Whether the story of Gottfried Plattner is to be credited or not is a pretty question in the value of evidence. On the one hand, we have seven witnesses — to be perfectly1 exact, we have six and a half pairs of eyes, and one undeniable fact; and on the other we have — what is it?— prejudice, common-sense, the inertia2 of opinion. Never were there seven more honest-seeming witnesses; never was there a more undeniable fact than the inversion3 of Gottfried Plattner’s anatomical structure, and — never was there a more preposterous4 story than the one they have to tell! The most preposterous part of the story is the worthy5 Gottfried’s contribution (for I count him as one of the seven). Heaven forbid that I should be led into giving countenance6 to superstition7 by a passion for impartiality8, and so come to share the fate of Eusapia’s patrons! Frankly9, I believe there is something crooked10 about this business of Gottfried Plattner; but what that crooked factor is, I will admit as frankly, I do not know. I have been surprised at the credit accorded to the story in the most unexpected and authoritative11 quarters. The fairest way to the reader, however, will be for me to tell it without further comment.
Gottfried Plattner is, in spite of his name, a freeborn Englishman. His father was an Alsatian who came to England in the ‘sixties, married a respectable English girl of unexceptionable antecedents, and died, after a wholesome12 and uneventful life (devoted, I understand, chiefly to the laying of parquet14 flooring), in 1887. Gottfried’s age is seven-and-twenty. He is, by virtue15 of his heritage of three languages, Modern Languages Master in a small private school in the south of England. To the casual observer he is singularly like any other Modern Languages Master in any other small private school. His costume is neither very costly16 nor very fashionable, but, on the other hand, it is not markedly cheap or shabby; his complexion17, like his height and his bearing, is inconspicuous. You would notice, perhaps, that, like the majority of people, his face was not absolutely symmetrical, his right eye a little larger than the left, and his jaw18 a trifle heavier on the right side. If you, as an ordinary careless person, were to bare his chest and feel his heart beating, you would probably find it quite like the heart of anyone else. But here you and the trained observer would part company. If you found his heart quite ordinary, the trained observer would find it quite otherwise. And once the thing was pointed19 out to you, you too would perceive the peculiarity20 easily enough. It is that Gottfried’s heart beats on the right side of his body.
Now, that is not the only singularity of Gottfried’s structure, although it is the only one that would appeal to the untrained mind. Careful sounding of Gottfried’s internal arrangements by a well-known surgeon seems to point to the fact that all the other unsymmetrical parts of his body are similarly misplaced. The right lobe22 of his liver is on the left side, the left on his right; while his lungs, too, are similarly contraposed. What is still more singular, unless Gottfried is a consummate23 actor, we must believe that his right hand has recently become his left. Since the occurrences we are about to consider (as impartially24 as possible), he has found the utmost difficulty in writing, except from right to left across the paper with his left hand. He cannot throw with his right hand, he is perplexed25 at meal-times between knife and fork, and his ideas of the rule of the road — he is a cyclist — are still a dangerous confusion. And there is not a scrap26 of evidence to show that before these occurrences Gottfried was at all left-handed.
There is yet another wonderful fact in this preposterous business. Gottfried produces three photographs of himself. You have him at the age of five or six, thrusting fat legs at you from under a plaid frock, and scowling27. In that photograph his left eye is a little larger than his right, and his jaw is a trifle heavier on the left side. This is the reverse of his present living condition. The photograph of Gottfried at fourteen seems to contradict these facts, but that is because it is one of those cheap “Gem” photographs that were then in vogue28, taken direct upon metal, and therefore reversing things just as a looking-glass would. The third photograph represents him at one-and-twenty, and confirms the record of the others. There seems here evidence of the strongest confirmatory character that Gottfried has exchanged his left side for his right. Yet how a human being can be so changed, short of a fantastic and pointless miracle, it is exceedingly hard to suggest.
In one way, of course, these facts might be explicable on the supposition that Plattner has undertaken an elaborate mystification, on the strength of his heart’s displacement29. Photographs may be faked, and left-handedness imitated. But the character of the man does not lend itself to any such theory. He is quiet, practical, unobtrusive, and thoroughly30 sane31, from the Nordau standpoint. He likes beer, and smokes moderately, takes walking exercise daily, and has a healthily high estimate of the value of his teaching. He has a good but untrained tenor32 voice, and takes a pleasure in singing airs of a popular and cheerful character. He is fond, but not morbidly33 fond, of reading,— chiefly fiction pervaded34 with a vaguely35 pious36 optimism,— sleeps well, and rarely dreams. He is, in fact, the very last person to evolve a fantastic fable37. Indeed, so far from forcing this story upon the world, he has been singularly reticent38 on the matter. He meets enquirers with a certain engaging — bashfulness is almost the word, that disarms39 the most suspicious. He seems genuinely ashamed that anything so unusual has occurred to him.
It is to be regretted that Plattner’s aversion to the idea of post-mortem dissection40 may postpone41, perhaps for ever, the positive proof that his entire body has had its left and right sides transposed. Upon that fact mainly the credibility of his story hangs. There is no way of taking a man and moving him about in space as ordinary people understand space, that will result in our changing his sides. Whatever you do, his right is still his right, his left his left. You can do that with a perfectly thin and flat thing, of course. If you were to cut a figure out of paper, any figure with a right and left side, you could change its sides simply by lifting it up and turning it over. But with a solid it is different. Mathematical theorists tell us that the only way in which the right and left sides of a solid body can be changed is by taking that body clean out of space as we know it,— taking it out of ordinary existence, that is, and turning it somewhere outside space. This is a little abstruse42, no doubt, but anyone with any knowledge of mathematical theory will assure the reader of its truth. To put the thing in technical language, the curious inversion of Plattner’s right and left sides is proof that he has moved out of our space into what is called the Fourth Dimension, and that he has returned again to our world. Unless we choose to consider ourselves the victims of an elaborate and motiveless43 fabrication, we are almost bound to believe that this has occurred.
So much for the tangible44 facts. We come now to the account of the phenomena45 that attended his temporary disappearance46 from the world. It appears that in the Sussexville Proprietary47 School, Plattner not only discharged the duties of Modern Languages Master, but also taught chemistry, commercial geography, bookkeeping, shorthand, drawing, and any other additional subject to which the changing fancies of the boys’ parents might direct attention. He knew little or nothing of these various subjects, but in secondary as distinguished48 from Board or elementary schools, knowledge in the teacher is, very properly, by no means so necessary as high moral character and gentlemanly tone. In chemistry he was particularly deficient49, knowing, he says, nothing beyond the Three Gases (whatever the three gases may be). As, however, his pupils began by knowing nothing, and derived50 all their information from him, this caused him (or anyone) but little inconvenience for several terms. Then a little boy named Whibble joined the school, who had been educated (it seems) by some mischievous51 relative into an inquiring habit of mind. This little boy followed Plattner’s lessons with marked and sustained interest, and in order to exhibit his zeal52 on the subject, brought, at various times, substances for Plattner to analyse. Plattner, flattered by this evidence of his power of awakening53 interest, and trusting to the boy’s ignorance, analysed these, and even, made general statements as to their composition. Indeed, he was so far stimulated54 by his pupil as to obtain a work upon analytical55 chemistry, and study it during his supervision56 of the evening’s preparation. He was surprised to find chemistry quite an interesting subject.
So far the story is absolutely commonplace. But now the greenish powder comes upon the scene. The source of that greenish powder seems, unfortunately, lost. Master Whibble tells a tortuous57 story of finding it done up in a packet in a disused limekiln near the Downs. It would have been an excellent thing for Plattner, and possibly for Master Whibble’s family, if a match could have been applied58 to that powder there and then. The young gentleman certainly did not bring it to school in a packet, but in a common eight-ounce graduated medicine bottle, plugged with masticated59 newspaper. He gave it to Plattner at the end of the afternoon school. Four boys had been detained after school prayers in order to complete some neglected tasks, and Plattner was supervising these in the small class-room in which the chemical teaching was conducted. The appliances for the practical teaching of chemistry in the Sussexville Proprietary School, as in most small schools in this country, are characterised by a severe simplicity60. They are kept in a small cupboard standing61 in a recess62, and having about the same capacity as a common travelling trunk. Plattner, being bored with his passive superintendence, seems to have welcomed the intervention63 of Whibble with his green powder as an agreeable diversion, and, unlocking this cupboard, proceeded at once with his analytical experiments. Whibble sat, luckily for himself, at a safe distance, regarding him. The four malefactors, feigning64 a profound absorption in their work, watched him furtively65 with the keenest interest. For even within the limits of the Three Gases, Plattner’s practical chemistry was, I understand, temerarious.
They are practically unanimous in their account of Plattner’s proceedings66. He poured a little of the green powder into a test-tube, and tried the substance with water, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, and sulphuric acid in succession. Getting no result, he emptied out a little heap — nearly half the bottleful, in fact — upon a slate67 and tried a match. He held the medicine bottle in his left hand. The stuff began to smoke and melt, and then exploded with deafening68 violence and a blinding flash.
The five boys, seeing the flash and being prepared for catastrophes69, ducked below their desks, and were none of them seriously hurt. The window was blown out into the playground, and the blackboard on its easel was upset. The slate was smashed to atoms. Some plaster fell from the ceiling. No other damage was done to the school edifice70 or appliances, and the boys at first, seeing nothing of Plattner, fancied he was knocked down and lying out of their sight below the desks. They jumped out of their places to go to his assistance, and were amazed to find the space empty. Being still confused by the sudden violence of the report, they hurried to the open door, under the impression that he must have been hurt, and have rushed out of the room. But Carson, the foremost, nearly collided in the doorway71 with the principal, Mr. Lidgett.
Mr. Lidgett is a corpulent, excitable man with one eye. The boys describe him as stumbling into the room mouthing some of those tempered expletives irritable72 schoolmasters accustom73 themselves to use — lest worse befall. “Wretched mumchancer!” he said. “Where’s Mr. Plattner?” The boys are agreed on the very words. (“Wobbler,” “snivelling puppy,” and “mumchancer” are, it seems, among the ordinary small change of Mr. Lidgett’s scholastic74 commerce.)
Where’s Mr. Plattner? That was a question that was to be repeated many times in the next few days. It really seemed as though that frantic75 hyperbole, “blown to atoms,” had for once realised itself. There was not a visible particle of Plattner to be seen; not a drop of blood nor a stitch of clothing to be found. Apparently76 he had been blown clean out of existence and left not a wrack77 behind. Not so much as would cover a sixpenny piece, to quote a proverbial expression! The evidence of his absolute disappearance as a consequence of that explosion is indubitable.
It is not necessary to enlarge here upon the commotion78 excited in the Sussexville Proprietary School, and in Sussexville and elsewhere, by this event. It is quite possible, indeed, that some of the readers of these pages may recall the hearing of some remote and dying version of that excitement during the last summer holidays. Lidgett, it would seem, did everything in his power to suppress and minimise the story. He instituted a penalty of twenty-five lines for any mention of Plattner’s name among the boys, and stated in the schoolroom that he was clearly aware of his assistant’s whereabouts. He was afraid, he explains, that the possibility of an explosion happening, in spite of the elaborate precautions taken to minimise the practical teaching of chemistry, might injure the reputation of the school; and so might any mysterious quality in Plattner’s departure. Indeed, he did everything in his power to make the occurrence seem as ordinary as possible. In particular, he cross-examined the five eye-witnesses of the occurrence so searchingly that they began to doubt the plain evidence of their senses. But, in spite of these efforts, the tale, in a magnified and distorted state, made a nine days’ wonder in the district, and several parents withdrew their sons on colourable pretexts79. Not the least remarkable80 point in the matter is the fact that a large number of people in the neighbourhood dreamed singularly vivid dreams of Plattner during the period of excitement before his return, and that these dreams had a curious uniformity. In almost all of them Plattner was seen, sometimes singly, sometimes in company, wandering about through a coruscating81 iridescence82. In all cases his face was pale and distressed84, and in some he gesticulated towards the dreamer. One or two of the boys, evidently under the influence of nightmare, fancied that Plattner approached them with remarkable swiftness, and seemed to look closely into their very eyes. Others fled with Plattner from the pursuit of vague and extraordinary creatures of a globular shape. But all these fancies were forgotten in inquiries85 and speculations86 when on the Wednesday next but one after the Monday of the explosion, Plattner returned.
The circumstances of his return were as singular as those of his departure. So far as Mr. Lidgett’s somewhat choleric87 outline can be filled in from Plattner’s hesitating statements, it would appear that on Wednesday evening, towards the hour of sunset, the former gentleman, having dismissed evening preparation, was engaged in his garden, picking and eating strawberries, a fruit of which he is inordinately88 fond. It is a large old-fashioned garden, secured from observation, fortunately, by a high and ivy-covered red-brick wall. Just as he was stooping over a particularly prolific89 plant, there was a flash in the air and a heavy thud, and before he could look round, some heavy body struck him violently from behind. He was pitched forward, crushing the strawberries he held in his hand, and that so roughly, that his silk hat — Mr. Lidgett adheres to the older ideas of scholastic costume — was driven violently down upon his forehead, and almost over one eye. This heavy missile, which slid over him sideways and collapsed90 into a sitting posture91 among the strawberry plants, proved to be our long-lost Mr. Gottfried Plattner, in an extremely dishevelled condition. He was collarless and hatless, his linen92 was dirty, and there was blood upon his hands. Mr. Lidgett was so indignant and surprised that he remained on all-fours, and with his hat jammed down on his eye, while he expostulated vehemently93 with Plattner for his disrespectful and unaccountable conduct.
This scarcely idyllic94 scene completes what I may call the exterior95 version of the Plattner story — its exoteric aspect. It is quite unnecessary to enter here into all the details of his dismissal by Mr. Lidgett. Such details, with the full names and dates and references, will be found in the larger report of these occurrences that was laid before the Society for the Investigation96 of Abnormal Phenomena. The singular transposition of Plattner’s right and left sides was scarcely observed for the first day or so, and then first in connection with his disposition97 to write from right to left across the blackboard. He concealed98 rather than ostended this curious confirmatory circumstance, as he considered it would unfavourably affect his prospects99 in a new situation. The displacement of his heart was discovered some months after, when he was having a tooth extracted under anaesthetics. He then, very unwillingly100, allowed a cursory101 surgical102 examination to be made of himself, with a view to a brief account in the Journal of Anatomy103. That exhausts the statement of the material facts; and we may now go on to consider Plattner’s account of the matter.
But first let us clearly differentiate104 between the preceding portion of this story and what is to follow. All I have told thus far is established by such evidence as even a criminal lawyer would approve. Every one of the witnesses is still alive; the reader, if he have the leisure, may hunt the lads out tomorrow, or even brave the terrors of the redoubtable106 Lidgett, and cross-examine and trap and test to his heart’s content; Gottfried Plattner himself, and his twisted heart and his three photographs, are producible. It may be taken as proved that he did disappear for nine days as the consequence of an explosion; that he returned almost as violently, under circumstances in their nature annoying to Mr. Lidgett, whatever the details of those circumstances may be; and that he returned inverted107, just as a reflection returns from a mirror. From the last fact, as I have already stated, it follows almost inevitably108 that Plattner, during those nine days, must have been in some state of existence altogether out of space. The evidence to these statements is, indeed, far stronger than that upon which most murderers are hanged. But for his own particular account of where he had been, with its confused explanations and wellnigh self-contradictory details, we have only Mr. Gottfried Plattner’s word. I do not wish to discredit109 that, but I must point out — what so many writers upon obscure psychic110 phenomena fail to do — that we are passing here from the practically undeniable to that kind of matter which any reasonable man is entitled to believe or reject as he thinks proper. The previous statements render it plausible111; its discordance112 with common experience tilts113 it towards the incredible. I would prefer not to sway the beam of the reader’s judgment114 either way, but simply to tell the story as Plattner told it me.
He gave me his narrative115, I may state, at my house at Chislehurst, and so soon as he had left me that evening, I went into my study and wrote down everything as I remembered it. Subsequently he was good enough to read over a type-written copy, so that its substantial correctness is undeniable.
He states that at the moment of the explosion he distinctly thought he was killed. He felt lifted off his feet and driven forcibly backward. It is a curious fact for psychologists that he thought clearly during his backward flight, and wondered whether he should hit the chemistry cupboard or the blackboard easel. His heels struck ground, and he staggered and fell heavily into a sitting position on something soft and firm. For a moment the concussion116 stunned117 him. He became aware at once of a vivid scent118 of singed119 hair, and he seemed to hear the voice of Lidgett asking for him. You will understand that for a time his mind was greatly confused.
At first he was under the impression that he was still standing in the class-room. He perceived quite distinctly the surprise of the boys and the entry of Mr. Lidgett. He is quite positive upon that score. He did not hear their remarks; but that he ascribed to the deafening effect of the experiment. Things about him seemed curiously120 dark and faint, but his mind explained that on the obvious but mistaken idea that the explosion had engendered121 a huge volume of dark smoke. Through the dimness the figures of Lidgett and the boys moved, as faint and silent as ghosts. Plattner’s face still tingled122 with the stinging heat of the flash. He, was, he says, “all muddled123.” His first definite thoughts seem to have been of his personal safety. He thought he was perhaps blinded and deafened124. He felt his limbs and face in a gingerly manner. Then his perceptions grew clearer, and he was astonished to miss the old familiar desks and other schoolroom furniture about him. Only dim, uncertain, grey shapes stood in the place of these. Then came a thing that made him shout aloud, and awoke his stunned faculties125 to instant activity. Two of the boys, gesticulating, walked one after the other clean through him! Neither manifested the slightest consciousness of his presence. It is difficult to imagine the sensation he felt. They came against him, he says, with no more force than a wisp of mist.
Plattner’s first thought after that was that he was dead. Having been brought up with thoroughly sound views in these matters, however, he was a little surprised to find his body still about him. His second conclusion was that he was not dead, but that the others were: that the explosion had destroyed the Sussexville Proprietary School and every soul in it except himself. But that, too, was scarcely satisfactory. He was thrown back upon astonished observation.
Everything about him was profoundly dark: at first it seemed to have an altogether ebony blackness. Overhead was a black firmament126. The only touch of light in the scene was a faint greenish glow at the edge of the sky in one direction, which threw into prominence127 a horizon of undulating black hills. This, I say, was his impression at first. As his eye grew accustomed to the darkness, he began to distinguish a faint quality of differentiating128 greenish colour in the circumambient night. Against this background the furniture and occupants of the class-room, it seems, stood out like phosphorescent spectres, faint and impalpable. He extended his hand, and thrust it without an effort through the wall of the room by the fireplace.
He describes himself as making a strenuous129 effort to attract attention. He shouted to Lidgett, and tried to seize the boys as they went to and fro. He only desisted from these attempts when Mrs. Lidgett, whom he (as an Assistant Master) naturally disliked, entered the room. He says the sensation of being in the world, and yet not a part of it, was an extraordinarily130 disagreeable one. He compared his feelings, not inaptly, to those of a cat watching a mouse through a window. Whenever he made a motion to communicate with the dim, familiar world about him, he found an invisible, incomprehensible barrier preventing intercourse131.
He then turned his attention to his solid environment. He found the medicine bottle still unbroken in his hand, with the remainder of the green powder therein. He put this in his pocket, and began to feel about him. Apparently he was sitting on a boulder132 of rock covered with a velvety133 moss134. The dark country about him he was unable to see, the faint, misty135 picture of the schoolroom blotting136 it out, but he had a feeling (due perhaps to a cold wind) that he was near the crest137 of a hill, and that a steep valley fell away beneath his feet. The green glow along the edge of the sky seemed to be growing in extent and intensity138. He stood up, rubbing his eyes.
It would seem that he made a few steps, going steeply downhill, and then stumbled, nearly fell, and sat down again upon a jagged mass of rock to watch the dawn. He became aware that the world about him was absolutely silent. It was as still as it was dark, and though there was a cold wind blowing up the hill-face, the rustle139 of grass, the soughing of the boughs140 that should have accompanied it, were absent. He could hear, therefore, if he could not see, that the hillside upon which he stood was rocky and desolate141. The green grew brighter every moment, and as it did so a faint, transparent142 blood-red mingled143 with, but did not mitigate144, the blackness of the sky overhead and the rocky desolations about him. Having regard to what follows, I am inclined to think that that redness may have been an optical effect due to contrast. Something black fluttered momentarily against the livid yellow-green of the lower sky, and then the thin and penetrating145 voice of a bell rose out of the black gulf146 below him. An oppressive expectation grew with the growing light.
It is probable that an hour or more elapsed while he sat there, the strange green light growing brighter every moment, and spreading slowly, in flamboyant147 fingers, upward towards the zenith. As it grew, the spectral148 vision of our world became relatively149 or absolutely fainter. Probably both, for the time must have been about that of our earthly sunset. So far as his vision of our world went, Plattner, by his few steps downhill, had passed through the floor of the class-room, and was now, it seemed, sitting in mid-air in the larger schoolroom downstairs. He saw the boarders distinctly, but much more faintly than he had seen Lidgett. They were preparing their evening tasks, and he noticed with interest that several were cheating with their Euclid riders by means of a crib, a compilation150 whose existence he had hitherto never suspected. As the time passed, they faded steadily151, as steadily as the light of the green dawn increased.
Looking down into the valley, he saw that the light had crept far down its rocky sides, and that the profound blackness of the abyss was now broken by a minute green glow, like the light of a glow-worm. And almost immediately the limb of a huge heavenly body of blazing green rose over the basaltic undulations of the distant hills, and the monstrous152 hill-masses about him came out gaunt and desolate, in green light and deep, ruddy black shadows. He became aware of a vast number of ball-shaped objects drifting as thistledown drifts over the high ground. There were none of these nearer to him than the opposite side of the gorge153. The bell below twanged quicker and quicker, with something like impatient insistence154, and several lights moved hither and thither155. The boys at work at their desks were now almost imperceptibly faint.
This extinction156 of our world, when the green sun of this other universe rose, is a curious point upon which Plattner insists. During the Other–World night it is difficult to move about, on account of the vividness with which the things of this world are visible. It becomes a riddle157 to explain why, if this is the case, we in this world catch no glimpse of the Other–World. It is due, perhaps, to the comparatively vivid illumination of this world of ours. Plattner describes the midday of the Other–World, at its brightest, as not being nearly so bright as this world at full moon, while its night is profoundly black. Consequently, the amount of light, even in an ordinary dark room, is sufficient to render the things of the Other–World invisible, on the same principle that faint phosphorescence is only visible in the profoundest darkness. I have tried, since he told me his story, to see something of the Other–World by sitting for a long space in a photographer’s dark room at night. I have certainly seen indistinctly the form of greenish slopes and rocks, but only, I must admit, very indistinctly indeed. The reader may possibly be more successful. Plattner tells me that since his return he has dreamt and seen and recognised places in the Other–World, but this is probably due to his memory of these scenes. It seems quite possible that people with unusually keen eyesight may occasionally catch a glimpse of this strange Other–World about us.
However, this is a digression. As the green sun rose, a long street of black buildings became perceptible, though only darkly and indistinctly, in the gorge, and after some hesitation158, Plattner began to clamber down the precipitous descent towards them. The descent was long and exceedingly tedious, being so not only by the extraordinary steepness, but also by reason of the looseness of the boulders159 with which the whole face of the hill was strewn. The noise of his descent — now and then his heels struck fire from the rocks — seemed now the only sound in the universe, for the beating of the bell had ceased. As he drew nearer, he perceived that the various edifices160 had a singular resemblance to tombs and mausoleums and monuments, saving only that they were all uniformly black instead of being white, as most sepulchres are. And then he saw, crowding out of the largest building, very much as people disperse161 from church, a number of pallid162, rounded, pale-green figures. These dispersed163 in several directions about the broad street of the place, some going through side alleys164 and reappearing upon the steepness of the hill, others entering some of the small black buildings which lined the way.
At the sight of these things drifting up towards him, Plattner stopped, staring. They were not walking, they were indeed limbless, and they had the appearance of human heads, beneath which a tadpole-like body swung. He was too astonished at their strangeness, too full, indeed, of strangeness, to be seriously alarmed by them. They drove towards him, in front of the chill wind that was blowing uphill, much as soap-bubbles drive before a draught165. And as he looked at the nearest of those approaching, he saw it was indeed a human head, albeit166 with singularly large eyes, and wearing such an expression of distress83 and anguish167 as he had never seen before upon mortal countenance. He was surprised to find that it did not turn to regard him, but seemed to be watching and following some unseen moving thing. For a moment he was puzzled, and then it occurred to him that this creature was watching with its enormous eyes something that was happening in the world he had just left. Nearer it came, and nearer, and he was too astonished to cry out. It made a very faint fretting168 sound as it came close to him. Then it struck his face with a gentle pat — its touch was very cold — and drove past him, and upward towards the crest of the hill.
An extraordinary conviction flashed across Plattner’s mind that this head had a strong likeness169 to Lidgett. Then he turned his attention to the other heads that were now swarming170 thickly up the hill-side. None made the slightest sign of recognition. One or two, indeed, came close to his head and almost followed the example of the first, but he dodged171 convulsively out of the way. Upon most of them he saw the same expression of unavailing regret he had seen upon the first, and heard the same faint sounds of wretchedness from them. One or two wept, and one rolling swiftly uphill wore an expression of diabolical172 rage. But others were cold, and several had a look of gratified interest in their eyes. One, at least, was almost in an ecstasy173 of happiness. Plattner does not remember that he recognised any more likenesses in those he saw at this time.
For several hours, perhaps, Plattner watched these strange things dispersing174 themselves over the hills, and not till long after they had ceased to issue from the clustering black buildings in the gorge, did he resume his downward climb. The darkness about him increased so much that he had a difficulty in stepping true. Overhead the sky was now a bright, pale green. He felt neither hunger nor thirst. Later, when he did, he found a chilly175 stream running down the centre of the gorge, and the rare moss upon the boulders, when he tried it at last in desperation, was good to eat.
He groped about among the tombs that ran down the gorge, seeking vaguely for some clue to these inexplicable176 things. After a long time he came to the entrance of the big mausoleum-like building from which the heads had issued. In this he found a group of green lights burning upon a kind of basaltic altar, and a bell-rope from a belfry overhead hanging down into the centre of the place. Round the wall ran a lettering of fire in a character unknown to him. While he was still wondering at the purport177 of these things, he heard the receding105 tramp of heavy feet echoing far down the street. He ran out into the darkness again, but he could see nothing. He had a mind to pull the bell-rope, and finally decided178 to follow the footsteps. But, although he ran far, he never overtook them; and his shouting was of no avail. The gorge seemed to extend an interminable distance. It was as dark as earthly starlight throughout its length, while the ghastly green day lay along the upper edge of its precipices179. There were none of the heads, now, below. They were all, it seemed, busily occupied along the upper slopes. Looking up, he saw them drifting hither and thither, some hovering180 stationary181, some flying swiftly through the air. It reminded him, he said, of “big snowflakes”; only these were black and pale green.
In pursuing the firm, undeviating footsteps that he never overtook, in groping into new regions of this endless devil’s dyke182, in clambering up and down the pitiless heights, in wandering about the summits, and in watching the drifting faces, Plattner states that he spent the better part of seven or eight days. He did not keep count, he says. Though once or twice he found eyes watching him, he had word with no living soul. He slept among the rocks on the hillside. In the gorge things earthly were invisible, because, from the earthly standpoint, it was far underground. On the altitudes, so soon as the earthly day began, the world became visible to him. He found himself sometimes stumbling over the dark green rocks, or arresting himself on a precipitous brink183, while all about him the green branches of the Sussexville lanes were swaying; or, again, he seemed to be walking through the Sussexville streets, or watching unseen the private business of some household. And then it was he discovered, that to almost every human being in our world there pertained184 some of these drifting heads; that everyone in the world is watched intermittently185 by these helpless disembodiments.
What are they — these Watchers of the Living? Plattner never learned. But two, that presently found and followed him, were like his childhood’s memory of his father and mother. Now and then other faces turned their eyes upon him: eyes like those of dead people who had swayed him, or injured him, or helped him in his youth and manhood. Whenever they looked at him, Plattner was overcome with a strange sense of responsibility. To his mother he ventured to speak; but she made no answer. She looked sadly, steadfastly186, and tenderly — a little reproachfully, too, it seemed — into his eyes.
He simply tells this story: he does not endeavour to explain. We are left to surmise187 who these Watchers of the Living may be, or, if they are indeed the Dead, why they should so closely and passionately188 watch a world they have left for ever. It may be — indeed to my mind it seems just — that, when our life has closed, when evil or good is no longer a choice for us, we may still have to witness the working out of the train of consequences we have laid. If human souls continue after death, then surely human interests continue after death. But that is merely my own guess at the meaning of the things seen. Plattner offers no interpretation189, for none was given him. It is well the reader should understand this clearly. Day after day, with his head reeling, he wandered about this strange lit world outside the world, weary and, towards the end, weak and hungry. By day — by our earthly day, that is — the ghostly vision of the old familiar scenery of Sussexville, all about him, irked and worried him. He could not see where to put his feet, and ever and again with a chilly touch one of these Watching Souls would come against his face. And after dark the multitude of these Watchers about him, and their intent distress, confused his mind beyond describing. A great longing190 to return to the earthly life that was so near and yet so remote consumed him. The unearthliness of things about him produced a positively191 painful mental distress. He was worried beyond describing by his own particular followers192. He would shout at them to desist from staring at him, scold at them, hurry away from them. They were always mute and intent. Run as he might over the uneven13 ground, they followed his destinies.
On the ninth day, towards evening, Plattner heard the invisible footsteps approaching, far away down the gorge. He was then wandering over the broad crest of the same hill upon which he had fallen in his entry into this strange Other–World of his. He turned to hurry down into the gorge, feeling his way hastily, and was arrested by the sight of the thing that was happening in a room in a back street near the school. Both of the people in the room he knew by sight. The windows were open, the blinds up, and the setting sun shone clearly into it, so that it came out quite brightly at first, a vivid oblong of room, lying like a magic-lantern picture upon the black landscape and the livid green dawn. In addition to the sunlight, a candle had just been lit in the room.
On the bed lay a lank193 man, his ghastly white face terrible upon the tumbled pillow. His clenched194 hands were raised above his head. A little table beside the bed carried a few medicine bottles, some toast and water, and an empty glass. Every now and then the lank man’s lips fell apart, to indicate a word he could not articulate. But the woman did not notice that he wanted anything, because she was busy turning out papers from an old-fashioned bureau in the opposite corner of the room. At first the picture was very vivid indeed, but as the green dawn behind it grew brighter and brighter, so it became fainter and more and more transparent.
As the echoing footsteps paced nearer and nearer, those footsteps that sound so loud in that Other–World and come so silently in this, Plattner perceived about him a great multitude of dim faces gathering195 together out of the darkness and watching the two people in the room. Never before had he seen so many of the Watchers of the Living. A multitude had eyes only for the sufferer in the room, another multitude, in infinite anguish, watched the woman as she hunted with greedy eyes for something she could not find. They crowded about Plattner, they came across his sight and buffeted196 his face, the noise of their unavailing regrets was all about him. He saw clearly only now and then. At other times the picture quivered dimly, through the veil of green reflections upon their movements. In the room it must have been very still, and Plattner says the candle flame streamed up into a perfectly vertical197 line of smoke, but in his ears each footfall and its echoes beat like a clap of thunder. And the faces! Two, more particularly near the woman’s: one a woman’s also, white and clear-featured, a face which might have once been cold and hard, but which was now softened198 by the touch of a wisdom strange to earth. The other might have been the woman’s father. Both were evidently absorbed in the contemplation of some act of hateful meanness, so it seemed, which they could no longer guard against and prevent. Behind were others, teachers, it may be, who had taught ill, friends whose influence had failed. And over the man, too — a multitude, but none that seemed to be parents or teachers! Faces that might once have been coarse, now purged199 to strength by sorrow! And in the forefront one face, a girlish one, neither angry nor remorseful200, but merely patient and weary, and, as it seemed to Plattner, waiting for relief. His powers of description fail him at the memory of this multitude of ghastly countenances201. They gathered on the stroke of the bell. He saw them all in the space of a second. It would seem that he was so worked on by his excitement that, quite involuntarily, his restless fingers took the bottle of green powder out of his pocket and held it before him. But he does not remember that.
Abruptly202 the footsteps ceased. He waited for the next, and there was silence, and then suddenly, cutting through the unexpected stillness like a keen, thin blade, came the first stroke of the bell. At that the multitudinous faces swayed to and fro, and a louder crying began all about him. The woman did not hear; she was burning something now in the candle flame. At the second stroke everything grew dim, and a breath of wind, icy cold, blew through the host of watchers. They swirled203 about him like an eddy204 of dead leaves in the spring, and at the third stroke something was extended through them to the bed. You have heard of a beam of light. This was like a beam of darkness, and looking again at it, Plattner saw that it was a shadowy arm and hand.
The green sun was now topping the black desolations of the horizon, and the vision of the room was very faint. Plattner could see that the white of the bed struggled, and was convulsed; and that the woman looked round over her shoulder at it, startled.
The cloud of watchers lifted high like a puff205 of green dust before the wind, and swept swiftly downward towards the temple in the gorge. Then suddenly Plattner understood the meaning of the shadowy black arm that stretched across his shoulder and clutched its prey206. He did not dare turn his head to see the Shadow behind the arm. With a violent effort, and covering his eyes, he set himself to run, made, perhaps, twenty strides, then slipped on a boulder, and fell. He fell forward on his hands; and the bottle smashed and exploded as he touched the ground.
In another moment he found himself, stunned and bleeding, sitting face to face with Lidgett in the old walled garden behind the school.
* * * * *
There the story of Plattner’s experiences ends. I have resisted, I believe successfully, the natural disposition of a writer of fiction to dress up incidents of this sort. I have told the thing as far as possible in the order in which Plattner told it to me. I have carefully avoided any attempt at style, effect, or construction. It would have been easy, for instance, to have worked the scene of the death-bed into a kind of plot in which Plattner might have been involved. But, quite apart from the objectionableness of falsifying a most extraordinary true story, any such trite207 devices would spoil, to my mind, the peculiar21 effect of this dark world, with its livid green illumination and its drifting Watchers of the Living, which, unseen and unapproachable to us, is yet lying all about us.
It remains208 to add that a death did actually occur in Vincent Terrace, just beyond the school garden, and, so far as can be proved, at the moment of Plattner’s return. Deceased was a rate-collector and insurance agent. His widow, who was much younger than himself, married last month a Mr. Whymper, a veterinary surgeon of Allbeeding. As the portion of this story given here has in various forms circulated orally in Sussexville, she has consented to my use of her name, on condition that I make it distinctly known that she emphatically contradicts every detail of Plattner’s account of her husband’s last moments. She burnt no will, she says, although Plattner never accused her of doing so; her husband made but one will, and that just after their marriage. Certainly, from a man who had never seen it, Plattner’s account of the furniture of the room was curiously accurate.
One other thing, even at the risk of an irksome repetition, I must insist upon, lest I seem to favour the credulous209, superstitious210 view. Plattner’s absence from the world for nine days is, I think, proved. But that does not prove his story. It is quite conceivable that even outside space hallucinations may be possible. That, at least, the reader must bear distinctly in mind.
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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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inertia
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| adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝 | |
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inversion
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| n.反向，倒转，倒置 | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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impartiality
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| n. 公平, 无私, 不偏 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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14
parquet
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| n.镶木地板 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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19
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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lobe
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| n.耳垂，（肺，肝等的）叶 | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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impartially
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| adv.公平地，无私地 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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displacement
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| n.移置，取代，位移，排水量 | |
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30
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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31
sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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morbidly
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| adv.病态地 | |
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pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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disarms
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| v.裁军( disarm的第三人称单数 )；使息怒 | |
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dissection
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| n.分析；解剖 | |
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41
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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42
abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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43
motiveless
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| adj.无动机的，无目的的 | |
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tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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45
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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proprietary
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| n.所有权，所有的；独占的；业主 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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masticated
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| v.咀嚼( masticate的过去式和过去分词 )；粉碎，磨烂 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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62
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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64
feigning
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| 假装，伪装( feign的现在分词 )； 捏造（借口、理由等） | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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67
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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69
catastrophes
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| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
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edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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72
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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accustom
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| vt.使适应，使习惯 | |
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scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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wrack
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| v.折磨；n.海草 | |
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commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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pretexts
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| n.借口，托辞( pretext的名词复数 ) | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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coruscating
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| v.闪光，闪烁( coruscate的现在分词 ) | |
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82
iridescence
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| n.彩虹色；放光彩；晕色；晕彩 | |
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83
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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85
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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choleric
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| adj.易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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inordinately
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| adv.无度地，非常地 | |
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prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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idyllic
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| adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的 | |
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95
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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96
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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97
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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98
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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99
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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100
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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101
cursory
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| adj.粗略的；草率的；匆促的 | |
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102
surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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103
anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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104
differentiate
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| vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同 | |
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105
receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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106
redoubtable
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| adj.可敬的；可怕的 | |
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107
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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109
discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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110
psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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111
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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112
discordance
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| n.不调和，不和，不一致性；不整合；假整合 | |
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113
tilts
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| （意欲赢得某物或战胜某人的）企图，尝试( tilt的名词复数 ) | |
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114
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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115
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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116
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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117
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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118
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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119
singed
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| v.浅表烧焦( singe的过去式和过去分词 )；（毛发）燎，烧焦尖端[边儿] | |
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120
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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121
engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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123
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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124
deafened
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| 使聋( deafen的过去式和过去分词 )； 使隔音 | |
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125
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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126
firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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127
prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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128
differentiating
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| [计] 微分的 | |
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129
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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130
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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131
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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132
boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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133
velvety
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| adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的 | |
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134
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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135
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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136
blotting
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| 吸墨水纸 | |
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137
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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138
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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139
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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140
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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141
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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142
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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143
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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144
mitigate
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| vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和 | |
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145
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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146
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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147
flamboyant
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| adj.火焰般的，华丽的，炫耀的 | |
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148
spectral
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| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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149
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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150
compilation
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| n.编译，编辑 | |
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151
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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152
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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153
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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154
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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155
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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156
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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157
riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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158
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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159
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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160
edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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161
disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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162
pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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163
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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164
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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165
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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166
albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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167
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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168
fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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169
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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170
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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171
dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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172
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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173
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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174
dispersing
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| adj. 分散的 动词disperse的现在分词形式 | |
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175
chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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176
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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177
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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178
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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179
precipices
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| n.悬崖，峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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180
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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181
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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182
dyke
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| n.堤，水坝，排水沟 | |
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183
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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184
pertained
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| 关于( pertain的过去式和过去分词 )； 有关； 存在； 适用 | |
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185
intermittently
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| adv.间歇地；断断续续 | |
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186
steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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187
surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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188
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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189
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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190
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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191
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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192
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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193
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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194
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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195
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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196
buffeted
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| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
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197
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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198
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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199
purged
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| 清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响 | |
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200
remorseful
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| adj.悔恨的 | |
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201
countenances
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| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
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202
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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203
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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204
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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205
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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206
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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207
trite
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| adj.陈腐的 | |
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208
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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209
credulous
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| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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210
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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