The instant her head touched the pillow, she slept, a pleasant, dreamless sleep, and only woke with the housemaid’s knock.
It was when she was drinking a very welcome cup of tea that she began to wonder whether she was engaged to Henry or not. On the one hand, Henry undoubtedly2 appeared to think that she was; on the other, Jane felt perfectly3 satisfied that she had pledged herself to nothing more formidable than a promise to quarrel. A small but very becoming dimple appeared in Jane’s cheek as she came to the conclusion that Henry was possibly engaged to her, but that she was certainly not engaged to Henry. It seemed to her to be a very pleasant state of affairs. It was, in fact, with great reluctance4 that she transferred her thoughts to more practical matters.
Having dressed, she extracted the bundle of clothes from the cupboard, and decided5 that the serge dress might be hung up. There were one or two damp patches and several green smears6, but the former would dry and the latter when dry would brush off.
“But the slippers are awful,” she said.
They were; the cork7 soles sopping8 wet, the felt drenched9 and slimy. She made a brown paper parcel of them, and put it at the extreme back of the cupboard. The stockings she consigned10 to the clothes basket.
“I can wash them out later on,” she thought.
It was at this point that she missed her handkerchief. She had had a handkerchief the night before. She was sure of that, because she remembered drying her eyes with it after she had cried.
A little colour came into her face at the recollection of how vehemently11 she had wept on Henry’s shoulder with Henry’s arm round her, but it died again at the insistently12 recurring14 thought:
“I had a handkerchief. I dried my eyes with it. Where is it?”
Not only had she dried her eyes with it, but after that she remembered scrubbing the finger-tips that had touched the slug. The handkerchief must be horribly smeared15 and wet. It was one of Renata’s, of course, white with a blue check border, and “R. Molloy, 12” in marking-ink across one corner. Imagine buying twelve horrors like that! Mercifully Renata must have lost most of them, for Jane had only inherited four.
She brought her thoughts back with a jerk. Where was it? If she had dropped it in the house it would have been either in the hall, on the stairs, or in the corridor, and one of the housemaids would have brought it to her by now. It must have fallen in the cross-passage where she had stood with Henry, and if it were found....
“Of all the first-class prize idiots!” she said, and there words failed her.
If she had dropped it in the cross-passage, it might lie there until Sunday night when she could get Henry to retrieve17 it, or it might not. Ember—Lady Heritage—Anthony Luttrell, any one of these three people might have business in that cross-passage, in which case a handkerchief, even if stained, was just the most unlikely thing in the world to pass unnoticed. Even if no one went up that passage, it might be seen from the main tunnel. Of course, if it were Anthony Luttrell who found it, it would not matter. But it was so very much more likely to be one of the others.
At intervals18 during the morning, Jane continued to argue the question, or rather two questions. First, the probabilities for and against the handkerchief being discovered; and second, should she, or should she not, go and look for it herself in defiance19 of Henry’s prohibition20? She had spoken the truth, but not the whole truth, when she told Henry that she hated the idea of going into the passages alone. She hated going, but she wanted to go. Most ardently22 she desired to find things out before Henry found them out. It would be nice and safe to sit with her hands in her lap whilst Henry explored secret subterranean23 caverns24, and unravelled25 dangerous conspiracies26—safe but hideously27 dull. When Henry had finished exploring and unravelling28, he would come along frightfully pleased with himself and want her to be engaged to him, and he would always, always feel superior and convinced that he had done the whole thing himself. It was a most intolerable thought, more intolerable than green slime and being alone in the dark. It was at this point that Jane made up her mind that she would go and look for her handkerchief herself without waiting for Henry.
Having made her decision, she found an unlooked-for opportunity for carrying it out, for at lunch Lady Heritage announced her intention of putting in several hours of laboratory work, whilst it transpired29 that Ember was going out in the two-seater car which he drove himself, and that he was quite uncertain when he would be back. Jane at once made up her mind that, as soon as the coast was quite clear, she would slip down into the passages. She would wait until lunch had been cleared and the servants were safely out of the way. No one was likely to come into the hall, and the whole thing would be so much less terrifying than another midnight expedition.
