s, I fancy one could manage to forgive it. For my part, I declare I am unable to imagine him guilty of anything much worse than robbing an orchard14. Is it much worse? Perhaps you ought to have told me; but it is such a long time since we both turned saints that you may have forgotten we too had sinned in our time? It may be that some day I shall have to ask you, and then I shall expect to be told. I don't care to question him myself till I have some idea what it is. Moreover, it's too soon as yet. Let him open the door afew times more for me...." Thus my friend. I was trebly pleased -at Jim's shaping so well, at the tone of the letter, at my own cleverness. Evidently I had known what I was doing. I had read characters aright, and so on. And what if something unexpected and wonderful were to come of it? That evening, reposing15 in a deck-chair under the shade of my own poop awning16 (it was in Hong-Kong harbour), I laid on Jim's behalf the first stone of a castle in Spain.
'I made a trip to the northward17, and when I returned I found another letter from my friend waiting for me. It was the first envelope I tore open. "There are no spoons missing, as far as I know," ran the first line; "I haven't been interested enough to inquire. He is gone, leaving on the breakfast-table a formal little note of apology, which is either silly or heartless. Probably both -- and it's all one to me. Allow me to say, lest you should have some more mysterious young men in reserve, that I have shut up shop, definitely and for ever. This is the last eccentricity I shall be guilty of. Do not imagine for a moment that I care a hang; but he is very much regretted at tennis-parties, and for my own sake I've told a plausible18 lie at the club...." I flung the letter aside and started looking through the batch19 on my table, till I came upon Jim's handwriting. Would you believe it? One chance in a hundred! But it is always that hundredth chance! That little second engineer of the Patna had turned up in a more or less destitute20 state, and got a temporary job of looking after the machinery21 of the mill. "I couldn't stand the familiarity of the little beast," Jim wrote from a seaport22 seven hundred miles south of the place where he should have been in clover. "I am now for the time with Egstrom & Blake, ship-chandlers, as their -- well -runner, to call the thing by its right name. For reference I gave them your name, which they know of course, and if you could write a word in my favour it would be a permanent employment." I was utterly23 crushed under the ruins of my castle, but of course I wrote as desired. Before the end of the year my new charter took me that way, and I had an opportunity of seeing him.
'He was still with Egstrom & Blake, and we met in what they called "our parlour" opening out of the store. He had that moment come in from boarding a ship, and confronted me head down, ready for a tussle24. "What have you got to say for yourself?" I began as soon as we had shaken hands. "What I wrote you -- nothing more," he said stubbornly. "Did the fellow blab -- or what?" I asked. He looked up at me with a troubled smile. "Ohno! He didn't. He made it a kind of confidential25 business between us. He was most damnably mysterious whenever I came over to the mill; he would wink26 at me in a respectful manner -- as much as to say 'We know what we know.' Infernally fawning27 and familiar - -and that sort of thing . . ." He threw himself into a chair and stared down his legs. "One day we happened to be alone and the fellow had the cheek to say, 'Well, Mr. James' -- I was called Mr. James there as if I had been the son -'here we are together once more. This is better than the old ship -ain't it?' . . . Wasn't it appalling28, eh? I looked at him, and he put on a knowing air. 'Don't you be uneasy, sir,' he says. 'I know a gentleman when I see one, and I know how a gentleman feels. I hope, though, you will be keeping me on this job. I had a hard time of it too, along of that rotten old Patna racket.' Jove! It was awful. I don't know what I should have said or done if I had not just then heard Mr. Denver calling me in the passage. It was tiffin-time, and we walked together across the yard and through the garden to the bungalow29. He began to chaff30 me in his kindly31 way . . . I believe he liked me . . ."
'Jim was silent for a while.
' "I know he liked me. That's what made it so hard. Such a splendid man! . . . That morning he slipped his hand under my arm.... He, too, was familiar with me." He burst into a short laugh, and dropped his chin on his breast. "Pah! When I remembered how that mean little beast had been talking to me," he began suddenly in a vibrating voice, "I couldn't bear to think of myself ... I suppose you know ..." I nodded.... "More like a father," he cried; his voice sank. "I would have had to tell him. I couldn't let it go on -- could I?" "Well?" I murmured, after waiting a while. "I preferred to go," he said slowly; "this thing must be buried."
'We could hear in the shop Blake upbraiding32 Egstrom in an abusive, strained voice. They had been associated for many years, and every day from the moment the doors were opened to the last minute before closing, Blake, a little man with sleek33, jetty hair and unhappy, beady eyes, could be heard rowing his partner incessantly34 with a sort of scathing35 and plaintive36 fury. The sound of that everlasting37 scolding was part of the place like the other fixtures38; even strangers would very soon come to disregard it completely unless it be perhaps to mutter "Nuisance," or to get up suddenly and shut the door of the "parlour." Egstrom himself, a raw-boned, heavy Scandinavian, with a busy manner and immense blonde whiskers, went on directing his people, checking parcels, making out bills or writing letters at a stand-up desk in the shop, and comported39 himself in that clatter40 exactly as though he had been stone-deaf. Now and again he would emit a bothered perfunctory "Sssh," which neither produced nor was expected to produce the slightest effect. "They are very decent to me here," said Jim. "Blake's a little cad, but Egstrom's all right." He stood up quickly, and walking with measured steps to a tripod telescope standing41 in the window and pointed42 at the roadstead, he applied43 his eye to it. "There's that ship which has been becalmed outside all the morning has got a breeze now and is coming in," he remarked patiently; "I must go and board." We shook hands in silence, and he turned to go. "Jim!" I cried. He looked round with his hand on the lock. "You -- you have thrown away something like a fortune." He came back to me all the way from the door. "Such a splendid old chap," he said. "How could I? How could I?" His lips twitched44. "Here it does not matter." "Oh! you -- you --" I began, and had to cast about for a suitable word, but before I became aware that there was no name that would just do, he was gone. I heard outside Egstrom's deep gentle voice saying cheerily, "That's the Sar ah W. Granger, Jimmy. You must manage to be firs
t aboard"; and directly Blake struck in, screaming after the manner of an outraged45 cockatoo, "Tell the captain we've got some of his mail here. That'll fetch him. D'ye hear, Mister What's-your-name?" And there was Jim answering Egstrom with something boyish in his tone. "All right. I'll make a race of it." He seemed to take refuge in the boat-sailing part of that sorry business.
'I did not see him again that trip, but on my next (I had a six months' charter) I went up to the store. Ten yards away from the door Blake's scolding met my ears, and when I came in he gave me a glance of utter wretchedness; Egstrom, all smiles, advanced, extending a large bony hand. "Glad to see you, captain.... Sssh.... Been thinking you were about due back here. What did you say, sir? ... Sssh.... Oh! him! He has left us. Come into the parlour." . . . After the slam of the door Blake's strained voice became faint, as the voice of one scolding desperately46 in a wilderness47.... "Put us to a great inconvenience, too. Used us badly -- I must say . . ." "Where's he gone to? Do you know?" I asked. "No. It's no use asking either," said Egstrom, standing bewhiskered and obliging before me with his arms hanging down his sides clumsily, and a thin silver watch-chain looped very low on a rucked-up blue serge waistcoat. "A man like that don't go anywhere in particular." I was too concerned at the news to ask for the explanation of that pronouncement, and he went on. "He left -- let's see -- the very day a steamer with returning pilgrims from the Red Sea put in here with two blades of her propeller48 gone. Three weeks ago now." "Wasn't there something said about the Patna case?" I asked, fearing the worst. He gave a start, and looked at me as if I had been a sorcerer. "Why, yes! How do you know? Some of them were talking about it here. There was a captain or two, the manager of Vanlo's engineering shop at the harbour, two or three others, and myself. Jim was in here too, having a sandwich and a glass of beer; when we are busy -- you see, captain -- there's no time for a proper tiffin. He was standing by this table eating sandwiches, and the rest of us were round the telescope watching that steamer come in; and by-and-by Vanlo's manager began to talk about the chief of the Patna; he had done some repairs for him once, and from that he went on to tell us what an old ruin she w as, and the money that had been made out of her.
He came to mention her last voyage, and then we all struck in. Some said one thing and some another -- not'much -- what you or any other man might say; and there was some laughing. Captain O'Brien of the Sarah W. Granger, a large, noisy old man with a stick -- he was sitting listening to us in this arm-chair here -he let drive suddenly with his stick at the floor, and roars out, 'Skunks49!' . . . Made us all jump. Vanlo's manager winks50 at us and asks, 'What's the matter, Captain O'Brien?' 'Matter! matter!' the old man began to shout; 'what are you Injuns laughing at? It's no laughing matter. It's a disgrace to human natur' -- that's what it is. I would despise being seen in the same room with one of those men. Yes, sir!' He seemed to catch my eye like, and I had to speak out of civility. 'Skunks!' says I, 'of course, Captain O'Brien, and I wouldn't care to have them here myself, so you're quite safe in this room, Captain O'Brien. Have a little something cool to drink.' 'Dam' your drink, Egstrom,' says he, with a twinkle in his eye; 'when I want a drink I will shout for it. I am going to quit. It stinks51 here now.' At this all the others burst out laughing, and out they go after the old man. And then, sir, that blasted Jim he puts down the sandwich he had in his hand and walks round the table to me; there was his glass of beer poured out quite full. 'I am off,' he says just like this. 'It isn't half-past one yet,' says I; 'you might snatch a smoke first.' I thought he meant it was time for him to go down to his work. When I understood what he was up to, my arms fell -so! Can't get a man like that every day, you know, sir; a regular devil for sailing a boat; ready to go out miles to sea to meet ships in any sort of weather. More than once a captain would come in here full of it, and the first thing he would say would be, 'That's a reckless sort of a lunatic you've got for water-clerk, Egstrom. I was feeling my way in at d aylight under short canvas when there comes flying out of the mist right under my forefoot a boa
t half under water, sprays going over the mast-head, two frightened niggers on the bottom boards, a yelling fiend at the tiller. Hey! hey! Ship ahoy! ahoy! Captain! Hey! hey! Egstrom & Blake's man first to speak to you! Hey! hey! Egstrom & Blake! Hallo! hey! whoop52! Kick the niggers -- out reefs -- a squall on at the time -- shoots ahead whooping53 and yelling to me to make sail and he would give me a lead in -more like a demon54 than a man. Never saw a boat handled like that in all my life. Couldn't have been drunk -- was he? Such a quiet, softspoken chap too -- blush like a girl when he came on board.... ' I tell you, Captain Marlow, nobody had a chance against us with a strange ship when Jim was out. The other ship-chandlers just kept their old customers, and . . ."
'Egstrom appeared overcome with emotion.
' "Why, sir -- it seemed as though he wouldn't mind going a hundred miles out to sea in an old shoe to nab a ship for the firm. If the business had been his own and all to make yet, he couldn't have done more in that way. And now . . . all at once . . . like this! Thinks I to myself: 'Oho! a rise in the screw -- that's the trouble -is it?' 'All right,' says I, 'no need of all that fuss with me, Jimmy. Just mention your figure. Anything in reason.' He looks at me as if he wanted to swallow something that stuck in his throat. 'I can't stop with you.' 'What's that blooming joke?' I asks. He shakes his head, and I could see in his eye he was as good as gone already, sir. So I turned to him and slanged him till all was blue. 'What is it you're running away from?' I asks. 'Who has been getting at you? What scared you? You haven't as much sense as a rat; they don't clear out from a good ship. Where do you expect to get a better berth55? -- you this and you that.' I made him look sick, I can tell you. 'This business ain't going to sink,' says I. He gave a big jump. 'Good-bye,' he says, nodding at me like a lord; 'you ain't half a bad chap, Egstrom. I give you my word that if you knew my reasons you wouldn't care to keep me.' 'That's the biggest lie you ever told in your life,' says I; 'I know my own mind.' He made me so mad that I had to laugh. 'Can't you really stop long enough to drink this glass of beer here, you funny beggar, you?' I don't know what came over him; he didn't seem able to find the door; something comical, I can tell you, captain. I drank the beer myself. 'Well, if you're in such a hurry, here's luck to you in your own drink,' says I; 'only, you mark my words, if you keep up this game you'll very soon find that the earth ain't big enough to hold you -- that's all.' He gave me one black look, and out he rushed with a face fit to scare little children."
'Egstrom snorted bitterly, and combed one auburn whisker with knotty56 fingers. "Haven't been able to get a man that was any good since. It's nothing but worry, worry, worry in business. And where might you have come across him, captain, if it's fair to ask?"
' "He was the mate of the Patna that voyage," I said, feeling that I owed some explanation. For a time Egstrom remained very still, with his fingers plunged57 in the hair at the side of his face, and then exploded. "And who the devil cares about that?" "I dare say no one," I began . . . "And what the devil is he -- anyhow -- for to go on like this?" He stuffed suddenly his left whisker into his mouth and stood amazed. "Jee!" he exclaimed, "I told him the earth wouldn't be big enough to hold his caper58." '
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1
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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eccentricity
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| n.古怪，反常，怪癖 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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7
blatant
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| adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的 | |
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8
superannuated
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| adj.老朽的，退休的；v.因落后于时代而废除，勒令退学 | |
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9
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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10
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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11
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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12
naiveness
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| 自然； 朴素 | |
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13
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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14
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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15
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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16
awning
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| n.遮阳篷；雨篷 | |
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17
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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18
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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19
batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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20
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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21
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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22
seaport
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| n.海港，港口，港市 | |
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23
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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24
tussle
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| n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩 | |
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25
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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26
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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27
fawning
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| adj.乞怜的，奉承的v.（尤指狗等）跳过来往人身上蹭以示亲热( fawn的现在分词 )；巴结；讨好 | |
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28
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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29
bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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30
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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31
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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32
upbraiding
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| adj.& n.谴责（的）v.责备，申斥，谴责( upbraid的现在分词 ) | |
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33
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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35
scathing
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| adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词) | |
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36
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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38
fixtures
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| （房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动 | |
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39
comported
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| v.表现( comport的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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41
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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42
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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43
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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44
twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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45
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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46
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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47
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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48
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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49
skunks
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| n.臭鼬( skunk的名词复数 )；臭鼬毛皮；卑鄙的人；可恶的人 | |
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50
winks
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| v.使眼色( wink的第三人称单数 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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51
stinks
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| v.散发出恶臭( stink的第三人称单数 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
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52
whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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53
whooping
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| 发嗬嗬声的，发咳声的 | |
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54
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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55
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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56
knotty
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| adj.有结的，多节的，多瘤的，棘手的 | |
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57
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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58
caper
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| v.雀跃，欢蹦；n.雀跃，跳跃；续随子，刺山柑花蕾；嬉戏 | |
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