1
The City of New York was in the year of the German attack the largest, richest, in many respects the most splendid, and in some, the wickedest city the world had ever seen. She was the supreme1 type of the City of the Scientific Commercial Age; she displayed its greatness, its power, its ruthless anarchic enterprise, and its social disorganisation most strikingly and completely. She had long ousted2 London from her pride of place as the modern Babylon, she was the centre of the world's finance, the world's trade, and the world's pleasure; and men likened her to the apocalyptic3 cities of the ancient prophets. She sat drinking up the wealth of a continent as Rome once drank the wealth of the Mediterranean4 and Babylon the wealth of the east. In her streets one found the extremes of magnificence and misery5, of civilisation6 and disorder7. In one quarter, palaces of marble, laced and, crowned with light and flame and flowers, towered up into her marvellous twilights beautiful, beyond description; in another, a black and sinister10 polyglot11 population sweltered in indescribable congestion12 in warrens, and excavations13 beyond the power and knowledge of government. Her vice14, her crime, her law alike were inspired by a fierce and terrible energy, and like the great cities of mediaeval Italy, her ways were dark and adventurous16 with private war.
It was the peculiar18 shape of Manhattan Island, pressed in by arms of the sea on either side, and incapable19 of comfortable expansion, except along a narrow northward20 belt, that first gave the New York architects their bias21 for extreme vertical22 dimensions. Every need was lavishly23 supplied them--money, material, labour; only space was restricted. To begin, therefore, they built high perforce. But to do so was to discover a whole new world of architectural beauty, of exquisite24 ascendant lines, and long after the central congestion had been relieved by tunnels under the sea, four colossal25 bridges over the east river, and a dozen mono-rail cables east and west, the upward growth went on. In many ways New York and her gorgeous plutocracy27 repeated Venice in the magnificence of her architecture, painting, metal-work and sculpture, for example, in the grim intensity28 of her political method, in her maritime29 and commercial ascendancy30. But she repeated no previous state at all in the lax disorder of her internal administration, a laxity that made vast sections of her area lawless beyond precedent31, so that it was possible for whole districts to be impassable, while civil war raged between street and street, and for Alsatias to exist in her midst in which the official police never set foot. She was an ethnic33 whirlpool. The flags of all nations flew in her harbour, and at the climax34, the yearly coming and going overseas numbered together upwards35 of two million human beings. To Europe she was America, to America she was the gateway36 of the world. But to tell the story of New York would be to write a social history of the world; saints and martyrs37, dreamers and scoundrels, the traditions of a thousand races and a thousand religions, went to her making and throbbed38 and jostled in her streets. And over all that torrential confusion of men and purposes fluttered that strange flag, the stars and stripes, that meant at once the noblest thing in life, and the least noble, that is to say, Liberty on the one hand, and on the other the base jealousy39 the individual self-seeker feels towards the common purpose of the State.
For many generations New York had taken no heed41 of war, save as a thing that happened far away, that affected42 prices and supplied the newspapers with exciting headlines and pictures. The New Yorkers felt perhaps even more certainly than the English had done that war in their own land was an impossible thing. In that they shared the delusion43 of all North America. They felt as secure as spectators at a bullfight; they risked their money perhaps on the result, but that was all. And such ideas of war as the common Americans possessed44 were derived45 from the limited, picturesque46, adventurous war of the past. They saw war as they saw history, through an iridescent47 mist, deodorised, scented48 indeed, with all its essential cruelties tactfully hidden away. They were inclined to regret it as something ennobling, to sigh that it could no longer come into their own private experience. They read with interest, if not with avidity, of their new guns, of their immense and still more immense ironclads, of their incredible and still more incredible explosives, but just what these tremendous engines of destruction might mean for their personal lives never entered their heads. They did not, so far as one can judge from their contemporary literature, think that they meant anything to their personal lives at all. They thought America was safe amidst all this piling up of explosives. They cheered the flag by habit and tradition, they despised other nations, and whenever there was an international difficulty they were intensely patriotic49, that is to say, they were ardently50 against any native politician who did not say, threaten, and do harsh and uncompromising things to the antagonist51 people. They were spirited to Asia, spirited to Germany, so spirited to Great Britain that the international attitude of the mother country to her great daughter was constantly compared in contemporary caricature to that between a hen-pecked husband and a vicious young wife. And for the rest, they all went about their business and pleasure as if war had died out with the megatherium....
And then suddenly, into a world peacefully busied for the most part upon armaments and the perfection of explosives, war came; came the shock of realising that the guns were going off, that the masses of inflammable material all over the world were at last ablaze52.
2
The immediate53 effect upon New York of the sudden onset54 of war was merely to intensify55 her normal vehemence56.
The newspapers and magazines that fed the American mind--for books upon this impatient continent had become simply material for the energy of collectors--were instantly a coruscation57 of war pictures and of headlines that rose like rockets and burst like shells. To the normal high-strung energy of New York streets was added a touch of war-fever. Great crowds assembled, more especially in the dinner hour, in Madison Square about the Farragut monument, to listen to and cheer patriotic speeches, and a veritable epidemic58 of little flags and buttons swept through these great torrents59 of swiftly moving young people, who poured into New York of a morning by car and mono-rail and subway and train, to toil60, and ebb61 home again between the hours of five and seven. It was dangerous not to wear a war button. The splendid music-halls of the time sank every topic in patriotism62 and evolved scenes of wild enthusiasm, strong men wept at the sight of the national banner sustained by the whole strength of the ballet, and special searchlights and illuminations amazed the watching angels. The churches re-echoed the national enthusiasm in graver key and slower measure, and the aerial and naval63 preparations on the East River were greatly incommoded by the multitude of excursion steamers which thronged64, helpfully cheering, about them. The trade in small-arms was enormously stimulated65, and many overwrought citizens found an immediate relief for their emotions in letting off fireworks of a more or less heroic, dangerous, and national character in the public streets. Small children's air-balloons of the latest model attached to string became a serious check to the pedestrian in Central Park. And amidst scenes of indescribable emotion the Albany legislature in permanent session, and with a generous suspension of rules and precedents66, passed through both Houses the long-disputed Bill for universal military service in New York State.
Critics of the American character are disposed to consider--that up to the actual impact of the German attack the people of New York dealt altogether too much with the war as if it was a political demonstration67. Little or no damage, they urge, was done to either the German or Japanese forces by the wearing of buttons, the waving of small flags, the fireworks, or the songs. They forgot that, under the conditions of warfare69 a century of science had brought about, the non-military section of the population could do no serious damage in any form to their enemies, and that there was no reason, therefore, why they should not do as they did. The balance of military efficiency was shifting back from the many to the few, from the common to the specialised.
The days when the emotional infantryman decided70 battles had passed by for ever. War had become a matter of apparatus71 of special training and skill of the most intricate kind. It had become undemocratic. And whatever the value of the popular excitement, there can be no denying that the small regular establishment of the United States Government, confronted by this totally unexpected emergency of an armed invasion from Europe, acted with vigour72, science, and imagination. They were taken by surprise so far as the diplomatic situation was concerned, and their equipment for building either navigables or aeroplanes was contemptible73 in comparison with the huge German parks. Still they set to work at once to prove to the world that the spirit that had created the Monitor and the Southern submarines of 1864 was not dead. The chief of the aeronautic74 establishment near West Point was Cabot Sinclair, and he allowed himself but one single moment of the posturing75 that was so universal in that democratic time. "We have chosen our epitaphs," he said to a reporter, "and we are going to have, 'They did all they could.' Now run away!"
The curious thing is that they did all do all they could; there is no exception known. Their only defect indeed was a defect of style. One of the most striking facts historically about this war, and the one that makes the complete separation that had arisen between the methods of warfare and the necessity of democratic support, is the effectual secrecy76 of the Washington authorities about their airships. They did not bother to confide77 a single fact of their preparations to the public. They did not even condescend78 to talk to Congress. They burked and suppressed every inquiry80. The war was fought by the President and the Secretaries of State in an entirely81 autocratic manner. Such publicity82 as they sought was merely to anticipate and prevent inconvenient83 agitation84 to defend particular points. They realised that the chief danger in aerial warfare from an excitable and intelligent public would be a clamour for local airships and aeroplanes to defend local interests. This, with such resources as they possessed, might lead to a fatal division and distribution of the national forces. Particularly they feared that they might be forced into a premature85 action to defend New York. They realised with prophetic insight that this would be the particular advantage the Germans would seek. So they took great pains to direct the popular mind towards defensive86 artillery87, and to divert it from any thought of aerial battle. Their real preparations they masked beneath ostensible88 ones. There was at Washington a large reserve of naval guns, and these were distributed rapidly, conspicuously89, and with much press attention, among the Eastern cities. They were mounted for the most part upon hills and prominent crests90 around the threatened centres of population. They were mounted upon rough adaptations of the Doan swivel, which at that time gave the maximum vertical range to a heavy gun. Much of this artillery was still unmounted, and nearly all of it was unprotected when the German air-fleet reached New York. And down in the crowded streets, when that occurred, the readers of the New York papers were regaling themselves with wonderful and wonderfully illustrated91 accounts of such matters as:--
THE SECRET OF THE THUNDERBOLT
AGED32 SCIENTIST PERFECTS ELECTRIC GUN
TO ELECTROCUTE AIRSHIP CREWS BY UPWARD LIGHTNING
WASHINGTON ORDERS FIVE HUNDRED
WAR SECRETARY LODGE92 DELIGHTED
SAYS THEY WILL SUIT THE GERMANS DOWN TO THE GROUND
PRESIDENT PUBLICLY APPLAUDS THIS MERRY QUIP
3
The German fleet reached New York in advance of the news of the American naval disaster. It reached New York in the late afternoon and was first seen by watchers at Ocean Grove93 and Long Branch coming swiftly out of the southward sea and going away to the northwest. The flagship passed almost vertically94 over the Sandy Hook observation station, rising rapidly as it did so, and in a few minutes all New York was vibrating to the Staten Island guns.
Several of these guns, and especially that at Giffords and the one on Beacon95 Hill above Matawan, were remarkably96 well handled. The former, at a distance of five miles, and with an elevation97 of six thousand feet, sent a shell to burst so close to the Vaterland that a pane68 of the Prince's forward window was smashed by a fragment. This sudden explosion made Bert tuck in his head with the celerity of a startled tortoise. The whole air-fleet immediately went up steeply to a height of about twelve thousand feet and at that level passed unscathed over the ineffectual guns. The airships lined out as they moved forward into the form of a flattened98 V, with its apex99 towards the city, and with the flagship going highest at the apex. The two ends of the V passed over Plumfield and Jamaica Bay, respectively, and the Prince directed his course a little to the east of the Narrows, soared over Upper Bay, and came to rest over Jersey100 City in a position that dominated lower New York. There the monsters hung, large and wonderful in the evening light, serenely101 regardless of the occasional rocket explosions and flashing shell-bursts in the lower air.
