Suddenly Scott shook his head to rid himself of a bothersome fly and the frightened chatter9 of the squirrel as it whisked behind the nearest tree broke the spell. He gave the intruder a quick glance and turned his attention once more to the open letter which he held in his hand. He had read that letter dozens of times, in fact he knew every word on the typewritten page by heart, but he read it again now in the hope of finding some additional meaning between the lines.
“Washington, D. C.
“September 3, 1913.
“Mr. Scott Burton,
“Okalatchee, Fla.
“Dear Mr. Burton:
“Your remarkable10 work in cleaning up the trouble with the sheepmen on the Cormorant11 Forest last summer has led us to select you for some special work of a rather delicate character on the Okalatchee. There have been some timber thieves at work on that forest for some time, and so far our officers have been unable to catch them or effectually put a stop to their work. It will be your particular duty to see that these thefts are stopped and the trespassers brought to justice.
“In order that you may have ample authority, you have been appointed deputy supervisor12 under Mr. Graham and will be given every possible assistance.
“You will report directly to this office.
“Very truly yours,
“Martin Spear,
“Chief of Personnel.”
No, he could not see any more in it, and yet it seemed mighty13 little to tell a man who had been looking forward to that letter for a week and had traveled two thousand miles to get it. He turned the paper over thoughtfully as though he hoped to find some further instructions on the back of it, and then proceeded to review once more the whole situation.
He had been fortunate enough to earn considerable distinction in Arizona, where he had been working as a patrolman, by clearing out a gang of grafters who had been running sheep on the Forest without a permit. This achievement had won for him the chance of an appointment as a ranger14, but he had asked for the opportunity to obtain a little more experience as a patrolman before taking up a more responsible position. His request had been granted and he had spent the summer very profitably on the district he had cleaned up so creditably in the spring.
Suddenly, without the slightest warning, he had received a telegram from the Washington office.
“Report Okalatchee, Fla., at once. You will find instructions there.”
He had become attached to the Southwest and had looked forward contentedly15 to a permanent location there, but he was possessed16 of even more than the usual young man’s love of travel, and Florida had always been a country of his dreams, a country of fairy tales that he had hardly even dared hope to see. The sudden realization17 that he was actually going there had driven everything else from his mind, and an hour after he had received the message he was in the saddle on his way to town.
It was only when he was on the train speeding across the vast expanse of Texas, with plenty of opportunity to think, that he had begun to burn with a consuming curiosity to know what his instructions would be. The longer he had traveled the higher his air castles had grown and the more anxious he had become to see those instructions. By the time he had reached New Orleans he was in such a hurry that he could hardly enjoy his ten-hour wait there, though it was the first southern city he had ever been in and a place which he had always longed to see.
The sight of the tall palmetto palms and the moss-covered live oaks drove his imagination to even more fantastic efforts, and finally arrived in Okalatchee he had almost run directly from the train to the postoffice to get those precious instructions. And this letter was all that he had found. He had found that the supervisor’s headquarters were five miles away through the pine woods and the telephone gave him no answer. He had hired an old negro to drive him over. There was no one there, but the door was not locked and he had decided18 to stay there till some one came. He was not much better off than before he had obtained the letter.
“Well,” Scott thought, “there is nothing to do but wait till the supervisor turns up,” and he proceeded to investigate his new surroundings.
The little three-room cabin, built of rough lumber19 with battens over the cracks, was exactly like numbers of other ranger cabins he had seen, but its location had been selected with more than the usual attention to beauty and comfort. It nestled just within the edge of a very dense20 stand of tall, longleaf pines and the little front yard ran out to meet the broad sand beach. Flowerbeds of hibiscus and groups of oleanders lined the walk of crushed oyster shells, and plants with which Scott was entirely21 unfamiliar22 were scattered23 around in great profusion24 on either side of the cabin. It seemed to Scott as though a woman must have planned it all, for he could not imagine a man taking so much pains with the decoration of his home. He found himself thinking that it was no wonder this fellow had not caught the timber thieves.
Just to the west of the cabin a little creek25 bordered with titi and sweet jasmine wandered slowly out to meet the blue waters of the Gulf. It could not always have flowed as slowly as it did now, for some time in the past it had built quite a little delta26 which extended out in the form of a miniature cape27, and was covered with a grove28 of tall, stately palmettos. Far out from the shore a long line of low-lying sand islands broke the horizon. It was certainly an ideal spot.
The interior of the cabin was quite as tastily equipped as the exterior29, and the cupboard seemed to be stocked for a long siege. There was nothing lacking even to the luxuries. Scott smiled as he thought of his own bare little shack30 high up in the southern Rockies with the round bullet hole in the windowpane.
“I don’t care if that sissy supervisor does not show up for a week,” Scott grunted31 contentedly as he settled down in a comfortable steamer chair on the porch. No one could have asked for a better place to wait. But Scott was not much given to idle comfort, especially when his curiosity was aroused, and it usually was aroused about something. Just now he was almost wild to know something more of this new problem which he had been given to solve. He watched a little flock of sandpipers run along the smooth beach a way, following the very edge of a wave, but long before they had turned the point of the little palmetto cape he jumped restlessly from the chair and went into the cabin to study a map which he had noticed hanging on the wall.
It was a detailed32 map, showing the irregular boundary of Okalatchee forest and the different types of timber. It was a great sprawling33 tract34 of a million acres extending along the gulf to the river on the west, to the farm lands on the east, and north to the big swamp. It was covered with unfamiliar terms he had seen in books, but which had never seemed real to him before. He had always read them before as he would read the names in a fairy tale, and here he was in the very midst of them: pine ridge35 and cypress36 swamp, hardwood bottom and gum slough37, low hammock and baygall, high hammock and cane38 break, turpentine orchards39 and stills.
He marveled at the great number of ridges40 shown in that flat country, and the many long, stringlike swamps which paralleled the river and the coast. And he wondered where in all that maze41 of unknown country the timber thieves whom he was supposed to catch were working. He noted42 several ranger stations shown on the map and wondered whether any of them were connected with the mystery as had been the case in the sheep business in the West, or whether there were really any thieves at all. He remembered reading a story in which men had been convicted on circumstantial evidence of stealing a raft of logs, and it was not till they had served a month in jail that the raft had been found in the bottom of the pond where it had been tied.
If only the supervisor, or any one else who could tell him anything about it, would come. He had not liked the “gum-shoe” game as he had called it when he had been obliged to try his hand at it in the West, but he found himself eager to get at it here because other men had tried it and failed. It seemed to him like a challenge and he was eager to accept it.
He pored over the map, studying the lay of the land and letting his imagination run wild. He had caught those thieves in forty different ways in at least a dozen different parts of the map when the failing light warned him that it was time to get supper and prepare for the night.
He had no instructions or invitation to make use of that cabin or the supplies in it, but there is a certain freemasonry among the men of the woods which was invitation enough for him. He had no hesitation43 in spreading his blankets on one of the beds and ransacking44 the cupboard for his supper. There was plenty to choose from and the wood was laid in the stove ready for the match. In half an hour he was sitting down to his lonely meal.
But it was not destined45 to be a lonely meal. Scott had hardly finished what he probably would have called his “first course,” when he heard a light step on the shell walk, a thud or two on the porch, and a man loomed46 big in the doorway47.
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1
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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2
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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3
oyster
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| n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人 | |
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4
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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5
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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6
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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7
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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8
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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9
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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10
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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11
cormorant
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| n.鸬鹚，贪婪的人 | |
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12
supervisor
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| n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师 | |
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13
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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14
ranger
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| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
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15
contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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16
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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17
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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18
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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19
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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20
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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21
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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22
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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23
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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24
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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25
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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26
delta
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| n.（流的）角洲 | |
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27
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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28
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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29
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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30
shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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31
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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32
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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33
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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34
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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35
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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36
cypress
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| n.柏树 | |
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37
slough
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| v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃 | |
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38
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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39
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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40
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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41
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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42
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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43
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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44
ransacking
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| v.彻底搜查( ransack的现在分词 )；抢劫，掠夺 | |
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45
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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46
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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47
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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