The Savage ignored his offer. "What do you want with me?" he asked, turning from one grinning face to another. "What do you want with me?""The whip," answered a hundred voices confusedly. "Do the whipping stunt. Let's see the whipping stunt."Others at once took up the cry, and the phrase was repeated, parrot-fashion, again and again, with an ever-growing volume of sound,They were all crying together; and, intoxicated by the noise, the unanimity, the sense of rhythmical atonement,they might, it seemed, have gone on for hours-almost indefinitely.But at about the twenty-fifth repetition the proceedings were startlingly interrupted.Yet another helicopter had arrived from across the Hog's Back, hung poised above the crowd,then dropped within a few yards of where the Savage was standing, in the open space between the line of sightseers and the lighthouse.The roar of the air screws momentarily drowned the shouting;broke out again in the same loud, insistent monotone.The door of the helicopter opened, and out stepped, first a fair and ruddy-faced young man,then, in green velveteen shorts, white shirt, and jockey cap, a young woman.
野蛮人没有理会他递出的东西。“你们要拿我干什么？”他望着一个又一个傻笑的面孔问。“你们要究竟要拿我干什么？”“鞭子，”上百条喉咙乱七八糟地叫了起来，“玩一个鞭子功。让我们看看鞭子功。”然后，众口一声叫了起来，缓慢、沉重而有节奏，“我们――要――看――鞭子――功，”背后的人群也叫了起来，“我们――要――看――鞭子――功。”其他的人也立即跟着叫喊，重复着那句话，像鹦鹉学舌。他们叫了又叫，声音越来越大，叫到第七八遍时什么其他的话都不说了。“我们――要――看――鞭子――功。”人群全都叫了起来。受到那喊声，那团结一致，还有作为补偿的节奏感的刺激，他们仿佛可以就像那么叫上几个钟头――几乎可以没完没了地叫下去。但是重复到第二十五次时，那进程却被惊人地打断了。又一架直升机从野猪背飞了过来，在人群头上悬浮了一会儿，然后在野蛮人附近几码处停下，停在人群和灯塔间的空地上。螺旋桨的轰鸣暂时压倒了叫喊。在飞机着陆、引擎关闭之后，“我们――要――看――鞭子――功。”“我们――要――看――鞭子――功。”同样坚持的、单调的高叫又爆发了出来。直升机的门打开了，踏出门来的首先是一个面孔红扑扑的漂亮青年，然后是一个女郎，绿色天鹅绒短裤，白色衬衫，骑手小帽。
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