SECTION 9.

 Billy Keating went out again, saying that he knew a man who might be willing to talk to him on the quiet, and give him some idea what was going to happen to Hal. Meantime Hal and Edstrom sat down to dinner with MacKellar. The family were afraid to use the dining-room of their home, but spread a little table in the upstairs hall. The distress¹ of mind of MacKellar's wife and daughter was apparent, and this brought home to Hal the terror of life in this coal-country. Here were American women, in an American home, a home with evidences of refinement² and culture; yet they felt and acted as if they were Russian conspirators³, in terror of Siberia and the knout!

The reporter was gone a couple of hours; when he came back, he brought news. “You can prepare for trouble, young fellow.”

“Why so?”

“Jeff Cotton's in town.”

“How do you know?”

“I saw him in an automobile⁴. If he left North Valley at this time, it was for something serious, you may be sure.”

“What does he mean to do?”

“There's no telling. He may have you slugged; he may have you run out of town and dumped out in the desert; he may just have you arrested.”

Hal considered for a moment. “For slander⁵?”

“Or for vagrancy⁶; or on suspicion of having robbed a bank in Texas, or murdered your great-grandmother in Tasmania. The point is, he'll keep you locked up till this trouble has blown over.”

“Well,” said Hal, “I don't want to be locked up. I want to go up to Western City. I'm waiting for the train.”

“You may have to wait till morning,” replied Keating. “There's been trouble on the railroad—a freight-car broke down and ripped up the track; it'll be some time before it's clear.”

They discussed this new problem back and forth⁷. MacKellar wanted to get in half a dozen friends and keep guard over Hal during the night; and Hal had about agreed to this idea, when the discussion was given a new turn by a chance remark of Keating's. “Somebody else is tied up by the railroad accident. The Coal King's son!”

“The Coal King's son?” echoed Hal.

“Young Percy Harrigan. He's got a private car here—or rather a whole train. Think of it—dining-car, drawing-room car, two whole cars with sleeping apartments! Wouldn't you like to be a son of the Coal King?”

“Has he come on account of the mine-disaster?”

“Mine-disaster?” echoed Keating. “I doubt if he's heard of it. They've been on a trip to the Grand Canyon⁸, I was told; there's a baggage-car with four automobiles⁹.”

“Is Old Peter with them?”

“No, he's in New York. Percy's the host. He's got one of his automobiles out, and was up in town—two other fellows and some girls.”

“Who's in his party?”

“I couldn't find out. You can see, it might be a story for the Gazette—the Coal King's son, coming by chance at the moment when a hundred and seven of his serfs are perishing in the mine! If I could only have got him to say a word about the disaster! If I could even have got him to say he didn't know about it!”

“Did you try?”

“What am I a reporter for?”

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened; except that he froze me stiff.”

“Where was this?”

“On the street. They stopped at a drug-store, and I stepped up. 'Is this Mr. Percy Harrigan?' He was looking into the store, over my head. 'I'm a reporter,' I said, 'and I'd like to ask you about the accident up at North Valley.' 'Excuse me,' he said, in a tone—gee, it makes your blood cold to think of it! 'Just a word,' I pleaded. 'I don't give interviews,' he answered; and that was all—he continued looking over my head, and everybody else staring in front of them. They had turned to ice at my first word. If ever I felt like a frozen worm!”

There was a pause.

“Ain't it wonderful,” reflected Billy, “how quick you can build up an aristocracy! When you looked at that car, the crowd in it and the airs they wore, you'd think they'd been running the world since the time of William the Conqueror¹⁰. And Old Peter came into this country with a pedlar's pack on his shoulders!”

“We're hustlers here,” put in MacKellar.

“We'll hustle¹¹ all the way to hell in a generation more,” said the reporter. Then, after a minute, “Say, but there's one girl in that bunch that was the real thing! She sure did get me! You know all those fluffy¹² things they do themselves up in—soft and fuzzy, makes you think of spring-time orchards¹³. This one was exactly the colour of apple-blossoms.”

“You're susceptible¹⁴ to the charms of the ladies?” inquired Hal, mildly.

“I am,” said the other. “I know it's all fake, but just the same, it makes my little heart go pit-a-pat. I always want to think they're as lovely as they look.”

Hal's smile became reminiscent, and he quoted:

  “Oh Liza-Ann, come out with me,

    The moon is a-shinin' in the monkey-puzzle tree!”

 

Then he stopped, with a laugh. “Don't wear your heart on your sleeve, Mr. Keating. She wouldn't be above taking a peck at it as she passed.”

“At me? A worm of a newspaper reporter?”

“At you, a man!” laughed Hal. “I wouldn't want to accuse the lady of posing; but a lady has her role in life, and has to keep her hand in.”

There was a pause. The reporter was looking at the young miner with sudden curiosity. “See here,” he remarked, “I've been wondering about you. How do you come to know so much about the psychology¹⁵ of the leisure class?”

“I used to have money once,” said Hal. “My family's gone down as quickly as the Harrigans have come up.”

1 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

2 refinement   

n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼

参考例句：

• Sally is a woman of great refinement and beauty. 莎莉是个温文尔雅又很漂亮的女士。
• Good manners and correct speech are marks of refinement.彬彬有礼和谈吐得体是文雅的标志。

3 conspirators   

n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The conspirators took no part in the fighting which ensued. 密谋者没有参加随后发生的战斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The French conspirators were forced to escape very hurriedly. 法国同谋者被迫匆促逃亡。 来自辞典例句

4 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

5 slander   

n./v.诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• The article is a slander on ordinary working people.那篇文章是对普通劳动大众的诋毁。
• He threatened to go public with the slander.他威胁要把丑闻宣扬出去。

6 vagrancy   

（说话的，思想的）游移不定； 漂泊； 流浪； 离题

参考例句：

• The tramp was arrested for vagrancy. 这个流浪汉因流浪而被捕。
• Vagrancy and begging has become commonplace in London. 流浪和乞讨在伦敦已变得很常见。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

9 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 conqueror   

n.征服者，胜利者

参考例句：

• We shall never yield to a conqueror.我们永远不会向征服者低头。
• They abandoned the city to the conqueror.他们把那个城市丢弃给征服者。

11 hustle   

v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌)

参考例句：

• It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city.看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
• I had to hustle through the crowded street.我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。

12 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。

13 orchards   

（通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They turned the hills into orchards and plains into granaries. 他们把山坡变成了果园，把平地变成了粮仓。
• Some of the new planted apple orchards have also begun to bear. 有些新开的苹果园也开始结苹果了。

14 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

15 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。