Then the irony10 of the situation forced itself upon me. There around us lay treasures enough to pay off a moderate national debt, or to build a fleet of ironclads, and yet we would have bartered11 them all gladly for the faintest chance of escape. Soon, doubtless, we should be rejoiced to exchange them for a bit of food or a cup of water, and, after that, even for the privilege of a speedy close to our sufferings. Truly wealth, which men spend their lives in acquiring, is a valueless thing at the last.
And so the night wore on.
“Good,” said Sir Henry’s voice at last, and it sounded awful in the intense stillness, “how many matches have you in the box?”
“Eight, Curtis.”
“Strike one and let us see the time.”
He did so, and in contrast to the dense12 darkness the flame nearly blinded us. It was five o’clock by my watch. The beautiful dawn was now blushing on the snow-wreaths far over our heads, and the breeze would be stirring the night mists in the hollows.
“We had better eat something and keep up our strength,” I suggested.
“What is the good of eating?” answered Good; “the sooner we die and get it over the better.”
“While there is life there is hope,” said Sir Henry.
Accordingly we ate and sipped13 some water, and another period of time elapsed. Then Sir Henry suggested that it might be well to get as near the door as possible and halloa, on the faint chance of somebody catching14 a sound outside. Accordingly Good, who, from long practice at sea, has a fine piercing note, groped his way down the passage and set to work. I must say that he made a most diabolical15 noise. I never heard such yells; but it might have been a mosquito buzzing for all the effect they produced.
After a while he gave it up and came back very thirsty, and had to drink. Then we stopped yelling, as it encroached on the supply of water.
So we sat down once more against the chests of useless diamonds in that dreadful inaction which was one of the hardest circumstances of our fate; and I am bound to say that, for my part, I gave way in despair. Laying my head against Sir Henry’s broad shoulder I burst into tears; and I think that I heard Good gulping16 away on the other side, and swearing hoarsely17 at himself for doing so.
Ah, how good and brave that great man was! Had we been two frightened children, and he our nurse, he could not have treated us more tenderly. Forgetting his own share of miseries18, he did all he could to soothe19 our broken nerves, telling stories of men who had been in somewhat similar circumstances, and miraculously20 escaped; and when these failed to cheer us, pointing out how, after all, it was only anticipating an end which must come to us all, that it would soon be over, and that death from exhaustion21 was a merciful one (which is not true). Then, in a diffident sort of way, as once before I had heard him do, he suggested that we should throw ourselves on the mercy of a higher Power, which for my part I did with great vigour22.
His is a beautiful character, very quiet, but very strong.
And so somehow the day went as the night had gone, if, indeed, one can use these terms where all was densest23 night, and when I lit a match to see the time it was seven o’clock.
Once more we ate and drank, and as we did so an idea occurred to me.
“How is it,” said I, “that the air in this place keeps fresh? It is thick and heavy, but it is perfectly24 fresh.”
“Great heavens!” said Good, starting up, “I never thought of that. It can’t come through the stone door, for it’s air-tight, if ever a door was. It must come from somewhere. It there were no current of air in the place we should have been stifled25 or poisoned when we first came in. Let us have a look.”
It was wonderful what a change this mere26 spark of hope wrought27 in us. In a moment we were all three groping about on our hands and knees, feeling for the slightest indication of a draught28. Presently my ardour received a check. I put my hand on something cold. It was dead Foulata’s face.
For an hour or more we went on feeling about, till at last Sir Henry and I gave it up in despair, having been considerably29 hurt by constantly knocking our heads against tusks30, chests, and the sides of the chamber. But Good still persevered31, saying, with an approach to cheerfulness, that it was better than doing nothing.
“I say, you fellows,” he said presently, in a constrained32 sort of voice, “come here.”
Needless to say we scrambled33 towards him quickly enough.
“Quatermain, put your hand here where mine is. Now, do you feel anything?”
“I think I feel air coming up.”
“Now listen.” He rose and stamped upon the place, and a flame of hope shot up in our hearts. It rang hollow.
With trembling hands I lit a match. I had only three left, and we saw that we were in the angle of the far corner of the chamber, a fact that accounted for our not having noticed the hollow sound of the place during our former exhaustive examination. As the match burnt we scrutinised the spot. There was a join in the solid rock floor, and, great heavens! there, let in level with the rock, was a stone ring. We said no word, we were too excited, and our hearts beat too wildly with hope to allow us to speak. Good had a knife, at the back of which was one of those hooks that are made to extract stones from horses’ hoofs34. He opened it, and scratched round the ring with it. Finally he worked it under, and levered away gently for fear of breaking the hook. The ring began to move. Being of stone it had not rusted35 fast in all the centuries it had lain there, as would have been the case had it been of iron. Presently it was upright. Then he thrust his hands into it and tugged36 with all his force, but nothing budged37.
“Let me try,” I said impatiently, for the situation of the stone, right in the angle of the corner, was such that it was impossible for two to pull at once. I took hold and strained away, but no results.
Then Sir Henry tried and failed.
Taking the hook again, Good scratched all round the crack where we felt the air coming up.
“Now, Curtis,” he said, “tackle on, and put your back into it; you are as strong as two. Stop,” and he took off a stout38 black silk handkerchief, which, true to his habits of neatness, he still wore, and ran it through the ring. “Quatermain, get Curtis round the middle and pull for dear life when I give the word. Now.”
Sir Henry put out all his enormous strength, and Good and I did the same, with such power as nature had given us.
“Heave! heave! it’s giving,” gasped40 Sir Henry; and I heard the muscles of his great back cracking. Suddenly there was a grating sound, then a rush of air, and we were all on our backs on the floor with a heavy flag-stone upon the top of us. Sir Henry’s strength had done it, and never did muscular power stand a man in better stead.
“Light a match, Quatermain,” he said, so soon as we had picked ourselves up and got our breath; “carefully, now.”
I did so, and there before us, Heaven be praised! was the first step of a stone stair.
“Now what is to be done?” asked Good.
“Follow the stair, of course, and trust to Providence41.”
“Stop!” said Sir Henry; “Quatermain, get the bit of biltong and the water that are left; we may want them.”
I went, creeping back to our place by the chests for that purpose, and as I was coming away an idea struck me. We had not thought much of the diamonds for the last twenty-four hours or so; indeed, the very idea of diamonds was nauseous, seeing what they had entailed42 upon us; but, reflected I, I may as well pocket some in case we ever should get out of this ghastly hole. So I just put my fist into the first chest and filled all the available pockets of my old shooting-coat and trousers, topping up — this was a happy thought — with a few handfuls of big ones from the third chest. Also, by an afterthought, I stuffed Foulata’s basket, which, except for one water-gourd and a little biltong, was empty now, with great quantities of the stones.
“I say, you fellows,” I sang out, “won’t you take some diamonds with you? I’ve filled my pockets and the basket.”
“Oh, come on, Quatermain! and hang the diamonds!” said Sir Henry. “I hope that I may never see another.”
As for Good, he made no answer. He was, I think, taking his last farewell of all that was left of the poor girl who had loved him so well. And curious as it may seem to you, my reader, sitting at home at ease and reflecting on the vast, indeed the immeasurable, wealth which we were thus abandoning, I can assure you that if you had passed some twenty-eight hours with next to nothing to eat and drink in that place, you would not have cared to cumber43 yourself with diamonds whilst plunging44 down into the unknown bowels of the earth, in the wild hope of escape from an agonising death. If from the habits of a lifetime, it had not become a sort of second nature with me never to leave anything worth having behind if there was the slightest chance of my being able to carry it away, I am sure that I should not have bothered to fill my pockets and that basket.
“Come on, Quatermain,” repeated Sir Henry, who was already standing45 on the first step of the stone stair. “Steady, I will go first.”
“Mind where you put your feet, there may be some awful hole underneath,” I answered.
“Much more likely to be another room,” said Sir Henry, while he descended46 slowly, counting the steps as he went.
When he got to “fifteen” he stopped. “Here’s the bottom,” he said. “Thank goodness! I think it’s a passage. Follow me down.”
Good went next, and I came last, carrying the basket, and on reaching the bottom lit one of the two remaining matches. By its light we could just see that we were standing in a narrow tunnel, which ran right and left at right angles to the staircase we had descended. Before we could make out any more, the match burnt my fingers and went out. Then arose the delicate question of which way to go. Of course, it was impossible to know what the tunnel was, or where it led to, and yet to turn one way might lead us to safety, and the other to destruction. We were utterly47 perplexed48, till suddenly it struck Good that when I had lit the match the draught of the passage blew the flame to the left.
“Let us go against the draught,” he said; “air draws inwards, not outwards49.”
We took this suggestion, and feeling along the wall with our hands, whilst trying the ground before us at every step, we departed from that accursed treasure chamber on our terrible quest for life. If ever it should be entered again by living man, which I do not think probable, he will find tokens of our visit in the open chests of jewels, the empty lamp, and the white bones of poor Foulata.
When we had groped our way for about a quarter of an hour along the passage, suddenly it took a sharp turn, or else was bisected by another, which we followed, only in course of time to be led into a third. And so it went on for some hours. We seemed to be in a stone labyrinth50 that led nowhere. What all these passages are, of course I cannot say, but we thought that they must be the ancient workings of a mine, of which the various shafts51 and adits travelled hither and thither52 as the ore led them. This is the only way in which we could account for such a multitude of galleries.
At length we halted, thoroughly53 worn out with fatigue54 and with that hope deferred55 which maketh the heart sick, and ate up our poor remaining piece of biltong and drank our last sup of water, for our throats were like lime-kilns. It seemed to us that we had escaped Death in the darkness of the treasure chamber only to meet him in the darkness of the tunnels.
As we stood, once more utterly depressed56, I thought that I caught a sound, to which I called the attention of the others. It was very faint and very far off, but it was a sound, a faint, murmuring sound, for the others heard it too, and no words can describe the blessedness of it after all those hours of utter, awful stillness.
“By heaven! it’s running water,” said Good. “Come on.”
Off we started again in the direction from which the faint murmur57 seemed to come, groping our way as before along the rocky walls. I remember that I laid down the basket full of diamonds, wishing to be rid of its weight, but on second thoughts took it up again. One might as well die rich as poor, I reflected. As we went the sound became more and more audible, till at last it seemed quite loud in the quiet. On, yet on; now we could distinctly make out the unmistakable swirl58 of rushing water. And yet how could there be running water in the bowels of the earth? Now we were quite near it, and Good, who was leading, swore that he could smell it.
“Go gently, Good,” said Sir Henry, “we must be close.” Splash! and a cry from Good.
He had fallen in.
“Good! Good! where are you?” we shouted, in terrified distress59. To our intense relief an answer came back in a choky voice.
“All right; I’ve got hold of a rock. Strike a light to show me where you are.”
Hastily I lit the last remaining match. Its faint gleam discovered to us a dark mass of water running at our feet. How wide it was we could not see, but there, some way out, was the dark form of our companion hanging on to a projecting rock.
“Stand clear to catch me,” sung out Good. “I must swim for it.”
Then we heard a splash, and a great struggle. Another minute and he had grabbed at and caught Sir Henry’s outstretched hand, and we had pulled him up high and dry into the tunnel.
“My word!” he said, between his gasps60, “that was touch and go. If I hadn’t managed to catch that rock, and known how to swim, I should have been done. It runs like a mill-race, and I could feel no bottom.”
We dared not follow the banks of the subterranean61 river for fear lest we should fall into it again in the darkness. So after Good had rested a while, and we had drunk our fill of the water, which was sweet and fresh, and washed our faces, that needed it sadly, as well as we could, we started from the banks of this African Styx, and began to retrace62 our steps along the tunnel, Good dripping unpleasantly in front of us. At length we came to another gallery leading to our right.
“We may as well take it,” said Sir Henry wearily; “all roads are alike here; we can only go on till we drop.”
Slowly, for a long, long while, we stumbled, utterly exhausted63, along this new tunnel, Sir Henry now leading the way. Again I thought of abandoning that basket, but did not.
Suddenly he stopped, and we bumped up against him.
“Look!” he whispered, “is my brain going, or is that light?”
We stared with all our eyes, and there, yes, there, far ahead of us, was a faint, glimmering64 spot, no larger than a cottage window pane65. It was so faint that I doubt if any eyes, except those which, like ours, had for days seen nothing but blackness, could have perceived it at all.
With a gasp39 of hope we pushed on. In five minutes there was no longer any doubt; it was a patch of faint light. A minute more and a breath of real live air was fanning us. On we struggled. All at once the tunnel narrowed. Sir Henry went on his knees. Smaller yet it grew, till it was only the size of a large fox’s earth — it was earth now, mind you; the rock had ceased.
A squeeze, a struggle, and Sir Henry was out, and so was Good, and so was I, dragging Foulata’s basket after me; and there above us were the blessed stars, and in our nostrils66 was the sweet air. Then suddenly something gave, and we were all rolling over and over and over through grass and bushes and soft, wet soil.
The basket caught in something and I stopped. Sitting up I halloed lustily. An answering shout came from below, where Sir Henry’s wild career had been checked by some level ground. I scrambled to him, and found him unhurt, though breathless. Then we looked for Good. A little way off we discovered him also, hammed in a forked root. He was a good deal knocked about, but soon came to himself.
We sat down together, there on the grass, and the revulsion of feeling was so great that really I think we cried with joy. We had escaped from that awful dungeon67, which was so near to becoming our grave. Surely some merciful Power guided our footsteps to the jackal hole, for that is what it must have been, at the termination of the tunnel. And see, yonder on the mountains the dawn we had never thought to look upon again was blushing rosy68 red.
Presently the grey light stole down the slopes, and we saw that we were at the bottom, or rather, nearly at the bottom, of the vast pit in front of the entrance to the cave. Now we could make out the dim forms of the three Colossi who sat upon its verge69. Doubtless those awful passages, along which we had wandered the livelong night, had been originally in some way connected with the great diamond mine. As for the subterranean river in the bowels of the mountain, Heaven only knows what it is, or whence it flows, or whither it goes. I, for one, have no anxiety to trace its course.
Lighter70 it grew, and lighter yet. We could see each other now, and such a spectacle as we presented I have never set eyes on before or since. Gaunt-cheeked, hollow-eyed wretches71, smeared72 all over with dust and mud, bruised73, bleeding, the long fear of imminent74 death yet written on our countenances75, we were, indeed, a sight to frighten the daylight. And yet it is a solemn fact that Good’s eye-glass was still fixed76 in Good’s eye. I doubt whether he had ever taken it out at all. Neither the darkness, nor the plunge77 in the subterranean river, nor the roll down the slope, had been able to separate Good and his eye-glass.
Presently we rose, fearing that our limbs would stiffen78 if we stopped there longer, and commenced with slow and painful steps to struggle up the sloping sides of the great pit. For an hour or more we toiled79 steadfastly80 up the blue clay, dragging ourselves on by the help of the roots and grasses with which it was clothed. But now I had no more thought of leaving the basket; indeed, nothing but death should have parted us.
At last it was done, and we stood by the great road, on that side of the pit which is opposite to the Colossi.
At the side of the road, a hundred yards off, a fire was burning in front of some huts, and round the fire were figures. We staggered towards them, supporting one another, and halting every few paces. Presently one of the figures rose, saw us and fell on to the ground, crying out for fear.
“Infadoos, Infadoos! it is we, thy friends.”
He rose; he ran to us, staring wildly, and still shaking with fear.
“Oh, my lords, my lords, it is indeed you come back from the dead!— come back from the dead!”
And the old warrior81 flung himself down before us, and clasping Sir Henry’s knees, he wept aloud for joy.
点击收听单词发音
1 mitigated | |
v.减轻,缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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3 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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4 quail | |
n.鹌鹑;vi.畏惧,颤抖 | |
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5 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
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6 tangible | |
adj.有形的,可触摸的,确凿的,实际的 | |
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7 bowels | |
n.肠,内脏,内部;肠( bowel的名词复数 );内部,最深处 | |
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8 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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9 artillery | |
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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10 irony | |
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄 | |
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11 bartered | |
v.作物物交换,以货换货( barter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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13 sipped | |
v.小口喝,呷,抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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15 diabolical | |
adj.恶魔似的,凶暴的 | |
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16 gulping | |
v.狼吞虎咽地吃,吞咽( gulp的现在分词 );大口地吸(气);哽住 | |
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17 hoarsely | |
adv.嘶哑地 | |
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18 miseries | |
n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 );痛苦的事;穷困;常发牢骚的人 | |
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19 soothe | |
v.安慰;使平静;使减轻;缓和;奉承 | |
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20 miraculously | |
ad.奇迹般地 | |
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21 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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22 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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23 densest | |
密集的( dense的最高级 ); 密度大的; 愚笨的; (信息量大得)难理解的 | |
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24 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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25 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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26 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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27 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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28 draught | |
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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29 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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30 tusks | |
n.(象等动物的)长牙( tusk的名词复数 );獠牙;尖形物;尖头 | |
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31 persevered | |
v.坚忍,坚持( persevere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32 constrained | |
adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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33 scrambled | |
v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞 | |
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34 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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35 rusted | |
v.(使)生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 tugged | |
v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 budged | |
v.(使)稍微移动( budge的过去式和过去分词 );(使)改变主意,(使)让步 | |
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39 gasp | |
n.喘息,气喘;v.喘息;气吁吁他说 | |
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40 gasped | |
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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41 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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42 entailed | |
使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 ); 需要; 限定继承; 使必需 | |
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43 cumber | |
v.拖累,妨碍;n.妨害;拖累 | |
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44 plunging | |
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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45 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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46 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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47 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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48 perplexed | |
adj.不知所措的 | |
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49 outwards | |
adj.外面的,公开的,向外的;adv.向外;n.外形 | |
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50 labyrinth | |
n.迷宫;难解的事物;迷路 | |
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51 shafts | |
n.轴( shaft的名词复数 );(箭、高尔夫球棒等的)杆;通风井;一阵(疼痛、害怕等) | |
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52 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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53 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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54 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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55 deferred | |
adj.延期的,缓召的v.拖延,延缓,推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 );服从某人的意愿,遵从 | |
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56 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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57 murmur | |
n.低语,低声的怨言;v.低语,低声而言 | |
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58 swirl | |
v.(使)打漩,(使)涡卷;n.漩涡,螺旋形 | |
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59 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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60 gasps | |
v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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61 subterranean | |
adj.地下的,地表下的 | |
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62 retrace | |
v.折回;追溯,探源 | |
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63 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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64 glimmering | |
n.微光,隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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65 pane | |
n.窗格玻璃,长方块 | |
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66 nostrils | |
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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67 dungeon | |
n.地牢,土牢 | |
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68 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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69 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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70 lighter | |
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级 | |
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71 wretches | |
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋 | |
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72 smeared | |
弄脏; 玷污; 涂抹; 擦上 | |
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73 bruised | |
[医]青肿的,瘀紫的 | |
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74 imminent | |
adj.即将发生的,临近的,逼近的 | |
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75 countenances | |
n.面容( countenance的名词复数 );表情;镇静;道义支持 | |
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76 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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77 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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78 stiffen | |
v.(使)硬,(使)变挺,(使)变僵硬 | |
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79 toiled | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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80 steadfastly | |
adv.踏实地,不变地;岿然;坚定不渝 | |
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81 warrior | |
n.勇士,武士,斗士 | |
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