“Cantonese rats, Dr. Petrie, the most ravenous7 in the world... they have eaten nothing for nearly a week!”
Then all became blurred8 as though a painter with a brush steeped in red had smudged out the details of the picture. For an indefinite period, which seemed like many minutes yet probably was only a few seconds, I saw nothing and heard nothing; my sensory9 nerves were dulled entirely10. From this state I was awakened11 and brought back to the realities by a sound which ever afterward12 I was doomed13 to associate with that ghastly scene.
The red mist seemed to disperse15 at that, and with frightfully intense interest, I began to study the awful torture to which Nayland Smith was being subjected. The dacoit had disappeared, and Fu-Manchu placidly17 was watching the four lean and hideous18 animals in the cage. As I also turned my eyes in that direction, the rats overcame their temporary fear, and began...
“You have been good enough to notice,” said the Chinaman, his voice still sunk in that sibilant whisper, “my partiality for dumb allies. You have met my scorpions19, my death-adders, my baboon-man. The uses of such a playful little animal as a marmoset have never been fully16 appreciated before, I think, but to an indiscretion of this last-named pet of mine, I seem to remember that you owed something in the past, Dr. Petrie...”
Nayland Smith stifled20 a deep groan21. One rapid glance I ventured at his face. It was a grayish hue22, now, and dank with perspiration23. His gaze met mine.
The rats had almost ceased squealing.
“Much depends upon yourself, Doctor,” continued Fu-Manchu, slightly raising his voice. “I credit Mr. Commissioner24 Nayland Smith with courage high enough to sustain the raising of all the gates; but I estimate the strength of your friendship highly, also, and predict that you will use the sword of the samurai certainly not later than the time when I shall raise the third gate....”
A low shuddering25 sound, which I cannot hope to describe, but alas26 I can never forget, broke from the lips of the tortured man.
“In China,” resumed Fu-Manchu, “we call this quaint27 fancy the Six Gates of joyful28 Wisdom. The first gate, by which the rats are admitted, is called the Gate of joyous29 Hope; the second, the Gate of Mirthful Doubt. The third gate is poetically30 named, the Gate of True Rapture31, and the fourth, the Gate of Gentle Sorrow. I once was honored in the friendship of an exalted32 mandarin33 who sustained the course of joyful Wisdom to the raising of the Fifth Gate (called the Gate of Sweet Desires) and the admission of the twentieth rat. I esteem34 him almost equally with my ancestors. The Sixth, or Gate Celestial—whereby a man enters into the joy of Complete Understanding—I have dispensed35 with, here, substituting a Japanese fancy of an antiquity36 nearly as great and honorable. The introduction of this element of speculation37, I count a happy thought, and accordingly take pride to myself.”
“The sword, Petrie!” whispered Smith. I should not have recognized his voice, but he spoke38 quite evenly and steadily39. “I rely upon you, old man, to spare me the humiliation40 of asking mercy from that yellow fiend!”
My mind throughout this time had been gaining a sort of dreadful clarity. I had avoided looking at the sword of hara-kiri, but my thoughts had been leading me mercilessly up to the point at which we were now arrived. No vestige41 of anger, of condemnation42 of the inhuman43 being seated in the ebony chair, remained; that was past. Of all that had gone before, and of what was to come in the future, I thought nothing, knew nothing. Our long fight against the yellow group, our encounters with the numberless creatures of Fu-Manchu, the dacoits—even Karamaneh—were forgotten, blotted44 out. I saw nothing of the strange appointments of that subterranean45 chamber46; but face to face with the supreme47 moment of a lifetime, I was alone with my poor friend—and God.
The rats began squealing again. They were fighting...
“Quick, Petrie! Quick, man! I am weakening....”
I turned and took up the samurai sword. My hands were very hot and dry, but perfectly48 steady, and I tested the edge of the heavy weapon upon my left thumb-nail as quietly as one might test a razor blade. It was as keen, this blade of ghastly history, as any razor ever wrought49 in Sheffield. I seized the graven hilt, bent50 forward in my chair, and raised the Friend’s Sword high above my head. With the heavy weapon poised51 there, I looked into my friend’s eyes. They were feverishly52 bright, but never in all my days, nor upon the many beds of suffering which it had been my lot to visit, had I seen an expression like that within them.
“The raising of the First Gate is always a crucial moment,” came the guttural voice of the Chinaman. Although I did not see him, and barely heard his words, I was aware that he had stood up and was bending forward over the lower end of the cage.
“Now, Petrie! now! God bless you... and good-by...”
From somewhere—somewhere remote—I heard a hoarse53 and animal-like cry, followed by the sound of a heavy fall. I can scarcely bear to write of that moment, for I had actually begun the downward sweep of the great sword when that sound came—a faint Hope, speaking of aid where I had thought no aid possible.
How I contrived54 to divert the blade, I do not know to this day; but I do know that its mighty55 sweep sheared56 a lock from Smith’s head and laid bare the scalp. With the hilt in my quivering hands I saw the blade bite deeply through the carpet and floor above Nayland Smith’s skull57. There, buried fully two inches in the woodwork, it stuck, and still clutching the hilt, I looked to the right and across the room—I looked to the curtained doorway58.
Fu-Manchu, with one long, claw-like hand upon the top of the First Gate, was bending over the trap, but his brilliant green eyes were turned in the same direction as my own—upon the curtained doorway.
Upright within it, her beautiful face as pale as death, but her great eyes blazing with a sort of splendid madness, stood Karamaneh!
She looked, not at the tortured man, not at me, but fully at Dr. Fu-Manchu. One hand clutched the trembling draperies; now she suddenly raised the other, so that the jewels on her white arm glittered in the light of the lamp above the door. She held my Browning pistol! Fu-Manchu sprang upright, inhaling59 sibilantly, as Karamaneh pointed60 the pistol point blank at his high skull and fired....
I saw a little red streak61 appear, up by the neutral colored hair, under the black cap. I became as a detached intelligence, unlinked with the corporeal62, looking down upon a thing which for some reason I had never thought to witness.
Fu-Manchu threw up both arms, so that the sleeves of the green robe fell back to the elbows. He clutched at his head, and the black cap fell behind him. He began to utter short, guttural cries; he swayed backward—to the right—to the left then lurched forward right across the cage. There he lay, writhing63, for a moment, his baneful64 eyes turned up, revealing the whites; and the great gray rats, released, began leaping about the room. Two shot like gray streaks65 past the slim figure in the doorway, one darted66 behind the chair to which I was lashed67, and the fourth ran all around against the wall... Fu-Manchu, prostrate68 across the overturned cage, lay still, his massive head sagging69 downward.
I experienced a mental repetition of my adventure in the earlier evening—I was dropping, dropping, dropping into some bottomless pit ... warm arms were about my neck; and burning kisses upon my lips.
点击收听单词发音
1 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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2 compartment | |
n.卧车包房,隔间;分隔的空间 | |
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3 horrified | |
a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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4 shutter | |
n.百叶窗;(照相机)快门;关闭装置 | |
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5 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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6 hiss | |
v.发出嘶嘶声;发嘘声表示不满 | |
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7 ravenous | |
adj.极饿的,贪婪的 | |
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8 blurred | |
v.(使)变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 );(使)难以区分;模模糊糊;迷离 | |
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9 sensory | |
adj.知觉的,感觉的,知觉器官的 | |
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10 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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11 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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12 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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13 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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14 squealing | |
v.长声尖叫,用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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15 disperse | |
vi.使分散;使消失;vt.分散;驱散 | |
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16 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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17 placidly | |
adv.平稳地,平静地 | |
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18 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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19 scorpions | |
n.蝎子( scorpion的名词复数 ) | |
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20 stifled | |
(使)窒息, (使)窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 ); 镇压,遏制; 堵 | |
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21 groan | |
vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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22 hue | |
n.色度;色调;样子 | |
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23 perspiration | |
n.汗水;出汗 | |
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24 commissioner | |
n.(政府厅、局、处等部门)专员,长官,委员 | |
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25 shuddering | |
v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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26 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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27 quaint | |
adj.古雅的,离奇有趣的,奇怪的 | |
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28 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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29 joyous | |
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的 | |
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30 poetically | |
adv.有诗意地,用韵文 | |
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31 rapture | |
n.狂喜;全神贯注;着迷;v.使狂喜 | |
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32 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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33 Mandarin | |
n.中国官话,国语,满清官吏;adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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34 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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35 dispensed | |
v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 );施与;配(药) | |
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36 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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37 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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38 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 | |
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39 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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40 humiliation | |
n.羞辱 | |
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41 vestige | |
n.痕迹,遗迹,残余 | |
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42 condemnation | |
n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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43 inhuman | |
adj.残忍的,不人道的,无人性的 | |
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44 blotted | |
涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 ); (用吸墨纸)吸干 | |
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45 subterranean | |
adj.地下的,地表下的 | |
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46 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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47 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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48 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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49 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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50 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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51 poised | |
a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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52 feverishly | |
adv. 兴奋地 | |
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53 hoarse | |
adj.嘶哑的,沙哑的 | |
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54 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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55 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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56 sheared | |
v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 );切断;剪切 | |
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57 skull | |
n.头骨;颅骨 | |
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58 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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59 inhaling | |
v.吸入( inhale的现在分词 ) | |
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60 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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61 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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62 corporeal | |
adj.肉体的,身体的;物质的 | |
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63 writhing | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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64 baneful | |
adj.有害的 | |
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65 streaks | |
n.(与周围有所不同的)条纹( streak的名词复数 );(通常指不好的)特征(倾向);(不断经历成功或失败的)一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 );使布满条纹 | |
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66 darted | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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67 lashed | |
adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
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68 prostrate | |
v.拜倒,平卧,衰竭;adj.拜倒的,平卧的,衰竭的 | |
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69 sagging | |
下垂[沉,陷],松垂,垂度 | |
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