“I say, Martin!”
“Yes, sir.”
“What does this mean?”
“It’s some move. Blame me if I can understand.”
“Too deep for you?” Mr. Jones inquired dryly.
“It’s nothing but some of his infernal impudence,” growled2 the secretary. “You don’t believe all that about the Chink, do you, sir? ‘Tain’t true.”
“It isn’t necessary for it to be true to have a meaning for us. It’s the why of his coming to tell us this tale that’s important.”
“Do you think he made it up to frighten us?” asked Ricardo.
Mr Jones scowled3 at him thoughtfully.
“The man looked worried,” he muttered, as if to himself. “Suppose that Chinaman has really stolen his money! The man looked very worried.”
“Nothing but his artfulness, sir,” protested Ricardo earnestly, for the idea was too disconcerting to entertain. “Is it likely that he would have trusted a Chink with enough knowledge to make it possible?” he argued warmly. “Why, it’s the very thing that he would keep close about. There’s something else there. Ay, but what?”
“Ha, ha, ha!” Mr. Jones let out a ghostly, squeaky laugh. “I’ve never been placed in such a ridiculous position before,” he went on, with a sepulchral4 equanimity5 of tone. “It’s you, Martin, who dragged me into it. However, it’s my own fault too. I ought to — but I was really too bored to use my brain, and yours is not to be trusted. You are a hothead!”
A blasphemous6 exclamation7 of grief escaped from Ricardo. Not to be trusted! Hothead! He was almost tearful.
“Haven’t I heard you, sir, saying more than twenty times since we got fired out from Manila that we should want a lot of capital to work the East Coast with? You were always telling me that to prime properly all them officials and Portuguese8 scallywags we should have to lose heavily at first. Weren’t you always worrying about some means of getting hold of a good lot of cash? It wasn’t to be got hold of by allowing yourself to become bored in that rotten Dutch town and playing a two-penny game with confounded beggarly bank clerks and such like. Well, I’ve brought you here, where there is cash to be got — and a big lot, to a moral,” he added through his set teeth.
Silence fell. Each of them was staring into a different corner of the room. Suddenly, with a slight stamp of his foot, Mr. Jones made for the door. Ricardo caught him up outside.
“Put an arm through mine, sir,” he begged him gently but firmly. “No use giving the game away. An invalid9 may well come out for a breath of fresh air after the sun’s gone down a bit. That’s it, sir. But where do you want to go? Why did you come out, sir?”
Mr Jones stopped short.
“I hardly know myself,” he confessed in a hollow mutter, staring intently at the Number One bungalow10. “It’s quite irrational,” he declared in a still lower tone.
“Better go in, sir,” suggested Ricardo. “What’s that? Those screens weren’t down before. He’s spying from behind them now, I bet — the dodging11, artful, plotting beast!”
“Why not go over there and see if we can’t get to the bottom of this game?” was the unexpected proposal uttered by Mr. Jones. “He will have to talk to us.”
Ricardo repressed a start of dismay, but for a moment could not speak. He only pressed the governor’s hand to his side instinctively12.
“No, sir. What could you say? Do you expect to get to the bottom of his lies? How could you make him talk? It isn’t time yet to come to grips with that gent. You don’t think I would hang back, do you? His Chink, of course, I’ll shoot like a dog the moment I catch sight of him; but as to that Mr. Blasted Heyst, the time isn’t yet. My head’s cooler just now than yours. Let’s go in again. Why, we are exposed here. Suppose he took it into his head to let off a gun on us! He’s an unaccountable, ‘yporcritical skunk13.”
Allowing himself to be persuaded, Mr. Jones returned to his seclusion14. The secretary, however, remained on the veranda15 — for the purpose, he said, of seeing whether that Chink wasn’t sneaking16 around; in which case he proposed to take a long shot at the galoot and chance the consequences. His real reason was that he wanted to be alone, away from the governor’s deep-sunk eyes. He felt a sentimental17 desire to indulge his fancies in solitude18. A great change had come over Mr. Ricardo since that morning. A whole side of him which from prudence19, from necessity, from loyalty20, had been kept dormant21, was aroused now, colouring his thoughts and disturbing his mental poise22 by the vision of such staggering consequences as, for instance, the possibility of an active conflict with the governor. The appearance of the monstrous23 Pedro with his news drew Ricardo out of a feeling of dreaminess wrapped up in a sense of impending24 trouble. A woman? Yes, there was one; and it made all the difference. After driving away Pedro, and watching the white helmets of Heyst and Lena vanishing among the bushes he stood lost in meditation25.
“Where could they be off to like this?” he mentally asked himself.
The answer found by his speculative26 faculties27 on their utmost stretch was — to meet that Chink. For in the desertion of Wang Ricardo did not believe. It was a lying yarn28, the organic part of a dangerous plot. Heyst had gone to combine some fresh move. But then Ricardo felt sure that the girl was with him — the girl full of pluck, full of sense, full of understanding; an ally of his own kind!
He went indoors briskly. Mr. Jones had resumed his cross-legged pose at the head of the bed, with his back against the wall.
“Anything new?”
“No, sir.”
Ricardo walked about the room as if he had no care in the world. He hummed snatches of song. Mr. Jones raised his waspish eyebrows29, at the sound. The secretary got down on his knees before an old leather trunk, and, rummaging30 in there, brought out a small looking-glass. He fell to examining his physiognomy in it with silent absorption.
“I think I’ll shave,” he decided31, getting up.
He gave a sidelong glance to the governor, and repeated it several times during the operation, which did not take long, and even afterwards, when after putting away the implements32, he resumed his walking, humming more snatches of unknown songs. Mr. Jones preserved a complete immobility, his thin lips compressed, his eyes veiled. His face was like a carving33.
“So you would like to try your hand at cards with that skunk, sir?” said Ricardo, stopping suddenly and rubbing his hands.
Mr Jones gave no sign of having heard anything.
“Well, why not? Why shouldn’t he have the experience? You remember in that Mexican town — what’s its name? — the robber fellow they caught in the mountains and condemned34 to be shot? He played cards half the night with the jailer and the sheriff. Well, this fellow is condemned, too. He must give you your game. Hang it all, a gentleman ought to have some little relaxation35! And you have been uncommonly36 patient, sir.”
“You are uncommonly volatile37 all of a sudden,” Mr. Jones remarked in a bored voice. “What’s come to you?”
The secretary hummed for a while, and then said:
“I’ll try to get him over here for you tonight, after dinner. If I ain’t here myself, don’t you worry, sir. I shall be doing a bit of nosing around — see?”
“I see,” sneered38 Mr. Jones languidly. “But what do you expect to see in the dark?”
Ricardo made no answer, and after another turn or two slipped out of the room. He no longer felt comfortable alone with the governor.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
intruded
|
|
| n.侵入的，推进的v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的过去式和过去分词 )；把…强加于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
growled
|
|
| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
scowled
|
|
| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
sepulchral
|
|
| adj.坟墓的，阴深的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
equanimity
|
|
| n.沉着，镇定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
blasphemous
|
|
| adj.亵渎神明的，不敬神的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
exclamation
|
|
| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
Portuguese
|
|
| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
invalid
|
|
| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
bungalow
|
|
| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
dodging
|
|
| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
instinctively
|
|
| adv.本能地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
skunk
|
|
| n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
seclusion
|
|
| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
veranda
|
|
| n.走廊；阳台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
sneaking
|
|
| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
prudence
|
|
| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
dormant
|
|
| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
poise
|
|
| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
impending
|
|
| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
meditation
|
|
| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
speculative
|
|
| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
faculties
|
|
| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
yarn
|
|
| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
eyebrows
|
|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
rummaging
|
|
| 翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
implements
|
|
| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
carving
|
|
| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
condemned
|
|
| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
relaxation
|
|
| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
uncommonly
|
|
| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
volatile
|
|
| adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
sneered
|
|
| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |