Thirteen

Thirteen
It has been a curious evening.
The only costume that fitted me in the barber’s emporium was that of aTeddy Bear. I don’t mind playing bears with some nice young girls on awinter’s evening in England—but it’s hardly an ideal costume for the equator.
However, I created a good deal of merriment, and won first prize for “broughtonboard”— an absurd term for a costume hired for the evening. Still, asnobody seemed to have the least idea whether they were made or brought, itdidn’t matter.
Mrs. Blair refused to dress up. Apparently¹ she is at one with Pagett on thematter. Colonel Race followed her example. Anne Beddingfeld had concocteda gipsy costume for herself, and looked extraordinarily² well. Pagett said hehad a headache and didn’t appear. To replace him I asked a quaint³ little fel-low called Reeves. He’s a prominent member of the South African labourparty. Horrible little man, but I want to keep in with him, as he gives me in-formation that I need. I want to understand this Rand business from bothsides.
Dancing was a hot affair. I danced twice with Anne Beddingfeld and shehad to pretend she liked it. I danced once with Mrs. Blair, who didn’t troubleto pretend, and I victimized various other damsels whose appearance struckme favourably⁴.
Then we went down to supper. I had ordered champagne⁵; the steward⁶ sug-gested Clicquot 1911 as being the best they had on the boat and I fell in with hissuggestion. I seemed to have hit on the one thing that would loosen ColonelRace’s tongue. Far from being taciturn, the man became actually talkative.
For a while this amused me, then it occurred to me that Colonel Race, and notmyself, was becoming the life and soul of the party. He chaffed me at lengthabout keeping a diary.
“It will reveal all your indiscretions one of these days, Pedler.”
“My dear Race,” I said, “I venture to suggest that I am not quite the fool youthink me. I may commit indiscretions, but I don’t write them down in blackand white. After my death, my executors will know my opinion of a greatmany people, but I doubt if they will find anything to add or detract from theiropinion of me. A diary is useful for recording⁷ the idiosyncrasies of otherpeople—but not one’s own.”
“There is such a thing as unconscious self-revelation, though.”
“In the eyes of the psychoanalyst, all things are vile,” I replied senten-tiously.
“You must have had a very interesting life, Colonel Race?” said Miss Bed-dingfeld, gazing at him with wide, starry⁸ eyes.
That’s how they do it, these girls! Othello charmed Desdemona by telling herstories, but, oh, didn’t Desdemona charm Othello by the way she listened?
Anyway, the girl set Race off all right. He began to tell lion stories. A manwho has shot lions in large quantities has an unfair advantage over othermen. It seemed to me that it was time I, too, told a lion story. One of a moresprightly character.
“By the way,” I remarked, “that reminds me of a rather exciting tale Iheard. A friend of mine was out on a shooting trip somewhere in East Africa.
One night he came out of his tent for some reason, and was startled by a lowgrowl. He turned sharply and saw a lion crouching⁹ to spring. He had left hisrifle in the tent. Quick as thought, he ducked, and the lion sprang right overhis head. Annoyed at having missed him, the animal growled¹⁰ and prepared tospring again. Again he ducked, and again the lion sprang right over him. Thishappened a third time, but by now he was close to the entrance of his tent, andhe darted¹¹ in and seized his rifle. When he emerged, rifle in hand, the lion haddisappeared. That puzzled him greatly. He crept round the back of the tent,where there was a little clearing. There, sure enough, was the lion, busilypractising low jumps.”
This was received by a roar of applause. I drank some champagne.
“On another occasion,” I remarked, “this friend of mine had a second curi-ous experience. He was trekking¹² across country, and being anxious to arriveat his destination before the heat of the day he ordered his boys to inspanwhilst it was still dark. They had some trouble in doing so, as the mules¹⁴ werevery restive¹⁵, but at last they managed it, and a start was made. The mulesraced along like the wind, and when daylight came they saw why. In the dark-ness, the boys had inspanned a lion as the near wheeler.”
This, too, was well-received, a ripple¹⁶ of merriment going round the table,but I am not sure that the greatest tribute did not come from my friend the La-bour Member, who remained pale and serious.
“My God!” he said anxiously. “Who un’arnessed them?”
“I must go to Rhodesia,” said Mrs. Blair. “After what you have told us, Col-onel Race, I simply must. It’s a horrible journey though, five days in thetrain.”
“You must join me in my private car,” I said gallantly¹⁷.
“Oh, Sir Eustace, how sweet of you! Do you really mean it?”
“Do I mean it!” I exclaimed reproachfully, and drank another glass ofchampagne.
“Just about another week, and we shall be in South Africa,” sighed Mrs.
Blair.
“Ah, South Africa,” I said sentimentally¹⁸, and began to quote from a recentspeech of mine at the Colonial Institute. “What has South Africa to show theworld? What indeed? Her fruit and her farms, her wool and her wattles, herherds and her hides, her gold mines and her diamonds—”
I was hurrying on, because I knew that as soon as I paused Reeves wouldbutt in and inform me that the hides were worthless because the animals hungthemselves up on barbed wire or something of that sort, would crab¹⁹ everythingelse, and end up with the hardships of the miners on the Rand. And I was notin the mood to be abused as a Capitalist. However, the interruption camefrom another source at the magic word diamonds.
“Diamonds!” said Mrs. Blair ecstatically.
“Diamonds!” breathed Miss Beddingfeld.
They both addressed Colonel Race.
“I suppose you’ve been to Kimberley?”
I had been to Kimberley too, but I didn’t manage to say so in time. Race wasbeing inundated²⁰ with questions. What were mines like? Was it true that thenatives were kept shut up in compounds? And so on.
Race answered their questions and showed a good knowledge of his subject.
He described the methods of housing the natives, the searches instituted, andthe various precautions that De Beers took.
“Then it’s practically impossible to steal any diamonds?” asked Mrs. Blairwith as keen an air of disappointment as though she had been journeyingthere for the express purpose.
“Nothing’s impossible, Mrs. Blair. Thefts do occur—like the case I told youof where the Kafir hid the stone in his wound.”
“Yes, but on a large scale?”
“Once, in recent years. Just before the War, in fact. You must remember thecase, Pedler. You were in South Africa at the time?”
I nodded.
“Tell us,” cried Miss Beddingfeld. “Oh, do tell us!”
Race smiled.
“Very well, you shall have the story. I suppose most of you have heard of SirLaurence Eardsley, the great South African mining magnate? His mines weregold mines, but he comes into the story through his son. You may rememberthat just before the War rumours²¹ were afield of a new potential Kimberleyhidden somewhere in the rocky floor of the British Guiana jungles. Two youngexplorers, so it was reported, had returned from that part of South Americabringing with them a remarkable²² collection of rough diamonds, some of themof considerable size. Diamonds of small size had been found before in theneighbourhood of the Essequibo and Mazaruni rivers, but these two youngmen, John Eardsley and his friend Lucas, claimed to have discovered beds ofgreat carbon deposits at the common head of two streams. The diamonds wereof every colour, pink, blue, yellow, green, black, and the purest white. Eards-ley and Lucas came to Kimberley, where they were to submit their gems²³ to in-spection. At the same time a sensational²⁴ robbery was found to have takenplace at De Beers. When sending diamonds to England they are made up intoa packet. This remains²⁵ in the big safe, of which the two keys are held by twodifferent men whilst a third man knows the combination. They are handed tothe Bank, and the Bank send them to England. Each package is worth,roughly, about ?100,000.
“On this occasion the Bank were struck by something a little unusual aboutthe sealing of the packet. It was opened, and found to contain knobs of sugar!
“Exactly how suspicion came to fasten on John Eardsley I do not know. Itwas remembered that he had been very wild at Cambridge and that his fatherhad paid his debts more than once. Anyhow, it soon got about that this storyof South American diamond fields was all a fantasy. John Eardsley was arres-ted. In his possession was found a portion of the De Beers diamonds.
“But the case never came to court. Sir Laurence Eardsley paid over a sumequal to the missing diamonds, and De Beers did not prosecute²⁶. Exactly howthe robbery was committed has never been known. But the knowledge that hisson was a thief broke the old man’s heart. He had a stroke shortly afterwards.
As for John, his Fate was in a way merciful. He enlisted²⁷, went to the War,fought there bravely, and was killed, thus wiping out the stain on his name.
Sir Laurence himself had a third stroke and died about a month ago. He diedintestate and his vast fortune passed to his next of kin¹³, a man whom he hardlyknew.”
The Colonel paused. A babel of ejaculations and questions broke out. Some-thing seemed to attract Miss Beddingfeld’s attention, and she turned in herchair. At the little gasp²⁸ she gave, I, too, turned.
My new secretary, Rayburn, was standing²⁹ in the doorway³⁰. Under his tan,his face had the pallor of one who has seen a ghost. Evidently Race’s story hadmoved him profoundly.
Suddenly conscious of our scrutiny³¹, he turned abruptly³² and disappeared.
“Do you know who that is?” asked Anne Beddingfeld abruptly.
“That’s my other secretary,” I explained. “Mr. Rayburn. He’s been seedy upto now.”
She toyed with the bread by her plate.
“Has he been your secretary long?”
“Not very long,” I said cautiously.
But caution is useless with a woman, the more you hold back, the more shepresses forward. Anne Beddingfeld made no bones about it.
“How long?” she asked bluntly.
“Well—er—I engaged him just before I sailed. Old friend of mine recommen-ded him.”
She said nothing more, but relapsed into a thoughtful silence. I turned toRace with the feeling that it was my turn to display an interest in his story.
“Who is Sir Laurence’s next of kin, Race? Do you know?”
“I should do so,” he replied, with a smile. “I am!”

1 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。

2 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

3 quaint   

adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的

参考例句：

• There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里，有很多小巷。
• They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。

4 favourably   

adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably

参考例句：

• The play has been favourably commented by the audience. 本剧得到了观众的好评。
• The open approach contrasts favourably with the exclusivity of some universities. 这种开放式的方法与一些大学的封闭排外形成了有利的对比。

5 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

6 steward   

n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员

参考例句：

• He's the steward of the club.他是这家俱乐部的管理员。
• He went around the world as a ship's steward.他当客船服务员，到过世界各地。

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 starry   

adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的

参考例句：

• He looked at the starry heavens.他瞧着布满星星的天空。
• I like the starry winter sky.我喜欢这满天星斗的冬夜。

9 crouching   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• a hulking figure crouching in the darkness 黑暗中蹲伏着的一个庞大身影
• A young man was crouching by the table, busily searching for something. 一个年轻人正蹲在桌边翻看什么。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

10 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 darted   

v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 trekking   

v.艰苦跋涉，徒步旅行( trek的现在分词 )；（尤指在山中）远足，徒步旅行，游山玩水

参考例句：

• She can't come pony trekking after all because she's in a delicate condition. 她结果还是不能坐小马车旅行，因为她已怀孕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We spent the summer trekking in the foothills of the Himalayas. 我们整个夏天都在喜马拉雅山的山麓艰难跋涉。 来自互联网

13 kin   

n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的

参考例句：

• He comes of good kin.他出身好。
• She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。

14 mules   

骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者

参考例句：

• The cart was pulled by two mules. 两匹骡子拉这辆大车。
• She wore tight trousers and high-heeled mules. 她穿紧身裤和拖鞋式高跟鞋。

15 restive   

adj.不安宁的，不安静的

参考例句：

• The government has done nothing to ease restrictions and manufacturers are growing restive.政府未采取任何措施放松出口限制,因此国内制造商变得焦虑不安。
• The audience grew restive.观众变得不耐烦了。

16 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

17 gallantly   

adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地

参考例句：

• He gallantly offered to carry her cases to the car. 他殷勤地要帮她把箱子拎到车子里去。
• The new fighters behave gallantly under fire. 新战士在炮火下表现得很勇敢。

18 sentimentally   

adv.富情感地

参考例句：

• I miss the good old days, ' she added sentimentally. ‘我怀念过去那些美好的日子，’她动情地补充道。 来自互联网
• I have an emotional heart, it is sentimentally attached to you unforgettable. 我心中有一份情感，那是对你刻骨铭心的眷恋。 来自互联网

19 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

20 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 rumours   

n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传

参考例句：

• The rumours were completely baseless. 那些谣传毫无根据。
• Rumours of job losses were later confirmed. 裁员的传言后来得到了证实。

22 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

23 gems   

growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长

参考例句：

• a crown studded with gems 镶有宝石的皇冠
• The apt citations and poetic gems have adorned his speeches. 贴切的引语和珠玑般的诗句为他的演说词增添文采。

24 sensational   

adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的

参考例句：

• Papers of this kind are full of sensational news reports.这类报纸满是耸人听闻的新闻报道。
• Their performance was sensational.他们的演出妙极了。

25 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

26 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

27 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

28 gasp   

n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说

参考例句：

• She gave a gasp of surprise.她吃惊得大口喘气。
• The enemy are at their last gasp.敌人在做垂死的挣扎。

29 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

30 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

31 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

32 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。