Well, on the night when Martin and Jack3 [pg 87] stole away from the hut and got clear off on their venturesome journey in the mission boat, their father and mother, with little Calvin, who was eight years old, and Miriam, who was a pretty wee lassie of three, were heavily guarded by half a dozen desperate and drunken savages4 in the temple-tomb of the deceased Taranaka. It was a thatched native grass-house, with a bare mud floor, and a rough altar-slab6 raised high on the threshold, which covered the remains7 of the blood-thirsty old chieftain—the man who in his early youth had seen "Capitaney Cook" when he discovered the islands. The Melanesian natives, I ought to tell you, regard their dead ancestors as a sort of gods or guardian8 spirits, and frequently offer up food and drink at their graves as presents to appease9 them. Every morning gifts of taro10, bread-fruit, and plantain were laid on the altar by Taranaka's tomb; and once every ten days a little square gin, mixed with cocoa-milk, was poured out upon the rude slab of unsculptured stone, that the dead chief's [pg 88] ghost might come to drink of it and be satisfied. Wednesday the tenth was the anniversary of Taranaka's death (he had been killed in a fight with some neighboring islanders, who fell out with him over the wreck11 of an American whaling vessel12), and it was on that festival day that the chief proposed offering up the blood of our fellow-countrymen as an expiation13 to the shades of his departed relative.
Macglashin and his wife never even knew that the boys had escaped. If they had, those long days of suspense14 might have been even worse for them. They might have been looking forward with mad hope to some miracle of rescue such as that which the Albatross had so boldly planned, and which had been so cruelly interfered15 with by the breakdown17 of our machinery18. As it was, the savages carefully kept from them all knowledge of their boys' escape. They never even breathed a hint of that desperate voyage. Every day, on the contrary, when they brought the unhappy missionary and his wife their daily [pg 89] rations19 of yam and banana, they taunted20 them with threats of what tortures the Chief had still in store for Jack and Martin. They were fatting them up, they said, for Taranaka to feed upon. On Taranaka's day they would be offered up as victims on the cannibal altar.
But the most terrible part of all the poor father and mother's sufferings was the fact that they couldn't keep the knowledge of that awful fate in store for them even from Calvin and pretty little Miriam. Macglashin's diary, which I read later on, was just heartrending about the children. Those helpless mites22 cowered23 all day long on the bare mud floor of that hideous24 temple, awaiting the horrible doom25 that the savages held out before them with the painful resignation of innocent childhood. They were too frightened to cry over it; too frightened to talk of it; they only crouched26 pale and terrified by their mother's side, and dragged out the long day in horrible apprehensions27. They knew they must die, and they sat there watching [pg 90] for that inevitable28 sentence to be carried out with the stoical fortitude29 of utter childish helplessness. Well, there—I'm an old hand on the sea, you know, and I don't mind the dangers of the wind and waves for grown men and boys that can look after themselves, any more than most of you land-folks mind dodging30 about in the Strand31 at Charing32 Cross on a crowded afternoon in the London season; but I can't bear to talk or even to think of what those poor children suffered all those terrible days in the heathen tomb-house. There are things that make a man's blood run cold to speak about. That makes mine run cold: I can't dwell on it any longer; it's too ghastly to realize.
So there—the days went by, one after another; and Monday the eighth came, and Tuesday the ninth, and still no chance of escape or rescue. Up to the last moment, Macglashin hoped (as he says in the diary) that some miracle might occur to set them free, some interposition of [pg 91] Providence33 on their behalf to prevent the last misfortune from overtaking his poor pallid35 little Miriam. Perhaps the mission ship, that went her rounds twice a year, might happen to put in, out of due season, with some special message or under stress of weather; or perhaps some whaling vessel or some English gunboat might arrive in the nick of time in the little harbor of Tanaki. But when Tuesday evening came, and no help had arrived, the unhappy man's heart sank within him. He gave up that last wild hope of a rescue at the eleventh hour, and addressed himself to die with what courage he could muster36.
Ah yes, to die one's self is all easy enough; nobody worth his salt minds that; but to see one's wife and children murdered before one's eyes—there, I'm a rough sort of sailor-body, as I said before, but you must excuse my breaking off. I haven't got the strength to hold my pen and write about it. Why, I've a boy of my own at school at Sydney, and my Mary's in [pg 92] England, bless her little heart! at a lady's college they call it nowadays; and I know what it means; I know what it means, gentlemen. I'd no more expose those two dear children in the places I've been among the islands myself, than—well, than I'd send them to sea alone in a cock-boat. And my heart just bleeds for that poor father at Tanaki, when I read his diary over again, though I haven't got the skill to put it all down in words at full length as one of those fellows would do that write for the newspapers.
However, on Tuesday night, neither Macglashin himself nor Mrs. Macglashin could get a wink37 of sleep, as you may easily imagine. They sat up in the temple, with their backs against the wall, and relays of black fellows, armed with Sniders, and smeared38 with red paint, watching them closely all the while, to see they didn't escape or try to do away with themselves. But Calvin fell asleep out of pure fatigue39 on his mother's lap, and Miriam, poor little soul, lay against her father's shoulder, dozing40 as [pg 93] peacefully as ever she dozed41 in her own small cot at the mission-house, where she was born. Once the thought came into her father's mind, oughtn't he to twist his handkerchief round her soft little throat, as she lay there all unconscious in his circling arms, to save her from the tender mercies of those cruel black savages? How could he tell what torments42 they might inflict43 upon her? Wasn't it better she should be spared all that horror of fear? Wasn't it better she should just sleep away her dear little life without ever knowing it, till she woke next morning in a happier and a brighter country? But in another minute his heart recoiled44 from the terrible thought. While there was still one chance of safety he must let things take their course. Perhaps even those black monsters might have pity at the last on that one ewe lamb. Perhaps they might spare his Miriam's life, and make her over to the mission-ship when it next arrived on its rounds at the island.
