評論
打印
WITHOUT STANDING UP, we stared in the direction of the forest, my hand stopping halfway to my mouth, Ned Land's completing its assignment.
我們向樹林方面看去，但沒有站起來，我的手正拿食物向嘴里送就停住了，尼德·蘭的手也正好把東西放到嘴中就不動了。
"Stones don't fall from the sky," Conseil said, "or else they deserve to be called meteorites."
康塞爾說："一塊石頭不能從天上掉下來，不然的話，就應(yīng)該叫它為隕石了。”
A second well-polished stone removed a tasty ringdove leg from Conseil's hand, giving still greater relevance to his observation.
第二塊石頭，加工的圓形石頭，又落下來，把康塞爾手中好吃的一塊山鳩腿肉打落了，這證明他的看法更有道理，需要我們注意。
We all three stood up, rifles to our shoulders, ready to answer any attack.
我們?nèi)巳酒饋恚褬尶冈诩缟希瑴蕚淞⒓椿卮疬@次·突然的攻擊。
"Apes maybe?" Ned Land exclaimed.
“是一些猿猴嗎？”尼德·蘭喊。
"Nearly," Conseil replied. "Savages."
“可以說是，”康塞爾回答，“他們是野蠻人。”
"Head for the skiff!" I said, moving toward the sea.
“回小艇去。”我說，同時向海邊走。
Indeed, it was essential to beat a retreat because some twenty natives, armed with bows and slings, appeared barely a hundred paces off, on the outskirts of a thicket that masked the horizon to our right.
果然，我們必須向后退走，因為有二十來個土人，拿著弓箭和投石器，從遮住了右方天際的叢林邊緣出來，相距不過一百步左右。
The skiff was aground ten fathoms away from us.
我們的小艇停在離我們二十米遠的海上。
The savages approached without running, but they favored us with a show of the greatest hostility. It was raining stones and arrows.
這些土人并不快跑，慢慢走來；可是他們做種種表示故意的動作。石塊和弓筋像雨點一般打來。
Ned Land was unwilling to leave his provisions behind, and despite the impending danger, he clutched his pig on one side, his kangaroos on the other, and scampered off with respectable speed.
尼德·蘭不愿意放棄所有的食物，不顧近在眼前的危險，一邊拿野豬，一邊拿袋鼠，相當快地把食物收拾起來。
In two minutes we were on the strand. Loading provisions and weapons into the skiff, pushing it to sea, and positioning its two oars were the work of an instant. We hadn't gone two cable lengths when a hundred savages, howling and gesticulating, entered the water up to their waists. I looked to see if their appearance might draw some of the Nautilus's men onto the platform. But no. Lying well out, that enormous machine still seemed completely deserted.
兩分鐘后，我們就到了灘上。把食物和武器放在小艇里，將小艇推人海中，安上兩支槳，這是一瞬間的事。我們還沒有劃到二百米遠，一百左右的土人大喊大叫，指手畫腳地一直走到水深至腰間的海水中。我小心地看，以為這些土人的出現(xiàn)一定要把諾第留斯號船上的一些人引到平臺上來觀看。可是沒有；這只龐大的機器船睡在海面上，完全看不見人的蹤影。
