章节正文
Outside the draper's Mrs. MacWhirr smiled upon a woman in a black
mantle of generous proportions armoured in jet and crowned with
flowers blooming falsely above a bilious matronly countenance.
They broke into a swift little babble of greetings and
exclamations both together, very hurried, as if the street were
ready to yawn open and swallow all that pleasure before it could
be expressed.
Behind them the high glass doors were kept on the swing. People
couldn't pass, men stood aside waitingpatiently, and Lydia was
absorbed in poking the end of her parasol between the stone
flags. Mrs. MacWhirr talked rapidly.
"Thank you very much. He's not coming home yet. Of course it's
very sad to have him away, but it's such a comfort to know he
keeps so well." Mrs. MacWhirr drew breath. "The climate there
agrees with him," she added, beamingly, as if poor MacWhirr had
been away touring in China for the sake of his health.
Neither was the chief engineer coming home yet. Mr. Rout knew too
well the value of a good billet.
"Solomon says wonders will never cease," cried Mrs. Rout joyously
at the old lady in her armchair by the fire. Mr. Rout's mother
moved slightly, her withered hands lying in black half-mittens on
her lap.
The eyes of the engineer's wife fairly danced on the paper.
"That captain of the ship he is in -- a rather simple man, you
remember, mother? -- has done something rather clever, Solomon
says."
"Yes, my dear," said the old woman meekly, sitting with bowed
silvery head, and that air of inwardstillnesscharacteristic of
very old people who seem lost in watching the last flickers of
life. "I think I remember."
Solomon Rout, Old Sol, Father Sol, the Chief, "Rout, good man" --
Mr. Rout, the condescending and paternal friend of youth, had
been the baby of her many children -- all dead by this time. And
she remembered him best as a boy of ten -- long before he went
away to serve his apprenticeship in some great engineering works
in the North. She had seen so little of him since, she had gone
through so many years, that she had now to retrace her steps very
far back to recognize him plainly in the mist of time. Sometimes
it seemed that her daughter-in-law was talking of some strange
man.
Mrs. Rout junior was disappointed. "H'm. H'm." She turned the
page. "How provoking! He doesn't say what it is. Says I
couldn't understand how much there was in it. Fancy! What could
it be so very clever? What a wretched man not to tell us!"
She read on without further remark soberly, and at last sat
looking into the fire. The chief wrote just a word or two of the
typhoon; but something had moved him to express an increased
longing for the companionship of the jolly woman. "If it hadn't
been that mother must be looked after, I would send you your
passage-money to-day. You could set up a small house out here.
I would have a chance to see you sometimes then. We are not
growing younger. . . ."
"He's well, mother," sighed Mrs. Rout, rousing herself.
"He always was a strong healthy boy," said the old woman,
placidly.
But Mr. Jukes' account was really animated and very full. His
friend in the Western Ocean trade imparted it freely to the other
officers of his liner. "A chap I know writes to me about an
extraordinary affair that happened on board his ship in that
typhoon -- you know -- that we read of in the papers two months
ago. It's the funniest thing! Just see for yourself what he
says. I'll show you his letter."
There were phrases in it calculated to give the impression of
light-hearted, indomitableresolution. Jukes had written them in
good faith, for he felt thus when he wrote. He described with
lurid effect the scenes in the 'tween-deck. ". . . It struck me
in a flash that those confounded Chinamen couldn't tell we
weren't a desperate kind of robbers. 'Tisn't good to part the
Chinaman from his money if he is the stronger party. We need have
been desperate indeed to go thieving in such weather, but what
could these beggars know of us? So, without thinking of it twice,
I got the hands away in a jiffy. Our work was done -- that the
old man had set his heart on. We cleared out without staying to
inquire how they felt. I am convinced that if they had not been
so unmercifully shaken, and afraid -- each individual one of them
-- to stand up, we would have been torn to pieces. Oh! It was
pretty complete, I can tell you; and you may run to and fro
across the Pond to the end of time before you find yourself with
such a job on your hands."
After this he alluded professionally to the damage done to the
ship, and went on thus:
"It was when the weather quieted down that the situation became
confoundedly delicate. It wasn't made any better by us having
been lately transferred to the Siamese flag; though the skipper
can't see that it makes any difference -- 'as long as we are on
board' -he says. There are feelings that this man simply hasn't
got -- and there's an end of it. You might just as well try to
make a bedpost understand. But apart from this it is an
infernally lonely state for a ship to be going about the China
seas with no proper consuls, not even a gunboat of her own
anywhere, nor a body to go to in case of some trouble.
"My notion was to keep these Johnnies under hatches for another
fifteen hours or so; as we weren't much farther than that from
Fu-chau. We would find there, most likely, some sort of a
man-of-war, and once under her guns we were safe enough; for
surely any skipper of a man-of-war -- English, French or Dutch
-would see white men through as far as row on board goes. We
could get rid of them and their money afterwards by delivering
them to their Mandarin or Taotai, or whatever they call these
chaps in goggles you see being carried about in sedan-chairs
through their stinking streets.
"The old man wouldn't see it somehow. He wanted to keep the
matter quiet. He got that notion into his head, and a steam
windlass couldn't drag it out of him. He wanted as little fuss
made as possible, for the sake of the ship's name and for the
sake of the owners -- 'for the sake of all concerned,' says he,
looking at me very hard.
It made me angry hot. Of course you couldn't keep a thing like
that quiet; but the chests had been secured in the usual manner
and were safe enough for any earthly gale, while this had been an
altogether fiendish business I couldn't give you even an idea of.
"Meantime, I could hardly keep on my feet. None of us had a
spell of any sort for nearly thirty hours, and there the old man
sat rubbing his chin, rubbing the top of his head, and so
bothered he didn't even think of pulling his long boots off.
"'I hope, sir,' says I, 'you won't be letting them out on deck
before we make ready for them in some shape or other.' Not, mind
you, that I felt very sanguine about controlling these beggars if
they meant to take charge. A trouble with a cargo of Chinamen is
no child's play. I was dam' tired, too. 'I wish,' said I, 'you
would let us throw the whole lot of these dollars down to them
and leave them to fight it out amongst themselves, while we get a
rest.'
"'Now you talk wild, Jukes,' says he, looking up in his slow way
that makes you ache all over, somehow. 'We must plan out
something that would be fair to all parties.'
"I had no end of work on hand, as you may imagine, so I set the
hands going, and then I thought I would turn in a bit. I hadn't
been asleep in my bunk ten minutes when in rushes the steward and
begins to pull at my leg.
"'For God's sake, Mr. Jukes, come out! Come on deck quick, sir.
Oh, do come out!'
"The fellow scared all the sense out of me. I didn't know what
had happened: another hurricane -- or what. Could hear no wind.
"'The Captain's letting them out. Oh, he is letting them out!
Jump on deck, sir, and save us. The chief engineer has just run
below for his revolver.'
"That's what I understood the fool to say. However, Father Rout
swears he went in there only to get a clean pocket-handkerchief.
Anyhow, I made one jump into my trousers and flew on deck aft.
There was certainly a good deal of noise going on forward of the
bridge. Four of the hands with the boss'n were at work abaft. I
passed up to them some of the rifles all the ships on the China
coast carry in the cabin, and led them on the bridge. On the way
I ran against Old Sol, looking startled and sucking at an
unlighted cigar.
"'Come along,' I shouted to him.
"We charged, the seven of us, up to the chart-room. All was over.
There stood the old man with his sea-boots still drawn up to the
hips and in shirt-sleeves -got warm thinking it out, I suppose.
Bun Hin's dandy clerk at his elbow, as dirty as a sweep, was
still green in the face. I could see directly I was in for
something.
"'What the devil are these monkey tricks, Mr. Jukes?' asks the
old man, as angry as ever he could be. I tell you frankly it made
me lose my tongue. 'For God's sake, Mr. Jukes,' says he, 'do
take away these rifles from the men. Somebody's sure to get hurt
before long if you don't. Damme, if this ship isn't worse than
Bedlam! Look sharp now. I want you up here to help me and Bun
Hin's Chinaman to count that money. You wouldn't mind lending a
hand, too, Mr. Rout, now you are here. The more of us the
better.'
"He had settled it all in his mind while I was having a snooze.
Had we been an English ship, or only going to land our cargo of
coolies in an English port, like Hong-Kong, for instance, there
would have been no end of inquiries and bother, claims for
damages and so on. But these Chinamen know their officials
better than we do.
"The hatches had been taken off already, and they were all on
deck after a night and a day down below. It made you feel queer
to see so many gaunt, wild faces together. The beggars stared
about at the sky, at the sea, at the ship, as though they had
expected the whole thing to have been blown to pieces. And no
wonder! They had had a doing that would have shaken the soul out
of a white man. But then they say a Chinaman has no soul. He
has, though, something about him that is deuced tough. There was
a fellow (amongst others of the badly hurt) who had had his eye
all but knocked out. It stood out of his head the size of half a
hen's egg. This would have laid out a white man on his back for
a month: and yet there was that chap elbowing here and there in
the crowd and talking to the others as if nothing had been the
matter. They made a great hubbub amongst themselves, and
whenever the old man showed his bald head on the foreside of the
bridge, they would all leave off jawing and look at him from
below.
"It seems that after he had done his thinking he made that Bun
Hin's fellow go down and explain to them the only way they could
get their money back. He told me afterwards that, all the coolies
having worked in the same place and for the same length of time,
he reckoned he would be doing the fair thing by them as near as
possible if he shared all the cash we had picked up equally among
the lot. You couldn't tell one man's dollars from another's, he
said, and if you asked each man how much money he brought on
board he was afraid they would lie, and he would find himself a
long way short. I think he was right there. As to giving up the
money to any Chinese official he could scare up in Fu-chau, he
said he might just as well put the lot in his own pocket at once
for all the good it would be to them. I suppose they thought so,
too.
"We finished the distribution before dark. It was rather a
sight: the sea running high, the ship a wreck to look at, these
mantle of generous proportions armoured in jet and crowned with
flowers blooming falsely above a bilious matronly countenance.
They broke into a swift little babble of greetings and
exclamations both together, very hurried, as if the street were
ready to yawn open and swallow all that pleasure before it could
be expressed.
Behind them the high glass doors were kept on the swing. People
couldn't pass, men stood aside waitingpatiently, and Lydia was
absorbed in poking the end of her parasol between the stone
flags. Mrs. MacWhirr talked rapidly.
"Thank you very much. He's not coming home yet. Of course it's
very sad to have him away, but it's such a comfort to know he
keeps so well." Mrs. MacWhirr drew breath. "The climate there
agrees with him," she added, beamingly, as if poor MacWhirr had
been away touring in China for the sake of his health.
Neither was the chief engineer coming home yet. Mr. Rout knew too
well the value of a good billet.
"Solomon says wonders will never cease," cried Mrs. Rout joyously
at the old lady in her armchair by the fire. Mr. Rout's mother
moved slightly, her withered hands lying in black half-mittens on
her lap.
The eyes of the engineer's wife fairly danced on the paper.
"That captain of the ship he is in -- a rather simple man, you
remember, mother? -- has done something rather clever, Solomon
says."
"Yes, my dear," said the old woman meekly, sitting with bowed
silvery head, and that air of inwardstillnesscharacteristic of
very old people who seem lost in watching the last flickers of
life. "I think I remember."
Solomon Rout, Old Sol, Father Sol, the Chief, "Rout, good man" --
Mr. Rout, the condescending and paternal friend of youth, had
been the baby of her many children -- all dead by this time. And
she remembered him best as a boy of ten -- long before he went
away to serve his apprenticeship in some great engineering works
in the North. She had seen so little of him since, she had gone
through so many years, that she had now to retrace her steps very
far back to recognize him plainly in the mist of time. Sometimes
it seemed that her daughter-in-law was talking of some strange
man.
Mrs. Rout junior was disappointed. "H'm. H'm." She turned the
page. "How provoking! He doesn't say what it is. Says I
couldn't understand how much there was in it. Fancy! What could
it be so very clever? What a wretched man not to tell us!"
She read on without further remark soberly, and at last sat
looking into the fire. The chief wrote just a word or two of the
typhoon; but something had moved him to express an increased
longing for the companionship of the jolly woman. "If it hadn't
been that mother must be looked after, I would send you your
passage-money to-day. You could set up a small house out here.
I would have a chance to see you sometimes then. We are not
growing younger. . . ."
"He's well, mother," sighed Mrs. Rout, rousing herself.
"He always was a strong healthy boy," said the old woman,
placidly.
But Mr. Jukes' account was really animated and very full. His
friend in the Western Ocean trade imparted it freely to the other
officers of his liner. "A chap I know writes to me about an
extraordinary affair that happened on board his ship in that
typhoon -- you know -- that we read of in the papers two months
ago. It's the funniest thing! Just see for yourself what he
says. I'll show you his letter."
There were phrases in it calculated to give the impression of
light-hearted, indomitableresolution. Jukes had written them in
good faith, for he felt thus when he wrote. He described with
lurid effect the scenes in the 'tween-deck. ". . . It struck me
in a flash that those confounded Chinamen couldn't tell we
weren't a desperate kind of robbers. 'Tisn't good to part the
Chinaman from his money if he is the stronger party. We need have
been desperate indeed to go thieving in such weather, but what
could these beggars know of us? So, without thinking of it twice,
I got the hands away in a jiffy. Our work was done -- that the
old man had set his heart on. We cleared out without staying to
inquire how they felt. I am convinced that if they had not been
so unmercifully shaken, and afraid -- each individual one of them
-- to stand up, we would have been torn to pieces. Oh! It was
pretty complete, I can tell you; and you may run to and fro
across the Pond to the end of time before you find yourself with
such a job on your hands."
After this he alluded professionally to the damage done to the
ship, and went on thus:
"It was when the weather quieted down that the situation became
confoundedly delicate. It wasn't made any better by us having
been lately transferred to the Siamese flag; though the skipper
can't see that it makes any difference -- 'as long as we are on
board' -he says. There are feelings that this man simply hasn't
got -- and there's an end of it. You might just as well try to
make a bedpost understand. But apart from this it is an
infernally lonely state for a ship to be going about the China
seas with no proper consuls, not even a gunboat of her own
anywhere, nor a body to go to in case of some trouble.
"My notion was to keep these Johnnies under hatches for another
fifteen hours or so; as we weren't much farther than that from
Fu-chau. We would find there, most likely, some sort of a
man-of-war, and once under her guns we were safe enough; for
surely any skipper of a man-of-war -- English, French or Dutch
-would see white men through as far as row on board goes. We
could get rid of them and their money afterwards by delivering
them to their Mandarin or Taotai, or whatever they call these
chaps in goggles you see being carried about in sedan-chairs
through their stinking streets.
"The old man wouldn't see it somehow. He wanted to keep the
matter quiet. He got that notion into his head, and a steam
windlass couldn't drag it out of him. He wanted as little fuss
made as possible, for the sake of the ship's name and for the
sake of the owners -- 'for the sake of all concerned,' says he,
looking at me very hard.
It made me angry hot. Of course you couldn't keep a thing like
that quiet; but the chests had been secured in the usual manner
and were safe enough for any earthly gale, while this had been an
altogether fiendish business I couldn't give you even an idea of.
"Meantime, I could hardly keep on my feet. None of us had a
spell of any sort for nearly thirty hours, and there the old man
sat rubbing his chin, rubbing the top of his head, and so
bothered he didn't even think of pulling his long boots off.
"'I hope, sir,' says I, 'you won't be letting them out on deck
before we make ready for them in some shape or other.' Not, mind
you, that I felt very sanguine about controlling these beggars if
they meant to take charge. A trouble with a cargo of Chinamen is
no child's play. I was dam' tired, too. 'I wish,' said I, 'you
would let us throw the whole lot of these dollars down to them
and leave them to fight it out amongst themselves, while we get a
rest.'
"'Now you talk wild, Jukes,' says he, looking up in his slow way
that makes you ache all over, somehow. 'We must plan out
something that would be fair to all parties.'
"I had no end of work on hand, as you may imagine, so I set the
hands going, and then I thought I would turn in a bit. I hadn't
been asleep in my bunk ten minutes when in rushes the steward and
begins to pull at my leg.
"'For God's sake, Mr. Jukes, come out! Come on deck quick, sir.
Oh, do come out!'
"The fellow scared all the sense out of me. I didn't know what
had happened: another hurricane -- or what. Could hear no wind.
"'The Captain's letting them out. Oh, he is letting them out!
Jump on deck, sir, and save us. The chief engineer has just run
below for his revolver.'
"That's what I understood the fool to say. However, Father Rout
swears he went in there only to get a clean pocket-handkerchief.
Anyhow, I made one jump into my trousers and flew on deck aft.
There was certainly a good deal of noise going on forward of the
bridge. Four of the hands with the boss'n were at work abaft. I
passed up to them some of the rifles all the ships on the China
coast carry in the cabin, and led them on the bridge. On the way
I ran against Old Sol, looking startled and sucking at an
unlighted cigar.
"'Come along,' I shouted to him.
"We charged, the seven of us, up to the chart-room. All was over.
There stood the old man with his sea-boots still drawn up to the
hips and in shirt-sleeves -got warm thinking it out, I suppose.
Bun Hin's dandy clerk at his elbow, as dirty as a sweep, was
still green in the face. I could see directly I was in for
something.
"'What the devil are these monkey tricks, Mr. Jukes?' asks the
old man, as angry as ever he could be. I tell you frankly it made
me lose my tongue. 'For God's sake, Mr. Jukes,' says he, 'do
take away these rifles from the men. Somebody's sure to get hurt
before long if you don't. Damme, if this ship isn't worse than
Bedlam! Look sharp now. I want you up here to help me and Bun
Hin's Chinaman to count that money. You wouldn't mind lending a
hand, too, Mr. Rout, now you are here. The more of us the
better.'
"He had settled it all in his mind while I was having a snooze.
Had we been an English ship, or only going to land our cargo of
coolies in an English port, like Hong-Kong, for instance, there
would have been no end of inquiries and bother, claims for
damages and so on. But these Chinamen know their officials
better than we do.
"The hatches had been taken off already, and they were all on
deck after a night and a day down below. It made you feel queer
to see so many gaunt, wild faces together. The beggars stared
about at the sky, at the sea, at the ship, as though they had
expected the whole thing to have been blown to pieces. And no
wonder! They had had a doing that would have shaken the soul out
of a white man. But then they say a Chinaman has no soul. He
has, though, something about him that is deuced tough. There was
a fellow (amongst others of the badly hurt) who had had his eye
all but knocked out. It stood out of his head the size of half a
hen's egg. This would have laid out a white man on his back for
a month: and yet there was that chap elbowing here and there in
the crowd and talking to the others as if nothing had been the
matter. They made a great hubbub amongst themselves, and
whenever the old man showed his bald head on the foreside of the
bridge, they would all leave off jawing and look at him from
below.
"It seems that after he had done his thinking he made that Bun
Hin's fellow go down and explain to them the only way they could
get their money back. He told me afterwards that, all the coolies
having worked in the same place and for the same length of time,
he reckoned he would be doing the fair thing by them as near as
possible if he shared all the cash we had picked up equally among
the lot. You couldn't tell one man's dollars from another's, he
said, and if you asked each man how much money he brought on
board he was afraid they would lie, and he would find himself a
long way short. I think he was right there. As to giving up the
money to any Chinese official he could scare up in Fu-chau, he
said he might just as well put the lot in his own pocket at once
for all the good it would be to them. I suppose they thought so,
too.
"We finished the distribution before dark. It was rather a
sight: the sea running high, the ship a wreck to look at, these
- generous [´dʒenərəs]
a.慷慨的；丰盛的 (初中英语单词) - swallow [swɔləu] n.燕子 v.吞，咽；淹没 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- climate [´klaimit] n.气候；特殊气候地带 (初中英语单词)
- slightly [´slaitli] ad.轻微地；细长的 (初中英语单词)
- plainly [´pleinli] ad.平坦地；简单地 (初中英语单词)
- junior [´dʒu:niə] a.年少的 n.年少者 (初中英语单词)
- wretched [´retʃid] a.可怜的；倒霉的 (初中英语单词)
- healthy [´helθi] a.健康的 (初中英语单词)
- account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
- western [´westən] a.西的；西方的 (初中英语单词)
- freely [´fri:li] ad.自由地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- impression [im´preʃən] n.印刷；印象；效果 (初中英语单词)
- resolution [,rezə´lu:ʃən] n.决心；坚决；果断 (初中英语单词)
- desperate [´despərit] a.拼死的；绝望的 (初中英语单词)
- shaken [´ʃeikən] shake的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- delicate [´delikət] a.精美的；微妙的 (初中英语单词)
- lately [´leitli] ad.近来，不久前 (初中英语单词)
- lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
- trousers [´trauzəz] n.裤子，长裤 (初中英语单词)
- monkey [´mʌŋki] n.猴子 v.乱弄；胡闹 (初中英语单词)
- frankly [´fræŋkli] ad.直率地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- instance [´instəns] n.例子，实例，例证 (初中英语单词)
- bother [´bɔðə] v.打扰 n.麻烦(事) (初中英语单词)
- equally [´i:kwəli] ad.相等地；平等地 (初中英语单词)
- distribution [,distri´bju:ʃən] n.分配；分布(状态) (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- patiently [´peiʃəntli] ad.有耐心地；坚韧地 (高中英语单词)
- inward [´inwəd] a.向内的；心灵上的 (高中英语单词)
- stillness [´stilnis] n.不动；无声，寂静 (高中英语单词)
- characteristic [,kæriktə´ristik] a.特有的 n.特性 (高中英语单词)
- engineering [,endʒi´niəriŋ] n.工程技术；工程学 (高中英语单词)
- companionship [kəm´pæniənʃip] n.伴侣关系；友谊 (高中英语单词)
- earthly [´ə:θli] a.地球的；世俗的 (高中英语单词)
- amongst [ə´mʌŋst] prep.其中之一 =among (高中英语单词)
- steward [´stju:əd] n.管家；服务员 (高中英语单词)
- blooming [´blu:miŋ] a.正开花的；妙龄的 (英语四级单词)
- babble [´bæbəl] v.&n.唠叨；胡言乱语 (英语四级单词)
- armchair [´ɑ:mtʃeə] n.扶手椅 (英语四级单词)
- meekly [´mi:kli] ad.温顺地；卑恭屈节地 (英语四级单词)
- soberly [´səubəli] ad.严肃地；清醒地 (英语四级单词)
- skipper [´skipə] n.&vi.(当)船长 (英语四级单词)
- hurricane [´hʌrikən] n.飓风 (英语四级单词)
- bridge [bridʒ] n.桥(梁)；鼻梁；桥牌 (英语四级单词)
- paternal [pə´tə:nl] a.(象)父亲的；父方的 (英语六级单词)
- apprenticeship [ə´prentisʃip] n.学徒工身份 (英语六级单词)
- animated [´ænimeitid] a.栩栩如生的；活跃的 (英语六级单词)
- indomitable [in´dɔmitəbəl] a.不屈不挠的 (英语六级单词)
- sanguine [´sæŋgwin] a.血红的 n.血红色 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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