IV.—IN THE WET

 Myra gazed out of the window upon the driving rain and shook her head at the weather.

 

"Ugh!" she said. "Ugly!"

 

"Beast," I added, in order that there should be no doubt about what we thought. "Utter and deliberate beast."

 

We had arranged for a particularly pleasant day. We were to have sailed across to the mouth of the—I always forget its name, and then up the river to the famous old castle of-of-no, it's gone again; but anyhow, there was to have been a bathe in the river, and lunch, and a little exploration in the dinghy, and a lesson in the Morse code from Simpson, and tea in the woods with a real fire, and in the cool of the evening a ripping run home before the wind. But now the only thing that seemed certain was the cool of the evening.

 

"We'll light a fire and do something indoors," said Dahlia.

 

"This is an extraordinary house," said Archie. "There isn't a single book in it, except a lot of Strand¹ Magazines for 1907. That must have been a very wet year."

 

"We can play games, dear."

 

"True, darling. Let's do a charade²."

 

"The last time I played charades³," I said, "I was Horatius, the

front part of Elizabeth's favourite palfrey, the arrow which shot

Rufus, Jonah, the two little Princes in the Tower, and Mrs

Pankhurst."

"Which was your favourite part?" asked Myra.

 

"The front part of the palfrey. But I was very good as the two little Princes."

 

"It's no good doing charades, if there's nobody to do them to."

 

"Thomas is coming to-morrow," said Myra. "We could tell him all about it."

 

"Clumps⁴ is a jolly good game," suggested Simpson.

 

"The last time I was a clump," I said, "I was the first coin paid on account of the last pair of boots, sandals, or whatnot of the man who laid the first stone of the house where lived the prettiest aunt of the man who reared the goose which laid the egg from which came the goose which provided the last quill⁵ pen used by the third man Shakespeare met on the second Wednesday in June, 1595."

 

"He mightn't have had an aunt," said Myra, after a minute's profound thought.

 

"He hadn't."

 

"Well, anyhow, one way and another you've had a very adventurous⁶ career, my lad," said Archie. "What happened the last time you played ludo?"

 

"When I played clumps," put in Simpson, "I was the favourite spoke⁷ of Hall Caine's first bicycle. They guessed Hall Caine and the bicycle and the spoke very quickly, but nobody thought of suggesting the favourite spoke."

 

Myra went to the window again, and came back with the news that it would probably be a fine evening.

 

"Thank you," we all said.

 

"But I wasn't just making conversation. I have an idea."

 

"Silence for Myra's idea."

 

"Well, it's this. If we can't do anything without an audience, and if the audience won't come to us, let's go to them."

 

"Be a little more lucid⁸, there's a dear. It isn't that we aren't trying."

 

"Well then, let's serenade the other houses about here to-night."

 

There was a powerful silence while everybody considered this.

 

"Good," said Archie at last. "We will."

 

The rest of the morning and all the afternoon were spent in preparations. Archie and Myra were all right; one plays the banjo and the other the guitar. (It is a musical family, the Mannerings.) Simpson keeps a cornet which he generally puts in his bag, but I cannot remember anyone asking him to play it. If the question has ever arisen, he has probably been asked not to play it. However, he would bring it out to-night. In any case he has a tolerable voice; while Dahlia has always sung like an angel. In short, I was the chief difficulty.

 

"I suppose there wouldn't be time to learn the violin?" I asked.

 

"Why didn't they teach you something when you were a boy?" wondered

Myra.

"They did. But my man forgot to put it in my bag when he packed. He put in two tooth-brushes and left out the triangle. Do you think there's a triangle shop in the village? I generally play on an isosceles one, any two sides of which are together greater than the third. Likewise the angles which are opposite to the adjacent sides, each to each."

 

"Well, you must take the cap round for the money."

 

"I will. I forgot to say that my own triangle at home, the Strad, is in the chromatic⁹ scale of A, and has a splice¹⁰. It generally gets the chromatics very badly in the winter."

 

While the others practised their songs, I practised taking the cap round, and by tea-time we all knew our parts perfectly¹¹. I had received permission to join in the choruses, and I was also to be allowed to do a little dance with Myra. When you think that I had charge of the financial arrangements as well, you can understand that I felt justified¹² in considering myself the leader of the troupe¹³.

 

"In fact," I said, "you ought to black your faces so as to distinguish yourselves from me."

 

"We won't black our faces," said Dahlia, "but we'll wear masks; and we might each carry a little board explaining why we're doing this."

 

"Right," said Archie; and he sat down and wrote a notice for himself—

 

"I AM AN ORPHAN¹⁴. SO ARE THE OTHERS, BUT THEY ARE NOT SO ORPHAN AS I AM. I AM EXTREMELY FREQUENT."

Dahlia said—

 

"WE ARE DOING THIS FOR AN ADVERTISEMENT. IF YOU LIKE US, SEND A SHILLING FOR A FREE SAMPLE CONCERT, MENTIONING THIS PAPER. YOUR MONEY BACK IF WE ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH IT."

Simpson announced—

 

"WORLD'S LONG DISTANCE CORNETIST. HOLDER¹⁵ OF THE OBOE RECORD ON GRASS. RUNNER-UP IN THE OCARINA WELTER WEIGHTS (STRANGLE HOLD BARRED). MIXED ZITHER CHAMPION (1907, COVERED COURTS)."

Myra said—

 

"KIND FRIENDS, HELP US. WE WERE WRECKED¹⁶ THIS AFTERNOON. THE CORNET WAS SINKING FOR THE THIRD TIME WHEN IT WAS RESCUED, AND HAD TO BE BROUGHT ROUND BY ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION¹⁷. CAN YOU SPARE US A DRINK OF WATER?"

As for myself I had to hand the Simpson yachting cap round, and my notice said—

 

"WE WANT YOUR MONEY. IF YOU CANNOT GIVE US ANY, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE KEEP THE CAP."

We had an early dinner, so as to be in time to serenade our victims when they were finishing their own meal and feeling friendly to the world. Then we went upstairs and dressed. Dahlia and Myra had kimonos, Simpson put on his dressing-gown, in which he fancies himself a good deal, and Archie and I wore brilliantly-coloured pyjamas¹⁸ over our other clothes.

 

"Let's see," said Simpson, "I start off with 'The Minstrel Boy,' don't I? And then what do we do?"

 

"Then we help you to escape," said Archie. "After that, Dahlia sings 'Santa Lucia,' and Myra and I give them a duet, and if you're back by then with your false nose properly fixed¹⁹ it might be safe for you to join in the chorus of a coon song. Now then, are we all ready?"

 

"What's that?" said Myra.

 

We all listened … and then we opened the door.

 

It was pouring.

1 strand   

vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地）

参考例句：

• She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears.她把一缕散发夹到了耳后。
• The climbers had been stranded by a storm.登山者被暴风雨困住了。

2 charade   

n.用动作等表演文字意义的字谜游戏

参考例句：

• You must not refine too much upon this charade.你切不可过分推敲这个字谜。
• His poems,despite their dignity and felicity,have an air of charade.他的诗篇虽然庄严巧妙，却有猜迷之嫌。

3 charades   

n.伪装( charade的名词复数 )；猜字游戏

参考例句：

• She and her three brothers played charades. 她和3个兄弟玩看手势猜字谜游戏。 来自辞典例句
• A group of children were dressed to play charades. 一群孩子穿着夜礼服在玩字迷游戏。 来自辞典例句

4 clumps   

n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声

参考例句：

• These plants quickly form dense clumps. 这些植物很快形成了浓密的树丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bulbs were over. All that remained of them were clumps of brown leaves. 这些鳞茎死了，剩下的只是一丛丛的黃叶子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 quill   

n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶

参考例句：

• He wrote with a quill.他用羽毛笔写字。
• She dipped a quill in ink,and then began to write.她将羽毛笔在墨水里蘸了一下，随后开始书写。

6 adventurous   

adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的　

参考例句：

• I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
• He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。

7 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 lucid   

adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的

参考例句：

• His explanation was lucid and to the point.他的解释扼要易懂。
• He wasn't very lucid,he didn't quite know where he was.他神志不是很清醒，不太知道自己在哪里。

9 chromatic   

adj.色彩的，颜色的

参考例句：

• The removal of the chromatic aberration is then of primary importance.这时消除色差具有头等重要性。
• In lampblack many kitchens easy to present the chromatic aberration.油烟较多的厨房中易出现色差。

10 splice   

v.接合，衔接；n.胶接处，粘接处

参考例句：

• He taught me to edit and splice film.他教我剪辑和粘接胶片。
• The film will be spliced with footage of Cypress Hill to be filmed in America.这部电影要和将在美国拍摄的柏树山乐队的音乐片段粘接在一起。

11 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

12 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

13 troupe   

n.剧团，戏班；杂技团；马戏团

参考例句：

• The art troupe is always on the move in frontier guards.文工团常年在边防部队流动。
• The troupe produced a new play last night.剧团昨晚上演了一部新剧。

14 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

15 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

16 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

17 respiration   

n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用

参考例句：

• They tried artificial respiration but it was of no avail.他们试做人工呼吸，可是无效。
• They made frequent checks on his respiration,pulse and blood.他们经常检查他的呼吸、脉搏和血液。

18 pyjamas   

n.（宽大的）睡衣裤

参考例句：

• This pyjamas has many repairs.这件睡衣有许多修补过的地方。
• Martin was in his pyjamas.马丁穿着睡衣。

19 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。