“Before you do too much rejoicing, Glennie,” said Bob, “you’d better first examine the envelope, and see if it has been tampered1 with.”
An examination showed the seal to be intact.
“I don’t believe Tolo had any right to tamper2 with it,” said Glennie. “What I mean is, that those other Sons of the Rising Sun who are leading the expedition against the Grampus, would probably demand that they be allowed to open the dispatches with their own hands. Tolo didn’t have time to see the others of the Young Samurai between the time he left La Guayra and the time he presented himself to me, in the r?le of Ah Sin, on board the Grampus.”
“Ah Sin!” commented Carl. “I nefer t’ought vat3 a goot name dot vas for der feller. Ven he dook dot name he dook der vone vat fitted.”
“We can begin to understand, too,” Dick observed, “why he never took off that old hat. He kept it on so the letter wouldn’t get away from him.”
“And so that we wouldn’t see him without the queue,” added Bob. “If he had removed the hat, Dick, he would have been recognized.”
“By Jove, fellows!” said Glennie, “I’d like to do something to celebrate.”
“Ain’t you fellows getting hungry?” called Speake296 through the torpedo-room tube. “I’ll jump in and scrape together a meal, if you say so. I reckon we can all get a square feed in Para, in the mornin’.”
“Get us something, Speake,” answered Bob. “That’s the way we’ll celebrate, Glennie.”
“It’s the biggest streak4 of luck I ever had in my life!” declared Glennie. “And you brought it to me, Bob!”
“Dot’s vat I say,” cried Carl. “Anypody vat travels mit Bob Steele is bound to haf some of der luck vat comes py him. I know, because I have hat it meinseluf. Ain’d dot so, Dick?”
“Luck hands around her favors to everybody who ships with Bob,” agreed Dick. “It doesn’t make any difference whether they’re entitled to the favors or not, they get ’em.”
This last remark may have been a bit of a slap at Glennie, but the ensign was too happy to notice it.
“What gave you the notion of looking into that hat, Bob?” inquired Glennie. “I’d have thrown it overboard to get it out of the way.”
Carl and the ensign exchanged astonished glances.
“Didn’t the prisoner seem to make up and brighten perceptibly a little while ago?”
“Yah, I rememper dot.”
“So do I.”
“Well, he did it when I threw the hat out of the locker6. His eyes followed it as it flew across the room, and they rested on it as it lay on the floor. I read a good deal of concern in that glance—more concern, in fact, than the old headgear and the attached queue called for. There could be but one thing to make Tolo act like that, and I figured that he had put the envelope in there. It’s not a new place for hiding things, boys.297 Lots of people, out in the Western part of the United States, stow valuable things away in their sombreros.”
“Nod me any more,” wailed7 Carl. “Subbose I hat peen foolish enough to pud my money in dot cap of mine? Den8 vat? Id vould now be in der bottom of der ocean. Talk aboudt your glose shafes! Vy, dot Chap feller vat looked like a safage, sent dot shpear so near my headt dot he took a lock of hair along mit der cap. I don’d like dot! Shpears is pad bizness. Vy did der Chaps use shpears, ven refolfers is handtier?”
“They were playing a part, Carl,” said Bob, “and whenever a Jap plays a part he does it well. If Tolo and those with him had had firearms, they would have been playing out of their character.”
“Dey don’d got mooch character to be oudt of, anyvay. Dey had bombs, und safages don’t haf dose.”
“The bombs weren’t in sight.”
A few minutes later Speake came up with the supper. After the meal was out of the way, Speake took Dick’s place at the wheel in order to give him a chance to rest, and later assume Gaines’ place at the motor. Carl went down to give Clackett a rest, and Bob stretched out on the locker.
It was midnight when the Grampus rounded Cape9 Magoari and turned into the Para arm of the Amazon. The port of Para was seventy-five miles up the river, and Bob decided10 to submerge the Grampus, pass the rest of the night on the river bottom, and then ascend11 to the town with daylight to help.
This arrangement enabled all hands to sleep, and morning found the submarine’s complement12 fresh and ready for whatever fate held in store.
The ascent13 of the river was made on the surface of the stream, with all who could be spared on deck,298 searching the shipping14 with careful eyes. Bob and his friends were looking for the mysterious steamer that carried the fighting contingent15 of the Sons of the Rising Sun, and were vastly relieved when they failed to sight the vessel16.
It was nearly noon when the red roofs of Para came into view. The river, opposite the town, was about twenty miles wide, but so cut up with islands that the steamer with the black funnel17 and the red band might have lain among them and so escaped observation. However, Bob and his companions chose to think that the Young Samurai were too discreet18 to make them any trouble in a peaceable port.
The Grampus was moored19 alongside a wharf20, and a gayly uniformed harbor official came aboard to learn the submarine’s business, and to find whether there was any need of a customs inspector21. The sight of Glennie, and his declaration that the boat had merely put in at the port to give some of her crew a chance to pay their respects to Mr. Brigham, the United States consul22, was enough.
