登陆注册
5254700000034

第34章 CHAPTER IX(3)

"`So they say," he pronounced with sombre indifference. "Of course Inever knew. Weak heart. The man had been complaining of being out of sorts for some time before. Excitement. Over-exertion. Devil only knows. Ha! ha! ha! It was easy to see he did not want to die either. Droll, isn't it? May I be shot if he hadn't been fooled into killing himself! Fooled--neither more nor less. Fooled into it, by heavens! just as I . . . Ah! If he had only kept still; if he had only told them to go to the devil when they came to rush him out of his bunk because the ship was sinking! If he had only stood by with his hands in his pockets and called them names!"`He got up, shook his fist, glared at me, and sat down.

"`A chance missed, eh?" I murmured.

"`Why don't you laugh?" he said. "A joke hatched in hell. Weak heart!

. . . I wish sometimes mine had been."

`This irritated me. "Do you?" I exclaimed with deeprooted irony. "Yes!

Can't you understand?" he cried. "I don't know what more you could wish for," I said angrily. He gave me an utterly uncomprehending glance.

This shaft had also gone wide of the mark, and he was not the man to bother about stray arrows. Upon my word, he was too unsuspecting; he was not fair game. I was glad that my missile had been thrown away--that he had not even heard the twang of the bow.

`Of course he could not know at the time the man was dead. The next minute--his last on board--was crowded with a tumult of events and sensations which beat about him like the sea upon a rock. I use the simile advisedly, because from his relation I am forced to believe he had preserved through it all a strange illusion of passiveness, as though he had not acted but had suffered himself to be handled by the infernal powers who had selected him for the victim of their practical joke. The first thing that came to him was the grinding surge of the heavy davits swinging out at last--a jar which seemed to enter his body from the deck through the soles of his feet, and travel up his spine to the crown of his head. Then, the squall being very near now, another and heavier swell lifted the passive hull in a threatening heave that checked his breath, while his brain and his heart together were pierced as with daggers by panic-stricken screams.

"Let go! For God's sake, let go! Let go! She's going." Following upon that the boat-falls ripped through the blocks, and a lot of men began to talk in startled tones under the awnings. "When these beggars did break out, their yelps were enough to wake the dead," he said. Next after the splashing shock of the boat literally dropped in the water, came the hollow noises of stamping and tumbling in her, mingled with confused shouts: "Unhook!

Unhook! Shove! Unhook! Shove for your life! Here's the squall down on us.

. . ." He heard, high above his head, the faint muttering of the wind;he heard below his feet a cry of pain. A lost voice alongside started cursing a swivel hook. The ship began to buzz fore and aft like a disturbed hive, and, as quietly as he was telling me all of this--because just then he was very quiet in attitude, in face, in voice--he went on to say without the slightest warning as it were, "I stumbled over his legs."`This was the first I heard of his having moved at all. I could not restrain a grunt of surprise. Something had started him off at last, but of the exact moment, of the cause that tore him out of his immobility, he knew no more than the uprooted tree knows of the wind that laid it low.

同类推荐
  • Robinson Crusoe

    Robinson Crusoe

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大音希声论

    大音希声论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 杂藏经

    杂藏经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • THE LOST WORLD

    THE LOST WORLD

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上正一延生保命箓

    太上正一延生保命箓

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 最终进化体

    最终进化体

    一个普通高中生偶然之下得到基因种子,成为了初级生命体的进化者,生命最终进化的尽头到底是什么?且看他是如何走出地球翱翔宇宙……
  • 狗爸狗妈

    狗爸狗妈

    他有一对女儿,她有一个儿子,他们却只有皮特为伴。在皮特的撮合下,他们在暮年走到了一起。他们把皮特当儿子,甚至立下遗嘱,把财产留给皮特。有人说皮特是一条狗,他真的是一条狗?一戚大爷和吴老太是地道的黄昏夫妻,垂暮之年才牵的手。说起他们的牵手,戚大爷的狗儿子皮特还算得上是他们的媒人呢。那是小月河公园夏日的一个清晨,吴老太刚刚晨练结束,浑身汗津津的。她正在收起红绸折扇,脱去身上那件丝质外套,这时戚大爷刚好牵着皮特沿着河边的小路走来。谁承想皮特突然大叫一声,朝吴老太扑过去,让她一屁股坐到了地上。戚大爷一边呵斥皮特,一边深表歉意地向吴老太伸出手去。
  • 库洛牌的魔法使

    库洛牌的魔法使

    有这样一个隐藏在世界沉睡的夜晚、赋予人们各种能力的系统争端。“恭喜您,获得SSS级能力。”系统的声音异常美妙只是方然...猛地把手里的魔导书往地上狠狠一摔!破口大骂!“我去你妹的库洛牌!老子才不是魔法少女!”“说好的修仙炼体、古武斗气!炼金巫术、魔法异能呢!?”“神他喵无限流酷炫开局,然后获得魔法少女之力啊!”
  • 老茶客经典闲话

    老茶客经典闲话

    人们爱啖茶,其目的就是聚会:茶馆就是摆龙门阵的论坛,三教九流天所不有,其中精彩在茶水的滋润下汩汩而出。将这些玄龙门阵汇集成册,就是这本《老茶客经典闲话》。老茶客爱啖茶,啖必醉,醉必筛话,姑且听之……
  • 坐拥江山美男:玩转大明之错嫁东风

    坐拥江山美男:玩转大明之错嫁东风

    乌鸦以为自己已经够倒霉了,却没想到闭门家中坐,也能横祸天上来。玩个游戏下个副本,再睁眼就已经六道轮回,重来一遍了,二十六年春秋一笔勾销,只是,她来到的这个地方究竟是哪里?大明朝吗?可是眼前的种种却颠覆着她所知的一切……
  • 第一权宦:上神娘子请怜惜

    第一权宦:上神娘子请怜惜

    清新寡欲活了数万年的帝高阳,从未想过她也会对一个人泥足深陷……
  • 神山

    神山

    天仁寻梦来到神山,遇到来这里终生默默办学的李校长。李校长希望能在有生之年为孩子们建一间阅览室。天仁回到浦东,协助神山的县政府赴上海召开一场招商引资会,引诱发财痣到神山投资。发财痣发现神山脚下是金矿,大肆开发,还引进国外资金准备修建神山机场。天仁趁机吞并了发财痣和瘦老板的两家工厂,再与美国3W集团公司合资组建起浦东神山集团公司。集团董事局成立后的第一项决议就是捐建一所神山小学。玲儿组织了神山捐书会为山里的孩子们募集书籍,准备跟天仁一起到神山同时举行捐书仪式和捐书会集体婚礼。临行前夕,玲儿遇难,天仁毅然决然率领神山捐书会的年轻人前往神山……
  • 八哥

    八哥

    董伟明,1956年生于哈尔滨市,今居大连。当过兵,现为某民营企业负责人。上世纪八十年代开始文学创作,创作的歌词和诗歌曾获大连之夏音乐会一等奖,军区文化部一等奖。在《当代》《北方文学》等刊物发表过作品。祥子开着他那辆紫红色的桑塔纳,沿着繁华的人民路游逛。两侧的高楼大厦从车窗外闪过。这里是全市写字楼租金最贵的地方,在这里办公的非富即贵,像他这样一个小装修公司的老板要入住是想都不敢想的。可是今天,他要在这儿租间办公室,而且要一百平米以上的。
  • The Heritage of the Sioux

    The Heritage of the Sioux

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 十界魂王

    十界魂王

    简介:十界连通,万物之灵,三魂七魄凝聚不散,天道法则孕育出一种全新的力量,战魂!重生王者大陆的他,觉醒拥有九尾九翼的最强英雄战魂,揭开长安城和十方神器方舟的秘密,与荣耀帝国的长城守卫军一起抵抗尧天组织,争夺十二神迹,成为一名强大的战魂师!觉醒战魂,是成为战魂师的先决条件,战魂的种类有很多,如武器战魂、蛮兽战魂、自然战魂,还有尊贵无比的英雄战魂,比如飘逸如剑仙的李白战魂,英俊潇洒的韩信战魂,还有防御力极强的张飞战魂……