“Strange, what can keep him?” muttered Boone, impatiently.
“Haven’t you seen him at all?” Kenton asked.
“No, not since we parted.”
“It must be past twelve.”
“Perhaps he’s been captivated by the red heathens,” Boone suggested.
“That is possible,” Kenton replied.
“Shall we wait any longer?”
“Just as you say.”
“Hello! what’s that?” cried Boone, suddenly.
Eagerly the two listened.
Then, through the wood, with stealthy steps, came a dark form.
Cold drops of sweat stood, bead-like, upon the foreheads of the two scouts as they looked upon the dark form.
“Jerusalem! did you see it?” muttered Boone, with a shiver, after the terrible form had disappeared in the shadows of the wood.
“Yes,” replied Kenton, in a solemn tone.
“What do you think it is?”
“It’s a spook, and no mistake,” Kenton said, with a shake of the head.
“Yes. Why, they wouldn’t believe this if we were to tell it in the station.”
“That’s truth; but seein’ is believin’, you know.”
“I think we may as well be going,” said Kenton, with a nervous shiver, and a stealthy look around, as though he expected to see a demon form in every bush.
“And not wait for Lark?”
“What’s the use? It will be morning soon. Ten to one he has missed us and taken the back track to the station.”
“Yes, that is likely. Let’s be going, then,” coincided Boone.
[33]
The two, carefully emerging from their covert11 in the bushes, crossed the little glade and passed in front of the hollow oak.
As they passed the tree, Kenton, who was a little in the advance, halted suddenly and placed his hand in alarm upon the arm of Boone.
“What’s the matter?” asked Boone, quickly, in a cautious whisper.
“Look there,” Kenton said, in the same low, guarded tone, and, as he spoke12, he pointed13 to the ground before him.
Boone, with straining eyes, looked in the direction indicated by the outstretched hand of his companion.
On the earth before them was stretched a dark form.
“What do you think?” said Kenton, in a whisper.
“It’s a man, I think.”
“Can it be another victim of the Wolf Demon?”
“P’haps so; let’s examine it,” said Boone.
Then the two, stealing forward with stealthy steps, knelt by the side of the senseless form. It was a man attired15 in the forest garb16 of deer-skin. He was lying with his face downward.
The scouts turned him over, and then a cry of surprise broke from their lips.
The man was Abe Lark.
“Lark, by hookey!” exclaimed Boone, in wonder.
“And hurt, too!” cried Kenton.
“It ’pears so.”
Then carefully they searched for the wound.
The search was fruitless. Lark was unhurt.
The two scouts looked at each other in wonder.
“What on yearth is the meaning of it?” questioned Kenton.
Boone shook his head in doubt.
Lark’s face was as white as the face of the dead, excepting that part where the crimson18 scar traversed it.
Large drops of sweat stood upon the forehead of the senseless man, and he breathed heavily, as if in pain. The veins19, too, of the forehead were swollen20 out like whipcords. All gave evidence of great agony.
“What shall we do?” asked Kenton, puzzled.
“First, get him out of this faint,” replied Boone.
“What do you suppose is the matter with him?”
“It looks like a fit,” Boone said, thoughtfully. “P’haps he’s seen that awful figure, and the spook cast a spell upon him.”
To the superstitious21 minds of the borderers this seemed a reasonable explanation.
“If I only had a little water now,” said Boone, looking around him as if in search of some friendly spring.
“I’ve got a little flask22 of whisky,” and Kenton produced it from an inside pocket of his hunting-shirt as he spoke.
“That will do fust-rate, but it’s kinder of a shame to waste good liquor,” said Boone, with a comical grin, as he proceeded to bathe the forehead of the senseless man with the whisky.
In a few moments a low groan23 came from the lips of Lark. Then a convulsive shudder24 shook his massive frame.
“He’s coming to,” said Kenton, who was anxiously watching the face of Lark.
“I knew the whisky would fetch him,” Boone remarked.
Lark’s eyes opened slowly, and with a bewildered expression, like one in a maze25, he gazed into the faces of the men who knelt by his side.
“What the deuce is the matter with my head?” he muttered.
It was evident that his senses were still in a maze.
“He don’t know you,” said Kenton, in a whisper, to Boone.
“No,” replied the other, in the same guarded tone; “he hain’t fully10 recovered yet; hain’t got his mind right.”
Then again Lark, whose eyes had wandered off listlessly in the forest, looked into the face of the man who bent26 so earnestly over him.
A gleam of recognition came over Lark’s features. Feebly he raised his hand to his head and passed it across his forehead, as if by the act to call back his scattered27 senses.
“Kurnel Boone,” he murmured.
“And Kenton, too,” Lark continued.
“Right to an iota,” returned the borderer.
“What on yearth has been the matter with me?” and Lark, with the assistance of Boone, rose to a sitting posture29 as he spoke.
“That is what bothers us,” Boone said. “We have been waiting for you to come for some time, as agreed upon; and at last, growing tired of waiting, we concluded either that you had been taken prisoner by the Shawnees, or else that you had returned to the station, having missed us in the forest in some way.”
A puzzled look appeared upon Lark’s face.
“I can’t understand it,” he muttered, in doubt.
“Understand what?” Boone asked.
“Why, how I came to be here.”
“Don’t you know?” Boone asked.
“No,” Lark replied.
“Ain’t you hurt in some way?”
“Not as I knows on.”
“Have you seen any thing terrible for to skeer you?” and the old hunter glanced nervously31 around as he spoke, as though he expected to see the dreaded32 wood demon by his side.
“No,” again replied Lark.
“Well, where have you been?”
“I don’t know.”
Again the two scouts stared at their companion in amazement.
“You don’t know?” Boone questioned, in wonder.
“No; I can’t remember any thing about it.”
“What have you been doing since we parted?”
“I can’t tell you that, either,” replied Lark, evidently as greatly puzzled as the other two.
“Can’t tell?”
“No. I can remember parting with you here some hours ago, and making the agreement to meet you here again. Then I struck off into the forest, intending to scout into the Indian village.”
“Yes.”
“And that is all I can remember.”
“You don’t remember what you did after that?”
“Not a thing about it,” Lark replied, decidedly.
“Why, that was hours ago. I’ve been a prisoner in the hands of the Shawnees, and escaped from them, too, in that time,” Boone said.
“I can not explain; it is all a blank to me,” Lark replied.
“Perhaps you were taken with a fit?” suggested Kenton.
“Perhaps so.”
“But where have you kept yourself?—for I’ll swear that you wasn’t hyer thirty minutes ago,” Boone said, decidedly.
“I can’t understand it in the least,” Lark replied, rising to his feet as he spoke.
“Well, it’s the most mysterious affair that I ever heerd of,” Boone added, with a doubtful shake of the head. “How do you feel—weak?”
“No, as strong and as well as I ever was.”
“It sounds just like one of the old hobgoblin stories that my father used to tell by the fire on a winter’s night,” Boone said, thoughtfully. “I allers thought that they were all lies, but this story of yours is as strange as any of them.”
“It beats me,” Kenton observed.
“Well, let’s be going.”
And following Boone’s lead, they proceeded on their way.
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收听单词发音
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1
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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2
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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4
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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6
glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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7
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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8
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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9
sagely
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| adv. 贤能地，贤明地 | |
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10
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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11
covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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12
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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13
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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14
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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15
attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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17
tersely
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| adv. 简捷地, 简要地 | |
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18
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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19
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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20
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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21
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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22
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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23
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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24
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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25
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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26
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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27
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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28
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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29
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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30
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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31
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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32
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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