Bob, although he fancied the boat secure, did not intend taking any chances. Dick, Carl, and Speake were to be left aboard as an anchor watch, while Bob and Glennie called on the consul, and Gaines and Clackett whiled away a few hours in the river metropolis23. The prisoner was to be left in the steel room until the consul should advise what had better be done with him.
Consul Brigham, Bob and Glennie quickly learned, lived on the finest avenue in Para—the Estrada de Sao José. Through this thoroughfare, bordered with a colonnade24 of royal palms, Bob and Glennie were driven on their way to the consulate25.
In the office of the consulate was a gentleman in shirt sleeves and white duck trousers. His feet were299 elevated on the top of a table, and he was trying to keep himself cool with an immense palm-leaf fan.
“Mr. Brigham?” asked Glennie.
“What’s left of him, my dear sir,” was the answer. “I’ve melted considerably27 during this spell of hot weather. You’d naturally think the trade winds, which blow continually in this section, would temper the air. But trade winds, my dear sir, are not what they’re cracked up to be.”
Glennie introduced himself, and then presented Bob. Mr. Brigham smiled expansively, and drew a bandanna28 handkerchief over his perspiring29 brow.
“I’ve been expecting the pair of you,” he announced, shaking each by the hand.
“Sure. Read that.”
The consul tucked a cablegram into Glennie’s fingers. It had come from Belize, and was signed by the captain of the Seminole. Glennie read it aloud:
“Bob Steele and Ensign John Henry Glennie, U. S. N., will reach Para in submarine Grampus. Glennie carries dispatches for you. Read them, and see that both Steele and Glennie understand them thoroughly31.”
“Nice, long message, eh?” queried Brigham, slapping Glennie on the back. “Plenty of useless words, but what does the captain of the Seminole care? Uncle Sam stands the cable toll32, and, besides, on grave matters it is well to be explicit33. Hang a few extra dollars, anyway. Where’s the dispatches?”
Glennie imagined how he would have felt if he had been obliged to report, in view of that cablegram, that his dispatches had been lost and not recovered.
300
“I want to tell you something about those dispatches before you read them, Mr. Brigham,” said the ensign.
“Well, sit down, my lads. What’s the good word, ensign?”
Thereupon Glennie told the whole story connected with the loss of the dispatches and their final recovery. Everything went in, and a half hour was consumed in the telling. More than once Brigham whistled and puckered34 his brows ominously35. But he was absorbed in the narrative36. When it was done, he reached his hand toward Bob.
“Pardon me, youngster,” said he, “but I never miss a chance to shake hands with a live one. Possibly it’s because I’ve lived so long in this dead place, where you can’t turn around without having some sluggard37 tell you ‘ma?ana.’ You’re the clear quill38, and I’ll gamble you’ll get along. If I was younger, blamed if I wouldn’t like to trot39 a heat with you myself.”
Bob, flushing under the compliment given him by the consul, allowed his hand to be wrung40 cordially.
“Now,” said Brigham, “look out of the windows at the beautiful palms while I go through these papers.”
“I’m ready for you two lads,” he presently called.
Bob and Glennie returned to the chairs they had previously42 occupied. They were surprised at the change that had come over Mr. Brigham’s face. On their arrival, it had been bright and smiling, while now it was dark and foreboding.
“I guess you lads know how it feels to be in the jaws43 of death, and just slip out before they close,” said he, “but you don’t know the whole of it, not by a jugful44. Of all the high-handed proceedings45 I ever heard of, this certainly grabs the banner. Now, listen.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
tampered
|
|
| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
tamper
|
|
| v.干预，玩弄，贿赂，窜改，削弱，损害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
vat
|
|
| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
streak
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
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： |
|
|
|
|
6
locker
|
|
| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
wailed
|
|
| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
den
|
|
| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
cape
|
|
| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
ascend
|
|
| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
complement
|
|
| n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
ascent
|
|
| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
shipping
|
|
| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
contingent
|
|
| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
vessel
|
|
| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
funnel
|
|
| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
discreet
|
|
| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
moored
|
|
| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
wharf
|
|
| n.码头，停泊处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
inspector
|
|
| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
consul
|
|
| n.领事；执政官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
metropolis
|
|
| n.首府；大城市 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
colonnade
|
|
| n.柱廊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
consulate
|
|
| n.领事馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
naval
|
|
| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
considerably
|
|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
bandanna
|
|
| n.大手帕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
perspiring
|
|
| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
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： |
|
|
|
|
31
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
toll
|
|
| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
explicit
|
|
| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
puckered
|
|
| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
ominously
|
|
| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
sluggard
|
|
| n.懒人；adj.懒惰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
quill
|
|
| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
trot
|
|
| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
wrung
|
|
| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
gist
|
|
| n.要旨；梗概 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
previously
|
|
| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
jaws
|
|
| n.口部；嘴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
jugful
|
|
| 一壶的份量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
proceedings
|
|
| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |