"Allow me, Bunny! I shall take the liberty of locking both doors behind you and putting the key in my pocket," said Raffles, when he had let me in. "Not that I mean to take you prisoner, my dear fellow; but there are those of us who can turn keys from the outside, though it was never an accomplishment14 of mine."
Raffles regarded me with that tantalizing16 smile of his which might mean nothing, yet which often meant so much; and in a flash I was convinced that our most jealous enemy and dangerous rival, the doyen of an older school, had paid him yet another visit.
"That remains17 to be seen," was the measured reply; "and I for one have not set naked eye on the fellow since I saw him off through that window and left myself for dead on this very spot. In fact, I imagined him comfortably back in jail."
"Not old Crawshay!" said I. "He's far too good a man to be taken twice. I should call him the very prince of professional cracksmen."
"Should you?" said Raffles coldly, with as cold an eye looking into mine. "Then you had better prepare to repel18 princes when I'm gone."
"But gone where?" I asked, finding a corner for my hat and coat, and helping19 myself to the comforts of the venerable dresser which was one of our friend's greatest treasures. "Where is it you are off to, and why are you taking this herd20 of white elephants with you?"
Raffles bestowed21 the cachet of his smile on my description of his motley plate. He joined me in one of his favorite cigarettes, only shaking a superior head at his own decanter.
"One question at a time, Bunny," said he. "In the first place, I am going to have these rooms freshened up with a potful of paint, the electric light, and the telephone you've been at me about so long."
"Good!" I cried. "Then we shall be able to talk to each other day and night!"
"And get overheard and run in for our pains? I shall wait till you are run in, I think," said Raffles cruelly. "But the rest's a necessity: not that I love new paint or am pining for electric light, but for reasons which I will just breathe in your private ear, Bunny. You must not try to take them too seriously; but the fact is, there is just the least bit of a twitter against me in this rookery of an Albany. It must have been started by that tame old bird, Policeman Mackenzie; it isn't very bad as yet, but it needn't be that to reach my ears. Well, it was open to me either to clear out altogether, and so confirm whatever happened to be in the air, or to go off for a time, under some arrangement which would give the authorities ample excuse for overhauling22 every inch of my rooms. Which would you have done, Bunny?"
"So I should have thought," rejoined Raffles. "Yet you see the merit of my plan. I shall leave every mortal thing unlocked."
"Except that," said I, kicking the huge oak case with the iron bands and clamps, and the baize lining24 fast disappearing under heavy packages bearing the shapes of urns25 and candelabra.
"That," replied Raffles, "is neither to go with me nor to remain here."
"Then what do you propose to do with it?"
"You have your banking26 account, and your banker," he went on. This was perfectly27 true, though it was Raffles alone who had kept the one open, and enabled me to propitiate28 the other in moments of emergency.
"Well?"
"Well, pay in this bundle of notes this afternoon, and say you have had a great week at Liverpool and Lincoln; then ask them if they can do with your silver while you run over to Paris for a merry Easter. I should tell them it's rather heavy—a lot of old family stuff that you've a good mind to leave with them till you marry and settle down."
I winced29 at this, but consented to the rest after a moment's consideration. After all, and for more reasons that I need enumerate30, it was a plausible31 tale enough. And Raffles had no banker; it was quite impossible for him to explain, across any single counter, the large sums of hard cash which did sometimes fall into his hands; and it might well be that he had nursed my small account in view of the very quandary32 which had now arisen. On all grounds, it was impossible for me to refuse him, and I am still glad to remember that my assent33 was given, on the whole, ungrudgingly.
"But when will the chest be ready for me," I merely asked, as I stuffed the notes into my cigarette case. "And how are we to get it out of this, in banking hours, without attracting any amount of attention at this end?"
Raffles gave me an approving nod.
