As the sun sank, angry red in our faces, presaging6 a storm, the course of the little stream we had been following drew in closer toward these grotesque7 piles, and the trail we followed became narrower, with the sluggish8 current pressing upon one side and that odd ? 55 ? bank of gleaming sand upon the other. In a little open space, where quite a carpet of coarse yellowish grass had found lodgment, beneath the protecting shadow of a knot of cottonwoods, we finally made camp, and proceeded to prepare our evening meal. Determined11 to strike north through those guarding sand-dunes12, and reach the shore of the lake if possible before final darkness fell, I hastily crowded my pockets with food, and looked eagerly around for some congenial companion. Captain Wells, whom I should have preferred to be with me, was deep in conference with one of the Miami chiefs, and not to be disturbed; Jordan had seemingly been detailed13 to the command of the night-guard; so, as a last resort, I turned aside and sought De Croix. I found him seated cross-legged on a blanket beneath one of the cottonwoods, a silver-backed mirror propped14 against a tree-butt in his front, while the obsequious15 darkey was deliberately16 combing out his long hair and fashioning it anew. The Frenchman glanced up at me with a welcoming smile of rare good-humor.
"Ah, sober-face! and have you at last mustered17 courage to break away from the commander of this most notable company?" he cried mockingly. "'Tis passing strange he does not chain you to his saddle! By Saint Guise18! 'twould indeed be the only way in which so dull a cavalier would ever hold me loyal to his whims19. Friend Wayland, I scarce thought you ? 56 ? would ever thus honor me again; and yet, 'tis true, I have had an ambition within my heart ever since we first met. 'Tis to cause you to fling aside those rough habiliments of the wilderness20, and attire21 yourself in garments more becoming civilized22 man. Would that I might induce you, even now, to permit Sam to rearrange those heavy blond locks à la Pompadour. Bless me! but it would make a new man of you."
"Such is not at all my desire, Monsieur," I answered, civilly. "I came now merely to learn if you would walk with me through these dunes of sand before the daylight fades."
He looked out, idly enough, across that dreary23 expanse of desolation, and shrugged24 his shoulders.
"Use the other powder, Sam, the lighter25 colored," he murmured languidly, as if the sight had wearied him; "and mind you drop not so much as a pinch upon the waistcoat."
Then he lifted his eyes inquiringly to mine.
"For what?" he asked.
"To look forth26 upon the Great Lake. Captain Wells tells me 'tis but a brief and safe walk from here to the shore-line."
"The lake?—water?" and the expression upon his face made me smile. "Mon Dieu, man! have you become crazed by the hard march? What have I ever said in our brief intercourse27 that could cause you to conceive I care greatly for that? If it were only wine, now!"
"The obsequious darkey was deliberately combing out his long hair."
? 57 ?
"You have no desire to go with me, then?"
"Lay out the red tie, Sam; no, the one with the white spots in it, and the small curling-iron. No, Monsieur; what you ask is impossible. I travel to the west for higher purpose than to gaze upon a heaving waste of water. Sacre! did I not have a full hundred days of such pleasure when first I left France? My poor stomach has not fairly settled yet from its fierce churning. Know ye not, Master Wayland, that we hope to be at this Fort Dearborn upon the morrow, and 'tis there I meet again the fair Toinette? Saints! but I must look my best at such a time, not worn and haggard from tramping through the sand. She was ever a most critical maid in such matters, and has not likely changed. 'Tis curled too high upon the right brow, you black imp5! and, as I live, there is one hair you have missed entirely28."
Realizing the uselessness of waiting longer, I turned my back upon his vanity, and strode off alone. It is not my nature to swerve29 from a purpose merely because others differ in desires; and I was now determined to carry out my plan. I took one of the narrow depressions between two mounds of sand and plunged30 resolutely31 forward, endeavoring to shape my course as directly northward32 as the peculiarities33 of the path would admit. To my mind, there was little to fear ? 58 ? from the hostile Indians, as every sign proved them to be hastening westward34 in advance of us; while I was too long accustomed to adventure to be easily confused, even in the midst of that lonely desolation.
I soon found the walking difficult; for I sank to the ankles with each step, while the soft sliding sand rolled beneath me so as to yield no solid foothold. The irregularity of the mounds continually blocked my passage, and caused me to deviate35 in direction, so that I grew somewhat bewildered, the entire surface bearing such uniformity of outline as to afford little guide. Yet I held to my original course fairly well, for I could pilot somewhat by the dim north star; and it was not long before my alert ears caught the pounding of surf along the shore-line. Much encouraged, I pressed forward with greater rapidity, ignoring the lanes between the dunes, and clambering over the mounds themselves in my eagerness to reach the lake before the complete closing down of night.
At last I topped a particularly high ridge36 that felt solid to the feet; and as I did so the wind came, hard and biting, against my face. There, just below me, not fifty feet away, were rolling the great waves, white-capped and roaring, pounding like vast sledges37 upon the anvil38 of the sand. My entire being thrilled at the majestic39 sight, and for the moment I forgot everything as I gazed away across those restless, heaving waters, seemingly without limit, stretching ? 59 ? forth into the dim northward as far as the eye could reach, until water and sky imperceptibly met and blended. Each advancing wave, racing40 toward the beach, was a white-lipped messenger of mystery; and the vast tumultuous sea, rolling in toward me out of that dark unknown, with its deep voice of thunder and high-bursting spray, breathed the sublimest41 lessons of the Infinite to my soul. It awed42, impressed, silenced with the sense of its solemn power. No dream of ocean grandeur43 had ever approached the reality now outspread before me, as this vast inland sea tossed and quivered to the lashing44 of the storm-wind that swept its surface into fury.
To the left and right of where I stood motionless, curved the shore-line, a seemingly endless succession of white shining sand-hills, with the sloping shingle45 up which the huge breakers tossed and rolled in continuous thunder and foam46, rising, breaking, receding47, chasing each other in gigantic play. How savagely48 strong it all looked! what uncontrollable majesty49 lived in every line of the scene! The very suggestion of tremendous power in it was, to my imagination, immeasurably increased by its unutterable loneliness, its seemingly total absence of life; for not a fin10 rose above the surface, not a wing brushed the air overhead. The sun, sinking slowly behind the rim50 of sand, shot one golden-red ray far out into that tumbling waste, forming a slender bridge of ever-changing light that seemed ? 60 ? to rest suspended upon the breaking crests51 of the waves it spanned. Then, gradually, stealthily, silently, the denser53 curtain of the twilight54 drew closer and closer, and my vista55 narrowed, as the shadows swept toward me like black-robed ghosts.
I turned about reluctantly, to retrace56 my steps while the dim light yet lingered. Some unseen angel of mercy it must have been that bade me pause, and led me gently down the steep bank to the water's edge, where the sharp spray lashed57 my cheeks. If this be not the cause, then I know not why I went; or why, once being there, I should have turned to the right, and rounded the edge of the little bay. Yet all of this I did; and God knows that many a time since I have thanked Him for it upon my knees.
I saw first the thing bobbing up and down behind a bare wave-washed rock that lifted a hoary58 crown close beside the water's edge. A branch from off some tree, I thought, until I had taken a half-dozen curious steps nearer, and felt my heart bound as I knew it to be a boat. My first thought, of course, was of hostile Indians; and I swept the sand-hills anxiously for any other sign of human presence. The world about me was soundless except for the ceaseless roaring of the waves, and there was not even a leaf within my sight to flutter. I crept forward cautiously, seeing no footprints on the smooth sand, until my searching eyes rested upon a white hand, dangling59, ? 61 ? as if lifeless, over the boat's gunwale. Forgetting everything else in the excitement of this discovery, I sprang hastily forward and peered within the boat.
It was an awkward and rudely-formed water-craft, with neither mast nor oars9, yet of fair size, broad-beamed and seaworthy. In the forward part lay the body of a woman; curled up and resting upon the boat's bottom, the head buried upon the broad seat so that no face was visible, with one hand hidden beneath, the other outstretched above the rail. So huddled60 was her posture61 that I could distinguish few details in the fading light; yet I noted62 that she wore a white upper garment, and that her thick hair flowed in a dense52 black mass about her shoulders.
For a moment I stood there helpless, believing I gazed upon death. She either moved slightly, or the waves rocked the boat so as to somewhat disturb her posture. That semblance63 of life sent my blood leaping once more within my veins64, and I leaned over and touched her cautiously.
"Oh, go away! Please go away!" she cried, not loudly, but with a stress of utterance65 that caused me to start back half in terror. "I am not afraid of you, but either take my soul or go away and leave me."
"For whom do you mistake me?" I asked, my hand closing now over hers.
"For another devil come out of the black night to torture me afresh!" she answered, never once moving ? 62 ? even to my touch. "Ah, what legions there must be to send forth so many after the soul of one poor girl! 'Tis not that I shrink from the end. Death! why, have I not died a hundred deaths already? Yet do I trust the Christ and Mother Mary. But why does the angel of their mercy hold back from me so long?"
Was she crazed, driven mad by some extremity66 of suffering at which I could only guess? That oarless67 boat, beached amid the desolation of sand and the waste of water, alone told a story to make the heart sick. I hesitated, not knowing what I had best say. She lifted her head slowly, and gazed at me. I caught one glimpse of a pale young face framed in masses of black dishevelled hair, and saw large dark eyes that seemed to glow with a strange fire.
"You,—you cannot be a devil also," she said, stammeringly68. "You do not look like those others,—are you a man?"
"Yet you are not of the garrison,—not of Dearborn. I have never seen your face before. Yet you are surely a man, and white. Holy Mother! can it indeed be that you have come to save me?"
"I am here to serve you by every means in my power," I answered soberly, for the wildness of her speech almost frightened me. "God, I truly think, must have led me to you."
? 63 ?
Her wonderful eyes, questioning, anxious, doubtful, never once left my face.
"Who are you? How came you here?"
"I am named John Wayland," I replied, striving to speak as simply as might be, so that she would comprehend, "and form one of a small party travelling overland from the east toward the Fort. We are encamped yonder at the edge of the sand. I left the camp an hour ago, and wandered hither that I might look out upon the waters of the Great Lake; and here, through the strange providence70 of God, I have found you."
She glanced apprehensively71 backward over her shoulder across the darkened waters, and her slight form shook.
"Oh, please, take me away from it!" she cried, a note of undisguised terror in her voice, and her hands held out toward me in a pitiful gesture of appeal. "Oh, that horrible, cruel water! I have loved it in the past, but now I hate it; how horribly it has tortured me! Take me away, I beg,—anywhere, so that I can neither see nor hear it any more. It has neither heart nor soul." And she hid her face behind the streaming hair.
"You will trust me, then?" I asked, for I had little knowledge of women. "You will go with me?"
She flung the clinging locks back from her eyes, with an odd, imperious gesture which I thought most ? 64 ? becoming, holding them in place with one hand, while extending the other frankly72 toward me.
"Go with you? Yes," she replied, unhesitatingly. "I have known many men such as you are, men of the border, and have always felt free to trust them; they are far more true to helpless womanhood than many a perfumed cavalier. You have a face that speaks of honor and manliness73. Yes, I will go with you gladly."
I was deeply impressed by her sudden calmness, her rapid repression74 of that strange wildness of demeanor75 that had at first so marked her words and manner. As I partially76 lifted her from the boat to the sand, she staggered heavily, and would have fallen had I not instantly caught her to me. For a single moment her dark eyes looked up confidingly77 into mine, as she rested panting against my shoulder, and I could feel her slender form tremble within my arms.
"You are ill—faint?" I questioned anxiously.
She drew back from me with all gentleness, and did not venture again to attempt standing78 entirely without support.
"I am ashamed so to exhibit my weakness," she murmured. "I fear I am greatly in need of food. What day is this?"
"The twelfth of August."
"And it was the night of the tenth when I drifted ? 65 ? out of the mouth of the river. Ever since then I have been drifting, the sport of the winds and waves."
"Sit you down here, then," I commanded, now fully79 awakened80 to her immediate81 need. "The sand is yet warm from the sun, and I have food with me in my pockets."
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1
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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mounds
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| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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imp
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| n.顽童 | |
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presaging
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| v.预示，预兆( presage的现在分词 ) | |
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7
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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8
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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fin
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| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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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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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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obsequious
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| adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的 | |
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16
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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17
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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18
guise
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| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
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WHIMS
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| 虚妄，禅病 | |
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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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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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22
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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24
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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25
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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29
swerve
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| v.突然转向，背离；n．转向，弯曲，背离 | |
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30
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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32
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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deviate
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| v.(from)背离，偏离 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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sledges
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| n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载 | |
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anvil
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| n.铁钻 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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sublimest
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| 伟大的( sublime的最高级 )； 令人赞叹的； 极端的； 不顾后果的 | |
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42
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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45
shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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46
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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47
receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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49
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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50
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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51
crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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52
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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53
denser
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| adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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54
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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55
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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56
retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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57
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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58
hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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59
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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60
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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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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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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63
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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64
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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65
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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66
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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67
oarless
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| adj.无桨的 | |
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68
stammeringly
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| adv.stammering（口吃的）的变形 | |
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69
astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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70
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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71
apprehensively
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| adv.担心地 | |
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72
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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73
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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74
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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75
demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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76
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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77
confidingly
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| adv.信任地 | |
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78
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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79
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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80
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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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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