CHAPTER VIII. TOM PRESTON.

 “Tom,” said Oscar, as soon as he could speak, “you are the last person on earth I expected to meet in this wilderness¹.”

“I may say the same in regard to yourself,” answered Tom sullenly². “What brought you here?”

“I came on purpose to hunt.”

“You did?”

Tom was greatly amazed when he heard this. He ran his eye over Oscar from head to foot, critically examining his neat, warm outfit³, and noting, with no little bitterness of heart, the air of comfort and contentment which those who are prosperous in the world seem to carry with them wherever they go, and then he looked down at himself.

Oscar, following the direction of his gaze, saw that his suit of broadcloth was very seedy 64and threadbare, and that in some places it was almost worn through.

What would Tom do when winter fairly set in, and the ravines were piled full of snow, and the keen winds came roaring down from the mountains? If that was the warmest suit he had, he would certainly freeze to death.

“Where is your overcoat?” asked Oscar, looking about the camp.

“Overcoat?” repeated Tom, with a sneering⁴ laugh. “Do you imagine that I am able to own such a thing? My uncle’s got it.”

“Your uncle?”

“Yes—Uncle Solomon, who lives in Denver. I had to shove it.”

Oscar looked down at the ground, and turned these words over in his mind. He did not quite understand them, and yet he was almost afraid to ask Tom to explain.

He wanted to know all about his brother’s circumstances and plans for the future, for he was as ready to assist him as he had been to assist Leon Parker; but still he did not like to ask too many questions, for Tom spoke⁵ very gruffly, and in a tone of voice which showed 65that he was in no mood to say much about himself.

Finally, Oscar came to the conclusion that Tom, having become pressed for money, had been obliged to pawn⁶ his overcoat, and the latter’s next words proved that this conclusion was the right one.

“The old skinflint took advantage of my necessities, as people of that class always do,” said he. “He gave me only fifteen dollars for it, and it cost me forty. But those fifteen dollars came in very handy, I tell you, for with them I was able to purchase three flannel⁷ shirts and these boots, which are a mile too big for me. Now, let me tell you what’s a fact, Oscar. You had better take the advice of one who has been through the mill, and dig out for the States while you have the chance. I was as spruce as you are when I first came out here, and now look at me. Just look at that!” he went on, thrusting out a foot which, up to the time he left home had always been encased in boots made of nothing heavier then French calf-skin or patent leather. “If I had been compelled to wear such stogas while I 66was in Eaton, I should have thought I was very badly abused, but now I have to wear them, or go without any. I’ll tell you another thing—if you stay here you needn’t look to me for help. It is as much as I can do to take care of myself.”

Here Tom got upon his feet and walked back and forth⁸ in front of his brother, shaking his fists in the air and swearing audibly.

“Those three thousand dollars didn’t do you much good, did they?” said Oscar, after a moment’s pause.

“Where did I get three thousand dollars?” demanded Tom, suddenly stopping in his walk and looking down at his brother.

“I am sure I don’t know; but an examination of your accounts showed a deficit⁹ to that amount.”

“Ah! That may be; but I didn’t have any such sum when I came out here. I spent a good deal before I left Eaton.”

“What did you do with the money you brought with you?” inquired Oscar, who hardly expected that Tom would reply to the question.

67“Oh, I dropped it!”

“Did you lose it?”

Tom nodded his head, and resumed his walk.

“How did it happen?”

“Why, I was fool enough to buck¹⁰ the tiger down in Denver, if you must know,” answered Tom snappishly. “I wanted to increase my capital, and the consequence was I lost it all.”

“You don’t mean to say that you gambled it away?” Oscar almost gasped¹¹.

“Well, that’s about the plain English of it,” was the careless reply.

“O Tom!” exclaimed Oscar. “What do you suppose mother would say if she knew it?”

“I don’t intend that she shall know it, and she never will unless you get to swinging that long tongue of yours. It was my intention to shut myself out so completely from the world that nobody in Eaton would ever hear of me again; and I should have succeeded if some evil genius had not sent you prowling through this ravine. What brought you here, anyway? 68I tell you again that I can’t take care of you, and I won’t, either! By the way, for how much did you get into old Smith?”

It was plain enough to be seen that Tom, in his endeavors to account for his brother’s unexpected presence in that country, was shooting wide of the mark. He readily believed that Oscar, like himself, had stolen money from his employers and fled from Eaton in order to escape punishment at the hands of the law.

He could not think of anything else that would be likely to bring Oscar so far away from home.

“There’s just one thing about it,” said Tom to himself, after he had looked at the matter from all points and arrived at what he considered to be a perfectly¹² satisfactory conclusion, “his money will soon be wasted—if it hasn’t been wasted already—and now that he has found me, he will naturally expect me to help him; but I can’t do it, and I won’t, and he might as well know it first as last. How much money did you bring away from Eaton with you?” he asked aloud.

69“About eleven hundred dollars,” replied Oscar, who knew that his brother was very far from suspecting the real facts of the case. “And I left five hundred behind me.”

“Good for you!” exclaimed Tom. “You made a bigger haul than I did. You kept that five hundred to fall back on, I suppose. I wish I had been sharp enough to do the same. What did you do with the rest?”

“I saved every cent of it, except what I was obliged to spend.”

This answer almost took Tom’s breath away, and caused him to make a radical¹³ change in the programme he had marked out for himself.

Oscar did not fail to see it all, for Tom’s thoughts could be easily interpreted by the expression of his face.

“I don’t gamble, you know, and neither am I given to drink,” continued Oscar.

“Do you mean to say that I am?” demanded Tom, once more pausing in his walk.

“I do, for your face says so. No one ever saw a total abstainer¹⁴ with such eyes and such cheeks as you are carrying about with 70you to-day. Now, Tom, it may be to your interest to tell me all about yourself. I arrived at the fort no longer ago than yesterday morning, but I have already started one disgusted runaway¹⁵ on the road toward home, and I am able to help you.”

These words removed a heavy load of anxiety from Tom’s mind. His brother was willing to help him.

He was very impatient to know how much help—in other words, how much money—Oscar would be likely to give him; but, for the moment, his curiosity overcame his greediness. He wanted to hear all about that runaway.

 

1 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

2 sullenly   

不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地

参考例句：

• 'so what?" Tom said sullenly. “那又怎么样呢？”汤姆绷着脸说。
• Emptiness after the paper, I sIt'sullenly in front of the stove. 报看完，想不出能找点什么事做，只好一人坐在火炉旁生气。

3 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

4 sneering   

嘲笑的，轻蔑的

参考例句：

• "What are you sneering at?" “你冷笑什么？” 来自子夜部分
• The old sorceress slunk in with a sneering smile. 老女巫鬼鬼崇崇地走进来，冷冷一笑。

5 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 pawn   

n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押

参考例句：

• He is contemplating pawning his watch.他正在考虑抵押他的手表。
• It looks as though he is being used as a political pawn by the President.看起来他似乎被总统当作了政治卒子。

7 flannel   

n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服

参考例句：

• She always wears a grey flannel trousers.她总是穿一条灰色法兰绒长裤。
• She was looking luscious in a flannel shirt.她穿着法兰绒裙子，看上去楚楚动人。

8 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。

9 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

10 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

11 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

13 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

14 abstainer   

节制者，戒酒者，弃权者

参考例句：

• Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. 戒酒者：一个意志薄弱的人，经不起拒绝享受的诱惑。
• Abstainer: a weak person who yield to the temptation of deny himself a pleasure. 戒酒（烟）者，是经不起要他放弃某一乐趣的诱惑而屈服的弱者。

15 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。