The mysterious struggle was going on with confused thuds of bare feet, in a mute wrestling match, no human sound, hiss8, groan9, murmur10, or exclamation11 coming through the curtain. A chair fell over, not with a crash but lightly, as if just grazed, and a faint metallic12 ring of the tin bath succeeded. Finally the tense silence, as of two adversaries13 locked in a deadly grip, was ended by the heavy, dull thump14 of a soft body flung against the inner partition of planks15. It seemed to shake the whole bungalow16. By that time, walking backward, his eyes, his very throat, strained with fearful excitement, his extended arm still pointing at the curtain, Wang had disappeared through the back door. Once out in the compound, he bolted round the end of the house. Emerging innocently between the two bungalows17 he lingered and lounged in the open, where anybody issuing from any of the dwellings18 was bound to see him — a self-possessed Chinaman idling there, with nothing but perhaps an unserved breakfast on his mind.
It was at this time that Wang made up his mind to give up all connection with Number One, a man not only disarmed19 but already half vanquished20. Till that morning he had had doubts as to his course of action, but this overheard scuffle decided21 the question. Number One was a doomed22 man — one of those beings whom it is unlucky to help. Even as he walked in the open with a fine air of unconcern, Wang wondered that no sound of any sort was to be heard inside the house. For all he knew, the white woman might have been scuffling in there with an evil spirit, which had of course killed her. For nothing visible came out of the house he watched out of the slanting comer of his eye. The sunshine and the silence outside the bungalow reigned23 undisturbed.
But in the house the silence of the big room would not have struck an acute ear as perfect. It was troubled by a stir so faint that it could hardly be called a ghost of whispering from behind the curtain.
Ricardo, feeling his throat with tender care, breathed out admiringly:
“You have fingers like steel. Jimminy! You have muscles like a giant!”
Luckily for Lena, Ricardo’s onset24 had been so sudden — she was winding25 her two heavy tresses round her head — that she had no time to lower her arms. This, which saved them from being pinned to her sides, gave her a better chance to resist. His spring had nearly thrown her down. Luckily, again, she was standing26 so near the wall that, though she was driven against it headlong, yet the shock was not heavy enough to knock all the breath out of her body. On the contrary, it helped her first instinctive27 attempt to drive her assailant backward.
After the first gasp28 of a surprise that was really too over-powering for a cry, she was never in doubt of the nature of her danger. She defended herself in the full, clear knowledge of it, from the force of instinct which is the true source of every great display of energy, and with a determination which could hardly have been expected from a girl who, cornered in a dim corridor by the red-faced, stammering29 Schomberg, had trembled with shame, disgust, and fear; had drooped30, terrified, before mere31 words spluttered out odiously32 by a man who had never in his life laid his big paw on her.
This new enemy’s attack was simple, straightforward33 violence. It was not the slimy, underhand plotting to deliver her up like a slave, which had sickened her heart and had made her feel in her loneliness that her oppressors were too many for her. She was no longer alone in the world now. She resisted without a moment of faltering34, because she was no longer deprived of moral support; because she was a human being who counted; because she was no longer defending herself for herself alone; because of the faith that had been born in her — the faith in the man of her destiny, and perhaps in the Heaven which had sent him so wonderfully to cross her path.
She had defended herself principally by maintaining a desperate, murderous clutch on Ricardo’s windpipe, till she felt a sudden relaxation35 of the terrific hug in which he stupidly and ineffectually persisted to hold her. Then with a supreme36 effort of her arms and of her suddenly raised knee, she sent him flying against the partition. The cedar-wood chest stood in the way, and Ricardo, with a thump which boomed hollow through the whole bungalow, fell on it in a sitting posture37, half strangled, and exhausted38 not so much by the efforts as by the emotions of the struggle.
With the recoil39 of her exerted strength, she too reeled, staggered back, and sat on the edge of the bed. Out of breath, but calm and unabashed, she busied herself in readjusting under her arms the brown and yellow figured Celebes sarong, the tuck of which had come undone40 during the fight. Then, folding her bare arms tightly on her breast, she leaned forward on her crossed legs, determined41 and without fear.
Ricardo, leaning forward too, his nervous force gone, crestfallen42 like a beast of prey43 that has missed its spring, met her big grey eyes looking at him — wide open, observing, mysterious — from under the dark arches of her courageous44 eyebrows45. Their faces were not a foot apart. He ceased feeling about his aching throat and dropped the palms of his hands heavily on his knees. He was not looking at her bare shoulders, at her strong arms; he was looking down at the floor. He had lost one of his straw slippers46. A chair with a white dress on it had been overturned. These, with splashes of water on the floor out of a brusquely misplaced sponge-bath, were the only traces of the struggle.
Ricardo swallowed twice consciously, as if to make sure of his throat before he spoke47 again:
“All right. I never meant to hurt you — though I am no joker when it comes to it.”
He pulled up the leg of his pyjamas48 to exhibit the strapped49 knife. She glanced at it without moving her head, and murmured with scornful bitterness:
“Ah, yes — with that thing stuck in my side. In no other way.”
He shook his head with a shamefaced smile.
“Listen! I am quiet now. Straight — I am. I don’t need to explain why — you know how it is. And I can see, now, this wasn’t the way with you.”
She made no sound. Her still, upward gaze had a patient, mournfulness which troubled him like a suggestion of an inconceivable depth. He added thoughtfully:
“You are not going to make a noise about this silly try of mine?”
She moved her head the least bit.
“Jee-miny! You are a wonder —” he murmured earnestly, relieved more than she could have guessed.
Of course, if she had attempted to run out, he would have stuck the knife between her shoulders, to stop her screaming; but all the fat would have been in the fire, the business utterly50 spoiled, and the rage of the governor — especially when he learned the cause — boundless51. A woman that does not make a noise after an attempt of that kind has tacitly condoned52 the offence. Ricardo had no small vanities. But clearly, if she would pass it over like this, then he could not be so utterly repugnant to her. He felt flattered. And she didn’t seem afraid of him either. He already felt almost tender towards the girl — that plucky53, fine girl who had not tried to run screaming from him.
“We shall be friends yet. I don’t give you up. Don’t think it. Friends as friends can be!” he whispered confidently. “Jee-miny! You aren’t a tame one. Neither am I. You will find that out before long.”
He could not know that if she had not run out, it was because that morning, under the sum of growing uneasiness at the presence of the incomprehensible visitors, Heyst had confessed to her that it was his revolver he had been looking for in the night; that it was gone, that he was a disarmed, defenceless man. She had hardly comprehended the meaning of his confession55. Now she understood better what it meant. The effort of her self-control, her stillness, impressed Ricardo. Suddenly she spoke:
“What are you after?”
He did not raise his eyes. His hands reposing56 on his knees, his drooping57 head, something reflective in his pose, suggested the weariness of a simple soul, the fatigue58 of a mental rather than physical contest. He answered the direct question by a direct statement, as if he were too tired to dissemble:
“After the swag.”
The word was strange to her. The veiled ardour of her grey gaze from under the dark eyebrows never left Ricardo’s.
“A swag?” she murmured quietly. “What’s that?”
“Why, swag, plunder59 — what your gentleman has been pinching right and left for years — the pieces. Don’t you know? This!”
Without looking up, he made the motion of counting money into the palm of his hand. She lowered her eyes slightly to observe this bit of pantomime, but returned them to his face at once. Then, in a mere breath:
“How do you know anything about him?” she asked, concealing60 her puzzled alarm. “What has it got to do with you?”
“Everything,” was Ricardo’s concise61 answer, in a low, emphatic62 whisper. He reflected that this girl was really his best hope. Out of the unfaded impression of past violence there was growing the sort of sentiment which prevents a man from being indifferent to a woman he has once held in his arms — if even against her will — and still more so if she has pardoned the outrage63. It becomes then a sort of bond. He felt positively64 the need to confide54 in her — a subtle trait of masculinity, this almost physical need of trust which can exist side by side with the most brutal65 readiness of suspicion.
“It’s a game of grab — see?” he went on, with a new inflection of intimacy66 in his murmur. He was looking straight at her now.
“That fat, tame slug of a gin-slinger, Schomberg, put us up to it.”
So strong is the impression of helpless and persecuted67 misery68, that the girl who had fought down a savage69 assault without faltering could not completely repress a shudder70 at the mere sound of the abhorred71 name.
Ricardo became more rapid and confidential72:
“He wants to pay him off — pay both of you, at that; so he told me. He was hot after you. He would have given all he had into those hands of yours that have nearly strangled me. But you couldn’t, eh? Nohow — what?” He paused. “So, rather than — you followed a gentleman?”
He noticed a slight movement of her head and spoke quickly.
“Same here — rather than be a wage-slave. Only these foreigners aren’t to be trusted. You’re too good for him. A man that will rob his best chum?” She raised her head. He went on, well pleased with his progress, whispering hurriedly: “Yes. I know all about him. So you may guess how he’s likely to treat a woman after a bit!”
He did not know that he was striking terror into her breast now. Still the grey eyes remained fixed on him unmovably watchful6, as if sleepy under the white forehead. She was beginning to understand. His words conveyed a definite, dreadful meaning to her mind, which he proceeded to enlighten further in a convinced murmur.
“You and I are made to understand each other. Born alike, bred alike, I guess. You are not tame. Same here! You have been chucked out into this rotten world of ‘yporcrits. Same here!”
Her stillness, her appalled73 stillness, wore to him an air of fascinated attention. He asked abruptly74:
“Where is it?”
She made an effort to breathe out:
“Where’s what?”
His tone expressed excited secrecy75.
“The swag — plunder — pieces. It’s a game of grab. We must have it; but it isn’t easy, and so you will have to lend a hand. Come! is it kept in the house?”
As often with women, her wits were sharpened by the very terror of the glimpsed menace. She shook her head negatively.
“No.”
“Sure?”
“Sure,” she said.
“Ay! Thought so. Does your gentleman trust you?”
Again she shook her head.
“Blamed ‘yporcrit,” he said feelingly, and then reflected: “He’s one of the tame ones, ain’t he?”
“You had better find out for yourself,” she said.
“You trust me. I don’t want to die before you and I have made friends.” This was said with a strange air of feline76 gallantry. Then, tentatively: “But he could be brought to trust you, couldn’t he?”
“Trust me?” she said, in a tone which bordered on despair, but which he mistook for derision.
“Stand in with us,” he urged. “Give the chuck to all this blamed ‘yporcrisy. Perhaps, without being trusted, you have managed to find out something already, eh?”
“Perhaps I have,” she uttered with lips that seemed to her to be freezing fast.
Ricardo now looked at her calm face with something like respect. He was even a little awed77 by her stillness, by her economy of words. Womanlike, she felt the effect she had produced, the effect of knowing much and of keeping all her knowledge in reserve. So far, somehow, this had come, about of itself. Thus encouraged, directed in the way of duplicity, the refuge of the weak, she made a heroically conscious effort and forced her stiff, cold lips into a smile.
Duplicity — the refuge of the weak and the cowardly, but of the disarmed, too! Nothing stood between the enchanted78 dream of her existence and a cruel catastrophe79 but her duplicity. It seemed to her that the man sitting there before her was an unavoidable presence, which had attended all her life. He was the embodied80 evil of the world. She was not ashamed of her duplicity. With a woman’s frank courage, as soon as she saw that opening she threw herself into it without reserve, with only one doubt — that of her own strength. She was appalled by the situation; but already all her aroused femininity, understanding that whether Heyst loved her or not she loved him, and feeling that she had brought this on his head, faced the danger with a passionate81 desire to defend her own.
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1
philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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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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careworn
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| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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watchfulness
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| 警惕，留心； 警觉（性） | |
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hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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bungalows
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| n.平房( bungalow的名词复数 )；单层小屋，多于一层的小屋 | |
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dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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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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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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stammering
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
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30
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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odiously
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| Odiously | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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pyjamas
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| n.（宽大的）睡衣裤 | |
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49
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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51
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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52
condoned
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| v.容忍，宽恕，原谅( condone的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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54
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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55
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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56
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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57
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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58
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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59
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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60
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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61
concise
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| adj.简洁的，简明的 | |
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62
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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66
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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67
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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68
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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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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70
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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71
abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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72
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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appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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74
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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75
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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feline
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| adj.猫科的 | |
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awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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79
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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80
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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81
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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