Now, this is how the fat man had come by his meal. One thousand miles away, a red Texan steer3 was preparing to go to bed for the night in the company of his fellows—myriads of his fellows. From dawn till late dusk he had loafed across the leagues of grass and grunted4 savagely5 as each mouthful proved to his mind that grass was not what he had known it in his youth. But the steer was wrong. That summer had brought great drought to Mon[Pg 50]tana and Northern Dakota. The cattle feed was withering7 day by day, and the more prudent8 stock owners had written to the East for manufactured provender9. Only the little cactus10 that grows with the grasses appeared to enjoy itself. The cattle certainly did not; and the cowboys from the very beginning of spring had used language considered profane11 even for the cowboy. What their ponies12 said has never been recorded. The ponies had the worst time of all, and at each nightly camp whispered to each other their longings13 for the winter, when they would be turned out on the freezing ranges—galled from wither6 to croup, but riderless—thank Heaven, riderless. On these various miseries14 the sun looked down impartial15. His business was to cake the ground and ruin the grasses.
The cattle—the acres of huddled16 cattle—were restless. In the first place, they were forced to scatter17 for graze; and in the second, the heat told on their tempers and made them prod18 each other with their long horns. In the heart of the herd19 you would have thought men[Pg 51] were fighting with single-sticks. On the outskirts20, posted at quarter-mile intervals21, sat the cowboys on their ponies, the brims of their hats tilted22 over their sun-skinned noses, their feet out of the big brown-leather hooded23 stirrups, and their hands gripping the horn of the heavy saddle to keep themselves from falling on to the ground—asleep. A cowboy can sleep at full gallop24; on the other hand, he can keep awake also at full gallop for eight and forty hours and wear down six unamiable bronchos in the process.
Lafe Parmalee; Shwink, the German who could not ride but had a blind affection for cattle from the branding-yard to the butcher's block; Michigan, so called because he said he came from California but spoke25 not the Californian tongue; Jim from San Diego, to distinguish him from other Jims, and The Corpse26, were the outposts of the herd. The Corpse had won his name from a statement, made in the fulness of much McBrayer whisky, that he had once been a graduate of Corpus Christi. He spoke truth, but to the[Pg 52] wrong audience. The inhabitants of the Elite27 Saloon, after several attempts to get the hang of the name, dubbed28 the speaker The Corpse, and as long as he cinched a broncho or jingled29 a spur within four hundred miles of Livingston—yea, far in the south, even to the unexplored borders of the sheep-eater Indians—he was known by that unlovely name. How he had passed from college to cattle no man knew, and, according to the etiquette30 of the West, no man asked. He was not by any means a tenderfoot—had no unmanly weakness for washing, did not in the least object to appearing at the wild and wonderful reunions held nightly in "Miss Minnie's parlour," whose flaring31 advertisement did not in the least disturb the proprieties32 of Wachoma Junction33, and, in common with his associates, was, when drunk, ready to shoot at anything or anybody. He was not proud. He had condescended34 to take in hand and educate a young and promising35 Chicago drummer, who by evil fate had wandered into that wilderness36, where all his cunning was of no account; and from that youth's[Pg 53] quivering hand—outstretched by command—had shot away the top of a wine-glass. The Corpse was recognised in the freemasonry of the craft as "one of the C.M.R.'s boys, and tough at that."
The C.M.R. controlled much cattle, and their slaughter-houses in Chicago bubbled the blood of beeves all day long. Their salt-beef fed the sailor on the sea, and their iced, best firsts, the housekeeper37 in the London suburbs. Not even the firm knew how many cowboys they employed, but all the firm knew that on the fourteenth day of July their stockyards at Wachoma Junction were to be filled with two thousand head of cattle, ready for immediate38 shipment to Chicago while prices yet ruled high, and before the grass had withered39 utterly40. Lafe, Michigan, Jim, The Corpse and the others knew this too, and were heartily41 glad of it, because they would be paid up in Chicago for their half-year's work, and would then do their best towards painting that town in purest vermilion. They would get drunk; they would gamble, and would otherwise enjoy themselves[Pg 54] till they were broke; and then they would hire out again.
The sun dropped behind the rolling hills; and the cattle halted for the night, cheered and cooled by a little wandering breeze. The red steer's mother had been caught in a hailstorm five years ago. Till she went the way of all cow-flesh she missed no opportunity of telling her son to beware of the hot day and the cold wind that does not know its own mind. "When it blows five ways at once," said she, "and makes your horns feel creepy, get away, my son. Follow the time-honoured instinct of our tribe, and run. I ran"—she looked ruefully at the scars on her side—"but that was in a barb-wire country, and it hurt me. None the less, run." The red steer chewed his cud, and the little wind out of the darkness played round his horns—all five ways at once. The cowboys lifted up their voices in unmelodious song, that the cattle might know where they were, and began slowly walking round the recumbent herd. "Do anybody's horns feel creepy?" queried42 the red steer of his neighbours. "My[Pg 55] mother told me"—and he repeated the tale, to the edification of the yearlings and the three-year-olds breathing heavily at his side.
The song of the cowboys rose higher. The cattle bowed their heads. Their men were at hand. They were safe. Something had happened to the quiet stars. They were dying out one by one, and the wind was freshening. "Bless my hoofs43!" muttered a yearling, "my horns are beginning to feel creepy." Softly the red steer lifted himself from the ground. "Come away," quoth he to the yearling. "Come away to the outskirts, and we'll move. My mother said...." The innocent fool followed, and a white heifer saw them move. Being a woman she naturally bellowed44 "Timber wolves!" and ran forward blindly into a dun steer dreaming over clover. Followed the thunder of cattle rising to their feet, and the triple crack of a whip. The little wind had dropped for a moment, only to fall on the herd with a shriek45 and a few stinging drops of hail, that stung as keenly as the whips. The herd broke into a trot46, a canter, and then a[Pg 56] mad gallop. Black fear was behind them, black night in front. They headed into the night, bellowing47 with terror; and at their side rode the men with the whips. The ponies grunted as they felt the raking spurs. They knew that an all-night gallop lay before them, and woe48 betide the luckless cayuse that stumbled in that ride. Then fell the hail—blinding and choking and flogging in one and the same stroke. The herd opened like a fan. The red steer headed a contingent49 he knew not whither. A man with a whip rode at his right flank. Behind him the lightning showed a field of glimmering50 horns, and of muzzles51 flecked with foam52; a field of red terror-strained eyes and shaggy frontlets. The man looked back also, and his terror was greater than that of the beasts. The herd had surrounded him in the darkness. His salvation53 lay in the legs of Whisky Peat—and Whisky Peat knew it—knew it until an unseen gopher hole received his near forefoot as he strained every nerve—in the heart of the flying herd, with the red steer at his flanks. Then, being only over-[Pg 57]worked cayuse, Whisky Peat fell, and the red steer fancied that there was something soft on the ground.
It was Michigan, Jim and Lafe who at last brought the herd to a standstill as the dawn was breaking, "What's come to The Corpse?" quoth Lafe. Jim loosened the girths of his quivering pony54 and made answer slowly: "Onless I'm a blamed fool, the gentleman is now livin' up to his durned appellation55 'bout56 fifteen miles back—what there is of him and the cayuse." "Let's go and look," said Lafe, shuddering57 slightly, for the morning air, you must understand, was raw. "Let's go to—a much hotter place than Texas," responded Jim. "Get the steers58 to the Junction first. Guess what's left of The Corpse will keep."
And it did. And that was how the fat man in Chicago got his beef. It belonged to the red steer.
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1
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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4
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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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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wither
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| vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡 | |
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withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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provender
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| n.刍草；秣料 | |
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cactus
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| n.仙人掌 | |
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profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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longings
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| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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prod
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| vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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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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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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elite
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| n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的 | |
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dubbed
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| v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制 | |
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jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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proprieties
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| n.礼仪，礼节；礼貌( propriety的名词复数 )；规矩；正当；合适 | |
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junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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38
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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39
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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40
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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42
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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43
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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44
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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45
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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46
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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47
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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48
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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49
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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50
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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51
muzzles
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| 枪口( muzzle的名词复数 )； （防止动物咬人的）口套； （四足动物的）鼻口部； （狗）等凸出的鼻子和口 | |
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52
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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53
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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54
pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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58
steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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