"I'm glad to see you spot the crux34 so quickly, Bunny. I have thought of your taking it round to your place first, under cloud of night; but we are bound to be seen even so, and on the whole it would look far less suspicious in broad daylight. It will take you some twelve or fifteen minutes to drive to your bank in a growler, so if you are here with one at a quarter to ten to-morrow morning, that will exactly meet the case. But you must have a hansom this minute if you mean to prepare the way with those notes this afternoon!"
It was only too like the Raffles of those days to dismiss a subject and myself in the same breath, with a sudden nod, and a brief grasp of the hand he was already holding out for mine. I had a great mind to take another of his cigarettes instead, for there were one or two points on which he had carefully omitted to enlighten me. Thus, I had still to learn the bare direction of his journey; and it was all that I could do to drag it from him as I stood buttoning my coat and gloves.
"Scotland," he vouchsafed35 at last.
"At Easter," I remarked.
"To learn the language," he explained. "I have no tongue but my own, you see, but I try to make up for it by cultivating every shade of that. Some of them have come in useful even to your knowledge, Bunny: what price my Cockney that night in St. John's Wood? I can keep up my end in stage Irish, real Devonshire, very fair Norfolk, and three distinct Yorkshire dialects. But my good Galloway Scots might be better, and I mean to make it so."
"You still haven't told me where to write to you."
"I'll write to you first, Bunny."
"At least let me see you off," I urged at the door. "I promise not to look at your ticket if you tell me the train!"
"The eleven-fifty from Euston."
"Then I'll be with you by quarter to ten."
And I left him without further parley36, reading his impatience37 in his face. Everything, to be sure, seemed clear enough without that fuller discussion which I loved and Raffles hated. Yet I thought we might at least have dined together, and in my heart I felt just the least bit hurt, until it occurred to me as I drove to count the notes in my cigarette case. Resentment38 was impossible after that. The sum ran well into three figures, and it was plain that Raffles meant me to have a good time in his absence. So I told his lie with unction at my bank, and made due arrangements for the reception of his chest next morning. Then I repaired to our club, hoping he would drop in, and that we might dine together after all. In that I was disappointed. It was nothing, however, to the disappointment awaiting me at the Albany, when I arrived in my four-wheeler at the appointed hour next morning.
"Mr. Raffles 'as gawn, sir," said the porter, with a note of reproach in his confidential39 undertone. The man was a favorite with Raffles, who used him and tipped him with consummate40 tact41, and he knew me only less well.
"Gone!" I echoed aghast. "Where on earth to?"
"Scotland, sir."
"Already?"
"By the eleven-fifty lawst night."
"Last night! I thought he meant eleven-fifty this morning!"
"He knew you did, sir, when you never came, and he told me to tell you there was no such train."
I could have rent my garments in mortification42 and annoyance43 with myself and Raffles. It was as much his fault as mine. But for his indecent haste in getting rid of me, his characteristic abruptness44 at the end, there would have been no misunderstanding or mistake.
"Only about the box, sir. Mr. Raffles said as you was goin' to take chawge of it time he's away, and I've a friend ready to lend a 'and in getting it on the cab. It's a rare 'eavy 'un, but Mr. Raffles an' me could lift it all right between us, so I dessay me an' my friend can."
For my own part, I must confess that its weight concerned me less than the vast size of that infernal chest, as I drove with it past club and park at ten o'clock in the morning. Sit as far back as I might in the four-wheeler, I could conceal5 neither myself nor my connection with the huge iron-clamped case upon the roof: in my heated imagination its wood was glass through which all the world could see the guilty contents. Once an officious constable46 held up the traffic at our approach, and for a moment I put a blood-curdling construction upon the simple ceremony. Low boys shouted after us—or if it was not after us, I thought it was—and that their cry was "Stop thief!" Enough said of one of the most unpleasant cab-drives I ever had in my life. Horresco referens.