It was a pause of mutual103 inspection104. For a time naive105 humanity swamped the conventions of warfare altogether; the interest of the millions below and of the thousands above alike was spectacular. The evening was unexpectedly fine--only a few thin level bands of clouds at seven or eight thousand feet broke its luminous106 clarity. The wind had dropped; it was an evening infinitely107 peaceful and still. The heavy concussions108 of the distant guns and those incidental harmless pyrotechnics at the level of the clouds seemed to have as little to do with killing109 and force, terror and submission110, as a salute111 at a naval review. Below, every point of vantage bristled112 with spectators, the roofs of the towering buildings, the public squares, the active ferry boats, and every favourable113 street intersection114 had its crowds: all the river piers115 were dense116 with people, the Battery Park was solid black with east-side population, and every position of advantage in Central Park and along Riverside Drive had its peculiar and characteristic assembly from the adjacent streets. The footways of the great bridges over the East River were also closely packed and blocked. Everywhere shopkeepers had left their shops, men their work, and women and children their homes, to come out and see the marvel8.
"It beat," they declared, "the newspapers."
And from above, many of the occupants of the airships stared with an equal curiosity. No city in the world was ever so finely placed as New York, so magnificently cut up by sea and bluff117 and river, so admirably disposed to display the tall effects of buildings, the complex immensities of bridges and mono-railways and feats118 of engineering. London, Paris, Berlin, were shapeless, low agglomerations119 beside it. Its port reached to its heart like Venice, and, like Venice, it was obvious, dramatic, and proud. Seen from above it was alive with crawling trains and cars, and at a thousand points it was already breaking into quivering light. New York was altogether at its best that evening, its splendid best.
"Gaw! What a place!" said Bert.
It was so great, and in its collective effect so pacifically magnificent, that to make war upon it seemed incongruous beyond measure, like laying siege to the National Gallery or attacking respectable people in an hotel dining-room with battle-axe and mail. It was in its entirety so large, so complex, so delicately immense, that to bring it to the issue of warfare was like driving a crowbar into the mechanism120 of a clock. And the fish-like shoal of great airships hovering121 light and sunlit above, filling the sky, seemed equally remote from the ugly forcefulness of war. To Kurt, to Smallways, to I know not how many more of the people in the air-fleet came the distinctest apprehension123 of these incompatibilities. But in the head of the Prince Karl Albert were the vapours of romance: he was a conqueror124, and this was the enemy's city. The greater the city, the greater the triumph. No doubt he had a time of tremendous exultation125 and sensed beyond all precedent the sense of power that night.
There came an end at last to that pause. Some wireless126 communications had failed of a satisfactory ending, and fleet and city remembered they were hostile powers. "Look!" cried the multitude; "look!"
"What are they doing?"
"What?"... Down through the twilight9 sank five attacking airships, one to the Navy Yard on East River, one to City Hall, two over the great business buildings of Wall Street and Lower Broadway, one to the Brooklyn Bridge, dropping from among their fellows through the danger zone from the distant guns smoothly127 and rapidly to a safe proximity128 to the city masses. At that descent all the cars in the streets stopped with dramatic suddenness, and all the lights that had been coming on in the streets and houses went out again. For the City Hall had awakened129 and was conferring by telephone with the Federal command and taking measures for defence. The City Hall was asking for airships, refusing to surrender as Washington advised, and developing into a centre of intense emotion, of hectic130 activity. Everywhere and hastily the police began to clear the assembled crowds. "Go to your homes," they said; and the word was passed from mouth to mouth, "There's going to be trouble." A chill of apprehension ran through the city, and men hurrying in the unwonted darkness across City Hall Park and Union Square came upon the dim forms of soldiers and guns, and were challenged and sent back. In half an hour New York had passed from serene102 sunset and gaping131 admiration132 to a troubled and threatening twilight.
The first loss of life occurred in the panic rush from Brooklyn Bridge as the airship approached it. With the cessation of the traffic an unusual stillness came upon New York, and the disturbing concussions of the futile133 defending guns on the hills about grew more and more audible. At last these ceased also. A pause of further negotiation134 followed. People sat in darkness, sought counsel from telephones that were dumb. Then into the expectant hush135 came a great crash and uproar136, the breaking down of the Brooklyn Bridge, the rifle fire from the Navy Yard, and the bursting of bombs in Wall Street and the City Hall. New York as a whole could do nothing, could understand nothing. New York in the darkness peered and listened to these distant sounds until presently they died away as suddenly as they had begun. "What could be happening?" They asked it in vain.
A long, vague period intervened, and people looking out of the windows of upper rooms discovered the dark hulls137 of German airships, gliding138 slowly and noiselessly, quite close at hand. Then quietly the electric lights came on again, and an uproar of nocturnal newsvendors began in the streets.
The units of that vast and varied139 population bought and learnt what had happened; there had been a fight and New York had hoisted140 the white flag.
4
The lamentable142 incidents that followed the surrender of New York seem now in the retrospect143 to be but the necessary and inevitable144 consequence of the clash of modern appliances and social conditions produced by the scientific century on the one hand, and the tradition of a crude, romantic patriotism on the other. At first people received the fact with an irresponsible detachment, much as they would have received the slowing down of the train in which they were travelling or the erection of a public monument by the city to which they belonged.
"We have surrendered. Dear me! HAVE we?" was rather the manner in which the first news was met. They took it in the same spectacular spirit they had displayed at the first apparition145 of the air-fleet. Only slowly was this realisation of a capitulation suffused146 with the flush of passion, only with reflection did they make any personal application. "WE have surrendered!" came later; "in us America is defeated." Then they began to burn and tingle147.
The newspapers, which were issued about one in the morning contained no particulars of the terms upon which New York had yielded--nor did they give any intimation of the quality of the brief conflict that had preceded the capitulation. The later issues remedied these deficiencies. There came the explicit148 statement of the agreement to victual the German airships, to supply the complement149 of explosives to replace those employed in the fight and in the destruction of the North Atlantic fleet, to pay the enormous ransom150 of forty million dollars, and to surrender the in the East River. There came, too, longer and longer descriptions of the smashing up of the City Hall and the Navy Yard, and people began to realise faintly what those brief minutes of uproar had meant. They read the tale of men blown to bits, of futile soldiers in that localised battle fightingagainst hope amidst an indescribable wreckage151, of flags hauled down by weeping men. And these strange nocturnal editions contained also the first brief cables from Europe of the fleet disaster, the North Atlantic fleet for which New York had always felt an especial pride and solicitude152. Slowly, hour by hour, the collective consciousness woke up, the tide of patriotic astonishment153 and humiliation154 came floating in. America had come upon disaster; suddenly New York discovered herself with amazement155 giving place to wrath156 unspeakable, a conquered city under the hand of her conqueror.
As that fact shaped itself in the public mind, there sprang up, as flames spring up, an angry repudiation157. "No!" cried New York, waking in the dawn. "No! I am not defeated. This is a dream." Before day broke the swift American anger was running through all the city, through every soul in those contagious158 millions. Before it took action, before it took shape, the men in the airships could feel the gigantic insurgence159 of emotion, as cattle and natural creatures feel, it is said, the coming of an earthquake. The newspapers of the Knype group first gave the thing words and a formula. "We do not agree," they said simply. "We have been betrayed!" Men took that up everywhere, it passed from mouth to mouth, at every street corner under the paling lights of dawn orators160 stood unchecked, calling upon the spirit of America to arise, making the shame a personal reality to every one who heard. To Bert, listening five hundred feet above, it seemed that the city, which had at first produced only confused noises, was now humming like a hive of bees--of very angry bees.
After the smashing of the City Hall and Post-Office, the white flag had been hoisted from a tower of the old Park Row building, and thither161 had gone Mayor O'Hagen, urged thither indeed by the terror-stricken property owners of lower New York, to negotiate the capitulation with Von Winterfeld. The Vaterland, having dropped the secretary by a rope ladder, remained hovering, circling very slowly above the great buildings, old and new, that clustered round City Hall Park, while the Helmholz, which had done the fighting there, rose overhead to a height of perhaps two thousand feet. So Bert had a near view of all that occurred in that central place. The City Hall and Court House, the Post-Office and a mass of buildings on the west side of Broadway, had been badly damaged, and the three former were a heap of blackened ruins. In the case of the first two the loss of life had not been considerable, but a great multitude of workers, including many girls and women, had been caught in the destruction of the Post-Office, and a little army of volunteers with white badges entered behind the firemen, bringing out the often still living bodies, for the most part frightfully charred162, and carrying them into the big Monson building close at hand. Everywhere the busy firemen were directing their bright streams of water upon the smouldering masses: their hose lay about the square, and long cordons164 of police held back the gathering165 black masses of people, chiefly from the east side, from these central activities.
In violent and extraordinary contrast with this scene of destruction, close at hand were the huge newspaper establishments of Park Row. They were all alight and working; they had not been abandoned even while the actual bomb throwing was going on, and now staff and presses were vehemently166 active, getting out the story, the immense and dreadful story of the night, developing comment and, in most cases, spreading the idea of resistance under the very noses of the airships. For a long time Bert could not imagine what these callously167 active offices could be, then he detected the noise of the presses and emitted his "Gaw!"
Beyond these newspaper buildings again, and partially168 hidden by the arches of the old Elevated Railway of New York (long since converted into a mono-rail), there was another cordon163 of police and a sort of encampment of ambulances and doctors, busy with the dead and wounded who had been killed early in the night by the panic upon Brooklyn Bridge. All this he saw in the perspectives of a bird's-eye view, as things happening in a big, irregular-shaped pit below him, between cliffs of high building. Northward he looked along the steep canon of Broadway, down whose length at intervals169 crowds were assembling about excited speakers; and when he lifted his eyes he saw the chimneys and cable-stacks and roof spaces of New York, and everywhere now over these the watching, debating people clustered, except where the fires raged and the jets of water flew. Everywhere, too, were flagstaffs devoid170 of flags; one white sheet drooped171 and flapped and drooped again over the Park Row buildings. And upon the lurid172 lights, the festering movement and intense shadows of this strange scene, there was breaking now the cold, impartial173 dawn.
For Bert Smallways all this was framed in the frame of the open porthole. It was a pale, dim world outside that dark and tangible174 rim15. All night he had clutched at that rim, jumped and quivered at explosions, and watched phantom175 events. Now he had been high and now low; now almost beyond hearing, now flying close to crashings and shouts and outcries. He had seen airships flying low and swift over darkened and groaning176 streets; watched great buildings, suddenly red-lit amidst the shadows, crumple177 at the smashing impact of bombs; witnessed for the first time in his life the grotesque178, swift onset of insatiable conflagrations179. From it all he felt detached, disembodied. The Vaterland did not even fling a bomb; she watched and ruled. Then down they had come at last to hover122 over City Hall Park, and it had crept in upon his mind, chillingly, terrifyingly, that these illuminated180 black masses were great offices afire, and that the going to and fro of minute, dim spectres of lantern-lit grey and white was a harvesting of the wounded and the dead. As the light grew clearer he began to understand more and more what these crumpled181 black things signified....
