CHAPTER 1 THERE ARE HEROISMS ALL ROUND US1
第一章 英豪遍地1
CHAPTER 2 TRY YOUR LUCK WITH PROFESSOR CHALLENGER10
第二章 去查林杰教授那儿碰碰运气吧10
CHAPTER 3 HE IS A PERFECTLY IMPOSSIBLE PERSON22
第三章 多么不可思议的一个人22
CHAPTER 4 IT''S JUST THE VERY BIGGEST THING IN THE WORLD33
第四章 这真是世上最伟大的发现33
CHAPTER 5 QUESTION!58
第五章 有疑问!58
CHAPTER 6 I WAS THE FLAIL OF THE LORD79
第六章 上帝派来的惩罚者79
CHAPTER 7 TOMORROW WE DISAPPEAR INTO THE UNKNOWN94
第七章 明天我们将进入那神秘的国度94
CHAPTER 8 THE OUTLYING PICKETS OF THE NEW WORLD110
第八章 通往新世界的要隘110
CHAPTER 9 WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN IT?130
第九章 当初谁想得到呢?130
CHAPTER 10 THE MOST WONDERFUL THINGS HAVE HAPPENED166
第十章 发生了不可思议的奇迹166
CHAPTER 11 FOR ONCE I WAS THE HERO188
第十一章 我当了一次英雄188
CHAPTER 12 IT WAS DREADFUL IN THE FOREST213
第十二章 森林里真可怕213
CHAPTER 13 A SIGHT I SHALL NEVER FORGET237
第十三章 我永远也忘不掉那一幕景象237
CHAPTER 14 THOSE WERE THE REAL CONQUESTS260
第十四章 这才是真正的胜利260
CHAPTER 15 OUR EYES HAVE SEEN GREAT WONDERS283
第十五章 我们看到了很多奇异的事物283
CHAPTER 16 A PROCESSION! A PROCESSION!309
第十六章 游行去!游行去!309
內容試閱:
Chapter 1 There Are Heroisms All Round Us
第一章 英豪遍地
MR. HUNGERTON, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth - a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self. If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it would have been the thought of such a father-in-law. I am convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round to the Chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his company, and very especially to hear his views upon bimetallism - a subject upon which he was by way of being an authority.
For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards of exchange.
"Suppose," he cried, with feeble violence, "that all the debts in the world were called up simultaneously and immediate payment insisted upon. What, under our present conditions, would happen then?"
I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man, upon which he jumped from his chair, reproved me my habitual levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the room to dress for a Masonic meeting.
At last I was alone with Gladys, and the moment of fate had come! All that evening I had felt like the soldier who awaits the signal which will send him on a forlorn hope, hope of victory and fear of repulse alternating in his mind.
She sat with that proud, delicate profile of hers outlined against the red curtain. How beautiful she was! And yet how aloof! We had been friends, quite good friends; but never could I get beyond the same comradeship which I might have established with one of my fellow-reporters upon the Gazette - perfectly frank, perfectly kindly, and perfectly unsexual. My instincts are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me. It is no compliment to a man. Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand. The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure - these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion. Even in my short life I had learned as much as that - or had inherited it in that race-memory which we call instinct.
Gladys was full of every womanly quality. Some judged her to be cold and hard, but such a thought was treason. That delicately-bronzed skin, almost Oriental in its coloring, that raven hair, the large liquid eyes, the full but exquisite lips - all the stigmata of passion were there. But I was sadly conscious that up to now I had never found the secret of drawing it forth. However, come what might, I should have done with suspense and bring matters to a head tonight. She could but refuse me, and better be a repulsed lover than an accepted brother.
So far my thoughts had carried me, and I was about to break the long and uneasy silence when two critical dark eyes looked round at me, and the proud head was shaken in smiling reproof.
"I have a presentiment that you are going to propose, Ned. I do wish you wouldn''t, for things are so much nicer as they are."
I drew my chair a little nearer.
"Now, how did you know that I was going to propose?" I asked, in genuine wonder.
"Don''t women always know? Do you suppose any woman in the world was ever taken unawares? But, oh, Ned, our friendship has been so good and so pleasant! What a pity to spoil it! Don''t you feel how splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked?"
"I don''t know, Gladys. You see, I can talk face to face with - with the station-master." I can''t imagine how that official came into the matter, but in he trotted and set us both laughing. "That does not satisfy me in the least. I want my arms round you and your head on my breast, and, oh, Gladys, I want -"
She had sprung from her chair as she saw signs that I proposed to dem