UR next act in the drama before us begins with the foot-lights still turned down low, for another night scene is to be enacted2. It is the new township of Ulysses. Some six or seven thousand miners are crowding into the one long, irregular street of a new Queensland “gold rush” township. For it is the night of the week,—pay-day night; with Sunday for an idle to-morrow on which to get sober.
The new field of Ulysses—some sixty miles from the famous copper3 mines of Reid’s Creek—is, like many of the later Queensland gold fields which have been within an easy distance of railway communication with the coast, quite a different affair to the old rushes of an earlier date, or even the modern Croydens and Kimberleys of the far north. As such it is worth sketching5. Rapid means of transportation, cheap fares,34 and double-leaded notices in the daily southern papers have brought hosts of town-bred men and boys to compete with the professional miner.
The difference between these two classes of workers is immense. Now the reader can take it as a gospel truth that of the various classes of men who earn their bread with the sweat of their brow, those who follow the profession of the practical miner are amongst the noblest specimens6 of humanity. Mind you, we do not mean the labourers, who, by hundreds, earn their 6s. to 10s. per day in the great Wyndham “stopes” or upon the hot “benches” of Mount Morgan. Nor do I intend you to mistake for the real article the half digger, half speculator, who haunts the grog-shanties at night, and spies for chances to make some “unearned increment” from the whisky-wagging tongues of the true workers on the field. The professional jumper of claims too, who figures more often in the Warden7’s court than the “m drives” and “cross-cuts” of the field, is another individual that no one experienced in mining camps would long mistake for a bona fide Queensland miner.
Watch the latter at his work. Look at him toiling8 over perhaps hundreds of miles of semi-desert to the dreary9, flat waste, covered with stunted10 box or quinine trees, where the white quartz11 glares back at the red-hot sun across the dusty plain. Burnt by the scorching12 heat all day; watching midst the dangers of desperate starving natives, poisonous snakes, and unguardable fever all night; thankful if he can fill and boil his pint13 pot three times a day with the foul14 drink that goes by the name of water in the interior,—he toils15 on to the golden goal.
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Once there, his active brain and stalwart arms send the stunted forest reeling with flashing axe-strokes. The mushroom village of blue-gum bark and branches springs up in a purple-brown crop around the red and yellow trenches16, and “whips” and “poppet heads” rise in due course.
Geologist17, mineralogist, carpenter, blacksmith, hunter, surgeon, and cook, the true prospecting18 and working miner, who has “followed the diggings” since the Canoona rush or the Palmer field excited the mining world, is a veritable Admirable Crichton. He is a true, iron-bound, walking edition of practical receipts. Open-handed when “on a patch;” frugal19 and level-headed when a “slide” or “fault” has taken his golden “leader” out of sight; quick to take offence at an intentional20 insult, and as quick to “Put your hand there, pard,” if in the wrong,—this character may be summed up in the expressive21 words used by a miner to us, when describing a brother of the pick: “He’d lend you a fiver if you harsked him, and he’d fight you for a bob if he thought it b’longed to him.”
The “towneys,” as I have hinted, muster22 very strong at Ulysses, and as a consequence the rowdy element swamps the steady miners, such as we have just described, right out of sight. The Warden of the new field has only just arrived, and is toiling night and day to arrange affairs into workable form out of the chaos23 of matters before him.
He is “underhanded,” to use a nautical24 expression, as is always the case, and is powerless to act, as he could and would act, were he not—besides being Police Magistrate25, Warden, Senior-constable Surveyor, Clerk36 of Petty Sessions, etc., etc.—also general adviser26 to the field upon every conceivable subject.
Let me draw you a rough outline sketch4, in black and white, of a “pay-day Saturday night” at Ulysses.
