“All boys are forbidden to go out of sight of camp, unless a councilor is along,” he ended. “We must take precautions until this dangerous man is captured. Now, to-night we will assemble here in the lodge1, for Stunt2 Night. Every tent-group will be expected to have an act or other stunt prepared, and prizes will go to the winners. Dismissed!”
The groups scattered4 from the mess-hall to their respective tents to pass the daily siesta5 hour which was set aside as a period of rest and quiet from the brisk, noisy turmoil6 of the camp’s activity. Mr. Jim Avery cocked his long legs up on the end of his bunk7 in Tent Ten. “We have the whole afternoon to get ready,” he observed to his followers8. “That should give us plenty of time to work up a first-class stunt that will bring home the prize. Anybody got any ideas?”
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Wild Willie Sanders spoke9 up. “We’ve got an edge on the other tents, haven’t we? Here we are with Chink Towner, the most famous Mandarin10 Magician in captivity11. Say, I’ll bet we can put over a magic show that will knock the rest of the tents silly!”
“How about it, Chink?”
“Sure, that’s right,” Chink Towner agreed modestly. “We could do it, all right. I’ve got a lot of new tricks up my sleeve that nobody ever saw before. The best one, though, needs to have Jerry Utway, and that means we’d have to take Tent Eight into partnership12 with us.”
“That can be arranged, I think,” said Mr. Avery. “I’ll speak to Dr. Cannon13 about it. He knows it’s next to impossible to separate the twins. And with fourteen campers on the job, it ought to be some show. Well, what’s your trick?”
“Yes, what is it?” asked the Utway twins together.
77
“Well, it’s this way,” began the Mandarin Magician; “Wild Willie can announce a big display of old Chinese hocus-pocus. We fix up a place on the stage where I sit, and a crowd of you guys come around and want to see some tricks. Then Fat Crampton comes along, and then I do a few easy ones, just to show my stuff, and then——” He lowered his voice as his comrades gathered about to hear the plan. Lefkowitz was sent over to Tent Eight to bring in the other participants, who listened and agreed to the scheme for a combined stunt that would make a most amusing addition to the vaudeville14 program that night. As soon as Recall sounded, the two groups of actors made for the Council Ring, where they rehearsed excitedly most of the afternoon.
Sherlock Jones did not join in the preparations for Stunt Night. He retired15 alone to the dark-room, where he stared at a photograph and pondered plans of his own. The announcement that a reward had been offered for the capture of the escaped criminal had set his mind working furiously on the problem of the Tattooed16 Arm. Indeed, the Chief’s startling news was a leading topic of conversation in Lenape that afternoon; but when supper-time brought no further information, the subject was temporarily forgotten in anticipation17 of the evening’s entertainment.
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No sooner had the dessert dishes been cleared away than the space in front of the blackened fireplace was transformed into a stage. Benches were ranged in rows for the seating of the camper audience, and a makeshift curtain of bed-sheets strung on a wire was hung across that end of the lodge. Darkness had just fallen when a boisterous18 crowd of leaders and boys took their seats, awaiting the drawing of the curtain on the opening act, announced by Sax McNulty, master of ceremonies, as “Captain Colby’s Army,” a Tent Fifteen Feature Production.
Joey Fellowes, who with his brother Ted3 made up the Lenape bugle19 corps20, sounded Reveille on his muted instrument. The curtains parted to reveal a morning scene in Tent Fifteen. A great fuss was made by Ollie Steffins, dressed in a scout21 uniform with many medals and much gold braid, who in the person of Mr. Colby himself, went about getting the snoring sleepers22 to waken for morning drill. The drowsy23 boys were finally put on their feet and each armed with a broom-stick gun, with which they went through a series of clumsy maneuvers24, knocking each other over the head, facing the wrong way, and otherwise tangling25 themselves in a travesty26 of a squad27 of rookies at drill. The concluding evolution brought them into line facing the audience, singing off key their rallying song:
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“We are Mr. Colby’s army,
Mr. Colby’s army we,
We cannot shoot, we won’t salute28,
What earthly good are we?”
The curtains closed amid cheers, boos, and stamping of feet, during which Mr. Colby sat with a self-conscious smile on his disciplinarian’s face.
The acts followed swiftly after that. Tent Twelve put on a pirate play, Tent Three showed to advantage in a lady-like game of basketball, in which each side begged the other to kindly29 accept the ball on pain of being slapped on the wrist. Tent Four gave a ventriloquist act, with Peanut Westover as the talking dummy30.
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“The Mysterious Mandarin Magician,” with an all-star cast from Tents Eight and Ten, was the next to the last number on the evening’s program. At the parting of the curtain, Wild Willie Sanders in a high, battered31 black silk hat, wearing the curling mustache of a circus ringmaster, pointed32 out the main attraction to a gaping33 crowd of boys from the participating tents, dressed in wild garbs34 of every description. “Laydeez and gen-tul-men! The one and only Chinese magician, brought at great expense from the Flowery Kingdom to mystify you to-night!” Chink Towner, his naturally oriental cast of countenance35 exaggerated by a line of grease-paint above each slanting36 eye, and dressed in a pair of colorful silk pajamas37 borrowed from Councilor Lane, sat cross-legged above the crowd on a blanket-draped table, his features masked in Chinese calm. “Step right up, laydeez and gen-tul-men, and see the one and only!”
Fat Crampton, tittering sweetly, walked by, dressed as a beautiful damsel in a skirt fashioned from Howard Chisel’s spare kitchen apron38. The Mysterious Mandarin descended39 from his throne and expertly drew half-dollars from the hat, sleeve, and nose of the “lady.” He then gave an exhibition of sleight-of-hand, at which he was an adept40 of no mean skill—making a collection of red balls appear and disappear between his nimble fingers, shaking a flying pack of cards from his fan, collecting the cards in a neat pile and drawing forth41 at one flip42 the card desired by any of the nondescript crowd about him.
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When he returned to his elevated throne once more, Wild Willie announced that the Mandarin would now display the powers of his X-ray eye. Chink turned his back to the audience, and Happy Face Frayne, one of the judges who would later award the prizes for the best performance of the night, adjusted a bandage over the magician’s eyes to make sure there was no deception43. Jake Utway now walked out into the ranks of the audience, and touched a sweater worn by one of the listeners.
“What is the color of the object I am touching44, Mandarin?” he called out.
“Blue,” answered the blindfolded46 Chink promptly47.
“Correct. Now what color am I touching?” Jake held up Soapy Mullins’ neckerchief.
“Orange.”
“And now?”
“White.”
“Correct,” answered Jake, putting Slim Yerkes’ sailor hat back on the astonished boy’s head. All about him were faces wonder-stricken at the accuracy of the magician’s responses. Jake, however, was not astonished, for he was in on the secret. The series of colors had been arranged with Chink ahead of time, and all Jake had to do was to find and point to an object of the required hue48. “And now, what is the color of the thing I’m pointing at?” He held a finger to his damaged left eye.
“Rainbow!”
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A hearty49 laugh arose, for Jake’s “shiner” had indeed developed the color of a sunset, and was by now one of the sights of the camp.
“Here—I bet you my life I can do that, too!” broke in Spaghetti Megaro of Tent Eight, now assuming his role in the show.
“All right,” agreed Jake, returning to the stage.
From his capacious bathrobe, Spaghetti drew forth a spreading assortment50 of vegetables. “Now, Mandarin,” he said loudly, “I’m going to see if you cheat me, huh? Tell me quick—what color is this spinach51?”
“Green.”
“Well, what color is this lemon?”
“Yellow.”
“Right again. Now, I ask you, what color is this orange?” The Italian boy held the fruit high in the air.
“Orange.”
“Plenty smart, all right.” Spaghetti shook his head and began eating the orange. “No can foola da majish’!”
This bit of comedy was greeted with high amusement by the audience. Again Wild Willie stepped forward.
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“Laydeez and gen-tul-men, the Mysterious Magician will end his exhibition with a death-defying display of his great powers. Never before has this breath-taking miracle been performed on any stage! The Mandarin will make a person vanish, and then make him appear again somewhere else!”
These words were Jake’s cue to move again. He glanced quickly overhead, and made sure that Jerry was in his place, ready for the disappearing act that would give a climax52 to their stunts53. He was rewarded by a nod from Jerry, who sat perched on the rafters high above the floor of the lodge and the rows of watchers in the camp audience. This was Chink’s great idea—a disappearing act in which the twins would take part. Jake, dressed in his camp uniform, would be selected from the crowd to enter a large packing-box on the stage, and at Chink’s command, a flashlight would be thrown aloft, and Jerry dressed in a like costume, would swing down from his high position and drop to the stage and there, his hidden twin’s exact counterpart, would receive the applause due to this miraculous54 reappearance.
