Chapter 54

It rained all night. I had a horrible, sleepless¹ time of it. Itwas noisy. On the rain catcher the rain made a drummingsound, and around me, coming from the darkness beyond, itmade a hissing² sound, as if I were at the centre of a greatnest of angry snakes. Shifts in the wind changed the directionof the rain so that parts of me that were beginning to feelwarm were soaked anew. I shifted the rain catcher, only to beunpleasantly surprised a few minutes later when the windchanged once more. I tried to keep a small part of me dryand warm, around my chest, where I had placed the survivalmanual, but the wetness spread with perverse³ determination. Ispent the whole night shivering with cold. I worried constantlythat the raft would come apart, that the knots holding me tothe lifeboat would become loose, that a shark would attack.
With my hands I checked the knots and lashings incessantly,trying to read them the way a blind man would read Braille.
The rain grew stronger and the sea rougher as the nightprogressed. The rope to the lifeboat tautened with a jerk ratherthan with a tug⁴, and the rocking of the raft became morepronounced and erratic⁵. It continued to float, rising above everywave, but there was no freeboard and the surf of everybreaking wave rode clear across it, washing around me like ariver washing around a boulder⁶. The sea was warmer than therain, but it meant that not the smallest part of me stayed drythat night.
At least I drank. I wasn't really thirsty, but I forced myselfto drink. The rain catcher looked like an inverted⁷ umbrella, anumbrella blown open by the wind. The rain flowed to itscentre, where there was a hole. The hole was connected by arubber tube to a catchment pouch⁸ made of thick, transparentplastic. At first the water had a rubbery taste, but quickly therain rinsed⁹ the catcher and the water tasted fine.
During those long, cold, dark hours, as the pattering of theinvisible rain got to be deafening¹⁰, and the sea hissed¹¹ and coiledand tossed me about, I held on to one thought: RichardParker. I hatched several plans to get rid of him so that thelifeboat might be mine.
Plan Number One: Push Him off the Lifeboat. What goodwould that do? Even if I did manage to shove 450 pounds ofliving, fierce animal off the lifeboat, tigers are accomplishedswimmers. In the Sundarbans they have been known to swimfive miles in open, choppy waters. If he found himselfunexpectedly overboard, Richard Parker would simply treadwater, climb back aboard and make me pay the price for mytreachery.
Plan Number Two: Kill Him with the Six MorphineSyringes. But I had no idea what effect they would have onhim. Would they be enough to kill him? And how exactly wasI supposed to get the morphine into his system? I couldremotely conceive surprising him once, for an instant, the wayhis mother had been when she was captured – but, tosurprise him long enough to give him six consecutiveinjections‘? Impossible. All I would do by pricking¹² him with aneedle would be to get a cuff¹³ in return that would take myhead off.
Plan Number Three: Attack Him with All AvailableWeaponry. Ludicrous. I wasn't Tarzan. I was a puny¹⁴, feeble,vegetarian life form. In India it took riding atop great bigelephants and shooting with powerful rifles to kill tigers. Whatwas I supposed to do here? Fire off a rocket flare¹⁵ in his face?
Go at him with a hatchet¹⁶ in each hand and a knife betweenmy teeth? Finish him off with straight and curving sewingneedles? If I managed to nick him, it would be a feat¹⁷. Inreturn he would tear me apart limb by limb, organ by organ.
For if there's one thing more dangerous than a healthy animal,it's an injured animal.
Plan Number Four: Choke Him. I had rope. If I stayed atthe bow and got the rope to go around the stern and anoose to go around his neck, I could pull on the rope whilehe pulled to get at me. And so, in the very act of reaching forme, he would choke himself. A clever, suicidal plan.
Plan Number Five: Poison Him, Set Him on Fire,Electrocute Him. How? With what?
Plan Number Six: Wage a War of Attrition. All I had todo was let the unforgiving laws of nature run their course andI would be saved. Waiting for him to waste away and diewould require no effort on my part. I had supplies for monthsto come. What did he have? Just a few dead animals thatwould soon go bad. What would he eat after that? Better still:
where would he get water? He might last for weeks withoutfood, but no animal, however mighty¹⁸, can do without water forany extended period of time.
A modest glow of hope flickered¹⁹ to life within me, like acandle in the night. I had a plan and it was a good one. Ionly needed to survive to put it into effect.

1 sleepless   

adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的

参考例句：

• The situation gave her many sleepless nights.这种情况害她一连好多天睡不好觉。
• One evening I heard a tale that rendered me sleepless for nights.一天晚上，我听说了一个传闻，把我搞得一连几夜都不能入睡。

2 hissing   

n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The steam escaped with a loud hissing noise. 蒸汽大声地嘶嘶冒了出来。
• His ears were still hissing with the rustle of the leaves. 他耳朵里还听得萨萨萨的声音和屑索屑索的怪声。 来自汉英文学 - 春蚕

3 perverse   

adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的

参考例句：

• It would be perverse to stop this healthy trend.阻止这种健康发展的趋势是没有道理的。
• She gets a perverse satisfaction from making other people embarrassed.她有一种不正常的心态，以使别人难堪来取乐。

4 tug   

v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船

参考例句：

• We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
• The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。

5 erratic   

adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
• The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。

6 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

7 inverted   

adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Only direct speech should go inside inverted commas. 只有直接引语应放在引号内。
• Inverted flight is an acrobatic manoeuvre of the plane. 倒飞是飞机的一种特技动作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 pouch   

n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件

参考例句：

• He was going to make a tobacco pouch out of them. 他要用它们缝制一个烟草袋。
• The old man is always carrying a tobacco pouch with him.这老汉总是随身带着烟袋。

9 rinsed   

v.漂洗( rinse的过去式和过去分词 )；冲洗；用清水漂洗掉（肥皂泡等）；（用清水）冲掉

参考例句：

• She rinsed out the sea water from her swimming-costume. 她把游泳衣里的海水冲洗掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The clothes have been rinsed three times. 衣服已经洗了三和。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 deafening   

adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The noise of the siren was deafening her. 汽笛声震得她耳朵都快聋了。
• The noise of the machine was deafening. 机器的轰鸣声震耳欲聋。

11 hissed   

发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对

参考例句：

• Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过？
• The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。

12 pricking   

刺，刺痕，刺痛感

参考例句：

• She felt a pricking on her scalp. 她感到头皮上被扎了一下。
• Intercostal neuralgia causes paroxysmal burning pain or pricking pain. 肋间神经痛呈阵发性的灼痛或刺痛。

13 cuff   

n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口

参考例句：

• She hoped they wouldn't cuff her hands behind her back.她希望他们不要把她反铐起来。
• Would you please draw together the snag in my cuff?请你把我袖口上的裂口缝上好吗？

14 puny   

adj.微不足道的，弱小的

参考例句：

• The resources at the central banks' disposal are simply too puny.中央银行掌握的资金实在太少了。
• Antonio was a puny lad,and not strong enough to work.安东尼奥是个瘦小的小家伙，身体还不壮，还不能干活。

15 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

16 hatchet   

n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀

参考例句：

• I shall have to take a hatchet to that stump.我得用一把短柄斧来劈这树桩。
• Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet.别用斧头拍打朋友额头上的苍蝇。

17 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

18 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

19 flickered   

（通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The lights flickered and went out. 灯光闪了闪就熄了。
• These lights flickered continuously like traffic lights which have gone mad. 这些灯象发狂的交通灯一样不停地闪动着。