The Camp Fire Group had held an indoor guessing contest the night before, identifying these and lesser2 leaders of the Great War, without seeing the names. The pastime over, they had pinned the leaders up on the bare wall of that bungalow3 living-room.
Now the sea-breeze took its turn at identification as it crept through the window--in the wake of an excited girl whose wildly throbbing4 heart, like a lamp turned high within her, guided her straight to an adjoining dormitory, a glass-paneled sleeping-porch, closed at present, where was a long row of dim cots.
“I don’t need to grope around for matches. Olive keeps her flash-light by the head of her bed--since she and I haven’t been sleeping in a tent any longer.... What’s this? Oh! her secret that shines in the dark--the powder for radio-paint in that tiny bottle. Perhaps if I wetted a little of it--smeared some more on the dory’s bow--and rowed out a little way, to signal, I’d attract attention better; ’twould act as a foot-light--if they saw it through the glasses--between flashes! Well--here goes!”
Yet as she fluttered forth5 again through the wind-gap of that window, the Flame turned briefly6 and waved her hand to those World Heroes upon the wall. Not much tribute to them! At the moment one and all were summed up in the highly colored mental print of her brother Iver, fighting over there.
“He taught me to signal with Morse and Semaphore--to read Wigwag, too! He was wounded in both legs, the very first time he went over the top--crawled on, leading his men--that was at Chateau-Thierry. He’d want me to use the knowledge I got from him.... I’d do it even if that spy were to see me, turn back and kill me, maybe, before the Coast Guards get here.... Priceless stuff, Olive says, this radio-powder. Bah! who cares, if it helps? Now--now, she’s a regular lightning-bug, my camouflaged8 dory!”
Lost to all sense of economic values, she was wetting a full big pinch of the costly9 powder on her burning palm, with a drop or two of sea-water, smearing10 it over the dory’s camouflaged bow--then shoving her off, forgetful even of Betty, a trembling Holly--though of loyalty11 still evergreen--cowering upon the beach-edge.
“Now! what’s the attention-signal--Morse? Let’s see!” The girl’s left hand pushed her hair back from her brow, she crouching12 in the lightning-bug dory, a few yards from shore. “Yes! ‘A,’ sent over and over; ‘dit-dar-dit-dar-dit-dar--dit,’ if signaled with a buzzer13; short, long, short, long, so on, with the light!”
She was standing14 now--as the spy had done in the motor-boat, the launch which had melted off into far shadows of the bay--holding her signaling flash-light aloft, pressing her thumb lightly, with rhythmic15 unevenness16, upon a little lever at the side.
And, lo! the shore which she was facing--the wild island-shore merging17 into the long sand-bar--awoke, opened its eyes, answered with bright blinker flashes of understanding from lonely watch-tower and patrolling surf-man on his tiresome18 beat.
“Short, short, long! That would be dit-dit-dar--meaning U. N.--they got me! Now--now what message shall I send?... Oh, I wonder if he’ll get me, the spy, turn back an’ get me, before they come? Never mind; Iver----”
One sidelong glance out into the curtaining shadows of the bay! Then, “Catch spy in launch. Out--bay!” slowly spelled out the winking19 flash-light, pressed by a girl’s unfaltering little thumb.
And fast as the shore had blinked, it responded! There was something unusual about the direct, correct message; about a strange, faint unearthly shimmer20, seen through binoculars21, bathing the spot--the boat--whence it came, when the flash-light wasn’t speaking.
Tower and patrol, both, flashed their message to the white Coast Guard Station upon the island-shore. A strong search-light scanned the bay.
In its radiance forth leaped the light steel life-boat, rowed by strong arms; the Coast Guard power-boat, the old self-bailer, too, hustling22 as she could do, in an emergency.
“O dear! I hope she can show a little more speed--that self-bailing ark--than Captain Andy gave her credit for. Otherwise, she won’t overhaul23 the launch! He--may--get away, after all!... Oh-h, there’s Betty calling! Poor little Betty!”
With signal-flashes in her finger-tips that seemed to light the water round her, the sands ahead, the Flame shoved her dory’s nose up on to the beach again.
A wild-eyed Betty met her! Some one else!
“Is it true--true--that they’re after a spy, the Coast Guards--that you signaled them? You?” cried Atlas24.
Sara turned a flash-light beam upon him and nodded.
“We--we’ve been searching for you! Just got here!... Oh! isn’t there a boat--a boat of any kind--anywhere--on this old graveyard25 of a beach? I--I want to take after him, too!... I--must!”
The boyish tones wildly bristled26 as Atlas’ search-light glance implored27 the sands, resting for a fatuous28 moment upon the dim shape of a canoe--Little Owl’s birch-bark canoe.
“Pshaw! you couldn’t go in her; she’s light’s a feather. Here, you may take my--dory!”
“Heavens! Her! She looks as if she had escaped from some--boat--bedlam!” Atlas drew a raving29 breath.
“Yes--she’s camouflaged--a perfect lightning-bug, too! But you can have her!” With an hysterical30 laugh the dory’s owner stepped out, laid down her hand-painted oars31, deaf to the rude voice maligning32 her boat--the dim, beauteous home-sands, too. “And I--I won’t ask to go in her, either!” she magnanimously added.
“Gee! but you’re a brick.”
