Yet the first stage of my vigil proved such a sinecure13 as to give me some confidence for all the rest. Dan Levy14 opened neither his lips nor his eyes at my approach, but lay on his back with the Red Ensign drawn15 up to his chin, and the peaceful countenance16 of profound oblivion. I remember taking a good look at him, and thinking that his face improved remarkably17 in repose18, that in death he might look fine. The forehead was higher and broader than I had realised, the thick lips were firm enough now, but the closing of the crafty19 little eyes was the greatest gain of all. On the whole, not only a better but a stronger face than it had been all the morning, a more formidable face by far. But the man had fallen asleep in his bonds, and forgotten them; he would wake up abject20 enough; if not, I had the means to reduce him to docility21. Meanwhile, I was in no hurry to show my power, but stole on tiptoe to the locker22, and took my seat by inches.
Levy did not move a muscle. No sound escaped him either, and somehow or other I should have expected him to snore; indeed, it might have come as a relief, for the silence of the tower soon got upon my nerves. It was not a complete silence; that was (and always is) the worst of it. The wooden stairs creaked more than once; there were little rattlings, faint and distant, as of a dried leaf or a loose window, in the bowels23 of the house; and though nothing came of any of these noises, except a fresh period of tension on my part, they made the skin act on my forehead every time. Then I remember a real anxiety over a blue-bottle, that must have come in through the open window just below, for suddenly it buzzed into my ken24 and looked like attacking Levy on the spot. Somehow I slew25 it with less noise than the brute26 itself was making; and not until after that breathless achievement did I realise how anxious I was to keep my prisoner asleep. Yet I had the revolver, and he lay handcuffed and bound down! It was in the next long silence that I became sensitive to another sound which indeed I had heard at intervals27 already, only to dismiss it from my mind as one of the signs of extraneous28 life which were bound to penetrate29 even to the top of my tower. It was a slow and regular beat, as of a sledge-hammer in a distant forge, or some sort of machinery30 only audible when there was absolutely nothing else to be heard. It could hardly be near at hand, for I could not hear it properly unless I held my breath. Then, however, it was always there, a sound that never ceased or altered, so that in the end I sat and listened to it and nothing else. I was not even looking at Levy when he asked me if I knew what it was.
His voice was quiet and civil enough, but it undoubtedly31 made me jump, and that brought a malicious32 twinkle into the little eyes that looked as though they had been studying me at their leisure. They were perhaps less violently bloodshot than before, the massive features calm and strong as they had been in slumber33 or its artful counterfeit34.
“I thought you were asleep?” I snapped, and knew better for certain before he spoke35.
“You see, that pint36 o’ pop did me prouder than intended,” he explained. “It’s made a new man o’ me, you’ll be sorry to ‘ear.”
I should have been sorrier to believe it, but I did not say so, or anything else just then. The dull and distant beat came back to the ear. And Levy again inquired if I knew what it was.
“Do you?” I demanded.
“Rather!” he replied, with cheerful certitude. “It’s the clock, of course.”
“What clock?”
“The one on the tower, a bit lower down, facing the road.”
“How do you know?” I demanded, with uneasy credulity.
“My good young man,” said Dan Levy, “I know the face of that clock as well as I know the inside of this tower.”
“Then you do know where you are!” I cried, in such surprise that Levy grinned in a way that ill became a captive.
“Why,” said he, “I sold the last tenant37 up, and nearly took the ’ouse myself instead o’ the place I got. It was what first attracted me to the neighhour’ood.”
“Why couldn’t you tell us the truth before?” I demanded, but my warmth merely broadened his grin.
“Why should I? It sometimes pays to seem more at a loss than you are.”
“It won’t in this case,” said I through my teeth. But for all my austerity, and all his bonds, the prisoner continued to regard me with quiet but most disquieting39 amusement.
“I’m not so sure of that,” he observed at length. “It rather paid, to my way of thinking, when Raffles40 went off to cash my cheque, and left you to keep an eye on me.”
“Oh, did it!” said I, with pregnant emphasis, and my right hand found comfort in my jacket pocket, on the butt41 of the old brute’s own weapon.
“I only mean,” he rejoined, in a more conciliatory voice, “that you strike me as being more open to reason than your flash friend.”
I said nothing to that.
