With his air of aimless, insect-like going to and fro upon the face of the rock, Don Pepe’s figure kept on descending steadily17, and, when near the bottom, sank at last behind the roofs of store-houses, forges, and workshops. For a time the pair of serenos strolled back and forth18 before the bridge, on which they had stopped a horseman holding a large white envelope in his hand. Then Don Pepe, emerging in the village street from amongst the houses, not a stone’s throw from the frontier bridge, approached, striding in wide dark trousers tucked into boots, a white linen19 jacket, sabre at his side, and revolver at his belt. In this disturbed time nothing could find the Senor Gobernador with his boots off, as the saying is.
At a slight nod from one of the serenos, the man, a messenger from the town, dismounted, and crossed the bridge, leading his horse by the bridle20.
Don Pepe received the letter from his other hand, slapped his left side and his hips21 in succession, feeling for his spectacle case. After settling the heavy silvermounted affair astride his nose, and adjusting it carefully behind his ears, he opened the envelope, holding it up at about a foot in front of his eyes. The paper he pulled out contained some three lines of writing. He looked at them for a long time. His grey moustache moved slightly up and down, and the wrinkles, radiating at the corners of his eyes, ran together. He nodded serenely22. “Bueno,” he said. “There is no answer.”
Then, in his quiet, kindly23 way, he engaged in a cautious conversation with the man, who was willing to talk cheerily, as if something lucky had happened to him recently. He had seen from a distance Sotillo’s infantry24 camped along the shore of the harbour on each side of the Custom House. They had done no damage to the buildings. The foreigners of the railway remained shut up within the yards. They were no longer anxious to shoot poor people. He cursed the foreigners; then he reported Montero’s entry and the rumours25 of the town. The poor were going to be made rich now. That was very good. More he did not know, and, breaking into propitiatory26 smiles, he intimated that he was hungry and thirsty. The old major directed him to go to the alcalde of the first village. The man rode off, and Don Pepe, striding slowly in the direction of a little wooden belfry, looked over a hedge into a little garden, and saw Father Roman sitting in a white hammock slung27 between two orange trees in front of the presbytery.
An enormous tamarind shaded with its dark foliage28 the whole white framehouse. A young Indian girl with long hair, big eyes, and small hands and feet, carried out a wooden chair, while a thin old woman, crabbed29 and vigilant30, watched her all the time from the verandah.
Don Pepe sat down in the chair and lighted a cigar; the priest drew in an immense quantity of snuff out of the hollow of his palm. On his reddish-brown face, worn, hollowed as if crumbled31, the eyes, fresh and candid32, sparkled like two black diamonds.
Don Pepe, in a mild and humorous voice, informed Father Roman that Pedrito Montero, by the hand of Senor Fuentes, had asked him on what terms he would surrender the mine in proper working order to a legally constituted commission of patriotic33 citizens, escorted by a small military force. The priest cast his eyes up to heaven. However, Don Pepe continued, the mozo who brought the letter said that Don Carlos Gould was alive, and so far unmolested.
Father Roman expressed in a few words his thankfulness at hearing of the Senor Administrador’s safety.
