It was Inza who proposed to Frank and Frank’s friends that they should take the footpath3 up the southern side of the mountain.
Near two o’clock they started, having induced Browning to accompany them, much to Merry’s secret satisfaction.
“If I find any one is lying to me about this old trail up the mountain,” said the big fellow, as with his coat on his arm he came puffing4 after the others, “I will certainly deal out retribution in large quantities. Inza says the path is perfectly5 delightful6. Frank says it’s a simple climb. Hodge says it’s almost too easy. While others have told me it’s a simpler matter climbing up the footpath than riding up the road. In fact, I have received the impression that it’s just about as easy to climb the mountain by this footpath as it is to slide down hill on a toboggan.”
A little later, when they had struck the first steep ascent and were climbing a path where loose stones abounded7 and frequently rolled beneath their feet, Bruce began to growl8, and gurgle, and make strange sounds in his throat. Looking back, they could see him with his face flushed and perspiring9, and his eyes glaring ominously10.
“What’s the matter, Bruce?” cried Inza laughingly.
“No matter! no matter!” he declared, with a touch of savageness11 in his voice.
“But I fancied there must be from the strange sounds coming up to my ears. I fancied a whole pack of wild animals were at our heels.”
Again Browning made one of those singular growling12 gurglings, and then, as a rock rolled beneath his feet and he nearly fell down, he paused and cried:
“Where’s Frank Merriwell? Let him come back here just a minute. I want to show him something.”
“Can’t stop, Bruce,” laughingly called Merry. “It’s altogether too much trouble.”
“Hang you!” panted Browning. “I always regarded you as a man of veracity13. I took you to be a second George Washington. But let me tell you now, sir, that my opinion has changed. You have Cap’n Wiley, Baron14 Munchausen, and old Ananias whipped to a finish. Easy climbing up this path! Simple thing sauntering up this path! Delightful promenade15 up this path! Can almost go to sleep walking up this path! Yah-h-h-h!”
The shouts of laughter these words invoked16 did not seem to soothe17 Browning’s feelings or cool him down in the slightest degree.
“Laugh, confound you—laugh!” he shouted. “There will be a settlement with somebody! Say, we’re pretty near the top, aren’t we?”
“Yes, pretty near the top,” said Frank. “We’ll be there in a short time. Come ahead, Bruce.”
“You wait till we do get to the top,” growled18 Bruce threateningly as he resumed the climb after his amused companions.
In a short time Browning found most of the party assembled on a flat ledge19 where there was an open view of the village below, the country beyond it, and the bay and islands.
“Ah!” exclaimed Bruce, in great relief. “Reached the top at last! By George, that was a climb!”
“The top?” said Elsie Bellwood. “Why, this isn’t the top of the mountain!”
“W-h-a-t?” roared the big fellow in astonishment20.
Then he glanced upward and saw the precipitous slopes above him, with the path winding21 in and out amid the rocks and bushes and showing itself only at intervals22. For some moments he stood with his mouth open, seemingly thunderstruck.
“Well, I’m a liar23 if I ever saw a mountain grow before!” he muttered. “This one has grown about three thousand feet taller than it was when we started to climb it. Jumping jingoes! you don’t mean to tell me we’ve got to scratch gravel24 all the way up that declivity25, do you? Why, look at those cliffs! Look at those smooth rocks! We’ll never get up there in a thousand years.”
Dick Merriwell and Brad Buckhart had been admiring the view. The Texan nudged his friend with his elbow, chuckling26 in a low tone:
“I sure opined Bob Singleton was some lazy, but this gent certainly has him beaten to a custard.”
“That’s right,” agreed Frank. “You know at a distance a thing looks small and insignificant28 many times, but in this case, being close under the mountain makes it look more precipitous and difficult than it really is.”
“Oh, yes! oh, yes!” grated Browning, glaring at Merry. “You’re a fine talker, you are! I have heard you talk before. You told me it was such a delightful thing to jog up the side of this mountain by this old footpath. It was such a simple matter that one might fall asleep while walking up the path! If there’s anything that exasperates29 me, it’s a liar! If there’s anything I have no use for, it’s a liar! Fabricators are dangerous. They should be abolished, and here’s where I think I will abolish one.”
As he said this he clinched30 his fist, turned it over and over, and examined it as if making a critical inspection31; and then, with it shaking ominously, he advanced toward Frank, who was standing32 close to the edge of the rock.
“What are you going to do?” asked Inza.
“I am going to kill him,” said Bruce, in a deliberate manner. “I am going to throw him clean over the village and into the harbor out yonder. I will throw him out so far he’ll never be able to swim ashore33.”
“Oh, please—please don’t, for my sake!” entreated34 Inza, with mock terror. “Spare him and give him a chance to repent35 of his sins!”
“Well, for your sake I will spare him,” said Bruce. “You spoke36 just in time. He owes you his life. Say, children, let’s not climb the mountain to-day. Let’s rest here a while, call it a full day, and go back.”
“I think I will go back, anyhow,” he said. “I don’t think I’d ever survive the rest of this climb.”
“But you can’t go back, Bruce,” said Elsie. “We won’t let you go back. We want you with us. We want you to provide amusement for us.”
“Oh, so that’s it?” he exclaimed, with another pretended burst of anger. “So you want me to come along and make a holy show of myself, do you? You think I am better than a three-ring circus, I suppose! You think I am better than a cage of monkeys, I suppose! I have heard you laughing and saying things to one another in low tones. I am onto the whole of you. You’re a heartless lot of heathens! You enjoy human suffering! You have no sympathy or tenderness in your marble hearts! Pretty soon I will get mad and tell you just what I think of you.”
“Don’t do it,” entreated Henry Rattleton. “You might knock our sherves—that is, shock our nerves.”
Having admired the view spread beneath them and refreshed themselves by a rest on the ledge, they finally prepared to start again. It was then found that, with his arms curled beneath his head, Browning was fast asleep. Frank gave the big chap a nudge with the toe of his boot.
“Come, come, Browning,” he cried; “it’s your move.”
“Gimme half the bed,” grunted38 Browning, rolling over on his side and apparently39 preparing to continue his nap.
Merry was compelled to shake him violently, and, protesting against such usage, the lazy chap finally sat up.
“Why, it’s morning!” he said, in apparent surprise, as he rubbed his eyes. “Hey? Why, this is the funniest bedroom I ever slept in. What? That’s the biggest window on record. Thunder! Where am I, anyhow?”
At last he was wide-awake, and when Frank told him where he was, and that some of the party had already resumed the ascent. Bruce seemed on the verge40 of shedding tears.
“Have I got to do it?” he asked. “Why don’t they run a tramway up this old mountain? Why don’t they have a car to take people up this blazing mountain? It’s an outrage41 to have a path up such a steep place! There ought to be a law against having such a path!”
“Better stick by us, Bruce,” said Frank. “You remember how many loose stones there were in that path. If you attempt to go back by yourself those stones may give you a fall that will break your arms or legs or finish you completely. The rest of the way the path is comparatively solid.”
“Oh, don’t talk to me! Don’t you tell me anything! I wouldn’t believe you under oath!”
However, Browning decided to follow them, and soon he was again panting, and puffing, and growling as he plodded42 up the path.
After leaving the ledge, this path wound in and out beyond some small trees and high bushes where there was considerable shade; but finally it came out upon the bare rocks, and the complaints of the lazy chap in the rear became more violent, although less frequent. Once he sat down, and finally refused to move another foot. It was necessary that Inza and Frank should offer him further encouragement to urge him on.
“Get ahead of us, Bruce,” said Merry. “The others are away up yonder. You can see that both Dick and Brad have passed out of sight over the shoulder of the mountain.”
“How high did you tell me this mountain was?” asked Browning.
“Oh, about one thousand feet, more or less.”
“More or less!” roared the exasperated43 giant. “That was just the way you said it, doggone you! You said one thousand feet, more or less. It’s more, all right! It’s five thousand more! If I haven’t climbed five thousand feet already, I haven’t climbed an inch!”
After a time they succeeded in getting him started again, but when they came to a turn of the path that ran over some smooth and slippery ledges44 the big fellow lost his footing, fell sprawling45, and lay grasping a cleft46 in the rock, while he grunted out his declaration that he was on the verge of dropping the full distance to the foot of the mountain and ending his earthly career in that manner.
“Come on, Bruce,” said Frank. “You can’t fall very far if you try. You might roll down a rod or so and bruise47 yourself, but there’s no great peril48 here.”
“How can I believe a liar like him?” muttered Browning, still clinging to the cleft and declining to budge49. “One thousand feet, more or less! Just wait until I get on level ground again! I’ll give him something he’ll enjoy—more or less!”
“Oh, Bruce,” laughed Inza; “if I had a camera now! You would make such a beautiful picture! Your pose is so graceful50!”
“I sup-pose so,” punned the big fellow.
“Here! here!” cried Frank. “Punning is a worse crime than lying, and you’re lying and punning both.”
“You’re another!” said Bruce, as he slowly pulled himself up to his hands and knees and began crawling cautiously along the ridge51 in the ledge.
This was not the only spot over which it was difficult to urge Browning, but finally the dangerous ledges were left behind, and they passed over the shoulder of the mountain.
By that time Browning had forgotten his threats or was too exhausted52 to attempt to carry them out.
Those who had reached the top in advance were found waiting, and soon the entire party was collected. They then made their way through the cedars53 and low bushes toward the hotel.
To the surprise of all, they failed to find at the hotel their friends who had chosen to go up by team.
On the veranda54, however, a man sat smoking a cigarette and enjoying the beautiful sea view. It was Porfias del Norte.
As he saw them, Del Norte rose and waved his hand, bowing with the grace of a dancing master and smiling with the sweetness of a beautiful woman.
“Hail to the mighty55 mountain climbers!” he cried, in a musical voice. “I welcome you as kindred spirits. I, too, climbed the mountain by that path. I found it toil56, yet it was toil well rewarded.”
“You climbed by that path?” said Bart Hodge, regarding Del Norte in surprise. “Why, I didn’t suppose you ever exerted yourself to such an extent, se?or. It seems utterly57 improbable that you should do so. What could have been your object?”
“Yes, what could have been your object?” muttered Browning. “I was fooled into it. You must have had an object.”
“They told me how beautiful the scenes were my eyes could behold58 while climbing the mountain that way. I am a lover of beauty. I adore nature. A hundred times I paused while making the ascent and turned to look back. Down almost directly beneath me lay the beautiful village of Camden, with its snug59 little harbor, with the blue bay and the purple islands beyond, and then with such a grand stretch of country and the village of Rockport yonder, smoke rising from its limekilns. The winding, brown roads, the fields, the grass, and away down there another place, which they call Rockland, also with its smoking kilns60. And toward the west were other mountains, rugged61, and wooded, and broken. Then over all was this deep blue sky—this sweet blue sky! And the sunshine warmed me, and the sweet airs thrilled me. Oh, yes, I was well repaid—well repaid for my climb.”
“Se?or del Norte,” said Inza, “you seem to have the soul of a poet.”
“All the same, se?or,” said Bart Hodge, “I decline to believe you climbed the path solely63 for the love of the beauty your eyes can behold from it. You had another object.”
“If that is true,” he said, “I myself do not know what the object was. There is a wagon65 road on the western side of the mountain, and I could have ridden from the foot to this hotel. I didn’t do so.”
“Which makes me believe all the more,” said Hodge, “that you had some powerful incitant to climb that path.”
“Either that or you’re the blamedest fool I ever met!” said Browning, as he collapsed66 on a chair and began weakly fanning himself.
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1
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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footpath
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| n.小路，人行道 | |
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puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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5
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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6
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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7
abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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9
perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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10
ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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savageness
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| 天然，野蛮 | |
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growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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13
veracity
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| n.诚实 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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15
promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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16
invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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17
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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18
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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19
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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22
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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23
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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declivity
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| n.下坡，倾斜面 | |
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26
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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28
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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exasperates
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| n.激怒，触怒( exasperate的名词复数 )v.激怒，触怒( exasperate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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30
clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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32
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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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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entreated
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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36
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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37
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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38
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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39
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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40
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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42
plodded
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| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
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43
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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44
ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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45
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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46
cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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47
bruise
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| n.青肿，挫伤；伤痕；vt.打青；挫伤 | |
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48
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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49
budge
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| v.移动一点儿；改变立场 | |
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50
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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51
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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52
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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53
cedars
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| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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54
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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55
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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56
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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57
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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58
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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59
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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60
kilns
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| n.窑( kiln的名词复数 )；烧窑工人 | |
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61
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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62
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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63
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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64
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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65
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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66
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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