“On the other ‘and,” continued Levy, still more deliberately42, as though he really was comparing us in his mind; “on the other hand” stooping to pick up what he had dropped, “you don’t take so many risks. Raffles takes so many that he’s bound to land you both in the jug43 some day, if he hasn’t done it this time. I believe he has, myself. But it’s no use hollering before you’re out o’ the wood.”
I agreed, with more confidence than I felt.
“Yet I wonder he never thought of it,” my prisoner went on as if to himself.
“Thought of what?”
“Only the clock. He must’ve seen it before, if you never did; you don’t tell me this little bit o’ kidnapping was a sudden idea! It’s all been thought out and the ground gone over, and the clock seen, as I say. Seen going. Yet it never strikes our flash friend that a going clock’s got to be wound up once a week, and it might be as well to find out which day!”
“How do you know he didn’t?”
“Because this ‘appens to be the day!”
And Levy lay back in the bunk44 with the internal chuckle45 that I was beginning to know so well, but had little thought to hear from him in his present predicament. It galled46 me the more because I felt that Raffles would certainly not have heard it in my place. But at least I had the satisfaction of flatly and profanely47 refusing to believe the prisoner’s statement.
“That be blowed for a bluff48!” was more or less what I said. “It’s too much of a coincidence to be anything else.”
“The odds49 are only six to one against it,” said Levy, indifferently. “One of you takes them with his eyes open. It seems rather a pity that the other should feel bound to follow him to certain ruin. But I suppose you know your own business best.”
“At all events,” I boasted, “I know better than to be bluffed50 by the most obvious lie I ever heard in my life. You tell me how you know about the man coming to wind the clock, and I may listen to you.”
“I know because I know the man; little Scotchman he is, nothing to run away from — though he looks as hard as nails — what there is of him,” said Levy, in a circumstantial and impartial51 flow that could not but carry some conviction. “He comes over from Kingston every Tuesday on his bike; some time before lunch he comes, and sees to my own clocks on the same trip. That’s how I know. But you needn’t believe me if you don’t like.”
“And where exactly does he come to wind this clock? I see nothing that can possibly have to do with it up here.”
“No,” said Levy; “he comes no higher than the floor below.” I seemed to remember a kind of cupboard at the head of the spiral stair. “But that’s near enough.”
“You mean that we shall hear him?”
“And he us!” added Levy, with unmistakable determination.
“Look here, Mr. Levy,” said I, showing him his own revolver, “if we do hear anybody, I shall hold this to your head, and if he does hear us I shall blow out your beastly brains!”
The mere38 feeling that I was, perhaps, the last person capable of any such deed enabled me to grind out this shocking threat in a voice worthy52 of it, and with a face, I hoped, not less in keeping. It was all the more mortifying53 when Dan Levy treated my tragedy as farce54; in fact, if anything could have made me as bad as my word, it would have been the guttural laugh with which he greeted it.
“Excuse me,” said he, dabbing55 his red eyes with the edge of the red bunting, “but the thought of your letting that thing off in order to preserve silence — why, it’s as droll56 as your whole attempt to play the cold-blooded villain57 —you!”
“I shall play him to some purpose,” I hissed58, “if you drive me to it. I laid you out last night, remember, and for two pins I’ll do the same thing again this morning. So now you know.”
“That wasn’t in cold blood,” said Levy, rolling his head from side to side; “that was when the lot of us were brawling59 in our cups. I don’t count that. You’re in a false position, my dear sir. I don’t mean last night or this morning — though I can see that you’re no brigand60 or blackmailer61 at bottom — and I shouldn’t wonder if you never forgave Raffles for letting you in for this partic’lar part of this partic’lar job. But that isn’t what I mean. You’ve got in with a villain, but you ain’t one yourself; that’s where you’re in the false position. He’s the magsman, you’re only the swell62. I can see that. But the judge won’t. You’ll both get served the same, and in your case it’ll be a thousand shames!”
He had propped63 himself on one elbow, and was speaking eagerly, persuasively64, with almost a fatherly solicitude65; yet I felt that both his words and their effect on me were being weighed and measured with meticulous66 discretion67. And I encouraged him with a countenance as deliberately rueful and depressed68, to an end which had only occurred to me with the significance of his altered tone.
“I can’t help it,” I muttered. “I must go through with the whole thing now.”
“Why must you?” demanded Levy. “You’ve been led into a job that’s none of your business, on be’alf of folks who’re no friends of yours, and the job’s developed into a serious crime, and the crime’s going to be found out before you’re an hour older. Why go through with it to certain quod?”
“There’s nothing else for it,” I answered, with a sulky resignation, though my pulse was quick with eagerness for what I felt was coming.
And then it came.
“Why not get out of the whole thing,” suggested Levy, boldly, “before it’s too late?”
“How can I?” said I, to lead him on with a more explicit69 proposition.
“By first releasing me, and then clearing out yourself!”
I looked at him as though this was certainly an idea, as though I were actually considering it in spite of myself and Raffles; and his eagerness fed upon my apparent indecision. He held up his fettered70 hands, begging and cajoling me to remove his handcuffs, and I, instead of telling him it was not in my power to do so until Raffles returned, pretended to hesitate on quite different grounds.
“It’s all very well,” I said, “but are you going to make it worth my while?”
“Certainly!” cried he. “Give me my chequebook out of my own pocket, where you were good enough to stow it before that blackguard left, and I’ll write you one cheque for a hundred now, and another for another hundred before I leave this tower.”
“You really will?” I temporised.
“I swear it!” he asseverated71; and I still believe he might have kept his word about that. But now I knew where he had been lying to me, and now was the time to let him know I knew it.
“Two hundred pounds,” said I, “for the liberty you are bound to get for nothing, as you yourself have pointed72 out, when the man turns up to wind the clock? A couple of hundred to save less than a couple of hours?”
Levy changed colour as he saw his mistake, and his eyes flashed with sudden fury; otherwise his self-command was only less admirable than his presence of mind.
“It wasn’t to save time,” said he; “it was to save my face in the neighbourhood. The well-known money-lender found bound and handcuffed in an empty house! It means the first laugh at my expense, whoever has the last laugh. But you’re quite right; it wasn’t worth two hundred golden sovereigns. Let them laugh! At any rate you and your flash friend’ll be laughing on the wrong side of your mouths before the day’s out. So that’s all there is to it, and you’d better start screwing up your courage if you want to do me in! I did mean to give you another chance in life — but by God I wouldn’t now if you were to go down on your knees for one!”
Considering that he was bound and I was free, that I was armed and he defenceless, there was perhaps more humour than the prisoner saw in his picture of me upon my knees to him. Not that I saw it all at once myself. I was too busy wondering whether there could be anything in his clock-winding story after all. Certainly it was inconsistent with the big bribe73 offered for his immediate74 freedom; but it was with something more than mere adroitness75 that the money-lender had reconciled the two things. In his place I should have been no less anxious to keep my humiliating experience a secret from the world; with his means I could conceive myself prepared to pay as dearly for such secrecy76. On the other hand, if his idea was to stop the huge cheque already given to Raffles, then there was indeed no time to be lost, and the only wonder was that Levy should have waited so long before making overtures77 to me.
Raffles had now been gone a very long time, as it seemed to me, but my watch had run down, and the clock on the tower did not strike. Why they kept it going at all was a mystery to me; but now that Dan Levy was lying still again, with set teeth and inexorable eyes, I heard it beating out the seconds more than ever like a distant sledgehammer, and sixty of these I counted up into a minute of such portentous78 duration that what had seemed many hours to me might easily have been less than one. I only knew that the sun, which had begun by pouring in at one port-hole and out at the other, which had bathed the prisoner in his bunk about the time of his trial by Raffles, now crowned me with fire if I sat upon the locker, and made its varnish80 sticky if I did not. The atmosphere of the place was fast becoming unendurable in its unwholesome heat and sour stagnation81. I sat in my shirt-sleeves at the top of the stairs, where one got such air as entered by the open window below. Levy had kicked off his covering of scarlet82 bunting, with a sudden oath which must have been the only sound within the tower for an hour at least; all the rest of the time he lay with fettered fists clenched83 upon his breast, with fierce eyes fixed84 upon the top of the bunk, and something about the whole man that I was forced to watch, something indomitable and intensely alert, a curious suggestion of smouldering fires on the point of leaping into flame.
I feared this man in my heart of hearts. I may as well admit it frankly85. It was not that he was twice my size, for I had the like advantage in point of years; it was not that I had any reason to distrust the strength of his bonds or the efficacy of the weapon in my possession. It was a question of personality, not of material advantage or disadvantage, or of physical fear at all. It was simply the spirit of the man that dominated mine. I felt that my mere flesh and blood would at any moment give a good account of his, as well they might with the odds that were on my side. Yet that did not lessen86 the sense of subtle and essential inferiority, which grew upon my nerves with almost every minute of that endless morning, and made me long for the relief of physical contest even on equal terms. I could have set the old ruffian free, and thrown his revolver out of the window, and then said to him, “Come on! Your weight against my age, and may the devil take the worse man!” Instead, I must sit glaring at him to mask my qualms87. And after much thinking about the kind of conflict that could never be, in the end came one of a less heroic but not less desperate type, before there was time to think at all.
Levy had raised his head, ever so little, but yet enough for my vigilance. I saw him listening. I listened too. And down below in the core of the tower I heard, or thought I heard, a step like a feather, and then after some moments another. But I had spent those moments in gazing instinctively88 down the stair; it was the least rattle89 of the handcuffs that brought my eyes like lightning back to the bunk; and there was Levy with hollow palms about his mouth, and his mouth wide open for the roar that my own palms stifled90 in his throat.
Indeed, I had leapt upon him once more like a fiend, and for an instant I enjoyed a shameful91 advantage; it can hardly have lasted longer. The brute first bit me through the hand, so that I carry his mark to this day; then, with his own hands, he took me by the throat, and I thought that my last moments were come. He squeezed so hard that I thought my windpipe must burst, thought my eyes must leave their sockets92. It was the grip of a gorilla93, and it was accompanied by a spate94 of curses and the grin of a devil incarnate95. All my dreams of equal combat had not prepared me for superhuman power on his part, such utter impotence on mine. I tried to wrench96 myself from his murderous clasp, and was nearly felled by the top of the bunk. I hurled97 myself out sideways, and out he came after me, tearing down the peg98 to which his handcuffs were tethered; that only gave him the better grip upon my throat, and he never relaxed it for an instant, scrambling99 to his feet when I staggered to mine, for by them alone was he fast now to the banisters.
Meanwhile I was feeling in an empty pocket for his revolver, which had fallen out as we struggled on the floor. I saw it there now with my starting eyeballs, kicked about by our shuffling100 feet. I tried to make a dive for it, but Levy had seen it also, and he kicked it through the banisters without relaxing his murderous hold. I could have sworn afterwards that I heard the weapon fall with a clatter101 on the wooden stairs. But what I still remember hearing most distinctly (and feeling hot upon my face) is the stertorous102 breathing that was unbroken by a single syllable103 after the first few seconds.
It was a brutal104 encounter, not short and sharp like the one over-night, but horribly protracted105. Nor was all the brutality106 by any means on one side; neither will I pretend that I was getting much more than my deserts in the defeat that threatened to end in my extinction107. Not for an instant had my enemy loosened his deadly clutch, and now he had me penned against the banisters, and my one hope was that they would give way before our united weight, and precipitate108 us both into the room below. That would be better than being slowly throttled109, even if it were only a better death. Other chance there was none, and I was actually trying to fling myself over, beating the air with both hands wildly, when one of them closed upon the butt of the revolver that I thought had been kicked into the room below!
I was too far gone to realise that a miracle had happened — to be so much as puzzled by it then. But I was not too far gone to use that revolver, and to use it as I would have done on cool reflection. I thrust it under my opponent’s armpit, and I fired through into space. The report was deafening110. It did its work. Levy let go of me, and staggered back as though I had really shot him. And that instant I was brandishing111 his weapon in his face.
“You tried to shoot me! You tried to shoot me!” he gasped112 twice over through a livid mask.
“No, I didn’t!” I panted. “I tried to frighten you, and I jolly well succeeded! But I’ll shoot you like a dog if you don’t get back to your kennel113 and lie down.”
He sat and gasped upon the side of the bunk. There was no more fight in him. His very lips were blue. I put the pistol back in my pocket, and retracted114 my threat in a sudden panic.
“There! It’s your own fault if you so much as see it again,” I promised him, in a breathless disorder115 only second to his own.
“But you jolly nearly strangled me. And now we’re a pretty pair!”
His hands grasped the edge of the bunk, and he leant his weight on them, breathing very hard. It might have been an attack of asthma116, or it might have been a more serious seizure117, but it was a case for stimulants118 if ever I saw one, and in the nick of time I remembered the flask119 that Raffles had left with me. It was the work of a very few seconds to pour out a goodly ration79, and of but another for Daniel Levy to toss off the raw spirit like water. He was begging for more before I had helped myself. And more I gave him in the end; for it was no small relief to me to watch the leaden hue120 disappearing from the flabby face, and the laboured breathing gradually subside121, even if it meant a renewal122 of our desperate hostilities123.
But all that was at an end; the man was shaken to the core by his perfectly124 legitimate125 attempt at my destruction. He looked dreadfully old and hideous126 as he got bodily back into the bunk of his own accord. There, when I had yielded to his further importunities, and the flask was empty, he fell at length into a sleep as genuine as the last was not; and I was still watching over the poor devil, keeping the flies off him, and sometimes fanning him with a flag, less perhaps from humane127 motives128 than to keep him quiet as long as possible, when Raffles returned to light up the tableau129 like a sinister130 sunbeam.
Raffles had had his own adventures in town, and I soon had reason to feel thankful that I had not gone up instead of him. It seemed he had foreseen from the first the possibility of trouble at the bank over a large and absolutely open cheque. So he had gone first to the Chelsea studio in which he played the painter who never painted but kept a whole wardrobe of disguises for the models he never hired. Thence he had issued on this occasion in the living image of a well-known military man about town who was also well known to be a client of Dan Levy’s. Raffles said the cashier stared at him, but the cheque was cashed without a word. The unfortunate part of it was that in returning to his cab he had encountered an acquaintance both of his own and of the spendthrift soldier, and had been greeted evidently in the latter capacity.
“It was a jolly difficult little moment, Bunny. I had to say there was some mistake, and I had to remember to say it in a manner equally unlike my own and the other beggar’s! But all’s well that ends well; and if you’ll do exactly what I tell you I think we may flatter ourselves that a happy issue is at last in sight.”
“What am I to do now?” I asked with some misgiving131.
“Clear out of this, Bunny, and wait for me in town. You’ve done jolly well, old fellow, and so have I in my own department of the game. Everything’s in order, down to those fifteen hundred guineas which are now concealed132 about my person in as hard cash as I can carry. I’ve seen old Garland and given him back his promissory note myself, with Levy’s undertaking133 about the mortgage. It was a pretty trying interview, as you can understand; but I couldn’t help wondering what the poor old boy would say if he dreamt what sort of pressure I’ve been applying on his behalf! Well, it’s all over now except our several exits from the surreptitious stage. I can’t make mine without our sleeping partner, but you would really simplify matters, Bunny, by not waiting for us.”
There was a good deal to be said for such a course, though it went not a little against my grain. Raffles had changed his clothes and had a bath in town, to say nothing of his luncheon134. I was by this time indescribably dirty and dishevelled, besides feeling fairly famished135 now that mental relief allowed a thought for one’s lower man. Raffles had foreseen my plight136, and had actually prepared a way of escape for me by the front door in broad daylight. I need not recapitulate137 the elaborate story he had told the caretaking gardener across the road; but he had borrowed the gardener’s keys as a probable purchaser of the property, who had to meet his builder and a business friend at the house during the course of the afternoon. I was to be the builder, and in that capacity to give the gardener an ingenious message calculated to leave Raffles and Levy in uninterrupted possession until my return. And of course I was never to return at all.
The whole thing seemed to me a super-subtle means to a far simpler end than the one we had achieved by stealth in the dead of the previous night. But it was Raffles all over and I ultimately acquiesced138, on the understanding that we were to meet again in the Albany at seven o’clock, preparatory to dining somewhere in final celebration of the whole affair.
But much was to happen before seven o’clock, and it began happening. I shook the dust of that derelict tower from my feet; for one of them trod on something at the darkest point of the descent; and the thing went tinkling139 down ahead on its own account, until it lay shimmering140 in the light on a lower landing, where I picked it up.
Now I had not said much to Raffles about my hitherto inexplicable141 experience with the revolver, when I thought it had gone through the banisters, but found it afterwards in my hand. Raffles said it would not have gone through, that I must have been all but over the banisters myself when I grasped the butt as it protruded142 through them on the level of the floor. This he said (like many another thing) as though it made an end of the matter. But it was not the end of the matter in my own mind; and now I could have told him what the explanation was, or at least to what conclusion I had jumped. I had half a mind to climb all the way up again on purpose to put him in the wrong upon the point. Then I remembered how anxious he had seemed to get rid of me, and for other reasons also I decided143 to let him wait a bit for his surprise.
Meanwhile my own plans were altered, and when I had delivered my egregious144 message to the gardener across the road, I sought the nearest shops on my way to the nearest station; and at one of the shops I got me a clean collar, at another a tooth-brush; and all I did at the station was to utilise my purchases in the course of such scanty145 toilet as the lavatory accommodation would permit.
A few minutes later I was inquiring my way to a house which it took me another twenty or twenty-five to find.
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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rust
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| n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退 | |
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lavatory
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| n.盥洗室，厕所 | |
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verdigris
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| n.铜锈；铜绿 | |
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5
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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opacity
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| n.不透明；难懂 | |
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aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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sinuous
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| adj.蜿蜒的，迂回的 | |
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ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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sinecure
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| n.闲差事，挂名职务 | |
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levy
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| n.征收税或其他款项，征收额 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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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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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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docility
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| n.容易教，易驾驶，驯服 | |
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locker
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| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
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bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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slew
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| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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extraneous
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| adj.体外的；外来的；外部的 | |
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29
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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30
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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31
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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32
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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33
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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34
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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35
spoke
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| 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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36
pint
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| n.品脱 | |
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37
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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38
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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39
disquieting
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| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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40
raffles
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| n.抽彩售物( raffle的名词复数 )v.以抽彩方式售（物）( raffle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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42
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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43
jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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44
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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45
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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46
galled
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| v.使…擦痛( gall的过去式和过去分词 )；擦伤；烦扰；侮辱 | |
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47
profanely
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| adv.渎神地，凡俗地 | |
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48
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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49
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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50
bluffed
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| 以假象欺骗，吹牛( bluff的过去式和过去分词 )； 以虚张声势找出或达成 | |
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51
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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52
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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53
mortifying
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| adj.抑制的，苦修的v.使受辱( mortify的现在分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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54
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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55
dabbing
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| 石面凿毛，灰泥抛毛 | |
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56
droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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57
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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58
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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59
brawling
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| n.争吵，喧嚷 | |
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60
brigand
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| n.土匪，强盗 | |
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61
blackmailer
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| 敲诈者，勒索者 | |
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62
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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63
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
persuasively
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| adv.口才好地；令人信服地 | |
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65
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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66
meticulous
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| adj.极其仔细的，一丝不苟的 | |
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67
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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68
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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69
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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70
fettered
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| v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
asseverated
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| v.郑重声明，断言( asseverate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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73
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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74
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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75
adroitness
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76
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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77
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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78
portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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79
ration
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| n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应 | |
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80
varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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81
stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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82
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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83
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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84
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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85
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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86
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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87
qualms
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| n.不安；内疚 | |
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88
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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89
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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90
stifled
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| （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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91
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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92
sockets
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| n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴 | |
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93
gorilla
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| n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手 | |
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94
spate
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| n.泛滥，洪水，突然的一阵 | |
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95
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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96
wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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97
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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98
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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99
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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100
shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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101
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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102
stertorous
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| adj.打鼾的 | |
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103
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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104
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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105
protracted
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| adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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106
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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107
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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108
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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109
throttled
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| v.扼杀( throttle的过去式和过去分词 )；勒死；使窒息；压制 | |
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110
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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111
brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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112
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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113
kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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114
retracted
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| v.撤回或撤消( retract的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝执行或遵守；缩回；拉回 | |
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115
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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116
asthma
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| n.气喘病，哮喘病 | |
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117
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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118
stimulants
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| n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物 | |
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119
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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120
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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121
subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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122
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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123
hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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124
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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125
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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126
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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127
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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128
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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129
tableau
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| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
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130
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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131
misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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132
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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133
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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134
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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135
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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136
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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137
recapitulate
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| v.节述要旨，择要说明 | |
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138
acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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140
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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141
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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142
protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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143
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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144
egregious
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| adj.非常的，过分的 | |
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145
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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