With a cry of fright the castaway started into full consciousness, every part of her racked and a-throb with pain. By a great effort of will she struggled into a sitting posture7 and then to her knees. The firelight blinded her. All was still within its radius8. An apprehension9 that she alone had survived the riving of the island overwhelmed her.
She remembered the cataclysmic upheaval10 which had flung her headlong as she stood beside Lavelle where he worked at the boat. She had gone to him to ask him to pause but a minute to take a little food and drink. He had answered her harshly, she had been thinking; and then a mountainous wave had hurled11 him against her; into her arms, in fact. She had held him with all her strength, but the sea must have been stronger. It must have taken him. Her memory stopped there.
"Captain! My friend!" she called in anguish12 to the night. It returned no answer. The wind lashed13 her face and throat as if determined14 she should be still. She breasted it with the fierceness of abandonment, lifting her aching arms and sobbing15 to the heavens:
Even, as this supplication17 burst from her Chang entered the circle of light, carrying an armful of wood. Rowgowskii followed at his heels, similarly burdened.
"All lite, lady! No be flaid!" called the Chinaman. He dropped the wood as he spoke18 and ran to her side. Her gaze went expectantly beyond him into the darkness. But the one for whom she looked did not appear.
"The captain—where——"
Emily could not utter another word. She sank back, supporting herself by one arm. She was afraid to listen to the giant's answer.
"Him all lite—bimeby, lady," said Chang.
Her heart surged in joy.
She straightened again on her knees.
Chang drew back the edge of the boat sail, a part of which had also covered her. There lay "The Shadow" of the lost Cambodia with the bullet wound in his brow reopened where the sea had mauled him.
"Thank God," Emily murmured, seeing Lavelle stir.
She crawled on her knees to his side and felt the pulse of the hand which Chang drew out of the canvas. Its faintness killed the gladness which had come so swiftly into her heart.
"He—he—is dying, Chang!" she cried.
"No can be; no can be," answered the Chinaman with fiery20 emphasis. "Him more stlong. Go-an get better more klick. No can kill master so leasy."
"How long has he been this way, Chang?"
"Not more one hour. How you feet, lady?"
For the first time Emily was conscious of a tearing pain in her ankles and insteps. It was more intense than the stab-like thrusts which were piercing the rest of her body. Wondering what could have happened to her she turned so that she could see her feet. The trim, delicate ankles were swollen21 and the insteps were bruised22 and bleeding.
"Velly solly, lady," said Chang soothingly23 and in the manner of a father comforting a little child. "You velly blave. You velly stlong."
As he spoke the Chinaman gently lifted one injured foot. She shrank from his touch and put out a hand to thrust him away.
"You be 'flaid flor Chang?" asked the giant wistfully. The glance with which he looked up at her made the woman ashamed that she had obeyed the impulse of littleness. She caught Rowgowskii staring at her from across the fire. His glance was a challenge to all the fineness of her being.
"I beg your pardon, Chang. I am not afraid of you," she said. She withdrew her protesting hand.
"You my master flen. He say by me when I tell him you hol' him han' in boat: 'Chang, maybe I go-an die. All hell kom-men you go-an save she.' Bimeby to-night when big sea kom-men you save my master. You save Chang. You like me die—I go-an die flor you. You must no be flaid."
The while Chang talked his long yellow fingers were going swiftly over Emily's feet. A surgeon's skill was in their touch. His head was bent24, hearkening, where he manipulated the ankle and toe joints25, for a sound which would betoken26 a fracture.
"No bone bloke," he announced with finality.
"Thank you, Chang," Emily said gratefully, and presently she drew from him an account of what had happened following the upheaval.
Chang had been standing27 near the fire on the hillside. He had been thrown down even as she and Lavelle were. The island had broken apart and a great sea had come and gone quickly. The earth went out from under him. It flaked28 away, carrying him down to the sea with it. He could not stop himself. Just as he was rolling over the edge of the cliff he felt an arm and caught hold of it. It checked his descent. It was Lavelle's arm that he caught and, drawing himself up, he found her clutching Lavelle with both hands around his other wrist. Her feet were twisted in the root of a tree which the sea had washed out of the earth. It was this root which had saved all of them.
Emily could understand now how she came to feel like one who had been broken on a wheel. She could not imagine where she had found the strength to withstand the terrific forces which, according to the giant's description, had beset29 her. She believed she had acted unconsciously, but at least, she thought, she had proved herself not useless. She found comfort in this momentary30 reflection, nor did she suspect that a great, new power—a power like unto which there is no other—had dawned in her life.
"I catch him master," added Chang, "but you hol' flor him like a marther hol' him litty bit chile when him big bear kom-men in winter. Chang bring you here flor topside. You eye close. Him master eye close. Him head must flor stlike 'gainst boat: maybe lock hit him. Him boat all go way."
A weary faintness made Emily's eyelids31 droop32 for a second. Chang leaped to his feet and crossed to the other side of the fire. She watched him where he lifted one of the boat's breakers and poured a cup full of water. He was back in a moment offering it to her. She drank sparingly. She refused to eat anything. She asked how long it had been since the sundering33 of the island and when Chang told her that not more than an hour had passed she found it hard to believe him. It seemed to Emily that it must have happened many nights before.
The giant's answer was hardly away from his lips when a shudder34 went through the hill on the crest35 of which he, driving Rowgowskii to help him, had fixed36 the encampment and rebuilt the fire.
"What flor? Whachamalla you?" snarled37 Chang at the menacing earth. The next breath brought a scolding tone into his quaint38 voice. "Him go-an be night velly long time, Mr. Islan'. More better you go-an sleep, eh?"
The whimsicality of this speech and the half-quizzical expression in Chang's face brought a faint smile to the lips of the white woman.
"You're a rare soul, Chang," she whispered.
"Him all same clay-zee, dlunken sailor man, this Mr. Islan'," the giant chattered39 on. He saw that he amused Emily. And always he spoke of the future certainly. So far as his speech and manner were concerned he might have been safe in port with a pleasant city in view instead of on the border line of the world beyond. Like Lavelle, he possessed40 the marvelous power of renewing one's faith.
Of his master the Chinaman spoke as the children of the Orient speak only of their strange good gods. He told how Lavelle nine years before in Rangoon had saved his life from the murderous hands of a drunken, mutinous41 crew and how his way thereafter had been the captain's way and would be to the end. He recalled, too, the night in Shanghai of which Elsie had told her. He wrung42 tears from her in recounting the fearful winning of the Kau Lung to Yokohama. She saw the knife scars on the arm lying outside the sail and the scars on Chang's. The wounds of these men assumed a sacredness in her eyes.
"My master all same Chang joss," was the way the giant summed up his hero. "No 'flaid flor enny-sling! Nobody! Him say, 'Chang, die.' Must flor me die."
Emily recalled the strange scene between them at the boat and she understood the truth of this.
Lavelle, stirring with a moan, interrupted the serang, who bent his head and listened, ear close to the unconscious man's lips.
"Him sleep now—more better. No sleep las' night. No sleep to-day. Him velly tli-ed."
Emily leaned over at the giant's whisper and caught the measured, easy breathing of a tired sleeper43. Yet she heard something else also.
"—home soon—dearheart. Gold girl—wonder——" he murmured, and Emily wondered what manner of woman it was who was waiting across seas for this man's home-coming. It was not thus he would speak of the mother to whom he had set out to return. It could not be such a woman as Shanghai Elsie. The remembrance of what Rowgowskii had said to her in the boat flashed into her mind. She put it away instantly. She resented it. She knew, as only it is given to a woman to know, that it was not to a mate like Elsie that this man would go.
"God bring him safely to her," she prayed in her pity for the woman of whom "The Shadow" dreamed, and she knew not that she prayed for herself.
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1
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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2
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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timorously
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| adv.胆怯地，羞怯地 | |
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5
burgeoning
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| adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝） | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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7
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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8
radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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9
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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10
upheaval
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| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
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11
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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12
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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13
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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14
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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15
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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16
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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17
supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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18
spoke
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| 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 | |
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19
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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20
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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21
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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22
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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23
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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24
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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25
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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26
betoken
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| v.预示 | |
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27
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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28
flaked
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| 精疲力竭的，失去知觉的，睡去的 | |
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29
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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30
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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31
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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32
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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33
sundering
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的现在分词 ) | |
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34
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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35
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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36
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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37
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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38
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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39
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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40
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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41
mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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42
wrung
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| 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） | |
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43
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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