To bind1 up Swinton’s wounds, some of which were ugly ones, was the first business of Grummidge, after he had hastily staunched the blood which was flowing copiously3 from his own cheek. The stout4 seaman5 was well able to play the part of amateur surgeon, being a handy fellow, and he usually carried about with him two or three odd pieces of spun-yarn for emergencies—also a lump of cotton-waste as a handkerchief, while the tail of his shirt served at all times as a convenient rag.
Having finished the job he looked earnestly at the pale face and closed eyes of his old enemy, and said— “You’ve bin2 pretty much banged about old chap—eh?”
As the wounded man made no reply, Grummidge rose quickly, intending to run to the settlement for help, knowing that no time should be lost. He was hastening away when Swinton stopped him.
“Hallo! hold on!” he shouted. Grummidge turned back.
“You—you’re not goin’ to leave me, are you?” demanded his enemy, somewhat sternly, “I—I shall die if you leave me here on the cold ice.”
“Swinton,” replied Grummidge, going down on one knee, the more conveniently to grasp the unwounded hand of his foe8, “you mistake my c’rackter entirely9. Though I’m not much to boast on as a man, I ain’t quite a devil. I was only goin’ to run to Wagtail Bay to start some o’ the boys with a stretcher to fetch ye—an’ it’s my belief that there’s no time to be lost.”
“Right you are, Grummidge,” replied the poor man in a faint voice, “so little time that if you leave me here the boys will only find some human beef to carry back, an’ that won’t be worth the trouble.”
“Don’t say that, old chap,” returned the other, in a low, gruff voice which was the result of tender feeling. “Keep up heart—bless you, I’ll be back in no time.”
“All right,” said Swinton, with a resigned look, “go an’ fetch the boys. But I say, Grummidge, shake hands before you go, I don’t want to carry a grudge10 agin you into the next world if I can help it. Goodbye.”
“No, no, mate, if that’s to be the way of it I’ll stick to ’ee. D’ye think you could manage to git on my back?”
“I’ll try.”
With much heaving, and many half-suppressed groans11 from the one, and “heave-ho’s” from the other, Big Swinton was at last mounted on his comrade’s broad shoulders, and the two started for home. It was a long and weary journey, for Grummidge found the road rough and the load heavy, but before night he deposited his old enemy in a bunk12 in the large room of the settlement and then himself sank fainting on the floor—not, we need scarcely add, from the effect of sentimental13 feeling, but because of prolonged severe exertion14, coupled with loss of blood.
Two days later Grummidge sat by the side of Swinton’s bunk. It was early forenoon, and they were alone—all the other men being out on various avocations15.
Blackboy, the large dog, lay asleep on the floor beside them.
“Wolves about, I suppose,” said Grummidge, rising and opening the door.
Blackboy bounded away in wild haste.
“H’m! he seems in a hurry. Perhaps it’s a bear this time. Well, mate, how d’ye feel now?” he added, closing the door and returning to his seat.
“Grummidge,” said the sick man, in a low voice, “I’ll never git over this. That seal have done for me. There’s injury somewheres inside o’ me, I feel sure on it. But that’s not what I was going to speak about. I want to make a clean breast of it afore I goes. I’ve been a bad man, Grummidge, there’s no question about that in my own mind, whatever may be in the mind of others. I had even gone the length of making up my mind to murder you, the first safe chance I got, for which, and all else I’ve done and thought agin ye, I ax your pardon.”
“You have it” said his friend earnestly. “Thank ’ee. That’s just what I expected, Grummidge. Now what I want to know is, d’ye think God will forgive me?”
The seaman was perplexed17. Such a question had never been put to him before, and he knew not what to answer. After a few moments’ consideration, he replied—
“What you say is true, Swinton. You’ve bin a bad lot ever since I’ve know’d ye. I won’t go for to deny that. As to what the Almighty18 will do or won’t do, how can I tell? I wish I knew more about such things myself, for I’d like to help you, but I can’t.”
Suddenly an idea flashed into his mind and he continued:—
“But it do seem to me, Swinton, that if a poor sinner like me is willin’ to forgive ye, ain’t the Almighty likely to be much more willin’?”
“There’s somethin’ in that, Grummidge—somethin’ in that,” said the sick man eagerly. Then the hopeful look disappeared as he added slowly, “but I fear, Grummidge, that what you say don’t quite fit my case, for I’ve got a notion that the Almighty must have been willin’ all my life to save me from myself, and that all my life I’ve bin refusin’ to listen to Him.”
“How d’ye make that out, boy?”
“This way. There’s bin somethin’ or other inside o’ me, as far back as I can remember, that somehow didn’t seem to be me, that has been always sayin’ ‘Don’t’ to me, whenever I was a-goin’ to do a mean thing. Now, I can’t help thinkin’ that it must have bin God that spoke19, for a man would never say ‘Don’t’ to himself, an’ then go right off an’ do it, would he?”
“That’s more than I can tell,” answered Grummidge. “I remember hearin’ Master Burns a-talkin’ on that point wi’ the cappen, an’ he thought it was conscience or the voice of God.”
“Well, conscience or no conscience, I’ve resisted it all my life,” returned the sick man, “an’ it do seem a mean, sneakin’ sort o’ thing to come to the Almighty at the very last moment, when I can’t help myself, an’ say, ‘I’m sorry.’”
“It would be meaner to say ‘I’m not sorry,’ wouldn’t it?” returned Grummidge. “But, now I think of it, Master Burns did read one or two things out o’ that writin’ that he’s so fond of, which he says is the Word of God. If it’s true what he says, he may well be fond of it, but I wonder how he has found that out. Anyway, I remember that one o’ the things he read out of it was that the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world; an’ he explained that Jesus is the Lamb of God, an’ that he stands in our place—takes our punishment instead of us, an’ fulfils the law instead of us.”
The sick man listened attentively20, even eagerly, but shook his head.
“How can any man stand in my place, or take my punishments?” he said, in a tone savouring almost of contempt. “As far as I can see, every man will have enough to do to answer for himself.”
“That’s just what come into my mind too, when I heard Master Burns speak,” returned the other; “but he cleared that up by explainin’ that Jesus is God as well as man—‘God with us,’ he said.”
“That do seem strange,” rejoined the sick man, “and if true,” he added thoughtfully, “there’s somethin’ in it, Grummidge, somethin’ in it to give a man comfort.”
“Well, mate, I’m of your mind about that, for if God himself be for us, surely nobody can be agin us,” said the seaman, unconsciously paraphrasing21 the word of Scripture22 itself. “Blow high or blow low, that seems to me an anchor that you an’ me’s safe to hang on to.”
The conversation was interrupted at this point by the sudden entrance of Jim Heron with an arrow sticking in the fleshy part of his back.
“Attacked by savages24!” he gasped25. “Here, Grummidge, lend a hand to haul out this—I can’t well reach it. They came on us behind the big store, t’other side o’ the settlement, and, after lettin’ fly at us took to their heels. The lads are after them. I got separated from the boys, and was shot, as you see, so I came—hah! pull gently, Grummidge—came back here that you might haul it out, for it’s hard to run an’ fight with an arrow in your back.”
“Stay here, Jim,” said Grummidge, after hastily extracting the shaft26. “You couldn’t do much with a wound like that. I’ll take your place and follow up the men, and you’ll take mine here, as nurse to Swinton. We mustn’t leave him alone, you know.”
Eager though Jim Heron was at first for the fray27, the loss of blood had reduced his ardour and made him willing to fall in with this proposal.
“Good-bye, Grummidge,” cried Swinton, as the former, having snatched up his knife and bow, was hastening to the door.
“Good-bye—good-bye, mate,” he responded, turning back and grasping the proffered28 hand. “You’ll be all right soon, old chap—and Jim’s a better nurse than I am.”
“I like what you said about that anchor, mate, I’ll not forget it” said Swinton, sinking back on his pillow as Grummidge sallied forth29 to join in the pursuit of the savages.
The stout seaman’s movements were watched by some hundreds of glittering black eyes, the owners of which were concealed30 amid the brushwood of the adjoining forest.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the settlement, the greater number of the shipwrecked mariners31 were engaged in hot pursuit of the party of Indians who had attacked them. They were very indignant, several of their mates having been wounded, and a considerable quantity of their stores carried off.
It quickly became apparent, however, that the seamen32 were no match for savage23, at a race through the woods, therefore Grummidge, who soon overtook his comrades, called a halt, and gathered as many of his men as possible around him.
