The horse was needed for the plowing6, and so Samuel walked the six miles to the village, and from there the mail stage took him out to the solitary7 railroad station. He had three hours to wait here for the train, and so he decided8 that he would save fifteen cents by walking on to the next station. Distance was nothing to Samuel just then.
Halfway9 to his destination there was a fire in a little clearing by the track, and a young man sat toasting some bread on a stick.
“Hello!” he said. “You're hittin' her lively.”
“Yes,” said Samuel. The stranger was not much older than he, but his clothing was dirty and he had a dissipated, leering face.
“You're new at this game, aren't you?” said he.
“What game?” asked Samuel.
The other laughed. “Where ye goin'?”
“To New York.”
“Goin' to hoof10 it all the way?”
“No!” gasped11 the boy. “I'm just walking to the next station.”
“Oh, I see! What's the fare?”
“Six thirty-seven, I think.”
“Humph! Got the price, hey!”
“Yes—I've got the price.” Samuel said this without pride.
“Well, you won't have it long if you live at that rate,” commented the stranger. “Why don't you beat your way?”
“How do you mean?” asked Samuel.
“Nobody but a duffer pays fare,” said the other. “There'll be a freight along pretty soon, and she stops at the water tank just below here. Why don't you jump her?”
Samuel hesitated. “I wouldn't like to do that,” he said.
“Come,” said the other, “sit down.”
And he held out a piece of his toast, which Samuel accepted for politeness' sake. This young fellow had run away from school at the age of thirteen; and he had traveled all over the United States, following the seasons, and living off the country. He was on his way now from a winter's holiday in Mexico. And as Samuel listened to the tale of his adventures, he could not keep the thought from troubling him, how large a part of eighty dollars was six thirty-seven. And all in a single day.
“Come,” said the young fellow; and they started down the track. The freight was whistling for brakes, far up the grade. And Samuel's heart thumped12 with excitement.
They crouched14 in the bushes, not far beyond the tank. But the train did not stop for water; it only slowed down for a curve, and it thundered by at what seemed to Samuel an appalling15 rate of speed. “Jump!” shouted the other, and started to run by the track. He made a leap, and caught, and was whirled on, half visible in a cloud of dust.
Samuel's nerve failed him. He waited, while car after car went by. But then he caught hold of himself. If anyone could do it, so could he. For shame.
He started to run. There came a box-car, empty, with the door open, and he leaped and clutched the edge of the door. He was whirled from his feet, his arms were nearly jerked out of him. He was half blinded by the dust, but he hung on desperately16, and pulled himself up. A minute more and he lay gasping17 and trembling upon the floor of the car. He was on his way to the city.
After a while, Samuel began to think; and then scruples18 troubled him. He was riding free; but was he not really stealing? And would his father have approved of his doing it? He had begun his career by yielding to temptation! And this at the suggestion of a young fellow who boasted of drinking and thieving! Simply to start such questions was enough, with Samuel; and he made up his mind that when he reached the city the first thing he would do would be to visit the office of the railroad, and explain what he had done, and pay his fare.
Perhaps an hour later the train came to a stop, and he heard some one walking by the track. He hid in a corner, ashamed of being there. Some one stopped before the car, and the door was rolled shut. Then the footsteps went on. There came clankings and jarrings, as of cars being shifted, and then these ceased and silence fell.
Samuel waited for perhaps an hour. Then, becoming restless, he got up and tried the door. It was fast.
The boy was startled and rather dazed. He sat down to think it out. “I suppose I'm locked in till we reach New York,” he reflected. But then, why didn't they go?
“Perhaps we're on a siding, waiting for the passenger train to pass,” was his next thought; and he realized regretfully that he would have been on that train. But then, as hour after hour passed, and they did not go on, a terrible possibility dawned upon him. He was left behind—on a siding.
Two or three trains went by, and each time he waited anxiously. But they did not stop. Silence came again, and he sat in the darkness and waited and wondered and feared.
He had no means of telling the time; and doubtless an hour seemed an age in such a plight19. He would get up and pace back and forth20, like a caged animal; and then he would lie down by the door, straining his ears for a sound—thinking that some one might pass, unnoticed through the thick wall of the car.
By and by he became hungry and he ate the scanty21 meal he had in his bundle. Then he became thirsty—and he had no water.
The realization22 of this made his heart thump13. It was no joking matter to be shut in, at one could not tell what lonely place, to suffer from thirst. He sprang up and began to pound and kick upon the door in a frenzy23.
But he soon tired of that and crouched on the floor again listening and shivering, half with fear and half with cold. It was becoming chillier24, so he judged it must be night; up here in the mountains there was still frost at night.
There came another train, a freight, he knew by the heavy pounding and the time it took to pass. He kicked on the door and shouted, but he soon realized that it was of no use to shout in that uproar25.
