It was young Ready's hollow voice, as cool, however, as though he were telling me I was late for breakfast. I started up and sought him wildly in the darkness.
“You're joking,” was my first thought and utterance1; for now he was lighting2 my candle, and blowing out the match with a care that seemed in itself a contradiction.
“I wish I were,” he answered. “Listen to that!”
He pointed3 to my cabin ceiling; it quivered and creaked; and all at once I was as a deaf man healed.
One gets inured4 to noise at sea, but to this day it passes me how even I could have slept an instant in the abnormal din5 which I now heard raging above my head. Sea-boots stamped; bare feet pattered; men bawled6; women shrieked7; shouts of terror drowned the roar of command.
“Have we long to last?” I asked, as I leaped for my clothes.
“Long enough for you to dress comfortably. Steady, old man! It's only just been discovered; they may get it under. The panic's the worst part at present, and we're out of that.”
But was Eva Denison? Breathlessly I put the question; his answer was reassuring10. Miss Denison was with her step-father on the poop. “And both of 'em as cool as cucumbers,” added Ready.
They could not have been cooler than this young man, with death at the bottom of his bright and sunken eyes. He was of the type which is all muscle and no constitution; athletes one year, dead men the next; but until this moment the athlete had been to me a mere11 and incredible tradition. In the afternoon I had seen his lean knees totter12 under the captain's fire. Now, at midnight—the exact time by my watch—it was as if his shrunken limbs had expanded in his clothes; he seemed hardly to know his own flushed face, as he caught sight of it in my mirror.
“By Jove!” said he, “this has put me in a fine old fever; but I don't know when I felt in better fettle. If only they get it under! I've not looked like this all the voyage.”
And he admired himself while I dressed in hot haste: a fine young fellow; not at all the natural egotist, but cast for death by the doctors, and keenly incredulous in his bag of skin. It revived one's confidence to hear him talk. But he forgot himself in an instant, and gave me a lead through the saloon with a boyish eagerness that made me actually suspicious as I ran. We were nearing the Line. I recalled the excesses of my last crossing, and I prepared for some vast hoax13 at the last moment. It was only when we plunged14 upon the crowded quarter-deck, and my own eyes read lust15 of life and dread16 of death in the starting eyes of others, that such lust and such dread consumed me in my turn, so that my veins17 seemed filled with fire and ice.
To be fair to those others, I think that the first wild panic was subsiding18 even then; at least there was a lull19, and even a reaction in the right direction on the part of the males in the second class and steerage. A huge Irishman at their head, they were passing buckets towards the after-hold; the press of people hid the hatchway from us until we gained the poop; but we heard the buckets spitting and a hose-pipe hissing20 into the flames below; and we saw the column of white vapor21 rising steadily22 from their midst.
At the break of the poop stood Captain Harris, his legs planted wide apart, very vigorous, very decisive, very profane24. And I must confess that the shocking oaths which had brought us round the Horn inspired a kind of confidence in me now. Besides, even from the poop I could see no flames. But the night was as beautiful as it had been an hour or two back; the stars as brilliant, the breeze even more balmy, the sea even more calm; and we were hove-to already, against the worst.
In this hour of peril25 the poop was very properly invaded by all classes of passengers, in all manner of incongruous apparel, in all stages of fear, rage, grief and hysteria; as we made our way among this motley nightmare throng26, I took Ready by the arm.
“I hope he may be,” was the reply. “But we were off our course this afternoon; and we were off it again during the concert, as sure as we're not on it now.”
His tone made me draw him to the rail.
“But how do you know? You didn't have another look, did you?”
“Lots of looks-at the stars. He couldn't keep me from consulting them; and I'm just as certain of it as I'm certain that we've a cargo28 aboard which we're none of us supposed to know anything about.”
The latter piece of gossip was, indeed, all over the ship; but this allusion29 to it struck me as foolishly irrelevant30 and frivolous31. As to the other matter, I suggested that the officers would have had more to say about it than Ready, if there had been anything in it.
“Officers be damned!” cried our consumptive, with a sound man's vigor23. “They're ordinary seamen32 dressed up; I don't believe they've a second mate's certificate between them, and they're frightened out of their souls.”
“Well, anyhow, the skipper isn't that.”
“No; he's drunk; he can shout straight, but you should hear him try to speak.”
I made my way aft without rejoinder. “Invalid's pessimism,” was my private comment. And yet the sick man was whole for the time being; the virile33 spirit was once more master of the recreant34 members; and it was with illogical relief that I found those I sought standing35 almost unconcernedly beside the binnacle.
My little friend was, indeed, pale enough, and her eyes great with dismay; but she stood splendidly calm, in her travelling cloak and bonnet36, and with all my soul I hailed the hardihood with which I had rightly credited my love. Yes! I loved her then. It had come home to me at last, and I no longer denied it in my heart. In my innocence37 and my joy I rather blessed the fire for showing me her true self and my own; and there I stood, loving her openly with my eyes (not to lose another instant), and bursting to tell her so with my lips.
But there also stood Senhor Santos, almost precisely38 as I had seen him last, cigarette, tie-pin, and all. He wore an overcoat, however, and leaned upon a massive ebony cane39, while he carried his daughter's guitar in its case, exactly as though they were waiting for a train. Moreover, I thought that for the first time he was regarding me with no very favoring glance.
“You don't think it serious?” I asked him abruptly40, my heart still bounding with the most incongruous joy.
“Where did it break out?”
“No one knows; it may have come of your concert.”
“But they are getting the better of it?”
“They are working wonders so far, senhor.”
“You see, Miss Denison,” I continued ecstatically, “our rough old diamond of a skipper is the right man in the right place after all. A tight man in a tight place, eh?” and I laughed like an idiot in their calm grave faces.
“Senhor Cole is right,” said Santos, “although his 'ilarity sims a leetle out of place. But you must never spik against Captain 'Arrees again, menma.”
“I never will,” the poor child said; yet I saw her wince42 whenever the captain raised that hoarse43 voice of his in more and more blasphemous44 exhortation45; and I began to fear with Ready that the man was drunk.
My eyes were still upon my darling, devouring46 her, revelling47 in her, when suddenly I saw her hand twitch48 within her step-father's arm. It was an answering start to one on his part. The cigarette was snatched from his lips. There was a commotion49 forward, and a cry came aft, from mouth to mouth:
“The flames! The flames!”
I turned, and caught their reflection on the white column of smoke and steam. I ran forward, and saw them curling and leaping in the hell-mouth of the hold.
The quarter-deck now staged a lurid50 scene: that blazing trap-door in its midst; and each man there a naked demon51 madly working to save his roasting skin. Abaft52 the mainmast the deck-pump was being ceaselessly worked by relays of the passengers; dry blankets were passed forward, soaking blankets were passed aft, and flung flat into the furnace one after another. These did more good than the pure water: the pillar of smoke became blacker, denser53: we were at a crisis; a sudden hush54 denoted it; even our hoarse skipper stood dumb.
I had rushed down into the waist of the ship—blushing for my delay—and already I was tossing blankets with the rest. Looking up in an enforced pause, I saw Santos whispering in the skipper's ear, with the expression of a sphinx but no lack of foreign gesticulation—behind them a fringe of terror-stricken faces, parted at that instant by two more figures, as wild and strange as any in that wild, strange scene. One was our luckless lucky digger, the other a gigantic Zambesi nigger, who for days had been told off to watch him; this was the servant (or rather the slave) of Senhor Santos.
The digger planted himself before the captain. His face was reddened by a fire as consuming as that within the bowels55 of our gallant56 ship. He had a huge, unwieldy bundle under either arm.
“Plain question—plain answer,” we heard him stutter. “Is there any —— chance of saving this —— ship?”
His adjectives were too foul57 for print; they were given with such a special effort at distinctness, however, that I was smiling one instant, and giving thanks the next that Eva Denison had not come forward with her guardian58. Meanwhile the skipper had exchanged a glance with Senhor Santos, and I think we all felt that he was going to tell us the truth.
He told it in two words—“Very little.”
Then the first individual tragedy was enacted59 before every eye. With a yell the drunken maniac60 rushed to the rail. The nigger was at his heels—he was too late. Uttering another and more piercing shriek8, the madman was overboard at a bound; one of his bundles preceded him; the other dropped like a cannon-ball on the deck.
The nigger caught it up and carried it forward to the captain.
Harris held up his hand. We were still before we had fairly found our tongues. His words did run together a little, but he was not drunk.
“Men and women,” said he, “what I told that poor devil is Gospel truth; but I didn't tell him we'd no chance of saving our lives, did I? Not me, because we have! Keep your heads and listen to me. There's two good boats on the davits amidships; the chief will take one, the second officer the other; and there ain't no reason why every blessed one of you shouldn't sleep in Ascension to-morrow night. As for me, let me see every soul off of my ship and perhaps I may follow; but by the God that made you, look alive! Mr. Arnott—Mr. McClellan—man them boats and lower away. You can't get quit o' the ship too soon, an' I don't mind tellin' you why. I'll tell you the worst, an' then you'll know. There's been a lot o' gossip goin', gossip about my cargo. I give out as I'd none but ship's stores and ballast, an' I give out a lie. I don't mind tellin' you now. I give out a cussed lie, but I give it out for the good o' the ship! What was the use o' frightenin' folks? But where's the sense in keepin' it back now? We have a bit of a cargo,” shouted Harris; “and it's gunpowder—every damned ton of it!”
The effect of this announcement may be imagined; my hand has not the cunning to reproduce it on paper; and if it had, it would shrink from the task. Mild men became brutes61, brutal62 men, devils, women—God help them!—shrieking beldams for the most part. Never shall I forget them with their streaming hair, their screaming open mouths, and the cruel ascending63 fire glinting on their starting eyeballs!
Pell-mell they tumbled down the poop-ladders; pell-mell they raced amidships past that yawning open furnace; the pitch was boiling through the seams of the crackling deck; they slipped and fell upon it, one over another, and the wonder is that none plunged headlong into the flames. A handful remained on the poop, cowering64 and undone65 with terror. Upon these turned Captain Harris, as Ready and I, stemming the torrent66 of maddened humanity, regained67 the poop ourselves.
“For'ard with ye!” yelled the skipper. “The powder's underneath68 you in the lazarette!”
They were gone like hunted sheep. And now abaft the flaming hatchway there were only we four surviving saloon passengers, the captain, his steward69, the Zambesi negro, and the quarter-master at the wheel. The steward and the black I observed putting stores aboard the captain's gig as it overhung the water from the stern davits.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Harris to the two of us, “I must trouble you to step forward with the rest. Senhor Santos insists on taking his chance along with the young lady in my gig. I've told him the risk, but he insists, and the gig'll hold no more.”
“But she must have a crew, and I can row. For God's sake take me, captain!” cried I; for Eva Denison sat weeping in her deck chair, and my heart bled faint at the thought of leaving her, I who loved her so, and might die without ever telling her my love! Harris, however, stood firm.
“There's that quartermaster and my steward, and Jose the nigger,” said he. “That's quite enough, Mr. Cole, for I ain't above an oar9 myself; but, by God, I'm skipper o' this here ship, and I'll skip her as long as I remain aboard!”
I saw his hand go to his belt; I saw the pistols stuck there for mutineers. I looked at Santos. He answered me with his neutral shrug, and, by my soul, he struck a match and lit a cigarette in that hour of life and death! Then last I looked at Ready; and he leant invertebrate70 over the rail, gasping71 pitiably from his exertions72 in regaining73 the poop, a dying man once more. I pointed out his piteous state.
“At least,” I whispered, “you won't refuse to take him?”
“It is for you to decide, captain,” said he cynically79; “but this one will make no deeference. Yes, I would take him. It will not be far,” he added, in a tone that was not the less detestable for being lowered.
“Take them both!” moaned little Eva, putting in her first and last sweet word.
“Then we all drown, Evasinha,” said her stepfather. “It is impossible.”
“We're too many for her as it is,” said the captain. “So for'ard with ye, Mr. Cole, before it's too late.”
But my darling's brave word for me had fired my blood, and I turned with equal resolution on Harris and on the Portuguese80. “I will go like a lamb,” said I, “if you will first give me five minutes' conversation with Miss Denison. Otherwise I do not go; and as for the gig, you may take me or leave me, as you choose.”
“What have you to say to her?” asked Santos, coming up to me, and again lowering his voice.
I lowered mine still more. “That I love her!” I answered in a soft ecstasy81. “That she may remember how I loved her, if I die!”
“By all mins, senhor; there is no harm in that.”
“Miss Denison, will you grant me five minutes', conversation? It may be the last that we shall ever have together!”
Uncovering her face, she looked at me with a strange terror in her great eyes; then with a questioning light that was yet more strange, for in it there was a wistfulness I could not comprehend. She suffered me to take her hand, however, and to lead her unresisting to the weather rail.
“What is it you have to say?” she asked me in her turn. “What is it that you—think?”
Her voice fell as though she must have the truth.
“Is that all?” cried Eva, and my heart sank at her eager manner.
She seemed at once disappointed and relieved. Could it be possible she dreaded86 a declaration which she had foreseen all along? My evil first experience rose up to warn me. No, I would not speak now; it was no time. If she loved me, it might make her love me less; better to trust to God to spare us both.
She drew a little nearer, hesitating. It was as though her disappointment had gained on her relief.
“Do you know what I thought you were going to say?”
“No, indeed.”
“Dare I tell you?”
“You can trust me.”
Her pale lips parted. Her great eyes shone. Another instant, and she had told me that which I would have given all but life itself to know. But in that tick of time a quick step came behind me, and the light went out of the sweet face upturned to mine.
“I cannot! I must not! Here is—that man!”
Senhor Santos was all smiles and rings of pale-blue smoke.
“You will be cut off, friend Cole,” said he. “The fire is spreading.”
“Let it spread!” I cried, gazing my very soul into the young girl's eyes. “We have not finished our conversation.
“We have!” said she, with sudden decision. “Go—go—for my sake—for your own sake—go at once!”
She gave me her hand. I merely clasped it. And so I left her at the rail-ah, heaven! how often we had argued on that very spot! So I left her, with the greatest effort of all my life (but one); and yet in passing, full as my heart was of love and self, I could not but lay a hand on poor Ready's shoulders.
“God bless you, old boy!” I said to him.
He turned a white face that gave me half an instant's pause.
“It's all over with me this time,” he said. “But, I say, I was right about the cargo?”
And I heard a chuckle88 as I reached the ladder; but Ready was no longer in my mind; even Eva was driven out of it, as I stood aghast on the top-most rung.