“Now, lads,” he said, “it’s plain that some of you can’t run much further. You ain’t used to this sort o’ work. Besides, we have left our settlement undefended. Most of you must therefore return, an’ a few of the smartest among you will follow me, for we must give these rascals33 a fright by followin’ ’em till we catch ’em—if we can—or by drivin’ ’em back to their own place, wherever that may be.”
Many of the men were more than willing to agree to this arrangement, while others were quite ready to follow their leader. The party, therefore, that finally continued in pursuit of the Indians was composed of Grummidge, George Blazer, Fred Taylor, Little Stubbs, Garnet Squill, and several others. Armed with bows, arrows, short spears, and clubs, these set off without delay into the forest, trusting to the sun and stars for guidance. The remainder of the men returned to the settlement, where they discovered that they had been the victims of a ruse34 on the part of the savages. The assault at the further end of the settlement proved to be a mere35 feint, made by a comparatively small party, for the purpose of drawing the seamen away, and leaving the main part of the settlement undefended, and open to pillage36. While the small detachment of Indians, therefore, was doing its part, the main body descended37 swiftly but quietly on Wagtail Bay, and possessed38 themselves of all that was valuable there, and carried it off.
Of course, Swinton and Jim Heron were found there. Both had been beheaded, and their bodies stripped and left on the floor. Heron seemed to have offered a stout resistance, until overpowered by numbers and slain39. Poor Swinton, who could not have had much more life remaining than enabled him to understand what was occurring, had been stabbed to death where he lay.
Fortunately, it was not possible for the Indians to carry off all the dried fish and other provisions, so that the men were not reduced to absolute starvation.
All ignorant of what was going on at the settlement, the avengers were pushing their way through the woods in pursuit of the smaller body of savages. Nothing could have been more satisfactory to these latter. From every eminence40 and knoll41 unseen eyes watched the movements of the white men, who remained under the delusion42 that they were striking terror into the hearts of a flying foe.
“Sure, we’ll have to take a rest soon,” said Squill, as they halted on the top of a mound43, about sunset to breathe and wipe their heated brows.
“True, a short sleep we must have, but we’ll have to take our rest without kindling44 a fire,” said Grummidge.
“Ay, an’ go supperless to bed, too,” remarked Little Stubbs; “for we’ve brought nothing to eat with us.”
This fact had not struck any of the party till that moment. They had been so eager in pursuit of the foe that all prudential considerations had been thrown to the winds. They now lay down, therefore, to the very brief rest that was absolutely needful, not only without supper, but with the prospect45 of starting again without breakfast. However, each man felt bound in honour not to damp his fellows by complaining.
“Now, boys,” said Grummidge, “you lie down, an’ I’ll mount guard. Sleep as fast as you can, for I’ll route ye out in an hour or so.”
But Grummidge did not fulfil his promise. Seating himself with his back to a tree, his bows and arrows ready to hand, and actuated by a firm resolve to watch with intense care, he fell fast asleep, and the whole party snored in concert.
About fifty Indians, who had joined the original attacking party, had waited patiently for this state of affairs. When quite certain that the seamen were all sleeping soundly, they crept silently forward, and pounced46 upon them. The struggle was sharp, but short. Courage and strength are futile47 when opposed to overwhelming numbers. A few minutes later, and the white men were led, with hands bound behind them, into the depth of the unknown wilderness48.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
bind
|
|
| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
bin
|
|
| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
copiously
|
|
| adv.丰富地，充裕地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
seaman
|
|
| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
shudder
|
|
| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
testimony
|
|
| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
foe
|
|
| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
grudge
|
|
| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
groans
|
|
| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
bunk
|
|
| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
exertion
|
|
| n.尽力，努力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
avocations
|
|
| n.业余爱好，嗜好( avocation的名词复数 )；职业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
whine
|
|
| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
perplexed
|
|
| adj.不知所措的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
almighty
|
|
| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
attentively
|
|
| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
paraphrasing
|
|
| v.释义，意译( paraphrase的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
scripture
|
|
| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
savages
|
|
| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
shaft
|
|
| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
fray
|
|
| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
proffered
|
|
| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
mariners
|
|
| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
seamen
|
|
| n.海员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
rascals
|
|
| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
ruse
|
|
| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
pillage
|
|
| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
slain
|
|
| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
eminence
|
|
| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
knoll
|
|
| n.小山，小丘 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
delusion
|
|
| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
mound
|
|
| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
kindling
|
|
| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
prospect
|
|
| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
pounced
|
|
| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
futile
|
|
| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |