“Wha’chee want?” he asked.
“Is this yours?” inquired Bob, producing the chopstick and studying the Chinaman’s face attentively4 as he did so.
The brim of the old slouch hat—which the yellow man had kept on while sleeping—shaded his eyes, so that Bob’s view was not as good as he would have liked to have it. So far as Bob could discover, not a shadow of guilt5 crossed Ah Sin’s face. Thrusting one hand into the breast of his blouse he drew out the mate to the chopstick Bob was holding, a grateful grin split his countenance6, and he caught the piece of ebony out of Bob’s hand.
If Ah Sin was surprised at the command he cloaked his feelings admirably.
Without a word he left the torpedo room, climbed to the deck above, and gained the periscope chamber10. Bob pounded on the door of Glennie’s quarters, and the ensign quickly opened the door.
“What’s wanted?” he asked.
“Take this Chinaman in there with you, Mr. Glennie,” said Bob, “and watch him.”
241
“What’s he been doing?”
“I don’t know that he’s been doing anything. I just want him watched, that’s all, and you can do it better than any one else.”
Glennie stared for a moment, then jerked the Chinaman inside and closed the door.
As Bob turned away, he was conscious of the steady song of the cylinders11. Again the motor had taken up its cycle properly—proof that the gasoline secured by Dick in Port of Spain was of the right sort.
“I’ll take the wheel, Speake,” said Bob. “Go to the torpedo room and turn in.”
“Water in the carburetor.”
“Chink put it there?”
“Why should he do that?” returned Bob.
“That’s too much for me, Bob, unless he did it by mistake, same as he exploded the gas in that reserve tank.”
“I don’t know how the water got in the tank, Speake, and it may have been accident quite as much as design.”
Speake left Bob to his lonely vigil. The gleam of the little searchlight, reaching out ahead of the submarine, flung an odd picture on the periscope mirror. The edges of the mirror were shrouded13 in darkness, out of which jumped the smooth, oily billows. The waves flashed like gold in the pencil of light.
Bob, holding the Grampus to her course, looked into the periscope absently. He was thinking of the motor’s recent trouble, and of the chopstick lying by the gasoline tank, turning both over in his mind and wondering aimlessly.
Suddenly he lifted his head. An odd note was mixing itself with the croon of the motor and the whir of242 the ventilator fans. The noise was not caused by anything aboard the submarine; of that Bob was positive. It was like the thrashing of a large propeller14, growing rapidly in volume as Bob listened.
Under water sounds are carried far. The noise Bob heard was caught by the submerged hulk of the Grampus and re?choed as by a sounding board.
“Half speed, Dick,” he called through the engine-room tube.
As the pace slackened, Bob’s eyes again sought the periscope mirror. Abruptly15, out of the gloom that walled in the glow of the searchlight, rushed a steamer, its blotted16 outline crossing directly the submarine’s course. There were lights along the steamer’s rail, but it was plain her lookouts17 were asleep or they would have seen the Grampus’ searchlight.
“Full speed astern—on your life!” he shouted to Dick.
At the same time Bob put the wheel over, hoping to make a turn and get the Grampus on a parallel course with the steamer.
But there was not room, nor time, enough for the turn. Unless the motor stayed the Grampus she was bound to crash into the other vessel19.
Dick, however, got the propeller to turning the other way just at the critical moment. The speed of the submarine slackened in answer to the reverse pull, and the stern of the steamer swung by into the gloom with a margin20 of scarce a dozen feet, leaving the Grampus bobbing in her troubled wake.
“All right now, Dick,” called Bob, in a voice that shook somewhat. “Drive her ahead.”
“What was wrong?” inquired Dick.
243
“We just missed a collision with a steamer. Your quick work saved us.”
Dick gave a long whistle, and went on with his work. “A miss is as good as a hundred fathoms21, sometimes,” he answered lightly.
The ringing orders and quick work with the engine had aroused none of the sleepers22. Carl could be heard babbling23 excitedly in the tank room, but otherwise the ship’s complement25 was quiet.
It was with a distinct feeling of relief that Bob caught the first gleam of day as it was reflected by the periscope. As the morning advanced and brightened, he raised a black smudge, as of steamer smoke, on the port quarter. The smoke was bearing along in the direction the submarine was going, and Bob wondered if that was the steamer they had barely missed running into during the night.
Gaines relieved Dick, Clackett took Carl’s place, and Speake came after Ah Sin and ordered him below to get breakfast. When the Chinaman was fairly at work, Speake returned to the engine room and took the wheel. Glennie showed himself when breakfast was ready, and he, Bob, Dick, Carl, and Speake ate their breakfast in the periscope room.
“We must be off British Guiana,” remarked Glennie, stirring the condensed milk and sugar into his coffee. “Will you put in at Georgetown, Mr. Steele?”
“We won’t have to do that, now that we’ve picked you up at Port of Spain,” replied Bob. “We’ve got to make quick time to the Amazon.”
“Iss dot shdeamer der vone ve come pooty near running indo lasdt night?” queried Carl, taking a look into the periscope.
“It’s about an even guess whether it is or not.”
As Sin, who happened to be in the room, took a look at the periscope for himself.
244
“Did we come near having a collision last night?” queried Glennie, looking up quickly.
“We made a lucky miss of it,” remarked the ensign, when Bob had finished. “I’ve no desire to go to the bottom in a steel sarcophagus like the Grampus. Strange I slept through it all, but I was tired, and I suppose I slept rather sounder than usual. That chink,” he added, putting down his cup, “is a poor coffee maker27. Or is it the coffee itself that tastes so rank?”