点击收听单词发音
1 utterance | |
n.用言语表达,话语,言语 | |
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2 lighting | |
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光 | |
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3 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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4 inured | |
adj.坚强的,习惯的 | |
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5 din | |
n.喧闹声,嘈杂声 | |
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6 bawled | |
v.大叫,大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 );放声大哭;大声叫出;叫卖(货物) | |
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7 shrieked | |
v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 shriek | |
v./n.尖叫,叫喊 | |
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9 oar | |
n.桨,橹,划手;v.划行 | |
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10 reassuring | |
a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的,使人放心的 | |
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11 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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12 totter | |
v.蹒跚, 摇摇欲坠;n.蹒跚的步子 | |
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13 hoax | |
v.欺骗,哄骗,愚弄;n.愚弄人,恶作剧 | |
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14 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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15 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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16 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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17 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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18 subsiding | |
v.(土地)下陷(因在地下采矿)( subside的现在分词 );减弱;下降至较低或正常水平;一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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19 lull | |
v.使安静,使入睡,缓和,哄骗;n.暂停,间歇 | |
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20 hissing | |
n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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21 vapor | |
n.蒸汽,雾气 | |
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22 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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23 vigor | |
n.活力,精力,元气 | |
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24 profane | |
adj.亵神的,亵渎的;vt.亵渎,玷污 | |
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25 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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26 throng | |
n.人群,群众;v.拥挤,群集 | |
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27 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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28 cargo | |
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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29 allusion | |
n.暗示,间接提示 | |
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30 irrelevant | |
adj.不恰当的,无关系的,不相干的 | |
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31 frivolous | |
adj.轻薄的;轻率的 | |
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32 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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33 virile | |
adj.男性的;有男性生殖力的;有男子气概的;强有力的 | |
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34 recreant | |
n.懦夫;adj.胆怯的 | |
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35 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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36 bonnet | |
n.无边女帽;童帽 | |
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37 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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38 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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39 cane | |
n.手杖,细长的茎,藤条;v.以杖击,以藤编制的 | |
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40 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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41 shrug | |
v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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42 wince | |
n.畏缩,退避,(因痛苦,苦恼等)面部肌肉抽动;v.畏缩,退缩,退避 | |
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43 hoarse | |
adj.嘶哑的,沙哑的 | |
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44 blasphemous | |
adj.亵渎神明的,不敬神的 | |
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45 exhortation | |
n.劝告,规劝 | |
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46 devouring | |
吞没( devour的现在分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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47 revelling | |
v.作乐( revel的现在分词 );狂欢;着迷;陶醉 | |
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48 twitch | |
v.急拉,抽动,痉挛,抽搐;n.扯,阵痛,痉挛 | |
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49 commotion | |
n.骚动,动乱 | |
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50 lurid | |
adj.可怕的;血红的;苍白的 | |
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51 demon | |
n.魔鬼,恶魔 | |
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52 abaft | |
prep.在…之后;adv.在船尾,向船尾 | |
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53 denser | |
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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54 hush | |
int.嘘,别出声;n.沉默,静寂;v.使安静 | |
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55 bowels | |
n.肠,内脏,内部;肠( bowel的名词复数 );内部,最深处 | |
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56 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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57 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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58 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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59 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60 maniac | |
n.精神癫狂的人;疯子 | |
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61 brutes | |
兽( brute的名词复数 ); 畜生; 残酷无情的人; 兽性 | |
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62 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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63 ascending | |
adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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64 cowering | |
v.畏缩,抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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65 undone | |
a.未做完的,未完成的 | |
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66 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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67 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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68 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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69 steward | |
n.乘务员,服务员;看管人;膳食管理员 | |
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70 invertebrate | |
n.无脊椎动物 | |
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71 gasping | |
adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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72 exertions | |
n.努力( exertion的名词复数 );费力;(能力、权力等的)运用;行使 | |
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73 regaining | |
复得( regain的现在分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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74 brutally | |
adv.残忍地,野蛮地,冷酷无情地 | |
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75 leisurely | |
adj.悠闲的;从容的,慢慢的 | |
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76 puffed | |
adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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77 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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78 cynical | |
adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的,不信世道向善的 | |
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79 cynically | |
adv.爱嘲笑地,冷笑地 | |
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80 Portuguese | |
n.葡萄牙人;葡萄牙语 | |
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81 ecstasy | |
n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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82 shrugged | |
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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83 acquiescence | |
n.默许;顺从 | |
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84 withered | |
adj. 枯萎的,干瘪的,(人身体的部分器官)因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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85 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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86 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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87 doggedly | |
adv.顽强地,固执地 | |
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88 chuckle | |
vi./n.轻声笑,咯咯笑 | |
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