I felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot I was clothed, though when I fell unconscious at the little doorway2 I had been naked. Before me was a small patch of moonlit sky which showed through a ragged3 aperture4.
As my hands passed over my body they came in contact with pockets and in one of these a small parcel of matches wrapped in oiled paper. One of these matches I struck, and its dim flame lighted up what appeared to be a huge cave, toward the back of which I discovered a strange, still figure huddled5 over a tiny bench. As I approached it I saw that it was the dead and mummified remains6 of a little old woman with long black hair, and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal7 burner upon which rested a round copper8 vessel9 containing a small quantity of greenish powder.
Behind her, depending from the roof upon rawhide10 thongs11, and stretching entirely13 across the cave, was a row of human skeletons. From the thong12 which held them stretched another to the dead hand of the little old woman; as I touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with a noise as of the rustling14 of dry leaves.
It was a most grotesque15 and horrid16 tableau17 and I hastened out into the fresh air; glad to escape from so gruesome a place.
The sight that met my eyes as I stepped out upon a small ledge18 which ran before the entrance of the cave filled me with consternation19.
A new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze. The silvered mountains in the distance, the almost stationary20 moon hanging in the sky, the cacti-studded valley below me were not of Mars. I could scarce believe my eyes, but the truth slowly forced itself upon me—I was looking upon Arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before I had gazed with longing21 upon Mars.
Burying my head in my arms I turned, broken, and sorrowful, down the trail from the cave.
Above me shone the red eye of Mars holding her awful secret, forty-eight million miles away.
Did the Martian reach the pump room? Did the vitalizing air reach the people of that distant planet in time to save them? Was my Dejah Thoris alive, or did her beautiful body lie cold in death beside the tiny golden incubator in the sunken garden of the inner courtyard of the palace of Tardos Mors, the jeddak of Helium?
For ten years I have waited and prayed for an answer to my questions. For ten years I have waited and prayed to be taken back to the world of my lost love. I would rather lie dead beside her there than live on Earth all those millions of terrible miles from her.
The old mine, which I found untouched, has made me fabulously22 wealthy; but what care I for wealth!
As I sit here tonight in my little study overlooking the Hudson, just twenty years have elapsed since I first opened my eyes upon Mars.
I can see her shining in the sky through the little window by my desk, and tonight she seems calling to me again as she has not called before since that long dead night, and I think I can see, across that awful abyss of space, a beautiful black-haired woman standing23 in the garden of a palace, and at her side is a little boy who puts his arm around her as she points into the sky toward the planet Earth, while at their feet is a huge and hideous24 creature with a heart of gold.
I believe that they are waiting there for me, and something tells me that I shall soon know.
The End
The End
点击收听单词发音
1 posture | |
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势 | |
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2 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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3 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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4 aperture | |
n.孔,隙,窄的缺口 | |
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5 huddled | |
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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6 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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7 charcoal | |
n.炭,木炭,生物炭 | |
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8 copper | |
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的 | |
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9 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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10 rawhide | |
n.生牛皮 | |
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11 thongs | |
的东西 | |
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12 thong | |
n.皮带;皮鞭;v.装皮带 | |
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13 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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14 rustling | |
n. 瑟瑟声,沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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15 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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16 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
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17 tableau | |
n.画面,活人画(舞台上活人扮的静态画面) | |
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18 ledge | |
n.壁架,架状突出物;岩架,岩礁 | |
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19 consternation | |
n.大为吃惊,惊骇 | |
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20 stationary | |
adj.固定的,静止不动的 | |
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21 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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22 fabulously | |
难以置信地,惊人地 | |
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23 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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24 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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