Our haste, however, availed us little, for there was no wind at all. We lay for over two hours under the weird1 light, over-canopied by the red- brown cloud, while the explosions shook the foundations of the world. Nobody ventured below. The sails flapped idly from the masts: the blocks and spars creaked: the three-cornered waves rose straight up and fell again as though reaching from the deep.
When the men first began to sweat the sails up, evidently in preparation for an immediate2 departure, I objected vehemently3.
"You aren't going to leave him on the island," I cried. "He'll die of starvation."
They did not answer me; but after a little more, when my expostulations had become more positive, Handy Solomon dropped the halliard, and drew me to one side.
"Look here, you," he snarled4, "you'd better just stow your gab5. You're lucky to be here yourself, let alone botherin' your thick head about anybody else, and you can kiss the Book on that! Do you know why you ain't with them carrion6?" He jerked his thumb toward the beach. "It's because Solomon Anderson's your friend. Thrackles would have killed you in a minute 'count of his bit hand. I got you your chance. Now don't you be a fool, for I ain't goin' to stand between you and them another time. Besides, he won't last long if that volcano keeps at it."
He left me. Whatever truth lay in his assumption of friendship, and I doubted there existed much of either truth or friendship in him, I saw the common sense of his advice. I was in no position to dictate7 a course of action.
After the sails were on her we gathered at the starboard rail to watch the shore. There the hills ran into inky blackness, as the horizon sometimes merges8 into a thunder squall. A dense9 white steam came from the creek10 bed within the arroyo11. The surges beat on the shore louder than the ordinary, and the foam12, even in these day hours, seemed to throw up a faint phosphorescence. Frequent earthquakes oscillated the landscape. We watched, I do not know for what, our eyes straining into the murk of the island. Nobody thought of the chest, which lay on the cabin table aft. I contributed maliciously13 my bit to their fear.
"These volcanic14 islands sometimes sink entirely," I suggested, "and in that case we'd be carried down by the suction."
It was intended merely to increase their uneasiness, but, strangely enough, after a few moments it ended by imposing15 itself on my own fears. I began to be afraid the island would sink, began to watch for it, began to share the fascinated terror of these men.
The suspense16 after a time became unbearable17, for while the portent-- whether physical or moral we were too far under its influence to distinguish--grew momentarily, our own souls did not expand in due correspondence. We talked of towing, of kedging out, of going to any extreme, even to small boats. Then just as we were about to move toward some accomplishment18, a new phenomenon chained our attention to the shore.
In the mouth of the arroyo appeared a red glow. A moment later a wave of lava19, white-hot, red, iridescent20, cooling to a black crust cracked in incandescence21, rolled majestically22 out over the grassy23 plain. Each instant it grew in volume, until the ravine must have been flowing half full.
Before its scorching24 the grasses even at the edge of the sea were smoking, and our camp had already burst into flames. We had to shield our faces against the heat, and the wooden railing under our hands was growing warm.
Pulz turned an ashy countenance25 toward us.
"My God," he screamed. "What's going to happen when she hits the sea?"
She hit the sea, and immediately a great cloud of steam arose, and the hissing26 as of a thousand serpents. We felt the strong suction under our keel, and staggered under the jerk of the ship's cable as she swung toward the beach. The paint was beginning to crackle along the rail. We could see nothing for the scalding white veil that enveloped27 us; we could hear nothing for the roar of steam, the bombardment of explosions, and the crash of thunder; but our nostrils28 were assaulted by a most unearthly medley29 of smells.
"Hell's loose," growled30 Thrackles.
We were clinging hard as the ship reeled. Huge surges were racing31 in from seaward, growing larger with each successive billow.
Handy Solomon raised his head, listened intently, and struck his forehead.
"Wind," he screamed at the top of his voice, and jumped for the halliards.
Thrackles followed him, but no one else moved. In an instant the two were back, striking and kicking savagely32, rousing their companions to the danger. We all laid into the canvas like mad, and in no time had snugged33 down to a staysail and the peak of our mainsail. Thrackles drew his knife and jumped for the cable, while Handy Solomon, his eyes snapping, seized the wheel.
We finished just in time. I was turning away after tying the last gasket on the foresail, when the deck up-ended and tipped me headforemost into the starboard scupper. At the same time a smother34 of salt water blew over the port rail, now far above me, to drench35 me as thoroughly36 as though I had fallen overboard. I brushed out my eyes to find the ship smack37 on her beam ends, and the wind howling by from the sea.
I had company enough in the scuppers. Only Handy Solomon clung desperately38 to the wheel, jamming his weight to port in the hope she might pay up: Thrackles, too, his eye squinted39 along some bearing of his own, was waiting for her to drag. Presently it became evident that she was doing so, whereupon he drew his knife across our hawser40.
"My God," chattered41 Pulz at my ear. "If we go ashore--"
He did not need to finish. Unless the _Laughing Lass_ could recover before the squall had driven her to leeward43 a scant44 half mile, we should be cooked alive in the boiling cauldron at the shore's edge.
For an interminable time, as it seemed to me, we lay absolutely motionless. The scene is stamped indelibly on my memory--the bulwarks45 high above me, the steep, sleek46 deck, the piratical figure tense at the wheel, the snarling47 water racing from beneath us, the lurid48 glow to landward crawling up on us inch by inch like a hungry wild beast. Then almost imperceptibly the brave schooner49 righted. The strained lines on Handy Solomon's carven features relaxed little by little. Thrackles, staring over the side, let out a mighty50 roar.
"Steerage way," he shouted, and executed an awkward clog51 dance on the reeling deck.
