardy14. Seven nights before, drenched15 to the skin, blinded by rain and hail and braced16 against a full gale17, they had battled all night to save men from a ship smashing to pieces on the outer bar. Not one of[12] them showed a sign of that prolonged and terrible struggle.
Cap’n Smiley drew up his chair at one end of the table, which thus became the head. Mermaid was seated beside him. For her there was mush and milk, the latter supplied by the only cow on the beach, which belonged to Mrs. Biggles. For the others huskier fare: corned beef and cabbage, hardtack and butter, bread pudding and coffee. Each waited on himself and on the others. There must be conversation; Cap’n Smiley valued certain amenities18 as evidence of man’s civilized19 state and table conversation was one of them. It devolved on him to start it. He said:
“Has the beach been gone over to-day for wreckage20?”
It appeared it had. Jim Mapes and Joe Sayre, aided somewhat by Mrs. Biggles’s husband, had walked east and west almost to the stations on either side of Lone Cove. There was much driftwood from the lost ship. Some tinned provisions had come ashore21 but seemed hopelessly spoiled. And one body.
“Found it well up on the beach about two miles east,” Jim Mapes told the keeper. “That of the captain. Biggles took it over to Bellogue. I kept the papers he had on him. Put ’em on your desk, Cap’n.”
“Look ’em over later,” the keeper remarked. “Did Biggles take off that fo’c’s’le scum?”
“He did.”
“And a good riddance,” declared the keeper. “Evil-looking[13] fellow, if I ever saw one. A squarehead, too. Some Dutch name or other—Dirk or Derrick or just plain Dirt. The owners said to let him go. But the curious thing is they couldn’t tell me what I wanted to know.”
He glanced at the small girl beside him. She had finished her supper and sat back in her chair, looking a little timidly and a little sleepily at the men. Cap’n Smiley interrupted his meal to carry her to his room whence, after an interval22, he returned grinning happily.
“Eyes closed as soon as she was in bed,” he informed his crew. Then his forehead wrinkled again as he sat down.
“The owners,” he explained, “say that the captain was unmarried. The mate had a wife but no children. The second was a youngster and single. There was no passenger, not even one signed on as ‘medical officer’ or anything like that. The ship was direct from San Francisco, 130 days out. The child must have come aboard before she sailed, but there is no record to show who she is. Have any of you talked to her?”
“I have,” Ho Ha answered. “Easy-like, you know, Cap’n. She says she hasn’t any name. The captain looked after her and she lived in a spare cabin. The steward23 she remembers because he was kind to her and because he was lame24. She had never seen any one aboard before she came on the ship. Doesn’t know how she got there. Woke up to find herself in the cabin and[14] the ‘bed rocking.’ Before being on the boat she lived with ‘a tall lady’ whom she called Auntie. Just Auntie, nothing else. It was in the country, some place near Frisco, maybe. On shipboard the captain and the steward called her ‘little girl’ when they called her anything. None of the others spoke25 to her.”
Most of the men had finished eating. Cap’n Smiley got up and went to his desk. He picked up the papers that had been washed ashore with the body of the Mermaid’s skipper. There were certain of the ship’s papers, a little memorandum26 book with no entries, and a personal letter. The ink had run badly on the soaked documents and the letter was illegible27 except for a few words. These were far apart and decipherable after much pains.
“‘Only child ... return her ... precautions ... do not want my whereabouts ... so no message ... forgiveness’” puzzled out the keeper. From hand to hand the letter went to confirm these conjectural28 readings. The keeper scratched his head. His forehead showed little vertical29 lines. His blue eyes were thoughtful, and the wrinkles that converged30 at their corners, the result of much sea gazing, showed up like little furrows31 of light and shadow under the rays of the big oil lamp hanging overhead. The sense of so much as he had read was clear enough, but the story was woefully incomplete. What were a few words in a couple of sentences of a long letter? Four[15] large sheets had been covered by that shaky and rather small handwriting; and for the fourteen words he could make out there were at least four hundred lost.
Footfalls sounded on the boardwalk outside the door, not the steady tramp of Tom Lupton returning from the easterly stretch of the beach but lighter32 steps of someone running. The door opened quickly and Mrs. Biggles appeared among them, white and breathless.
“Cap’n,” she panted. “There’s a stranger on the beach. My Henry hasn’t got back yet—he maybe’ll be staying over to Bellogue till morning. I heard a noise at a window and there was a man’s face. He disappeared quick. I was so frightened I couldn’t run and I couldn’t stay; so finally I run over here. ’Twasn’t any face I ever saw before. It’s—it’s a sailor like the one Henry took off. And—oh, have mercy on us!—they’re all drowned!”
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收听单词发音
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1
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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blithe
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| adj.快乐的，无忧无虑的 | |
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misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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mermaid
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| n.美人鱼 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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impair
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| v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少 | |
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hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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16
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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17
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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18
amenities
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| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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spoke
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| 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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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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illegible
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| adj.难以辨认的，字迹模糊的 | |
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conjectural
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| adj.推测的 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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converged
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| v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的过去式 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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31
furrows
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| n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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32
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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