Ember excused himself before lunch was over, and she heard him drive away a few minutes later; but Lady Heritage sat on, her untasted coffee beside her. She sat with her chin in her hand, looking out of the window, and it was obvious enough that her thoughts were far away. She was probably unconscious of Jane’s presence, certainly undesirous of it, and yet, for the life of her, Jane could not have risen or asked if she might go. Once or twice she looked from under her lashes30 at Raymond’s still white face. There was a new look upon it since yesterday. She was sadder and yet softer. She looked as if she had not slept at all.
After a very long half-hour she turned her eyes on Jane. There was a flash of surprise and then a frown.
“You needn’t have waited,” she said in a cold voice, and then got up and went out without another word.
Jane took a book into the hall and sat there.
Presently she caught a glimpse of Raymond’s white overall in the upper corridor, and heard the clang with which the steel gate closed behind her. She sat quite still and went on reading until all sounds from the direction of the dining-room had ceased. Silence settled upon the house, and she told herself that this was her opportunity.
She ran up to her room, changed into the serge dress, and put on a pair of outdoor shoes. She did not possess an electric torch, and the question of a light had exercised her a good deal. The best she could do was to pocket a box of matches and one of the bedroom candles which was half burnt down. She then went downstairs, and, after listening anxiously for some moments, she once more moved the heavy chair and, climbing on it, began to feel for the knots on the panelling. As her fingers found and pressed them, she heard, simultaneously31 with the click of the released spring, a faint thudding noise. With a spasm32 of horror she knew that some one had passed through the baize door that shut off the servants’ wing. The sound she had heard was the sound of the door falling back into place, and at any other moment it would have gone unnoticed.
Fortunately for herself Jane was accustomed to a rapid transition from thought to action. She was off the chair, across the hall, and sitting with a book on her lap when the butler made his usual rather slow entrance.
She had recognised at once that it would be impossible for her to replace the chair and escape discovery. It stood in the shadow, and she hoped for the best.
Blotson crossed the hall and disappeared into Sir William’s study.
Jane gazed at a printed page upon which the letters of the alphabet were playing “General post.” After some interminable minutes Blotson reappeared. He shut the study door, approached Jane, and in a low and confidential33 voice inquired would she have tea in the hall, the drawing-room, or the library.
“Oh, the library,” said Jane, “the library, Blotson.” And with a majestic34, “Very good, miss,” Blotson withdrew.
Blotson’s “Very good” always reminded Jane of the Royal Assent35 to an Act of Parliament. It was doubtless a form, but how stately, how dignified36 a form.
When the chill superinduced by the presence of Blotson had yielded to a more natural temperature, Jane went on tiptoe across the hall and replaced the chair. It was a comfort to reflect that it had escaped Blotson’s all-embracing eye. With a hasty glance she swung the panel inwards, slipped through, and closed it again.
She descended38 all the steps before she ventured to light her candle, and she was careful to put the spent match into her pocket. Renata’s dress really did have a pocket, which, of course, made the dropping of the handkerchief quite inexcusable.
The passage was much less terrifying when one had a light of one’s own instead of the distant glimmer39 of somebody else’s and the horrid40 possibility of being left at any moment in total darkness, with no idea of one’s whereabouts or of how to get out.
Jane’s spirits rose brightly. To dread41 a thing and then to find it easy provides one with a pleasant sense of difficulty overcome. In great cheerfulness of spirit Jane walked along until she came to the cross-passage on her right. She turned up it, walked a few steps holding her candle high, and there, a couple of yards from the entrance, lay the handkerchief rolled into a wet and very dirty ball. She picked it up gingerly, and put it into her convenient pocket.
“And I suppose I ought to go back at once; but what a waste, when every one is safely out of the way, and I’ve got through the really horrid part, which is opening that abominable42 spring.”
Jane hesitated, weighing the duty of a swift return against the pleasure of exploring and perhaps getting ahead of Henry. The recollection that Henry had forbidden her to explore turned the scale—towards pleasure.
She had four inches of candle and a whole box of matches. She had at least two hours of liberty, and, most important of all, she felt herself to be in a frame of mind which invited success. The question was where to begin.
On the right-hand side there was only this single passage. Jane did not feel attracted by it. She was almost sure that it must lead to the potting-shed, and to descend37 from conspiracies to garden lumber43 would indeed be an anti-climax.
On the left there were four passages. Jane walked back along the way she had come. The first passage left the main tunnel at an acute angle which obviously carried it back under the main block of the house. Jane decided to explore it. She held her candle high in one hand and her skirts close with the other. The passage was low, and she had to bend a little. After half a dozen yards she came to a flight of steps. They were wet, slippery, and very steep. Jane stood on the top step and looked down.
The walls oozed44 moisture, the candlelight showed her a pale slug about five inches long—Jane said six to start with, but, under pressure from Henry, retreated as far as five and would not yield another half-inch; she also said that the slug waved its horns at her and was crawling in her direction. Right there, as the Americans say, she made up her mind that this would be a good passage to explore with Henry, later on. She caught a glimpse of another slug on a level with the fifth step, whisked round, and ran.
“The one point about slugs is that they can’t run,” she said as she came back into the main corridor.
Without giving herself time to think, she plunged45 into the next opening on the left. It ran at right angles to the central passage, and was comparatively dry. It kept on the same level too, and Jane, trying to make a mental plan, thought that it must run under the house, cutting across the north wing. It occurred to her that there might be vaults47 of some kind under the terrace, and that this passage would perhaps lead to them. If this were so, it must soon either curve gradually to the left or take a sudden sharp turn. She wished she had thought of counting her steps, but it was difficult to pace regularly on a slippery floor and in such a poor light.
Just as she had begun to think that the passage must run out to sea, she came to the sharp turn which she had expected. A wall of black rock faced her, to her right a tunnel ran in at a sharp angle, and to her left there was a dark stone arch, a few feet of a new sort of tunnel built of brick, and then a steel gate exactly like the gates which shut off the laboratories in the house above.
Jane stared at the gate as if she expected it to dissolve into the surrounding darkness. The candle-light danced on the steel. It was rusty48, but not so very rusty, and therefore it could not have been for very long in its present position. She came closer and touched it. It was real.
Her amazing good fortune almost overcame her. What a thing to tell Henry! What a justification49 for flouting50 his orders!! What a score!!!
Jane transferred the candle to her left hand, put out a right hand which trembled with excitement, and tried the gate. It was open. For a moment she drew back. Like the child who sits looking at a birthday parcel, the mere51 sight of which provides it with so many thrills that it cannot bring itself to cut the string and unwrap the paper, Jane stood and looked at her gate, her discovery—hers, not Henry’s.
As she looked, her eyes were caught by a small knob on the right-hand wall. It was about four feet above the floor and quite close to the steel bars. It was made of some dull metal and looked exactly like an electric-light switch. By going quite close to the gate and looking through she could see that a cased wire ran along the bricks on the same level, and she remembered that Henry had said the passages were wired.
Had Henry been first on the field after all? She turned, held her light high, and looked back. The wire went up to the roof and ran along until she lost it in the darkness. She reflected hopefully that Henry might have seen the wire much farther along, and turned back again.
Her fingers were on the switch when a really dreadful thought pricked52 her. Suppose the switch controlled some horrible explosive! It might turn on a light, most likely it did; but, on the other hand, it might let loose a raging demon53 of destruction that would blow the whole place to smithereens. It was an unreasonable54 thought, the sort of thought that one dismisses instantly in the daylight, but which by candlelight in an underground tunnel assumes a certain degree of credibility.
“The question is, am I going on or not?”
The silence having failed to supply her with an answer, she said viciously, “You’re a worse rabbit than Renata,” shut her eyes, held her breath, and jerked the switch down.
Through her closed lids came a red flash. She clung to the switch and waited. A drop of boiling wax guttered55 down upon her left forefinger56. She opened her eyes and saw the steel gate like a black tracery against a lighted space beyond. With a quickly drawn57 breath of relief she pushed the steel gate, took one step forward, and then stood rigid58, listening to the muffled59 yet insistent13 whir of an alarm bell. After one horrified60 moment she pulled the door towards her again. The sound ceased. Jane considered.
As a result of her consideration she turned out the electric light, opened the gate, slipped through, and closed it again so quickly that the bell was hardly heard. She did not allow it to latch61, and, stooping, set a piece of broken brick to hold it ajar. The candlelight seemed very inadequate62, but she decided that she must make it do, and holding it well up in front of her, she came through a brick arch into a long chamber63 with walls of stone.
Jane looked about her with ignorant, widely opened eyes. She had never been in a laboratory, but she knew that this must be one. The printed page does not exist for nothing. The vague yellow light flickered64 on strange cylindrical65 shapes and was flung back by glass jars and odd twisted retorts. A great many appliances, for which she could find no name, emerged from dense66 shadow into the uncertain dusk.
“It’s like a mediæval torture chamber—only worse, colder—more calculating! It’s a sort of torture chamber. I hate it. It gives me the grues,” said Jane.
She moved slowly down the room. It was quite dry in here. There was no slime, and there were no slugs.
“I hate it a thousand times more than the passages,” she said.
Her feet moved slowly and unwillingly67. In the far corner there were two more arches. She thought she would just see what lay beyond them and then return. She took the one on the right hand first. It ran along a little way and then terminated in a small round chamber which was full of packing-cases. She returned and went down the second passage. She was just inside it when with startling suddenness she found herself looking at her own shadow. It lay clear and black on the brick floor in front of her. Some one had turned on the electric light.
Jane’s candle tilted68 and the wax dropped. Her horrified eyes looked about wildly for a place of refuge. The light showed her one. Within a yard of the entrance there was an arched hollow. With a sort of gasp69 she blew her candle out and bolted for the shelter. The whir of the electric bell sounded as she gained it, sounded and then ceased. She heard Ember say, “Quite a good run, wasn’t it?” and a voice which she did not expect answer, “Well enough.” The voice puzzled her. It was a pleasant voice, deep and rich. It had something of a brogue and something of a twang.
A most unpleasant light broke upon Jane. It was the voice of the Anarchist70 Uncle. It was the voice of Mr. Molloy.
Jane got as far back into her hollow as she could. It was not very far. There had evidently been a tunnel here, but the roof had fallen in, and the floor was rough and uneven71 with the débris.
She heard the two men moving in the room beyond, and she experienced a most sincere repentance72 for not having attended to the counsels of Henry.
“And now we can talk,” said Ember. “You’ve got the cash?”
“Not with me,” said Mr. Molloy.
“Why not?”
“Oh, just in case....”—a not unmelodious whistle completed the sentence.
“They paid the higher figure?”
“They did,” said Mr. Molloy. “Belcovitch was for taking their second bid, but I told him ‘No.’ Belcovitch has his points, but he’s not the bold bargainer. I told him ‘No.’ I told him ‘It’s this way—if they want it they’ll pay our price.’ And pay it they did. I don’t know that I ever handled that much money before, and all for a sheet or two of paper. Well, well——”
“You should have brought the money with you. Why didn’t you?”
In the now brightly lighted laboratory Molloy sat negligently73 on the end of a bench and lifted his eyebrows74 a little.
“Well, I didn’t,” he said.
“Where is it?”
“In a place of safety.”
“Well, we’ve pulled it off,” he said. “By the way, the fact of the sale is known. We’ve had an interfering76 young jack-in-office down here making inquiries77, and Sir William has gone up to town in a very considerable state of nerves.”
“The Anarchist Uncle,” said Jane to herself, “has been selling the Government Formula ‘A.’ He doesn’t trust Mr. Ember enough to hand the money over. Pleasant relations I’ve got!”
Molloy whistled again, a long-drawn note with a hint of dismay in it.
“I wonder who let the cat out of the bag,” he said.
“These things always leak out. It doesn’t really signify. With this money at our command we can complete our arrangements at once, and be ready to strike within the next few weeks. You and Belcovitch had better keep out of the way until the time comes. He should be here in four days’ time, travelling by the route we settled; then you’ll have company. You must both lie close here.”
“That’s the devil of a plan now, Ember,” said Molloy. “We’ll be no better than rats in a drain.”
“Well, it’s for your safety,” said Ember. “They’re out for blood over this business of Formula ‘A,’ I can tell you, and there’s nowhere you’d be half so safe.”
Jane was listening with all her ears. She decided that Mr. Ember’s solicitude78 was not all on Molloy’s account. “He thinks that if Molloy and Belcovitch are arrested, they’ll give him away over the big thing in order to save themselves. I expect they’d be able to make a pretty good bargain for themselves, really.” She heard Molloy give a sulky assent. Then Ember was speaking again:
“I want to check the lists with you. Not the continental79 ones—I’ll keep those for Belcovitch—but those for the States and here. I’ve got them complete now, but I’m not very sure about all the names. Hennessey now, he’s down for Chicago, but I don’t know that I altogether trust Hennessey.”
“It’s late in the day to say that,” said Molloy.
“Well, what about Hayling Taylor?”
Jane listened, and heard name follow name. Ember appeared to be reading from a list. He would name a large town and follow it with a list of persons who apparently80 acted as agents there. Sometimes these names were passed with an assenting81 grunt82 by Molloy, sometimes there was a discussion.
There are a great many large towns in the United States of America. Jane became stiffer and stiffer. At last she could bear her constrained83 half-crouching84 position no longer. Very gingerly, moving half an inch at a time, she let herself down until she was sitting on the pile of broken bricks which blocked the tunnel. The names went on. It was dull and monotonous85 to a degree, but behind the dullness and the monotony there was a sense of lurking86 horror.
“It’s like being in a fog,” said Jane—“the sort you can’t see through at all, and knowing that there’s a tiger loose somewhere.”
One thing became clearer and clearer to her. Those lists that sounded like geography lessons must be got hold of somehow. Henry must have them.
After what seemed like a long time Ember folded up one paper and produced another. If Jane had been able to watch Mr. Molloy’s face, she would have noticed that, every now and then, it was crossed by a look of hesitation87. He seemed constantly about to speak and yet held his peace.
“I’d like you to check the names for Ireland too,” said Ember. “Grogan sent me the completed list two days ago. You’d better look at it.”
Molloy took the paper and ran his finger down the names, mumbling88 them only half audibly. His finger travelled more and more slowly. All at once he stopped, and threw the paper from him along the bench.
“What is it?” said Ember, in his cool tones.
Molloy frowned, got up, walked to the end of the room, and came back again. He appeared to have something to say, and to experience extreme difficulty in saying it. His words, when he did speak, seemed irrelevant89:
“That’s a big sum they paid us for Formula ‘A,’” he said. “Did you ever handle as much money as that, Ember?”
“No,” said Jeffrey Ember, short and sharp.
“Nor I. It’s a queer thing the feeling it gives you. I tell you I came across with fear upon me, not knowing for sure whether I’d get away with it; but there was a lot besides fear in it. There was power, Ember, I tell you—power. Whilst I’d be sitting in the train, or walking down the street, or lying in my bed at an hotel, I’d be thinking to myself, I’ve got as much as would buy you up, and then there would be leavings.”
“What are you driving at, Molloy?” said Ember.
Molloy’s florid colour deepened. He narrowed his lids and looked through them at Ember.
“Maybe I was thinking,” he said, “that there’s a proverb we might take note of.”
“Well?”
“It’s just a proverb,” said Mr. Molloy. “It’s been in my mind since I had the handling of the money—‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’”
Ember’s eyes lost their dull film. They brightened until Mr. Molloy was unable to sustain their glance. He shifted his gaze, and Ember said very quietly:
“Are you thinking of selling us?”
Molloy broke into an oath. “And that’s a thing no one shall say of me,” he said, with a violence that sent his voice echoing along through the open arches.
“Then may I ask you what you meant?”
“Why, just this.” Molloy dropped to an ingratiating tone. “There’s the money safe—certain—in our hands now. What’s the need of all this?”
He came forward with two or three great strides, picked up the list from where he had thrown it, and beat with it upon his open hand.
“All this,” he repeated—“this and what it stands for. You may say there’s no risk, but there’s a big risk. It’s a gamble, and what’s the need to be gambling90 when we’ve got the money safe?”
“In plain English, you want to back out at the last moment?”
“I do not, and I defy you to say that I do.”
“Then what’s come to you?”
“Here’s the thing that’s come to me. It came to me when I ran me eye down this list. See there, and that’ll tell ye what has come to me.”
He thrust the list in front of Ember.
