英语听书《白鲸记》第32期

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 one whispers to the other Jack,he's robbed a widow;or,Joe,do you mark him;he's a bigamist;or, 

 Harry lad,I guess he's the adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah,or belike,one of the missing murderers from Sodom. 

 Another runs to read the bill that's stuck against the spile upon the wharf² to which the ship is moored,offering five hundred gold coins for the apprehension³ of a parricide, 

 and containing a description of his person.He reads,and looks from Jonah to the bill;while all his sympathetic shipmates now crowd round Jonah, 

 prepared to lay their hands upon him.Frighted Jonah trembles,and summoning all his boldness to his face,only looks so much the more a coward. 

 He will not confess himself suspected;but that itself is strong suspicion.So he makes the best of it;and when the sailors find him not to be the man that is advertised, 

 they let him pass,and he descends⁴ into the cabin. 

 ' Who's there?' cries the Captain at his busy desk,hurriedly making out his papers for the Customs ' Who's there?' 

 Oh!how that harmless question mangles⁵ Jonah!For the instant he almost turns to flee again.But he rallies. 

 ' I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish;how soon sail ye,sir?' Thus far the busy Captain had not looked up to Jonah, 

 though the man now stands before him;but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice,than he darts⁶ a scrutinizing⁷ glance. 

 ' We sail with the next coming tide,' at last he slowly answered,still intently eyeing him.' No sooner,sir?' ' Soon enough for any honest man that goes a passenger.' 

 Ha!Jonah,that's another stab.But he swiftly calls away the Captain from that scent⁸.' I 'll sail with ye,' he says,' the passage money how much is that?I 'll pay now.' 

 For it is particularly written,shipmates,as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history, 

 ' that he paid the fare thereof ' ere the craft did sail.And taken with the context,this is full of meaning. 

 Now's Jonah Captain,shipmates,was one whose discernment detects crime in any,but whose cupidity⁹ exposes it only in the penniless. 

 In this world,shipmates,sin that pays its way can travel freely,and without a passport;whereas Virtue,if a pauper,is stopped at all frontiers. 

 So's Jonah Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah's purse,ere he judge him openly.He charges him thrice the usual sum;and it's assented¹⁰ to. 

 Then the Captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive;but at the same time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with gold. 

 Yet when Jonah fairly takes out his purse,prudent suspicions still molest¹¹ the Captain.He rings every coin to find a counterfeit¹². 

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