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Foulata为了我们而死，而我们被困在满是珍宝的密室中，几乎失去了活着的希望。
Chapter 31
I can give no adequate description of the horrors of the night which followed.
Mercifully they were to some extent mitigated by sleep, for even in such a position as ours wearied nature will sometimes assert itself.
But I, at any rate, found it impossible to sleep much.
Putting aside the terrifying thought of our impending doom — for the bravest man on earth might well quail from such a fate as awaited us, and I never made any pretensions to be brave — the silence itself was too great to allow of it.
Reader, you may have lain awake at night and thought the quiet oppressive, but I say with confidence that you can have no idea what a vivid, tangible thing is perfect stillness.
On the surface of the earth there is always some sound or motion, and though it may in itself be imperceptible（细微的）, yet it deadens（缓和） the sharp edge of absolute silence.
But here there was none.
We were buried in the bowels of a huge snow-clad peak.
Thousands of feet above us the fresh air rushed over the white snow, but no sound of it reached us.
We were separated by a long tunnel and five feet of rock even from the awful chamber of the Dead; and the dead make no noise.
Did we not know it who lay by poor Foulata's side? The crashing of all the artillery （大炮）of earth and heaven could not have come to our ears in our living tomb.
We were cut off from every echo of the world — we were as men already in the grave.
Then the irony of the situation forced itself upon me.
There around us lay treasures enough to pay off a moderate national debt, or to build a fleet of ironclads, and yet we would have bartered them all gladly for the faintest chance of escape.
Soon, doubtless, we should be rejoiced to exchange them for a bit of food or a cup of water, and, after that, even for the privilege of a speedy close to our sufferings.
Truly wealth, which men spend their lives in acquiring, is a valueless thing at the last.
And so the night wore on.
"Good," said Sir Henry's voice at last, and it sounded awful in the intense stillness, "how many matches have you in the box?"
"Eight, Curtis." "Strike one and let us see the time." He did so, and in contrast to the dense darkness the flame nearly blinded us.
It was five o'clock by my watch.
The beautiful dawn was now blushing on the snow-wreaths far over our heads, and the breeze would be stirring the night mists in the hollows.
"We had better eat something and keep up our strength," I suggested.
"What is the good of eating?" answered Good; "the sooner we die and get it over the better."
"While there is life there is hope," said Sir Henry.
Accordingly we ate and sipped some water, and another period of time elapsed（流逝）.
Then Sir Henry suggested that it might be well to get as near the door as possible and halloa（喊叫）, on the faint chance of somebody catching a sound outside.
Accordingly Good, who, from long practice at sea, has a fine piercing note, groped his way down the passage and set to work.
I must say that he made a most diabolical （糟透了的）noise.
I never heard such yells; but it might have been a mosquito buzzing for all the effect they produced.
After a while he gave it up and came back very thirsty, and had to drink.
Then we stopped yelling, as it encroached（减少） on the supply of water.
So we sat down once more against the chests of useless diamonds in that dreadful inaction which was one of the hardest circumstances of our fate; and I am bound to say that, for my part, I gave way in despair.
Laying my head against Sir Henry's broad shoulder I burst into tears; and I think that I heard Good gulping away on the other side, and swearing hoarsely at himself for doing so.
Ah, how good and brave that great man was! Had we been two frightened children, and he our nurse, he could not have treated us more tenderly.
Forgetting his own share of miseries, he did all he could to soothe our broken nerves, telling stories of men who had been in somewhat similar circumstances, and miraculously escaped;
and when these failed to cheer us, pointing out how, after all, it was only anticipating an end which must come to us all, that it would soon be over, and that death from exhaustion was a merciful one (which is not true).
Then, in a diffident sort of way, as once before I had heard him do, he suggested that we should throw ourselves on the mercy of a higher Power, which for my part I did with great vigour.
His is a beautiful character, very quiet, but very strong.
And so somehow the day went as the night had gone, if, indeed, one can use these terms where all was densest night, and when I lit a match to see the time it was seven o'clock.
Once more we ate and drank, and as we did so an idea occurred to me.
"How is it," said I, "that the air in this place keeps fresh? It is thick and heavy, but it is perfectly fresh."
"Great heavens!" said Good, starting up, "I never thought of that.
It can't come through the stone door, for it's air-tight, if ever a door was.
It must come from somewhere.
If there were no current of air in the place we should have been stifled or poisoned when we first came in.
Let us have a look." It was wonderful what a change this mere spark of hope wrought （产生作用）in us.
In a moment we were all three groping about on our hands and knees, feeling for the slightest indication of a draught.
Presently my ardour received a check.
I put my hand on something cold.
It was dead Foulata's face.
For an hour or more we went on feeling about, till at last Sir Henry and I gave it up in despair, having been considerably hurt by constantly knocking our heads against tusks, chests, and the sides of the chamber.
But Good still persevered, saying, with an approach to cheerfulness, that it was better than doing nothing.
"I say, you fellows," he said presently, in a constrained sort of voice, "come here."
Needless to say we scrambled towards him quickly enough.
"Quatermain, put your hand here where mine is.
Now, do you feel anything?"
"I think I feel air coming up."
"Now listen." He rose and stamped upon the place, and a flame of hope shot up in our hearts.
It rang hollow.
With trembling hands I lit a match.
I had only three left, and we saw that we were in the angle of the far corner of the chamber, a fact that accounted for our not having noticed the hollow sound of the place during our former exhaustive examination.
As the match burnt we scrutinised（细查） the spot.
There was a join in the solid rock floor, and, great heavens! There, let in level with the rock, was a stone ring.
We said no word, we were too excited, and our hearts beat too wildly with hope to allow us to speak.
Good had a knife, at the back of which was one of those hooks that are made to extract stones from horses' hoofs.
He opened it, and scratched round the ring with it.
Finally he worked it under, and levered away gently for fear of breaking the hook.
The ring began to move.
Being of stone it had not rusted fast in all the centuries it had lain there, as would have been the case had it been of iron.
Presently it was upright.
Then he thrust his hands into it and tugged with all his force, but nothing budged.（1341 words）
-今日短语-
1. to some extent 某种程度上
2. at any rate 无论如何
3. quail from 胆怯于
4. pay off 偿还
5. wear on（时间）慢慢过去
6. in contrast to 相比之下
7. grope one’s way 探路
8. needless to say不用说
9. shoot up 升起
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