CHAPTER X. How the Stranger Helped.

 "Curiouser and curiouser," quoted Jack¹, from Alice in Wonderland; but we were all too astonished to laugh at his droll² face. "I specs he walked in his sleep."

 

Harold looked angrily at his elder brother. "I promised I would not go out of the house, and I didn't."

 

"Coach-house doesn't count, I suppose," remarked Rupert, who was, I fancy, a little annoyed by the uneasiness we had all felt.

 

"Don't tease him, my boy," said father, kindly³; "let him tell his story in his own fashion."

 

Thus encouraged, Harold sat down, and told us that he had got into the oak chest to hide.

 

"I thought, of course, that you would hear me when I called, but you didn't seem to come into that room at all."

 

"We did go there," said Kathleen; "but you know there is no place to hide there but the cupboard, and that had been left wide open by Rupert when he hid there at the beginning of the game. So we just ran up the stairs, put our heads in and saw that the room and cupboard were empty, and then ran off to what we thought were more likely places."

 

"Then that's why I did not hear your footsteps. The wood must be fearfully thick. I lay still till I began to feel suffocated⁴, and then I tried to get out. I tried and tried, I pushed with my hands, then I lay on my back and pressed with my knees and kicked with my feet. It wasn't a bit of good, I only hurt myself and got more choky. Then my nose began to bleed, and I gave up trying, and lay with my face to the side of the chest. Oh, it was horrible, auntie! I thought that I should die; and I wondered how long you would be before you found me, and what poor father and mother would say when they heard about it."

 

"There, there, don't pile it on," said Jack, rubbing his hand across his eyes; "tell us how you got out, that's what we want to know. Anyone could get in and be choked; but it's a regular Maskelyne and Cooke's dodge⁵ to get out again instead."

 

"I can't tell you, I don't remember anything till I woke up in bed in a strange room. I know now it was Robert's. Your new man gave me a sandwich and something out of a little bottle, and I——"

 

"My new man?" repeated father, with his eyes wide open. "Why, I haven't one in the place that has been here less than five years."

 

"Oh! perhaps I made a mistake," said Harold, rather wearily; "I didn't know his face, so I thought he must be a stranger. He had a white coat on like a coachman, and——"

 

"Hurrah⁶!" cried Jack, "my mysterious stranger went to the rescue. Could he talk English, Harold? Was he very furious?"

 

"He was very kind; but he didn't speak once, I remember. He bathed my face with water out of Robert's basin, and I noticed that he kept looking out of the window. Then I heard a noise like a bell; and he went to the window, stood there a minute, then he waved his hand to me, and unlocked the door and went."

 

"Why had he locked the door?"

 

"How can I tell?"

 

"How did you see all this in the dark?"

 

"The moon shone right in at the window. I don't know who the man was, if uncle says he was not one of the servants; but I'm very tired, and don't want to talk any more."

 

So we all were; but I am afraid if there had been any one sleeping in my little room I should have talked all night about our mysterious stranger.

 

The next morning things went on much as usual, till Kathleen and Rupert came to carry me upstairs. Then you would have laughed if you could have heard all the wild guesses we made as to the identity of our strange visitor.

 

"Let's have a good look at that chest," said Rupert, when Kathleen had declared she had done with it for the present.

 

"Your heels made a very queer sound in it last night, Rupert," I said. "Only for pity's sake let somebody sit on the edge of it whilst it is open. I don't want you to be guillotined or smothered⁷."

 

Harold perched himself in such a manner that the lid could not possibly fall, and dangled⁹ his legs against the side. It was a wonderful old chest, and we have it still in our house. It is made of black oak, is just five feet long, and about two feet wide.

 

"I know," said Rupert, presently, springing out of the box. "Where's the foot rule?"

 

"What's the joke now?" said Harold. "Are you going to measure it to see if there's room for the mysterious stranger to hide in?"

 

"That's it," exclaimed Rupert, disdaining¹⁰ to answer his brother's remark. "That's it. There's a false bottom to it. Look! it measures twenty inches inside and twenty-five outside. Let's break it open; we shall find a treasure, perhaps. No wonder my heels rattled¹¹ when I got in last night."

 

"If it rattles," said Jack, sagaciously, "there isn't much inside. But let's see if we can open it."

 

They pushed and knocked in turns, but it was useless; they only grew tired and cross.

 

For once my studious life gave me an advantage over them. I remembered that in all the wonderful tales I had read of hidden chambers¹² and secret drawers, there was no force required to open them. I reminded my cousins of this. "There's some little trick about it; some panel or hidden spring. You will be more likely to find it just when you least expect."

 

"Get along, you stupid old thing," said Harold, losing patience; "I'm sick of you." As he spoke¹³ he sprang from his perch⁸ and administered a kick to the obstinate¹⁴ box. Kathleen was holding the lid on the opposite side, and saw the bottom of the box move.

 

"Look, look," she cried, "it is opening!"

 

It did not spring up, it merely stood just enough away from the box for Rupert to put his fingers under it and lift it out bodily. A low groan¹⁵ of disappointment escaped us all. They had pulled my chair close to the chest, and I was able to look into it as well, and certainly shared in the groan. I can't say what we had expected. It may have been gold, it may have been treasures of another kind. Most certainly we none of us had expected to see a few packets of papers, yellow with age, and covered with dust.

 

So engrossed¹⁶ had we been that we had not noticed a step in the room; and when Rupert raised himself from the chest with a bundle of papers in his hand, declaring he would take them to uncle, my blood seemed to stand still and my heart almost to jump into my mouth when a voice, with a strong French accent, said—

 

"Not too fast, young gentleman; those papers belong to me."

 

 "NOT TOO FAST, YOUNG GENTLEMAN; THOSE PAPERS BELONG TO ME." 

"NOT TOO FAST, YOUNG GENTLEMAN; THOSE PAPERS BELONG TO ME."

By the side of my couch, almost touching¹⁷ me, stood the man whom we had named Jack's Ghost!

 

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 droll   

adj.古怪的，好笑的

参考例句：

• The band have a droll sense of humour.这个乐队有一种滑稽古怪的幽默感。
• He looked at her with a droll sort of awakening.他用一种古怪的如梦方醒的神情看着她.

3 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

4 suffocated   

（使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气

参考例句：

• Many dogs have suffocated in hot cars. 许多狗在热烘烘的汽车里给闷死了。
• I nearly suffocated when the pipe of my breathing apparatus came adrift. 呼吸器上的管子脱落时，我差点给憋死。

5 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

6 hurrah   

int.好哇，万岁，乌拉

参考例句：

• We hurrah when we see the soldiers go by.我们看到士兵经过时向他们欢呼。
• The assistants raised a formidable hurrah.助手们发出了一片震天的欢呼声。

7 smothered   

（使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制

参考例句：

• He smothered the baby with a pillow. 他用枕头把婴儿闷死了。
• The fire is smothered by ashes. 火被灰闷熄了。

8 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

9 dangled   

悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口

参考例句：

• Gold charms dangled from her bracelet. 她的手镯上挂着许多金饰物。
• It's the biggest financial incentive ever dangled before British footballers. 这是历来对英国足球运动员的最大经济诱惑。

10 disdaining   

鄙视( disdain的现在分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做

参考例句：

11 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

12 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

13 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。

14 obstinate   

adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的

参考例句：

• She's too obstinate to let anyone help her.她太倔强了，不会让任何人帮她的。
• The trader was obstinate in the negotiation.这个商人在谈判中拗强固执。

15 groan   

vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音

参考例句：

• The wounded man uttered a groan.那个受伤的人发出呻吟。
• The people groan under the burden of taxes.人民在重税下痛苦呻吟。

16 engrossed   

adj.全神贯注的

参考例句：

• The student is engrossed in his book.这名学生正在专心致志地看书。
• No one had ever been quite so engrossed in an evening paper.没人会对一份晚报如此全神贯注。

17 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。