Burmese Days 缅甸岁月 Chapter 23

Next day the town was quieter than a cathedral city on Monday morning. It is usually the case after a riot. Except for the handful of prisoners, everyone who could possibly have been concerned in the attack on the Club had a watertight alibi ¹. The Club garden looked as though a herd ² of bison had stampeded across it, but the houses had not been plundered ³, and there were no new casualties among the Europeans, except that after everything was over Mr Lackersteen had been found very drunk under the billiard- table, where he had retired ⁴ with a bottle of whisky. Westfield and Verrall came back early in the morning, bringing Maxwell's murderers under arrest; or at any rate, bringing two people who would presently be hanged for Maxwell's murder. Westfield, when he heard the news of the riot, was gloomy but resigned. AGAIN it happened--a veritable riot, and he not there to quell ⁵ it! It seemed fated that he should never kill a man. Depressing, depressing. Verrall's only comment was that it had been 'damned lip' on the part of Flory (a civilian) to give orders to the Military Police., ,Meanwhile, it was raining almost without cease. As soon as he woke up and heard the rain hammering on the roof Flory dressed and hurried out, Flo following. Out of sight of the houses he took off his clothes and let the rain sluice ⁶ down on his bare body. To his surprise, he found that he was covered with bruises ⁷ from last night; but the rain had washed away every trace of his prickly heat within three minutes. It is wonderful, the healing power of rainwater. Flory walked down to Dr Veraswami's house, with his shoes squelching ⁸ and periodical jets of water flowing down his neck from the brim of his Terai hat. The sky was leaden, and innumerable whirling storms chased one another across the maidan like squadrons of cavalry ¹⁰. Burmans passed, under vast wooden hats in spite of which their bodies streamed water like the bronze gods in the fountains. A network of rivulets ¹² was already washing the stones of the road bare. The doctor had just got home when Flory arrived, and was shaking a wet umbrella over the veranda ¹⁴ rail. He hailed Flory excitedly., ,'Come up, Mr Flory, come up at once! You are just apropos ¹⁵. I was on the point of opening a bottle of Old Tommy Gin. Come up and let me drink to your health, ass ¹¹ the saviour ¹⁶ of Kyauktada!', , ,'You see, my friend, this riot--or rather, your most noble behaviour in it--wass quite outside U Po Kyin's programme. He had started the SO-CALLED rebellion and had the glory of crushing it, and he calculated that any further outbreak would simply mean more glory still. I am told that when he heard of Mr Maxwell's death, hiss ²⁰ joy was positively ²¹'--the doctor nipped his thumb and forefinger ²² together--'what iss the word I want?', ,'Obscene?', ,The police are suspicious of his alibi because he already has a record.警方对他不在场的辩解表示怀疑，因为他已有前科。,She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野 。