“It’s Galway you’ve got set down there.”
“Well, and what of it?” said Ember.
“What of it?” said Mr. Molloy. “I was born in Galway, and the only sister I ever had is married there. Four sons she has, decent young men by all the accounts I’ve had of them. If I haven’t been in Galway for thirty years, that’s not to say that I’ve no feeling for my own flesh and blood. Why, the first girl I ever courted lived out Barna way. Many’s the time I’ve met her in the dusk on the seashore, and she half crying for fear of what her father would do. Katie Blake her name was. They married her to old Timmy Dolan before I’d been six months out of the country. A fistful of gold he had, and a hard fist it was. I heard tell he beat her, poor Katie. But ye see now, Ember, it’s the same way with your native place and your first love, ye can’t get quit of them. Now I hadn’t been a month in Chicago before I was courting another girl, but to save my neck I couldn’t tell ye what her name was, and ye may blow Chicago to hell to-morrow and I’ll not say a word.”
“But not Galway?” Mr. Ember’s tone was very dry indeed.
“You’ve said it. Not Galway. I’ll not stand for it.”
“Molloy, the man of sentiment!” he said. “Now doesn’t it strike you that it’s just a little late in the day for this display of feeling? May I ask why you never raised the interesting subject of your birthplace before?”
“Is it sentiment that you’re sarcastic about?” said Molloy. “If it is, I’d have you remember that I’ve never let it interfere92 with business yet, and I wouldn’t now. Many’s the time I’ve put my feelings on one side when I was up against a business proposition. But I tell you right here that when I see my way to good money and to keeping what I call my sentiment too it looks pretty good to me, and I say to myself what I say to you, ‘What’s the sense of going looking for trouble?’”
Ember laughed again.
“I will translate,” he said. “From the sale of the Government formula you see your way to deriving93 a competency. You become, in a mild way, a capitalist. Luxuries before undreamed of are within your grasp—romantic sentiment, childhood’s memories, the finer feelings in fact. As a poor man you could not dream of affording them, though I dare say you’d have enjoyed them well enough. Is it a correct translation?”
“It is,” said Molloy.
“Molloy the capitalist!” Ember’s voice dropped just a little lower. “Molloy the man of sentiment! Molloy the traitor94! No you don’t, Molloy, I’ve got you covered. Why, you fool, you don’t suppose I meet a man twice my own size in a place that no one knows of without taking the obvious precautions?”
Molloy had first started violently, and next made a sort of plunge46 in Ember’s direction. At the sight of the small automatic pistol he checked himself, backed a pace or two, and said:
“You’ll take that word back. It’s a damned lie.”
He breathed hard and stared at the pistol in Ember’s hand.
“Is it?” said Ember coolly. “I hope it is, for your sake. I’d remind you, Molloy, that no one would move heaven and earth to find you if you disappeared, and that it would be hard to find a handier place for the disposal of a superfluous95 corpse96. Now listen to me.”
He set his left hand open on the lists.
“This is going through. It’s going through in every detail. It’s going through just as we planned it.” He spoke21 in level, expressionless tones. He looked at Molloy with a level, expressionless gaze. A little of the colour went out of the big Irishman’s face. He drew a long breath, and came to heel like a dog whose master calls him.
“Have it your own way,” he said. “It was just talk, and to see what you thought of it. If you’re set on the plan, why the plan it is.”
“We’re all committed to the plan,” said Ember. “You were talking a while ago as if you and I could do a deal and leave the rest of the Council out. Setting Belcovitch on one side, weren’t you forgetting to reckon with Number One?”
“Maybe I was,” said Molloy. “And come to that, Ember, when are we to have the full Council meeting you’ve been talking of for months past? Belcovitch and I had a word about it, and he agrees with me. We want a full meeting and Number One in the chair instead of getting all our instructions through you. It’s reasonable.”
“Yes, it’s reasonable.” Ember paused, and then added, “You shall have the full Council when Belcovitch comes.”
Jane on her pile of débris leaned forward to catch the words. Ember’s voice had dropped very low. She was shaking with excitement. Her movement was not quite a steady one. A small piece of rubble97 slid under the pressure she placed on it. Something slipped and rolled.
“What’s that?” said Ember sharply.
“Some more of the passage falling in,” said Molloy, “by the sound of it.”
“Just take a light and see.”
“It might have been a rat,” said Molloy carelessly.
There was a pause. Jane remained absolutely motionless. If they thought it was a rat perhaps they would not come and look. She stiffened98 herself, wondering how long she could keep this cramped99 position. Then, with a spasm of terror, she heard Molloy say, “I’ll have a look round. We don’t want rats in here,” heard his heavy footfall, and saw a brilliant beam of light stream past the entrance of her hiding-place.
Before she had time to do more than experience a stab of fear, Molloy walked straight past. She heard him go up the passage, heard him call out, “There’s nothing here.” Then he turned. He was coming back. Would he pass her again? It was just possible. She tried to think he would, and then she knew that he would not. The light flashed into the broken tunnel mouth. It flashed on the sagging100 roof, the damp walls and the broken rubble. It flashed on to Jane.
Jane saw only a white glare. She knew exactly what a beetle101 must feel like when it is pinned out as a specimen102. The light went through and through her. It seemed to deprive her of thought, volition103, power to move. She just stared at it.
Mr. Molloy using his flashlight cheerfully, and much relieved at a break in his conversation with Ember, received one of the severest shocks of his not unadventurous life. One is not a Terrorist for thirty years without learning a little elementary self-control in moments of emergency. He did not therefore exclaim. He merely stared. He saw a sagging roof and damp walls. He saw a muddled104 heap of broken bricks unnaturally105 clear cut and distinct. He saw the shadows which they cast, unnaturally black and hard. He saw Jane, whom he took to be his daughter Renata. His brain boggled at it. He passed his hand across his eyes, and looked again. His daughter Renata was still there. She was half sitting, half crouching on the pile of rubble. Her body was bent106 forward, her elbows resting on her knees, her hands one on either side of her colourless cheeks. Her face was tilted a little looking up at him. Her mouth was a little open. Her eyes stared into the light.
Jane stared, and Mr. Molloy stared. Then, with a sudden turn he swung round and passed back into the laboratory. As he went he whistled the air of “The Cruiskeen Lawn.”
Jane remained rigid. The beetle was unpinned. The light was gone. But the darkness was full of rockets and Catherine-wheels. Her ears were buzzing. From a long way off she heard Ember speak and Molloy answer. The rockets and the Catherine-wheels died away. She put her head down on her knees, and the darkness came back restfully.
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slippers
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undoubtedly
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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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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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smears
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| 污迹( smear的名词复数 )； 污斑； （显微镜的）涂片； 诽谤 | |
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cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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sopping
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| adj. 浑身湿透的 动词sop的现在分词形式 | |
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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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consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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insistently
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| ad.坚持地 | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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15
smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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retrieve
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| vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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19
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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21
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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22
ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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23
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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unravelled
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| 解开，拆散，散开( unravel的过去式和过去分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚 | |
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conspiracies
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| n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 ) | |
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hideously
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| adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地 | |
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unravelling
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| 解开，拆散，散开( unravel的现在分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚 | |
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transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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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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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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36
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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37
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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38
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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39
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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42
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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43
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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oozed
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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45
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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46
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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48
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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49
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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50
flouting
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| v.藐视，轻视( flout的现在分词 ) | |
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51
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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52
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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53
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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54
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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55
guttered
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| vt.形成沟或槽于…（gutter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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56
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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57
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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58
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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59
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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60
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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61
latch
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| n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁 | |
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62
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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63
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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66
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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67
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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68
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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69
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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70
anarchist
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| n.无政府主义者 | |
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71
uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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72
repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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73
negligently
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74
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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75
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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76
interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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78
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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79
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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80
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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81
assenting
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| 同意，赞成( assent的现在分词 ) | |
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82
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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83
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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84
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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85
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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86
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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87
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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88
mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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89
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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90
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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91
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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92
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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93
deriving
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| v.得到( derive的现在分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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94
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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95
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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96
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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97
rubble
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| n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾 | |
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98
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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99
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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100
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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101
beetle
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| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
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102
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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103
volition
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| n.意志；决意 | |
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104
muddled
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| adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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105
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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