"It never rains but it pours" is a well-known proverb which finds, frequent illustration in the experience of almost every one. At all events Verkimier had reason to believe in the truth of it at that time, for adventures came down on him, as it were, in a sort of deluge2, more or less astounding3, insomuch that his enthusiastic spirit, bathing, if we may say so, in an ocean of scientific delight, pronounced Sumatra to be the very paradise of the student of nature.
We have not room in this volume to follow him in the details of his wonderful experiences, but we must mention one adventure which he had on the very day after the tiger-incident, because it very nearly had the effect of separating him from his travelling companions.
Being deaf, as we have said—owing to the explosion of his revolver in the hole—but not necessarily dumb, the professor, after one or two futile4 attempts to hear and converse5, deemed it wise to go to bed and spend the few conscious minutes that might precede sleep in watching Van der Kemp, who kindly6 undertook to skin his tiger for him. Soon the self-satisfied man fell into a sweet infantine slumber7, and dreamed of tigers, in which state he gave vent1 to sundry8 grunts9, gasps10, and half-suppressed cries, to the immense delight of Moses, who sat watching him, indulging in a running commentary suggestive of the recent event, and giving utterance12 now and then to a few imitative growls13 by way of enhancing the effect of the dreams!
"Look! look! Massa Nadgel, he's twitchin' all ober. De tiger's comin' to him now."
"Looks like it, Moses."
"Yes—an', see, he grip de 'volver—no, too soon, or de tiger's goed away, for he's stopped twichin'—dare; de tiger comes agin!"
A gasp11 and clenching14 of the right hand seemed to warrant this assumption. Then a yell rang through the hut; Moses displayed all, and more than all his teeth, and the professor, springing up on one elbow, glared fearfully.
"I'n't it awrful?" inquired Moses in a low tone.
The professor awoke mentally, recognised the situation, smiled an imbecile smile, and sank back again on his pillow with a sigh of relief.
After that, when the skinning of the tiger was completed, the dreams appeared to leave him, and all his comrades joined him in the land of Nod. He was first to awake when daylight entered their hut the following morning, and, feeling in a fresh, quiescent15 state of mind after the excitement of the preceding night, he lay on his back, his eyes fixed16 contentedly17 on the grand tiger-skin which hung on the opposite wall.
By degrees his eyes grew wearied of that object, and he allowed them to travel languidly upwards18 and along the roof until they rested on the spot directly over his head, where they became fixed, and, at the same time, opened out to a glare, compared to which all his previous glaring was as nothing—for there, in the thatch19, looking down upon him, was the angular head of a huge python. The snake was rolled up in a tight coil, and had evidently spent the night within a yard of the professor's head! Being unable to make out what sort of snake it was, and fearing that it might be a poisonous one, he crept quietly from his couch, keeping his eyes fixed on the reptile20 as he did so. One result of this mode of action was that he did not see where he was going, and inadvertently thrust one finger into Moses' right eye, and another into his open mouth. The negro naturally shut his mouth with a snap, while the professor opened his with a roar, and in another moment every man was on his feet blinking inquiringly.
"Look! zee snake!" cried the professor, when Moses released him.
"We must get him out of that," remarked Van der Kemp, as he quietly made a noose21 with a piece of rattan22, and fastened it to the end of a long pole. With the latter he poked23 the creature up, and, when it had uncoiled sufficiently24, he slipped the noose deftly25 over its head.
"Clear out, friends," he said, looking round.
All obeyed with uncommon26 promptitude except the professor, who valiantly27 stood his ground. Van der Kemp pulled the python violently down to the floor, where it commenced a tremendous scuffle among the chairs and posts. The hermit28 kept its head off with the pole, and sought to catch its tail, but failed twice. Seeing this the professor caught the tail as it whipped against his legs, and springing down the steps so violently that he snapped the cord by which the hermit held it, and drew the creature straight out—a thick monster full twelve feet long, and capable of swallowing a dog or a child.
"Out of zee way!" shouted the professor, making a wild effort to swing the python against a tree, but the tail slipped from his grasp, the professor fell, and the snake went crashing against a log, under which it took refuge.
Nigel, who was nearest to it, sprang forward, fortunately caught its tail, and, swinging it and himself round with such force that it could not coil up at all, dashed it against a tree. Before it could recover from the shock, Moses had caught up a hatchet29 and cut its head off with one blow. The tail wriggled30 for a few seconds, and the head gaped31 once or twice, as if in mild surprise at so sudden a finale.
"Zat is strainch—very strainch," slowly remarked the professor, as, still seated on the ground, he solemnly noted32 these facts.
"Not so very strange, after all," said Van der Kemp; "I've seen the head of many a bigger snake cut off at one blow."
"Mine frond33, you mistake me. It is zee vorking of physical law in zee spiritual vorld zat perplexes me. Moses has cut zee brute34 in two—physical fact, substance can be divided. Zee two parts are still alife, zerfore, zee life—zee spirit—has also been divided!"
"It is indeed very strange," said Nigel, with a laugh. "Stranger still that you may cut a worm into several parts, and the life remains35 in each, but, strangest of all, that you should sit on the ground, professor, instead of rising up, while you philosophise. You are not hurt, I hope—are you?"
"I razer zink I am," returned the philosopher with a faint smile; "mine onkle, I zink, is spraint."
This was indeed true, and it seemed as if the poor man's wanderings were to be, for a time at least, brought to an abrupt36 close. Fortunately it was found that a pony37 could be procured38 at that village, and, as they had entered the borders of the mountainous regions, and the roads were more open and passable than heretofore, it was resolved that the professor should ride until his ankle recovered.
We must now pass over a considerable portion of time and space, and convey the reader, by a forced march, to the crater39 of an active volcano. By that time Verkimier's ankle had recovered and the pony had been dismissed. The heavy luggage, with the porters, had been left in the low grounds, for the mountain they had scaled was over 10,000 feet above the sea-level. Only one native from the plain below accompanied them as guide, and three of their porters whose inquiring minds tempted40 them to make the ascent41.
At about 10,000 feet the party reached what the natives called the dempo or edge of the volcano, whence they looked down into the sawah or ancient crater, which was a level space composed of brown soil surrounded by cliffs, and lying like the bottom of a cup 200 feet below them. It had a sulphurous odour, and was dotted here and there with clumps42 of heath and rhododendrons. In the centre of this was a cone43 which formed the true—or modern—crater. On scrambling44 up to the lip of the cone and looking down some 300 feet of precipitous rock they beheld45 what seemed to be a pure white lake set in a central basin of 200 feet in diameter. The surface of this lakelet smoked, and although it reflected every passing cloud as if it were a mirror, it was in reality a basin of hot mud, the surface of which was about thirty feet below its rim46.
"You will soon see a change come over it," said the hermit, as the party gazed in silent admiration47 at the weird48 scene.
He had scarcely spoken, when the middle of the lake became intensely black and scored with dark streaks49. This, though not quite obvious at first from the point where they stood, was caused by the slow formation of a great chasm50 in the centre of the seething51 lake of mud. The lake was sinking into its own throat. The blackness increased. Then a dull sullen52 roar was heard, and next moment the entire lake upheaved, not violently, but in a slow, majestic53 manner some hundreds of feet into the air, whence it fell back into its basin with an awful roar which reverberated54 and echoed from the rocky walls of the caldron like the singing of an angry sea. An immense volume of steam—the motive55 power which had blown up the lake—was at the same time liberated56 and dissipated in the air.
The wave-circles died away on the margin57 of the lake, and the placid58, cloud-reflecting surface was restored until the geyser had gathered fresh force for another upheaval59.
"Amazing!" exclaimed Nigel, who had gazed with feelings of awe60 at this curious exhibition of the tremendous internal forces with which the Creator has endowed the earth.
"Vonderful!" exclaimed the professor, whose astonishment61 was such, that his eyebrows62 rose high above the rim of his huge blue binoculars63.
Moses, to whom such an exhibition of the powers of nature was familiar, was, we are sorry to say, not much impressed, if impressed at all! Indeed he scarcely noticed it, but watched, with intense teeth-and-gum disclosing satisfaction, the faces of two of the native porters who had never seen anything of the kind before, and whose terrified expressions suggested the probability of a precipitate64 flight when their trembling limbs became fit to resume duty.
"Will it come again soon?" asked Nigel, turning to Van der Kemp.
"Every fifteen or twenty minutes it goes through that process all day and every day," replied the hermit.
"But, if I may joodge from zee stones ant scoriae around," said the professor, "zee volcano is not alvays so peaceful as it is joost now."
"You are right. About once in every three years, and sometimes oftener, the crops of coffee, bananas, rice, etc., in this region are quite destroyed by sulphur-rain, which covers everything for miles around the crater."
"Hah! it vould be too hote a place zis for us, if zat vas to happin joost now," remarked Verkimier with a smile.
"It cannot be far off the time now, I should think," said Yan der Kemp.
All this talk Moses translated, and embellished65, to the native porters with the solemn sincerity66 of a true and thorough-paced hypocrite. He had scarcely finished, and was watching with immense delight the changeful aspect of their whitey-green faces, when another volcanic67 fit came on, and the deep-toned roar of the coming explosion was heard. It was so awesome68 that the countenance69 even of Van der Kemp became graver than usual. As for the two native porters, they gazed and trembled. Nigel and the professor also gazed with lively expectation. Moses—we grieve to record it—hugged himself internally, and gloated over the two porters.
Another moment and there came a mighty70 roar. Up went the mud-lake hundreds of feet into the air; out came the steam with the sound of a thousand trombones, and away went the two porters, head ever heels, down the outer slope of the cone and across the sawah as if the spirit of evil were after them.
There was no cause, however, for alarm. The mud-lake, falling back into its native cup, resumed its placid aspect and awaited its next upheaval with as much tranquillity71 as if it had never known disturbance72 in the past, and were indifferent about the future.
That evening our travellers encamped in close proximity73 to the crater, supped on fowls74 roasted in an open crevice75 whence issued steam and sulphurous smells, and slept with the geyser's intermittent76 roar sounding in their ears and re-echoing in their dreams.
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1
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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6
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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7
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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grunts
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈 | |
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10
gasps
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| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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11
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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13
growls
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的第三人称单数 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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14
clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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15
quiescent
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| adj.静止的，不活动的，寂静的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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19
thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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21
noose
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| n.绳套，绞索（刑）；v.用套索捉；使落入圈套；处以绞刑 | |
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22
rattan
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| n.藤条，藤杖 | |
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23
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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24
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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valiantly
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| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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29
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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30
wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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31
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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32
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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frond
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| n.棕榈类植物的叶子 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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35
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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38
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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39
crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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40
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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41
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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42
clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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43
cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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44
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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45
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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46
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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47
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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48
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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49
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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50
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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51
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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52
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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53
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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54
reverberated
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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55
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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56
liberated
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| a.无拘束的，放纵的 | |
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57
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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58
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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59
upheaval
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| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
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60
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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61
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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62
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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63
binoculars
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| n.双筒望远镜 | |
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64
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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65
embellished
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| v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 )；装饰；修饰；润色 | |
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66
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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67
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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awesome
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| adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的 | |
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69
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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70
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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71
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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72
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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73
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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74
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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75
crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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