The long, straggling collection of dwellings27, that has not yet crystallized into a town proper, and which is now emerging from the “bark-humpy” to the “iron” age, begins to look more lively than ever, as evening with its lighted windows and moving lanterns shows that business is commencing with the influx28 of miners from the surrounding claims. Troops of “larrikins,” who think, because they wear muddy clothes and get drunk, they must be rough-and-ready miners, begin to perambulate the muddy street, in a state of body more or less bordering upon intoxication29. Crowds of picturesquely-rough characters now collect round the gaming-tables, shooting-tables, and other attractions, over and around which flare30 great oil lamps, minus shade or glass. Every shot, every throw of the dice31, every action of every actor upon the busy scene, gives rise to strings32 of filthy33 oaths,—so profane34, so disgusting, that to any one but a man long acclimatised to them a feeling of extreme nausea35 would result.
Darker grows the evening and larger the crowd; oaths, blasphemy36, and yells that would make a Red Indian blush with envy hurtle through the hot, close night air.
Wilder grows the feverish37 excitement, born of bad whisky and worse beer, till, words growing tame, blows are resorted to. A curious and interesting if disgusting spectacle is Ulysses on a Saturday night.
All around are wretched creatures wallowing in the much-trampled mud, like so many spirit-preserved37 beings,—half hog38, half man. From the open door and windows of the foul-smelling, brilliantly-lighted “shanty” just at hand, a Babel of filthy and excited language roars and roars, as if an opening to “the murky39 pit” were close by, and the voices of the damned had reached our ears.
Crowds of men and boys jostle each other as they pass amidst the flaring40 lights and dusky shadows of the much-peopled ways, and near us a couple of tipsy, blear-eyed rowdies are doing the only useful thing they have done this day, in attempting to destroy each other with fist, foot, and teeth. Round them a vile41 crowd, mostly composed of lanky42, big-piped, beardless, weakly-looking, youthful, would-be miners are exchanging bets, in language as idiotic43 as obscene.
Darker grows the night and later the hour; the majority of the crowd are either reposing44 in the mud or have staggered to their tents and “humpies,” out of reach of the robbers, male and female, who begin to slink about, like those horrible beings who haunt the fields of battle to prey45 upon the spoils of the honoured dead. Woe46 betide the sinner who lies down to sleep off his drunken fit in an Ulysses street after sundown if he has money upon him.
The main “street” is now abandoned by the gamblers, three-card-trick men, and other blacklegs of like nature, and now wretches47, who disgrace the name of white men, and who would never have dared to show themselves upon the older fields of the colony, are to be seen offering miserable48, frightened native women to the loafers round the “shanties.”
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Outside the “gins” (native women), drunken and howling, are screaming out obscene remarks to each other and passers-by in broken English; and scenes take place that make the observer almost fancy himself viewing one of those horrible December orgies of Ancient Rome, rather than a scene in a civilized50 township of an English colony.
But let us ring up a change of scene.
In another part of the embryo51 township, a few hundred yards along the main “street,” the Queensland Federal Banking52 Company has erected53 a small, curiously-constructed edifice54 of galvanised iron and sheets of bark. Competition is immense amongst the Queensland banking concerns to establish the first branch upon a new gold-field. On a new “rush” taking place, information as to the likelihood of its turning out a “wild cat” (or failure) or not is obtained as rapidly as possible. The manager at the nearest township receives a wire from the head office; and next morning some unhappy wight, who likely enough has just been married, or was to have taken unto himself a wife in a few days, is ordered off at perhaps two hours’ notice to administer to the commercial comfort of the rough selvage of humanity at Devil’s Gap, or Three Gin Gulch55, five hundred miles from anywhere, and situated56 in a dreary desert. He starts actually not knowing what part of the country he is going to, till he opens his sealed instructions at the railway station or wharf57.