She moved forward, there was no doubt of that, for gradually we were eating toward the wind--but we made considerable leeway as well. Handy Solomon, taut52 as the weather rigging, took his little advantages one by one like precious gifts. Light there was none; the land was blotted53 out by the steam and murk which had crept to sea and now was hurled54 back by the wind. All we could do was to hang there, tasting the copper55 of excitement, waiting for these different forces to adjust themselves. Inch by inch we crept forward: foot by foot we made leeway. The intensest of the lava glow worked its way from directly abeam56 to the quarter. By this we knew we must be nearly opposite the cove42. At once a new doubt sprang up in our minds.
A moment ago all the energy of our desires had gone up in the ambition to avoid being cast on the beach. Now we saw that that was not enough. It was necessary to squeeze around the point where lay the _Golden Horn_, in order to avoid the fate that had overtaken her. Handy Solomon yelled something at us. We could not hear, but our own knowledge told us what it must be, and with one accord we turned to on the foresail. With the peak of it hoisted57 we moved a trifle faster, though the schooner lay over at a perilous58 angle. A moment later the fogs parted to show us the cliffs looming59 startlingly near. There were the donkey engine and the works we had constructed for wrecking--and there beside them, watching us reflectively, stood Percy Darrow.
For ten minutes we stared at him fascinated, during which time the ship laboured against the staggering winds, gained and lost in its buffeting60 with the great surges. The breakers hurling61 themselves in wild abandon against the rocks sent their back-wash of tumbling peaks to our very bilges. The few remains62 of the _Golden Horn_, alternately drenched63 and draining, seemed to picture to us our inevitable64 end.
I think we had all selected the same two points for our "bearings," a rock and a drop of the cliff bolder than the ordinary. If the rock opened from the cliff to eastward65, we were lost; if it remained stationary66, we were at least holding our own; if it opened out to westward67, we were saved. We watched with a strained eagerness impossible to describe. At each momentary68 gain or rebuff we uttered ejaculations. The Nigger mumbled69 charms. Every once in a while one of us would snatch a glance to leeward at the cruel, white waters, the whirl of eddies70 where the sea was beaten, only to hurry back to the rock and the point of the cliff whence our message of safety or destruction was to be flung. Once I looked up. Percy Darrow was leaning gracefully71 against a stanchion, watching. His soft hat was pulled over his eyes; he stroked softly his little moustache; I caught the white puff73 of his cigarette. During the moment of my inattention something happened. A wild shout burst from the men. I whirled, and saw to my great joy a strip of sky westward between the cliff and the rock. And at that very instant a billow larger than the ordinary rolled beneath us, and in the back suction of its passage I could dimly make out cruel, dangerous rocks lying almost under our keel.
Slowly we crept away. Our progress seemed infinitesimal, and yet it was real. In a while we had gained sea room; in a while more we were fairly under sailing way, and the cliffs had begun to drop from our quarter. With one accord we looked back. Percy Darrow waved his hand in an indescribably graceful72 and ironic74 gesture; then turned square on his heel and sauntered away to the north valley, out of the course of the lava. That was the last I ever saw of him.
As we made our way from beneath the island, the weight of the wind seemed to lessen75. We got the foresail on her, then a standing76 jib; finally little by little all her ordinary working canvas. Before we knew it, we were bowling77 along under a stiff breeze, and the island was dropping astern.
From a distance it presented a truly imposing sight. The centre shot intermittent78 blasts of ruddy light; explosions, deadened by distance, still reverberated79 strongly; the broad canopy80 of brown-red, split with lightnings, spread out like a huge umbrella. The lurid gloom that had enveloped us in the atmosphere apparently81 of a nether82 world had given place to a twilight83. Abruptly84 we passed from it to a sun-kissed, sparkling sea. The breeze blew sweet and strong; the waves ran untortured in their natural long courses.
At once the men seemed to throw off the superstitious85 terror that had cowed them. Pulz and Thrackles went to bail86 the extra dory, alongside, which by a miracle had escaped swamping. The Nigger disappeared in the galley87. Perdosa relieved Handy Solomon at the wheel; and Handy Solomon came directly over to me.
收听单词发音 |
1
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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gab
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| v.空谈，唠叨，瞎扯；n.饶舌，多嘴，爱说话 | |
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carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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merges
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| （使）混合( merge的第三人称单数 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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arroyo
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| n.干涸的河床，小河 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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maliciously
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| adv.有敌意地 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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iridescent
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| adj.彩虹色的，闪色的 | |
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incandescence
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| n.白热，炽热；白炽 | |
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majestically
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| 雄伟地； 庄重地； 威严地； 崇高地 | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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medley
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| n.混合 | |
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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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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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snugged
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| v.整洁的( snug的过去式和过去分词 )；温暖而舒适的；非常舒适的；紧身的 | |
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smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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drench
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| v.使淋透，使湿透 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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squinted
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| 斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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hawser
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| n.大缆；大索 | |
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41
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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44
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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45
bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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47
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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48
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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50
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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51
clog
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| vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐 | |
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52
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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53
blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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54
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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55
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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56
abeam
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| adj.正横着(的) | |
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57
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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59
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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60
buffeting
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| 振动 | |
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hurling
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| n.爱尔兰式曲棍球v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的现在分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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62
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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63
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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64
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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65
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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68
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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69
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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71
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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75
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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76
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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77
bowling
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| n.保龄球运动 | |
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78
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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reverberated
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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80
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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81
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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82
nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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83
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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84
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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85
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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86
bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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87
galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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