We passed Fort Laramie in the night, and on the seventh morning out we found ourselves in the Black Hills, with Laramie Peak at our elbow (apparently) looming1 vast and solitary—a deep, dark, rich indigo2 blue in hue3, so portentously4 did the old colossus frown under his beetling5 brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge6 at our right. We breakfasted at Horse-Shoe Station, six hundred and seventy-six miles out from St. Joseph. We had now reached a hostile Indian country, and during the afternoon we passed Laparelle Station, and enjoyed great discomfort7 all the time we were in the neighborhood, being aware that many of the trees we dashed by at arm’s length concealed8 a lurking9 Indian or two. During the preceding night an ambushed10 savage11 had sent a bullet through the pony-rider’s jacket, but he had ridden on, just the same, because pony-riders were not allowed to stop and inquire into such things except when killed. As long as they had life enough left in them they had to stick to the horse and ride, even if the Indians had been waiting for them a week, and were entirely12 out of patience. About two hours and a half before we arrived at Laparelle Station, the keeper in charge of it had fired four times at an Indian, but he said with an injured air that the Indian had “skipped around so’s to spile everything—and ammunition’s blamed skurse, too.” The most natural inference conveyed by his manner of speaking was, that in “skipping around,” the Indian had taken an unfair advantage.
The coach we were in had a neat hole through its front—a reminiscence of its last trip through this region. The bullet that made it wounded the driver slightly, but he did not mind it much. He said the place to keep a man “huffy” was down on the Southern Overland, among the Apaches, before the company moved the stage line up on the northern route. He said the Apaches used to annoy him all the time down there, and that he came as near as anything to starving to death in the midst of abundance, because they kept him so leaky with bullet holes that he “couldn’t hold his vittles.” This person’s statement were not generally believed.
We shut the blinds down very tightly that first night in the hostile Indian country, and lay on our arms. We slept on them some, but most of the time we only lay on them. We did not talk much, but kept quiet and listened. It was an inky-black night, and occasionally rainy. We were among woods and rocks, hills and gorges—so shut in, in fact, that when we peeped through a chink in a curtain, we could discern nothing. The driver and conductor on top were still, too, or only spoke13 at long intervals14, in low tones, as is the way of men in the midst of invisible dangers. We listened to rain-drops pattering on the roof; and the grinding of the wheels through the muddy gravel15; and the low wailing16 of the wind; and all the time we had that absurd sense upon us, inseparable from travel at night in a close-curtained vehicle, the sense of remaining perfectly17 still in one place, notwithstanding the jolting18 and swaying of the vehicle, the trampling19 of the horses, and the grinding of the wheels. We listened a long time, with intent faculties20 and bated breath; every time one of us would relax, and draw a long sigh of relief and start to say something, a comrade would be sure to utter a sudden “Hark!” and instantly the experimenter was rigid21 and listening again. So the tiresome22 minutes and decades of minutes dragged away, until at last our tense forms filmed over with a dulled consciousness, and we slept, if one might call such a condition by so strong a name—for it was a sleep set with a hair-trigger. It was a sleep seething23 and teeming24 with a weird25 and distressful26 confusion of shreds27 and fag-ends of dreams—a sleep that was a chaos28. Presently, dreams and sleep and the sullen29 hush30 of the night were startled by a ringing report, and cloven by such a long, wild, agonizing31 shriek32! Then we heard—ten steps from the stage—
“Help! help! help!” [It was our driver’s voice.]
“Kill him! Kill him like a dog!”
“I’m being murdered! Will no man lend me a pistol?”
“Look out! head him off! head him off!”
[Two pistol shots; a confusion of voices and the trampling of many feet, as if a crowd were closing and surging together around some object; several heavy, dull blows, as with a club; a voice that said appealingly, “Don’t, gentlemen, please don’t—I’m a dead man!” Then a fainter groan33, and another blow, and away sped the stage into the darkness, and left the grisly mystery behind us.]
What a startle it was! Eight seconds would amply cover the time it occupied—maybe even five would do it. We only had time to plunge34 at a curtain and unbuckle and unbutton part of it in an awkward and hindering flurry, when our whip cracked sharply overhead, and we went rumbling35 and thundering away, down a mountain “grade.”
We fed on that mystery the rest of the night—what was left of it, for it was waning36 fast. It had to remain a present mystery, for all we could get from the conductor in answer to our hails was something that sounded, through the clatter37 of the wheels, like “Tell you in the morning!”
So we lit our pipes and opened the corner of a curtain for a chimney, and lay there in the dark, listening to each other’s story of how he first felt and how many thousand Indians he first thought had hurled38 themselves upon us, and what his remembrance of the subsequent sounds was, and the order of their occurrence. And we theorized, too, but there was never a theory that would account for our driver’s voice being out there, nor yet account for his Indian murderers talking such good English, if they were Indians.
So we chatted and smoked the rest of the night comfortably away, our boding39 anxiety being somehow marvelously dissipated by the real presence of something to be anxious about.
We never did get much satisfaction about that dark occurrence. All that we could make out of the odds40 and ends of the information we gathered in the morning, was that the disturbance41 occurred at a station; that we changed drivers there, and that the driver that got off there had been talking roughly about some of the outlaws43 that infested44 the region (“for there wasn’t a man around there but had a price on his head and didn’t dare show himself in the settlements,” the conductor said); he had talked roughly about these characters, and ought to have “drove up there with his pistol cocked and ready on the seat alongside of him, and begun business himself, because any softy would know they would be laying for him.”
That was all we could gather, and we could see that neither the conductor nor the new driver were much concerned about the matter. They plainly had little respect for a man who would deliver offensive opinions of people and then be so simple as to come into their presence unprepared to “back his judgment,” as they pleasantly phrased the killing45 of any fellow-being who did not like said opinions. And likewise they plainly had a contempt for the man’s poor discretion46 in venturing to rouse the wrath47 of such utterly48 reckless wild beasts as those outlaws—and the conductor added:
“I tell you it’s as much as Slade himself want to do!”
This remark created an entire revolution in my curiosity. I cared nothing now about the Indians, and even lost interest in the murdered driver. There was such magic in that name, SLADE! Day or night, now, I stood always ready to drop any subject in hand, to listen to something new about Slade and his ghastly exploits. Even before we got to Overland City, we had begun to hear about Slade and his “division” (for he was a “division-agent”) on the Overland; and from the hour we had left Overland City we had heard drivers and conductors talk about only three things—“Californy,” the Nevada silver mines, and this desperado Slade. And a deal the most of the talk was about Slade. We had gradually come to have a realizing sense of the fact that Slade was a man whose heart and hands and soul were steeped in the blood of offenders49 against his dignity; a man who awfully50 avenged51 all injuries, affront52, insults or slights, of whatever kind—on the spot if he could, years afterward53 if lack of earlier opportunity compelled it; a man whose hate tortured him day and night till vengeance54 appeased55 it—and not an ordinary vengeance either, but his enemy’s absolute death—nothing less; a man whose face would light up with a terrible joy when he surprised a foe56 and had him at a disadvantage. A high and efficient servant of the Overland, an outlaw42 among outlaws and yet their relentless57 scourge58, Slade was at once the most bloody59, the most dangerous and the most valuable citizen that inhabited the savage fastnesses of the mountains.
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1
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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2
indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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3
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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portentously
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5
beetling
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| adj.突出的，悬垂的v.快速移动( beetle的现在分词 ) | |
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6
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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7
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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8
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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10
ambushed
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| v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着 | |
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11
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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12
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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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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14
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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15
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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16
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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17
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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18
jolting
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| adj.令人震惊的 | |
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19
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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20
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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21
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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22
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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23
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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24
teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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25
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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26
distressful
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| adj.苦难重重的，不幸的，使苦恼的 | |
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shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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28
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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29
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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30
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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31
agonizing
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| adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式) | |
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32
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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33
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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34
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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35
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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36
waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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37
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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38
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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39
boding
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| adj.凶兆的，先兆的n.凶兆，前兆，预感v.预示，预告，预言( bode的现在分词 )；等待，停留( bide的过去分词 )；居住；（过去式用bided）等待 | |
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40
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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41
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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42
outlaw
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| n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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43
outlaws
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| 歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯 | |
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44
infested
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| adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于 | |
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45
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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46
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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47
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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48
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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49
offenders
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| n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物） | |
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50
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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51
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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52
affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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53
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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54
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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55
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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56
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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57
relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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58
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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59
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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