官术网_书友最值得收藏!

第1章

THE INTEREST ON TEN SHILLINGS

Most of you will have heard that Allan Quatermain, who was one of the party that discovered King Solomon's mines some little time ago, and who afterwards came to live in England near his friend Sir Henry Curtis.He went back to the wilderness again, as these old hunters almost invariably do, on one pretext or another.They cannot endure civilization for very long, its noise and racket and the omnipresence of broad-clothed humanity proving more trying to their nerves than the dangers of the desert.I think that they feel lonely here, for it is a fact that is too little understood, though it has often been stated, that there is no loneliness like the loneliness of crowds, especially to those who are unaccustomed to them."What is there in the world,"old Quatermain would say, "so desolate as to stand in the streets of a great city and listen to the footsteps falling, falling, multitudinous as the rain, and watch the white line of faces as they hurry past, you know not whence, you know not whither? They come and go, their eyes meet yours with a cold stare, for a moment their features are written on your mind, and then they are gone for ever.You will never see them again; they will never see you again; they come up out of the unknown, and presently they once more vanish into the unknown, taking their secrets with them.Yes, that is loneliness pure and undefiled; but to one who knows and loves it, the wilderness is not lonely, because the spirit of nature is ever there to keep the wanderer company.He finds companions in the winds--the sunny streams babble like Nature's children at his feet; high above them, in the purple sunset, are domes and minarets and palaces, such as no mortal man has built, in and out of whose flaming doors the angels of the sun seem to move continually.

And there, too, is the wild game, following its feeding-grounds in great armies, with the springbuck thrown out before for skirmishers;then rank upon rank of long-faced blesbuck, marching and wheeling like infantry; and last the shining troops of quagga, and the fierce-eyed shaggy vilderbeeste to take, as it were, the place of the cossack host that hangs upon an army's flanks.

[*] This of course was written before Mr.Quatermain's account of the adventures in the newly-discovered country of Zu-Vendis of himself, Sir Henry Curtis, and Capt.John Good had been received in England.--Editor.

"Oh, no," he would say, "the wilderness is not lonely, for, my boy, remember that the further you get from man, the nearer you grow to God," and though this is a saying that might well be disputed, it is one I am sure that anybody will easily understand who has watched the sun rise and set on the limitless deserted plains, and seen the thunder chariots of the clouds roll in majesty across the depths of unfathomable sky.

Well, at any rate we went back again, and now for many months I have heard nothing at all of him, and to be frank, I greatly doubt if anybody will ever hear of him again.I fear that the wilderness, that has for so many years been a mother to him, will now also prove his grave and the grave of those who accompanied him, for the quest upon which he and they have started is a wild one indeed.

But while he was in England for those three years or so between his return from the successful discovery of the wise king's buried treasures, and the death of his only son, I saw a great deal of old Allan Quatermain.I had known him years before in Africa, and after he came home, whenever I had nothing better to do, I used to run up to Yorkshire and stay with him, and in this way I at one time and another heard many of the incidents of his past life, and most curious some of them were.No man can pass all those years following the rough existence of an elephant-hunter without meeting with many strange adventures, and in one way and another old Quatermain has certainly seen his share.Well, the story that I am going to tell you in the following pages is one of the later of these adventures, though Iforget the exact year in which it happened.at any rate I know that it was the only trip upon which he took his son Harry (who is since dead)with him, and that Harry was then about fourteen.And now for the story, which I will repeat, as nearly as I can, in the words in which Hunter Quatermain told it to me one night in the old oak-panelled vestibule of his house in Yorkshire.We were talking about gold-mining--

"Gold-mining!" he broke in; "ah! yes, I once went gold-mining at Pilgrims' Rest in the Transvaal, and it was after that that we had the business about Jim-Jim and the lions.Do you know Pilgrim's Rest?

Well, it is, or was, one of the queerest little places you ever saw.

The town itself was pitched in a stony valley, with mountains all about it, and in the middle of such scenery as one does not often get the chance of seeing.Many and many is the time that I have thrown down my pick and shovel in disgust, clambered out of my claim, and walked a couple of miles or so to the top of some hill.Then I would lie down in the grass and look out over the glorious stretch of country--the smiling valleys, the great mountains touched with gold--real gold of the sunset, and clothed in sweeping robes of bush, and stare into the depths of the perfect sky above; yes, and thank Heaven I had got away from the cursing and the coarse jokes of the miners, and the voices of those Basutu Kaffirs as they toiled in the sun, the memory of which is with me yet.

為你推薦
天之下
會員

昆侖紀元,分治天下的九大門派為新一屆盟主之位明爭暗斗,關外,薩教蠻族卷土重來……亂世中,蕓蕓眾生百態(tài)沉浮,九大家英杰輩出,最終匯成一首大江湖時代的磅礴史詩,并推動天下大勢由分治走向大一統(tǒng)。

三弦 29.5萬讀過
龍族Ⅰ:火之晨曦(修訂版)
會員

《龍族第2季》7月18日起每周五10點,騰訊視頻熱播中!人類歷史中,總是隱藏著驚人的秘密。在多數(shù)人所不知道的地方,人類與龍族的戰(zhàn)爭已經(jīng)進行了幾千年。路明非的十八歲,在他最衰的那一刻,一扇通往未知國度的門轟然洞開。直升機如巨鳥般掠過南方小城的天空,在少年路明非的頭頂懸停。隱藏在歷史中的那場戰(zhàn)爭,就要重開大幕。歡迎來到……龍的國度!

江南 7.1萬讀過
天亮了,你就回來了
會員

《夏有喬木雅望天堂》作者籽月闊別3年全新力作,電子書全文首發(fā)。穿越時空元氣少女VS風度翩翩優(yōu)質(zhì)大叔。如果愛人突然消失,你會等幾年?江倩兮撞上時空折疊,短短10個小時,外界已過了23年,好不容易追到手的新婚丈夫,轉(zhuǎn)眼變成陌生大叔?!完美言情男主再添一員猛將:顧池!少年時,他是腹黑學霸,牢牢抓住姐姐的心。新婚時,他是甜美奶狗,撒嬌男人最好命。愛人無故失蹤,他在漫長等待里事業(yè)有成,溫潤不油膩的優(yōu)質(zhì)大叔誰能拒絕?

籽月 11萬讀過
明朝那些事兒(全集)
會員

《明朝那些事兒》主要講述的是從1344年到1644年這三百年間關于明朝的一些故事。以史料為基礎,以年代和具體人物為主線,并加入了小說的筆法,語言幽默風趣。對明朝十七帝和其他王公權貴和小人物的命運進行全景展示,尤其對官場政治、戰(zhàn)爭、帝王心術著墨最多,并加入對當時政治經(jīng)濟制度、人倫道德的演義。它以一種網(wǎng)絡語言向讀者娓娓道出明朝三百多年的歷史故事、人物。其中原本在歷史中陌生、模糊的歷史人物在書中一個個變得鮮活起來。《明朝那些事兒》為我們解讀歷史中的另一面,讓歷史變成一部活生生的生活故事。

當年明月 275萬讀過
奪嫡
會員

【古風群像+輕松搞笑+高甜寵妻】【有仇必報小驕女X腹黑病嬌九皇子】《與君歡》作者古言甜寵新作!又名《山河美人謀》。磕CP的皇帝、吃瓜的朝臣、大事小事都要彈劾一下的言官……古風爆笑群像,笑到停不下來!翻開本書,看悍婦和病嬌如何聯(lián)手撬動整個天下!未婚夫又渣又壞,還打算殺人滅口。葉嬌準備先下手為強,順便找個背鍋俠。本以為這個背鍋俠是個透明病弱的“活死人”,沒想到傳言害人,他明明是一個表里不一、心機深沉的九皇子。在葉嬌借九皇子之名懲治渣男后。李·真九皇子·策:“請小姐給個封口費吧。”葉嬌心虛:“你要多少?”李策:“一百兩。”葉嬌震驚,你怎么不去搶!!!

月落 2.5萬讀過
主站蜘蛛池模板: 阳山县| 武川县| 云霄县| 华亭县| 临汾市| 巩留县| 泸定县| 盈江县| 廉江市| 凤阳县| 株洲县| 石柱| 余姚市| 晋州市| 陇西县| 门头沟区| 西城区| 安达市| 凤冈县| 凤山市| 读书| 谷城县| 绩溪县| 淄博市| 云霄县| 苏尼特左旗| 洛扎县| 西乌珠穆沁旗| 天长市| 兴义市| 龙井市| 大厂| 北流市| 响水县| 阳信县| 日土县| 兴义市| 长垣县| 斗六市| 喀喇沁旗| 温泉县|