The lawyer paid no sort of attention to the night, but strode across the grass, swung himself over the stile, and pulled back the great stable door, creaking shrilly3 on its rollers, with angry energy. He stopped upon the threshold of the darkness, through which the shapes of carriages covered with white sheets vaguely4 loomed5, and called out:
“Milton!”
There was the answering sound of footsteps overhead. A door at the top of the stairs was opened, and a flood of light illumined the staircase.
“Oh, you’ve got back, ay?” said a voice from the top.
It had been Milton’s idea, when the new buildings were erected6, to achieve complete domestic autonomy by arranging for himself a residential7 room above the carriage place. The chamber8 was high and commodious9. It had been lathed10 and plastered, and, in lieu of wall-paper, the sides were decorated with coarsely-colored circus bills, or pictures from sporting weeklies, all depicting11 women in tights. There was a good corded bed in one corner. Two chairs, a stained pine table on which, beside the lamp, were some newspapers, a little wood stove, and a mantel-shelf covered with tin-types and cheap photographs, completed the scene. Milton enjoyed living here greatly. It comported12 with his budding ideas of his own personal dignity, and it freed him from the disagreeable supervision13 which the elder Miss Fairchild was so prone14 to exercise over all who lived in the house. Only the Lawton girl, Melissa, came across the yard each forenoon, to tidy up the room, and chuckle15 over the pictures and the tastes which these, and the few books Milton from time to time brought home from a sporting-library at Thessaly, indicated.
“It’s lucky you hadn’t gone to bed,” said the lawyer, curtly16, pulling his hat over his eyes to shade them from the flaring17 light, and sitting down. “I was going to wake you up. What’s your news?”
“I’ve been over to Tyre twice to see Beekman, ’n’ no use. Once he wouldn’t talk at all—jis’ kep his ole lantern-jaws tight shet, ’n’ said ’Ef Albert Fairchild wants to see me, he knaows where I kin2 be faound.’ Th’ other time he was more talkative—tried his best to fine aout what I was drivin’ at, but I couldn’t git no satisfaction aout o’ him. He wouldn’t bine himself to nothin’. He jis’ stood off et arm’s lenth, ’n’ sized up what I was a sayin’ in that dum sly way o’ his. I couldn’t make head nor tail of him. He wouldn’t say he would take money, ’n’ he wouldn’t say he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t say yes or nao to th’ post office scheme, or anythin’ else. He jis’ kep’ his big eyes on me, as much as to say, ‘You ketch a weasel asleep!’ ’n’ listened. Naow yeh knaow th’ hull18 of it. If yeh want anythin’ more done, yeh better do it yerself.”
The lawyer looked attentively19 at his hired man, and drummed with his fingers on the-table. “So that’s all, is it? You are no further ahead with Beek-man than when the Convention adjourned20? You’ve got no proposition from him—no statement as to how he takes my proposals?”
“That’s it, Albert—jest it!”
Something in Milton’s tone seemed to annoy Albert even more than his confession21 of failure had done. He rose to his feet abruptly22. “Don’t ‘Albert’ me!” he said, raising his voice out of its accustomed calm; “I don’t like it! You take too much upon yourself. But—I am to blame for it myself. I’ve let you run things with too free a hand, and trusted affairs to you that I ought to have kept to myself. It is always my way,” he went on, in petulant23 selfcriticism. “I never did trust anybody who was worth the powder to blow him up. I ought to be used to it by this time. But to encounter two such fools in one evening—and this evening of all others, too—by George! it’s enough to make a man strike his mother!”
“I ain’t no fool, Mister Fairchild”—the hired man was standing24 up too, and his harsh tones gave the title an elaborate, almost ridiculous emphasis—“’n’ I’ll thank yeh to keep yer tongue civil, tew! Ef yeh don’t like my style, yeh kin git sum’un else to do yer dirty work for yeh. I’ve no hankerin’ fer it. I’m hired to manage this farm, I am. Nothin’ was said ’baout my hevin’ to run a Congresshn’l campaign into th’ bargain. I ain’t sayin’ but what I kin do it’s well’s some other folks. I ain’t sayin’ that it’s beyon’ me. P’raps I’ve got my pull ’n’ this caounty, ’s well ’s some other people. P’raps ’f I was amine to, I could knock somebuddy’s game skyhigh, jis’ by liftin’ my little finger tomorrer. I ain’t sayin’ I’m goin’ to dew it. I ain’t findin’ no fault with yeh. All I say is I ain’t goin’ to take one ioty o’ slack from you, or anybody else, about this thing. You hear me!”
The hired man had spoken aggressively and loudly, with his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest, and his shaggy head well up in the air. He knew his employer pretty well, and had estimated with some precision the amount of impudence25 he would bear. This full measure he was not disposed to abate26 one atom. He had failed to buy the Jay County boss, or even to satisfactorily gauge27 his intentions, it was true, but that was no reason why he should submit to being called a fool by Albert Fairchild, who couldn’t run his farm, let alone his Congressional campaign, without him. So the mean-figured, slouching countryman, with his cheap, ill-fitting clothes, frowzy28 beard, and rough, red hands truculently29 spread palm outward on his breast, stood his ground before the city lawyer and grinned defiance30 at him.
The lawyer did not immediately reply. He was not ordinarily at a loss for words or decisions in his dealings with men, but this rude, uncouth32 rustic33, with his confident air and his fund of primordial34 cunning, puzzled him. There was some uneasiness in the feeling, too, for he could not remember the exact limits of his confidences with Milton. Moreover he could not afford, at any price, to quarrel with him now on the eve of the Convention. “After the election we’ll clip your wings, my fine fellow,” he thought to himself, but he gave the words upon which he finally decided35 a kindlier turn.
“Yes, I hear you. Almost anybody on the side-hill could, the way you are talking. There is no reason why you should lose your temper. If you couldn’t fix Beekman, why that’s all there is to it. We must go at it in a different way. I can see through him. He’s standing out for a cash payment. The old fox wants money down.”
“Well, you’ve got it fur him, hain’t yeh? Go ’n’ give it to him, straight aout!”
“But that’s it—I wanted you to bring back an idea of his figure.”
“His figger. How much hev yeh got?”
“Never mind that—it’s a d——d sight more than the office is worth; but when a man gets into a fight of this sort, he’s got to force his way through, cost or no cost.”
“Air yeh sure it can’t be traced? Wuz yeh careful to raise it so nobuddy cud spot yeh, and give aout that yeh got so much money together for purposes o’ bribery36?”
“Yes, it is perfectly37 safe. There is no record.”
“’N’ nobuddy on airth knaows yeh’ve got th’ money?”
“Not a living soul!”
The two men communed together as to the importance of immediate31 action. The Convention was to reassemble at Tyre, fifteen miles away, at eleven the following forenoon. The political master of Jay County, Abe Beekman, who held in his hands the deciding power, lived near Tyre, but in the valley some miles further on. The first train from Thessaly in the morning would be too late, for Beekman would have already arrived on the ground at Tyre, coming from the opposite direction, and would have begun work on his own hook. He must be seen at his home, early in the morning. The question was—how to encompass38 this.
“You might drive across to-night,” Albert suggested; “it can’t be more than twenty miles. It’s a bad, up-hill road, but four or five hours ought to do it, easily enough. By George—I believe I’ll go myself—start at once, see Beekman about daybreak, and then come back to Tyre by breakfast time; as if I had just driven over from here. No one will suspect a thing.”
“Yes, thet’s a fust-rate idee,” assented39 Milton; “only be keerful ’n’ put yer money in a safe place.”
The lawyer again slapped his breast with a confident “Never fear about that,” and went to the house to get some wraps for the night ride, leaving Milton to harness the grays, and drag out the sidebar buggy with the pole. The hired-man hummed to himself as he moved quietly, dextrously in the semi-darkness in the performance of this task.
Albert returned, just as the hame straps40 were being buckled41.
“Everybody seems to be asleep in the house,” he said. “If they ask any questions in the morning, mind you know nothing whatever. That brother of mine is no friend. Be careful what you say to him. Let him walk to the depot42 in the morning. It’ll do him good. Oh yes, by the way, better let me have one of those revolvers of yours—you have ’em upstairs, haven’t you—give me the one that strikes fire every time.”
Milton came down and out presently, saying that he just remembered having lent the weapon. “’Tother’s no good,” he added; “yeh don’t need no pistol anyway. Th’ moon’ll be up direc’ly.”
Albert gathered up the lines, and drove out slowly toward the road.
“Yeh better save th’ beasts till after yeh git over Tallman’s hill, ’n’ rest ’em there by th’ gulf43!” Milton called after him, as a last injunction.
The hired man stood at the stable door, and watched the buggy pass the darkened, silent house, turn out on the high-road, and disappear beneath the poplars. The moon was just coming up, beyond this line of trees, and it made the gloom of their shadow deeper. His eyes, from following the vehicle ranged back to the house, which reared itself black against the whitening sky. There was there no sound, nor any sign of life. He took a revolver out of his pocket, and examined it in the starlight, cocking it again and again to make sure that there had been no mistake. Satisfied with the inspection44, he put it back in his side coat-pocket. He went upstairs, changed his hat, took a drink out of a flat brown bottle in his cupboard, and spent a minute or two looking at one of the tin-type portraits on the mantel-shelf. He held the picture to the light, and grinned as he gazed—then put it in his breast pocket, blew out the lamp, and felt his way softly down stairs.
A few minutes later he came out from the stable, leading the swift black mare45. She was saddled and bridled46, and seemed to understand, as he led her over the grass, that he wanted no noise made. The man and beast, throwing long, grotesque47 shadows on the lawn, in the light of the low moon, stole past the house, and out upon the road. Milton here climbed into the saddle, and with an exultant48 little cluck, started in the direction his master had gone, still keeping the black mare on the grass. They, too, disappeared under the poplars.
The moon mounted into the heavens, pushing aside the aspiring49 clouds which sought to dispute her passage, then clothing them in her own livery of light, and drawing them upward after her, in a glittering train of attendance. All over the hill-side the calm radiance rested. The gay hues50 with which autumn’s day brush painted the woods, the hedge rows, the long stretches of orchard51, stubble, and field, sought now to only hint at their beauty, as they yielded new outlines, mystic suggestions of form and color, in the soft gray picture of mezzotint. Thin films of vapor52 rose to enwrap the feet of the dark firs, nearer to the sky, and in the valley below the silver of the moonlight lost itself on the frost-like whiteness of the gathering53 mist. It was a night for the young to walk together, and read love’s purest, happiest thoughts in each other’s eyes—for the old to drink in with thankful confession the faith that the world was still gracious and good.
Milton was walking the mare now, still on the grass. He could hear the sound of wheels, just ahead.
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1
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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3
shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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4
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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5
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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6
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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7
residential
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| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
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8
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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lathed
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| 车床( lathe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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depicting
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| 描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述 | |
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12
comported
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| v.表现( comport的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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15
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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16
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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19
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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20
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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22
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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24
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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25
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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26
abate
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| vi.(风势，疼痛等)减弱，减轻，减退 | |
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27
gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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28
frowzy
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| adj.不整洁的；污秽的 | |
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29
truculently
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30
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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31
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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33
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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34
primordial
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| adj.原始的；最初的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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36
bribery
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| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
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37
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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38
encompass
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| vt.围绕，包围；包含，包括；完成 | |
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39
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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41
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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42
depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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43
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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44
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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45
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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46
bridled
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| 给…套龙头( bridle的过去式和过去分词 )； 控制； 昂首表示轻蔑（或怨忿等）； 动怒，生气 | |
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47
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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48
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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49
aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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50
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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51
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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52
vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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53
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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