“It’s poor stuff,” spoke28 up Speake, “an’ I was jest goin’ to say something about the taste. The chink did better yesterday than he’s doin’ this mornin’.”
“Id purns ven id goes town, like id vas a torchlight brocession,” observed Carl luminously29. “I don’d like dot, but I vas hungry, so I trink it. Whoosh30!”
“It’s certainly hot and bitter,” said Bob, and put down his cup after two or three swallows.
“That steamer is gettin’ closer to us, Bob,” announced Speake, fumbling31 with the wheel and looking at the periscope.
“Steady, there, Speake!” cautioned Bob.
“I don’t know what’s the matter with me,” muttered Speake, “but my nerves are all in a quiver. She’s small, that steamer; one funnel32, black, with a red band. I don’t jest recollect33 what line—that—is.”
He drawled out the last words.
“Py Jove!” said Carl; “I feel sick py der shdomach, und eferyt’ing iss virling und virling.”
“I’m dizzy, too!” put in Dick.
“And I,” murmured Glennie, setting aside his plate and empty cup. “I—I believe I’ll lie down.”
He got up from the stool on which he was sitting, and floundered to the tap of the locker34. Pushing a245 hand around to his hip24 pocket, he drew out a revolver that interfered35 with his comfort, dropped it on the floor, and fell back limply.
Dick tried to get to his feet, but his limbs gave out, and he fell sprawling36 upon Carl. At the same moment Carl straightened out with a gasp37, and Speake let go of the wheel and pitched forward to his knees. There he swayed unsteadily for an instant, trying to speak, but the effort was beyond him, and he slowly crumpled38 downward.
A horrible sensation of helplessness was growing upon Bob, and with it there dawned on his mind a hazy39 suspicion of villainous work. He struggled upright and staggered to the wheel.
“Gaines!” he called huskily through the motor-room tube.
No answer was returned. Glennie floundered up on one knee.
“Clackett!” cried Bob, through the tank-room tube.
Still there was no answer. At just that moment, when Bob was positively41 sure that all on the ship were caught in the awful spell, Ah Sin shambled through the door.
With all his failing strength Bob flung himself on the Chinaman. Before Ah Sin could dodge42 out of the way Bob’s arms went round him and his slouch hat was jerked off.
With the hat came the long queue, leaving Ah Sin’s closely cropped head in plain sight.
“T—Tolo!” gurgled Glennie, a wild, incredulous look crossing his face.
He made a superhuman effort to get off the locker, but the last particle of strength left him in a flash, and he rolled backward.

点击
收听单词发音

1
torpedo
![]() |
|
n.水雷,地雷;v.用鱼雷破坏 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2
bent
![]() |
|
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3
celestial
![]() |
|
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4
attentively
![]() |
|
adv.聚精会神地;周到地;谛;凝神 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5
guilt
![]() |
|
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6
countenance
![]() |
|
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7
chuckled
![]() |
|
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8
savvy
![]() |
|
v.知道,了解;n.理解能力,机智,悟性;adj.有见识的,懂实际知识的,通情达理的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9
periscope
![]() |
|
n. 潜望镜 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10
chamber
![]() |
|
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11
cylinders
![]() |
|
n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 );圆柱;汽缸;(尤指用作容器的)圆筒状物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12
queried
![]() |
|
v.质疑,对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 );询问 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13
shrouded
![]() |
|
v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 );保密 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14
propeller
![]() |
|
n.螺旋桨,推进器 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15
abruptly
![]() |
|
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16
blotted
![]() |
|
涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 ); (用吸墨纸)吸干 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17
lookouts
![]() |
|
n.寻找( 某人/某物)( lookout的名词复数 );是某人(自己)的问题;警戒;瞭望台 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18
strenuous
![]() |
|
adj.奋发的,使劲的;紧张的;热烈的,狂热的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19
vessel
![]() |
|
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20
margin
![]() |
|
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21
fathoms
![]() |
|
英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22
sleepers
![]() |
|
n.卧铺(通常以复数形式出现);卧车( sleeper的名词复数 );轨枕;睡觉(呈某种状态)的人;小耳环 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23
babbling
![]() |
|
n.胡说,婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 );作潺潺声(如流水);含糊不清地说话;泄漏秘密 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24
hip
![]() |
|
n.臀部,髋;屋脊 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25
complement
![]() |
|
n.补足物,船上的定员;补语;vt.补充,补足 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26
narrated
![]() |
|
v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27
maker
![]() |
|
n.制造者,制造商 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28
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: |
|
|
29
luminously
![]() |
|
发光的; 明亮的; 清楚的; 辉赫 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30
whoosh
![]() |
|
v.飞快地移动,呼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31
fumbling
![]() |
|
n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32
funnel
![]() |
|
n.漏斗;烟囱;v.汇集 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33
recollect
![]() |
|
v.回忆,想起,记起,忆起,记得 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34
locker
![]() |
|
n.更衣箱,储物柜,冷藏室,上锁的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35
interfered
![]() |
|
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36
sprawling
![]() |
|
adj.蔓生的,不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 );蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37
gasp
![]() |
|
n.喘息,气喘;v.喘息;气吁吁他说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38
crumpled
![]() |
|
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39
hazy
![]() |
|
adj.有薄雾的,朦胧的;不肯定的,模糊的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40
gasped
![]() |
|
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41
positively
![]() |
|
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42
dodge
![]() |
|
v.闪开,躲开,避开;n.妙计,诡计 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |