Английский язык с Робинзоном Крузо
Шрифт:
down the shore. I saw no other tracks.
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I went back to make sure that I was not dreaming. Yes, there in the sand was the
print of man's foot. It showed the toes, the heel, and the sole of the foot. I was not
dreaming.
My mind was filled with a thousand thoughts and questions. Where was the man
who made that track? Who was he? How did he get there?
I was so frightened that I did not go to the canoe. I turned back and went to my
castle as fast as I could.
Whether I went over by the ladder or through the hole in the rock, I do not know.
But I shut myself up as quickly as I could and began to get ready to defend myself.
That night I could not sleep. I lay in my hammock, and thought and thought.
The track must have been made by an Indian or some other wild savage. This
savage had come perhaps from the land that I had seen far across the sea.
Perhaps he had come to the island alone. Perhaps he had come with many others
of his kind. But where was he now?
I was so much afraid that I did not stir out of my castle for three days and nights. I
was almost starved, for I had only two or three barley cakes in my kitchen.
Little by little I became brave enough to go out again. I crept softly down to my
fields to milk the goats. Poor things! They were glad enough to see me.
But every sound made me start and look around. I fancied that I saw a savage
behind every tree. I lived for days like some hunted thing that trembles at its own
shadow.
And all because I had seen the print of a foot in the sand!
Little by little I grew bolder, and I made up my mind to strengthen my castle. If
savage Indians should indeed come and find me, I would be ready for them.
So I carried out earth and small stones, and piled them up against the castle wall
till it was ten feet thick. I have already told you how strong it was at first, and how I had
made a dense hedge of trees on the outside. It was now so strong that nothing could break
through it.
Through the wall at certain places I made five holes large enough for a man's arm
to reach in. In each of these holes I planted a gun; for you will remember that I brought
several from the ship.
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Each one of these guns was fitted in a frame that could be drawn back and forth.
They worked so well in their places that I could shoot off all five of them in less than two
minutes.
Many a weary month did I work before I had my wall to my notion. But at last it
was finished.
The hedge that was before it grew up so thick and high that no man nor animal
could see through it. If you had seen it, you would not have dreamed there was anything
inside of it, much less a house.
For two years I lived in fear. All that I did was to make my home stronger and
safer.
Far in the woods I built a large pen of logs and stakes. Around it I planted a hedge
like that in front of the castle. Then I put a dozen young goats into it, to feed upon the
grass and grow.
If savages should come, and if they should kill the other goats, they could not find
these; for they were too well hidden in the deep woods.
All these things I did because I had seen the print of a man's foot in the sand.
I AM AGAIN ALARMED (вновь
FIVE or six years had passed (пять или шесть лет прошли), and not another
footprint had I seen (я не видел другого отпечатка ноги).
I had gotten over my great fright (преодолел мой большой страх), and yet I was
not so bold as I had been (но все же я не был не таким отважным, каким
был /раньше/). Any sudden sound would make me start and look around (любой
неожиданный звук мог заставить меня вздрогнуть и /начать/ осматриваться).
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I thought that if savage men had been on the island once (я думал, если дикие
люди были на острове однажды), they were quite likely to come again (они вполне
могли прийти опять; likely – вероятно). So I kept on the lookout for them all the time
(продолжал быть начеку все время, поджидал их все время).
My flock of goats had now grown to be very large (стадо коз стало очень
большим), and I needed another field (мне требовалось другое поле). I wished to put
some of them in a hidden spot where the savages, if they did come, would not find them
(я хотел спрятать некоторых из них в потаенное место, где дикари, если бы они
пришли, не нашли бы их).
I had already a small flock in one such spot (я уже имел маленькое стадо в
одном таком месте), as I have told you. But now I wished to have another (еще одно).
In looking for the right kind of place (ища подходящее место), I went all over