📝 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 / 65
1He regretted now that he had given the birds of the island such strange names that they are very wild and difficult of
2approach. There was no other course but to press forward in redskin fashion, at which happily he was an adept. But in
3what direction, for he could not be sure that the children had been taken to the ship? A light fall of snow had
4obliterated all footmarks; and a deathly silence pervaded the island, as if for a space Nature stood still in horror of
5the recent carnage. He had taught the children something of the forest lore that he had himself learned from Tiger Lily
6and Tinker Bell, and knew that in their dire hour they were not likely to forget it. Slightly, if he had an opportunity,
7would blaze the trees, for instance, Curly would drop seeds, and Wendy would leave her handkerchief at some important
8place. The morning was needed to search for such guidance, and he could not wait. The upper world had called him, but
9would give no help. The crocodile passed him, but not another living thing, not a sound, not a movement; and yet he knew
10well that sudden death might be at the next tree, or stalking him from behind. He swore this terrible oath: "Hook or me
11this time." Now he crawled forward like a snake, and again erect, he darted across a space on which the moonlight
12played, one finger on his lip and his dagger at the ready. He was frightfully happy. Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP One
13green light squinting over Kidd's Creek, which is near the mouth of the pirate river, marked where the brig, the Jolly
14Roger, lay, low in the water; a rakish-looking craft foul to the hull, every beam in her detestable, like ground strewn
15with mangled feathers. She was the cannibal of the seas, and scarce needed that watchful eye, for she floated immune in
16the horror of her name. She was wrapped in the blanket of night, through which no sound from her could have reached the
17shore. There was little sound, and none agreeable save the whir of the ship's sewing machine at which Smee sat, ever
18industrious and obliging, the essence of the commonplace, pathetic Smee. I know not why he was so infinitely pathetic,
19unless it were because he was so pathetically unaware of it; but even strong men had to turn hastily from looking at
20him, and more than once on summer evenings he had touched the fount of Hook's tears and made it flow. Of this, as of
21almost everything else, Smee was quite unconscious. A few of the pirates leant over the bulwarks, drinking in the miasma
22of the night; others sprawled by barrels over games of dice and cards; and the exhausted four who had carried the little
23house lay prone on the deck, where even in their sleep they rolled skillfully to this side or that out of Hook's reach,
24lest he should claw them mechanically in passing. Hook trod the deck in thought. O man unfathomable. It was his hour of
25triumph. Peter had been removed for ever from his path, and all the other boys were in the brig, about to walk the
26plank. It was his grimmest deed since the days when he had brought Barbecue to heel; and knowing as we do how vain a
27tabernacle is man, could we be surprised had he now paced the deck unsteadily, bellied out by the winds of his success?
28But there was no elation in his gait, which kept pace with the action of his sombre mind. Hook was profoundly dejected.
29He was often thus when communing with himself on board ship in the quietude of the night. It was because he was so
30terribly alone. This inscrutable man never felt more alone than when surrounded by his dogs. They were socially inferior
31to him. Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze; but
32as those who read between the lines must already have guessed, he had been at a famous public school; and its traditions
33still clung to him like garments, with which indeed they are largely concerned. Thus it was offensive to him even now to
34board a ship in the same dress in which he grappled her, and he still adhered in his walk to the school's distinguished
35slouch. But above all he retained the passion for good form. Good form! However much he may have degenerated, he still
36knew that this is all that really matters. From far within him he heard a creaking as of rusty portals, and through them
37came a stern tap-tap-tap, like hammering in the night when one cannot sleep. "Have you been good form to-day?" was their
38eternal question. "Fame, fame, that glittering bauble, it is mine," he cried. "Is it quite good form to be distinguished
39at anything?" the tap-tap from his school replied. "I am the only man whom Barbecue feared," he urged, "and Flint feared
40Barbecue." "Barbecue, Flint--what house?" came the cutting retort. Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad
41form to think about good form? His vitals were tortured by this problem. It was a claw within him sharper than the iron
42one; and as it tore him, the perspiration dripped down his tallow countenance and streaked his doublet. Ofttimes he drew
43his sleeve across his face, but there was no damming that trickle. Ah, envy not Hook. There came to him a presentiment
44of his early dissolution. It was as if Peter's terrible oath had boarded the ship. Hook felt a gloomy desire to make his
45dying speech, lest presently there should be no time for it. "Better for Hook," he cried, "if he had had less ambition!"
46It was in his darkest hours only that he referred to himself in the third person. "No little children to love me!"
47Strange that he should think of this, which had never troubled him before; perhaps the sewing machine brought it to his
48mind. For long he muttered to himself, staring at Smee, who was hemming placidly, under the conviction that all children
49feared him. Feared him! Feared Smee! There was not a child on board the brig that night who did not already love him. He
50had said horrid things to them and hit them with the palm of his hand, because he could not hit with his fist, but they
51had only clung to him the more. Michael had tried on his spectacles. To tell poor Smee that they thought him lovable!
52Hook itched to do it, but it seemed too brutal. Instead, he revolved this mystery in his mind: why do they find Smee
53lovable? He pursued the problem like the sleuth-hound that he was. If Smee was lovable, what was it that made him so? A
54terrible answer suddenly presented itself--"Good form?" Had the bo'sun good form without knowing it, which is the best
55form of all? He remembered that you have to prove you don't know you have it before you are eligible for Pop. With a cry
56of rage he raised his iron hand over Smee's head; but he did not tear. What arrested him was this reflection: "To claw a
57man because he is good form, what would that be?" "Bad form!" The unhappy Hook was as impotent as he was damp, and he
58fell forward like a cut flower. His dogs thinking him out of the way for a time, discipline instantly relaxed; and they
59broke into a bacchanalian dance, which brought him to his feet at once, all traces of human weakness gone, as if a
60bucket of water had passed over him. "Quiet, you scugs," he cried, "or I'll cast anchor in you;" and at once the din was
61hushed. "Are all the children chained, so that they cannot fly away?" "Ay, ay." "Then hoist them up." The wretched
62prisoners were dragged from the hold, all except Wendy, and ranged in line in front of him. For a time he seemed
63unconscious of their presence. He lolled at his ease, humming, not unmelodiously, snatches of a rude song, and fingering
64a pack of cards. Ever and anon the light from his cigar gave a touch of colour to his face. "Now then, bullies," he said
65briskly, "six of you walk the plank to-night, but I have room for two cabin boys. Which of you is it to be?"
🎉 全部完成！共 65 行