?It's a Tong sign.? His voice sounded interested. ?The Red Lightning Tong. Unusual to find anyone but a full-blooded Chinaman being a member. It's not the usual semi-religious organization. This is entirely7 criminal. Station H had dealings with it once. They're represented in Hong Kong, but their headquarters are across the bay in Macao. Station H paid big money to get a courier service running into Peking. Worked like a dream, so they gave the line a trial with some heavy stuff. It bounced, badly. Lost a couple of H's top men. It was a double-cross. Turned out that Redland had some sort of a deal with these people. Hell of a mess. Since then they've cropped up from time to time in drugs, gold smuggling8 to India, and top-bracket white slavery. They're big people. We'd be interested if you've got any kind of a line.?
Bond said, ?Thanks, Records. No, I've got nothing definite. First time I've heard of these Red Lightning people. Let you know if anything develops. So long.?
Bond thoughtfully put back the receiver. How interesting! Now what the hell could this man be doing at Shrublands? Bond walked out of the booth. A movement in the next booth caught his eye. Count Lippe, his back to Bond, had just picked up the receiver. How long had he been in there? Had he heard Bond's inquiry9? Or his comment? Bond had the crawling sensation at the pit of his stomach he knew so well-the signal that he had probably made a dangerous and silly mistake. He glanced at his watch. It was seven-thirty. He walked through the lounge to the sun parlor10 where ?dinner? was being served. He gave his name to the elderly woman with a wardress face behind a long counter. She consulted a list and ladled hot vegetable soup into a plastic mug. Bond took the mug. He said anxiously, ?Is that all??
The woman didn't smile. She said severely11, ?You're lucky. You Wouldn't be getting as much on Starvation. And you may have soup every day at midday and two cups of tea at four o'clock.?
Bond gave her a bitter smile. He took the horrible mug over to one of the little café tables near the windows overlooking the dark lawn and sat down and sipped12 the thin soup while he watched some of his fellow inmates13 meandering14 aimlessly, weakly, through the room. Now he felt a grain of sympathy for the wretches15. Now he was a member of their club. Now he had been initiated16. He drank the soup down to the last neat cube of carrot and walked abstractedly off to his room, thinking of Count Lippe, thinking of sleep, but above all thinking of his empty stomach.
After two days of this, Bond felt terrible. He had a permanent slight nagging17 headache, the whites of his eyes had turned rather yellow, and his tongue was deeply furred. His masseur told him not to worry. This was as it should be. These were the poisons leaving his body. Bond, now a permanent prey18 to lassitude, didn't argue. Nothing seemed to matter any more but the single orange and hot water for breakfast, the mugs of hot soup, and the cups of tea which Bond filled with spoonfuls of brown sugar, the only variety that had Mr. Wain's sanction.
On the third day, after the massage19 and the shock of the sitz baths, Bond had on his program ?Osteopathic Manipulation and Traction6.? He was directed to a new section of the basement, withdrawn20 and silent. When he opened the designated door he expected to find some hairy H-man waiting for him with flexed21 muscles. (H-man, he had discovered, stood for Health-man. It was the smart thing to call oneself if you were a naturopath.) He stopped in his tracks. The girl, Patricia something, whom he had not set eyes on since his first day, stood waiting for him beside the couch. He closed the door behind him and said, ?Good lord. Is this what you do??
She was used to this reaction of the men patients and rather touchy22 about it. She didn't smile. She said in a business-like voice, ?Nearly ten per cent of osteopaths are women. Take off your clothes, please. Everything except your shorts.? When Bond had amusedly obeyed she told him to stand in front of her. She walked round him, examining him with eyes in which there was nothing but professional interest. Without commenting on his scars she told him to lie face downward on the couch and, with strong, precise, and thoroughly23 practiced holds, went through the handling and joint-cracking of her profession.
