When the two parties came together, a brief explanation made everything clear. Inasmuch as the larger part of the beach to the eastward4 had not been examined, it was agreed that the coalesced5 companies should return at a slower pace to the bungalow, and then, if nothing resulted, reverse and push the search all the way to the house of Doctor Spellman. This would be covering the ground twice, and it would be done effectively.
“Do you think she has been drowned?” asked Hoke of Mike.
“I do not, for it’s unraisinable that she should be. The Sunbeam is afeard of the water and would not step into it. If there was a dock or a pile of rocks where she could have fell off, she might have done the same, but there’s nothing of the kind, and the little one couldn’t have slipped into the lake while walking along the shore.”
It may be said that this theory was accepted by every one except the parents and they were inclined toward it. It was their anguish6 of anxiety which warped7 their reasoning and made them fear at times that that precious form was drifting in the embrace of the chilling waters, and would never again respond to their loving caresses8.
While scrutinizing9 every foot of the way, each member of the two parties scanned the moonlit lake, as far as the vision extended, urged by a fearful fascination10 that scattered11 cold reasoning to the winds.
Suddenly Hoke Butler, who was slightly in the lead, stopped short, pointed12 out on the water and asked in a startled undertone:
“Isn’t something floating out there?”
All grouped about the speaker and peered in the direction he indicated.
“Ye’re right,” whispered Mike, swallowing the lump in his throat; “can it be Sunbeam?”
The surface of the lake was as placid13 as a millpond. Barely a hundred feet from shore a motionless object was seen floating, but it was so low that for a time it could not be identified.
“I’m thinking,” added Mike, “that she would not float for a day or two, but bide14 ye here till I swim out and make sartin.”
“It’s the branch of a tree.”
Now that the assertion was made, all saw that it was true. The identity of a limb with its foliage16 was so evident that they wondered how even a momentary17 mistake had occurred. The advance was resumed, and in the course of the following hour the boys reached the bungalow, where Jack18 Crandall was seated on the piazza19 273with his crutch20 leaning beside him. It need not be said that he was shocked beyond expression by the news.
“How I wish I were able to join in the search,” he lamented21, “but I can only sit here and wait and pray for you.”
“Do you think it likely she has been drowned?” Hoke asked.
“No; and yet it is possible. She may have slipped while walking on the edge and a child like her is so helpless that it would be all over in a minute or so. Keep up your hunt until she is found and don’t forget to scan every part of the lake you can see.”
Jack made no reference to Biggs and Hutt, the tramps, for he knew very little about them. Mike, like his intimate friends, had them continually in mind, but the same strange dread3 that for a time restrained them, held his lips mute. He did not want to believe they had had any hand in Sunbeam’s disappearance22, and yet the conviction was growing upon him that they had kidnapped and would hold her for ransom23.
“And if the same proves true,” he muttered with the old glint in his eye, “it’s mesilf and the rest of the byes that will do the biggest kind of a good turn consarning the spalpeens.”
For the second time the beach leading from the bungalow eastward to the temporary home of Doctor Spellman was traversed, and the search if possible was made more rigid24 than before. With so many at work, a number tramped through the woods bordering on the open space, though that seemed useless since in the gloom their eyes were of little help. They did not forget to call the name of the lost one, Mike taking upon himself this duty. He used her right name as well as those by which he and other friends knew her, and his clear voice penetrated25 so far into the still arches that it was heard by other searchers who, though they shouted as loud, were not audible to him and his companions.
Gradually they approached the desolate26 home, arriving there about midnight. They had not come upon the slightest clue and no one was found in the house, nor was any light burning. All were pretty tired, for the tramp was a long one, but they were as 275ardent as ever to do their utmost to find the missing child.
“There’s no use in going back to the bungalow,” said Mike, as the group gathered in the little clearing; “it strikes me we may as well turn into the woods.”
It must have been about this time that the searching party which had gone to the westward27 completed the circumvallation and joined Jack Crandall seated on the piazza,—listening, watching and praying that all might be well with the lost child. These boys had been as painstaking28 and thorough as Mike and his friends, and were equally unsuccessful. Not the faintest light upon the mystery had come to them.
“I don’t think it possible she took that direction, unless it may have been for a short distance, for there was nothing to attract her thither29. In visiting us she was always brought across the lake, though I heard her father say they had followed the beach once or twice. The distance is less.”
“We fellows can’t go to bed,” said Colgate Craig, “until the little one is found.”
“You have had a long tramp and must be pretty tired.”
“That has nothing to do with it,” said Robert Snow sturdily; “we’ll keep it up all night, if there’s the least chance of it doing any good.”
“The trouble is,” said Jack, who had learned the particulars of what had been done from Mike Murphy, “Mr. Hall has made no plans beyond what all of you were to do first. You with Mike’s party have gone round the lake, and a part of the distance—the most promising30 as it seems to me—has been covered twice.”
“Not the slightest; wherever Ruth may be found, it will not be in that direction.”
“Where do you advise us to go?”
“Follow Mike’s party; that will be the third time the ground has been traversed.”
“What do you think has become of Sunbeam, as Mike calls her?”
“It seems to me she has strayed only a little way from home, grown weary, sat down to rest and fallen asleep.”
The counsel of Jack Crandall was followed. Thus the major part of the searchers were soon pushing through the woods 277in the neighborhood of Doctor Spellman’s home. It will be recalled that he, his wife and Scout32 Master Hall, set about this task upon the first breaking up of the Boy Scouts33 to prosecute34 their separate lines of work. Although they parted company directly after leaving the others, the three kept in touch with one another, and after a time husband and wife joined, with Mr. Hall just far enough away to be invisible.
The Scout Master left it to the parents of Ruth to call to her. They did this at brief intervals35, and they did not listen more intently for the reply which came not than did he. When an hour had been used without result, the three came together in a small open space lighted by the moon.
The mother, although distressed36 beyond description, was become more composed.
“What do you think, Mr. Hall?” she wearily asked.
“I judge that, like all healthy children, Ruth is a sound sleeper37. What more likely than that when worn out, she has lain down on the leaves like another Babe in the Wood, and will not open her eyes until morning? Am I not right, Doctor?”
“Undoubtedly, provided she has been permitted to do as you say.”
“I do not understand you.”
“What is the use of our keeping silent, when the same fear is in all our hearts?”
“I still fail to catch your meaning.”
“Wife, and you, and I believe she has been kidnapped by those tramps.”
“That’s what I have feared from the first.”
“I cannot deny that the dread has been with me,” said the Scout Master, “yet I have hoped and still hope we are mistaken.”
“I see no room for such hope.”
“But, even if so, it should be an immeasurable relief. It means that she has not fallen into the lake, nor is she in danger from a night’s exposure.”
“If they have stolen her it is for the purpose of ransom. They will take the utmost care that not the slightest harm befalls her, since it would defeat their scheme.”
“And this is the twentieth century!” was the bitter exclamation42 of the physician. “If the probability occurred to you and me, why did we not take steps to baffle them instead of wasting our time in groping through the darkness of the woods?”
“I did do so.”
“Now it is I who do not understand.”
“Two of the fleetest of the Boy Scouts,—Alvin Landon and Chester Haynes,—are at this moment making all haste to the village of Bovil, on the road to Boothbay Harbor. If they can reach a telephone, they will communicate with officers in the surrounding towns and villages, asking for the arrest of the tramps on sight. Those boys will not waste a minute.”
“Thank heaven for that.”
“Furthermore, at the earliest moment they will ’phone your nephew, and you need not be told that he and his dog Zip will be equally quick in getting on the job.”
“That gives me more hope than anything that has happened since my child disappeared,” was the declaration of Doctor Spellman, whose wife shared in the pleasurable thrill.
点击收听单词发音
1 bungalow | |
n.平房,周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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2 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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3 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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4 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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5 coalesced | |
v.联合,合并( coalesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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7 warped | |
adj.反常的;乖戾的;(变)弯曲的;变形的v.弄弯,变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 );使(行为等)不合情理,使乖戾, | |
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8 caresses | |
爱抚,抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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9 scrutinizing | |
v.仔细检查,详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
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10 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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11 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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12 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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13 placid | |
adj.安静的,平和的 | |
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14 bide | |
v.忍耐;等候;住 | |
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15 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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16 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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17 momentary | |
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
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18 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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19 piazza | |
n.广场;走廊 | |
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20 crutch | |
n.T字形拐杖;支持,依靠,精神支柱 | |
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21 lamented | |
adj.被哀悼的,令人遗憾的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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23 ransom | |
n.赎金,赎身;v.赎回,解救 | |
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24 rigid | |
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
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25 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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26 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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27 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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28 painstaking | |
adj.苦干的;艰苦的,费力的,刻苦的 | |
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29 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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30 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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31 retracing | |
v.折回( retrace的现在分词 );回忆;回顾;追溯 | |
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32 scout | |
n.童子军,侦察员;v.侦察,搜索 | |
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33 scouts | |
侦察员[机,舰]( scout的名词复数 ); 童子军; 搜索; 童子军成员 | |
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34 prosecute | |
vt.告发;进行;vi.告发,起诉,作检察官 | |
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35 intervals | |
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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36 distressed | |
痛苦的 | |
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37 sleeper | |
n.睡眠者,卧车,卧铺 | |
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38 gasp | |
n.喘息,气喘;v.喘息;气吁吁他说 | |
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39 sobbed | |
哭泣,啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 ); 哭诉,呜咽地说 | |
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40 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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41 wailed | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42 exclamation | |
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词 | |
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