On turning to descend1 Massy perceived the head of Sterne the mate loitering, with his sly confident smile, his red mustaches and blinking eyes, at the foot of the ladder.
Sterne had been a junior in one of the larger shipping2 concerns before joining the Sofala. He had thrown up his berth3, he said, “on general principles.” The promotion4 in the employ was very slow, he complained, and he thought it was time for him to try and get on a bit in the world. It seemed as though nobody would ever die or leave the firm; they all stuck fast in their berths5 till they got mildewed6; he was tired of waiting; and he feared that when a vacancy7 did occur the best servants were by no means sure of being treated fairly. Besides, the captain he had to serve under — Captain Provost — was an unaccountable sort of man, and, he fancied, had taken a dislike to him for some reason or other. For doing rather more than his bare duty as likely as not. When he had done anything wrong he could take a talking to, like a man; but he expected to be treated like a man too, and not to be addressed invariably as though he were a dog. He had asked Captain Provost plump and plain to tell him where he was at fault, and Captain Provost, in a most scornful way, had told him that he was a perfect officer, and that if he disliked the way he was being spoken to there was the gangway — he could take himself off ashore8 at once. But everybody knew what sort of man Captain Provost was. It was no use appealing to the office. Captain Provost had too much influence in the employ. All the same, they had to give him a good character. He made bold to say there was nothing in the world against him, and, as he had happened to hear that the mate of the Sofala had been taken to the hospital that morning with a sunstroke, he thought there would be no harm in seeing whether he would not do . . . .
He had come to Captain Whalley freshly shaved, red-faced, thin-flanked, throwing out his lean chest; and had recited his little tale with an open and manly9 assurance. Now and then his eyelids10 quivered slightly, his hand would steal up to the end of the flaming mustache; his eyebrows11 were straight, furry12, of a chestnut13 color, and the directness of his frank gaze seemed to tremble on the verge14 of impudence15. Captain Whalley had engaged him temporarily; then, the other man having been ordered home by the doctors, he had remained for the next trip, and then the next. He had now attained16 permanency, and the performance of his duties was marked by an air of serious, single-minded application. Directly he was spoken to, he began to smile attentively17, with a great deference18 expressed in his whole attitude; but there was in the rapid winking19 which went on all the time something quizzical, as though he had possessed20 the secret of some universal joke cheating all creation and impenetrable to other mortals.
Grave and smiling he watched Massy come down step by step; when the chief engineer had reached the deck he swung about, and they found themselves face to face. Matched as to height and utterly21 dissimilar, they confronted each other as if there had been something between them — something else than the bright strip of sunlight that, falling through the wide lacing of two awnings22, cut crosswise the narrow planking of the deck and separated their feet as it were a stream; something profound and subtle and incalculable, like an unexpressed understanding, a secret mistrust, or some sort of fear.
At last Sterne, blinking his deep-set eyes and sticking forward his scraped, clean-cut chin, as crimson23 as the rest of his face, murmured —
“You’ve seen? He grazed! You’ve seen?”
Massy, contemptuous, and without raising his yellow, fleshy countenance24, replied in the same pitch —
“Maybe. But if it had been you we would have been stuck fast in the mud.”
“Pardon me, Mr. Massy. I beg to deny it. Of course a shipowner may say what he jolly well pleases on his own deck. That’s all right; but I beg to. . .”
“Get out of my way!”
The other had a slight start, the impulse of suppressed indignation perhaps, but held his ground. Massy’s downward glance wandered right and left, as though the deck all round Sterne had been bestrewn with eggs that must not be broken, and he had looked irritably25 for places where he could set his feet in flight. In the end he too did not move, though there was plenty of room to pass on.
“I heard you say up there,” went on the mate —“and a very just remark it was too — that there’s always something wrong . . . .”
“Eavesdropping is what’s wrong with YOU, Mr. Sterne.”
“Now, if you would only listen to me for a moment, Mr. Massy, sir, I could. . .”
“You are a sneak,” interrupted Massy in a great hurry, and even managed to get so far as to repeat, “a common sneak,” before the mate had broken in argumentatively —
“Now, sir, what is it you want? You want. . .”
“I want — I want,” stammered26 Massy, infuriated and astonished —“I want. How do you know that I want anything? How dare you? . . . What do you mean? . . . What are you after — you. . .”
“Promotion.” Sterne silenced him with a sort of candid27 bravado28. The engineer’s round soft cheeks quivered still, but he said quietly enough —
“You are only worrying my head off,” and Sterne met him with a confident little smile.
“A chap in business I know (well up in the world he is now) used to tell me that this was the proper way. ‘Always push on to the front,’ he would say. ‘Keep yourself well before your boss. Interfere29 whenever you get a chance. Show him what you know. Worry him into seeing you.’ That was his advice. Now I know no other boss than you here. You are the owner, and no one else counts for THAT much in my eyes. See, Mr. Massy? I want to get on. I make no secret of it that I am one of the sort that means to get on. These are the men to make use of, sir. You haven’t arrived at the top of the tree, sir, without finding that out — I dare say.”
“Worry your boss in order to get on,” mumbled30 Massy, as if awestruck by the irreverent originality31 of the idea. “I shouldn’t wonder if this was just what the Blue Anchor people kicked you out of the employ for. Is that what you call getting on? You shall get on in the same way here if you aren’t careful — I can promise you.”
At this Sterne hung his head, thoughtful, perplexed32, winking hard at the deck. All his attempts to enter into confidential33 relations with his owner had led of late to nothing better than these dark threats of dismissal; and a threat of dismissal would check him at once into a hesitating silence as though he were not sure that the proper time for defying it had come. On this occasion he seemed to have lost his tongue for a moment, and Massy, getting in motion, heavily passed him by with an abortive34 attempt at shouldering. Sterne defeated it by stepping aside. He turned then swiftly, opening his mouth very wide as if to shout something after the engineer, but seemed to think better of it.
Always — as he was ready to confess — on the lookout35 for an opening to get on, it had become an instinct with him to watch the conduct of his immediate36 superiors for something “that one could lay hold of.” It was his belief that no skipper in the world would keep his command for a day if only the owners could be “made to know.” This romantic and naive37 theory had led him into trouble more than once, but he remained incorrigible38; and his character was so instinctively39 disloyal that whenever he joined a ship the intention of ousting41 his commander out of the berth and taking his place was always present at the back of his head, as a matter of course. It filled the leisure of his waking hours with the reveries of careful plans and compromising discoveries — the dreams of his sleep with images of lucky turns and favorable accidents. Skippers had been known to sicken and die at sea, than which nothing could be better to give a smart mate a chance of showing what he’s made of. They also would tumble overboard sometimes: he had heard of one or two such cases. Others again . . . But, as it were constitutionally, he was faithful to the belief that the conduct of no single one of them would stand the test of careful watching by a man who “knew what’s what” and who kept his eyes “skinned pretty well” all the time.
After he had gained a permanent footing on board the Sofala he allowed his perennial43 hope to rise high. To begin with, it was a great advantage to have an old man for captain: the sort of man besides who in the nature of things was likely to give up the job before long from one cause or another. Sterne was greatly chagrined44, however, to notice that he did not seem anyway near being past his work yet. Still, these old men go to pieces all at once sometimes. Then there was the owner-engineer close at hand to be impressed by his zeal45 and steadiness. Sterne never for a moment doubted the obvious nature of his own merits (he was really an excellent officer); only, nowadays, professional merit alone does not take a man along fast enough. A chap must have some push in him, and must keep his wits at work too to help him forward. He made up his mind to inherit the charge of this steamer if it was to be done at all; not indeed estimating the command of the Sofala as a very great catch, but for the reason that, out East especially, to make a start is everything, and one command leads to another.
He began by promising42 himself to behave with great circumspection46; Massy’s somber47 and fantastic humors intimidated48 him as being outside one’s usual sea experience; but he was quite intelligent enough to realize almost from the first that he was there in the presence of an exceptional situation. His peculiar49 prying50 imagination penetrated51 it quickly; the feeling that there was in it an element which eluded52 his grasp exasperated53 his impatience54 to get on. And so one trip came to an end, then another, and he had begun his third before he saw an opening by which he could step in with any sort of effect. It had all been very queer and very obscure; something had been going on near him, as if separated by a chasm55 from the common life and the working routine of the ship, which was exactly like the life and the routine of any other coasting steamer of that class.
