“Whoever he is, he’s hungry. Mrs. Biggles, he’s eating your provender5!”
All fear left the bayman’s wife. With an exclamation6 she advanced before the others could restrain her. They followed her through the door in time to hear her exclaim:
“You good-for-nothing, what are you doing eating my Henry’s cold samp porridge!”
The man choked on a mouthful. Swiftly he rose and tried to slip by her. She gave him a heavy box on the head and the men at the door caught and held him.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” asked Cap’n Smiley, sharply, though amazed mirth at the transformation7 of Mrs. Biggles caused his eyes to twinkle. The sailor stood quietly enough. His English was poor. He was, he said, one of the crew of the wrecked8 ship. He had been washed ashore10 unconscious on the night of the disaster but had recovered his senses before dawn, creeping into the sandhills. There he had hidden in bushes and slept. He had slept all day and at night he had prowled about. Breaking into one of the few summer cottages on the beach he had found a little food and on that he had subsisted11. He hadn’t approached the Coast Guard Station nor made himself known to any one because of a fight in San Francisco in[17] which he had killed a man. A boarding-house keeper had sheltered him and put him on the Mermaid12, but the captain knew who he was and he had expected to be arrested when the ship made New York. The wreck9 had seemed to offer him a miraculous13 chance of escape, and he had somehow escaped with his life. Was he to survive in the face of such odds14 only to lose his life ashore? But now, half-starved and plainly feverish15, he could struggle no longer; he would confess and take his chances. His eye remained with a fixed16 fascination17 on the food that lay on the table. He wriggled18 feebly in Cap’n Smiley’s hard grasp to reach it; then sank down limply with delirious19 mutterings.
The keeper and Joe Sayre picked him up and carried him, as men on shipboard carry a lighter20 sail, to the station. Mrs. Biggles, entirely21 reassured22, they left in her cabin. At the station a bed was made on the floor in the living room, not far from the stove. The keeper got out his medicine chest and prepared to spend a wakeful night.
The man was evidently in a very bad state. Sedatives23 seemed to have no effect on him. He tossed about on the floor as if he felt a heaving deck under him. He talked almost continuously. His exchanges with the boarding-house keeper and with the skipper of the Mermaid were on his lips; and interspersed24 with cringing25 entreaties26 were sentences that must have been uttered in a quarrel with the man he had killed. Cap’n Smiley listened patiently, but he could not make much of it.
[18]The man killed in the fight had not been a sailor but a landsman, that was evident, and he had had something to do with a woman—no, a girl. Then came the words, “Six years old,” and the keeper suddenly realized that all this might relate to the child sleeping in his bed. He bent27 down and waited for her name, but it never came. Most likely the speaker did not know it. There was something about a “Captain King,” but the name of the Mermaid’s captain had been Jackson.... This Captain King had had something to do with the six-year-old girl.... She was not his child but another’s.... He had arranged to send her back ... keeping himself out of it.... Child ... Cap’n Smiley’s thoughts travelled to the letter found with the body of the Mermaid’s skipper. It must have been from this Captain King. But to whom was he returning this child who was not his? And who were her parents? All this sick man knew he had learned from an agent of Captain King who had brought the child to the master of the Mermaid, and who had been drinking with the money someone, presumably King, had paid him.... The keeper, with a beating heart, gave heed28 to the sailor’s talking. Much of it was irrelevant29 and not a little was unclean; once the man sang part of a chantey, and once he cursed a fellow working beside him aloft on a yard. It was a long and strained vigil that the Coast Guardsman kept, and when, toward morning, the poor wretch30 on the floor sank into[19] a coma31 and died, he had an intolerable sense of being cheated, first by a dead man who should have kept his papers in oilskin packets, and then by a dying man whose tongue should either have wagged a few hours longer or never have wagged at all.
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1 dunes | |
沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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2 shack | |
adj.简陋的小屋,窝棚 | |
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3 panes | |
窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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4 chuckle | |
vi./n.轻声笑,咯咯笑 | |
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5 provender | |
n.刍草;秣料 | |
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6 exclamation | |
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词 | |
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7 transformation | |
n.变化;改造;转变 | |
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8 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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9 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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10 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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11 subsisted | |
v.(靠很少的钱或食物)维持生活,生存下去( subsist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 mermaid | |
n.美人鱼 | |
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13 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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14 odds | |
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别 | |
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15 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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16 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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17 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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18 wriggled | |
v.扭动,蠕动,蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 );(使身体某一部位)扭动;耍滑不做,逃避(应做的事等) | |
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19 delirious | |
adj.不省人事的,神智昏迷的 | |
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20 lighter | |
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级 | |
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21 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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22 reassured | |
adj.使消除疑虑的;使放心的v.再保证,恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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23 sedatives | |
n.镇静药,镇静剂( sedative的名词复数 ) | |
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24 interspersed | |
adj.[医]散开的;点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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25 cringing | |
adj.谄媚,奉承 | |
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26 entreaties | |
n.恳求,乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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27 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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28 heed | |
v.注意,留意;n.注意,留心 | |
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29 irrelevant | |
adj.不恰当的,无关系的,不相干的 | |
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30 wretch | |
n.可怜的人,不幸的人;卑鄙的人 | |
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31 coma | |
n.昏迷,昏迷状态 | |
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