CHAPTER XXXVI THE SKULLS

One of the negroes, working amidst the bushes, gave a cry, stooped, picked up something, and held it aloft. It was a skull¹.

“Ma foi!” said Sagesse, taking the arm of Gaspard and leading him towards the spot where the negro stood with the skull still raised in air. “Skeleton Island, as you once called this place, does not seem amiss as a name.”

Gaspard, pale to the lips, did not answer. He advanced alongside of Sagesse; he dared not draw back or shew emotion, as the whole of the landing party were trooping around to see what was amidst the bushes. Besides, he had killed Yves accidentally, so he told himself. Why should he falter² at the sight of his bones?

But no logic³ could veil the horror of the thing. To see before you the skull of a man to whom you have talked, with whom you have worked side by side, with whom you have jested, and to know that the skull is your handiwork, your terrible chef-d’oeuvre, that but for you it would be clothed in flesh and filled with soul; that is the most tragic⁴ sight on which the gaze of man can fall.

“Mon Dieu!” said Sagesse, taking the thing from the hands of the negro. “This must then be the skull of the man who landed here with you and whom you left dead—what was his name, do you say?”

“Yves.”

237 “Ah, oui, Yves—” He stirred amidst the bushes with his foot. “And here are Monsieur Yves’ bones. He has soon become a skeleton, Monsieur Yves, but I have seen a man become a skeleton in the tropics in a week. The crabs⁵, the larvae⁶, the sun, all help in the work.” He stooped down and picked up a tobacco-box and a seaman’s belt with knife attached.

“Why, what is this? He had not drawn⁷ his knife!”

“He had drawn it,” said Gaspard, “but I picked it up and put it back in its sheath.”

The onlookers⁸ knew nothing of the tragedy under these words, or of the veiled accusation⁹ in the words of Sagesse; but they noticed that Gaspard was shivering like a man with ague.

“Well,” said Sagesse, “we will keep the belt and knife as mementoes of Monsieur Yves. Here, Jules, take them back to the ship with you when you go, and get a spade and dig a hole in the sand for these bones.”

He turned away, and the men resumed the work of unlading and storing the provisions and gear. By eight bells, noon, everything was completed; the quarterboat was dragged up high on the beach and ready for carting across the islet, and the hands knocked off for dinner. Sagesse and Gaspard ate apart from the others, under the shade of a sail that had been especially rigged for them and would form their tent at night. The white sand near the bushes shewed traces of having been turned over with a spade where the bones of Yves had been buried. Gaspard saw the place, but he did not mind—the treasure-fever had cast everything else to a distance; things seemed strange that were familiar; he had forgotten Sagesse’s disheartening words; his imagination saw the sands covered238 with bags of dollars and bullion¹⁰ cases; he laughed as he ate. But Sagesse did not laugh, scarcely spoke¹¹, and when the meal was over, drew a cigar from his pocket and lit it.

He was sitting in the shadow of the canvas; the sands and the blue sea lay before him. On the sand just before the tent the palm-top shadows were beginning to crawl—it was one o’clock.

As he sat like this, listening to the chanty of the negroes, who were beginning to haul the boat across the island, of a sudden he made an exclamation¹² and struck his knee with his hand.

An idea had evidently occurred to him. He called to Gaspard, who had risen and was walking up and down on the sand outside.

Gaspard approached.

“Well,” said he, “what is it?”

“An idea,” said the Captain. “We have come here, but we have not observed etiquette¹³.”

“Ah, what do you say?” asked Gaspard, who had heard the word in the course of his life, but did not know the meaning.

“We have not called on the proprietor¹⁴ of the place.”

“The proprietor?”

“Simon Serpente.”

“Ah! I had forgotten.”

Sagesse rose to his feet and took Gaspard’s arm.

“Come,” said he, “let’s go and hunt for the gentleman’s remains¹⁵. It would be curious, at all events, to see them. You know where you saw them last?”

“Perfectly,” replied Gaspard, leading the way across the bushes.

The boat was being hauled along on rollers over a path239 cut through the bushes, and the pulley-haul chanty of the negroes crossed with the crying of the gulls¹⁶:
“A Fort de France. Ay ho!
A Fort de France. Ay ho!”

and from the gulls, wearily on the wind:

“Yves—Yves—Yves!”

“It was near here,” said Gaspard.

They had come to the little rise in the ground amidst the bushes, and sure enough his foot, taking its next step forward, struck something hard and hollow.

He bent¹⁷ down and picked it up. It was the skull which was unlike any other skull, either of man or beast.

Sagesse held the thing in his hand for a moment as he glanced round him. At his feet, dimly through the branches of the bay-cedar bushes, he could see the bones of Serpente shining white, half revealed, half hidden.

Then, flinging the skull into the air and catching¹⁸ it again, he burst into a fit of laughter. In a trice his depression had vanished.

“Mordieu!” said Gaspard, “you seem pleased.” “Perhaps. It is as if this thing had said to me, ‘You are wrong. The treasure is on board the ship. Stretch out your hand, my friend, and take it.’”

He cast the skull amidst the bushes and turned to superintend the negroes hauling the boat to the northern beach.

1 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

2 falter   

vi.(嗓音)颤抖，结巴地说；犹豫；蹒跚

参考例句：

• His voice began to falter.他的声音开始发颤。
• As he neared the house his steps faltered.当他走近房子时，脚步迟疑了起来。

3 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

4 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

5 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 larvae   

n.幼虫

参考例句：

• Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
• The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。

7 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

8 onlookers   

n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene of the crash. 在撞车地点聚集了一大群围观者。
• The onlookers stood at a respectful distance. 旁观者站在一定的距离之外，以示尊敬。

9 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。

10 bullion   

n.金条，银条

参考例句：

• In the London bullion market yesterday,the price of gold was steady.昨天伦敦金银市场黄金价格稳定。
• Police have launched a man-hunt for the bullion robbers.警方已大举搜捕抢劫金条的罪犯。

11 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：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

13 etiquette   

n.礼仪，礼节；规矩

参考例句：

• The rules of etiquette are not so strict nowadays.如今的礼仪规则已不那么严格了。
• According to etiquette,you should stand up to meet a guest.按照礼节你应该站起来接待客人。

14 proprietor   

n.所有人；业主；经营者

参考例句：

• The proprietor was an old acquaintance of his.业主是他的一位旧相识。
• The proprietor of the corner grocery was a strange thing in my life.拐角杂货店店主是我生活中的一个怪物。

15 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

16 gulls   

n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A flock of sea gulls are hovering over the deck. 一群海鸥在甲板上空飞翔。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number. 数不清的海鸥在遥远的岩石上栖息。 来自辞典例句

17 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

18 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。