Then one day he made his discovery.
It came to him after all these weeks of watchful56 observation and puzzled surmises57, suddenly, like the long-sought solution of a riddle58 that suggests itself to the mind in a flash. Not with the same authority, however. Great heavens! Could it be that? And after remaining thunderstruck for a few seconds he tried to shake it off with self-contumely, as though it had been the product of an unhealthy bias59 towards the Incredible, the Inexplicable60, the Unheard-of — the Mad!
This — the illuminating61 moment — had occurred the trip before, on the return passage. They had just left a place of call on the mainland called Pangu; they were steaming straight out of a bay. To the east a massive headland closed the view, with the tilted62 edges of the rocky strata63 showing through its ragged64 clothing of rank bushes and thorny65 creepers. The wind had begun to sing in the rigging; the sea along the coast, green and as if swollen66 a little above the line of the horizon, seemed to pour itself over, time after time, with a slow and thundering fall, into the shadow of the leeward67 cape68; and across the wide opening the nearest of a group of small islands stood enveloped70 in the hazy71 yellow light of a breezy sunrise; still farther out the hummocky72 tops of other islets peeped out motionless above the water of the channels between, scoured73 tumultuously by the breeze.
The usual track of the Sofala both going and returning on every trip led her for a few miles along this reef-infested region. She followed a broad lane of water, dropping astern, one after another, these crumbs74 of the earth’s crust resembling a squadron of dismasted hulks run in disorder75 upon a foul76 ground of rocks and shoals. Some of these fragments of land appeared, indeed, no bigger than a stranded77 ship; others, quite flat, lay awash like anchored rafts, like ponderous78, black rafts of stone; several, heavily timbered and round at the base, emerged in squat79 domes80 of deep green foliage81 that shuddered82 darkly all over to the flying touch of cloud shadows driven by the sudden gusts83 of the squally season. The thunderstorms of the coast broke frequently over that cluster; it turned then shadowy in its whole extent; it turned more dark, and as if more still in the play of fire; as if more impenetrably silent in the peals84 of thunder; its blurred85 shapes vanished — dissolving utterly at times in the thick rain — to reappear clear-cut and black in the stormy light against the gray sheet of the cloud — scattered86 on the slaty87 round table of the sea. Unscathed by storms, resisting the work of years, unfretted by the strife88 of the world, there it lay unchanged as on that day, four hundred years ago, when first beheld89 by Western eyes from the deck of a high-pooped caravel.
It was one of these secluded90 spots that may be found on the busy sea, as on land you come sometimes upon the clustered houses of a hamlet untouched by men’s restlessness, untouched by their need, by their thought, and as if forgotten by time itself. The lives of uncounted generations had passed it by, and the multitudes of sea-fowl, urging their way from all the points of the horizon to sleep on the outer rocks of the group, unrolled the converging91 evolutions of their flight in long somber streamers upon the glow of the sky. The palpitating cloud of their wings soared and stooped over the pinnacles92 of the rocks, over the rocks slender like spires93, squat like martello towers; over the pyramidal heaps like fallen ruins, over the lines of bald bowlders showing like a wall of stones battered94 to pieces and scorched95 by lightning — with the sleepy, clear glimmer96 of water in every breach97. The noise of their continuous and violent screaming filled the air.
This great noise would meet the Sofala coming up from Batu Beru; it would meet her on quiet evenings, a pitiless and savage98 clamor enfeebled by distance, the clamor of seabirds settling to rest, and struggling for a footing at the end of the day. No one noticed it especially on board; it was the voice of their ship’s unerring landfall, ending the steady stretch of a hundred miles. She had made good her course, she had run her distance till the punctual islets began to emerge one by one, the points of rocks, the hummocks99 of earth . . . and the cloud of birds hovered100 — the restless cloud emitting a strident and cruel uproar101, the sound of the familiar scene, the living part of the broken land beneath, of the outspread sea, and of the high sky without a flaw.
But when the Sofala happened to close with the land after sunset she would find everything very still there under the mantle102 of the night. All would be still, dumb, almost invisible — but for the blotting103 out of the low constellations104 occulted in turns behind the vague masses of the islets whose true outlines eluded the eye amongst the dark spaces of the heaven: and the ship’s three lights, resembling three stars — the red and the green with the white above — her three lights, like three companion stars wandering on the earth, held their unswerving course for the passage at the southern end of the group. Sometimes there were human eyes open to watch them come nearer, traveling smoothly105 in the somber void; the eyes of a naked fisherman in his canoe floating over a reef. He thought drowsily106: “Ha! The fire-ship that once in every moon goes in and comes out of Pangu bay.” More he did not know of her. And just as he had detected the faint rhythm of the propeller107 beating the calm water a mile and a half away, the time would come for the Sofala to alter her course, the lights would swing off him their triple beam — and disappear.
A few miserable108, half-naked families, a sort of outcast tribe of long-haired, lean, and wild-eyed people, strove for their living in this lonely wilderness109 of islets, lying like an abandoned outwork of the land at the gates of the bay. Within the knots and loops of the rocks the water rested more transparent110 than crystal under their crooked111 and leaky canoes, scooped112 out of the trunk of a tree: the forms of the bottom undulated slightly to the dip of a paddle; and the men seemed to hang in the air, they seemed to hang inclosed within the fibers113 of a dark, sodden114 log, fishing patiently in a strange, unsteady, pellucid115, green air above the shoals.
Their bodies stalked brown and emaciated116 as if dried up in the sunshine; their lives ran out silently; the homes where they were born, went to rest, and died — flimsy sheds of rushes and coarse grass eked117 out with a few ragged mats — were hidden out of sight from the open sea. No glow of their household fires ever kindled118 for a seaman119 a red spark upon the blind night of the group: and the calms of the coast, the flaming long calms of the equator, the unbreathing, concentrated calms like the deep introspection of a passionate120 nature, brooded awfully121 for days and weeks together over the unchangeable inheritance of their children; till at last the stones, hot like live embers, scorched the naked sole, till the water clung warm, and sickly, and as if thickened, about the legs of lean men with girded loins, wading122 thigh-deep in the pale blaze of the shallows. And it would happen now and then that the Sofala, through some delay in one of the ports of call, would heave in sight making for Pangu bay as late as noonday.
Only a blurring123 cloud at first, the thin mist of her smoke would arise mysteriously from an empty point on the clear line of sea and sky. The taciturn fishermen within the reefs would extend their lean arms towards the offing; and the brown figures stooping on the tiny beaches, the brown figures of men, women, and children grubbing in the sand in search of turtles’ eggs, would rise up, crooked elbow aloft and hand over the eyes, to watch this monthly apparition124 glide125 straight on, swerve126 off — and go by. Their ears caught the panting of that ship; their eyes followed her till she passed between the two capes127 of the mainland going at full speed as though she hoped to make her way unchecked into the very bosom128 of the earth.
On such days the luminous129 sea would give no sign of the dangers lurking130 on both sides of her path. Everything remained still, crushed by the overwhelming power of the light; and the whole group, opaque131 in the sunshine,— the rocks resembling pinnacles, the rocks resembling spires, the rocks resembling ruins; the forms of islets resembling beehives, resembling mole-hills, the islets recalling the shapes of haystacks, the contours of ivy-clad towers,— would stand reflected together upside down in the unwrinkled water, like carved toys of ebony disposed on the silvered plate-glass of a mirror.
The first touch of blowing weather would envelop69 the whole at once in the spume of the windward breakers, as if in a sudden cloudlike burst of steam; and the clear water seemed fairly to boil in all the passages. The provoked sea outlined exactly in a design of angry foam132 the wide base of the group; the submerged level of broken waste and refuse left over from the building of the coast near by, projecting its dangerous spurs, all awash, far into the channel, and bristling133 with wicked long spits often a mile long: with deadly spits made of froth and stones.
And even nothing more than a brisk breeze — as on that morning, the voyage before, when the Sofala left Pangu bay early, and Mr. Sterne’s discovery was to blossom out like a flower of incredible and evil aspect from the tiny seed of instinctive40 suspicion,— even such a breeze had enough strength to tear the placid134 mask from the face of the sea. To Sterne, gazing with indifference135, it had been like a revelation to behold136 for the first time the dangers marked by the hissing137 livid patches on the water as distinctly as on the engraved138 paper of a chart. It came into his mind that this was the sort of day most favorable for a stranger attempting the passage: a clear day, just windy enough for the sea to break on every ledge139, buoying140, as it were, the channel plainly to the sight; whereas during a calm you had nothing to depend on but the compass and the practiced judgment141 of your eye. And yet the successive captains of the Sofala had had to take her through at night more than once. Nowadays you could not afford to throw away six or seven hours of a steamer’s time. That you couldn’t. But then use is everything, and with proper care . . . The channel was broad and safe enough; the main point was to hit upon the entrance correctly in the dark — for if a man got himself involved in that stretch of broken water over yonder he would never get out with a whole ship — if he ever got out at all.
This was Sterne’s last train of thought independent of the great discovery. He had just seen to the securing of the anchor, and had remained forward idling away a moment or two. The captain was in charge on the bridge. With a slight yawn he had turned away from his survey of the sea and had leaned his shoulders against the fish davit.
These, properly speaking, were the very last moments of ease he was to know on board the Sofala. All the instants that came after were to be pregnant with purpose and intolerable with perplexity. No more idle, random142 thoughts; the discovery would put them on the rack, till sometimes he wished to goodness he had been fool enough not to make it at all. And yet, if his chance to get on rested on the discovery of “something wrong,” he could not have hoped for a greater stroke of luck.
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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berths
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| n.（船、列车等的）卧铺( berth的名词复数 )；（船舶的）停泊位或锚位；差事；船台vt.v.停泊( berth的第三人称单数 )；占铺位 | |
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mildewed
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| adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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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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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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utterly
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awnings
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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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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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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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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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bravado
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| n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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abortive
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| adj.不成功的，发育不全的 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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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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naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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incorrigible
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| adj.难以纠正的，屡教不改的 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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ousting
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| 驱逐( oust的现在分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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perennial
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| adj.终年的；长久的 | |
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chagrined
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| adj.懊恼的，苦恼的v.使懊恼，使懊丧，使悔恨( chagrin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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circumspection
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| n.细心，慎重 | |
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somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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48
intimidated
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| v.恐吓；威胁adj.害怕的；受到威胁的 | |
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49
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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50
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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51
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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52
eluded
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的过去式和过去分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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53
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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54
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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55
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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56
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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57
surmises
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的第三人称单数 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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58
riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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59
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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60
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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61
illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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62
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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63
strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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64
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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65
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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66
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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67
leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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68
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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69
envelop
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| vt.包，封，遮盖；包围 | |
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70
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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72
hummocky
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| adj.圆丘般的，多圆丘的；波丘地 | |
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73
scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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74
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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75
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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76
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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77
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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78
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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79
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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80
domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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81
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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82
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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83
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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84
peals
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| n.（声音大而持续或重复的）洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 )；隆隆声；洪亮的钟声；钟乐v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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85
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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86
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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87
slaty
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| 石板一样的，石板色的 | |
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88
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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89
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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90
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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91
converging
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| adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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92
pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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93
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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94
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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95
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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96
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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97
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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98
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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99
hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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100
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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101
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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102
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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103
blotting
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| 吸墨水纸 | |
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104
constellations
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| n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人） | |
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105
smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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106
drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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107
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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108
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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109
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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110
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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111
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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112
scooped
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| v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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113
fibers
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| 光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质 | |
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114
sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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115
pellucid
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| adj.透明的，简单的 | |
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116
emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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117
eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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118
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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119
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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120
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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121
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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122
wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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123
blurring
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| n.模糊，斑点甚多，（图像的）混乱v.（使）变模糊( blur的现在分词 )；（使）难以区分 | |
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124
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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125
glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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126
swerve
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| v.突然转向，背离；n．转向，弯曲，背离 | |
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127
capes
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| 碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬 | |
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128
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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129
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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130
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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131
opaque
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| adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的 | |
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132
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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133
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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134
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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135
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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136
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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137
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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138
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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139
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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140
buoying
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| v.使浮起( buoy的现在分词 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神 | |
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141
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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142
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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