The remarkable58 little building to which we have referred is about the size of a ticket-taker’s office at a small theatre. Upon its front elevation59, and overhanging it at each end, hangs a wooden-framed sheet39 of linen60, upon which is painted the name of the bank whose branch it is. But we must go behind the bank-buildings to where stands the “most desirable residence” upon the field. It is a travelled house this; and has seen more than one “rush” before. With tongued and grooved61 sides screwed securely to studs and plates, the house can be taken to pieces and removed a few hundred miles by a bullock team, and put up again, not much the worse for wear.
It is like rising from the lower regions to that “ethereal beyond,” which is the appointed permanent location, so say the poets, of all “good niggers,” to leave behind the scenes we have just described, and saunter up to the quiet deserted62 end of the town, and hear through the darkness the chinkle chankle of a real piano. Through the windows we catch a glimpse of a lady (the only one within, perhaps, a hundred miles), in a cool, white dress, indulging her husband, the bank manager, and a few select sojourners upon the field, with the latest waltz from Melbourne. Inside the cottage—which stands on wooden blocks, surmounted63 with snake-and-ant-foiling tin plates—are seated some half-dozen men, listening to the music and chatting by turns. All are dressed in white, with crimson64 or yellow sashes round their waists, save one,—a new “chum,” lately from Albion’s cooler climes, whose idea of what is due to the lady of the “house” makes him appear in a suit of dark tweed, as the nearest approach to evening dress his travelling baggage can afford him. The conversation, as the piano ceases its rather raspy vibrations65, reopens upon a subject that had commenced to be discussed earlier 40 in the evening,—the treatment of the aborigines by the settlers.
“Yes, it must appear strange to you,” says a dark-eyed, brown-haired man, leaning back in his cane-chair, and looking at the ceiling of unpainted canvas, “it must appear to you rather strange that such scenes can occur in what people are pleased to call a Christian66 land. But remember, my dear Mr. Jolly, you are a ‘new chum,’ and don’t understand our ways yet.” After a pause he continued: “I was one myself once, by Jove.”
“If you mean by a ‘new chum,’” replied the young gentleman rather hotly,—whose appearance in dark clothes has already attracted our attention,—“if you mean by that, that I’m an Englishman, I’m only too glad to acknowledge——”
“Now don’t fall out, you two boys,” roars a big, burly, perspiring67, jolly-faced, elderly man, who is sitting by the open window, “it’s much too hot to quarrel. Morton’s only trying to get a rise out of you. All new-comers here talk like you do at first. Now as I’m a little bit older than you are, Mr. Jolly, I’ll just give you a friendly bit of advice. Don’t take offence, if I say you are airing your opinions in an incautious manner. You ought to allow that we ‘old chums’ know more about the way to treat the niggers than you can. You raise,” continued the speaker, who is the pushing proprietor-editor of the new-born local gazette, ladling an ant out of his glass of lager-beer, “you raise the old indictment68 of wholesale69 slaughter70 of the black population by the white Christians71 who have seized upon their lands. It is the ancient story of midnight murder, treachery,41 bloodshed, hypocrisy72, cruelty, and immorality73, which has been told in every land where the Englishman——”
“I deny that,” interrupts Mr. Jolly.
“Well, to please you,—the, er, European has come in contact with and dispossessed a feeble population. The men by whom these outrages74,—confound the brute75! (this to a gecke, or climbing lizard76, that has fallen off the ceiling on to the speaker’s pate),—the men by whom these outrages are perpetrated are members of that race which, with all respect for Mr. Jolly’s favourable77 and patriotic78 opinions of his countrymen, claims to be the protector of the oppressed all the world over; and the tale of their atrocities79 is identical with the tales which—when the scene was laid in Bulgaria instead of Australia—roused the whole Anglo-Saxon race to an outburst of virtuous80 wrath81 and holy reproach. It is a story, on a smaller scale,” continued the speaker, taking a fresh cigar from a box near him and lighting82 it, “on a smaller scale, of India over again.”
“No!” jerks out the dark-coated youth.
“But it is,” snaps Mr. Editor-Proprietor. “The tragedy which the British alleged83 Christian enacted in Jamaica, Burmah, Egypt, and a hundred other scenes of massacre84, and which the same snuffling Christian will continue to enact1 so long as he is strong enough to kill, and some one else is weak enough to be killed——”
Here the speaker paused, and, taking a glass of lager at a gulp85, spat86 out of the window, and looked round, cigar in mouth, at the young man who had been the cause of his lengthy87 speech.
“Well, you surprise me, Mr. Brown,” says the 42 latter, in answer to that gentleman’s stare, “and that’s all I’ll say further. I was prepared to find some excuses presented for such atrocities, as, for example, hot-blood, revenge, etc., but not on the lines you have laid down. You will excuse me if I take your remarks to mean that you are expressing your constituents’ opinions, not your own, when you say that no man would attempt to protect the helpless, unless he had selfish motives88 in view, or was a fool.”
Swinging round on her chair at the piano, the pretty, little, fragile hostess, who is a young woman of twenty, but who looks at least twenty-five years old, eyes the debaters with an amused and rather satirical face.
“Well,” she says, interrupting the somewhat heated conversation, making a pretty little moue, “what’s the good of talking about those horrid89 blacks? Augh! I hate them. And I ought to know, for I’m a squatter90’s daughter; and my father had to shoot more niggers when he first took up the Whangaborra country than any man in Queensland has.”
The young black-coated philaboriginist turns his head, and looks with mute wonder at the fair young advocate of human slaughter.
“What’s wanted here is a Black war like they had in Tasmania,” continues the fair pianist. “Wait till you’ve been amongst our squatters awhile, and you won’t think more of shooting a nigger than of eating your tucker.” The speaker laughs a silvery little laugh, and all her audience, save one, smile in acquiescence91. “What are the blacks? They’re only horrid thieves, and are worse than wild animals, and murdered43 poor old Billy Smith, only a couple of weeks ago, at Boolbunda.”
“Yes,” growls92 a stern-faced man with dark hairy face and coal-like eyes, a mine manager on the Mount Rose line of reef, “and many’s the time I said to Billy, ‘They’ll close in on you, my boy, some day.’ How he used to laugh when I told him he oughter carry a shooting-iron! ‘They know me too well,’ he’d say, ‘and this too,’ and he’d clap his hand on his coiled-up stockwhip on the saddle. ‘Many’s the yard of black hide I’ve taken off with my bit of twist here.’ But they got him at last, the black devils! Poor Billy; he was a rough sort, but he was true as a level, was Billy.”
“Did they send the ‘boys’ out?” drawls out a languid youth, who has been silent so far.
“Yes, rather!” answers the bright little hostess, with a curious steely gleam in her grey eyes, clasping her tiny hands together on her lap, as a child does when excited with delight or anticipated pleasure. “Yes, rather! Inspector93 Puttis, my cousin, you know, was at Gilbey’s station at the time when the news came in. And you bet he gave them a lesson they won’t forget in a hurry.”
“Did he catch the murderers?” asks the unfortunate Mr. Jolly innocently, immediately wishing, on noticing the half-hidden sneer94 on all the faces present, that he had kept quiet.
“Catch the murderers?” the little lady in white repeats, with a grin that spoils for the instant her pretty face. “No, indeed. We don’t go hunting round with sleepy Bobbies here, and summonses and such rubbish.” A murmur95 of applause rises from 44 the cigar-holding lips of the auditors96. “No! Cousin Jack97 I guess cleared off every nigger from the face of the earth within forty miles of the place. At least, if he didn’t, he ought to. They’re a horrid nuisance, and besides, it’s a long time since they’ve given the ‘boys’ a chance of doing anything.”
The irrepressible new chum however is not satisfied.
“Yes, if they’re trained young. You saw that girl of mine, when you were pretending to admire my baby this morning.” And the fair speaker smiles a smile of great sweetness upon Mr. Jolly, as she remembers his unfeigned praise of her child. “Well, she comes from a bad lot of Myall blacks near Cairns. The police have cleared them all out now. Inspector Young gave her to me. One of his sergeants99 got her at a ‘rounding-up’ about three years ago, before I was married. She was only about six years old then, and had got her leg broken above the knee with a bullet. She’d have got away then, he said, but the dogs found her in a hollow log. He saved her,” continued the lady, in the same tone of voice that a sportsman’s daughter in England would have employed when speaking of one of a litter of foxhounds, “he kept the dogs off her and saved her, because she looked such a strong, healthy little animal. But all this reminds me that Jack Puttis, the Inspector, you know, said he’d call in here to-night, if he could get so far. So I’ll just go in and see about supper.” Rising, the active, fragile speaker trips away, leaving the rather stolid100 brain of the young Englishman slowly recovering from the shock it has received. 45 His preconceived notions—“young-man notions,” if you like—of woman as a gentler, diviner creature than man, and worthy101 of the worship of the ruder sex as the citadel102 of mercy and holiness of thought and action, have received a blow that they will never quite recover from. His thoughts flash back to a line in the “Civilization” of Emerson: “Where the position of the white woman is injuriously affected103 by the outlawry104 of the black woman,” and he feels sick and disgusted.
A grave-looking young man, who has sat in silence watching the face of the heretical new chum expounder105 of the doctrine106 of Mercy, now leans forward and touches his shoulder.
“It won’t do, Jolly,” he says, in a half whisper, “you really mustn’t express your ideas upon this subject. It isn’t business-like to speak of your opinion against that expressed by a possible customer. You’ll have to get case-hardened, like I had to. We ain’t in England now, and you’ll have to close your eyes and ears to much out here. A new chum is especially the object of suspicion and dislike to many of the older colonists107. ‘He’s come out to reap the harvests we have sown in labour and danger,’ they say; and consequently the figurative ‘new chum’ is hated. You can ask as many questions as you like, but don’t air your opinions on such subjects as you’ve broached108 to-night. You’ll find the colonists hospitable109 if you wink110 at their pet vices111 and sins, but act otherwise, and,—they’re the very devil. Now I’ve told you the square facts, and don’t you forget it.”
“Here’s Puttis!” cries the fat man by the window, at this instant; and the sound of several horses46 stamping, and the silvery jingling112 of bits, is soon after heard at the side of the house. Directly afterwards a small, well-made man, wearing enormous spurs (nearly a foot in length), and habilited in the semi-uniform of an Inspector of the Queensland Black Police, marches into the room. He is immediately noisily welcomed by all the men present. Mr. Jolly is, in due course, introduced to the new-comer, of whom he has heard all kinds of terrible tales since his arrival at the new township, and he cannot overcome his repugnance113 to the man who, he has reason to believe, is a paid butcher of defenceless women and children. He feels unable to stretch forward his hands to meet the slender white fingers extended towards him, and, pretending not to see them, bows stiffly and turns away. The bad impression he has already created is doubled in those who notice this action of the young man, and he is forthwith put down for certain as “an unmannerly, proud beggar of an Englishman.”
Inspector Puttis, as he stands talking to the men (all a head or more taller than he is), has a face that would immediately attract the attention of an artist or physiognomist.
The skin of the forehead and cheeks is pallid114 beneath the bronze of an open-air life. The “corrugator” muscles of the eyebrows115 are unusually well developed (a sign, according to Sir Charles Bell, of great power of thought and action combined with the savage116 and wild rage of a mere117 animal). The brows cover small, piercing, restless, blue-grey eyes, the lids of which are generally half-closed. The lips are thin, and kept tightly closed over brilliantly white teeth, 47 except when talking or smiling; when expressing the latter emotion the lips are lifted so as to expose the canine118 teeth, which are large. The nostrils119 are full and slightly raised. In conversation, the Inspector’s words come short and sharp, in brief breaths of speech; and he has an uneasy way with him, as if always on the watch and impatient of inactivity. You feel, looking at him, instinctively120 that before you stands a man who is as incapable121 of a merciful action as he is of running away from an enemy,—a sharp, active, well-drilled man, who bites before he growls, and has led a life of wild exhausting excitement and danger for some years past. His black, tight-fitting jacket (ornamented with frogs) and buckskin riding breeches fit him to perfection; his leather gaiters are splashed with mud, and a dirty straw hat—the national head-dress of Queenslanders, and called by them a “cabbage-tree”—lies by him on the table. Inspector Puttis stands chatting to the men for a few minutes, and then turns to greet the little hostess as she trips in and pays her tribute of welcome and laudation to her “cousin the Inspector.” Handing him two telegrams presently, she says,—
“They came over from Nanga just after you left. As you said you’d be back I didn’t send them after you.”
“Thanks, awfully, Minta. You’ll excuse me; and—er—you gentlemen. May have to start at once. To-night. Never know. Deuce take these telegrams, I say.”
The little man bows an apology for opening the messages in their presence, and struts122 to the candle still burning on the piano, and tears open the first48 envelope. It is from the Chief-Commissioner123 of Police, Brisbane, and is brief and concise:—
“Proceed Cairns and Georgetown, with troop, to relieve Inspector Snaffle.”
“What the devil does this mean?” murmurs124 the police-officer to himself. Then a ghost of a smile plays over his face—a grim, half-hidden trembling of the nostrils and opening of the eyes—as he reads the second wire. It is signed “Lileth Mundella.”
“Want to see you at once. Palmer will see Commissioner about it. Bad news from Sydney.”
The message that the Inspector holds in his hand is from his fiancée of six months’ standing125; and he smiles to himself as he thinks how lucky he is in having appropriated a girl who is clever enough to bend even the Commissioner of Police himself to her purposes.
There are numbers of odd matches arranged every year, and this is one of them. Neither Inspector Puttis nor Miss Mundella, to whom we shall introduce our readers presently, have ever pretended for an instant that either of them were “soft enough” (as the lady once expressed it) to be in love with the other. The one, a dark-haired girl of the Diana type of beauty, who could carry a room full of ordinary people to her wishes with a flash of her magnificent brown eyes and a word from her haughty126, firm-set mouth; the other, a determined127 man, who had climbed through sheer hard work (work that few would care to undertake, and, thank God, still fewer to carry out) to a good position, and from which he meant to climb still higher.
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“We can help each other to our mutual128 advantage, Mr. Puttis,” Miss Mundella had said, when the preliminaries of the arrangement between them were being discussed.
Although we shall introduce this young lady personally to our readers shortly, it is perhaps best to preface that ceremony by a few preliminary remarks.
Miss Mundella, since returning to Australia, some five years before the date of our story, after receiving a European education at London and Paris, has resided with her uncle, a Mr. Wilson Giles. Highly educated, and with the reputation of being a large heiress, Miss Mundella, at the time she left school, was a girl whose lot in life seemed to have been cast in pleasant places. But a change came o’er the spirit of her dream. Her bright chateaux d’Espagne were rudely broken up by the unforeseen ruin of her father, and his subsequent death. This gentleman—a member of an old Jewish family in England—was a successful squatter for some years in Queensland. Suddenly, to the surprise of his friends, and the indignant anger of his relations in the old country, he married a Christian lady. A complete rupture129 with his own people ensued; and he shortly afterwards became nominally130 a member of the Church to which his wife belonged. From this period ruin seemed to dog his steps; and finally, whilst his daughter was still in Europe, a series of bad seasons placed his name upon the list of bankrupts. Overcome with the weight of his afflictions, which were suddenly added to by the loss of his wife, Mr. Mundella paid the only debt left in his power to liquidate,—that of Nature. He left two children behind him, a son50 and a daughter; to the former we have already introduced our readers, in “mufti,” in Paddy’s Market.
A professional visit to the uncle’s station in Northern Queensland throws Inspector Puttis and Miss Mundella into each other’s company. The two individuals both find in the other those strongly ambitious views for the future that is their own bosom’s god. One meeting leads to others; and the arrival of Billy at the station with the deceased explorer’s letter gives Miss Mundella the opportunity of indulging in a scheme for placing herself, by means of her fiancé, in as enviable a position as that occupied by herself when she left school, as the wealthy young heiress.
But we have left our friends waiting for supper and the Inspector to finish his telegrams too long, and must hurry back. The well-drilled little man offers his arm to his fair cousin, and the pair lead the way to the next room.
Whilst the company are seating themselves the Inspector attracts his cousin’s attention, and whispers hurriedly,—
“Will you do me a favour?”
“Anything I can, Jack.”
“Is it likely you’ll be stationed here for a few months?”
“Yes.”
“Well, a young friend of mine—a great chum. Made an awful mess of it. Hurt a man down south. Want him out of the way for a month or two. Vous savez?”
“Is that all?” answers the little hostess with a gay 51 laugh. “Send him up here. If he ain’t too handsome, so as to make Bob wild, he can stop here. As for being out of the way, there’s plenty of that lying around here.”
“Thanks, awfully, I’ll wire him to-morrow.”
点击收听单词发音
1 enact | |
vt.制定(法律);上演,扮演 | |
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2 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3 copper | |
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的 | |
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4 sketch | |
n.草图;梗概;素描;v.素描;概述 | |
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5 sketching | |
n.草图 | |
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6 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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7 warden | |
n.监察员,监狱长,看守人,监护人 | |
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8 toiling | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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9 dreary | |
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的 | |
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10 stunted | |
adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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11 quartz | |
n.石英 | |
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12 scorching | |
adj. 灼热的 | |
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13 pint | |
n.品脱 | |
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14 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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15 toils | |
网 | |
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16 trenches | |
深沟,地沟( trench的名词复数 ); 战壕 | |
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17 geologist | |
n.地质学家 | |
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18 prospecting | |
n.探矿 | |
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19 frugal | |
adj.节俭的,节约的,少量的,微量的 | |
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20 intentional | |
adj.故意的,有意(识)的 | |
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21 expressive | |
adj.表现的,表达…的,富于表情的 | |
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22 muster | |
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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23 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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24 nautical | |
adj.海上的,航海的,船员的 | |
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25 magistrate | |
n.地方行政官,地方法官,治安官 | |
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26 adviser | |
n.劝告者,顾问 | |
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27 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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28 influx | |
n.流入,注入 | |
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29 intoxication | |
n.wild excitement;drunkenness;poisoning | |
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30 flare | |
v.闪耀,闪烁;n.潮红;突发 | |
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31 dice | |
n.骰子;vt.把(食物)切成小方块,冒险 | |
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32 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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33 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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34 profane | |
adj.亵神的,亵渎的;vt.亵渎,玷污 | |
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35 nausea | |
n.作呕,恶心;极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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36 blasphemy | |
n.亵渎,渎神 | |
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37 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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38 hog | |
n.猪;馋嘴贪吃的人;vt.把…占为己有,独占 | |
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39 murky | |
adj.黑暗的,朦胧的;adv.阴暗地,混浊地;n.阴暗;昏暗 | |
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40 flaring | |
a.火焰摇曳的,过份艳丽的 | |
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41 vile | |
adj.卑鄙的,可耻的,邪恶的;坏透的 | |
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42 lanky | |
adj.瘦长的 | |
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43 idiotic | |
adj.白痴的 | |
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44 reposing | |
v.将(手臂等)靠在某人(某物)上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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45 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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46 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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47 wretches | |
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋 | |
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48 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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49 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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50 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
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51 embryo | |
n.胚胎,萌芽的事物 | |
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52 banking | |
n.银行业,银行学,金融业 | |
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53 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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54 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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55 gulch | |
n.深谷,峡谷 | |
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56 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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57 wharf | |
n.码头,停泊处 | |
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58 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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59 elevation | |
n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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60 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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61 grooved | |
v.沟( groove的过去式和过去分词 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏 | |
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62 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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63 surmounted | |
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 ); 克服(困难); 居于…之上; 在…顶上 | |
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64 crimson | |
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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65 vibrations | |
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动 | |
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66 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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67 perspiring | |
v.出汗,流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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68 indictment | |
n.起诉;诉状 | |
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69 wholesale | |
n.批发;adv.以批发方式;vt.批发,成批出售 | |
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70 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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71 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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72 hypocrisy | |
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
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73 immorality | |
n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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74 outrages | |
引起…的义愤,激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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75 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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76 lizard | |
n.蜥蜴,壁虎 | |
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77 favourable | |
adj.赞成的,称赞的,有利的,良好的,顺利的 | |
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78 patriotic | |
adj.爱国的,有爱国心的 | |
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79 atrocities | |
n.邪恶,暴行( atrocity的名词复数 );滔天大罪 | |
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80 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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81 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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82 lighting | |
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光 | |
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83 alleged | |
a.被指控的,嫌疑的 | |
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84 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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85 gulp | |
vt.吞咽,大口地吸(气);vi.哽住;n.吞咽 | |
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86 spat | |
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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87 lengthy | |
adj.漫长的,冗长的 | |
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88 motives | |
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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89 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
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90 squatter | |
n.擅自占地者 | |
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91 acquiescence | |
n.默许;顺从 | |
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92 growls | |
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的第三人称单数 );低声咆哮着说 | |
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93 inspector | |
n.检查员,监察员,视察员 | |
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94 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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95 murmur | |
n.低语,低声的怨言;v.低语,低声而言 | |
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96 auditors | |
n.审计员,稽核员( auditor的名词复数 );(大学课程的)旁听生 | |
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97 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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98 awfully | |
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地 | |
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99 sergeants | |
警官( sergeant的名词复数 ); (美国警察)警佐; (英国警察)巡佐; 陆军(或空军)中士 | |
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100 stolid | |
adj.无动于衷的,感情麻木的 | |
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101 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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102 citadel | |
n.城堡;堡垒;避难所 | |
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103 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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104 outlawry | |
宣布非法,非法化,放逐 | |
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105 expounder | |
陈述者,说明者 | |
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106 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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107 colonists | |
n.殖民地开拓者,移民,殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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108 broached | |
v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 );打开并开始用;用凿子扩大(或修光);(在桶上)钻孔取液体 | |
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109 hospitable | |
adj.好客的;宽容的;有利的,适宜的 | |
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110 wink | |
n.眨眼,使眼色,瞬间;v.眨眼,使眼色,闪烁 | |
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111 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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112 jingling | |
叮当声 | |
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113 repugnance | |
n.嫌恶 | |
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114 pallid | |
adj.苍白的,呆板的 | |
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115 eyebrows | |
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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116 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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117 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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118 canine | |
adj.犬的,犬科的 | |
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119 nostrils | |
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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120 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
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121 incapable | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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122 struts | |
(框架的)支杆( strut的名词复数 ); 支柱; 趾高气扬的步态; (尤指跳舞或表演时)卖弄 | |
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123 commissioner | |
n.(政府厅、局、处等部门)专员,长官,委员 | |
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124 murmurs | |
n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 );低语声;怨言;嘀咕 | |
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125 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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126 haughty | |
adj.傲慢的,高傲的 | |
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127 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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128 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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129 rupture | |
n.破裂;(关系的)决裂;v.(使)破裂 | |
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130 nominally | |
在名义上,表面地; 应名儿 | |
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