At the bank, however, thanks to the foresight47 and liberality of Raffles, all was smooth water. I paid my cabman handsomely, gave a florin to the stout48 fellow in livery whom he helped with the chest, and could have pressed gold upon the genial49 clerk who laughed like a gentleman at my jokes about the Liverpool winners and the latest betting on the Family Plate. I was only disconcerted when he informed me that the bank gave no receipts for deposits of this nature. I am now aware that few London banks do. But it is pleasing to believe that at the time I looked—what I felt—as though all I valued upon earth were in jeopardy51.
I should have got through the rest of that day happily enough, such was the load off my mind and hands, but for an extraordinary and most disconcerting note received late at night from Raffles himself. He was a man who telegraphed freely, but seldom wrote a letter. Sometimes, however, he sent a scribbled52 line by special messenger; and overnight, evidently in the train, he had scribbled this one to post in the small hours at Crewe:
"'Ware50 Prince of Professors! He was in the offing when I left. If slightest cause for uneasiness about bank, withdraw at once and keep in own rooms Like good chap,
"A. J. R.
"P. S.—Other reasons, as you shall hear."
There was a nice nightcap for a puzzled head! I had made rather an evening of it, what with increase of funds and decrease of anxiety, but this cryptic53 admonition spoiled the remainder of my night. It had arrived by a late post, and I only wished that I had left it all night in my letter-box. What exactly did it mean? And what exactly must I do? These were questions that confronted me with fresh force in the morning.
The news of Crawshay did not surprise me. I was quite sure that Raffles had been given good reason to bear him in mind before his journey, even if he had not again beheld54 the ruffian in the flesh. That ruffian and that journey might be more intimately connected than I had yet supposed. Raffles never told me all. Yet the solid fact held good—held better than ever—that I had seen his plunder safely planted in my bank. Crawshay himself could not follow it there. I was certain he had not followed my cab: in the acute self-consciousness induced by that abominable55 drive, I should have known it in my bones if he had. I thought of the porter's friend who had helped me with the chest. No, I remember him as well as I remembered Crawshay; they were quite different types.
To remove that vile56 box from the bank, on top of another cab, with no stronger pretext57 and no further instructions, was not to be thought of for a moment. Yet I did think of it, for hours. I was always anxious to do my part by Raffles; he had done more than his by me, not once or twice, to-day or yesterday, but again and again from the very first. I need not state the obvious reasons I had for fighting shy of the personal custody58 of his accursed chest. Yet he had run worse risks for me, and I wanted him to learn that he, too, could depend on a devotion not unworthy of his own.
In my dilemma59 I did what I have often done when at a loss for light and leading. I took hardly any lunch, but went to Northumberland Avenue and had a Turkish bath instead. I know nothing so cleansing60 to mind as well as body, nothing better calculated to put the finest possible edge on such judgment61 as one may happen to possess. Even Raffles, without an ounce to lose or a nerve to soothe62, used to own a sensuous63 appreciation64 of the peace of mind and person to be gained in this fashion when all others failed. For me, the fun began before the boots were off one's feet; the muffled65 footfalls, the thin sound of the fountain, even the spent swathed forms upon the couches, and the whole clean, warm, idle atmosphere, were so much unction to my simpler soul. The half-hour in the hot-rooms I used to count but a strenuous66 step to a divine lassitude of limb and accompanying exaltation of intellect. And yet—and yet—it was in the hottest room of all, in a temperature of 270 deg. Fahrenheit67, that the bolt fell from the Pall68 Mall Gazette which I had bought outside the bath.
I was turning over the hot, crisp pages, and positively69 revelling70 in my fiery71 furnace, when the following headlines and leaded paragraphs leapt to my eye with the force of a veritable blow:
BANK ROBBERS IN THE WEST END—
DARING AND MYSTERIOUS CRIME
An audacious burglary and dastardly assault have been committed on the premises72 of the City and Suburban73 Bank in Sloane Street, W. From the details so far to hand, the robbery appears to have been deliberately74 planned and adroitly75 executed in the early hours of this morning.
A night watchman named Fawcett states that between one and two o'clock he heard a slight noise in the neighborhood of the lower strong-room, used as a repository for the plate and other possessions of various customers of the bank. Going down to investigate, he was instantly attacked by a powerful ruffian, who succeeded in felling him to the ground before an alarm could be raised.
Fawcett is unable to furnish any description of his assailant or assailants, but is of opinion that more than one were engaged in the commission of the crime. When the unfortunate man recovered consciousness, no trace of the thieves remained, with the exception of a single candle which had been left burning on the flags of the corridor. The strong-room, however, had been opened, and it is feared the raid on the chests of plate and other valuables may prove to have been only too successful, in view of the Easter exodus76, which the thieves had evidently taken into account. The ordinary banking chambers77 were not even visited; entry and exit are believed to have been effected through the coal cellar, which is also situated78 in the basement. Up to the present the police have effected no arrest.
I sat practically paralyzed by this appalling79 news; and I swear that, even in that incredible temperature, it was a cold perspiration80 in which I sweltered from head to heel. Crawshay, of course! Crawshay once more upon the track of Raffles and his ill-gotten gains! And once more I blamed Raffles himself: his warning had come too late: he should have wired to me at once not to take the box to the bank at all. He was a madman ever to have invested in so obvious and obtrusive81 a receptacle for treasure. It would serve Raffles right if that and no other was the box which had been broken into by the thieves.
Yet, when I considered the character of his treasure, I fairly shuddered82 in my sweat. It was a hoard83 of criminal relics84. Suppose his chest had indeed been rifled, and emptied of every silver thing but one; that one remaining piece of silver, seen of men, was quite enough to cast Raffles into the outer darkness of penal85 servitude! And Crawshay was capable of it—of perceiving the insidious86 revenge—of taking it without compunction or remorse87.
There was only one course for me. I must follow my instructions to the letter and recover the chest at all hazards, or be taken myself in the attempt. If only Raffles had left me some address, to which I could have wired some word of warning! But it was no use thinking of that; for the rest there was time enough up to four o'clock, and as yet it was not three. I determined88 to go through with my bath and make the most of it. Might it not be my last for years?
But I was past enjoying even a Turkish bath. I had not the patience for a proper shampoo, or sufficient spirit for the plunge89. I weighed myself automatically, for that was a matter near my heart; but I forgot to give my man his sixpence until the reproachful intonation90 of his adieu recalled me to myself. And my couch in the cooling gallery—my favorite couch, in my favorite corner, which I had secured with gusto on coming in—it was a bed of thorns, with hideous91 visions of a plank-bed to follow!
I ought to be able to add that I heard the burglary discussed on adjacent couches before I left I certainly listened for it, and was rather disappointed more than once when I had held my breath in vain. But this is the unvarnished record of an odious92 hour, and it passed without further aggravation93 from without; only, as I drove to Sloane Street, the news was on all the posters, and on one I read of "a clew" which spelt for me a doom94 I was grimly resolved to share.
Already there was something in the nature of a "run" up on the Sloane Street branch of the City and Suburban. A cab drove away with a chest of reasonable dimensions as mine drove up, while in the bank itself a lady was making a painful scene. As for the genial clerk who had roared at my jokes the day before, he was mercifully in no mood for any more, but, on the contrary, quite rude to me at sight.
"I've been expecting you all the afternoon," said he. "You needn't look so pale."
"Is it safe?"
"That Noah's Ark of yours? Yes, so I hear; they'd just got to it when they were interrupted, and they never went back again."
"Then it wasn't even opened?"
"Only just begun on, I believe."
"Thank God!"
"You may; we don't," growled95 the clerk. "The manager says he believes your chest was at the bottom of it all."
"How could it be?" I asked uneasily.
"By being seen on the cab a mile off, and followed," said the clerk.
"Does the manager want to see me?" I asked boldly.