The hour of oration34 had gone by in the silvery ringing of a bell in the little belfry. The belt of forest closing the entrance of the valley stood like a screen between the low sun and the street of the village. At the other end of the rocky gorge, between the walls of basalt and granite35, a forest-clad mountain, hiding all the range from the San Tome dwellers36, rose steeply, lighted up and leafy to the very top. Three small rosy clouds hung motionless overhead in the great depth of blue. Knots of people sat in the street between the wattled huts. Before the casa of the alcalde, the foremen of the night-shift, already assembled to lead their men, squatted37 on the ground in a circle of leather skull-caps, and, bowing their bronze backs, were passing round the gourd38 of mate. The mozo from the town, having fastened his horse to a wooden post before the door, was telling them the news of Sulaco as the blackened gourd of the decoction passed from hand to hand. The grave alcalde himself, in a white waistcloth and a flowered chintz gown with sleeves, open wide upon his naked stout39 person with an effect of a gaudy40 bathing robe, stood by, wearing a rough beaver41 hat at the back of his head, and grasping a tall staff with a silver knob in his hand. These insignia of his dignity had been conferred upon him by the Administration of the mine, the fountain of honour, of prosperity, and peace. He had been one of the first immigrants into this valley; his sons and sons-in-law worked within the mountain which seemed with its treasures to pour down the thundering ore shoots of the upper mesa, the gifts of well-being42, security, and justice upon the toilers. He listened to the news from the town with curiosity and indifference43, as if concerning another world than his own. And it was true that they appeared to him so. In a very few years the sense of belonging to a powerful organization had been developed in these harassed44, half-wild Indians. They were proud of, and attached to, the mine. It had secured their confidence and belief. They invested it with a protecting and invincible45 virtue46 as though it were a fetish made by their own hands, for they were ignorant, and in other respects did not differ appreciably47 from the rest of mankind which puts infinite trust in its own creations. It never entered the alcalde’s head that the mine could fail in its protection and force. Politics were good enough for the people of the town and the Campo. His yellow, round face, with wide nostrils48, and motionless in expression, resembled a fierce full moon. He listened to the excited vapourings of the mozo without misgivings49, without surprise, without any active sentiment whatever.
Padre Roman sat dejectedly balancing himself, his feet just touching50 the ground, his hands gripping the edge of the hammock. With less confidence, but as ignorant as his flock, he asked the major what did he think was going to happen now.
Don Pepe, bolt upright in the chair, folded his hands peacefully on the hilt of his sword, standing51 perpendicular52 between his thighs53, and answered that he did not know. The mine could be defended against any force likely to be sent to take possession. On the other hand, from the arid54 character of the valley, when the regular supplies from the Campo had been cut off, the population of the three villages could be starved into submission55. Don Pepe exposed these contingencies56 with serenity57 to Father Roman, who, as an old campaigner, was able to understand the reasoning of a military man. They talked with simplicity58 and directness. Father Roman was saddened at the idea of his flock being scattered59 or else enslaved. He had no illusions as to their fate, not from penetration60, but from long experience of political atrocities61, which seemed to him fatal and unavoidable in the life of a State. The working of the usual public institutions presented itself to him most distinctly as a series of calamities62 overtaking private individuals and flowing logically from each other through hate, revenge, folly63, and rapacity64, as though they had been part of a divine dispensation. Father Roman’s clear-sightedness was served by an uninformed intelligence; but his heart, preserving its tenderness amongst scenes of carnage, spoliation, and violence, abhorred65 these calamities the more as his association with the victims was closer. He entertained towards the Indians of the valley feelings of paternal66 scorn. He had been marrying, baptizing, confessing, absolving67, and burying the workers of the San Tome mine with dignity and unction for five years or more; and he believed in the sacredness of these ministrations, which made them his own in a spiritual sense. They were dear to his sacerdotal supremacy68. Mrs. Gould’s earnest interest in the concerns of these people enhanced their importance in the priest’s eyes, because it really augmented69 his own. When talking over with her the innumerable Marias and Brigidas of the villages, he felt his own humanity expand. Padre Roman was incapable70 of fanaticism71 to an almost reprehensible72 degree. The English senora was evidently a heretic; but at the same time she seemed to him wonderful and angelic. Whenever that confused state of his feelings occurred to him, while strolling, for instance, his breviary under his arm, in the wide shade of the tamarind, he would stop short to inhale73 with a strong snuffling noise a large quantity of snuff, and shake his head profoundly. At the thought of what might befall the illustrious senora presently, he became gradually overcome with dismay. He voiced it in an agitated74 murmur75. Even Don Pepe lost his serenity for a moment. He leaned forward stiffly.
“Listen, Padre. The very fact that those thieving macaques in Sulaco are trying to find out the price of my honour proves that Senor Don Carlos and all in the Casa Gould are safe. As to my honour, that also is safe, as every man, woman, and child knows. But the negro Liberals who have snatched the town by surprise do not know that. Bueno. Let them sit and wait. While they wait they can do no harm.”
And he regained76 his composure. He regained it easily, because whatever happened his honour of an old officer of Paez was safe. He had promised Charles Gould that at the approach of an armed force he would defend the gorge just long enough to give himself time to destroy scientifically the whole plant, buildings, and workshops of the mine with heavy charges of dynamite77; block with ruins the main tunnel, break down the pathways, blow up the dam of the water-power, shatter the famous Gould Concession78 into fragments, flying sky high out of a horrified79 world. The mine had got hold of Charles Gould with a grip as deadly as ever it had laid upon his father. But this extreme resolution had seemed to Don Pepe the most natural thing in the world. His measures had been taken with judgment80. Everything was prepared with a careful completeness. And Don Pepe folded his hands pacifically on his sword hilt, and nodded at the priest. In his excitement, Father Roman had flung snuff in handfuls at his face, and, all besmeared with tobacco, round-eyed, and beside himself, had got out of the hammock to walk about, uttering exclamations81.
Don Pepe stroked his grey and pendant moustache, whose fine ends hung far below the clean-cut line of his jaw82, and spoke83 with a conscious pride in his reputation.
“So, Padre, I don’t know what will happen. But I know that as long as I am here Don Carlos can speak to that macaque, Pedrito Montero, and threaten the destruction of the mine with perfect assurance that he will be taken seriously. For people know me.”
He began to turn the cigar in his lips a little nervously84, and went on —
“But that is talk — good for the politicos. I am a military man. I do not know what may happen. But I know what ought to be done — the mine should march upon the town with guns, axes, knives tied up to sticks — por Dios. That is what should be done. Only —”
His folded hands twitched85 on the hilt. The cigar turned faster in the corner of his lips.
“And who should lead but I? Unfortunately — observe — I have given my word of honour to Don Carlos not to let the mine fall into the hands of these thieves. In war — you know this, Padre — the fate of battles is uncertain, and whom could I leave here to act for me in case of defeat? The explosives are ready. But it would require a man of high honour, of intelligence, of judgment, of courage, to carry out the prepared destruction. Somebody I can trust with my honour as I can trust myself. Another old officer of Paez, for instance. Or — or — perhaps one of Paez’s old chaplains would do.”
He got up, long, lank86, upright, hard, with his martial87 moustache and the bony structure of his face, from which the glance of the sunken eyes seemed to transfix the priest, who stood still, an empty wooden snuff-box held upside down in his hand, and glared back, speechless, at the governor of the mine.
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收听单词发音
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1
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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knolls
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| n.小圆丘，小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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ranches
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| 大农场， （兼种果树，养鸡等的）大牧场( ranch的名词复数 ) | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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13
zigzag
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| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
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14
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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beetle
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| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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21
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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propitiatory
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| adj.劝解的；抚慰的；谋求好感的；哄人息怒的 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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crabbed
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| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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oration
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| n.演说，致辞，叙述法 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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dwellers
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| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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gourd
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| n.葫芦 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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41
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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42
well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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43
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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44
harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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45
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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46
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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47
appreciably
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| adv.相当大地 | |
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48
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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49
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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50
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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51
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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52
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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53
thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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55
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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rapacity
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| n.贪婪，贪心，劫掠的欲望 | |
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abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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66
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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absolving
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| 宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的现在分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责） | |
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68
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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69
Augmented
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| adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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71
fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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72
reprehensible
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| adj.该受责备的 | |
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inhale
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| v.吸入(气体等)，吸(烟) | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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75
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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76
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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77
dynamite
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| n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破) | |
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concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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83
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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85
twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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