in the low ground where I wandered I kept tripping among bushes and rolling
into sandy pits.
2. Suddenly a kind of brightness fell about me. I looked up; a pale glimmer of
moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the Spy-glass, and soon after I saw
something broad and silvery moving low down behind the trees, and knew the
moon had risen.
3. With this to help me, I passed rapidly over what remained to me of my
journey; and, sometimes walking, sometimes running, impatiently drew near
to the stockade. Yet, as I began to thread the grove that lies before it, I was
not so thoughtless but that I slacked my pace and went a trifle warily. It
would have been a poor end of my adventures to get shot down by my own
party in mistake.
1. The moon was climbing higher and higher (луна поднималась все выше и
выше;
there in masses through the more open districts of the wood (ее свет начинал
падать местами: «здесь и там» на более открытые участки леса = осветил
лесные полянки); and right in front of me a glow of a different colour appeared
among the trees (и прямо передо мной сияние иного цвета появилось среди
деревьев). It was red and hot, and now and again it was a little darkened (оно
было красным и горячим, и время от времени оно становилось немного
темнее) — as it were the embers of a bonfire smouldering (словно это были
586
последние тлеющие угли потухающего костра;
2. For the life of me, I could not think what it might be (хоть убейте: «за свою
жизнь», я не мог понять, что бы это могло быть).
3. At last I came right down upon the borders of the clearing (наконец, я дошел
прямо до опушки;
steeped in moonshine (западный край /частокола/ был уже погружен в лунный
свет); the rest, and the block-house itself (остальная /часть/ и сам блокгауз), still
lay in a black shadow, chequered with long, silvery streaks of light (все еще
лежали во мраке, прорезанном местами длинными серебристыми полосками
света;
the other side of the house (на другой стороне дома) an immense fire had burned
itself into clear embers (громадный костер догорал: «сжег себя», /оставляя/
яркие угольки) and shed a steady, red reverberation (и давая равномерные
красные отсветы;
(отличавшиеся резко от мягкой бледности луны;
(не было ни души двигавшейся, ни звука, помимо шума бриза).
smouldering [`smquldqrIN] chequered [`tSekqd] immense [I`mens] steady
[`stedI]
1. The moon was climbing higher and higher; its light began to fall here and
there in masses through the more open districts of the wood; and right in
front of me a glow of a different colour appeared among the trees. It was red
587
and hot, and now and again it was a little darkened — as it were the embers of
a bonfire smouldering.
2. For the life of me, I could not think what it might be.