Twelve（2）

II
Albert, when Tuppence had left him, was deeply perturbed¹.
With the advance of years he had become a person of slow mental pro-cesses, but those processes were tenacious².
The state of affairs in general seemed to him quite wrong.
The war was all wrong to begin with.
“Those Germans,” thought Albert gloomily and almost without rancour.
Heiling Hitler, and goose-stepping and overrunning the world and bomb-ing and machine-gunning, and generally making pestilential nuisances ofthemselves. They’d got to be stopped, no two ways about it—and so far itseemed as though nobody had been able to stop them.
And now here was Mrs. Beresford, a nice lady if there ever was one, get-ting herself mixed up in trouble and looking out for more trouble, andhow was he going to stop her? Didn’t look as though he could. Up againstthis Fifth Column and a nasty lot they must be. Some of ’em English born,too! A disgrace, that was!
And the master, who was always the one to hold the missus back fromher impetuous ways—the master was missing.
Albert didn’t like that at all. It looked to him as though “those Germans”
might be at the bottom of that.
Yes, it looked bad, it did. Looked as though he might have copped one.
Albert was not given to the exercise of deep reasoning. Like most Eng-lishmen, he felt something strongly, and proceeded to muddle³ around un-til he had, somehow or other, cleared up the mess. Deciding that the mas-ter had got to be found, Albert, rather after the manner of a faithful dog,set out to find him.
He acted upon no settled plan, but proceeded in exactly the same way ashe was wont⁴ to embark⁵ upon the search for his wife’s missing handbag orhis own spectacles when either of those essential articles were mislaid.
That is to say, he went to the place where he had last seen the missing ob-jects and started from there.
In this case, the last thing known about Tommy was that he had dinedwith Commander Haydock at Smugglers’ Rest, and had then returned toSans Souci and been last seen turning in at the gate.
Albert accordingly climbed the hill as far as the gate of Sans Souci, andspent some five minutes staring hopefully at the gate. Nothing of a scintil-lating character having occurred to him, he sighed and wandered slowlyup the hill to Smugglers’ Rest.
Albert, too, had visited the Ornate Cinema that week, and had beenpowerfully impressed by the theme of Wandering Minstrel. Romantic, itwas! He could not but be struck by the similarity of his own predicament.
He, like that hero of the screen, Larry Cooper, was a faithful Blondel seek-ing his imprisoned⁶ master. Like Blondel, he had fought at that master’sside in bygone days. Now his master was betrayed by treachery, and therewas none but his faithful Blondel to seek for him and restore him to theloving arms of Queen Berengaria.
Albert heaved a sigh as he remembered the melting strains of “Richard,O mon roi,” which the faithful troubadour had crooned so feelingly be-neath tower after tower.
Pity he himself wasn’t better at picking up a tune⁷.
Took him a long time to get hold of a tune, it did.
His lips shaped themselves into a tentative whistle.
Begun playing the old tunes⁸ again lately, they had.
“If you were the only girl in the world and I was the only boy—”
Albert paused to survey the neat white-painted gate of Smugglers’ Rest.
That was it, that was where the master had gone to dinner.
He went up the hill a little farther and came out on the downs.
Nothing here. Nothing but grass and a few sheep.
The gate of Smugglers’ Rest swung open and a car passed out. A big manin plus fours with golf clubs drove out and down the hill.
“That would be Commander Haydock, that would,” Albert deduced.
He wandered down again and stared at Smugglers’ Rest. A tidy littleplace. Nice bit of garden. Nice view.
He eyed it benignly⁹. “I would say such wonderful things to you,” hehummed.
Through a side door of the house a man came out with a hoe and passedout of sight through a little gate.
Albert, who grew nasturtiums and a bit of lettuce¹⁰ in his back garden,was instantly interested.
He edged nearer to Smugglers’ Rest and passed through the open gate.
Yes, tidy little place.
He circled slowly round it. Some way below him, reached by steps, wasa flat plateau planted as a vegetable garden. The man who had come outof the house was busy down there.
Albert watched him with interest for some minutes. Then he turned tocontemplate the house.
Tidy little place, he thought for the third time. Just the sort of place a re-tired Naval¹¹ gentleman would like to have. This was where the master haddined that night.
Slowly Albert circled round and round the house. He looked at it muchas he had looked at the gate of Sans Souci—hopefully, as though asking itto tell him something.
And as he went he hummed softly to himself, a twentieth- centuryBlondel in search of his master.
“There would be such wonderful things to do,” hummed Albert. “Iwould say such wonderful things to you. There would be such wonderfulthings to do—” Gone wrong somewhere, hadn’t he? He’d hummed that bitbefore.
Hallo, funny, so the Commander kept pigs, did he? A long-drawn gruntcame to him. Funny — seemed almost as though it were underground.
Funny place to keep pigs.
Couldn’t be pigs. No, it was someone having a bit of shut-eye. Bit of shut-eye in the cellar, so it seemed. .?.?.
Right kind of day for a snooze, but funny place to go for it. Humminglike a bumble bee Albert approached nearer.
That’s where it was coming from — through that little grating. Grunt¹²,grunt, grunt, snoooooore. Snoooooore, snoooooooore—grunt, grunt, grunt.
Funny sort of snore—reminded him of something. .?.?.
“Coo!” said Albert. “That’s what it is — SOS. Dot, dot, dot, dash, dash,dash, dot, dot, dot.”
He looked round him with a quick glance.
Then kneeling down, he tapped a soft message on the iron grille of thelittle window of the cellar.

1 perturbed   

adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I am deeply perturbed by the alarming way the situation developing. 我对形势令人忧虑的发展深感不安。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother was much perturbed by my illness. 母亲为我的病甚感烦恼不安。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 tenacious   

adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的

参考例句：

• We must learn from the tenacious fighting spirit of Lu Xun.我们要学习鲁迅先生韧性的战斗精神。
• We should be tenacious of our rights.我们应坚决维护我们的权利。

3 muddle   

n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱

参考例句：

• Everything in the room was in a muddle.房间里每一件东西都是乱七八糟的。
• Don't work in a rush and get into a muddle.克服忙乱现象。

4 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

5 embark   

vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机

参考例句：

• He is about to embark on a new business venture.他就要开始新的商业冒险活动。
• Many people embark for Europe at New York harbor.许多人在纽约港乘船去欧洲。

6 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

7 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

8 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 benignly   

adv.仁慈地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Everyone has to benignly help people in distress. 每一个人应让该亲切地帮助有困难的人。 来自互联网
• This drug is benignly soporific. 这种药物具有良好的催眠效果。 来自互联网

10 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

11 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

12 grunt   

v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝

参考例句：

• He lifted the heavy suitcase with a grunt.他咕噜着把沉重的提箱拎了起来。
• I ask him what he think,but he just grunt.我问他在想什麽，他只哼了一声。