The waiting-room was hot,—unbearably so to a man who practically lived in the open. He strolled outside and down the tracks. He found himself wishing the train had been on time. Had it been so, it—the impending5 meeting—would now have been a thing of the forgotten past. He must needs fortify6 himself all over again. But sauntering down the track toward the stockyards, he filled his cob pipe, lighted it, and was comforted. He had a forty-minute reprieve7.
The boys had tried most valiantly8 to persuade him to “fix up” for this event. He had scorned them indignantly. If he was good enough as he was—black woollen shirt, red neckerchief and all—for men, just so was he good enough for any female that ever lived. So he assumed a little swagger as he stepped over the ties, and tried to make himself believe that he was glad he had not allowed himself to be corrupted9 by proffers10 of blue shirts and white neckerchiefs.
He was approaching the stockyards. There was movement there. Sounds of commands, blows, profane11 epithets12, and worried bawlings changed the placid13 evening calm into noisy strife14. It is always a place interesting to cowmen. Jim relegated15 thoughts of the coming meeting to the background while he leaned on the fence, and, with idle absorption, watched the loading of cattle into a stock car. A switch engine, steaming and spluttering, stood ready to make way for another car so soon as the present one should be laden16. He was not the only spectator. Others were before him. Two men strolled up to the side opposite as he settled down to musing17 interest.
“Gee!” he swore gently under his breath, “ef that ain’t Bill Brown! Yep. It is, for a fac’. Wonder what he’s a shippin’ now for!” He scrambled18 lightly over the high fence of the pen.
“Hullo, there, Bill Brown!” he yelled, genially19, making his way as one accustomed through the bunch of reluctant, excited cattle.
“Hullo yourself, Jim! What you doin’ in town?” responded the man addressed, pausing in his labor20 to wipe the streaming moisture from his face. He fanned himself vigorously with his drooping21 hat while he talked.
“Hell!” Brown surveyed him with astonished but sympathetic approbation24. “Hell!” he repeated. “You don’t mean it, do you, Jim, honest? Come, now, honest? So you’ve come to it, at last, have you? Well, well! What’s comin’ over the Three Bars? What’ll the boys say?”
He came nearer and lowered his voice to a confidential25 tone. “Say, Jim, how did it come about? And who’s the lady? Lord, Jim, you of all people!” He laughed uproariously.
“Aw, come off!” growled26 Jim, in petulant27 scorn. “You make me tired! You’re plumb28 luney, that’s what you are. I’m after the new gal reporter. She’s due on that low-down, ornery train. Wish—it—was in Kingdom Come. Yep, I do, for a fac’.”
“Oh, well, never mind! I didn’t mean anything,” laughed Brown, good-naturedly. “But it does beat the band, Jim, now doesn’t it, how you people scare at petticoats. They ain’t pizen—honest.”
Jim looked on idly. Occasionally, he condescended29 to head a rebellious30 steer31 shute-wards. Out beyond, it was still and sweet and peaceful, and the late afternoon had put on that thin veil of coolness which is a God-given refreshment32 after the heat of the day. But here in the pen all was confusion. The raucous33 cattle-calls of the cowboys smote34 the evening air startlingly.
“Here, Bill Brown!” he exclaimed suddenly, “where did you run across that critter?” He slapped the shoulder of a big, raw-boned, long-eared steer as he spoke35. The animal was on the point of being driven up the shute.
“What you want to know for?” asked Brown in surprise.
“Reason ’nough. That critter belongs to us, that’s why; and I want to know where you got him, that’s what I want to know.”
“You’re crazy, Jim! Why, I bought that fellow from Jesse Black t’ other day. I’ve got a bill-of-sale for him. I’m shippin’ a couple of cars to Sioux City and bought him to send along. That’s on the square.”
“I don’t doubt it—s’ far as you’re concerned, Bill Brown,” said Jim, “but that’s our critter jest the same, and I’ll jest tote ’im along ’f you’ve no objections.”
“Well, I guess not!” said Brown, laconically36.
“Look here, Bill Brown,” Jim was getting hot-headedly angry, “didn’t you know Jesse Black stands trial to-morrow for rustlin’ that there very critter from the Three Bars ranch?”
“No, I didn’t,” Brown answered, shortly. “Any case?”
“I guess yes! Williston o’ the Lazy S saw this very critter on that island where Jesse Black holds out.” He proceeded to relate minutely the story to which Williston was going to swear on the morrow. “But,” he concluded, “Jesse’s goin’ to fight like hell against bein’ bound over.”
“Well, well,” said Brown, perplexedly. “But the brand, Jim, it’s not yours or Jesse’s either.”
“Well, neither am I,” confessed Brown, “but that’s not sayin’ there ain’t one somewhere. Maybe we can trace it back.”
“Shucks!” exploded Jim.
“Maybe you’re right, Jim, but I don’t propose to lose the price o’ that animal less’n I have to. You can’t blame me for that. I paid good money for it. If it’s your’n, why, of course, it’s your’n. But I want to be sure first. Sure you’d know him, Jim? How could you be so blamed sure? Your boss must range five thousand head.”
“Know him? Know Mag? I’d know Mag ef my eyes were full o’ soundin’ cataracts38. He’s an old and tried friend o’ mine. The meanest critter the Lord ever let live and that’s a fac’. But the Boss calls ’im his maggot. Seems to actually cherish a kind o’ ’fection for the ornery critter, and says the luck o’ the Three Bar would sort o’ peak and pine ef he should ever git rid o’ the pesky brute39. Maybe he’s right. Leastwise, the critter’s his, and when a thing’s yours, why, it’s yours and that’s all there is about it. By cracky, the Boss is some mad! You’d think him and that walleyed, cross-grained son-of-a-gun had been kind and lovin’ mates these many years. Well, I ain’t met up with this ornery critter for some time. Hullo there, Mag! Look kind o’ sneakin’, now, don’t you, wearin’ that outlandish and unbeknownst J R?”
Bill Brown thoughtfully surveyed the steer whose ownership was thus so unexpectedly disputed.
“You hold him,” insisted Jim. “Ef he ain’t ours, you can send him along with your next shipment, can’t you? What you wobblin’ about? Ain’t afraid the Boss’ll claim what ain’t his, are you, Bill Brown?”
“Well, I can’t he’p myself, I guess,” said Brown, in a tone of voice which told plainly of his laudable effort to keep his annoyance40 in subjection to his good fellowship. “You send Langford down here first thing in the morning. If he says the critter’s his’n, that ends it.”
Now that he had convinced his quondam acquaintance, the present shipper, to his entire satisfaction, Jim glanced at his watch with ostentatious ease. His time had come. If all the minutes of all the time to come should be as short as those forty had been, how soon he, Jim Munson, cow-puncher, would have ridden them all into the past. But his “get away” must be clean and dignified41.
“Fair to middlin’,” said Brown with pride.
“Shippin’ to Sioux City, you said?”
“Yep.”
“Well, so long.”
“So long. Shippin’ any these days, Jim?”
“Nope. Boss never dribbles44 ’em out. When he ships he ships. Ain’t none gone over the rails since last Fall.”
He stepped off briskly and vaulted45 the fence with as lightsome an air as though he were bent46 on the one errand his heart would choose, and swung up the track carelessly humming a tune47. But he had a vise-like grip on his cob pipe. His teeth bit through the frail48 stem. It split. He tossed the remains49 away with a gesture of nervous contempt. A whistle sounded. He quickened his pace. If he missed her,—well, the Boss was a good fellow, took a lot of nonsense from the boys, but there were things he would not stand for. Jim did not need to be told that this would be one of them.
The platform was crowded. The yellow sunlight fell slantingly on the gay groups.
“Aw, Munson, you’re bluffin’,” jested the mail carrier. “You ain’t lookin’ fer nobody; you know you ain’t. You ain’t got no folks. Don’t believe you never had none. Never heard of ’em.”
“Lookin’ for my uncle,” explained Jim, serenely50. “Rich old codger from the State o’ Pennsylvaney some’ers. Ain’t got nobody but me left.”
“Aw, come off! What you givin’ us?”
But Jim only winked51 and slouched off, prime for more adventures. He was enjoying himself hugely,—when he was not thinking of petticoats.
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收听单词发音
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1
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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2
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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6
fortify
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| v.强化防御，为…设防；加强，强化 | |
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7
reprieve
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| n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解 | |
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8
valiantly
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| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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9
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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10
proffers
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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11
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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12
epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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13
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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15
relegated
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| v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类 | |
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16
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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17
musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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18
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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genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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21
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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despondently
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| adv.沮丧地，意志消沉地 | |
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24
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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25
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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26
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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petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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29
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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30
rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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31
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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32
refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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33
raucous
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| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
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34
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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35
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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36
laconically
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| adv.简短地，简洁地 | |
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37
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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38
cataracts
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| n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 )；白内障 | |
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39
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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40
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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41
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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42
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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43
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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44
dribbles
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| n.涓滴( dribble的名词复数 )；细滴；少量（液体）v.流口水( dribble的第三人称单数 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球 | |
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45
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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46
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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47
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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48
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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49
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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50
serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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51
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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