"Not unless you want to see him," was the blunt reply. "He's been at it with others all the afternoon, and they haven't all got off as cheap as you."
"Then my silver shall not embarrass you any longer," said I grandly. "I meant to leave it if it was all right, but after all you have said I certainly shall not. Let your man or men bring up the chest at once. I dare say they also have been 'at it with others all the afternoon,' but I shall make this worth their while."
I did not mind driving through the streets with the thing this time. My present relief was too overwhelming as yet to admit of pangs96 and fears for the immediate97 future. No summer sun had ever shone more brightly than that rather watery98 one of early April. There was a green-and-gold dust of buds and shoots on the trees as we passed the park. I felt greater things sprouting99 in my heart. Hansoms passed with schoolboys just home for the Easter holidays, four-wheelers outward bound, with bicycles and perambulators atop; none that rode in them were half so happy as I, with the great load on my cab, but the greater one off my heart.
At Mount Street it just went into the lift; that was a stroke of luck; and the lift-man and I between us carried it into my flat. It seemed a featherweight to me now. I felt a Samson in the exaltation of that hour. And I will not say what my first act was when I found myself alone with my white elephant in the middle of the room; enough that the siphon was still doing its work when the glass slipped through my fingers to the floor.
"Bunny!"
It was Raffles. Yet for a moment I looked about me quite in vain. He was not at the window; he was not at the open door. And yet Raffles it had been, or at all events his voice, and that bubbling over with fun and satisfaction, be his body where it might. In the end I dropped my eyes, and there was his living face in the middle of the lid of the chest, like that of the saint upon its charger.
But Raffles was alive, Raffles was laughing as though his vocal100 cords would snap—there was neither tragedy nor illusion in the apparition101 of Raffles. A life-size Jack-in-the-box, he had thrust his head through a lid within the lid, cut by himself between the two iron bands that ran round the chest like the straps102 of a portmanteau. He must have been busy at it when I found him pretending to pack, if not far into that night, for it was a very perfect piece of work; and even as I stared without a word, and he crouched103 laughing in my face, an arm came squeezing out, keys in hand; one was turned in either of the two great padlocks, the whole lid lifted, and out stepped Raffles like the conjurer he was.
"So you were the burglar!" I exclaimed at last. "Well, I am just as glad I didn't know."
"You dear little brick," he cried, "that's the one thing of all things I longed to hear you say! How could you have behaved as you've done if you had known? How could any living man? How could you have acted, as the polar star of all the stages could not have acted in your place? Remember that I have heard a lot, and as good as seen as much as I've heard. Bunny, I don't know where you were greatest: at the Albany, here, or at your bank!"
"I don't know where I was most miserable," I rejoined, beginning to see the matter in a less perfervid light. "I know you don't credit me with much finesse106, but I would undertake to be in the secret and to do quite as well; the only difference would be in my own peace of mind, which, of course, doesn't count."
But Raffles wagged away with his most charming and disarming107 smile; he was in old clothes, rather tattered108 and torn, and more than a little grimy as to the face and hands, but, on the surface, wonderfully little the worse for his experience. And, as I say, his smile was the smile of the Raffles I loved best.
"You would have done your damnedest, Bunny! There is no limit to your heroism109; but you forget the human equation in the pluckiest of the plucky110. I couldn't afford to forget it, Bunny; I couldn't afford to give a point away. Don't talk as though I hadn't trusted you! I trusted my very life to your loyal tenacity111. What do you suppose would have happened to me if you had let me rip in that strong-room? Do you think I would ever have crept out and given myself up? Yes, I'll have a peg112 for once; the beauty of all laws is in the breaking, even of the kind we make unto ourselves."
I had a Sullivan for him, too; and in another minute he was spread out on my sofa, stretching his cramped113 limbs with infinite gusto, a cigarette between his fingers, a yellow bumper114 at hand on the chest of his triumph and my tribulation115.
"Never mind when it occurred to me, Bunny; as a matter of fact, it was only the other day, when I had decided116 to go away for the real reasons I have already given you. I may have made more of them to you than I do in my own mind, but at all events they exist. And I really did want the telephone and the electric light."
"But where did you stow the silver before you went?"
"Nowhere; it was my luggage—a portmanteau, cricket-bag, and suit-case full of very little else—and by the same token I left the lot at Euston, and one of us must fetch them this evening."
"I can do that," said I. "But did you really go all the way to Crewe?"
"Didn't you get my note? I went all the way to Crewe to post you those few lines, my dear Bunny! It's no use taking trouble if you don't take trouble enough; I wanted you to show the proper set of faces at the bank and elsewhere, and I know you did. Besides, there was an up-train four minutes after mine got in. I simply posted my letter in Crewe station, and changed from one train to the other."
"At two in the morning!"
"Nearer three, Bunny. It was after seven when I slung117 in with the Daily Mail. The milk had beaten me by a short can. But even so I had two very good hours before you were due."
"And to think," I murmured, "how you deceived me there!"
"With your own assistance," said Raffles laughing. "If you had looked it up you would have seen there was no such train in the morning, and I never said there was. But I meant you to be deceived, Bunny, and I won't say I didn't—it was all for the sake of the side! Well, when you carted me away with such laudable despatch118, I had rather an uncomfortable half-hour, but that was all just then. I had my candle, I had matches, and lots to read. It was quite nice in that strong-room until a very unpleasant incident occurred."
"Do tell me, my dear fellow!"
"I must have another Sullivan—thank you—and a match. The unpleasant incident was steps outside and a key in the lock! I was disporting119 myself on the lid of the trunk at the time. I had barely time to knock out my light and slip down behind it. Luckily it was only another box of sorts; a jewel-case, to be more precise; you shall see the contents in a moment. The Easter exodus has done me even better than I dared to hope."
His words reminded me of the Pall Mall Gazette, which I had brought in my pocket from the Turkish bath. I fished it out, all wrinkled and bloated by the heat of the hottest room, and handed it to Raffles with my thumb upon the leaded paragraphs.
"Delightful120!" said he when he had read them. "More thieves than one, and the coal-cellar of all places as a way in! I certainly tried to give it that appearance. I left enough candle-grease there to make those coals burn bravely. But it looked up into a blind backyard, Bunny, and a boy of eight couldn't have squeezed through the trap. Long may that theory keep them happy at Scotland Yard!"
"But what about the fellow you knocked out?" I asked. "That was not like you, Raffles."
Raffles blew pensive121 rings as he lay back on my sofa, his black hair tumbled on the cushion, his pale profile as clear and sharp against the light as though slashed122 out with the scissors.
"I know it wasn't, Bunny," he said regretfully. "But things like that, as the poet will tell you, are really inseparable from victories like mine. It had taken me a couple of hours to break out of that strong-room; I was devoting a third to the harmless task of simulating the appearance of having broken in; and it was then I heard the fellow's stealthy step. Some might have stood their ground and killed him; more would have bolted into a worse corner than they were in already. I left my candle where it was, crept to meet the poor devil, flattened123 myself against the wall, and let him have it as he passed. I acknowledge the foul124 blow, but here's evidence that it was mercifully struck. The victim has already told his tale."
As he drained his glass, but shook his head when I wished to replenish125 it, Raffles showed me the flask126 which he had carried in his pocket: it was still nearly full; and I found that he had otherwise provisioned himself over the holidays. On either Easter Day or Bank Holiday, had I failed him, it had been his intention to make the best escape he could. But the risk must have been enormous, and it filled my glowing skin to think that he had not relied on me in vain.
As for his gleanings from such jewel-cases as were spending the Easter recess127 in the strong-room of my bank, (without going into rhapsodies or even particulars on the point,) I may mention that they realized enough for me to join Raffles on his deferred128 holiday in Scotland, besides enabling him to play more regularly for Middlesex in the ensuing summer than had been the case for several seasons. In fine, this particular exploit entirely129 justified130 itself in my eyes, in spite of the superfluous131 (but invariable) secretiveness which I could seldom help resenting in my heart I never thought less of it than in the present instance; and my one mild reproach was on the subject of the phantom132 Crawshay.
"You let me think he was in the air again," I said. "But it wouldn't surprise me to find that you had never heard of him since the day of his escape through your window."
"I never even thought of him, Bunny, until you came to see me the day before yesterday, and put him into my head with your first words. The whole point was to make you as genuinely anxious about the plate as you must have seemed all along the line."
"Of course I see your point," I rejoined; "but mine is that you labored133 it. You needn't have written me a downright lie about the fellow."
"Nor did I, Bunny."
"Not about the 'prince of professors' being 'in the offing' when you left?"
"My dear Bunny, but so he was!" cried Raffles. "Time was when I was none too pure an amateur. But after this I take leave to consider myself a professor of the professors. And I should like to see one more capable of skippering their side!"
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1
raffles
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| n.抽彩售物( raffle的名词复数 )v.以抽彩方式售（物）( raffle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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dictates
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| n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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crested
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| adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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temerity
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| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
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halcyon
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| n.平静的，愉快的 | |
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tarnished
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| （通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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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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tantalizing
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| adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的；煽情的v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的现在分词 ) | |
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17
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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18
repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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19
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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20
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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21
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
overhauling
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| n.大修；拆修；卸修；翻修v.彻底检查( overhaul的现在分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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devoutly
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| adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地 | |
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24
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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25
urns
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| n.壶( urn的名词复数 )；瓮；缸；骨灰瓮 | |
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26
banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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propitiate
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| v.慰解，劝解 | |
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29
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
enumerate
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| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
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31
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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32
quandary
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| n.困惑，进迟两难之境 | |
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33
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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34
crux
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| adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点 | |
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35
vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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36
parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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37
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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38
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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39
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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41
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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42
mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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43
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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44
abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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45
morosely
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| adv.愁眉苦脸地，忧郁地 | |
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46
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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47
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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49
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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50
ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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51
jeopardy
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| n.危险；危难 | |
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52
scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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53
cryptic
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| adj.秘密的，神秘的，含义模糊的 | |
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54
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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55
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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56
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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57
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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58
custody
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| n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留 | |
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59
dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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60
cleansing
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| n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词 | |
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61
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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62
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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63
sensuous
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| adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的 | |
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64
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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65
muffled
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| 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） | |
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66
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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67
Fahrenheit
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| n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的) | |
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68
pall
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| v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕 | |
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69
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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70
revelling
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| v.作乐( revel的现在分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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71
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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72
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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73
suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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74
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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75
adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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76
exodus
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| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
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77
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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78
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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79
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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80
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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81
obtrusive
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| adj.显眼的；冒失的 | |
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82
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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83
hoard
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| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
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84
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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85
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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86
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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87
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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88
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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89
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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90
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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91
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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92
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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93
aggravation
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| n.烦恼，恼火 | |
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94
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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95
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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96
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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97
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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98
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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99
sprouting
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| v.发芽( sprout的现在分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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100
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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101
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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102
straps
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| 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 | |
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103
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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104
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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105
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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106
finesse
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| n.精密技巧，灵巧，手腕 | |
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107
disarming
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| adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒 | |
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108
tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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109
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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110
plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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111
tenacity
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| n.坚韧 | |
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112
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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113
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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114
bumper
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| n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的 | |
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115
tribulation
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| n.苦难，灾难 | |
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116
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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117
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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118
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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119
disporting
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| v.嬉戏，玩乐，自娱( disport的现在分词 ) | |
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120
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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121
pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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122
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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123
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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124
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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125
replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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126
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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127
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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128
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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129
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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130
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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131
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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132
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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133
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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