17 A boat, a boat!

　　17
　　A boat, a boat!
　　‘Do you think it’s worth while keeping the fire going, if the aeroplanes belong to the enemy?’
　　asked Lucy-Ann at last.
　　‘Well, if we’re ever to be rescued, we shall have to show some kind of signal,’ said Jack¹. ‘We’llhave to risk the aeroplanes seeing it. Perhaps, when no messages come through from Bill, motor-boats will come looking for us. Then they will see our signal, and come to the island.’
　　‘I hope they do,’ said Dinah. ‘I don’t want to be here for months. And it would be awful in thewinter.’
　　‘Good gracious! Don’t talk about being here for the winter!’ said Lucy-Ann, in alarm. ‘Why,it’s only May!’
　　‘Dinah’s looking on the black side of things as usual,’ said Philip.
　　Dinah flared² up. ‘I’m not! I’m being sensible. You always call being sensible “looking on theblack side of things”.’
　　‘Oh, don’t quarrel just now, when we all ought to stick by each other,’ begged Lucy-Ann. ‘Anddon’t put those rats near Dinah, Philip – don’t be mean just now!’
　　Philip snapped his fingers and the rats scurried³ back to his pockets. Kiki snorted.
　　‘Three blind mice, see how they run, pop goes Kiki!’
　　‘Arrrrr!’ said Huffin, agreeing politely. It was really very comical the way he and Puffin seemedto talk to Kiki. They never said anything but ‘Arrrr’, but they said it in many different tones, andsounded quite conversational⁴ at times.
　　That night the children slept out in the open. It was a beautiful calm night, and the stars hung inthe sky, big and bright. Lucy-Ann tried to keep awake to watch for shooting stars, which sheloved, but she didn’t see any.
　　Her bed was very comfortable. The children had chosen thick heather to put their ground-sheetsand rugs on, and had used their extra clothes for pillows. A tiny breeze blew against their cheeksand hair. It was lovely lying there with the stars shining peacefully above, and the sound of the seain the distance.
　　‘It’s like the wind in the trees,’ thought Lucy-Ann sleepily. ‘And the wind in trees is like thesound of the sea. Oh dear, I’m getting muddled⁵ – muddled – mudd—’
　　The weather was still lovely the next day, and the spiral of smoke from the signal fire wentalmost straight up in the air, there was so little wind. Jack and Philip took a good many bird-photographs, and Jack looked longingly⁶ over the steep bird-cliff, wishing he could climb down alittle way and take some photographs of the birds there.
　　‘Bill said not,’ said Philip. ‘And I think we oughtn’t to. Suppose anything happened to us, whatwould the girls do? We’ve got heaps of fine photographs without bothering to take the eggs andbirds on those ledges⁷.’
　　‘I wish the puffins had laid eggs,’ said Jack. ‘I haven’t found a single puffin egg yet. It’s a bittoo early, I suppose. How sweet baby puffins must look! I wish I could see some.’
　　‘Well, you’re likely to, as things have turned out,’ said Philip, with a half-comical groan⁹. ‘Wemay be here for quite a long time.’
　　It was arranged that one or other of the children should always be on the look-out somewhereon the bird-cliff. From there it was possible to see nearly all round the island, and no enemy couldapproach without being seen when still far off. That would give plenty of time for the others to bewarned, and for all of them to go into hiding.
　　‘We’d really better hide all the tins and things that are under our ledge⁸, down in that hole,hadn’t we?’ said Lucy-Ann, when the plans were made. ‘They might easily be found.’
　　‘We’ll stuff heather round them,’ said Jack. ‘It would be an awful bore to have to keep goingdown into the hole to fetch all the food each time we wanted something to eat.’
　　So clumps¹⁰ of heather were most realistically tucked under the rocky ledge where Lucy-Annkept the tins. Nobody would guess it wasn’t growing, it looked so natural there.
　　‘We’d have plenty of time to chuck our clothes and things down into the hidey-hole, if we sawanyone coming,’ said Jack. ‘I’ll take first watch. I shan’t be a bit bored, because there are so manybirds up there – and Kiki is such a clown with them, it’s as good as a pantomine to watch her.’
　　Two days went by without anything exciting happening at all. Once they heard anotheraeroplane, but didn’t see it. More wreckage¹¹ was thrown up on the beach from the unfortunateLucky Star. The children bathed and ate and slept, and took it in turns to keep watch, but they sawnothing to worry them at all.
　　Kiki always kept watch with Jack. Huffin and Puffin kept watch with Philip. Once anotherpuffin came too near Philip for Huffin’s liking¹², and the bird ran at it with his head down, growlingarrrrrrr like an infuriated dog. Their big beaks¹³ locked together, and Philip almost cried withlaughter as he watched the curious battle.
　　‘The battle of beaks,’ he called it, when he described it to the others afterwards. ‘Talk aboutstags locking their antlers together and fighting – those two puffins were every bit as fierce withtheir huge beaks.’
　　‘Who won?’ asked Lucy-Ann, with great interest. ‘Huffin, I suppose?’
　　‘Of course,’ said Philip. ‘He not only won, he chased the other one right into its burrow¹⁴, andthey both came out again at another entrance, with Huffin winning the race. I’m surprised the otherpoor bird had any feathers left by the time Huffin had finished with him.’
　　On the afternoon of the third day, Jack was sitting up on the top of the bird-cliff. It was his turnto look out. He gazed lazily out to sea. There was just a little more breeze that day, and the waveshad frills of white as they came in to shore.
　　Jack was thinking about Bill. Where was he? What had happened to him? Had he been able toescape, and if so, would he come quickly to rescue the four children? And what was Aunt Alliethinking? Had she heard that there was no word from Bill, and was she worried?
　　Jack thought deeply about all these things, listening to the different cries of the sea-birds abouthim, and watching their graceful¹⁵ fight over the sea. Then his eyes suddenly picked out somethingfar off on the water.
　　He stiffened¹⁶ like a dog that suddenly sees something unusual. He reached down for his field-glasses and put them to his eyes. He had soon got the something out there into focus – and he sawthat it was a small motor-boat.
　　‘Enemies,’ he thought, and was about to leap to his feet when he remembered that whoever wasin the boat might also have glasses, and might see him. So he wriggled¹⁷ away on his tummy, andnot until he was well down into the little valley did he jump up and run to the others.
　　‘Hi!’ he called breathlessly, as he tore down to Sleepy Hollow, where the others were having alaze. ‘There’s a boat coming!’
　　They all sat up at once. Lucy-Ann’s green eyes were wide with excitement and fright. ‘Where?
　　How far away?’
　　‘Quite a way off. It will take them about ten minutes to come in and tie up. We’d better chuckeverything down into the hole at once.’
　　‘What about the fire?’ said Dinah, grabbing her pile of jerseys¹⁸ and coats.
　　‘Have to leave that. They’ve already seen the smoke anyway,’ said Jack. ‘Come on, quick! Geta move on, Lucy-Ann!’
　　It didn’t take long to part the heather over the narrow entrance to the hole and hurl¹⁹ everythingdown. Jack removed the stick he had put there to mark the place.
　　‘No good leaving a signpost for them,’ he said, trying to make Lucy-Ann smile. She gave him awatery grin.
　　‘No – everything cleared up?’ said Philip, looking round. He pulled at the clumps of heatherthey had been lying on, which had got rather flattened²⁰, but the springy plants were already gettingback into position themselves. Philip picked up a spoon that someone had left lying there andpopped it into his pocket. There really did seem to be nothing left now that would show that thechildren had been there a few minutes before.
　　‘Come on, Tufty! Don’t wait about!’ said Jack, in a fever of impatience²¹ to get below ground.
　　The girls were already safely in the hole. Jack slid down himself and Philip followed almost atonce.
　　Jack pulled the heather neatly²² over the hole. ‘There! Now unless anybody actually treads in thehole, as Philip did the other night, we’re safe. Nobody would ever know there was a big cavityunderground.’
　　‘I feel like a puffin,’ said Philip. ‘I feel I’d like to burrow. What about digging a nice littleburrow for each of us to lie in?’
　　‘Oh, don’t make jokes now,’ begged Lucy-Ann. ‘I don’t feel like jokes. I feel – I feel all sort oftight and breathless. And my heart simply couldn’t beat any louder. Can you hear it?’
　　Nobody could. But then, their own hearts were beating so fast and so loudly that it was nowonder they could not hear anybody else’s.
　　‘Can we whisper?’ asked Dinah, in a loud whisper that made everyone jump.
　　‘I should think so. But don’t talk out loud,’ said Jack. ‘And if we hear anyone coming, listenwith all your might, so that we shall know if it’s friends or enemies. It would be too awful if it wasfriends and we let them go away without finding us.’
　　That was indeed an awful thought – almost worse than the thought of being found by an enemy.
　　Everyone sat quietly, holding their breaths, listening with all their might.
　　‘Friend or enemy, friend or enemy, friend or enemy,’ said a voice in Lucy-Ann’s mind, and shecouldn’t stop it saying the words over and over again. ‘Friend or . . .’
　　‘Sh,’ came Jack’s whisper, suddenly. ‘I can hear something.’
　　But it was only Huffin and Puffin arriving in the hole. They pushed the heather aside andflopped in, giving the children a terrible shock. The heather swung back, and the puffins stared inthe darkness, trying to find Philip.
　　‘You wretched birds!’ scolded Philip. ‘You might have shown them our hiding-place. Don’tyou dare to say a word!’
　　‘Arrrrrr!’ said Huffin deeply. Philip gave him an angry push, and the bird walked away inastonishment. It was the first time he had ever had an angry word or gesture from his belovedPhilip. He hopped²³ up to the beginning of a nearby burrow, followed by Puffin, and began to walkup it, very much offended. The children were glad to hear them go.
　　‘Sh!’ came Jack’s whisper again, and the others clutched one another. ‘They’re really comingnow! Shhhhhhhh!’

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 Flared   

adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。

3 scurried   

v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She said goodbye and scurried back to work. 她说声再见，然后扭头跑回去干活了。
• It began to rain and we scurried for shelter. 下起雨来，我们急忙找地方躲避。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 conversational   

adj.对话的，会话的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a conversational style.该文是以对话的形式写成的。
• She values herself on her conversational powers.她常夸耀自己的能言善辩。

5 muddled   

adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子

参考例句：

• He gets muddled when the teacher starts shouting. 老师一喊叫他就心烦意乱。
• I got muddled up and took the wrong turning. 我稀里糊涂地拐错了弯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 longingly   

adv. 渴望地 热望地

参考例句：

• He looked longingly at the food on the table. 他眼巴巴地盯着桌上的食物。
• Over drinks,he speaks longingly of his trip to Latin America. 他带着留恋的心情，一边喝酒一边叙述他的拉丁美洲之行。

7 ledges   

n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台

参考例句：

• seabirds nesting on rocky ledges 海鸟在岩架上筑巢
• A rusty ironrod projected mournfully from one of the window ledges. 一个窗架上突出一根生锈的铁棒，真是满目凄凉。 来自辞典例句

8 ledge   

n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁

参考例句：

• They paid out the line to lower him to the ledge.他们放出绳子使他降到那块岩石的突出部分。
• Suddenly he struck his toe on a rocky ledge and fell.突然他的脚趾绊在一块突出的岩石上，摔倒了。

9 groan   

vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音

参考例句：

• The wounded man uttered a groan.那个受伤的人发出呻吟。
• The people groan under the burden of taxes.人民在重税下痛苦呻吟。

10 clumps   

n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声

参考例句：

• These plants quickly form dense clumps. 这些植物很快形成了浓密的树丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bulbs were over. All that remained of them were clumps of brown leaves. 这些鳞茎死了，剩下的只是一丛丛的黃叶子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

12 liking   

n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢

参考例句：

• The word palate also means taste or liking.Palate这个词也有“口味”或“嗜好”的意思。
• I must admit I have no liking for exaggeration.我必须承认我不喜欢夸大其词。

13 beaks   

n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者

参考例句：

• Baby cockatoos will have black eyes and soft, almost flexible beaks. 雏鸟凤头鹦鹉黑色的眼睛是柔和的，嘴几乎是灵活的。 来自互联网
• Squid beaks are often found in the stomachs of sperm whales. 经常能在抹香鲸的胃里发现鱿鱼的嘴。 来自互联网

14 burrow   

vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞

参考例句：

• Earthworms burrow deep into the subsoil.蚯蚓深深地钻进底土。
• The dog had chased a rabbit into its burrow.狗把兔子追进了洞穴。

15 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。

16 stiffened   

加强的

参考例句：

• He leaned towards her and she stiffened at this invasion of her personal space. 他向她俯过身去，这种侵犯她个人空间的举动让她绷紧了身子。
• She stiffened with fear. 她吓呆了。

17 wriggled   

v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）

参考例句：

• He wriggled uncomfortably on the chair. 他坐在椅子上不舒服地扭动着身体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A snake wriggled across the road. 一条蛇蜿蜒爬过道路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 jerseys   

n.运动衫( jersey的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The maximum quantity of cotton jerseys this year is about DM25,000. 平方米的羊毛地毯超过了以往的订货。 来自口语例句
• The NBA is mulling the prospect of stitching advertising logos onto jerseys. 大意：NBA官方正在酝酿一个大煞风景的计划——把广告标志绣上球服！ 来自互联网

19 hurl   

vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂

参考例句：

• The best cure for unhappiness is to hurl yourself into your work.医治愁苦的最好办法就是全身心地投入工作。
• To hurl abuse is no way to fight.谩骂决不是战斗。

20 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

21 impatience   

n.不耐烦，急躁

参考例句：

• He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢，他显得不耐烦。
• He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。

22 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

23 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。