He had watched hour after hour since first New York had risen out of the blue indistinctness of the landfall. With the daylight he experienced an intolerable fatigue182.
He lifted weary eyes to the pink flush in the sky, yawned immensely, and crawled back whispering to himself across the cabin to the locker183. He did not so much lie down upon that as fall upon it and instantly become asleep.
There, hours after, sprawling184 undignified and sleeping profoundly, Kurt found him, a very image of the democratic mind confronted with the problems of a time too complex for its apprehension. His face was pale and indifferent, his mouth wide open, and he snored. He snored disagreeably.
Kurt regarded him for a moment with a mild distaste. Then he kicked his ankle.
"Wake up," he said to Smallways' stare, "and lie down decent."
Bert sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Any more fightin' yet?" he asked.
"No," said Kurt, and sat down, a tired man.
"Gott!" he cried presently, rubbing his hands over his face, "but I'd like a cold bath! I've been looking for stray bullet holes in the air-chambers all night until now." He yawned. "I must sleep. You'd better clear out, Smallways. I can't stand you here this morning. You're so infernally ugly and useless. Have you had your rations40? No! Well, go in and get 'em, and don't come back. Stick in the gallery...."
5
So Bert, slightly refreshed by coffee and sleep, resumed his helpless co-operation in the War in the Air. He went down into the little gallery as the lieutenant185 had directed, and clung to the rail at the extreme end beyond the look-out man, trying to seem as inconspicuous and harmless a fragment of life as possible.
A wind was rising rather strongly from the south-east. It obliged the Vaterland to come about in that direction, and made her roll a great deal as she went to and fro over Manhattan Island. Away in the north-west clouds gathered. The throb-throb of her slow screw working against the breeze was much more perceptible than when she was going full speed ahead; and the friction186 of the wind against the underside of the gas-chamber drove a series of shallow ripples187 along it and made a faint flapping sound like, but fainter than, the beating of ripples under the stem of a boat. She was stationed over the temporary City Hall in the Park Row building, and every now and then she would descend79 to resume communication with the mayor and with Washington. But the restlessness of the Prince would not suffer him to remain for long in any one place. Now he would circle over the Hudson and East River; now he would go up high, as if to peer away into the blue distances; once he ascended188 so swiftly and so far that mountain sickness overtook him and the crew and forced him down again; and Bert shared the dizziness and nausea189.
The swaying view varied with these changes of altitude. Now they would be low and close, and he would distinguish in that steep, unusual perspective, windows, doors, street and sky signs, people and the minutest details, and watch the enigmatical behaviour of crowds and clusters upon the roofs and in the streets; then as they soared the details would shrink, the sides of streets draw together, the view widen, the people cease to be significant. At the highest the effect was that of a concave relief map; Bert saw the dark and crowded land everywhere intersected by shining waters, saw the Hudson River like a spear of silver, and Lower Island Sound like a shield. Even to Bert's unphilosophical mind the contrast of city below and fleet above pointed190 an opposition191, the opposition of the adventurous American's tradition and character with German order and discipline. Below, the immense buildings, tremendous and fine as they were, seemed like the giant trees of a jungle fighting for life; their picturesque magnificence was as planless as the chances of crag and gorge26, their casualty enhanced by the smoke and confusion of still unsubdued and spreading conflagrations. In the sky soared the German airships like beings in a different, entirely more orderly world, all oriented to the same angle of the horizon, uniform in build and appearance, moving accurately193 with one purpose as a pack of wolves will move, distributed with the most precise and effectual co-operation.
It dawned upon Bert that hardly a third of the fleet was visible. The others had gone upon errands he could not imagine, beyond the compass of that great circle of earth and sky. He wondered, but there was no one to ask. As the day wore on, about a dozen reappeared in the east with their stores replenished194 from the flotilla and towing a number of drachenffieger. Towards afternoon the weather thickened, driving clouds appeared in the south-west and ran together and seemed to engender195 more clouds, and the wind came round into that quarter and blew stronger. Towards the evening the wind became a gale196 into which the now tossing airships had to beat.
All that day the Prince was negotiating with Washington, while his detached scouts197 sought far and wide over the Eastern States looking for anything resembling an aeronautic park. A squadron of twenty airships detached overnight had dropped out of the air upon Niagara and was holding the town and power works.
Meanwhile the insurrectionary movement in the giant city grew uncontrollable. In spite of five great fires already involving many acres, and spreading steadily198, New York was still not satisfied that she was beaten.
At first the rebellious199 spirit below found vent17 only in isolated200 shouts, street-crowd speeches, and newspaper suggestions; then it found much more definite expression in the appearance in the morning sunlight of American flags at point after point above the architectural cliffs of the city. It is quite possible that in many cases this spirited display of bunting by a city already surrendered was the outcome of the innocent informality of the American mind, but it is also undeniable that in many it was a deliberate indication that the people "felt wicked."
The German sense of correctitude was deeply shocked by this outbreak. The Graf von Winterfeld immediately communicated with the mayor, and pointed out the irregularity, and the fire look-out stations were instructed in the matter. The New York police was speedily hard at work, and a foolish contest in full swing between impassioned citizens resolved to keep the flag flying, and irritated and worried officers instructed to pull it down.
The trouble became acute at last in the streets above Columbia University. The captain of the airship watching this quarter seems to have stooped to lasso and drag from its staff a flag hoisted upon Morgan Hall. As he did so a volley of rifle and revolver shots was fired from the upper windows of the huge apartment building that stands between the University and Riverside Drive.
Most of these were ineffectual, but two or three perforated gas-chambers, and one smashed the hand and arm of a man upon the forward platform; The sentinel on the lower gallery immediately replied, and the machine gun on the shield of the eagle let fly and promptly201 stopped any further shots. The airship rose and signalled the flagship and City Hall, police and militiamen were directed at once to the spot, and this particular incident closed.
But hard upon that came the desperate attempt of a party of young clubmen from New York, who, inspired by patriotic and adventurous imaginations, slipped off in half a dozen motor-cars to Beacon Hill, and set to work with remarkable202 vigour to improvise203 a fort about the Doan swivel gun that had been placed there. They found it still in the hands of the disgusted gunners, who had been ordered to cease fire at the capitulation, and it was easy to infect these men with their own spirit. They declared their gun hadn't had half a chance, and were burning to show what it could do. Directed by the newcomers, they made a trench204 and bank about the mounting of the piece, and constructed flimsy shelter-pits of corrugated205 iron.
They were actually loading the gun when they were observed by the airship Preussen and the shell they succeeded in firing before the bombs of the latter smashed them and their crude defences to fragments, burst over the middle gas-chambers of the Bingen, and brought her to earth, disabled, upon Staten Island. She was badly deflated206, and dropped among trees, over which her empty central gas-bags spread in canopies207 and festoons. Nothing, however, had caught fire, and her men were speedily at work upon her repair. They behaved with a confidence that verged208 upon indiscretion. While most of them commenced patching the tears of the membrane209, half a dozen of them started off for the nearest road in search of a gas main, and presently found themselves prisoners in the hands of a hostile crowd. Close at hand was a number of villa210 residences, whose occupants speedily developed from an unfriendly curiosity to aggression211. At that time the police control of the large polyglot population of Staten Island had become very lax, and scarcely a household but had its rifle or pistols and ammunition212. These were presently produced, and after two or three misses, one of the men at work was hit in the foot. Thereupon the Germans left their sewing and mending, took cover among the trees, and replied.
The crackling of shots speedily brought the Preussen and Kiel on the scene, and with a few hand grenades they made short work of every villa within a mile. A number of non-combatant American men, women, and children were killed and the actual assailants driven off. For a time the repairs went on in peace under the immediate protection of these two airships. Then when they returned to their quarters, an intermittent213 sniping and fighting round the stranded214 Bingen was resumed, and went on all the afternoon, and merged215 at last in the general combat of the evening....
About eight the Bingen was rushed by an armed mob, and all its defenders216 killed after a fierce, disorderly struggle.
The difficulty of the Germans in both these cases came from the impossibility of landing any efficient force or, indeed, any force at all from the air-fleet. The airships were quite unequal to the transport of any adequate landing parties; their complement of men was just sufficient to manoeuvre217 and fight them in the air. From above they could inflict218 immense damage; they could reduce any organised Government to a capitulation in the briefest space, but they could not disarm219, much less could they occupy, the surrendered areas below. They had to trust to the pressure upon the authorities below of a threat to renew the bombardment. It was their sole resource. No doubt, with a highly organised and undamaged Government and a homogeneous and well-disciplined people that would have sufficed to keep the peace. But this was not the American case. Not only was the New York Government a weak one and insufficiently220 provided with police, but the destruction of the City Hall--and Post-Offide and other central ganglia had hopelessly disorganised the co-operation of part with part. The street cars and railways had ceased; the telephone service was out of gear and only worked intermittently221. The Germans had struck at the head, and the head was conquered and stunned--only to release the body from its rule. New York had become a headless monster, no longer capable of collective submission. Everywhere it lifted itself rebelliously222; everywhere authorities and officials left to their own imitative were joining in the arming and flag-hoisting and excitement of that afternoon.
6
The disintegrating223 truce224 gave place to a definite general breach225 with the assassination226 of the Wetterhorn--for that is the only possible word for the act--above Union Square, and not a mile away from the exemplary ruins of City Hall. This occurred late in the afternoon, between five and six. By that time the weather had changed very much for the worse, and the operations of the airships were embarrassed by the necessity they were under of keeping head on to the gusts227. A series of squalls, with hail and thunder, followed one another from the south by south-east, and in order to avoid these as much as possible, the air-fleet came low over the houses, diminishing its range of observation and exposing itself to a rifle attack.
Overnight there had been a gun placed in Union Square. It had never been mounted, much less fired, and in the darkness after the surrender it was taken with its supplies and put out of the way under the arches of the great Dexter building. Here late in the morning it was remarked by a number of patriotic spirits. They set to work to hoist141 and mount it inside the upper floors of the place. They made, in fact, a masked battery behind the decorous office blinds, and there lay in wait as simply excited as children until at last the stem of the luckless Wetterhorn appeared, beating and rolling at quarter speed over the recently reconstructed pinnacles228 of Tiffany's. Promptly that one-gun battery unmasked. The airship's look-out man must have seen the whole of the tenth story of the Dexter building crumble229 out and smash in the street below to discover the black muzzle230 looking out from the shadows behind. Then perhaps the shell hit him.
The gun fired two shells before the frame of the Dexter building collapsed232, and each shell raked the Wetterhorn from stem to stern. They smashed her exhaustively. She crumpled up like a can that has been kicked by a heavy boot, her forepart came down in the square, and the rest of her length, with a great snapping and twisting of shafts233 and stays, descended234, collapsing235 athwart Tammany Hall and the streets towards Second Avenue. Her gas escaped to mix with air, and the air of her rent balloonette poured into her deflating gas-chambers. Then with an immense impact she exploded....
The Vaterland at that time was beating up to the south of City Hall from over the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the reports of the gun, followed by the first crashes of the collapsing Dexter building, brought Kurt and, Smallways to the cabin porthole. They were in time to see the flash of the exploding gun, and then they were first flattened against the window and then rolled head over heels across the floor of the cabin by the air wave of the explosion. The Vaterland bounded like a football some one has kicked and when they looked out again, Union Square was small and remote and shattered, as though some cosmically vast giant had rolled over it. The buildings to the east of it were ablaze at a dozen points, under the flaming tatters and warping236 skeleton of the airship, and all the roofs and walls were ridiculously askew237 and crumbling238 as one looked. "Gaw!" said Bert. "What's happened? Look at the people!"
But before Kurt could produce an explanation, the shrill240 bells of the airship were ringing to quarters, and he had to go. Bert hesitated and stepped thoughtfully into the passage, looking back at the window as he did so. He was knocked off his feet at once by the Prince, who was rushing headlong from his cabin to the central magazine.
Bert had a momentary241 impression of the great figure of the Prince, white with rage, bristling242 with gigantic anger, his huge fist swinging. "Blut und Eisen!" cried the Prince, as one who swears. "Oh! Blut und Eisen!"
Some one fell over Bert--something in the manner of falling suggested Von Winterfeld--and some one else paused and kicked him spitefully and hard. Then he was sitting up in the passage, rubbing a freshly bruised243 cheek and readjusting the bandage he still wore on his head. "Dem that Prince," said Bert, indignant beyond measure. "'E 'asn't the menners of a 'og!"
He stood up, collected his wits for a minute, and then went slowly towards the gangway of the little gallery. As he did so he heard noises suggestive of the return of the Prince. The lot of them were coming back again. He shot into his cabin like a rabbit into its burrow244, just in time to escape that shouting terror.
He shut the door, waited until the passage was still, then went across to the window and looked out. A drift of cloud made the prospect245 of the streets and squares hazy246, and the rolling of the airship swung the picture up and down. A few people were running to and fro, but for the most part the aspect of the district was desertion. The streets seemed to broaden out, they became clearer, and the little dots that were people larger as the Vaterland came down again. Presently she was swaying along above the lower end of Broadway. The dots below, Bert saw, were not running now, but standing247 and looking up. Then suddenly they were all running again.
Something had dropped from the aeroplane, something that looked small and flimsy. It hit the pavement near a big archway just underneath248 Bert. A little man was sprinting249 along the sidewalk within half a dozen yards, and two or three others and one woman were bolting across the roadway. They were odd little figures, so very small were they about the heads, so very active about the elbows and legs. It was really funny to see their legs going. Foreshortened, humanity has no dignity. The little man on the pavement jumped comically--no doubt with terror, as the bomb fell beside him.
Then blinding flames squirted out in all directions from the point of impact, and the little man who had jumped became, for an instant, a flash of fire and vanished--vanished absolutely. The people running out into the road took preposterous250 clumsy leaps, then flopped251 down and lay still, with their torn clothes smouldering into flame. Then pieces of the archway began to drop, and the lower masonry252 of the building to fall in with the rumbling239 sound of coals being shot into a cellar. A faint screaming reached Bert, and then a crowd of people ran out into the street, one man limping and gesticulating awkwardly. He halted, and went back towards the building. A falling mass of brick-work hit him and sent him sprawling to lie still and crumpled where he fell. Dust and black smoke came pouring into the street, and were presently shot with red flame....
In this manner the massacre253 of New York began. She was the first of the great cities of the Scientific Age to suffer by the enormous powers and grotesque limitations of aerial warfare. She was wrecked254 as in the previous century endless barbaric cities had been bombarded, because she was at once too strong to be occupied and too undisciplined and proud to surrender in order to escape destruction. Given the circumstances, the thing had to be done. It was impossible for the Prince to desist, and own himself defeated, and it was impossible to subdue192 the city except by largely destroying it. The catastrophe255 was the logical outcome of the situation, created by the application of science to warfare. It was unavoidable that great cities should be destroyed. In spite of his intense exasperation256 with his dilemma257, the Prince sought to be moderate even in massacre. He tried to give a memorable258 lesson with the minimum waste of life and the minimum expenditure259 of explosives. For that night he proposed only the wrecking260 of Broadway. He directed the air-fleet to move in column over the route of this thoroughfare, dropping bombs, the Vaterland leading. And so our Bert Smallways became a participant in one of the most cold-blooded slaughters261 in the world's history, in which men who were neither excited nor, except for the remotest chance of a bullet, in any danger, poured death and destruction upon homes and crowds below.
He clung to the frame of the porthole as the airship tossed and swayed, and stared down through the light rain that now drove before the wind, into the twilight streets, watching people running out of the houses, watching buildings collapse231 and fires begin. As the airships sailed along they smashed up the city as a child will shatter its cities of brick and card. Below, they left ruins and blazing conflagrations and heaped and scattered262 dead; men, women, and children mixed together as though they had been no more than Moors263, or Zulus, or Chinese. Lower New York was soon a furnace of crimson264 flames, from which there was no escape. Cars, railways, ferries, all had ceased, and never a light lit the way of the distracted fugitives265 in that dusky confusion but the light of burning. He had glimpses of what it must mean to be down there--glimpses. And it came to him suddenly as an incredible discovery, that such disasters were not only possible now in this strange, gigantic, foreign New York, but also in London--in Bun Hill! that the little island in the silver seas was at the end of its immunity266, that nowhere in the world any more was there a place left where a Smallways might lift his head proudly and vote for war and a spirited foreign policy, and go secure from such horrible things.
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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ousted
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| 驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺 | |
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apocalyptic
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| adj.预示灾祸的，启示的 | |
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Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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polyglot
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| adj.通晓数种语言的；n.通晓多种语言的人 | |
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congestion
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| n.阻塞，消化不良 | |
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excavations
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| n.挖掘( excavation的名词复数 )；开凿；开凿的洞穴（或山路等）；（发掘出来的）古迹 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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plutocracy
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| n.富豪统治 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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maritime
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| adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的 | |
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ascendancy
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| n.统治权，支配力量 | |
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precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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ethnic
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| adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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iridescent
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| adj.彩虹色的，闪色的 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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intensify
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| vt.加强；变强；加剧 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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coruscation
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| n.闪光，焕发 | |
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epidemic
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| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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precedents
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| 引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例 | |
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demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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aeronautic
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| adj.航空（学）的 | |
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posturing
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| 做出某种姿势( posture的现在分词 ) | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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83
inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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84
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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85
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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86
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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87
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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88
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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89
conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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90
crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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91
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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92
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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93
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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94
vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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95
beacon
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|
| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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96
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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97
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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98
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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99
apex
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| n.顶点，最高点 | |
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100
jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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101
serenely
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|
| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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102
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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103
mutual
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|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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104
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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105
naive
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|
| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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106
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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107
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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108
concussions
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|
| n.震荡( concussion的名词复数 )；脑震荡；冲击；震动 | |
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109
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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110
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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111
salute
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|
| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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112
bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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113
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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114
intersection
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| n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集 | |
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115
piers
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|
| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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116
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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117
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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118
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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119
agglomerations
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| n.成团，结块（agglomeration的复数形式） | |
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120
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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121
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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122
hover
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| vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫 | |
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123
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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124
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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125
exultation
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|
| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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126
wireless
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|
| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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127
smoothly
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|
| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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128
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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129
awakened
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|
| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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130
hectic
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| adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的 | |
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131
gaping
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|
| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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132
admiration
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|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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133
futile
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|
| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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134
negotiation
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|
| n.谈判，协商 | |
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135
hush
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|
| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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136
uproar
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|
| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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137
hulls
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| 船体( hull的名词复数 )； 船身； 外壳； 豆荚 | |
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138
gliding
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|
| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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139
varied
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|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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140
hoisted
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|
| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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141
hoist
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|
| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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142
lamentable
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|
| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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143
retrospect
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|
| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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144
inevitable
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|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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145
apparition
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|
| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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146
suffused
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|
| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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147
tingle
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|
| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
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148
explicit
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|
| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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149
complement
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| n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足 | |
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150
ransom
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|
| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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151
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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152
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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153
astonishment
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|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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154
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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155
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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156
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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157
repudiation
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| n.拒绝；否认；断绝关系；抛弃 | |
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158
contagious
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|
| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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159
insurgence
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|
| n.起义；造反；暴动；叛乱 | |
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160
orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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161
thither
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|
| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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162
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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163
cordon
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| n.警戒线，哨兵线 | |
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164
cordons
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| n.警戒线，警戒圈( cordon的名词复数 ) | |
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165
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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166
vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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167
callously
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168
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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169
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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170
devoid
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|
| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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171
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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172
lurid
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|
| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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173
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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174
tangible
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|
| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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175
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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176
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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177
crumple
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| v.把...弄皱，满是皱痕，压碎，崩溃 | |
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178
grotesque
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|
| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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179
conflagrations
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|
| n.大火（灾）( conflagration的名词复数 ) | |
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180
illuminated
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|
| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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181
crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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182
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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183
locker
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| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
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184
sprawling
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|
| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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185
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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186
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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187
ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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188
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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189
nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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190
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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191
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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192
subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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193
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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194
replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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195
engender
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| v.产生，引起 | |
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196
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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197
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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198
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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199
rebellious
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|
| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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200
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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201
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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202
remarkable
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|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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203
improvise
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| v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成 | |
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204
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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205
corrugated
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|
| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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206
deflated
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| adj. 灰心丧气的 | |
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207
canopies
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| （宝座或床等上面的）华盖( canopy的名词复数 )； （飞行器上的）座舱罩； 任何悬于上空的覆盖物； 森林中天棚似的树荫 | |
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208
verged
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| 接近，逼近（verge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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209
membrane
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| n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸 | |
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210
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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211
aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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212
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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213
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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manoeuvre
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| n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动 | |
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inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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disarm
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| v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和 | |
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insufficiently
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| adv.不够地，不能胜任地 | |
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intermittently
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| adv.间歇地；断断续续 | |
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rebelliously
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| adv.造反地，难以控制地 | |
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disintegrating
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| v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的现在分词 ) | |
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truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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crumble
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| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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collapsing
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| 压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂 | |
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warping
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| n.翘面，扭曲，变形v.弄弯，变歪( warp的现在分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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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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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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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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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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sprinting
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| v.短距离疾跑( sprint的现在分词 ) | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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flopped
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| v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅 | |
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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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wrecking
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| 破坏 | |
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slaughters
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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