登陆注册
37813300000003

第3章 Chapter NIGHT ON THE BEACH(3)

Not long before, a ship from Peru had brought an influenza, and it now raged in the island, and particularly in Papeete. From all round the purao arose and fell a dismal sound of men coughing, and strangling as they coughed. The sick natives, with the islander's impatience of a touch of fever, had crawled from their houses to be cool and, squatting on the shore or on the beached canoes, painfully expected the new day. Even as the crowing of cocks goes about the country in the night from farm to farm, accesses of coughing arose, and spread, and died in the distance, and sprang up again. Each miserable shiverer caught the suggestion from his neighbour, was torn for some minutes by that cruel ecstasy, and left spent and without voice or courage when it passed. If a man had pity to spend, Papeete beach, in that cold night and in that infected season, was a place to spend it on. And of all the sufferers, perhaps the least deserving, but surely the most pitiable, was the London clerk. He was used to another life, to houses, beds, nursing, and the dainties of the sickroom; he lay there now, in the cold open, exposed to the gusting of the wind, and with an empty belly. He was besides infirm; the disease shook him to the vitals; and his companions watched his endurance with surprise. A profound commiseration filled them, and contended with and conquered their abhorrence.

The disgust attendant on so ugly a sickness magnified this dislike; at the same time, and with more than compensating strength, shame for a sentiment so inhuman bound them the more straitly to his service; and even the evil they knew of him swelled their solicitude, for the thought of death is always the least supportable when it draws near to the merely sensual and selfish. Sometimes they held him up; sometimes, with mistaken helpfulness, they beat him between the shoulders; and when the poor wretch lay back ghastly and spent after a paroxy** of coughing, they would sometimes peer into his face, doubtfully exploring it for any mark of life. There is no one but has some virtue: that of the clerk was courage; and he would make haste to reassure them in a pleasantry not always decent.

'I'm all right, pals,' he gasped once: 'this is the thing to strengthen the muscles of the larynx.'

'Well, you take the cake!' cried the captain.

'O, I'm good plucked enough,' pursued the sufferer with a broken utterance. 'But it do seem bloomin' hard to me, that I should be the only party down with this form of vice, and the only one to do the funny business. I think one of you other parties might wake up. Tell a fellow something.'

'The trouble is we've nothing to tell, my son,' returned the captain.

'I'll tell you, if you like, what I was thinking,' said Herrick.

'Tell us anything,' said the clerk, 'I only want to be reminded that I ain't dead.'

Herrick took up his parable, lying on his face and speaking slowly and scarce above his breath, not like a man who has anything to say, but like one talking against time.

'Well, I was thinking this,' he began: 'I was thinking I lay on Papeete beach one night--all moon and squalls and fellows coughing--and I was cold and hungry, and down in the mouth, and was about ninety years of age, and had spent two hundred and twenty of them on Papeete beach. And I was thinking I wished I had a ring to rub, or had a fairy godmother, or could raise Beelzebub. And I was trying to remember how you did it. I knew you made a ring of skulls, for I had seen that in the Freischultz: and that you took off your coat and turned up your sleeves, for I had seen Formes do that when he was playing Kaspar, and you could see (by the way he went about it) it was a business he had studied; and that you ought to have something to kick up a smoke and a bad smell, I dare say a cigar might do, and that you ought to say the Lord's Prayer backwards. Well, I wondered if I could do that; it seemed rather a feat, you see.

And then I wondered if I would say it forward, and I thought I did. Well, no sooner had I got to WORLD WITHOUT END, than I saw a man in a pariu, and with a mat under his arm, come along the beach from the town. He was rather a hard-favoured old party, and he limped and crippled, and all the time he kept coughing. At first I didn't cotton to his looks, I thought, and then I got sorry for the old soul because he coughed so hard. I remembered that we had some of that cough mixture the American consul gave the captain for Hay. It never did Hay a ha'porth of service, but I thought it might do the old gentleman's business for him, and stood up. "Yorana!" says I. "Yorana!" says he. "Look here," I said, "I've got some first-rate stuff in a bottle; it'll fix your cough, savvy? Harry my and I'll measure you a tablespoonful in the palm of my hand, for all our plate is at the bankers." So I thought the old party came up, and the nearer he came, the less I took to him. But I had passed my word, you see.'

'Wot is this bloomin' drivel?' interrupted the clerk. 'It's like the rot there is in tracts.'

'It's a story; I used to tell them to the kids at home,' said Herrick. 'If it bores you, I'll drop it.'

'O, cut along!' returned the sick man, irritably. 'It's better than nothing.'

'Well,' continued Herrick, 'I had no sooner given him the cough mixture than he seemed to straighten up and change, and I saw he wasn't a Tahitian after all, but some kind of Arab, and had a long beard on his chin. "One good turn deserves another," says he. "I am a magician out of the Arabian Nights, and this mat that I have under my arm is the original carpet of Mohammed Ben Somebody-or-other. Say the word, and you can have a cruise upon the carpet." "You don't mean to say this is the Travelling Carpet?" I cried. "You bet I do," said he.

"You've been to America since last I read the Arabian Nights," said I, a little suspicious. "I should think so," said he. "Been everywhere. A man with a carpet like this isn't going to moulder in a semi-detached villa." Well, that struck me as reasonable.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 两世黛奇

    两世黛奇

    姐就是不走寻常路——独穿个不景不气的民国。姐的地盘姐做主——就要玩转民国的大上海。我做过小生意,当过老板娘!我穿着小旗袍,做过小舞女!我打着小洋伞,住着小洋房!我叼着小烟嘴,当过黑大佬!我动着小脑子,赚空了银行!都说民国日子苦,我却爱上了这时期胜过法国巴黎的华丽都市都说民国的人难,我却能逍遥一遍带着家人携着黑马享福享安小注几句:因本书纯属小女戏说民国时期的大上海,只想倾绘其繁华与绚丽。随把同时代背景中的战争素材适当的删除了,但情节的发展时间是基本上与历史脚步一致的,而且故事的结局也是美好华丽的。
  • 轮回道仙

    轮回道仙

    浩荡大陆,群雄并起,纷争天下,燕国横扫八方,登顶巅峰,然盛衰之间,阴邪入侵,倾全族之力,击退邪族。五百年后,黄金时代降临,天骄辈出,邪族欲卷土重来,绝望之时,必有应运而生者,刘姓罪子,打破宿命,年少出天灵,为一句誓言,携七尺枪芒,血战强敌,踏碎命运,一念掌轮回,逆生死,以身化道,成就万世永恒!一切尽在,《轮回道仙》!
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 宇宙万界抽奖系统

    宇宙万界抽奖系统

    (写什么呢?挠挠头也想不到)反正就是男主意外获得系统后到处开挂的人生。
  • 指引人生丛书:指引人生的成功智慧

    指引人生丛书:指引人生的成功智慧

    《指引人生丛书:指引人生的成功智慧》中的每一则小故事都发人自省、启人深思。不但有助于我们处理日常生活中偶发的困难情况,而且许多故事和寓言具有的伟大的智慧理念,将帮助我们进一步了解自我及人类的本质,由此领悟更多的人生哲理。许多故事已经过数百年的世代传承,历经时间的锤炼也沉淀了时代的智慧。在每一则故事或寓言中,我们附以精彩的格言,这些都是最贴切的提示,有画龙点睛之妙。《指引人生丛书:指引人生的成功智慧》部分的解读至情至理、丝丝人扣,是对故事或寓言的完美诠释。
  • 我的老婆是群主

    我的老婆是群主

    这是一个群主负责潜水,管理硬刚世界的娱乐脑洞纪律片……大千世界强者回溯时光归家养老婆,却发现老婆身上诸多疑点。诸葛亮携夫人深夜探讨人生;白星变身美少女出海;玖辛奈要毁灭五大忍村;白蛇传更名为金龙传;纳兰嫣然频频打脸萧姓斗帝!这些我都能理解,可是...魂兽森林频频传出的兔子哭声是怎么回事?自称正义的聊天群新群员怎么是威震天?灰太狼凭什么异界纵横?张小凡怎么又仰天长叹:诛仙剑阵何苦为难诛仙剑阵!......本书又名:我的老婆是聊天群群主//怎么努力才能养好爱管闲事的群主老婆。…………新书:海贼之鄙人泽法重生归来已经上传,欢迎支持哇
  • 辣妻上门:男神请收货

    辣妻上门:男神请收货

    *送上门系列【世界那么大,只想和你啪啪啪】“谁让你这么做的?”秦如墨面色冰冷的看着瘫坐在地上的面色酡红的她。“谁?”方茜妩媚一笑,攀着他的身体爬上来,小手探进浴袍敞开的领口向下探索,凑到他耳边吹气似的道:“就是你呀,你不知道我有多喜——”秦如墨身体一颤,却突然伸手抓住了她纤细的脖子……*带球跑系列【世界这么小,到哪都能遇见你】大街上,小孕妇被大男神强行提着领子提上了车。方茜扑腾着腿挣扎着喊道:“喂喂喂!我是孕妇哎,你这么粗鲁真的好么!好吧,我实话告诉你,这颗球不是你的。”秦如墨双眼危险的眯起,声音冷的几乎出口成冰,“我可以把他连同这颗球杀了,再种一颗我的球!”
  • 誓约帝国

    誓约帝国

    帝国七大将之一的王煦,竟然被以莫须有罪名夺取。更可笑的是十年之后,竟然被委任为前进基地的指挥官。
  • 心灯

    心灯

    知名作家张记书的作品集《心灯》知识性、新闻性的因素较多,作家是靠一种机智的构思来展示一种小小说的理性,进而启迪读者的。所收录的小小说,尽管也有意蕴深厚,余味悠长的作品,但多数作品给人一种泾溜分明的感觉,要么直截了当,作家态度在作品中一目了然;要么作家把无解的生活原生态地放到读者面前,交给读者自己定夺。小说艺术本就是一种留白艺术,是由作者与读者来共同完成的一种艺术。
  • 冷心情僵

    冷心情僵

    雪墓之内,我自黑棺之中坐起。一睁眼,世间已过去十万年。陌生的世界,科技修真共存。曾经无敌的我,成了蝼蚁。我本一心求死,直到女儿在我怀中神形俱灭,我的人生才有了意义。当今最强的叶家圣人叶星河,便迎来了岳父的复仇。