Chapter 14 WILFRID HAS AN ADVENTURE ON HIS OWN

Chapter 14 WILFRID HAS AN ADVENTURE ON HIS OWN
'What about Timmy? He can't climb,' said George, fearfully. 'He might be shot.'
'Put him under a bush and tell him to sit, sit, sit!' said Julian, urgently. 'He knows perfectly¹ well whatthat means. Go on, George, quick.'
George took Timmy by the collar and led him to a very thick bush. She pushed him under it. Heturned himself round, poked² his nose out of the leaves, and looked at her in surprise.
'Sit, Timmy! Sit, and keep quiet!' said George. 'Sit, sit, sit - and keep quiet. Understand?'
'Woof,' said Timmy, very quietly, and withdrew his nose, so that nothing of him could be seen at all.
He knew perfectly well what George meant. Clever old Timmy!
Dick was giving Anne a shove up a tree with drooping³ branches thick with leaves. 'Get as high as youcan,' he said, in a low voice. 'And then stay put till you hear me call you. Don't be afraid. OldTimmy's down here to protect you!'
Anne gave him rather a small smile. She was not like George, fearless and always ready to rush intotrouble. Anne was all for a peaceful life - but how could she have that if she was one of the Five!
The boys and George were now high up in trees, listening to the shouting going on. ApparentlyWilfrid was not going to give away his friends - one up to him!
'How did you get here?' a man was shouting.
'In a boat,' said Wilfrid.
'Who was with you?' shouted another man.
'Nobody. I came alone,' said Wilfrid, perfectly truthfully. 'I wanted to visit the island. I'm an animal-lover and I heard that all the wild creatures here were tame.'
'A likely story that!' sneered⁵ a man's voice. 'Huh! Animal-lover!'
'All right then - look what I've got here in my pocket,' said Wilfrid, and apparently⁴ showed the manhis baby hedgehog. 'He was trodden on by a horse - and I've been looking after him.'
'Very well - you can go back to your boat, and row away,' said the man. 'AT ONCE! mind. And don'tlook so scared. We shan't hurt you. We've business of our own here, and we don't want strangersround - not even silly little kids with hedgehogs in their pockets!'
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Wilfrid took to his heels and fled. He felt lost now. He would never find the others - or the covewhere his boat was. WHY had he disobeyed Julian? Had the others heard the men shouting at him?
Which way should he go?
He had entirely⁷ lost his sense of direction and had no idea whether to go to the left or the right.
He began to panic. Where could the others be? He must find them, he must! He ran through the trees,wishing that Timmy was with him. Then he stopped. Surely this was quite the wrong way?
He turned and went in a different direction. No, this couldn't be right either, he didn't recognize athing!
He thought he heard voices in the distance. He stood and listened. Could it be the others? If onlyGeorge would tell Timmy to find him! But she wouldn't, in case he was shot at. Was that noise voices- or was it just the wind? Perhaps it was the others looking for him. Wilfrid rushed off towards thedistant sound. But alas⁸, it died down. It was only the wind!
The trees thinned out into bushes - and then Wilfrid suddenly saw the sea in the distance! Good!
If he could get to it, he could walk round the shore till he came to his cove⁶. He would know where hewas then. He began to run towards the blue sea.
Through the bushes he went, and came out at last on to what seemed to be a very high cliff. Yes -there was the sea, below and beyond. If only he could scramble⁹ down the cliff he could bear to theright and at last come to his cove. He came to the edge of the cliff and looked down - and then hestarted back in fear. What was that noise - that awful, dreadful noise? It was like a giant wailing¹¹ andwailing at the top of his voice, the wailing going up and down in the wind. Wilfrid found his kneeswere shaking. He simply didn't dare to go on. He sat down and tried to get his breath, putting hishands over his ears to keep out the horrible wailing.
And then he suddenly remembered something and heaved a sigh of heartfelt relief. 'Of course -these must be the Wailing Cliffs we were told about!' he thought thankfully. 'We heard about theWhispering Wood - and it does whisper - and the Wailing Cliffs - and they do wail¹⁰! At least, it'sreally the wind, of course. But goodness, what a queer, strange sound!'
He sat for a while longer, then, feeling much bolder, he went to the edge of the great cliff, and lookedover. He stared down in surprise.
'There's somebody down there - three or four people! Mustn't let them see me - they must belong tothe men on the island! What are they doing down there?'
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He lay down and peered over. Four men were there - but, as Wilfrid watched, they disappeared.
Where had they gone? He craned over the cliff to see. 'There must be caves in the cliff, I suppose,' hesaid to himself. 'That's where they've gone! Gosh, I wish this wailing would stop. I shall start wailingmyself in a minute!'
After some time voices came faintly up to him, as he lay watching, and he saw two men coming outon to the rocks below again. What were they carrying? A long, deep box - why, it looked exactly likeone of the boxes in which the others had seen those beautiful little statues, packed in sawdust!
'So that's how they get them away from here - take them down through some passage in the cliffs- to a waiting boat. Where's the boat, thought I can't see one. Not arrived yet, perhaps.'
He watched with intense interest as the men carried out box after box and piled them on a great flatrock that abutted¹² on a stretch of fairly calm water.
'Big boxes - little ones - my word, those men have been busy lately!' thought Wilfrid, wishing andwishing and wishing that the others were with him. 'I wonder what's in them. Not the bed of gold,that's certain. I bet it would be far too big to put into a boat. Have to be pulled to pieces first! Hallo -here comes another box - a small one this time. Good gracious, they'll soon need a steamer to take allthese!'
Almost as he said the words, he saw a small steamer in the far distance! 'Well! There's the steamer,just as I said! I bet the boat will appear soon, and be loaded - and then chug off to the waitingsteamer!'
But the steamer came no nearer, and no boats appeared. 'Waiting for the tide, I expect,' thoughtWilfrid. 'Goodness, what will the others say when I tell them all this! They won't believe me!
And I bet they won't scold me for going off by myself!'
He decided¹³ to go back and find the others and tell them what he had seen. He set off trying toremember the way. Surely he must be near the place where he had left them? And then quitesuddenly, someone leapt out from behind a tree and caught hold of him!
'Let me go, let me go!' shouted Wilfrid, in a panic. And then he gave a cry of relief, as he suddenlysaw Timmy running towards him.
'Timmy! Save me!'
But Timmy didn't come running to save him. He stood there, looking up at him, rather puzzled, whilepoor Wilfrid went on struggling, really frightened!
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Then Wilfrid heard a giggle¹⁴. A GIGGLE? Who in the world could be giggling¹⁵ just then? He forcedhimself to look round - and saw Dick and Anne, doing their best not to laugh, and George holding hersides. His captor let go of him and began to laugh too. It was Julian!
'I say - this is too bad! You gave me a most awful fright,' said Wilfrid. 'I've already been capturedonce this afternoon. Whatever do you think you're doing?'
'Where have you been, Wilfrid?' said Julian, rather sternly. 'I forbade you to go for a walk - and youwent.'
'I know. I went off by myself - and a man caught me and scared me. Then I ran away and lost myself.
I couldn't find any of you,' said poor Wilfrid. 'But my word, I saw something very very interesting onthat walk of mine!'
'What?' asked Julian, at once.
'Let's sit down, and I'll tell you,' said Wilfrid. 'I feel quite shaky. You really were beasts to jump onme like that.'
'Never mind, Wilfrid,' said Anne, feeling sorry for the boy, who really did look rather shaken.
'Now go on, tell us everything that happened.'
Wilfrid sat down. He was still trembling a little. Everything seemed to have happened at once.
He began to tell the others about the Wailing Cliffs, and all he had seen.
They all listened with intense interest. 'So that's the other way to the underground treasure-chamber -through a passage in the cliffs!' said Julian. 'I never thought of that! My word, that's something toknow. I vote we go and explore the cliffs ourselves, when there's nobody about.'
'Well, it had better be in the evening,' said Wilfrid. 'Just in case we were spotted¹⁶ climbing down thecliffs to find the passage - if there is one, and I think there must be! Those men might be on thewatch, now they know there's someone on the island. I bet they guess I'm not the only one -even though I told them I came alone.'
'I vote we have something to eat,' said George. 'We can talk over everything then. It's ages since wehad a meal. Let's go and open some more tins, and plan what we're going to do tonight. This isgetting too exciting for words. Isn't it, Timmy?'
'Woof,' agreed Timmy. Too exciting, he thought. Yes - and dangerous, too. He'd keep close toGeorge that evening, as close as ever he could! If she went into danger, Timmy would be close by herside!

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 drooping   

adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词

参考例句：

• The drooping willows are waving gently in the morning breeze. 晨风中垂柳袅袅。
• The branches of the drooping willows were swaying lightly. 垂柳轻飘飘地摆动。

4 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

5 sneered   

讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sneered at people who liked pop music. 他嘲笑喜欢流行音乐的人。
• It's very discouraging to be sneered at all the time. 成天受嘲讽是很令人泄气的。

6 cove   

n.小海湾，小峡谷

参考例句：

• The shore line is wooded,olive-green,a pristine cove.岸边一带林木蓊郁，嫩绿一片，好一个山外的小海湾。
• I saw two children were playing in a cove.我看到两个小孩正在一个小海湾里玩耍。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

9 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

10 wail   

vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸

参考例句：

• Somewhere in the audience an old woman's voice began plaintive wail.观众席里，一位老太太伤心地哭起来。
• One of the small children began to wail with terror.小孩中的一个吓得大哭起来。

11 wailing   

v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱

参考例句：

• A police car raced past with its siren wailing. 一辆警车鸣着警报器飞驰而过。
• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。

12 abutted   

v.（与…）邻接( abut的过去式和过去分词 )；（与…）毗连；接触；倚靠

参考例句：

• Their house abutted against the hill. 他们的房子紧靠着山。 来自辞典例句
• The sidewalk abutted on the river. 人行道紧挨着河川。 来自辞典例句

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 giggle   

n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说

参考例句：

• Both girls began to giggle.两个女孩都咯咯地笑了起来。
• All that giggle and whisper is too much for me.我受不了那些咯咯的笑声和交头接耳的样子。

15 giggling   

v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We just sat there giggling like naughty schoolchildren. 我们只是坐在那儿像调皮的小学生一样的咯咯地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I can't stand her giggling, she's so silly. 她吃吃地笑，叫我真受不了，那样子傻透了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

16 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。