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小说: the red one 字数: 每页4000字

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village; had wanted his head。  Others of the grinning and

chattering monkey…men; all as stark of clothes and bestial of

appearance as Balatta; had wanted his body for the roasting oven。

At that time he had not understood their language; if by LANGUAGE

might be dignified the uncouth sounds they made to represent ideas。

But Bassett had thoroughly understood the matter of debate;

especially when the men pressed and prodded and felt of the flesh

of him as if he were so much commodity in a butcher's stall。



Balatta had been losing the debate rapidly; when the accident

happened。  One of the men; curiously examining Bassett's shot…gun;

managed to cock and pull a trigger。  The recoil of the butt into

the pit of the man's stomach had not been the most sanguinary

result; for the charge of shot; at a distance of a yard; had blown

the head of one of the debaters into nothingness。



Even Balatta joined the others in flight; and; ere they returned;

his senses already reeling from the oncoming fever…attack; Bassett

had regained possession of the gun。  Whereupon; although his teeth

chattered with the ague and his swimming eyes could scarcely see;

he held on to his fading consciousness until he could intimidate

the bushmen with the simple magics of compass; watch; burning

glass; and matches。  At the last; with due emphasis; of solemnity

and awfulness; he had killed a young pig with his shot…gun and

promptly fainted。



Bassett flexed his arm…muscles in quest of what possible strength

might reside in such weakness; and dragged himself slowly and

totteringly to his feet。  He was shockingly emaciated; yet; during

the various convalescences of the many months of his long sickness;

he had never regained quite the same degree of strength as this

time。  What he feared was another relapse such as he had already

frequently experienced。  Without drugs; without even quinine; he

had managed so far to live through a combination of the most

pernicious and most malignant of malarial and black…water fevers。

But could he continue to endure?  Such was his everlasting query。

For; like the genuine scientist he was; he would not be content to

die until he had solved the secret of the sound。



Supported by a staff; he staggered the few steps to the devil…devil

house where death and Ngurn reigned in gloom。  Almost as infamously

dark and evil…stinking as the jungle was the devil…devil house … in

Bassett's opinion。  Yet therein was usually to be found his

favourite crony and gossip; Ngurn; always willing for a yarn or a

discussion; the while he sat in the ashes of death and in a slow

smoke shrewdly revolved curing human heads suspended from the

rafters。  For; through the months' interval of consciousness of his

long sickness; Bassett had mastered the psychological simplicities

and lingual difficulties of the language of the tribe of Ngurn and

Balatta and Vngngn … the latter the addle…headed young chief who

was ruled by Ngurn; and who; whispered intrigue had it; was the son

of Ngurn。



〃Will the Red One speak to…day?〃 Bassett asked; by this time so

accustomed to the old man's gruesome occupation as to take even an

interest in the progress of the smoke…curing。



With the eye of an expert Ngurn examined the particular head he was

at work upon。



〃It will be ten days before I can say 'finish;'〃 he said。  〃Never

has any man fixed heads like these。〃



Bassett smiled inwardly at the old fellow's reluctance to talk with

him of the Red One。  It had always been so。  Never; by any chance;

had Ngurn or any other member of the weird tribe divulged the

slightest hint of any physical characteristic of the Red One。

Physical the Red One must be; to emit the wonderful sound; and

though it was called the Red One; Bassett could not be sure that

red represented the colour of it。  Red enough were the deeds and

powers of it; from what abstract clues he had gleaned。  Not alone;

had Ngurn informed him; was the Red One more bestial powerful than

the neighbour tribal gods; ever athirst for the red blood of living

human sacrifices; but the neighbour gods themselves were sacrificed

and tormented before him。  He was the god of a dozen allied

villages similar to this one; which was the central and commanding

village of the federation。  By virtue of the Red One many alien

villages had been devastated and even wiped out; the prisoners

sacrificed to the Red One。  This was true to…day; and it extended

back into old history carried down by word of mouth through the

generations。  When he; Ngurn; had been a young man; the tribes

beyond the grass lands had made a war raid。  In the counter raid;

Ngurn and his fighting folk had made many prisoners。  Of children

alone over five score living had been bled white before the Red

One; and many; many more men and women。



The Thunderer was another of Ngurn's names for the mysterious

deity。  Also at times was he called The Loud Shouter; The God…

Voiced; The Bird…Throated; The One with the Throat Sweet as the

Throat of the Honey…Bird; The Sun Singer; and The Star…Born。



Why The Star…Born?  In vain Bassett interrogated Ngurn。  According

to that old devil…devil doctor; the Red One had always been; just

where he was at present; for ever singing and thundering his will

over men。  But Ngurn's father; wrapped in decaying grass…matting

and hanging even then over their heads among the smoky rafters of

the devil…devil house; had held otherwise。  That departed wise one

had believed that the Red One came from out of the starry night;

else why … so his argument had run … had the old and forgotten ones

passed his name down as the Star…Born?  Bassett could not but

recognize something cogent in such argument。  But Ngurn affirmed

the long years of his long life; wherein he had gazed upon many

starry nights; yet never had he found a star on grass land or in

jungle depth … and he had looked for them。  True; he had beheld

shooting stars (this in reply to Bassett's contention); but

likewise had he beheld the phosphorescence of fungoid growths and

rotten meat and fireflies on dark nights; and the flames of wood…

fires and of blazing candle…nuts; yet what were flame and blaze and

glow when they had flamed and blazed and glowed?  Answer:

memories; memories only; of things which had ceased to be; like

memories of matings accomplished; of feasts forgotten; of desires

that were the ghosts of desires; flaring; flaming; burning; yet

unrealized in achievement of easement and satisfaction。  Where was

the appetite of yesterday? the roasted flesh of the wild pig the

hunter's arrow failed to slay? the maid; unwed and dead ere the

young man knew her?



A memory was not a star; was Ngurn's contention。  How could a

memory be a star?  Further; after all his long life he still

observed the starry night…sky unaltered。  Never had he noted the

absence of a single star from its accustomed place。  Besides; stars

were fire; and the Red One was not fire … which last involuntary

betrayal told Bassett nothing。



〃Will the Red One speak to…morrow?〃 he queried。



Ngurn shrugged his shoulders as who should say。



〃And the day after? … and the day after that?〃 Bassett persisted。



〃I would like to have the curing of your head;〃 Ngurn changed the

subject。  〃It is different from any other head。  No devil…devil has

a head like it。  Besides; I would cure it well。  I would take

months and months。  The moons would come and the moons would go;

and the smoke would be very slow; and I should myself gather the

materials for the curing smoke。  The skin would not wrinkle。  It

would be as smooth as your skin now。〃



He stood up; and from the dim rafters; grimed with the smoking of

countless heads; where day was no more than a gloom; took down a

matting…wrapped parcel and began to open it。



〃It is a head like yours;〃 he said; 〃but it is poorly cured。〃



Bassett had pricked up his ears at the suggestion that it was a

white man's head; for he had long since come to accept that these

jungle…dwellers; in the midmost centre of the great island; had

never had intercourse with white men。  Certainly he had found them

without the almost universal beche…de…mer English of the west South

Pacific。  Nor had they knowledge of tobacco; nor of gunpowder。

Their few precious knives; made from lengths of hoop…iron; and

their few and more precious tomahawks from cheap trade hatchets; he

had surmised they had captured in war from the bushmen of the

jungle beyond the grass lands; and that they; in turn; had

similarly gained them from the salt…water men who fringed the coral

beaches of the shore and had contact with the occasional white men。



〃The folk in the out beyond do not know how to cure heads;〃 old

Ngurn explained; as he drew forth from the filthy matting and

placed in Bassett's hands an indubitable white man's head。



Ancient it was beyond question; white it was as the blond hair

attested。  He co

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