CHAPTER XI THE DOORS CLOSE

 During all this time what had been happening to the air pilot, Curlie Carson, Johnny’s one time pal¹?

 

We left him forty feet below the city’s streets in a narrow tunnel with fumes² of sulphur filling in behind him, and steel doors closing before him.

 

Curlie Carson could not remember the time that he was not conscious of some all-pervading presence hovering³ over and protecting him. Call it what you will, this feeling gave him calm confidence.

 

With all the remaining strength that was in him, he threw himself forward and through the door.

 

Scarcely had he passed than the doors closed with a sickening thud, and he dropped to the floor, exhausted⁴.

 

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He was soon on his feet, however. There was work to be done. The package that meant so much of honor or disgrace to him was still in the hands of the mysterious stranger.

 

Turning, he raced down the narrow tunnel. Coming to an intersection⁵, he paused to listen. The trainman had disappeared. For a time the echoing tunnels were still. As he placed his ear to the ground he caught the sound of receding⁶ footsteps.

 

“Off to the left,” he told himself, “and he is not running. He thinks I am no longer on his trail!”

 

On tiptoe, not making the least sound, he went speeding down the tunnel.

 

The man had gone farther than he thought. In such a place sound travels far. The tunnel here, too, was strange. He covered the distance of a long city block, yet came to no intersection. He doubled the distance; still no track crossing this one. The place grew strangely still. The very stillness of it frightened him.

 

“Like a tomb.” He shuddered⁷.

 

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Once more he dropped upon the track to apply his ear. To his consternation⁸ he caught no sound of footsteps. Despair seized him. What could have happened? Had he gone in the wrong direction? Had he lost his man?

 

The thing was unthinkable. The package must be recovered at any cost.

 

“No,” he told himself, “I have not lost him. He is still here.”

 

He began to grow suspicious. A cold chill ran up his spine⁹. Perhaps the man was lurking¹⁰ in the shadows waiting to strike him down. Seeing a two foot length of strap¹¹ iron lying beside the track, he grasped it firmly in his good right hand and pressed on.

 

He had not gone a hundred paces when suddenly the passage broadened and came to an abrupt¹² end.

 

He had entered what appeared to be a blind alley¹³ in the tunnel. And here there was no one.

 

A quick look about him showed a large freight elevator, used, no doubt, for lifting cars to a level some twenty feet above him.

 

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He examined the walls. Bars and braces¹⁴ made them easy to scale.

 

“He went up there,” Curlie told himself.

 

But had he? Doubts assailed¹⁵ him.

 

“Perhaps he did, and perhaps not,” he thought, calming a little. “At least it is the only way out, and I shall find myself out of this hateful place which has so nearly cost me my life.”

 

Gripping a bar, he began to climb. A lusty pull here, three steps up, a swing, a final struggle, and he lay for a moment on a cement floor.

 

“And now,” he thought, as he glanced about him, “where am I?”

 

Where indeed? All about him in the large room were packing cases. Some were small, some quite large. Many of them bore freight labels.

 

“Will mysteries never end?”

 

He passed out into a larger room. The place was quite dark, and that in spite of the fact that it must now be morning.

 

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Approaching a narrow packing case that had been pried¹⁶ open, he threw the light of his electric torch into it. Then he started back in horror.

 

“A skeleton!” he cried aloud.

 

One circle of his light told him where he was.

 

“The basement of the Museum,” he thought, and instantly felt better.

 

A narrow flight of stairs brought him to a dimly lighted floor above.

 

There was no one there. The place was still as death.

 

Hastily tiptoeing down the aisle¹⁷, he came at last to an open window. This window was a scant¹⁸ ten feet above the ground.

 

“He went out here,” he assured himself.

 

Clambering out he fell to the grass, then took a survey of the grounds about him. On every side was an open park. Except in one direction the view was unobstructed.

 

“He could have disappeared only by hiding in that clump¹⁹ of trees,” he told himself. “He’ll wait there until he thinks I’m gone.

 

“I’ll go around the corner out of sight, and wait for him.”

 

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Three minutes later he found himself crouching²⁰ against a stone wall, waiting in the stillness of the morning.

 

But even as he waited, doubt assailed him. Had the man truly left the tunnel?

 

“That window may have been opened by a caretaker,” he told himself. “And after all, what an ideal hiding place that labyrinth²¹ of tunnels would make! Why, a man might hide there for weeks and even a regiment²² of soldiers might fail to come upon him.”

 

So now assailed by doubts, now filled with hope, he waited in the dawn.

1 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

2 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

3 hovering   

鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
• I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。

4 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

5 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

6 receding   

v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• Desperately he struck out after the receding lights of the yacht. 游艇的灯光渐去渐远，他拼命划水追赶。 来自辞典例句
• Sounds produced by vehicles receding from us seem lower-pitched than usual. 渐渐远离我们的运载工具发出的声似乎比平常的音调低。 来自辞典例句

7 shuddered   

v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 consternation   

n.大为吃惊，惊骇

参考例句：

• He was filled with consternation to hear that his friend was so ill.他听说朋友病得那么厉害，感到非常震惊。
• Sam stared at him in consternation.萨姆惊恐不安地注视着他。

9 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

10 lurking   

潜在

参考例句：

• Why are you lurking around outside my house? 你在我房子外面鬼鬼祟祟的，想干什么？
• There is a suspicious man lurking in the shadows. 有一可疑的人躲在阴暗中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

12 abrupt   

adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的

参考例句：

• The river takes an abrupt bend to the west.这河突然向西转弯。
• His abrupt reply hurt our feelings.他粗鲁的回答伤了我们的感情。

13 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。

14 braces   

n.吊带，背带；托架( brace的名词复数 )；箍子；括弧；（儿童）牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来

参考例句：

• The table is shaky because the braces are loose. 这张桌子摇摇晃晃，因为支架全松了。
• You don't need braces if you're wearing a belt! 要系腰带，就用不着吊带了。

15 assailed   

v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对

参考例句：

• He was assailed with fierce blows to the head. 他的头遭到猛烈殴打。
• He has been assailed by bad breaks all these years. 这些年来他接二连三地倒霉。 来自《用法词典》

16 pried   

v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开

参考例句：

• We pried open the locked door with an iron bar. 我们用铁棍把锁着的门撬开。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• So Tom pried his mouth open and poured down the Pain-killer. 因此汤姆撬开它的嘴，把止痛药灌下去。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

17 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

18 scant   

adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略

参考例句：

• Don't scant the butter when you make a cake.做糕饼时不要吝惜奶油。
• Many mothers pay scant attention to their own needs when their children are small.孩子们小的时候，许多母亲都忽视自己的需求。

19 clump   

n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走

参考例句：

• A stream meandered gently through a clump of trees.一条小溪从树丛中蜿蜒穿过。
• It was as if he had hacked with his thick boots at a clump of bluebells.仿佛他用自己的厚靴子无情地践踏了一丛野风信子。

20 crouching   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• a hulking figure crouching in the darkness 黑暗中蹲伏着的一个庞大身影
• A young man was crouching by the table, busily searching for something. 一个年轻人正蹲在桌边翻看什么。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

21 labyrinth   

n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路

参考例句：

• He wandered through the labyrinth of the alleyways.他在迷宫似的小巷中闲逛。
• The human mind is a labyrinth.人的心灵是一座迷宫。

22 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。