The craving26 for water was becoming an obsession27. He tried not to think about it, but that only made him think about it the more; he would think about not thinking about it and about not thinking about that—and all the time he was growing thirstier. He wondered how long one could live without water; and as the torment28 grew worse he began to wonder if he was dying. He was hungry, too, and he wondered which was worse, of which one would die the sooner. He had heard that dying men remembered all their past, and so he began to remember his—with extraordinary vividness, and with bursts of strange and entirely29 new emotions. He remembered particularly all the evil things that he had ever done; including the theft of a ride, for which he was paying the penalty. And meantime, with another part of his mind, he was plotting and seeking. He must not die here like a rat in a hole. There must be some way.
He tried every inch of the car—of the floor and ceiling and walls. But there was not a loose plank30 nor a crack—the car was new. And that suggested another idea—that he might suffocate31 before he starved. He was beginning to feel weak and dizzy.
If only he had a knife. He could have cut a hole for air and then perhaps enlarged it and broken out a board. He found a spike32 on the floor and began tapping round the walls for a place that sounded thin; but they all sounded thick—how thick he had no idea. He began picking splinters away at the juncture33 of two planks34.
Meantime hunger and thirst continued to gnaw35 at him. At long intervals36 he would pause while a train roared by, or because he fancied he had heard a sound. Then he would pound and call until he was hoarse37, and then go on picking at the splinters.
And so on, for an unknown number of hours, but certainly for days and nights. And Samuel was famished38 and wild and weak and gasping; when at last it dawned upon his senses that a passing train had begun to make less noise—that the thumping39 was growing slower. The train was stopping.
He leaped up and began to pound. Then he realized that he must control himself—he must save his strength until the train had stopped. But suppose it went on without delay? He began to pound again and to shout like a madman.
The train stopped and there was silence; then came sounds of cars being coupled—and meantime Samuel was kicking and beating upon the wall. He was almost exhausted40 and in despair—when suddenly from outside came a muffled41 call—“Hello!”
For a moment he could not speak. Then “Help! Help!” he shrieked42.
“What's the matter?” asked the voice.
“I'm locked in,” he called. .
“How'd you get in?”
“They locked me in by accident. I'm nearly dead.”
“Who are you?”
“I was riding in the car.”
“A tramp, hey? Serves ye right! Better stay there!”
“No! No!” screamed the boy, in terror. “I'm starving—I've been here for days. For heaven's sake let me out—I'll never do it again.”
“If I let you out,” said the voice, “it's my business to arrest you.”
“All right,” cried Samuel. “Anything—but don't leave me here.”
There was a moment's silence. “Have you got any money?” asked the voice.
“Yes. Yes—I've got money.”
“Don't yell so loud. How much?”
“Why—what?”
“How much?”
“I've got eighty dollars.”
“All right. Give it to me and I'll let you out.”
Frantic43 as he was, this staggered Samuel. “I can't give you all my money,” he cried.
“All right then,” said the other. “Stay there.”
“No, no!” he protested. “Wait! Leave me just a little.”
“I'll leave you five dollars,” said the voice. “Speak up! Quick!”
“All right,” said Samuel faintly. “I'll give it to you.”
“Mind! No nonsense now!”
“No. Let me out!”
“I'll bat you over the head if you try it,” growled44 the voice; and the boy stood trembling while the hasp was unfastened and the door was pushed back a little. The light of a lantern flashed in through the crack, blinding him.
“Now hand out the money,” said the stranger, standing45 at one side for safety.
“Yes,” said Samuel, fumbling46 with the pin in his waistcoat. “But I can't see to count it.”
“Be quick! I'll count it!”
And so he shoved out the wad. Fingers seized it; and then the light vanished, and he heard the sound of footsteps running.
For a moment he did not understand. Then, “Give me my five dollars!” he yelled, and rolled back the door and leaped out. He was just in time to see the figure with the lantern vanish among the cars up the track.
He started to run up the track and tripped over a tie and fell headlong into a ditch. When he scrambled47 to his feet again the long train was beginning to move, and the light of the lantern was nowhere to be seen.
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收听单词发音
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1
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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3
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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farmhouse
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| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
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6
plowing
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| v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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7
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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8
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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9
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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10
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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11
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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12
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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14
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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16
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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17
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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18
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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20
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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21
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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22
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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23
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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24
chillier
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| adj.寒冷的，冷得难受的( chilly的比较级 ) | |
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25
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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26
craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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28
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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29
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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30
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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31
suffocate
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| vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展 | |
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32
spike
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| n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效 | |
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33
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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34
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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35
gnaw
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| v.不断地啃、咬；使苦恼，折磨 | |
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36
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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37
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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38
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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39
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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40
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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41
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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42
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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44
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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45
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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46
fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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47
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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