“Who wishes to disappear into thin air, laydeez and gen-tul-men?” cried out Wild Willie.
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A chorus of voices rose on the stage, Jake’s among them. “I do!” “Me!” “No, take me!”
“You’ll do.” Wild Willie, according to plan, pointed out Jake, who stepped forward. “You will now enter this large chest. No deception, folks!” The boy in the high silk hat lifted the box to show that there were no false bottoms or secret exits. “That’s right! Pretty soon you’ll disappear, and come back from somewhere else. Now, step inside, and you”—he pointed to Fat Crampton—“you sit on the lid. All set, Mandarin!”
Chink again descended to the level of the stage, his blindfold45 now removed. Calmly and impressively he took his hands from his sleeves.
“Heap hard trick!” the magician grunted55. “Make ’um white boy no-see, plitty soon come-see some place else, velly smart!” He waved his arms over the box, upon which Fat Crampton sat. “Hocus-pocus. Come high!”
The audience was bent56 forward in silence. Jake, crouched57 within the narrow darkness of the box, pictured to himself the scene outside. At the magic words, a flashlight would shoot upward toward the rafters where Jerry had taken his station, and Jerry would drop to the stage and finish the act amid the plaudits of the crowd.
85
“Hocus-pocus. Come high!” repeated Chink, in a nervous tone. Jake wished he could see out of his tight prison, and wondered at the delay. Titters came from the smaller boys in the front of the audience. Why didn’t Jerry come down?
“Come high!” Chink sounded disgruntled. “Maybe so white boy no come, no can fly out. That’s all—goo’-bye!”
The rings of the curtain rattled58 as they were drawn59 together to cut off the scene. The big act had failed. There was a half-hearted clapping from the audience, who of course did not see any point in the sudden ending of the act. With such an anti-climax, the Magician sketch60 could scarcely hope to win a prize.
Jake squirmed in a frantic61 effort to get out of the box. “Get up, Fat!” he called urgently, and felt the heavy boy’s weight removed from the lid. Jake sprang out like a Jack-in-the box, alive with eagerness to see why their carefully-laid scheme had fallen through. He met a disgusted look from the grease-painted face of the Mysterious Mandarin.
“Fine brother you’ve got!” muttered Chink. “I thought he was going to be all ready up there when the time came!”
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“But—but he was!” stammered62 Jake. “I—I saw him up there just a minute ago!”
“Well, he’s not there now,” Chink growled63, turning away. Jake cast his eyes aloft.
The beam of a flashlight still slanted64 upward toward the raftered corner under the roof. But Jerry Utway was nowhere in sight!
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收听单词发音
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1
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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stunt
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| n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长 | |
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ted
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| vt.翻晒，撒，撒开 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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5
siesta
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| n.午睡 | |
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6
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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7
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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8
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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9
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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Mandarin
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| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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13
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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14
vaudeville
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| n.歌舞杂耍表演 | |
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15
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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16
tattooed
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| v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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17
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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18
boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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19
bugle
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| n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集 | |
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20
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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21
scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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23
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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24
maneuvers
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| n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 ) | |
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25
tangling
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| （使）缠结， （使）乱作一团( tangle的现在分词 ) | |
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26
travesty
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| n.歪曲，嘲弄，滑稽化 | |
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27
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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28
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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29
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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30
dummy
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| n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头 | |
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31
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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32
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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33
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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34
garbs
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| vt.装扮（garb的第三人称单数形式） | |
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35
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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37
pajamas
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| n.睡衣裤 | |
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38
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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39
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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40
adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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41
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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42
flip
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| vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的 | |
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43
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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44
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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45
blindfold
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| vt.蒙住…的眼睛；adj.盲目的；adv.盲目地；n.蒙眼的绷带[布等]； 障眼物，蒙蔽人的事物 | |
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46
blindfolded
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| v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗 | |
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47
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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48
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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49
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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50
assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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51
spinach
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| n.菠菜 | |
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52
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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53
stunts
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| n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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54
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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55
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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56
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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57
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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59
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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60
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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61
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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62
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
growled
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| 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 | |
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64
slanted
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| 有偏见的； 倾斜的 | |
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