Bond soon realized that she was an extremely powerful girl. His muscled body, admittedly unresistant, seemed to be easy going for her. Bond felt a kind of resentment24 at the neutrality of this relationship between an attractive girl and a half-naked man. At the end of the treatment she told him to stand up and clasp his hands behind her neck. Her eyes, a few inches away from his, held nothing but professional concentration. She hauled strongly away from him, presumably with the object of freeing his vertebrae. This was too much for Bond. At the end of it, when she told him to release his hands, he did nothing of the sort. He tightened25 them, pulled her head sharply toward him, and kissed her full on the lips. She ducked quickly down through his arms and straightened herself, her cheeks red and her eyes shining with anger. Bond smiled at her, knowing that he had never missed a slap in the face, and a hard one at that, by so little. He said, ?It's all very well, but I just had to do it. You shouldn't have a mouth like that if you're going to be an osteopath.?
The anger in her eyes subsided26 a fraction. She said, ?The last time that happened, the man had to leave by the next train.?
Bond laughed. He made a threatening move toward her. ?If I thought there was any hope of being kicked out of this damn place I'd kiss you again.?
She said, ?Don't be silly. Now pick up your things. You've got half an hour's traction.? She smiled grimly. ?That ought to keep you quiet.?
Bond said morosely27, ?Oh, all right. But only on condition you let me take you out on your next day off.?
?We'll see about that. It depends how you behave at the next treatment.? She held open the door. Bond picked up his clothes and went out, almost colliding with a man coming down the passage. It was Count Lippe, in slacks and a gay windcheater. He ignored Bond. With a smile and a slight bow he said to the girl, ?Here comes the lamb to the slaughter28. I hope you're not feeling too strong today.? His eyes twinkled charmingly.
The girl said briskly, ?Just get ready, please. I shan't be a moment putting Mr. Bond on the traction table.? She moved off down the passage with Bond following.
She opened the door of a small anteroom, told Bond to put his things down on a chair, and pulled aside plastic curtains that formed a partition. Just inside the curtains was an odd-looking kind of surgical29 couch in leather and gleaming aluminum30. Bond didn't like the look of it at all. While the girl fiddled31 with a series of straps32 attached to three upholstered sections that appeared to be on runners, Bond examined the contraption suspiciously. Below the couch was a stout33 electric motor on which a plate announced that this was the Hercules Motorized Traction Table. A power drive in the shape of articulated rods stretched upward from the motor to each of the three cushioned sections of the couch and terminated in tension screws to which the three sets of straps were attached. In front of the raised portion where the patient's head would lie, and approximately level with his face, was a large dial marked in lbs.-pressure up to 200. After 150 lbs. the numerals were in red. Below the headrest were grips for the patient's hands. Bond noted34 gloomily that the leather on the grips was stained with, presumably, sweat.
?Lie face downward here, please.? The girl held the straps ready. Bond said obstinately35, ?Not until you tell me what this thing does. I don't like the look of it.?
The girl said patiently, ?This is simply a machine for stretching your spine36. You've got mild spinal37 lesions. It will help to free those. And at the base of your spine you've got some right sacroiliac strain. It'll help that too. You won't find it bad at all. Just a stretching sensation. It's very soothing38, really. Quite a lot of patients fall asleep.?
?This one won't,? said Bond firmly. ?What strength are you going to give me? Why are those top figures in red? Are you sure I'm not going to be pulled apart??
The girl said with a touch of impatience39, ?Don't be silly. Of course if there was too much tension it might be dangerous. But I shall be starting you only at 90 pounds and in a quarter of an hour I shall come and see how you're getting on and probably put you up to 120. Now come along. I've got another patient waiting.?
Reluctantly Bond climbed up on the couch and lay on his face with his nose and mouth buried in a deep cleft40 in the headrest. He said, his voice muffled41 by the leather, ?If you kill me, I'll sue.?
He felt the straps being tightened round his chest and then round his hips42. The girl's skirt brushed the side of his face as she bent43 to reach the control lever beside the big dial. The motor began to whine44. The straps tightened and then relaxed, tightened and relaxed. Bond felt as if his body was being stretched by giant hands. It was a curious sensation, but not unpleasant. With difficulty Bond raised his head. The needle on the dial stood at 90. Now the machine was making a soft iron hee-hawing, like a mechanical donkey, as the gears alternatively engaged and disengaged to produce the rhythmic45 traction. ?Are you all right??
?Yes.? He heard the girl pass through the plastic curtains and then the click of the outer door. Bond abandoned himself to the soft feel of the leather at his face, to the relentless46 intermittent47 haul on his spine and to the hypnotic whine and drone of the machine. It really wasn't too bad. How silly to have had nerves about it!
A quarter of an hour later he heard again the click of the outside door and the swish of the curtains.
?All right??
?Fine.?
The girl's hand came into his line of vision as she turned the lever. Bond raised his head. The needle crept up to 120. Now the pull was really hard and the voice of the machine was much louder.
The girl put her head down to his. She laid a reassuring48 hand on his shoulder. She said, her voice loud above the noise of the gears, ?Only another quarter of an hour to go.?
?All right.? Bond's voice was careful. He was probing the new strength of the giant haul on his body. The curtains swished. Now the click of the outside door was drowned by the noise of the machine. Slowly Bond relaxed again into the arms of the rhythm.
It was perhaps five minutes later when a tiny movement of the air against his face made Bond open his eyes. In front of his eyes was a hand, a man's hand, reaching softly for the lever of the accelerator. Bond watched it, at first fascinated, and then with dawning horror as the lever was slowly depressed49 and the straps began to haul madly at his body. He shouted-something, he didn't know what. His whole body was racked with a great pain. Desperately50 he lifted his head and shouted again. On the dial, the needle was trembling at 200! His head dropped back, exhausted51. Through a mist of sweat he watched the hand softly release the lever. The hand paused and turned slowly so that the back of the wrist was just below his eyes. In the center of the wrist was the little red sign of the zigzag52 and the two bisecting lines. A voice said quietly, close up against his ear, ?You will not meddle53 again, my friend.? Then there was nothing but the great whine and groan54 of the machine and the bite of the straps that were tearing his body in half. Bond began to scream, weakly, while the sweat poured from him and dripped off the leather cushions onto the floor. Then suddenly there was blackness.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
eviscerated
|
|
| v.切除…的内脏( eviscerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
indignities
|
|
| n.侮辱，轻蔑( indignity的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
civilized
|
|
| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
bugged
|
|
| vt.在…装窃听器（bug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
Portuguese
|
|
| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
traction
|
|
| n.牵引；附着摩擦力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
smuggling
|
|
| n.走私 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
inquiry
|
|
| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
parlor
|
|
| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
sipped
|
|
| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
inmates
|
|
| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
meandering
|
|
| 蜿蜒的河流，漫步，聊天 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
wretches
|
|
| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
initiated
|
|
| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
nagging
|
|
| adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
massage
|
|
| n.按摩，揉；vt.按摩，揉，美化，奉承，篡改数据 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
withdrawn
|
|
| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
flexed
|
|
| adj.[医]曲折的，屈曲v.屈曲( flex的过去式和过去分词 )；弯曲；（为准备大干而）显示实力；摩拳擦掌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
touchy
|
|
| adj.易怒的；棘手的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
resentment
|
|
| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
tightened
|
|
| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
subsided
|
|
| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
morosely
|
|
| adv.愁眉苦脸地，忧郁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
slaughter
|
|
| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
surgical
|
|
| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
aluminum
|
|
| n.(aluminium)铝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
fiddled
|
|
| v.伪造( fiddle的过去式和过去分词 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
straps
|
|
| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
obstinately
|
|
| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
spine
|
|
| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
spinal
|
|
| adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
soothing
|
|
| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
impatience
|
|
| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
cleft
|
|
| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
muffled
|
|
| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
hips
|
|
| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
whine
|
|
| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
rhythmic
|
|
| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
relentless
|
|
| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
intermittent
|
|
| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
reassuring
|
|
| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
depressed
|
|
| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
desperately
|
|
| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
zigzag
|
|
| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
meddle
|
|
| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
groan
|
|
| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |