The steward was a tall, lank4, lantern-jawed man, whose cheek-bones were almost as prominent as his long nose. His face was pale, in spite of the bronze which a West India sun had imparted to it, and his hair was long and straight. He had a very thin beard of jet[Pg 12] black, which contrasted strongly with the pallor of his face. His voice was hollow, and sounded doubly so from the drawl with which he uttered his sentences, and every remark he made was preceded by a single long-drawn hacking5 cough, which might have been caused by the force of habit or the incipient6 workings of disease. He was seated in the galley7, abaft8 the foremast of the brig, and when the passenger showed himself at the door of the galley, he had been engaged in writing in a square record-book, which he closed the instant the visitor darkened the aperture9 of his den10.
The passenger—the only one on board of the Waldo—was a short, thick-set man of about forty, whose name was entered on the brig's papers as Jacob Wallbridge, and his trunk bore the initials corresponding to this name. In his hand he had a pipe, filled full of tobacco, and it was evident that he had called at the galley only to light it, though the steward proceeded to infold his book in an ample piece of oil-cloth which lay upon the seat at his side. It was clear that he did not wish the passenger to know what he was doing, or, at least, what he had written,[Pg 13] for he was really quite nervous, as he securely tied the book, and then locked it up in a box under the seat. Though Harvey Barth did not confess it then, it was, nevertheless, a fact that he had been writing in his book about the passenger who darkened his door, though what he wrote was not seen by any human eye until many months after the pen had done its office.
"I thought this morning we should get in to-night," replied the passenger, as he stepped inside of the caboose. "May I borrow a coal of fire from the stove, doctor?"
"Certain, if you can get one; but the fire is about out. You will find some matches in the tin box on your right," added the steward.
"I like to light my pipe in the old-fashioned way when I can. I don't mean to begin to suck in brimstone just yet," continued Wallbridge, as he succeeded in finding a coal, and soon had his pipe in working order. "What were you doing with that book, doctor? Do you keep a log of the voyage?"
"Well, ya-as," drawled the steward. "I keep a log of this voyage, and a log of the voyage of life. I've kept a diary ever since I taught[Pg 14] school; and that's seven years ago, come winter."
"It must be worth reading. I should like to look it over, if we have to stay out here another day. I suppose you have seen a good deal of the world, if you have been to sea many years."
"No; I haven't seen much of the world. I never went but one voyage before this, and that was in a coaster, from New York to Bangor. The diary is only for my own reading, and I wouldn't let anybody look at it for all the world," answered Harvey Barth, with an even more painful cough than usual.
"Then you are not a great traveller," added Wallbridge, puffing12 away at his pipe, as he watched the sun sinking to his rest beyond the western waves.
"Bless you! no. I was brought up on a farm in York State. I used to keep school winters till the folks in our town began to think they must have a more dandified chap than I am."
"Where did you learn to cook, if you were a schoolmaster?"
"Well you see I was an only son, and my mother died when I was but sixteen. Father[Pg 15] and I kept house together till he died, and I used to do about all the cooking. I had an idea then that I could do it pretty well, too," replied Harvey, with a sickly smile. "The old man got to drinking rather too much, and lost all he had and all I had, too. My health wasn't very good; I had a bad cough and night sweats. I was an orphan13 at twenty-four, and I thought I'd go to New York city, and take a little voyage on the salt water. I had about a hundred dollars I earned after the old man died; but a fellow in the city got it all away from me;" and Harvey hung his head, as though this was not a pleasant experience to remember.
"Ah! how was that?" asked Wallbridge.
"The fellow offered to show me round town, and, as I was kind of lonesome, I went with him. We called at a place to pay a bill he owed. He had a check for three hundred dollars; but the man he owed couldn't give him the change, so I lent him my hundred dollars, and took the check till he paid me. Then my kind friend went into another room; and that's the last I ever saw of him. I couldn't find him, but I did find that the check was good for nothing. I hadn't a[Pg 16] dollar left. At one of the piers14 I came across a schooner15 that wanted a cook, and I shipped right off. Then the cap'n's nephew wanted to cook for him, after we got to Bangor, and I was out of a job. I worked in an eating-house for a while, cooking; but my health was so bad I wanted to go to a warm climate; so I shipped in this brig for the West Indies. It was warm enough there, but I didn't get any better. I don't think I'm as stout16 as I was when I left Bangor. I shall not hold out much longer."
"O, yes, you will. You may live to be a hundred years old yet," added Wallbridge, rather lightly.
"No; my end isn't a great way off," added the steward, with a sigh, as the passenger, evidently not pleased with the turn the conversation had taken, walked away from the galley.
Any one who looked at Harvey Barth would have found no difficulty in accepting his gloomy prediction; and yet he was, as events occurred, farther from his end than his companions in the brig. The steward sat before his stove, gazing at the planks17 of the deck under his feet. He was deeply impressed by the words he had[Pg 17] uttered if the passenger was not. He had improved the opportunity, while the weather was calm to write up his diary, and perhaps the thoughts he had expressed on its pages had started a train of gloomy reflections. The future seemed to have nothing inviting18 to him, and his attention was fixed19 upon an open grave at no great distance before him in the pathway of his life. Beyond that he had hardly taught himself to look; if he had he would, doubtless, have been less sad and gloomy.
His work for the day had all been done; supper in the cabin had been served, and the beef and hard bread had been given to the crew two hours before. It was a day in August, and the sun had lingered long above the horizon. Harvey had finished writing in his diary when the passenger interrupted him; but, apparently20 to change the current of his thoughts, he took the book from the box, and began to read what he had written.
"I don't know what his name is, but I don't believe it's Wallbridge," said he, to himself, as the last page recalled the reflections which had caused him to make some of the entries in the[Pg 18] book. "That wasn't the name I found on the paper in his state-room, though the initials were the same. I don't see what he changed his name for; but that's none of my business. I only hope he hasn't been doing anything wrong."
"My pipe's gone out," said Wallbridge, presenting himself at the door of the galley again. "I want another coal of fire."
The steward carefully secured his book again, and returned it to the box, while the passenger was lighting21 his pipe.
"Rather a still time just now," said the steward, alluding22 to the weather, as Wallbridge puffed23 away at his pipe.
"Dead calm," replied the passenger.
"We shall not get in to-morrow at this rate."
"Captain 'Siah says we shall have more wind than we want before morning," added the smoker24. "He wishes the brig was twenty miles farther out to sea, for his barometer25 has gone down as though the bottom had dropped out of it."
"It looks like one of those West India showers," added the steward, as he glanced out at one of the doors of the galley.[Pg 19]
The calm and silence which had pervaded26 the deck of the Waldo seemed to be broken. Captain 'Siah had given his orders to the mate, who was now shouting lustily to the crew, though there was not a breath of air stirring, and the brig lay motionless upon the still waters. The vessel27 was a considerable distance within the range of islands which separate Penobscot Bay from the broad ocean. The water was nearly as smooth as a mill-pond, and Harvey had found no more difficulty in writing in his diary than if the Waldo had been anchored in the harbor of Rockland, whither she was bound, though she had made the land some distance to the eastward28 of Owl's Head.
Harvey Bath walked out upon the deck, after putting on an overcoat to protect him from the chill air of the evening, for he felt that his life depended upon his precaution. In the south-west the clouds were dense29 and black, indicating the approach of a heavy shower. In the east, just as dense and black, was another mass of clouds; and the two showers seemed to be working up towards the zenith.
"Cast off the fore1 tack30!" shouted the mate. "Let go the fore sheet!"[Pg 20]
When this last order was given, it was the duty of the cook to execute it; and, ordinarily, this is about the only seaman's duty which the "doctor" is called upon to perform. Harvey promptly31 cast off the sheet, and the hands at the clew-garnets hauled up the foresail. The flying-gib and top-gallant sails had already been furled, and the canvas on the brig was soon reduced to the fore-topsail, fore-topmast staysail, and spanker; and these sails hung like wet rags, the vessel drifting with the tide, which now set up the bay.
The dense black clouds slowly approached the zenith, and it was dark before there appeared to be any commotion32 of the elements. As the gloom of the evening increased, the lightning became more vivid, the zigzag33 chains of electric fluid darting34 angrily from the inky masses of cloud which obscured the sky. The heavy thunder sounded nearer and more overhead, indicating the nearer approach of the two showers. Scarcely did the flashing lightning—almost instantly followed by the cannon36-like crash of the thunder—blaze and peal37 on one side of the brig, before the flaming bolt and the startling[Pg 21] roar were taken up on the other side, as though the two tempests on either hand were vying38 with each other for the mastery of the air.
Captain Josiah Barnwood, familiarly called, even by the crew, who were his friends and neighbors, Captain 'Siah, nervously39 walked his quarter-deck, after he had taken every precaution which a careful sailor could take; for, even if his practised eye had not taught him that there was wind in the clouds in the south-west, the barometer had earnestly admonished40 him of violent disturbances41 in the atmosphere. He had done everything he could for the safety of the brig, but he blamed himself—though without reason, for the change of weather had been sudden and unexpected—for coming into the bay when it was so near night. The brig was surrounded on nearly every side by rocky islands and numerous reefs, with the chances that thick weather would hide the friendly lights from his view. But it was a summer day, and, until late in the afternoon, when there was no wind to help him, no change could have been anticipated.
Captain 'Siah was nervous, though he was as[Pg 22] familiar with the bay as he was with the apartments in his own house. He knew every island and head land, every rock and shoal, and the situation of every light-house; but the barometer had warned him of nothing less than a hurricane. The Waldo was an old vessel, and barely sea-worthy, even for a summer voyage, to the region of hurricanes. He had, therefore, many misgivings42, as he paced the quarter-deck, watching the angry bolts of lightning, and listening to the deafening43 roar of the thunder. Occasionally he halted at the taffrail, and gazed into the thick darkness of the south-west, from which his experience taught him the tempest would come. Then, at the foot of the mainmast he halted again, to listen for any sound that might come over the waters from the eastward; but his glances in this direction were brief and hurried, for he expected the storm from the opposite quarter.
Again he paused at the taffrail, by the side of the man who stood idle at the wheel, for the brig had not motion enough to give her steerage-way. This time Captain 'Siah listened longer than usual. From far away to seaward, between[Pg 23] the peals44 of thunder, came a confused, roaring sound. At the same time a slight puff11 of air swelled45 the sails of the brig, and the helmsman threw over the wheel to meet her, as the vessel began to move through the still waters.
"Haul down the fore-topmast staysail!" shouted Captain 'Siah, at the top of his lungs, a sudden energy seeming to take possession of his nervous frame.
"Ay, ay, sir," returned the mate; and almost at the same instant the captain heard the hanks rattling46 down the stay.
"It's coming down upon us like a tornado," said Captain 'Siah to the passenger who was smoking his pipe on the quarter-deck.
"Can I do anything, Captain 'Siah?" asked Wallbridge, who had been aroused from his lethargy by the energy of the captain.
"Yes; let go the peak-halyards of the spanker!" answered the captain, sharply, as he sprang to the throat-halyards himself.
The sail came down, and the passenger, who had evidently been to sea before, proceeded to gather up and secure the fluttering canvas, for the breeze was rapidly freshening.[Pg 24]
"Furl the fore-topsail," cried the captain, with a kind of desperation, which indicated his sense of the peril47 of the brig.
"Ay, ay, sir," shouted the ready mate, who, in anticipation48 of the order, had manned the halyards, and stationed hands at the sheets and clewlines. "Let go the sheets! clew up—lively! Settle away the halyards! Ready at the bunt-lines—sharp work, boys! Aloft, and furl the topsail!"
"Set the main-staysail!" shouted the captain.
Captain 'Siah was an old-fashioned shipmaster, and the Waldo was an old-fashioned vessel. Everything on board was done promptly and skillfully in the old-fashioned way. The captain knew just where he was as long as he could see any of the objects around him, whether lights or the dark outlines of the rocky islands. His principal fear was, if the brig withstood the shock of the tempest, that she would drift upon some dangerous rocks, which were hidden by the waves after half-tide. They were situated49 off a large island, whose high, precipitous shores he could just discern, when the lightning illuminated50 the scene around him. This island and[Pg 25] these perilous51 rocks were dead to leeward52 of the Waldo, and hardly a mile distant. With the aid of the staysail Captain 'Siah hoped—and only hoped—that he should be able to work his vessel out of the range of these dangers. But before the staysail could be set, and before the fore-topsail could be furled, a violent squall struck the brig. The fore-topsail was blown out of the hands of the four seamen53 who had gone aloft to secure it. So great was the fury of the tempest that in an instant the well-worn sail was torn into ribbons, and great pieces of it were blown away, like little white clouds played upon by the lightning. Worse than this, two of the men on the topsail-yard were wrenched54 from their hold on the spar, and hurled55 into the darkness beneath them, one falling into foaming56 waters, and the other striking senseless upon the deck.
Vainly, for a time, the mate, with four men to help him, struggled to set the staysail, upon which depended the safety of the brig from the savage57 rocks to leeward of her. At last they succeeded stimulated58 by the hoarse59 shouts of Captain 'Siah on the quarter-deck, though not[Pg 26] till one of the four men had been struck insensible on the deck by the fierce blows of the sheet-block. The sail was hauled out finally by the exertions60 of the mate. The helmsman met her at the wheel, and the Waldo heeled over till the water poured in over her lee bulwarks61. At this moment, the staysail, too flimsy from age to stand the strain upon it, was blown out of the bolt-ropes, with an explosion like a cannon, and went off like a misty62 cloud into the darkness. The hour of doom63 seemed to have overtaken the Waldo; but in spite of the misfortunes that overwhelmed her, Captain 'Siah did not abandon hope, or relax his exertions to save the vessel.
"Set the fore-topmast staysail!" hoarsely64 yelled the captain. "Send four hands aft to set the spanker!"
Captain 'Siah did not know, when he gave this order, that three of his nine hands had been disabled, and the mate sent only three men aft, one of whom told the captain of the accident. But the passenger was as zealous65 and willing as even the mate. In order to save his canvas, the captain ordered the spanker to be[Pg 27] balance-reefed. The stops were taken off, and the master assisted in the work with his own hands.
"Jam your helm hard down!" he cried to the man at the wheel. "If we can get her head up to the wind, we may be able to set these sails."
All hands worked with desperate energy, and it required all their strength to prevent the canvas from being blown out of their hands. The savage wind upon her bare hull66 and spars had given the brig steerage-way, and when the man at the helm threw the wheel over, the head of the vessel began to come up to the wind. Captain 'Siah was hopeful, and he encouraged the men at the spanker to renewed exertions. He saw that the mate had partially67 succeeded in setting the head sail, and the chances were certainly much better than they had been a moment before. Perhaps, if no greater calamity68 than that which came on the wings of the stormy wind had befallen the brig and her crew, she might possibly have been saved.
The shower from the south-west and that from the east, had apparently come together[Pg 28] above the devoted69 vessel. The lightning was more frequent and vivid, the thunder followed each flash almost instantaneously; and Captain 'Siah realized that the clouds were but a short distance above the brig. But he heeded70 not the booming thunder or the glaring lightning, only as the latter enabled him to see the work upon which the mate and himself were engaged. The captain, aided by the passenger, was lashing35 the throat of the gaff down to its place, when a heavy bolt of lightning, accompanied at the same instant by a terrific peel of thunder, struck the main-royal mast-head, and leaped down the mast in a lurid71 current of fire. At the throat of the main-boom it was divided, part of it following the mast down into the cabin and hold, and the rest darting off on the spar, where the captain, the passenger, and three men were at work on the spanker. Every one of them was struck down, and lay senseless on the deck. Even the man at the wheel shared their fate, though no one could know who were killed and who were simply stunned72 by the shock. The lightning capriciously leaped from the boom to the metal work of the wheel,[Pg 29] shattering the whole into a thousand pieces, and splintering the rudder-head as though it had been so much glass.
The rudder was disabled, the fore-topmast staysail was rent into ribbons, and the brig fell off into the trough of the sea, where she rolled helplessly at the mercy of the tempest.
点击收听单词发音
1 fore | |
adv.在前面;adj.先前的;在前部的;n.前部 | |
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2 steward | |
n.乘务员,服务员;看管人;膳食管理员 | |
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3 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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4 lank | |
adj.瘦削的;稀疏的 | |
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5 hacking | |
n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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6 incipient | |
adj.起初的,发端的,初期的 | |
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7 galley | |
n.(飞机或船上的)厨房单层甲板大帆船;军舰舰长用的大划艇; | |
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8 abaft | |
prep.在…之后;adv.在船尾,向船尾 | |
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9 aperture | |
n.孔,隙,窄的缺口 | |
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10 den | |
n.兽穴;秘密地方;安静的小房间,私室 | |
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11 puff | |
n.一口(气);一阵(风);v.喷气,喘气 | |
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12 puffing | |
v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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13 orphan | |
n.孤儿;adj.无父母的 | |
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14 piers | |
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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15 schooner | |
n.纵帆船 | |
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17 planks | |
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点 | |
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18 inviting | |
adj.诱人的,引人注目的 | |
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19 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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20 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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21 lighting | |
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光 | |
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22 alluding | |
提及,暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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23 puffed | |
adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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24 smoker | |
n.吸烟者,吸烟车厢,吸烟室 | |
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25 barometer | |
n.气压表,睛雨表,反应指标 | |
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26 pervaded | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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28 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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29 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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30 tack | |
n.大头钉;假缝,粗缝 | |
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31 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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32 commotion | |
n.骚动,动乱 | |
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33 zigzag | |
n.曲折,之字形;adj.曲折的,锯齿形的;adv.曲折地,成锯齿形地;vt.使曲折;vi.曲折前行 | |
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34 darting | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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35 lashing | |
n.鞭打;痛斥;大量;许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
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36 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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37 peal | |
n.钟声;v.鸣响 | |
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38 vying | |
adj.竞争的;比赛的 | |
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39 nervously | |
adv.神情激动地,不安地 | |
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40 admonished | |
v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 );训诫;(温和地)责备;轻责 | |
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41 disturbances | |
n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 );打扰;困扰;障碍 | |
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42 misgivings | |
n.疑虑,担忧,害怕;疑虑,担心,恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 );疑惧 | |
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43 deafening | |
adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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44 peals | |
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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45 swelled | |
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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46 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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47 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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48 anticipation | |
n.预期,预料,期望 | |
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49 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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50 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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51 perilous | |
adj.危险的,冒险的 | |
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52 leeward | |
adj.背风的;下风的 | |
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53 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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54 wrenched | |
v.(猛力地)扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 );扭伤;使感到痛苦;使悲痛 | |
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55 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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56 foaming | |
adj.布满泡沫的;发泡 | |
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57 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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58 stimulated | |
a.刺激的 | |
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59 hoarse | |
adj.嘶哑的,沙哑的 | |
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60 exertions | |
n.努力( exertion的名词复数 );费力;(能力、权力等的)运用;行使 | |
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61 bulwarks | |
n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 );保障;支柱;舷墙 | |
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62 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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63 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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64 hoarsely | |
adv.嘶哑地 | |
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65 zealous | |
adj.狂热的,热心的 | |
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66 hull | |
n.船身;(果、实等的)外壳;vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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67 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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68 calamity | |
n.灾害,祸患,不幸事件 | |
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69 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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70 heeded | |
v.听某人的劝告,听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 );变平,使(某物)变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71 lurid | |
adj.可怕的;血红的;苍白的 | |
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72 stunned | |
adj. 震惊的,惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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