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Off on a Comet-Part41_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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in the confidence that when the time should come, England would

have full meed of praise to award to the gallant soldiers



who had adhered so well and so manfully to their post.

It did, indeed, more than once occur to the minds both of



Servadac and his friends that, if their condition should become

one of extremeemergency, they might, as a last resource,



betake themselves to Gibraltar, and there seek a refuge;

but their former reception had not been of the kindest,



and they were little disposed to renew an acquaintanceship

that was marked by so little cordiality. Not in the least



that they would expect to meet with any inhospitable rebuff.

Far from that; they knew well enough that Englishmen,



whatever their faults, would be the last to abandon their

fellow-creatures in the hour of distress. Nevertheless, except the



necessity became far more urgent than it had hitherto proved,

they resolved to endeavor to remain in their present quarters.



Up till this time no casualties had diminished their original number,

but to undertake so long a journey across that unsheltered



expanse of ice could scarcely fail to result in the loss of some

of their party.



However great was the desire to find a retreat for every living thing

in the deep hollow of the crater, it was found necessary to slaughter



almost all the domestic animals before the removal of the community

from Nina's Hive. To have stabled them all in the cavern below would



have been quite impossible, whilst to have left them in the upper

galleries would only have been to abandon them to a cruel death;



and since meat could be preserved for an indefinite time in the original

store-places, now colder than ever, the expedient of killing the animals



seemed to recommend itself as equallyprudent and humane.

Naturally the captain and Ben Zoof were most anxious that their favorite



horses should be saved, and accordingly, by dint of the greatest care,

all difficulties in the way were overcome, and Zephyr and Galette



were conducted down the crater, where they were installed in a large

hole and provided with forage, which was still abundant.



Birds, subsisting only on scraps thrown out to them did not cease

to follow the population in its migration, and so numerous did they



become that multitudes of them had repeatedly to be destroyed.

The general re-arrangement of the new residence was no easy business,



and occupied so much time that the end of January arrived before

they could be said to be fairly settled. And then began a life



of drearymonotony. Then seemed to creep over everyone a kind

of moral torpor as well as physical lassitude, which Servadac,



the count, and the lieutenant did their best not only to combat

in themselves, but to counteract in the general community.



They provided a variety of intellectual pursuits; they instituted

debates in which everybody was encouraged to take part; they read aloud,



and explained extracts from the elementary manuals of science,

or from the books of adventurous travel which their library supplied;



and Russians and Spaniards, day after day, might be seen gathered

round the large table, giving their best attention to instruction



which should send them back to Mother Earth less ignorant than they

had left her.



Selfish and morose, Hakkabut could never be induced to be present

at these social gatherings. He was far too much occupied in his own



appropriated corner, either in conning his accounts, or in counting

his money. Altogether, with what he had before, he now possessed



the round sum of 150,000 francs, half of which was in sterling gold;

but nothing could give him any satisfaction while he knew that the days






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