It was close to noon, and a number of men were coming down a flight of stairs which reached the sidewalk a few doors beyond the drug store. The last one was Hunch2 Badeau, with his ulster collar turned up, his cap pulled down over his ears, and his fur mittens3 on.
When they reached the street two of the other men turned and shook hands with him; but he had nothing to say, and a moment later he was walking alone, slowly, up the bridge approach. The examination was over and he was free. His case had not reached a trial, for he had killed Considine plainly in self-defense.
A long row of schooners4, steamers, and tugs6 lay along the docks on both sides of the river. On most of the schooners a length of stovepipe came out of a cabin window, and a few wisps of smoke, winding7 lazily out to be snatched away by the wind, showed that many a sailor was lying dormant8 during the winter months. Hunch lingered on the bridge. He had once spent such a winter in Chicago on a big schooner5, locked up snugly9 in the North Branch near Goose Island, eating and sleeping, smoking and swapping10 yams, and helping11 to drink up somebody’s summer profits. That was a long while ago; it seemed to Hunch a dim part of some past life, before he had ever met a woman other than the rough girls of the Chicago levee and the North Peninsula stockades12.
Mr. Jackson had told Hunch that he need not go back to work that day, so he climbed to his room and sat on the chair by the window. Bruce’s things were lying about the room; his razor on the bureau, his Sunday clothes over a chair in the closet, his shoes under the foot of the bed. Hunch got up and began to get them together, without knowing exactly why he was doing it. He packed what he could in the patent-leather valise, and made up the rest into bundles, borrowing paper and string from the landlady13. Then he sat down again, but before long, too restless to stay alone, he put on his coat and walked out to the mill. Mr. Jackson was standing14 near the waste dump with a memorandum15 book in his hand.
“Well, Badeau, what’s the matter?”
“Nothing. Guess I might’s well get to work.”
“Just as you like.”
The men looked surprised when he joined them. He was nervous and he worked both himself and them at a pace that wore them out in a few hours. But at six o’clock, when the whistle blew, and he put on his coat and went back to the boarding-house, he felt refreshed.
On Sunday, after several days of hesitating over the best way to get Bruce’s things to Mamie, Hunch gathered up the bundles and the valise, and took the noon train to Liddington. He sat for two hours in the station before he could make up his mind to take them to Joe Cartier’s house. When he finally knocked at the door, Joe’s wife opened it.
“How d’ye do, Mr. Badeau? Come in, won’t you?”
“No, I can’t,” said Hunch. “Hold on; yes, I will, too, just a minute. Where’s Joe?”
“Here he is,” replied Joe himself, coming through the hall in his shirt-sleeves. “Come in, and set down.”
Hunch stepped in and dropped the bundles in the corner.
“Can I speak to you a minute, Joe?”
“Sure thing. Walk in the front room. Martha, I could swear Hunch ain’t had his dinner. Fetch out some of the chicken and potatoes. It ain’t so hot as it was, Hunch, but it’s good, plain stuff—good enough for us, ain’t it, Martha?”
“No, don’t you, Mis’ Cartier. I can’t stay, honest. I had some grub, anyhow.”
But Joe’s wife hurried out to the kitchen, leaving Joe and Hunch in the front room.
“Take off your coat, man,” said Joe. “What you getting so bashful about all of a sudden?”
Hunch unbuttoned his coat, nervously16.
“Is she staying here yet, Joe?”
“Who’s that you mean, Hunch? Bruce’s wife? She’s going up to her father’s tomorrow.”
“How’s that happen?”
“Well, I’ll tell you, Hunch—you won’t say anything about it, of course—but when Bruce—when he died, you know, and I knowed that girl didn’t have a cent anywheres, and worse’n that, if you count his debts, I just thought—kind of—that the old man, he didn’t know quite how things stood, or he wouldn’t be so ugly. You see, don’t you?”
Hunch nodded.
“And, of course, I couldn’t say nothing to her, you know, ‘cause she’d think first thing I meant about the rent—she’s a touchy17 little thing, you know—so I says to Martha, ‘Martha, you just take your work’-this was Thursday-’Martha,’ I says, ‘you just take your work and go up to Mis’ Banks’ and set down and have a good old jaw18 with the old lady. She’ll let you talk to her,’ I says, ‘’cause she used to be your Sunday-school teacher, and she’s always took a shine to you. And you just lay out the whole thing, and tell her that if she ain’t wanting to lose the respect of one grocer in this town, she’d better just leave go of one of those missionary19 societies of hers, and watch out a little for her own daughter.’ Martha, she felt kind of delicate about going, but she went down just the same, and tackled the old lady, and when she come back, her eyes were like she’d been crying, so I know’d it was all right and I didn’t say nothing. And, sure enough, that night old Banks himself come around and stood up stiff in the door and says, ‘Is my daughter here, Cartier?’-He always calls me ‘Joe,’ you know, and I calls him ‘George’; but that ain’t no matter.-I says, ‘Yes,’ and he goes upstairs, and then Martha and I, we just keeps out of the way in the kitchen, so’s he could go out without running into any of us. But ‘long about half-past nine he comes out, and knocks on the kitchen door, and says, ‘My daughter’s coming to my house, Joe.’ And I says, ‘When?’ and he says, ‘Monday, and let me know what the board ‘ll amount to?’ And you see, Hunch, I was kind of foolish myself, so I just says, ‘All right, George,’ and then he goes out. So the girl’s going to keep alive, anyhow, and that’s something.”
Hunch rose and slowly buttoned his ulster.
“You give her them things, won’t you, Joe? I dunno as I’d say anything about my bringing them down.”
“Why, hold on, man; you ain’t going now. Martha’s out getting some dinner for you.”
“Sorry,” said Hunch. “I got to get back.”
“Oh, pshaw, Hunch; this ain’t right. Wait a minute, anyhow. I guess Mis’ Considine would like to see you. She’s right upstairs.”
“No,” said Hunch, slowly, “she don’t want to see me.” Cartier looked at him a little surprised, then suddenly grew embarrassed.
“I forgot,” he said; “I clean forgot. No, I don’t s’pose she does.”
Hunch turned and felt for the doorknob. Mrs. Cartier was coming in from the kitchen, and she hurried forward.
“Don’t let him go now, Joe. His dinner’s all ready.”
“That’s right,” Joe urged. “You see, you can’t go, Hunch.”
“I’m sorry,” said Hunch. “Good day.” He hurried out, and left Joe and his wife looking at each other.
Hunch had been back in Manistee nearly a week, when one day he received a letter in a perfumed envelope, like the ones Bruce used to get, when they were together on the schooner. He carried it in his pocket all the afternoon, and at night, wondering what she could have to say, and yet not daring to open it and find out, he set it upon his bureau, taking it up every few minutes and turning it over in his hands. In the morning when he awoke and got out of bed to dress, it was there on the bureau staring at him. He held it tip to the light several times, then tore off the end of the envelope and drew out the letter. It was a stiffly worded little note, thanking him for bringing Bruce’s things, and was signed, “Yours truly, Mary Considine.” Hunch could not tell why it made him happy. He read it over and over—the first letter she had ever written to him. He stood by the lamp, holding it in his hand.
Then, suddenly, he thought of Bruce, and the letter dropped to the table and lay there for a long time untouched, while he dressed with clumsy fingers. But before he went out to work he put it away in his inside pocket. It stayed there for a long time, and sometimes in the evenings, long afterward20, he would take it out and read it.
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1
crunched
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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2
hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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3
mittens
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| 不分指手套 | |
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4
schooners
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| n.（有两个以上桅杆的）纵帆船( schooner的名词复数 ) | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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6
tugs
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| n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 )；猛拖；拖船v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 ) | |
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7
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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8
dormant
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| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
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9
snugly
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| adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地 | |
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10
swapping
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| 交换，交换技术 | |
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11
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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12
stockades
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| n.（防御用的）栅栏，围桩( stockade的名词复数 ) | |
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13
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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14
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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15
memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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16
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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17
touchy
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| adj.易怒的；棘手的 | |
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18
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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19
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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