After breakfast Scaife got from a house-agent a key for the gates of the staircases on the Ruff. I walked with him along the sands, and sat down in a nook of the cliffs while he investigated the half-dozen of them. I didn’t want to be seen, but the place at this hour was quite deserted1, and all the time I was on that beach I saw nothing but the seagulls.
It took him more than an hour to do the job, and when I saw him coming towards me, conning2 a bit of paper, I can tell you my heart was in my mouth. Everything depended, you see, on my guess proving right.
He read aloud the number of steps in the different stairs. “Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-nine, forty-two, forty-seven,” and “twenty-one’ where the cliffs grew lower. I almost got up and shouted.
We hurried back to the town and sent a wire to MacGillivray. I wanted half a dozen men, and I directed them to divide themselves among different specified3 hotels. Then Scaife set out to prospect4 the house at the head of the thirty-nine steps.
He came back with news that both puzzled and reassured5 me. The house was called Trafalgar Lodge7, and belonged to an old gentleman called Appleton—a retired8 stockbroker9, the house-agent said. Mr Appleton was there a good deal in the summer time, and was in residence now—had been for the better part of a week. Scaife could pick up very little information about him, except that he was a decent old fellow, who paid his bills regularly, and was always good for a fiver for a local charity. Then Scaife seemed to have penetrated11 to the back door of the house, pretending he was an agent for sewing-machines. Only three servants were kept, a cook, a parlour-maid, and a housemaid, and they were just the sort that you would find in a respectable middle-class household. The cook was not the gossiping kind, and had pretty soon shut the door in his face, but Scaife said he was positive she knew nothing. Next door there was a new house building which would give good cover for observation, and the villa12 on the other side was to let, and its garden was rough and shrubby13.
I borrowed Scaife’s telescope, and before lunch went for a walk along the Ruff. I kept well behind the rows of villas14, and found a good observation point on the edge of the golf-course. There I had a view of the line of turf along the cliff top, with seats placed at intervals15, and the little square plots, railed in and planted with bushes, whence the staircases descended16 to the beach. I saw Trafalgar Lodge very plainly, a red-brick villa with a veranda18, a tennis lawn behind, and in front the ordinary seaside flower-garden full of marguerites and scraggy geraniums. There was a flagstaff from which an enormous union Jack19 hung limply in the still air.
Presently I observed someone leave the house and saunter along the cliff. When I got my glasses on him I saw it was an old man, wearing white flannel20 trousers, a blue serge jacket, and a straw hat. He carried field-glasses and a newspaper, and sat down on one of the iron seats and began to read. Sometimes he would lay down the paper and turn his glasses on the sea. He looked for a long time at the destroyer. I watched him for half an hour, till he got up and went back to the house for his luncheon21, when I returned to the hotel for mine.
I wasn’t feeling very confident. This decent common-place dwelling22 was not what I had expected. The man might be the bald archaeologist of that horrible moorland farm, or he might not. He was exactly the kind of satisfied old bird you will find in every suburb and every holiday place. If you wanted a type of the perfectly24 harmless person you would probably pitch on that.
But after lunch, as I sat in the hotel porch, I perked25 up, for I saw the thing I had hoped for and had dreaded26 to miss. A yacht came up from the south and dropped anchor pretty well opposite the Ruff. She seemed about a hundred and fifty tons, and I saw she belonged to the Squadron from the white ensign. So Scaife and I went down to the harbour and hired a boatman for an afternoon’s fishing.
I spent a warm and peaceful afternoon. We caught between us about twenty pounds of cod27 and lythe, and out in that dancing blue sea I took a cheerier view of things. Above the white cliffs of the Ruff I saw the green and red of the villas, and especially the great flagstaff of Trafalgar Lodge. About four o’clock, when we had fished enough, I made the boatman row us round the yacht, which lay like a delicate white bird, ready at a moment to flee. Scaife said she must be a fast boat for her build, and that she was pretty heavily engined.
Her name was the Ariadne, as I discovered from the cap of one of the men who was polishing brasswork. I spoke29 to him, and got an answer in the soft dialect of Essex. Another hand that came along passed me the time of day in an unmistakable English tongue. Our boatman had an argument with one of them about the weather, and for a few minutes we lay on our oars30 close to the starboard bow.
Then the men suddenly disregarded us and bent31 their heads to their work as an officer came along the deck. He was a pleasant, clean-looking young fellow, and he put a question to us about our fishing in very good English. But there could be no doubt about him. His close-cropped head and the cut of his collar and tie never came out of England.
That did something to reassure6 me, but as we rowed back to Bradgate my obstinate32 doubts would not be dismissed. The thing that worried me was the reflection that my enemies knew that I had got my knowledge from Scudder, and it was Scudder who had given me the clue to this place. If they knew that Scudder had this clue, would they not be certain to change their plans? Too much depended on their success for them to take any risks. The whole question was how much they understood about Scudder’s knowledge. I had talked confidently last night about Germans always sticking to a scheme, but if they had any suspicions that I was on their track they would be fools not to cover it. I wondered if the man last night had seen that I recognized him. Somehow I did not think he had, and to that I had clung. But the whole business had never seemed so difficult as that afternoon when by all calculations I should have been rejoicing in assured success.
In the hotel I met the commander of the destroyer, to whom Scaife introduced me, and with whom I had a few words. Then I thought I would put in an hour or two watching Trafalgar Lodge.
I found a place farther up the hill, in the garden of an empty house. From there I had a full view of the court, on which two figures were having a game of tennis. One was the old man, whom I had already seen; the other was a younger fellow, wearing some club colours in the scarf round his middle. They played with tremendous zest33, like two city gents who wanted hard exercise to open their pores. You couldn’t conceive a more innocent spectacle. They shouted and laughed and stopped for drinks, when a maid brought out two tankards on a salver. I rubbed my eyes and asked myself if I was not the most immortal34 fool on earth. Mystery and darkness had hung about the men who hunted me over the Scotch35 moor23 in aeroplane and motor-car, and notably36 about that infernal antiquarian. It was easy enough to connect those folk with the knife that pinned Scudder to the floor, and with fell designs on the world’s peace. But here were two guileless citizens taking their innocuous exercise, and soon about to go indoors to a humdrum37 dinner, where they would talk of market prices and the last cricket scores and the gossip of their native Surbiton. I had been making a net to catch vultures and falcons38, and lo and behold39! two plump thrushes had blundered into it.
Presently a third figure arrived, a young man on a bicycle, with a bag of golf-clubs slung40 on his back. He strolled round to the tennis lawn and was welcomed riotously41 by the players. Evidently they were chaffing him, and their chaff42 sounded horribly English. Then the plump man, mopping his brow with a silk handkerchief, announced that he must have a tub. I heard his very words—“I’ve got into a proper lather,” he said. “This will bring down my weight and my handicap, Bob. I’ll take you on tomorrow and give you a stroke a hole.” You couldn’t find anything much more English than that.
They all went into the house, and left me feeling a precious idiot. I had been barking up the wrong tree this time. These men might be acting43; but if they were, where was their audience? They didn’t know I was sitting thirty yards off in a rhododendron. It was simply impossible to believe that these three hearty44 fellows were anything but what they seemed—three ordinary, game-playing, suburban45 Englishmen, wearisome, if you like, but sordidly46 innocent.
And yet there were three of them; and one was old, and one was plump, and one was lean and dark; and their house chimed in with Scudder’s notes; and half a mile off was lying a steam yacht with at least one German officer. I thought of Karolides lying dead and all Europe trembling on the edge of earthquake, and the men I had left behind me in London who were waiting anxiously for the events of the next hours. There was no doubt that hell was afoot somewhere. The Black Stone had won, and if it survived this June night would bank its winnings.
There seemed only one thing to do—go forward as if I had no doubts, and if I was going to make a fool of myself to do it handsomely. Never in my life have I faced a job with greater disinclination. I would rather in my then mind have walked into a den10 of anarchists47, each with his Browning handy, or faced a charging lion with a popgun, than enter that happy home of three cheerful Englishmen and tell them that their game was up. How they would laugh at me!
But suddenly I remembered a thing I once heard in Rhodesia from old Peter Pienaar. I have quoted Peter already in this narrative48. He was the best scout49 I ever knew, and before he had turned respectable he had been pretty often on the windy side of the law, when he had been wanted badly by the authorities. Peter once discussed with me the question of disguises, and he had a theory which struck me at the time. He said, barring absolute certainties like fingerprints50, mere51 physical traits were very little use for identification if the fugitive52 really knew his business. He laughed at things like dyed hair and false beards and such childish follies53. The only thing that mattered was what Peter called “atmosphere”.
If a man could get into perfectly different surroundings from those in which he had been first observed, and—this is the important part—really play up to these surroundings and behave as if he had never been out of them, he would puzzle the cleverest detectives on earth. And he used to tell a story of how he once borrowed a black coat and went to church and shared the same hymn-book with the man that was looking for him. If that man had seen him in decent company before he would have recognized him; but he had only seen him snuffing the lights in a public-house with a revolver.
The recollection of Peter’s talk gave me the first real comfort that I had had that day. Peter had been a wise old bird, and these fellows I was after were about the pick of the aviary54. What if they were playing Peter’s game? A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.
Again, there was that other maxim55 of Peter’s which had helped me when I had been a roadman. “If you are playing a part, you will never keep it up unless you convince yourself that you are it.” That would explain the game of tennis. Those chaps didn’t need to act, they just turned a handle and passed into another life, which came as naturally to them as the first. It sounds a platitude56, but Peter used to say that it was the big secret of all the famous criminals.
It was now getting on for eight o’clock, and I went back and saw Scaife to give him his instructions. I arranged with him how to place his men, and then I went for a walk, for I didn’t feel up to any dinner. I went round the deserted golf-course, and then to a point on the cliffs farther north beyond the line of the villas.
On the little trim newly-made roads I met people in flannels57 coming back from tennis and the beach, and a coastguard from the wireless58 station, and donkeys and pierrots padding homewards. Out at sea in the blue dusk I saw lights appear on the Ariadne and on the destroyer away to the south, and beyond the Cock sands the bigger lights of steamers making for the Thames. The whole scene was so peaceful and ordinary that I got more dashed in spirits every second. It took all my resolution to stroll towards Trafalgar Lodge about half-past nine.
On the way I got a piece of solid comfort from the sight of a greyhound that was swinging along at a nursemaid’s heels. He reminded me of a dog I used to have in Rhodesia, and of the time when I took him hunting with me in the Pali hills. We were after rhebok, the dun kind, and I recollected59 how we had followed one beast, and both he and I had clean lost it. A greyhound works by sight, and my eyes are good enough, but that buck60 simply leaked out of the landscape. Afterwards I found out how it managed it. Against the grey rock of the kopjes it showed no more than a crow against a thundercloud. It didn’t need to run away; all it had to do was to stand still and melt into the background.
Suddenly as these memories chased across my brain I thought of my present case and applied61 the moral. The Black Stone didn’t need to bolt. They were quietly absorbed into the landscape. I was on the right track, and I jammed that down in my mind and vowed62 never to forget it. The last word was with Peter Pienaar.
Scaife’s men would be posted now, but there was no sign of a soul. The house stood as open as a market-place for anybody to observe. A three-foot railing separated it from the cliff road; the windows on the ground-floor were all open, and shaded lights and the low sound of voices revealed where the occupants were finishing dinner. Everything was as public and above-board as a charity bazaar63. Feeling the greatest fool on earth, I opened the gate and rang the bell.
A man of my sort, who has travelled about the world in rough places, gets on perfectly well with two classes, what you may call the upper and the lower. He understands them and they understand him. I was at home with herds64 and tramps and roadmen, and I was sufficiently65 at my ease with people like Sir Walter and the men I had met the night before. I can’t explain why, but it is a fact. But what fellows like me don’t understand is the great comfortable, satisfied middle-class world, the folk that live in villas and suburbs. He doesn’t know how they look at things, he doesn’t understand their conventions, and he is as shy of them as of a black mamba. When a trim parlour-maid opened the door, I could hardly find my voice.
I asked for Mr Appleton, and was ushered66 in. My plan had been to walk straight into the dining-room, and by a sudden appearance wake in the men that start of recognition which would confirm my theory. But when I found myself in that neat hall the place mastered me. There were the golf-clubs and tennis-rackets, the straw hats and caps, the rows of gloves, the sheaf of walking-sticks, which you will find in ten thousand British homes. A stack of neatly67 folded coats and waterproofs68 covered the top of an old oak chest; there was a grandfather clock ticking; and some polished brass28 warming-pans on the walls, and a barometer69, and a print of Chiltern winning the St Leger. The place was as orthodox as an Anglican church. When the maid asked me for my name I gave it automatically, and was shown into the smoking-room, on the right side of the hall.
That room was even worse. I hadn’t time to examine it, but I could see some framed group photographs above the mantelpiece, and I could have sworn they were English public school or college. I had only one glance, for I managed to pull myself together and go after the maid. But I was too late. She had already entered the dining-room and given my name to her master, and I had missed the chance of seeing how the three took it.
When I walked into the room the old man at the head of the table had risen and turned round to meet me. He was in evening dress—a short coat and black tie, as was the other, whom I called in my own mind the plump one. The third, the dark fellow, wore a blue serge suit and a soft white collar, and the colours of some club or school.
The old man’s manner was perfect. “Mr Hannay?” he said hesitatingly. “Did you wish to see me? One moment, you fellows, and I’ll rejoin you. We had better go to the smoking-room.”
Though I hadn’t an ounce of confidence in me, I forced myself to play the game. I pulled up a chair and sat down on it.
“I think we have met before,” I said, “and I guess you know my business.”
The light in the room was dim, but so far as I could see their faces, they played the part of mystification very well.
“Maybe, maybe,” said the old man. “I haven’t a very good memory, but I’m afraid you must tell me your errand, sir, for I really don’t know it.”
“Well, then,” I said, and all the time I seemed to myself to be talking pure foolishness—“I have come to tell you that the game’s up. I have a warrant for the arrest of you three gentlemen.”
“Arrest,” said the old man, and he looked really shocked. “Arrest! Good God, what for?”
“For the murder of Franklin Scudder in London on the 23rd day of last month.”
“I never heard the name before,” said the old man in a dazed voice.
One of the others spoke up. “That was the Portland Place murder. I read about it. Good heavens, you must be mad, sir! Where do you come from?”
“Scotland Yard,” I said.
After that for a minute there was utter silence. The old man was staring at his plate and fumbling70 with a nut, the very model of innocent bewilderment.
“Don’t get flustered72, uncle,” he said. “It is all a ridiculous mistake; but these things happen sometimes, and we can easily set it right. It won’t be hard to prove our innocence73. I can show that I was out of the country on the 23rd of May, and Bob was in a nursing home. You were in London, but you can explain what you were doing.”
“Right, Percy! Of course that’s easy enough. The 23rd! That was the day after Agatha’s wedding. Let me see. What was I doing? I came up in the morning from Woking, and lunched at the club with Charlie Symons. Then—oh yes, I dined with the Fishmongers. I remember, for the punch didn’t agree with me, and I was seedy next morning. Hang it all, there’s the cigar-box I brought back from the dinner.” He pointed74 to an object on the table, and laughed nervously75.
“I think, sir,” said the young man, addressing me respectfully, “you will see you are mistaken. We want to assist the law like all Englishmen, and we don’t want Scotland Yard to be making fools of themselves. That’s so, uncle?”
“Certainly, Bob.” The old fellow seemed to be recovering his voice. “Certainly, we’ll do anything in our power to assist the authorities. But—but this is a bit too much. I can’t get over it.”
“How Nellie will chuckle,” said the plump man. “She always said that you would die of boredom76 because nothing ever happened to you. And now you’ve got it thick and strong,” and he began to laugh very pleasantly.
“By Jove, yes. Just think of it! What a story to tell at the club. Really, Mr Hannay, I suppose I should be angry, to show my innocence, but it’s too funny! I almost forgive you the fright you gave me! You looked so glum77, I thought I might have been walking in my sleep and killing78 people.”
It couldn’t be acting, it was too confoundedly genuine. My heart went into my boots, and my first impulse was to apologize and clear out. But I told myself I must see it through, even though I was to be the laughing-stock of Britain. The light from the dinner-table candlesticks was not very good, and to cover my confusion I got up, walked to the door and switched on the electric light. The sudden glare made them blink, and I stood scanning the three faces.
Well, I made nothing of it. One was old and bald, one was stout79, one was dark and thin. There was nothing in their appearance to prevent them being the three who had hunted me in Scotland, but there was nothing to identify them. I simply can’t explain why I who, as a roadman, had looked into two pairs of eyes, and as Ned Ainslie into another pair, why I, who have a good memory and reasonable powers of observation, could find no satisfaction. They seemed exactly what they professed80 to be, and I could not have sworn to one of them.
There in that pleasant dining-room, with etchings on the walls, and a picture of an old lady in a bib above the mantelpiece, I could see nothing to connect them with the moorland desperadoes. There was a silver cigarette-box beside me, and I saw that it had been won by Percival Appleton, Esq., of the St Bede’s Club, in a golf tournament. I had to keep a firm hold of Peter Pienaar to prevent myself bolting out of that house.
I couldn’t find a word.
“I hope you’ll find it consistent with your duty to drop this ridiculous business. I make no complaint, but you’ll see how annoying it must be to respectable people.”
I shook my head.
“O Lord,” said the young man. “This is a bit too thick!”
“Do you propose to march us off to the police station?” asked the plump one. “That might be the best way out of it, but I suppose you won’t be content with the local branch. I have the right to ask to see your warrant, but I don’t wish to cast any aspersions upon you. You are only doing your duty. But you’ll admit it’s horribly awkward. What do you propose to do?”
There was nothing to do except to call in my men and have them arrested, or to confess my blunder and clear out. I felt mesmerized82 by the whole place, by the air of obvious innocence—not innocence merely, but frank honest bewilderment and concern in the three faces.
“Oh, Peter Pienaar,” I groaned83 inwardly, and for a moment I was very near damning myself for a fool and asking their pardon.
“Meantime I vote we have a game of bridge,” said the plump one. “It will give Mr Hannay time to think over things, and you know we have been wanting a fourth player. Do you play, sir?”
I accepted as if it had been an ordinary invitation at the club. The whole business had mesmerized me. We went into the smoking-room where a card-table was set out, and I was offered things to smoke and drink. I took my place at the table in a kind of dream. The window was open and the moon was flooding the cliffs and sea with a great tide of yellow light. There was moonshine, too, in my head. The three had recovered their composure, and were talking easily—just the kind of slangy talk you will hear in any golf club-house. I must have cut a rum figure, sitting there knitting my brows with my eyes wandering.
My partner was the young dark one. I play a fair hand at bridge, but I must have been rank bad that night. They saw that they had got me puzzled, and that put them more than ever at their ease. I kept looking at their faces, but they conveyed nothing to me. It was not that they looked different; they were different. I clung desperately84 to the words of Peter Pienaar.
Then something awoke me.
The old man laid down his hand to light a cigar. He didn’t pick it up at once, but sat back for a moment in his chair, with his fingers tapping on his knees.
It was the movement I remembered when I had stood before him in the moorland farm, with the pistols of his servants behind me.
A little thing, lasting85 only a second, and the odds86 were a thousand to one that I might have had my eyes on my cards at the time and missed it. But I didn’t, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear. Some shadow lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men with full and absolute recognition.
The clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o’clock.
The three faces seemed to change before my eyes and reveal their secrets. The young one was the murderer. Now I saw cruelty and ruthlessness, where before I had only seen good-humour. His knife, I made certain, had skewered87 Scudder to the floor. His kind had put the bullet in Karolides.
The plump man’s features seemed to dislimn, and form again, as I looked at them. He hadn’t a face, only a hundred masks that he could assume when he pleased. That chap must have been a superb actor. Perhaps he had been Lord Alloa of the night before; perhaps not; it didn’t matter. I wondered if he was the fellow who had first tracked Scudder, and left his card on him. Scudder had said he lisped, and I could imagine how the adoption88 of a lisp might add terror.
But the old man was the pick of the lot. He was sheer brain, icy, cool, calculating, as ruthless as a steam hammer. Now that my eyes were opened I wondered where I had seen the benevolence89. His jaw90 was like chilled steel, and his eyes had the inhuman91 luminosity of a bird’s. I went on playing, and every second a greater hate welled up in my heart. It almost choked me, and I couldn’t answer when my partner spoke. Only a little longer could I endure their company.
“Whew! Bob! Look at the time,” said the old man. “You’d better think about catching92 your train. Bob’s got to go to town tonight,” he added, turning to me. The voice rang now as false as hell. I looked at the clock, and it was nearly half-past ten.
“I am afraid he must put off his journey,” I said.
“Oh, damn,” said the young man. “I thought you had dropped that rot. I’ve simply got to go. You can have my address, and I’ll give any security you like.”
“No,” I said, “you must stay.”
At that I think they must have realized that the game was desperate. Their only chance had been to convince me that I was playing the fool, and that had failed. But the old man spoke again.
“I’ll go bail93 for my nephew. That ought to content you, Mr Hannay.” Was it fancy, or did I detect some halt in the smoothness of that voice?
There must have been, for as I glanced at him, his eyelids94 fell in that hawk-like hood95 which fear had stamped on my memory.
I blew my whistle.
In an instant the lights were out. A pair of strong arms gripped me round the waist, covering the pockets in which a man might be expected to carry a pistol.
“Schnell, Franz,’ cried a voice, “das Boot, das Boot!” As it spoke I saw two of my fellows emerge on the moonlit lawn.
The young dark man leapt for the window, was through it, and over the low fence before a hand could touch him. I grappled the old chap, and the room seemed to fill with figures. I saw the plump one collared, but my eyes were all for the out-of-doors, where Franz sped on over the road towards the railed entrance to the beach stairs. One man followed him, but he had no chance. The gate of the stairs locked behind the fugitive, and I stood staring, with my hands on the old boy’s throat, for such a time as a man might take to descend17 those steps to the sea.
Suddenly my prisoner broke from me and flung himself on the wall. There was a click as if a lever had been pulled. Then came a low rumbling96 far, far below the ground, and through the window I saw a cloud of chalky dust pouring out of the shaft97 of the stairway.
Someone switched on the light.
The old man was looking at me with blazing eyes.
“He is safe,” he cried. “You cannot follow in time.... He is gone.... He has triumphed.... Der Schwarze Stein ist in der Siegeskrone.”
There was more in those eyes than any common triumph. They had been hooded98 like a bird of prey99, and now they flamed with a hawk’s pride. A white fanatic100 heat burned in them, and I realized for the first time the terrible thing I had been up against. This man was more than a spy; in his foul101 way he had been a patriot102.
As the handcuffs clinked on his wrists I said my last word to him.
“I hope Franz will bear his triumph well. I ought to tell you that the Ariadne for the last hour has been in our hands.”
Seven weeks later, as all the world knows, we went to war. I joined the New Army the first week, and owing to my Matabele experience got a captain’s commission straight off. But I had done my best service, I think, before I put on khaki.
The End
The End
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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conning
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| v.诈骗，哄骗( con的现在分词 )；指挥操舵( conn的现在分词 ) | |
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specified
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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stockbroker
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| n.股票（或证券），经纪人（或机构） | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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shrubby
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| adj.灌木的，灌木一般的，灌木繁茂著的 | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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18
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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19
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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21
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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22
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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23
moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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24
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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25
perked
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| （使）活跃( perk的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）增值； 使更有趣 | |
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26
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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27
cod
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| n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗 | |
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28
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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29
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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30
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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32
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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33
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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34
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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35
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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36
notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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37
humdrum
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| adj.单调的，乏味的 | |
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38
falcons
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| n.猎鹰( falcon的名词复数 ) | |
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39
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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40
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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41
riotously
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| adv.骚动地，暴乱地 | |
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42
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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43
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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44
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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45
suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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46
sordidly
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| adv.肮脏地；污秽地；不洁地 | |
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anarchists
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| 无政府主义者( anarchist的名词复数 ) | |
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48
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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49
scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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50
fingerprints
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| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
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51
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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52
fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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54
aviary
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| n.大鸟笼，鸟舍 | |
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55
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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56
platitude
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| n.老生常谈，陈词滥调 | |
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57
flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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59
recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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61
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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62
vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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63
bazaar
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| n.集市，商店集中区 | |
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64
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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65
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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66
ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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68
waterproofs
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| n.防水衣物，雨衣 usually plural( waterproof的名词复数 )v.使防水，使不透水( waterproof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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69
barometer
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| n.气压表，睛雨表，反应指标 | |
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70
fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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71
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
flustered
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| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
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73
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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74
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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75
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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76
boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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77
glum
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| adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的 | |
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78
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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80
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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81
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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82
mesmerized
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| v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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84
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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85
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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86
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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87
skewered
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| v.（用串肉扦或类似物）串起，刺穿( skewer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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88
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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89
benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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90
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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91
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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92
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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93
bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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94
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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95
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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96
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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97
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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98
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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99
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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100
fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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101
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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102
patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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