"What is there to be afraid of? The burros and horses won't hurt you, and they are too weary with this day's troubles to bother about kicking or trampling1 you. However, you can do this, if you like, and I will make up the beds for the beasts."
The spruce beds were being made—Anne showing Barbara how to lay the tips in rows as wide as the bed was to be, then folding under the sticks of the second row to run under the tips of the first row, and so on, until the length of the bed was made.
This work finished, and the bedding for the horses arranged in the "fingers" as Polly had directed, the two girls stood near the entrance of the cave, wondering what possibly could have happened to keep Polly and Eleanor so long.
"I just felt in my bones that it was an awful risk to go into the black hole of the unknown!" cried Barbara.
"It isn't that that bothers me at all, Bob. But Polly has no sense of fear, and I think they may have found an exit at the other end, so Polly is coming around that way. It is a hazardous2 thing to do, in this storm!" said Anne.
"Anne, can't you try to squeeze in there and see what has happened?" asked Barbara.
Anne looked at her without saying a word, so Barbara thought she hesitated on account of leaving her alone in the cave.
"I won't mind staying alone for a little time. I'll watch the fires and see that the horses do not get away!" said Barbara.
"Really!" was all Anne said, as she turned to place another pine knot on the fire.
But the tone silenced Barbara, who had food for thought thereafter.
Meanwhile Polly and Eleanor had crawled into the aperture3, and by dint4 of squirming and twisting through the passage, found that only the section nearest the cave was of soft debris5. It gradually widened as they advanced and Polly distinctly felt a current of cold air blowing in her face.
Eleanor pulled on Polly's foot to attract her attention.
Slide."
"Nolla, the smoke of the torch blows harder than at first, and there is enough air to waft9 it backwards10, so there will be an opening at the end, I am sure. That is what I must know for certain."
"All right, lead on! I'll be with you at the death!"
Aren't we most through to China? Let me know the moment you get the
first peep at a pig-tail, as I have to brush the cobwebs from my
Chinese!"
Polly laughed at the girl who made merry of a journey that would have staggered an older person. Finally, however, the tunnel widened so that both girls could advance comfortably and then, suddenly, the flame of the torch and the smoke ceased to blow into their faces, for they had come out into an open space.
"We're here!" laughed Polly, trying to stand up and giving her head a smart rap against the overhanging rock.
"'We're here!' For goodness' sake, tell me where?" cried Eleanor, thrusting her torch ahead so that it was almost snuffed out against Polly's shoes.
"Gracious me, Nolla! Don't burn my soles!" cried Polly, managing to stand upright and hold aloft her torch.
"Ha, that's good! Don't burn your soul!" teased Eleanor.
But the moment the girls saw where they were, not another word was uttered, for they found themselves in a vault14-like cave somewhat smaller than the entrance cave, but having no "fingers" or outside opening. The dome15 and sides were rocky, but everywhere, embedded16 in the rock, myriad17 points of light reflected as the flare18 of the torch lit up the place uncertainly.
Eleanor thrust up her torch also, and both girls pivoted19 around, forgetting about wild beasts and the errand they came upon. After blinking at the bright yellow gleams for a time, Polly turned and stared at Eleanor.
"What is it?"
"Polly! If it's copper, then we're rich!"
Both girls rushed over to examine the metallic21 gleams at close range, and Polly frowned as a thought entered her mind. Eleanor turned and looked about to be sure no one could hear, and then whispered:
"Polly, it looks like gold! Can it be real GOLD!"
The girls stared at each other and then burst out into a simultaneous laugh. But it was excitement, not mirth, that occasioned it. Before the wild echoes had rung through the vault, the hysterical22 girls were tearing at the hard walls, trying in vain to dislodge a nugget.
"Isn't it always that way—when you need a thing!" exclaimed Eleanor.
In her haste to reach a fragment that looked easy to break off, Polly dropped the torch. She stooped to pick it up again and saw a nugget of the ore on the ground, half-covered with dirt.
"I've got a piece! Oh, Nolla, look! LOOK!" shouted Polly, holding aloft her treasure.
"And it's red-gold, too, like Old Man Montresor's nuggets," added Polly.
At the mention of the gold-seeker, both girls looked at each other and the same thought flashed to both of them at once.
"Maybe it is!" breathed Polly.
"Oh, Poll, hold the torch down near the ground so I can find a chunk, won't you?" beseeched Eleanor, now anxious to find a nugget for herself.
"There, Nolla—see over by the hole! A little piece for you."
Eleanor ran over and found it to be smaller than the one Polly found, but there was more metal in the nugget. They examined it closely and decided27 that the shining metal must be gold.
"I'm so excited that I feel as if wheels were turning all inside of me—do you?" laughed Eleanor, hugging her nugget to her heart.
"It's sort of a dizzy and squeamish feeling, isn't it?" explained Polly, looking at her companion. Then for the first time since they emerged from the tunnel, she noticed the face.
"Oh, Nolla! If you could but see yourself! Just like a negro, but streaky where you smudged the torch smoke from your eyes."
"You're no 'bleached28 blonde' either, Poll!" laughed Eleanor, rubbing her sleeve across her face and looking at the soot29 in amusement.
"But mine can't be as black as yours, 'cause you got all the smoke from both torches."
"Never mind now; if this is gold we can afford to have the tunnel and cave wired with electricity at once," laughed the excited girl.
"Well, let's finish our hunt in the tunnel and then find some more nuggets for Anne and Barbara. They'll want a share, you know," suggested Polly.
"Good gracious, Poll! You're not going on now, are you?"
"Of course! The gold won't melt away, but we've got to close up any opening into outdoors, you know."
"Let's go back and tell the girls and then finish the tunnel work," pleaded Eleanor.
"How silly to worm a way back for the sake of showing off the ore. No, let's do this thing up and then go back to stay for the night. If we don't close up any aperture, a wild beast may crawl through, then what good will the gold do us if we are dead?"
"Sensible as ever! Even gold can't turn your head!" said Eleanor, starting for the narrow place opposite the tunnel they came from. "Funny, isn't it, that this cave should be here just as if it was an inflated30 bubble in a glass-blower's tube?" said Polly.
"I'll reserve my opinion till I see the end of the tube!" said Eleanor, waiting for Polly to creep into the opening.
After considerable twisting and crawling, Polly first, with her torch, and Eleanor second, they suddenly felt a current of fresh air.
"Oh! Oh, thank goodness!" gasped31 Polly. "I shoved the torch ahead! I'd have fallen headlong into this abyss."
"What is it, Poll?"
"A pit ever so wide, and I can't see how deep it goes down. It's right in the tunnel ground, cutting off all further investigations32."
"It'll cut off investigations of a wild beast, too, won't it?" asked
Eleanor with relief in her tones.
"Of course—there isn't a chance of anything coming in this way. I can hear water rushing, too, way down at the bottom, and the wind blows up from this pit, so there must be an opening down there where the subterranean33 river rushes out."
"Maybe this tunnel was a river, once, and emptied down into that pit," ventured Eleanor.
"I don't care if it was! I'm anxious to go back and eat, now that we know the worst," replied Polly.
"We won't need both torches now, Poll, so drop yours in the pit and see how deep it may be," suggested Eleanor.
"All right, but for pity's sake don't let yours go out!"
Polly waited to steady the flame and then dropped the torch. It fell straight down and flared34 up showing the rocky sides of the pit, then suddenly it "sh-isshed" in water and all was dark once more.
The girls then wormed their way back to the gold cave (as they termed it) and sought for nuggets in the dust and dirt of ages that covered the rocky floor. Eleanor found a few pieces the size of walnuts35 and Polly secured a handful of small bits.
"How can we tie them up if we have to crawl back?" asked Eleanor.
"Got a handkerchief?"
"No, I gave it to Bob out of meanness," laughed Eleanor.
"Hum! Well, we might put them in our middy blouses, only we take a chance of losing them in squirming back through that tunnel," remarked Polly.
"I have it! Take off our shoes and put the nuggets in, then tie the shoe-strings37 tightly about the top and fasten them about our necks!" exclaimed Polly.
This being a good plan, both girls soon had their precious ore well-tied in their mountain boots, and were ready to proceed. As the two discoverers neared the cave where the others were, Polly shouted excitedly, and Eleanor joined in the clamor.
Anne and Barbara had become so frightened at the prolonged absence of the two girls that Anne was about to crawl in to find them, while Barbara realized how much she really loved her younger sister. The moment they heard the awful sounds issuing from the tunnel, however, they were certain a wild beast had attacked them and the victims were fighting a way out.
Anne grabbed the ax and held it aloft ready to strike, while Barbara stood wringing38 her hands in despair. By this time Polly stuck her head out of the opening, but neither Barbara nor Anne recognized the black face—her voice alone told them it was Polly.
"Oh, my dear child! Are you badly hurt?" screamed Anne, dropping the ax and pulling Polly forth39, Eleanor crawling directly after her.
"Gold! Gold! GOLD! See—lots of it! Mountains of it!" yelled Eleanor, trying to drag her nuggets from the boot without untying40 the strings.
"Oh, Anne, we found a gold mine! A great big cave full of gold!" cried
"Poor children! Are you daffy?" exclaimed Anne, not sure whether to cry or laugh.
"You'll go daffy when, you see that cave—all shining gold!" laughed
Eleanor, handing her nugget to the curious sister.
"See here, Anne, isn't this gold?" asked Polly, working the large chunk of ore from her shoe.
"It looks like it, Polly, but I'm no judge."
"Oh, let's crawl in and see the cave!" now begged Barbara eagerly.
"You know you'd get stuck in that narrow tunnel, Bob! Besides, I'm starved," said Eleanor.
"Moreover, you wouldn't go when there seemed to be danger for the girls, and I'm sure I'm not going to try it now!" added Anne.
"Dear me, won't any one go with me?" complained Barbara, who stooped to gaze in at the tunnel, and seemed too fascinated to leave the spot.
"Bob, the gold has been there for centuries and it isn't likely to melt away while we eat supper!" declared practical Eleanor, following Anne to the opening of the cave.
As they went to the place where Anne had spread the supper, Polly told them of the magnificent sight when they crept out of the dark hole and saw the glimmering42 of the gold. Over and over, the two girls had to tell minutest details of the cavern43, Barbara sighing, frequently, to think she was not small enough to crawl in and see for herself.
While the two adventurers washed their faces and hands with melted snow, Anne fried the fish over some red-hot embers scraped out of the fire. This done, they sat down to eat.
"Well, Polly, you surely were born with a silver spoon in your mouth!" sighed Anne, smilingly.
"What makes you say that?"
"You can see for yourself, can't you? First you fall into a family that owns no end of wealth in jeweled cliffs, and now you fall into a gold mine," replied Anne.
"But Nolla owns half of this mine, and I'm not so sure but you and Bob come in for your share!"
The other girls stared at Polly's generosity45, as they had never thought of holding any interest in the mine.
"Anyway, nobody owns it yet! It legally belongs to the first one who files a claim, so what we must do is to hurry back to Oak Creek46 and register the mine," said Barbara, businesslike.
"My! Gold has brought Bob's brains uppermost!" teased Eleanor.
"Who knows but this claim has been staked years ago!" said Anne, meaningly.
Polly and Eleanor exchanged glances. But Barbara wondered.
"What do you mean?" asked she.
"Well, look out in front: there's a ledge47 cleft48 in the side of the mountain wall. Between it and the other lower ledge is a canyon49 that might be the one Montresor found on his up-climb. Yonder the slope meets the chasm50 and above is the steep sides leading to Top Notch51 Trail. Could not the land-slide have buried this wall and then a great wash-out have cleared it again? If we only had a gushing52 mountain stream pouring from the cliff-side the setting would be complete!"
Barbara gasped, but Polly clapped her hands. "Nolla, that's it! The subterranean stream we found in there. Some big upheaval53 changed its outlet, or maybe this gold vein54 runs clean through and Montresor's claim is staked opposite this side—just where the river pours out. We must look over that side to-morrow."
The two younger girls then told of the pit and the river and all agreed that it might be the stream found by the prospector55 before the landslide56 covered his claim.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
trampling
|
|
| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
hazardous
|
|
| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
aperture
|
|
| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
dint
|
|
| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
debris
|
|
| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
outlet
|
|
| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
bowels
|
|
| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
grizzly
|
|
| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
waft
|
|
| v.飘浮，飘荡；n.一股；一阵微风；飘荡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
backwards
|
|
| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
rugged
|
|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
vault
|
|
| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
dome
|
|
| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
embedded
|
|
| a.扎牢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
myriad
|
|
| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
flare
|
|
| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
pivoted
|
|
| adj.转动的，回转的，装在枢轴上的v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的过去式和过去分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
copper
|
|
| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
metallic
|
|
| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
hysterical
|
|
| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
wailed
|
|
| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
chunk
|
|
| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
streaked
|
|
| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
awed
|
|
| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
bleached
|
|
| 漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
soot
|
|
| n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
inflated
|
|
| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
investigations
|
|
| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
subterranean
|
|
| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
Flared
|
|
| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
walnuts
|
|
| 胡桃（树）( walnut的名词复数 )； 胡桃木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
smuggling
|
|
| n.走私 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
strings
|
|
| n.弦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
wringing
|
|
| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
untying
|
|
| untie的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
untie
|
|
| vt.解开，松开；解放 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
glimmering
|
|
| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
cavern
|
|
| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
festive
|
|
| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
generosity
|
|
| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
creek
|
|
| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
ledge
|
|
| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
cleft
|
|
| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
canyon
|
|
| n.峡谷，溪谷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
chasm
|
|
| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
notch
|
|
| n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
gushing
|
|
| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
upheaval
|
|
| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
vein
|
|
| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
prospector
|
|
| n.探矿者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
landslide
|
|
| n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |