As I rose from drinking, a deadly, all-gone feeling overcame me. After a few seconds of this, a violent and prolonged nausea7 came on. Evidently I had discovered a mineral spring! Perhaps it was arsenic8, perhaps some other poison. Poison of some kind it must have been, and poisonous mineral springs are not unknown.
The sickness was very like seasickness9, with a severe internal pain and a mental stimulus[Pg 110] added. After a few minutes I partly recovered from these effects and set off sadly for the nearest house of which I had heard. This was eight or ten miles distant and I hoped to find it through the guidance of a crude map which a prospector10 had prepared for me. I had not before explored this mountainous section.
SIERRA BLANCA IN WINTER SIERRA BLANCA IN WINTER
The gulches11 and ridges12 which descended14 the slope at right angles to my course gave me a rough sea which kept me stirred up. I advanced in tottering15 installments16; a slow, short advance would be made on wobbly legs, then a heave-to, as pay for the advance gained.
Now and then there was smoothness, and I took an occasional look at severe Sierra Blanca now looming17 big before me. It was mostly bare and brown with a number of icy plates and ornaments18 shining in the sun.
At last in the evening light, from the top of a gigantic moraine, I looked down upon the river and a log ranch-house nestling in a grassy19 open bordered with clumps20 of spruces. An old lady and gentleman with real sympathy in their faces stood in the doorway21 and for a moment [Pg 111] watched me, then hastened to help me from the pole fence to the door.
While giving them an incoherent account of my experience, I fell into a stupor22, and although I had evidently much to say concerning drinking and apparently23 showed symptoms of too much drink, these old people did not think me drunk. Waking from a fantastic dream I heard, "Does he need any more sage24 tea?" The Western pioneers have faith in sage tea and many ascribe to it all the life-saving, life-extending qualities usually claimed for patent medicines. The following morning I was able to walk about, while my slightly bloated, bronzed face did not appear so badly. Altogether, I looked much better than I felt.
These good old people declared that they had not seen better days, but that they were living the simple life from choice. They loved the peace of this isolated25 mountain home and the companionship of the grand old peak. In the Central States the wife had been a professor in a State school, while the husband had been a State's Attorney.[Pg 112]
The nearest neighbor was four miles downstream, and no one lived farther up the mountain. The nearest railroad station was seventy rough mountain-road miles away. It appeared best to hasten to Denver, but two days in a jarring wagon26 to reach the railroad seemed more than I could endure. I had not planned even to try for the top of Colorado's highest peak in midwinter, but the way across Sierra Blanca was shorter and probably much easier than the way around. Across the range, directly over the shoulder of Sierra Blanca, lay historic Fort Garland. It was only thirty miles away, and I determined27 to cross the range and reach it in time for the midnight train. On hearing this resolution the old people were at first astonished, but after a moment they felt that they at last knew who I was.
"You must be the Snow Man! Surely no one but he would try to do this in winter."
They, with scores of other upland-dwellers, had heard numerous and wild accounts of my lone2, unarmed camping-trips and winter adventures in the mountain snows.[Pg 113]
The misgivings28 of the old gentleman concerning the wisdom of my move grew stronger when he perceived how weak I was, as we proceeded on mule-back up the slope of Sierra Blanca. The ice blocked us at timber-line, and in his parting handclasp I felt the hope and fear of a father who sees his son go away into the world. He appeared to realize that I was not only weak, but that at any moment I might collapse29. He knew the heights were steep and stern, and that in the twenty-odd miles to Fort Garland there was neither house nor human being to help me. Apparently he hoped that at the last moment I would change my mind and turn back.
Up the northern side of the peak I made my way. Now and then it was necessary to cut a few steps in the ice-plated steeps. The shoulder of the peak across which I was to go was thirteen thousand feet above the sea, and in making the last climb to this it was necessary to choose between a precipitous ice-covered slope and an extremely steep rock-slide,—more correctly a rock glacier30. I picked my way up this with the greatest caution. To start a rock avalanche[Pg 114] would be easy, for the loose rocks lay insecure on a slope of perilous31 steepness. From time to time in resting I heard the entire mass settling, snarling32, and grinding its way with glacier slowness down the steep.
Just beneath the shoulder the tilting33 steepness of this rocky débris showed all too well that the slightest provocation34 would set a grinding whirlpool of a stone river madly flowing. The expected at last happened when a boulder35 upon which I lightly leaped settled and then gave way. The rocks before made haste to get out of the way, while those behind began readjusting themselves. The liveliest of foot-work kept me on top of the now settling, hesitating, and inclined-to-roll boulder. There was nothing substantial upon which to leap.
Slowly the heavy boulder settled forward with a roll, now right, now left, with me on top trying to avoid being tumbled into the grinding mill hopper below. At last, on the left, a sliding mass of crushed, macadamized rock offered a possible means of escape. Not daring to risk thrusting a leg into this uncertain mass, I al[Pg 115]lowed myself to fall easily backwards36 until my body was almost horizontal, and then face upwards37 I threw myself off the boulder with all my strength. The rock gave a great plunge38, and went bounding down the slope, sending the smaller stuff flying before at each contact with the earth.
Though completely relaxed, and with the snowshoes on my back acting39 as a buffer40, the landing was something of a jolt41. For a few seconds I lay limp and spread out, and drifted slowly along with the slow-sliding mass of macadam. When this came to rest, I rose up and with the greatest concern for my foundation, made my way upwards, and at last lay down to breathe and rest upon the solid granite42 shoulder of Sierra Blanca.
In ten hours the midnight train would be due in Fort Garland, and as the way was all downgrade, I hoped that my strength would hold out till I caught it. But, turning my eyes from the descent to the summit, I forgot the world below, and also my poison-weakened body. Suddenly I felt and knew only the charm and[Pg 116] the call of the summit. There are times when Nature completely commands her citizens. A splendid landscape, sunset clouds, or a rainbow on a near-by mountain's slope,—by these one may be as completely charmed and made as completely captive as were those who heard the music of Orpheus' lyre. My youthful dream had been to scale peak after peak, and from the earthly spires43 to see the scenic44 world far below and far away. All this had come true, though of many trips into the sky and cloudland, none had been up to the bold heights of Blanca. Thinking that the poisoned water might take me from the list of those who seek good tidings in the heights, I suddenly determined to reach those wintry wonder-heights while yet I had the strength. I rose from relaxation45, laid down my snowshoes, and started for the summit.
Blanca is a mountain with an enormous amount of material in it,—enough for a score of sizable peaks. Its battered46 head is nearly two thousand feet above its rugged47 shoulder. The sun sank slowly as I moved along a rocky skyline ridge13 and at last gained the summit.[Pg 117]
Beyond an infinite ocean of low, broken peaks, sank the sun. It was a wonderful sunset effect in that mountain-dotted, mountain-walled plain, the San Luis Valley. Mist-wreathed peaks rose from the plain, one side glowing in burning gold, the other bannered with black shadows. The low, ragged48 clouds dragged slanting49 shadows across the golden pale. A million slender silver threads were flung out in a measureless horizontal fan from the far-away sun. The sunset from the summit of Sierra Blanca was the grandest that I have ever seen. The prismatic brilliancy played on peak and cloud, then changed into purple, fading into misty50 gray, while the light of this strong mountain day slowly vanished in the infinite silence of a perfect mountain night.
Then came the serious business of getting down and off the rough slope and out of the inky woods before darkness took complete possession. After intense vigilance and effort for two hours, I emerged from the forest-robed slope and started across the easy, sloping plain beneath a million stars.[Pg 118]
The night was mild and still. Slowly, across the wide brown way, I made my course, guided by a low star that hung above Fort Garland. My strength ran low, and, in order to sustain it, I moved slowly, lying down and relaxing every few minutes. My mind was clear and strangely active. With pleasure I recalled in order the experiences of the day and the wonderful sunset with which it came triumphantly51 to a close. As I followed a straight line across the cactus-padded plains, I could not help wondering whether the Denver physicians would tell me that going up to see the sunset was a serious blunder, or a poison-eliminating triumph. However, the possibility of dying was a thought that never came.
At eleven o'clock, when instinctively52 and positively53 I felt that I had traveled far enough, I paused; but from Fort Garland neither sound nor light came to greet me in the silent, mysterious night. I might pass close to the low, dull adobes54 of this station without realizing its presence. So confident was I that I had gone far enough that I commenced a series of constantly[Pg 119] enlarging semicircles, trying to locate in the darkness the hidden fort. In the midst of these, a coyote challenged, and a dog answered. I hastened toward the dog and came upon a single low adobe55 full of Mexicans who could not understand me. However, their soft accents awakened56 vivid memories in my mind, and distinctly my strangely stimulated57 brain took me back through fifteen years to the seedling58 orange groves59 in the land of to-morrow where I had lingered and learned to speak their tongue. An offer of five dollars for transportation to Fort Garland in time for the midnight train sent Mexicans flying in all directions as though I had hurled60 a bomb.
Two boys with an ancient, wobbling horse and buckboard landed me at the platform as the headlight-glare of my train swept across it. The big, good-natured conductor greeted me with "Here's the Snow Man again,—worse starved than ever!"
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1
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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alpine
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| adj.高山的；n.高山植物 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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8
arsenic
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| n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的 | |
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seasickness
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| n.晕船 | |
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prospector
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| n.探矿者 | |
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gulches
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| n.峡谷( gulch的名词复数 ) | |
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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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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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15
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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16
installments
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| 部分( installment的名词复数 ) | |
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17
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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18
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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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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21
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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25
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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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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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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glacier
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| n.冰川，冰河 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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32
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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38
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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buffer
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| n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲 | |
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41
jolt
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| v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸 | |
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42
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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43
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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44
scenic
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| adj.自然景色的，景色优美的 | |
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45
relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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46
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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47
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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48
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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49
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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50
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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51
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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52
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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53
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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54
adobes
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| n.风干土坯( adobe的名词复数 )；风干砖坯；（制风干砖用的）灰质粘土；泥砖砌成的房屋 | |
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55
adobe
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| n.泥砖，土坯，美国Adobe公司 | |
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56
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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57
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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58
seedling
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| n.秧苗，树苗 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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