“No more than you are! You held up shipping33--that heavy old ship’s rib--or seemed to!”
But Atlas was deaf to the tardy34 tribute, as the dory, no longer even a bead-eye, but a radio nightmare--all ghostly a-shimmer--dashed out upon the tide.
“Well! Well! we got him--nabbed him. The Coast Guard men said they never saw a dory stretch herself like that one; that I just drove her--sent her for all she was worth!... They--they nearly cracked their sides laughing at her, too, when ’twas all over--wanted to know what ‘nut palace’ she’d escaped from--said the spy must have thought he had an evil spirit on his track!”
It was an hour later. Atlas was holding forth to nineteen girls and their breathless Guardian35 upon the dark sands--on the very spot where the air-scouts, spy-hunting aviators36, had made a landing.
“I--I went ashore37 with them at the Station--after they searched the launch,” he added.
“Oh! what did they find in her? a--a woman’s wig7?” cried Sara, who had been remembering, furiously remembering--minutely recalling--during the past hour. “A--a--the most charming brown wig, with little wavy38 threads of gray in the mat over the ears; that--that’s what ‘Old Perfect,’ with the feather turban, the muff in April, the rather high cheek-bones, the very smooth skin, wore up at Camp ... Goody! I was envying her the--gray--hairs.” The voice of the fire-witch broke upon a mettlesome39 little canter of laughter.
“Yes, they did find a dress-suit case with a false bottom; a feminine wig--some further disguise--was stowed away in it.”
“But who--captured--him?” It was a low, thrilled uproar40 of question. “Not--not the camouflaged dory?”
“No, the Coast Guard captain. The launch was showing her heels to the old self-bailer. The spy shifted his course--put about--was trying to dodge41 back towards the river--tidal river--down which he came. The steel boat headed him off, and--and the dory, too! Then he jumped overboard, tried to swim. But the captain yelled at him to halt--surrender--or he’d fire. Ex-ci-ting! Well! I should say so.... Good of you to let me take your boat--if she is the most ‘witchetty’ thing that ever floated!”
“You--you upheld shipping.”
Within the radiant ring of the powerful flash-light belting the sands, a boy and girl--Atlas and the Flame who had defied him--looked into each other’s feverish42 eyes with comradeship, not challenge now--comradeship that might well grow to something more charming, as the years went on--when the white flag of Peace should float once more over a progressive world.
Misunderstanding was of the past--mockery, too! They had come through the Game “with their wings,”--the patient, toiling43 service-game for freedom and Country; they were one with their brothers of the skies--with the heroes of trench44 and top, over there.
Or, to change the figure, all had done their bit, and, in two instances, by might and magic of service, automatically swelling45, it had become the main bitt to which the main-sheet of safety, the mainsail of progress, were belayed.
And yet--yet--in another minute even that failed to satisfy the girl in the case--left her with a hollow feeling of dissatisfaction--for she was a creature of moods shading like her eyelashes, and suffering from reaction, too!
The flash-light winked46 itself out in her hand--and all her exultation47 with it.
She hid her now pale face in the curve of an arm in a green-stained middy-blouse.
“Oh! yes, it’s ex-ci-ting.... Ter-ri-bly exciting!” she moaned to the sands. “But how I wish it was over! I don’t want to distrust those about me. And maybe he thought he had a grain of right--though he was a spy!” The tired concession48 was breathed into the curve of a trembling elbow. “Cool--cool he was, anyhow--here and there! Oh-h! if only the cry of the children--the little children over in France--could come true, and it was: ‘Fini la Guerre!... Fini--forever--la Guerre!’ If Peace could come again!”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
varnished
|
|
| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
lesser
|
|
| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
bungalow
|
|
| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
throbbing
|
|
| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
wig
|
|
| n.假发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
camouflaged
|
|
| v.隐蔽( camouflage的过去式和过去分词 )；掩盖；伪装，掩饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
smearing
|
|
| 污点，拖尾效应 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
crouching
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
buzzer
|
|
| n.蜂鸣器；汽笛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
rhythmic
|
|
| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
unevenness
|
|
| n. 不平坦，不平衡，不匀性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
merging
|
|
| 合并（分类） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
tiresome
|
|
| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
winking
|
|
| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
shimmer
|
|
| v./n.发微光，发闪光；微光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
binoculars
|
|
| n.双筒望远镜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
hustling
|
|
| 催促（hustle的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
overhaul
|
|
| v./n.大修，仔细检查 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
atlas
|
|
| n.地图册，图表集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
graveyard
|
|
| n.坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
bristled
|
|
| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
implored
|
|
| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
fatuous
|
|
| adj.愚昧的；昏庸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
raving
|
|
| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
hysterical
|
|
| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
oars
|
|
| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
maligning
|
|
| vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
shipping
|
|
| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
tardy
|
|
| adj.缓慢的，迟缓的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
guardian
|
|
| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
aviators
|
|
| 飞机驾驶员，飞行员( aviator的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
ashore
|
|
| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
wavy
|
|
| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
mettlesome
|
|
| adj.（通常指马等）精力充沛的，勇猛的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
uproar
|
|
| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
dodge
|
|
| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
feverish
|
|
| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
toiling
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
trench
|
|
| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
swelling
|
|
| n.肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
winked
|
|
| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
exultation
|
|
| n.狂喜，得意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
concession
|
|
| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |