Sir Stafford Nye was entertaining guests. They were guests with whom hehad previously1 been unacquainted except for one of them whom he knewfairly well by sight. They were good-looking young men, serious-mindedand intelligent, or so he should judge. Their hair was controlled and styl-ish, their clothes were well cut though not unduly2 old-fashioned. Lookingat them, Stafford Nye was unable to deny that he liked the look of them. Atthe same time he wondered what they wanted with him. One of them heknew was the son of an oil king. Another of them, since leaving the uni-versity, had interested himself in politics. He had an uncle who owned achain of restaurants. The third one was a young man with beetle3 browswho frowned and to whom perpetual suspicion seemed to be secondnature.
‘It’s very good of you to let us come and call upon you, Sir Stafford,’ saidthe one who seemed to be the blond leader of the three.
His voice was very agreeable. His name was Clifford Bent4.
‘This is Roderick Ketelly and this is Jim Brewster. We’re all anxiousabout the future. Shall I put it like that?’
‘I suppose the answer to that is, aren’t we all?’ said Sir Stafford Nye.
‘We don’t like things the way they’re going,’ said Clifford Bent. ‘Rebel-lion, anarchy5, all that. Well, it’s all right as a philosophy. Frankly6 I thinkwe may say that we all seem to go through a phase of it but one does comeout the other side. We want people to be able to pursue academic careerswithout their being interrupted. We want a good sufficiency of demonstra-tions but not demonstrations7 of hooliganism and violence. We want intel-ligent demonstrations. And what we want, quite frankly, or so I think, is anew political party. Jim Brewster here has been paying serious attentionto entirely8 new ideas and plans concerning trade union matters. They’vetried to shout him down and talk him out, but he’s gone on talking, haven’tyou, Jim?’
‘Muddle-headed old fools, most of them,’ said Jim Brewster.
‘We want a sensible and serious policy for youth, a more economicalmethod of government. We want different ideas to obtain in education butnothing fantastic or high-falutin’. And we shall want, if we win seats, andif we are able finally to form a government– and I don’t see why weshouldn’t–to put these ideas into action. There are a lot of people in ourmovement. We stand for youth, you know, just as well as the violent onesdo. We stand for moderation and we mean to have a sensible government,with a reduction in the number of MP’s, and we’re noting down, lookingfor the men already in politics no matter what their particular persuasionis, if we think they’re men of sense. We’ve come here to see if we can in-terest you in our aims. At the moment they are still in a state of flux9 butwe have got as far as knowing the men we want. I may say that we don’twant the ones we’ve got at present and we don’t want the ones who mightbe put in instead. As for the third party, it seems to have died out of therunning, though there are one or two good people there who suffer nowfor being in a minority, but I think they would come over to our way ofthinking. We want to interest you. We want, one of these days, perhapsnot so far distant as you might think–we want someone who’d understandand put out a proper, successful foreign policy. The rest of the world’s in aworse mess than we are now. Washington’s razed10 to the ground, Europehas continual military actions, demonstrations, wrecking11 of airports. Ohwell, I don’t need to write you a news letter of the past six months, but ouraim is not so much to put the world on its legs again as to put England onits legs again. To have the right men to do it. We want young men, a greatmany young men and we’ve got a great many young men who aren’t re-volutionary, who aren’t anarchistic12, who will be willing to try and make acountry run profitably. And we want some of the older men–I don’t meanmen of sixty-odd, I mean men of forty or fifty–and we’ve come to you be-cause, well, we’ve heard things about you. We know about you and you’rethe sort of man we want.’
‘Do you think you are wise?’ said Sir Stafford.
‘Well, we, think we are.’
The second young man laughed slightly.
‘We hope you’ll agree with us there.’
‘I’m not sure that I do. You’re talking in this room very freely.’
‘It’s your sitting-room13.’
‘Yes, yes, it’s my flat and it’s my sitting-room. But what you are saying,and in fact what you might be going to say, might be unwise. That meansboth for you as well as me.’
‘Oh! I think I see what you’re driving at.’
‘You are offering me something. A way of life, a new career and you aresuggesting a breaking of certain ties. You are suggesting a form of disloy-alty.’
‘We’re not suggesting your becoming a defector to any other country, ifthat’s what you mean.’
‘No, no, this is not an invitation to Russia or an invitation to China or aninvitation to other places mentioned in the past, but I think it is an invita-tion connected with some foreign interests.’ He went on: ‘I’ve recentlycome back from abroad. A very interesting journey. I have spent the lastthree weeks in South America. There is something I would like to tell you.
I have been conscious since I returned to England that I have been fol-lowed.’
‘Followed? You don’t think you imagined it?’
‘No, I don’t think I’ve imagined it. Those are the sort of things I havelearned to notice in the course of my career. I have been in some fairly fardistant and–shall we say?–interesting parts of the world. You chose to callupon me to sound me as to a proposition. It might have been safer,though, if we had met elsewhere.’
He got up, opened the door into the bathroom and turned the tap.
‘From the films I used to see some years ago,’ he said, ‘if you wished todisguise your conversation when a room was bugged14, you turned on taps.
I have no doubt that I am somewhat old-fashioned and that there are bet-ter methods of dealing15 with these things now. But at any rate perhaps wecould speak a little more clearly now, though even then I still think weshould be careful. South America,’ he went on, ‘is a very interesting part ofthe world. The Federation16 of South American countries (Spanish Gold hasbeen one name for it), comprising by now Cuba, the Argentine, Brazil,Peru, one or two others not quite settled and fixed17 but coming into being.
Yes. Very interesting.’
‘And what are your views on the subject,’ the suspicious- looking JimBrewster asked. ‘What have you got to say about things?’
‘I shall continue to be careful,’ said Sir Stafford. ‘You will have more de-pendence on me if I do not talk unadvisedly. But I think that can be donequite well after I turn off the bath water.’
‘Turn it off, Jim,’ said Cliff Bent.
Jim grinned suddenly and obeyed.
Stafford Nye opened a drawer at the table and took out a recorder.
‘Not a very practised player yet,’ he said.
He put it to his lips and started a tune18. Jim Brewster came back, scowl-ing.
‘What’s this? A bloody19 concert we’re going to put on?’
‘Shut up,’ said Cliff Bent. ‘You ignoramus, you don’t know anythingabout music.’
Stafford Nye smiled.
‘You share my pleasure in Wagnerian music, I see,’ he said. ‘I was at theYouth Festival this year and enjoyed the concerts there very much.’
Again he repeated the tune.
‘Not any tune I know,’ said Jim Brewster. ‘It might be the Internationaleor the Red Flag or God Save the King or Yankee Doodle or the Star-Spangled Banner. What the devil is it?’
‘It’s a motif20 from an opera,’ said Ketelly. ‘And shut your mouth. Weknow all we want to know.’
‘The horn call of a young Hero,’ said Stafford Nye.
He brought his hand up in a quick gesture, the gesture from the pastmeaning ‘Heil Hitler’. He murmured very gently,‘The new Siegfried.’
All three rose.
‘You’re quite right,’ said Clifford Bent. ‘We must all, I think, be very care-ful.’
He shook hands.
‘We are glad to know that you will be with us. One of the things thiscountry will need in its future–its great future, I hope–will be a first-classForeign Minister.’
They went out of the room. Stafford Nye watched them through theslightly open door go into the lift and descend21.
He gave a curious smile, shut the door, glanced up at the clock on thewall and sat down in an easy chair–to wait…His mind went back to the day, a week ago now, when he and Mary Annhad gone their separate ways from Kennedy Airport. They had stoodthere, both of them finding it difficult to speak. Stafford Nye had brokenthe silence first.
‘Do you think we’ll ever meet again? I wonder…’
‘Is there any reason why we shouldn’t?’
‘Every reason, I should think.’
She looked at him, then quickly away again.
‘These partings have to happen. It’s–part of the job.’
‘The job! It’s always the job with you, isn’t it?’
‘It has to be.’
‘You’re a professional. I’m only an amateur. You’re a–’ he broke off.
‘What are you? Who are you? I don’t really know, do I?’ ‘No.’
He looked at her then. He saw sadness, he thought, in her face. Some-thing that was almost pain. ‘So I have to–wonder…You think I ought totrust you, I suppose?’
‘No, not that. That is one of the things that I have learnt, that life hastaught me. There is nobody that one can trust. Remember that–always.’
‘So that is your world? A world of distrust, of fear, of danger.’
‘I wish to stay alive. I am alive.’
‘I know.’
‘And I want you to stay alive.’
‘I trusted you–in Frankfurt…’
‘You took a risk.’
‘It was a risk well worth taking. You know that as well as I do.’
‘You mean because–?’
‘Because we have been together. And now–That is my flight being called.
Is this companionship of ours which started in an airport, to end here inanother airport? You are going where? To do what?’
‘To do what I have to do. To Baltimore, to Washington, to Texas. To dowhat I have been told to do.’
‘And I? I have been told nothing. I am to go back to London–and do whatthere?’
‘Wait.’
‘Wait for what?’
‘For the advances that almost certainly will be made to you.’
‘And what am I to do then?’
She smiled at him, with the sudden gay smile that he knew so well.
‘Then you play it by ear. You’ll know how to do it, none better. You’lllike the people who approach you. They’ll be well chosen. It’s important,very important, that we should know who they are.’
‘I must go. Goodbye, Mary Ann.’
‘Auf Wiedersehen.’
In the London flat, the telephone rang. At a singularly apposite moment,Stafford Nye thought, bringing him back from his past memories just atthat moment of their farewell. ‘Auf Wiedersehen,’ he murmured, as he roseto his feet, crossed to take the receiver off, ‘let it be so.’
A voice spoke22 whose wheezy accents were quite unmistakable.
‘Stafford Nye?’
He gave the requisite23 answer: ‘No smoke without fire.’
‘My doctor says I should give up smoking. Poor fellow,’ said ColonelPikeaway, ‘he might as well give up hope of that. Any news?’
‘Oh yes. Thirty pieces of silver. Promised, that is to say.’
‘Damned swine!’
‘Yes, yes, keep calm.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘I played them a tune. Siegfried’s Horn motif. I was following an elderlyaunt’s advice. It went down very well.’
‘Sounds crazy to me!’
‘Do you know a song called Juanita? I must learn that too, in case I needit.’
‘Do you know who Juanita is?’
‘I think so.’
‘H’m, I wonder–heard of in Baltimore last.’
‘What about your Greek girl, Daphne Theodofanous? Where is she now,I wonder?’
‘Sitting in an airport somewhere in Europe waiting for you, probably,’
said Colonel Pikeaway.
‘Most of the European airports seem to be closed down because they’vebeen blown up or more or less damaged. High explosive, hi-jackers, highjinks.
‘The boys and girls come out to play
The moon doth shine as bright as day–
Leave your supper and leave your sleep
And shoot your playfellow in the street.’
‘The Children’s Crusade à la mode.’
‘Not that I really know much about it. I only know the one that RichardCoeur de Lion went to. But in a way this whole business is rather like theChildren’s Crusade. Starting with idealism, starting with ideas of the Chris-tian world delivering the holy city from pagans, and ending with death,death and again, death. Nearly all the children died. Or were sold intoslavery. This will end the same way unless we can find some means of get-ting them out of it…’
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
previously
|
|
| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
unduly
|
|
| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
beetle
|
|
| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
anarchy
|
|
| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
demonstrations
|
|
| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
flux
|
|
| n.流动；不断的改变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
razed
|
|
| v.彻底摧毁，将…夷为平地( raze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
wrecking
|
|
| 破坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
anarchistic
|
|
| 无政府主义的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
sitting-room
|
|
| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
bugged
|
|
| vt.在…装窃听器（bug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
dealing
|
|
| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
federation
|
|
| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
tune
|
|
| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
bloody
|
|
| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
motif
|
|
| n.(图案的)基本花纹，(衣服的)花边；主题 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
descend
|
|
| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
requisite
|
|
| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |