📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 64
1"To open the coffin. You shall yet be convinced." Straightway he began taking out the screws, and finally lifted off the
2lid, showing the casing of lead beneath. The sight was almost too much for me. It seemed to be as much an affront to the
3dead as it would have been to have stripped off her clothing in her sleep whilst living; I actually took hold of his
4hand to stop him. He only said: "You shall see," and again fumbling in his bag, took out a tiny fret-saw. Striking the
5turnscrew through the lead with a swift downward stab, which made me wince, he made a small hole, which was, however,
6big enough to admit the point of the saw. I had expected a rush of gas from the week-old corpse. We doctors, who have
7had to study our dangers, have to become accustomed to such things, and I drew back towards the door. But the Professor
8never stopped for a moment; he sawed down a couple of feet along one side of the lead coffin, and then across, and down
9the other side. Taking the edge of the loose flange, he bent it back towards the foot of the coffin, and holding up the
10candle into the aperture, motioned to me to look. I drew near and looked. The coffin was empty. It was certainly a
11surprise to me, and gave me a considerable shock, but Van Helsing was unmoved. He was now more sure than ever of his
12ground, and so emboldened to proceed in his task. "Are you satisfied now, friend John?" he asked. I felt all the dogged
13argumentativeness of my nature awake within me as I answered him:-- "I am satisfied that Lucy's body is not in that
14coffin; but that only proves one thing." "And what is that, friend John?" "That it is not there." "That is good logic,"
15he said, "so far as it goes. But how do you--how can you--account for it not being there?" "Perhaps a body-snatcher," I
16suggested. "Some of the undertaker's people may have stolen it." I felt that I was speaking folly, and yet it was the
17only real cause which I could suggest. The Professor sighed. "Ah well!" he said, "we must have more proof. Come with
18me." He put on the coffin-lid again, gathered up all his things and placed them in the bag, blew out the light, and
19placed the candle also in the bag. We opened the door, and went out. Behind us he closed the door and locked it. He
20handed me the key, saying: "Will you keep it? You had better be assured." I laughed--it was not a very cheerful laugh, I
21am bound to say--as I motioned him to keep it. "A key is nothing," I said; "there may be duplicates; and anyhow it is
22not difficult to pick a lock of that kind." He said nothing, but put the key in his pocket. Then he told me to watch at
23one side of the churchyard whilst he would watch at the other. I took up my place behind a yew-tree, and I saw his dark
24figure move until the intervening headstones and trees hid it from my sight. It was a lonely vigil. Just after I had
25taken my place I heard a distant clock strike twelve, and in time came one and two. I was chilled and unnerved, and
26angry with the Professor for taking me on such an errand and with myself for coming. I was too cold and too sleepy to be
27keenly observant, and not sleepy enough to betray my trust so altogether I had a dreary, miserable time. Suddenly, as I
28turned round, I thought I saw something like a white streak, moving between two dark yew-trees at the side of the
29churchyard farthest from the tomb; at the same time a dark mass moved from the Professor's side of the ground, and
30hurriedly went towards it. Then I too moved; but I had to go round headstones and railed-off tombs, and I stumbled over
31graves. The sky was overcast, and somewhere far off an early cock crew. A little way off, beyond a line of scattered
32juniper-trees, which marked the pathway to the church, a white, dim figure flitted in the direction of the tomb. The
33tomb itself was hidden by trees, and I could not see where the figure disappeared. I heard the rustle of actual movement
34where I had first seen the white figure, and coming over, found the Professor holding in his arms a tiny child. When he
35saw me he held it out to me, and said:-- "Are you satisfied now?" "No," I said, in a way that I felt was aggressive. "Do
36you not see the child?" "Yes, it is a child, but who brought it here? And is it wounded?" I asked. "We shall see," said
37the Professor, and with one impulse we took our way out of the churchyard, he carrying the sleeping child. When we had
38got some little distance away, we went into a clump of trees, and struck a match, and looked at the child's throat. It
39was without a scratch or scar of any kind. "Was I right?" I asked triumphantly. "We were just in time," said the
40Professor thankfully. We had now to decide what we were to do with the child, and so consulted about it. If we were to
41take it to a police-station we should have to give some account of our movements during the night; at least, we should
42have had to make some statement as to how we had come to find the child. So finally we decided that we would take it to
43the Heath, and when we heard a policeman coming, would leave it where he could not fail to find it; we would then seek
44our way home as quickly as we could. All fell out well. At the edge of Hampstead Heath we heard a policeman's heavy
45tramp, and laying the child on the pathway, we waited and watched until he saw it as he flashed his lantern to and fro.
46We heard his exclamation of astonishment, and then we went away silently. By good chance we got a cab near the
47"Spaniards," and drove to town. I cannot sleep, so I make this entry. But I must try to get a few hours' sleep, as Van
48Helsing is to call for me at noon. He insists that I shall go with him on another expedition. 27 September.--It was two
49o'clock before we found a suitable opportunity for our attempt. The funeral held at noon was all completed, and the last
50stragglers of the mourners had taken themselves lazily away, when, looking carefully from behind a clump of alder-trees,
51we saw the sexton lock the gate after him. We knew then that we were safe till morning did we desire it; but the
52Professor told me that we should not want more than an hour at most. Again I felt that horrid sense of the reality of
53things, in which any effort of imagination seemed out of place; and I realised distinctly the perils of the law which we
54were incurring in our unhallowed work. Besides, I felt it was all so useless. Outrageous as it was to open a leaden
55coffin, to see if a woman dead nearly a week were really dead, it now seemed the height of folly to open the tomb again,
56when we knew, from the evidence of our own eyesight, that the coffin was empty. I shrugged my shoulders, however, and
57rested silent, for Van Helsing had a way of going on his own road, no matter who remonstrated. He took the key, opened
58the vault, and again courteously motioned me to precede. The place was not so gruesome as last night, but oh, how
59unutterably mean-looking when the sunshine streamed in. Van Helsing walked over to Lucy's coffin, and I followed. He
60bent over and again forced back the leaden flange; and then a shock of surprise and dismay shot through me. There lay
61Lucy, seemingly just as we had seen her the night before her funeral. She was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful
62than ever; and I could not believe that she was dead. The lips were red, nay redder than before; and on the cheeks was a
63delicate bloom. "Is this a juggle?" I said to him. "Are you convinced now?" said the Professor in response, and as he
64spoke he put over his hand, and in a way that made me shudder, pulled back the dead lips and showed the white teeth.
🎉 全部完成！共 64 行