CHAPTER XVI THE GREY ROOM

Pat Claremanagh floated in a grey sea, under a grey sky. It seemed to him that the grey sea and sky were part of some existence after death. He vaguely¹ remembered that he had died. If it were not for the constant, heavy pain in his head, he thought that he could recall the whole incident.

Yes, that was the word—"incident". It hardly mattered now, and wasn't worth while racking his brain over. That tin hat of his was too tight—much too tight. But he was too weak to lift his hands and take it off. Strange, though, that he should be wearing it when he was dead!

He must have been killed in the war. Yet, how long ago the war seemed! He had thought that a great many things had happened to him after the war. No doubt they were part of this dream—this long, floating dream—after death. But they were not grey like the leaden sea and the sky that hung so low over his head. They were beautiful, colourful things. Just straining to remember brought rainbow flashes across his brain. Out of these lights a girl's face looked at him.

"Juliet!" he heard himself mutter, in a thick, tongue-tied voice.

Instantly another face appeared, and blotted² out that of the girl. This one was solid and very real. It bent³ over him in the greyness: a man's face, somehow familiar, as if he had known it long ago—long ago disliked it: a fleshy bulk surrounded with hair. He loathed⁴ it for itself, and hated it for shutting out the vision of Juliet, so he closed his eyes.

For a moment consciousness died down like a fading flame. Only a vast, vague greyness was left, and the tight pain of the tin hat. But when a few moments or a few years had passed, a voice spoke⁵. It beat upon his dulled intelligence like the strokes of a clock in the dark, telling an hour. Pat was suddenly keyed up to listening, because it was a woman's voice, and far down within himself he was aware that a woman's voice—a certain woman's voice—was what he yearned⁶ to hear.

Strange! He was wide awake, and knowledge came to him that he was not dead, after all, though he might be close to death. But he did not open his eyes, because he could not bear to see the living mass of flesh and hair again. He lay quite still. And he listened.

"You are always hanging over him like that whenever I turn my back!" said the woman.

"Why not? I do no harm," answered a man's voice, with a rather soft, monotonous⁷ foreign accent.

Pat knew that the voice belonged to the face. It also had association with long past things which were somehow important. A scene began forming in his tired mind, like bits of an old picture being matched together. A room with tables, and men drinking and smoking; a cleared space; a kind of stage; a girl dancing—slim, lovely, light as a fawn⁸; long red hair waving back and forth—Lyda!—that was her name. Lyda—something. He was at one of the tables, very young, only a boy. And the hairy man sat with him, talking, praising the girl. Markoff!

He stopped, remembering, and listened again.

"You'd do harm if you dared to," the woman said. "You'd like to kill him."

"I tink it will be better for us all if he die," said the man. "Much better! Much safer. But no violence. Let him go—fade away. I tought it would soon be finished wiz him. Zen he open his eyes and look at me. You hear him speak—some word."

"Yes, I heard him," the woman answered. "It's the first time he's made a sound—since, except a sort of groaning⁹. I'm jolly glad. We don't want him to drop off the hooks. Not much!"

"You are ver' foolish, Madam. He can give your 'usband and ze ozzers away. It is only me who 'ave nozzing to fear. He do not see me zere. Yet I am witness agains' any ones who treat me wrong."

"Pooh!" said the woman. "You're always harping¹⁰ on your power to hurt us. It's nil¹¹. The hunt's out for you, Mr. Markoff or Halbin, or whatever you like to be. If we're keeping you for our own sakes because you haven't paid up, anyhow it's your game to lie low. You daren't show your nose outside this door. But for heaven's sake, let's stop arguing. I'm for nothing in that part of the business."

"You 'ave all got some plan you try to work behin' my back," growled¹² the man. "I tell you enough times, ze money will come!"

"When it comes, you'll get the pearls: if it comes in time. That's the rub!"

The word "pearls" was like a key. It unlocked the door of Pat's memory, and impressions flowed in. But they were confused, without beginning or end; and he lay motionless, hoping for more clues. He was conscious that the woman leaned over him. She brought with her a heavy oriental perfume, and he felt a waft¹³ of warm breath on his face.

"Are you awake?" she asked, speaking slowly. "Do you know what happened to hurt you—eh?"

Pat did not show by the quiver of an eyelid¹⁴ that he had heard.

"Wen 'e come back to himself, bineby, 'e will remember everything per'aps, an' zen w'ere will you all be?" the man wanted to know.

"He never will remember, unless there's someone to give him the tip. People don't remember with concussion," the woman said.

So that was what he had—concussion of the brain! Pat wondered how he had got it. One of the impressions filtering back was of hitting a man, and hearing him squeal¹⁵. What had followed was a blank, like everything since. Maybe some other man had hit him—from behind.

The woman moved away, and cautiously Pat opened his eyes. The greyness was still there, but it was more definite, more commonplace, as if belonging to earth and things of everyday life. He thought that he must be lying on his back in a bed, looking straight up at a low grey ceiling. There were grey walls, too, but he could not turn his head to see more, as his neck was stiff and painful. The light was so dim that he imagined it must be drawing toward dusk in a room with small windows partly covered with curtains.

More talking went on at a distance, between the man and woman. Sometimes it sounded so far off that Pat wondered if there was an adjoining room with an open door. Presently, when all had been silent for so long that he had almost dozed¹⁶ off, there was a sudden explosion of voices. The listener fancied that there were two new ones, both voices of men, and one he recognized, though irritatingly he could not attach the right name label.

He kept his eyes closed, because he was sure that the latecomers would look at him, and his caution was rewarded. Someone turned on a light. The two new voices mumbled¹⁷ in sick-bed whispers across his pillow. He caught a word here and there: again "the pearls," "Markoff," and "the Duchess." The last gave him an odd thrill. Juliet! She had been angry. How was she feeling now? Was she seeking for him? Or did she give him credit for running off with the pearls—or Lyda? or—both together?

The thought that this might be so—probably was so—made him long to spring up and fight his way to his wife, somehow. And perhaps he could not have resisted attempting to move had not a sudden noise snapped the thread of his thought.

A quarrel had broken out over something between the men. All three voices rose sharply. The woman intervened, and was rebuked¹⁸. Then came a squall of rage, instantly stifled¹⁹. The woman screamed, and drew in her breath with a gasp²⁰. All was still again.

"Hark!" whispered someone.

The light went out.

In place of the greyness, blackness fell.

Pat could hear the pounding of his own heart, and another sound almost hidden by the noise in his breast.

He thought that stairs were squeaking²¹ under a stealthy foot.

1 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

2 blotted   

涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干

参考例句：

• She blotted water off the table with a towel. 她用毛巾擦干桌上的水。
• The blizzard blotted out the sky and the land. 暴风雪铺天盖地而来。

3 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

4 loathed   

v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢

参考例句：

• Baker loathed going to this red-haired young pup for supplies. 面包师傅不喜欢去这个红头发的自负的傻小子那里拿原料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Therefore, above all things else, he loathed his miserable self! 因此，他厌恶不幸的自我尤胜其它！ 来自英汉文学 - 红字

5 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：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 yearned   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The people yearned for peace. 人民渴望和平。
• She yearned to go back to the south. 她渴望回到南方去。

7 monotonous   

adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的

参考例句：

• She thought life in the small town was monotonous.她觉得小镇上的生活单调而乏味。
• His articles are fixed in form and monotonous in content.他的文章千篇一律，一个调调儿。

8 fawn   

n.未满周岁的小鹿；v.巴结，奉承

参考例句：

• A fawn behind the tree looked at us curiously.树后面一只小鹿好奇地看着我们。
• He said you fawn on the manager in order to get a promotion.他说你为了获得提拔，拍经理的马屁。

9 groaning   

adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
• The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着，无人救助。

10 harping   

n.反复述说

参考例句：

• Don't keep harping on like that. 别那样唠叨个没完。
• You're always harping on the samestring. 你总是老调重弹。

11 nil   

n.无，全无，零

参考例句：

• My knowledge of the subject is practically nil.我在这方面的知识几乎等于零。
• Their legal rights are virtually nil.他们实际上毫无法律权利。

12 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 waft   

v.飘浮，飘荡；n.一股；一阵微风；飘荡

参考例句：

• The bubble maker is like a sword that you waft in the air.吹出泡泡的东西就像你在空中挥舞的一把剑。
• When she just about fall over,a waft of fragrance makes her stop.在她差点跌倒时，一股幽香让她停下脚步。

14 eyelid   

n.眼睑，眼皮

参考例句：

• She lifted one eyelid to see what he was doing.她抬起一只眼皮看看他在做什么。
• My eyelid has been tumid since yesterday.从昨天起，我的眼皮就肿了。

15 squeal   

v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音

参考例句：

• The children gave a squeal of fright.孩子们发出惊吓的尖叫声。
• There was a squeal of brakes as the car suddenly stopped.小汽车突然停下来时，车闸发出尖叫声。

16 dozed   

v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He boozed till daylight and dozed into the afternoon. 他喝了个通霄，昏沉沉地一直睡到下午。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• I dozed off during the soporific music. 我听到这催人入睡的音乐，便不知不觉打起盹儿来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 mumbled   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He mumbled something to me which I did not quite catch. 他对我叽咕了几句话，可我没太听清楚。
• George mumbled incoherently to himself. 乔治语无伦次地喃喃自语。

18 rebuked   

责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The company was publicly rebuked for having neglected safety procedures. 公司因忽略了安全规程而受到公开批评。
• The teacher rebuked the boy for throwing paper on the floor. 老师指责这个男孩将纸丢在地板上。

19 stifled   

（使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵

参考例句：

• The gas stifled them. 煤气使他们窒息。
• The rebellion was stifled. 叛乱被镇压了。

20 gasp   

n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说

参考例句：

• She gave a gasp of surprise.她吃惊得大口喘气。
• The enemy are at their last gasp.敌人在做垂死的挣扎。

21 squeaking   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》