All that night long the savages, for their part, [pg 94] were holding a sing-sing, as they call it, close by, and the hideous noise of their heathenish revels45 could be distinctly heard by the watchers in the temple. They danced to the music of their hollow drums, while the shells upon their ankles resounded46 in unison47. At times the echo of horrible laughter fell harsh upon the ear. The natives, covered with red feathers and smeared with blood, were keeping high festival, as is their horrid48 custom. And as the long hours wore away, the din21 of their revelry became more wild in their orgies each moment.
Morning dawned at last—the morning of Wednesday the tenth, when that awful deed of bloodshed was to be done before the open eye of heaven; and with the first streak49 of light the poor children awoke and gazed around them blankly at their temple prison. The black watchers brought them yam and mammee-apples once more, but they couldn't eat; they sat bewildered and mute, with their hands clasped in their parents' palms, waiting for the [pg 95] end, and too dazed and terrified almost to know what was passing.
About six o'clock the Chief came down to the temple, with bloodshot eyes and tottering50 feet, attended by half a dozen naked black followers52. They had all been drinking the greater part of the night at the sing-sing, for the Frenchmen had left plenty of square gin behind; and they rollicked in the cruel good-humor of the born savage5.
"How do, Macglashin?" the Chief inquired with a hateful leer. "How do, white woman? Taranaka day come at last. How you like him this morning? What for you no tell man a Tanaki sooner you don't know Englishman? Ha! ha! dat true; so him see. Queenie England no care for Scotchman."
"If you dare to touch a hair of our heads," Macglashin cried in his despair, rising up and facing the savage angrily, "sooner or later, I tell you, the Queen of England will hear of it, and she'll send a gunboat to punish you for our [pg 96] death, and her sailors'll shoot you all down for your part in this murder."
The Chief laughed—a wild, horrible, barbaric laugh. "Ha! ha!" he answered. "Dat all very fine for try frighten me. But man a oui-oui tell me you no true Englishman. You speakee English, but you Scotchman born. All samee American. Queenie England no care for American, no care for Scotch53; no send her gunboat for look after Scotchman. Man a Tanaki go for eat you to-day, for do honor to ghost a Taranaka."
Macglashin saw that words would produce no effect upon the tipsy and excited wretch54; he must make up his mind for the worst. There was no help for it.
"At least," he cried, "Chief, you'll let us say good-by to our boys before we die? You'll bring them in for their mother and me to take our last farewell of them?"
The Chief shook his head and made a hideous grimace55. "No say good-by to boys," he said, [pg 97] with horrible glee. "Man a Tanaki kill pig all night; kill Scotchman in morning. Kill baby first; then boy; then mother. Last of all, kill you yourself, Macglashin. Taranaka very much love white man's blood. Great day to-day for feast for Taranaka." And he went off again, grinning in hideous buffoonery, while Macglashin's soul seethed56 in speechless indignation.
For half an hour more they were left undisturbed. Then the Chief appeared at the door once more, and beckoning57 with his long black forefinger58, called to the missionary—
"Come out, Macglashin!"
The unhappy man strode out with little Miriam half-fainting in his arms.
"Come out, white woman!" the savage cried once more.
The pale mother, almost unable to totter51 with terror, made her way to the door, with Calvin's fingers intertwined in her own.
"Now, white people, we going to shoot you," the savage continued, unabashed. "You make [pg 98] too much trouble for man a Tanaki. Interfere16 too much with man who sell him boy or him woman. Me don't going to kill you with axe59, like Taranaka kill first missionary that come a Tanaki. Man a oui-oui sell me plenty Snider. Man a Tanaki want to try him shooting-irons. Set you up to run, and then go fire at you."
At the word he nodded, and four stalwart savages caught Macglashin in their arms and held him to a line drawn60 lightly in the dust by the Chief's stick. At the same moment four others caught his unhappy wife, and dragged her, half senseless, to the self-same line. The two children were ranged by their sides, pale and white with terror. Then the Chief walked forward, and drew another line some forty yards in front of them with his stick again. "When Chief call 'go,'" he called out, "man a Tanaki let go missionary, and boy, and white woman. Missionary run till him reach dis line. Man a Tanaki no shoot till missionary pass dis line. Den34 man a Tanaki fire; missionary run; [pg 99] man a Tanaki run after missionary to kill him. Whoever shoot missionary or white woman first, give him body up in temple to Taranaka."
As he spoke61, the savages ranged themselves behind, Sniders in hand. The Chief placed himself in order at their head on the right. Then he called out in Kanaka, "When I give the word—'one, two, three'—loose them! When I give the word Fire! off with your rifles at them."
There was a deadly pause. All was still as death. Then the Chief cried aloud, "One—two—three—loose them!" and the savages loosed the poor terrified Europeans.
Even in that supreme62 moment of agony and doubt, however, one thought kept rising ever in the father's and mother's heart. What had become of Jack and Martin?
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收听单词发音
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1
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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taro
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| n.芋，芋头 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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expiation
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| n.赎罪，补偿 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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breakdown
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| n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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taunted
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| 嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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mites
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| n.（尤指令人怜悯的）小孩( mite的名词复数 )；一点点；一文钱；螨 | |
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cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apprehensions
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| 疑惧 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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45
revels
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| n.作乐( revel的名词复数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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46
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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totter
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| v.蹒跚， 摇摇欲坠；n.蹒跚的步子 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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53
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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54
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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56
seethed
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| （液体）沸腾( seethe的过去式和过去分词 )； 激动，大怒； 强压怒火； 生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth) | |
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beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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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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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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