Seen going along in that way, flattened4 almost to the ground, he wasn't a particularly impressive beast, and I shot at his shoulder as one might blaze away at a rabbit,—perhaps just a little more carefully, feeling as a Lord of Creation should who dispenses5 a merited death. I expected him either to roll over or bolt.
Then instantly he was coming in huge bounds towards me....
He came so rapidly that he was covered by the big limb of the tree on which I was standing6 until he was quite beneath me, and my second shot, which I thought in the instant must have missed him, was taken rapidly as he crouched7 to spring up the trunk.
Then you know came a sort of astonishment8, and I think,—because afterwards Crosby picked up a dropped cartridge9 at the foot of the tree—that I tried to reload. I believe I was completely incredulous that the beast was going to have me until he actually got me. The thing was too completely out of my imaginative picture. I don't believe I thought at all while he was coming up the tree. I merely noted11 how astonishingly he resembled an angry cat. Then he'd got my leg, he was hanging on to it first by two claws and then by one claw, and the whole weight of him was pulling me down. It didn't seem to be my leg. I wasn't frightened, I felt absolutely nothing, I was amazed. I slipped, tried to get a hold on the tree trunk, felt myself being hauled down, and then got my arm about the branch. I still clung to my unloaded gun as an impoverished12 aristocrat13 might cling to his patent of nobility. That was, I felt, my answer for him yet.
I suppose the situation lasted a fraction of a second, though it seemed to me to last an interminable time. Then I could feel my leggings rip and his claw go scoring deeply down my calf14. That hurt in a kind of painless, impersonal15 interesting way. Was my leg coming off? Boot? The weight had gone, that enormous weight!
He'd missed his hold altogether! I heard his claws tear down the bark of the tree and then his heavy, soft fall upon the ground.
I achieved a cat-like celerity. In another second I was back in my fork reloading, my legs tucked up as tightly as possible.
I peered down through the branches ready for him. He wasn't there. Not up the tree again?... Then I saw him making off, with a halting gait, across the scorching16 rocks some thirty yards away, but I could not get my gun into a comfortable position before he was out of sight behind a ridge10.... I wondered why the sunlight seemed to be flickering17 like an electric light that fails, was somehow aware of blood streaming from my leg down the tree-stem; it seemed a torrent18 of blood, and there was a long, loose ribbon of flesh very sickening to see; and then I fainted and fell out of the tree, bruising19 my arm and cheek badly and dislocating my shoulder in the fall.... Some of the beaters saw me fall, and brought Crosby in sufficient time to improvise20 a torniquet and save my life.
点击收听单词发音
1 leopard | |
n.豹 | |
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2 thicket | |
n.灌木丛,树林 | |
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3 tempting | |
a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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4 flattened | |
[医](水)平扁的,弄平的 | |
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5 dispenses | |
v.分配,分与;分配( dispense的第三人称单数 );施与;配(药) | |
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6 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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7 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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9 cartridge | |
n.弹壳,弹药筒;(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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10 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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11 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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12 impoverished | |
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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13 aristocrat | |
n.贵族,有贵族气派的人,上层人物 | |
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14 calf | |
n.小牛,犊,幼仔,小牛皮 | |
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15 impersonal | |
adj.无个人感情的,与个人无关的,非人称的 | |
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16 scorching | |
adj. 灼热的 | |
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17 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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18 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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19 bruising | |
adj.殊死的;十分激烈的v.擦伤(bruise的现在分词形式) | |
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20 improvise | |
v.即兴创作;临时准备,临时凑成 | |
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