Always must the mind of one who listens thus be held under the spell of another spirit winging its way among dreams; the moment is uncanny if only because it brings in such close contact the commonplace of every day and the inexplicable11 of dreams. In the night, in the silence, under this queer spell, her own mind groping, she stirred uneasily.
It flashed across Lynette that it had not been Timber-Wolf's mumbling12 voice that had awakened13 her. That there had been something else, a new sound from without. She listened intently, straining her ears. There was some one or something outside! She started to her feet, though clinging to the security offered by her corner.
[Pg 233]
The door was open; it was a mere14 degree less dark outside than within. As she stared into the blackness she made out vaguely15 the mass of trees. A black wall in a black night. Some one out there? Then who? Babe Deveril?
All along she had held tenaciously16 to the thought that Babe Deveril would come for her. Perhaps he had come now; perhaps he lingered outside, not knowing positively17 that she was here, not knowing if Standing were awake or asleep, not knowing if Standing were sick of his wound or ready with rifle in hand.
Her thoughts began to fly like stabs of lightning; briefly18 they made everything clear only to plunge19 her whole world of thought back into even more profound darkness. Babe Deveril? It might be! Or it might be Mexicali Joe, lurking20 after his fashion. Or it might, equally well, be Taggart with Gallup and that other man at his heels. By now she was certain of only one thing: There was some one out there.
She stood rigid21 for ten or fifteen minutes; Standing had become quiet save for his heavy breathing; she strove with all senses upgathered tensely to read the riddle22 of the night. Once she was sure of a sound outside; but the mystery of a night sound is so baffling! A man's cautious tread? Or a limb stirring gently? Or a bird among leaves, or a rabbit? It was so easy a matter, with her senses so freshly aroused from a nightmare of wild animals and savage4 pursuers, to people the night with fantastic menaces.
Bruce Standing was unarmed; his rifle dropped somewhere outside when he had dashed after her. She, too, was without a weapon. He had given her the big revolver; she had refused it; she had flung it angrily to the floor, near the bunk23. She remembered seeing it there, almost out of sight, under the bunk....
[Pg 234]
If it were Babe Deveril, she had nothing to fear. If Mexicali Joe, she had nothing to fear. If Taggart and Gallup and the other? What had she to fear from them? Merely arrest, at most, and not so long ago she had been eager for that! And if some prowling animal?
"There's nothing to hurt me," she told herself, fighting to throttle24 down that trepidation25 which had leaped upon her when she first awoke with the wildly beating heart of one threatened in sleep. "If I only had that revolver now ... if it chanced to be wolf or bear or mountain-cat, one shot at it would send it scurrying26. And, if a man, there is none for me to be afraid of."
She began, ever so slowly and guardedly, tiptoeing across the floor. She came to the bunk; she stooped and groped, and at last her fingers closed about the fallen revolver. She clinched27 it tightly and stood up, again rigid. This time she was sure of the sound which came again; a man's step, as guarded as her own had been, but betrayed by a little dry twig28 snapping.
Again she waited, without moving, a long time. And not another sound; only Standing's deep breathing. Once she thought that his breathing had changed; that he, too, was awake. But after a moment she persuaded herself that she had imagined that; that he was still sleeping heavily. But no further sound outside. What a cautious man, or what a cowardly, was he out there! What did he want?
Suddenly she thought of Thor. How was it that Thor, a dog, hence man's superior in as many matters as he was man's inferior, a thing of keenest senses, had given no sign? Why had not Thor stirred when she did; why had he not heard what she heard; why was he not already rushing out, growling29, demanding to know what intruder lurked30 in such stealth at his master's door?
[Pg 235]
Had there been a ray of light in the cabin she would have had her answer; for Bruce Standing was sitting up, his arms were about Thor, one big hand was at Thor's muzzle31, commanding quiet. And when Standing commanded, Thor obeyed.
Some girls, some men ... perhaps most girls and most men ... would have remained in the protection of the four walls, resigned to uncertainty32, until daybreak. Of their number was not Lynette Brooke, a girl little given to fear and greatly moved by a desire to know! She waited as long as she could bear to wait. Then, holding Taggart's revolver well before her and walking with one silent footfall distanced patiently from the other, she gained the door and stepped outside. She was trembling; that she could not help. But she was determined33 to go on. And on she did go, cautiously, until she had gone ten steps toward the sound which she had heard. She paused, turning in all directions, ready to fire and ready to run....
"Sh! Come here!"
A whisper through the dark. And one man's whisper is much like another's. It could have been Deveril's or Taggart's or even Mexicali Joe's.
"Who are you?" her own whisper answered him.
"Is Standing in there?"
"Who are you?" she insisted.
There was a pause, a silence; a long silence. Then:
"Come with me ... just a few feet. So we won't be overheard."
She found herself frowning. Was it Babe Deveril? She did not fancy a man's whispering; she could not imagine a man like Bruce Standing whispering at a moment like this! More like him, like any man who was a man, to roar out what he had to say rather than whisper in the dark. But that curiosity of hers, that
[Pg 236]
inborn desire to know, lured35 her on. But under guard. She held her weapon so that it menaced the vague form so close to her and she whispered again, not realizing that she, too, whispered, but because she was under the spell of the moment.
"I'll go with you another ten steps ... count them! And I have a revolver in my hand, aimed at the middle of your body!"
"You're a game kid! Dead game and I don't mind saying so!"
They had stopped; the whisper was dropped for a low-toned voice. It was not Babe Deveril! Not Mexicali Joe. Then Taggart?
"I want to talk to you. I take it he is in there. Asleep? So much the better. I'm Taggart."
"Well? What can I do for you, Mr. Taggart?"
"That gun of yours," he said. "I don't know how used you are to guns. Knowing who I am you can point it down!"
"Knowing who you are," she returned coolly, "I keep it just as it is! I have asked what I could do for you?"
"I've seen Babe Deveril. He's told me all about everything."
"Babe Deveril! When? Where is he?"
Jim Taggart, had time and opportunity afforded, would have laughed at her quickened exclamation36, being an evil-thoughted individual with restricted mental horizons. She appeared interested. He had his own mind of her sex and it was not high, since those of her sex with whom such as Jim Taggart consorted37 were not such as to give a man a high idea of femininity. In the words which, had he spoken his thought aloud, would have been his, Taggart estimated that "he had this dame's number, street, and telephone."
[Pg 237]
"I'll tell you about Babe Deveril later; and what's more, kid, I'll give you your show to throw in with him again. Now I'm cutting things short; you know why. I was after him for hammering me over the head with a gun; I was on your trail for killing39 a man. Now, since the man you killed ain't dead at all and since I've had a good talk with Deveril, I'm ready to let you both go. And just to take in a man named Standing."
Through one of those odd tricks by which chance asserts itself at times, Lynette made a discovery while Taggart was talking. She had felt something underfoot—and that something turned out to be Bruce Standing's rifle.
... What had this lost rifle to do with matters as they stood? Why all Jim Taggart's caution, if he were armed? But then Standing had brought Taggart's revolver back to the cabin with him.... What part in to-night's game was this fallen rifle to play? Her thoughts had been withdrawn40; so, standing so that for the present Taggart could not possibly touch with his own foot that which she had stumbled on in the dark, she made him repeat what he had said.
Thus she caught a free instant for thought; thus also she grasped all that he had to say and to insinuate41. And at the end she answered him with a baffling, feminine:
"Well?"
"I've got to talk fast!" growled42 Taggart. "He's in there, I know. Is he hurt?"
"You know that he is...."
"I don't mean that shot at Gallup's ... that you gave him...."
"I did not shoot him!" she cried out hotly, sick of accusation43.
Taggart sneered44 at her, muttering threateningly:
[Pg 238]
"You did! For I saw you! I was right there, close by...."
Within the cabin Bruce Standing, sitting very tense and straight, nearly choking his big dog into silence, grew tenser and harder. So, Taggart claimed to have seen her.... Taggart was "right there, close by...."
"You say you saw me!" gasped45 Lynette. "You!"
"I tell you this is no time for palaver," said Taggart impatiently. "What do you care, so long as I agree to let you go free? And to let Deveril go free along with you! I guess that means something to you, don't it? If it don't mean enough, let me show you: I can grab you right now; me, I'm not afraid of any gun any woman ever waved! And I can put you across for a good little vacation in jail. But I'm letting that go by, wanting to get my hooks in one Bruce Standing, good and deep. And I got just that! Seeing as Deveril told me what happened; how Standing swooped46 down on you, how he beat Deveril up, how he put a chain on you and dragged you away after him! If you'll step into court and swear to that.... Why, kid, I got him! Got him right! Any jury in this country will land on him hard for doing to a woman like that. And you can tell the other things he's done to you by now, you and him all alone up here, him a brutal47 devil...."
Illogically enough it swept over her that it was she herself, Lynette, whom the man was insulting, and her finger trembled so upon the trigger that all unknowing Jim Taggart stood for the instant close upon the verge48 of the great final blackness. But, steadying herself, she managed to say:
"Babe Deveril told you that? That Bruce Standing had put a chain about me? How did he know? That was after he had gone!"
[Pg 239]
"But," muttered Taggart harshly, "he did not go so fast! He went up over a ridge49 and he stopped and rested, and in the dark he came back a bit and he hid and saw! Anyway, it's the truth, ain't it? And I know? So he must have come back to see!"
That thought became on the instant the only thought, one to rise up and obstruct50 all others. Deveril had seen; he had lingered, hidden in the forest land; he had watched her humiliation51; he had known that Bruce Standing, though armed, was a man sorely wounded ... and he had not come to her then!
"Where is he?" she demanded swiftly. "When did you see him? Where has he gone?"
"He came just as Standing, damn him, had jumped us to-night! All unawares Standing took us ... when we were busy with other things. He had the drop on us and he made us let the Mexico breed go. Deveril was watching but he didn't have a gun and he couldn't step up and take a hand, knowing his cousin for a dead shot and a man who'd rather kill than not."
"But now," demanded Lynette. "Now! Where is he?"
"He's a wised-up kid and I'm with him, tooth and toenail! He came up then and he said his say ... and I let him go! And he told me to look out for you and he hit the trail, dog-tired as he was, after Mexicali Joe! If there's gold to be had, why Babe Deveril means to be in on it. And me, so do I! And you, if you're on."
Underfoot, all this time, Lynette felt Bruce Standing's rifle....
There are times in life for methodical thought, other times for swift decisions, bred of impulse and instinctive52 urge....
She lived again through a certain pregnant crisis, saw in mind the whole scene as though some master
[Pg 240]
artist with sweeping53, bold brush had created the perfect vision anew for her, the struggle which had been hers and Babe Deveril's and Bruce Standing's, when Standing, with the sun glowing red over his head, had come rushing down on them by their camp-fire. She saw his rifle ... the one she now felt underfoot!... go swirling54 over a pine top as he hurled55 from him any such advantage in fair fight as it spelled; again she watched the fight ... she saw Babe Deveril go up over the ridge; she saw herself, striking in fury against Standing's arm, beating the rifle down....
"Well?" It was Taggart who spoke38 the brief word now. "Which is it? Jail for you ... or a good long spell in the pen for him?"
... And Babe Deveril had come this close ... she had proof of that in Taggart's knowledge of the chain! ... and had gone on, following the golden lure34 of Mexicali Joe's trail!
"Well?" said Taggart.
"Suppose I were fool enough to refuse what you ask?"
"Then you'd go to jail as sure as hell! It's you or him! And I guess I know the answer."
Then Lynette said hurriedly:
"Step back ... a little farther from the cabin. Let me make sure that he is asleep! There never was a man like him.... Back a few steps and wait...."
"There's no sense in that!"
"If you don't I'll scream out that you're here! Then you'll never take him; you know the man he is!"
Taggart mistrusted, and yet, hard-driven and urged by her voice, obeyed to the extent of drawing back a few steps. Not far, yet far enough for Lynette to stoop and grope and find the rifle. She caught it up and whirled and ran, ran as for her life, back to the cabin door. And she threw the rifle inside, crying out:
[Pg 241]
"Wake up, Bruce Standing! There's your rifle ... and here's Jim Taggart outside, looking for you!"
She came bursting into the cabin and full into Bruce Standing's arms. For he was up on his feet, both arms, despite a sore side, lifted.
"By God!" he shouted.
He let her go and sought the rifle. She was first to find it and put it into his searching hand.
"He is a contemptible56 coward!" she cried. "As if...."
Standing had the rifle now, and thrust by her and rushed into the open doorway57, Thor snarling58 at his side; and Standing's voice, lifted mightily59, shouted:
"Come ahead, Taggart! I'm waiting and ready for you! Come ahead!"
Later he laughed at himself for that, and thereafter explained his laughter to Lynette, saying:
"He hasn't a gun on him! I cleaned him out, all but one pocket gun, and I fancy he emptied that at me ... in the back. Come—we'll have a fire!"
Hastily she shut the door, lest Taggart might have one shot left. Standing set his rifle down against the wall; she heard the thud of the stock upon the floor. Clearly he had no fear of Taggart's return. He began gathering up bits of wood, kneeling to get a fire started. Presently under his hands the blaze leaped up and brought detail vividly60 blossoming from the dark of the room; his face, white, with the most eager, shining eyes she had ever seen; her own face scarcely less pale; the homely61 appointments of the place. He was still on his knees at the fireplace; he threw on the last bit of wood and watched the quick flames lick at it; he swerved62 about, and it seemed that his eyes, no less than the inflammable wood, had caught fire as he cried out in a
[Pg 242]
voice which startled her and in words which set her wondering:
"I told you, girl, I'd let you go scot-free ... unless! And here I bogged63 down like a broken-legged steer64 in the quicksands! But now ... Now! I've got it all figured out. I don't let you go! Neither to-night ..." and he was on his feet, towering over her—"or ever!"
And, as quick as thought, he was at the door and had shot a bolt home and had clicked a padlock, and, swinging about again, stood looking down at her, his eyes filled with dancing lights.
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收听单词发音
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1
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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hideously
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| adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地 | |
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3
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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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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5
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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6
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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7
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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8
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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9
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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10
babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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11
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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12
mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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13
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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14
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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15
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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tenaciously
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| 坚持地 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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18
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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19
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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23
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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24
throttle
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| n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压 | |
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25
trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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26
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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27
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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28
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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29
growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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30
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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31
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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32
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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34
lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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36
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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37
consorted
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| v.结伴( consort的过去式和过去分词 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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38
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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39
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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40
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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41
insinuate
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| vt.含沙射影地说，暗示 | |
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42
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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43
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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44
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
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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46
swooped
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| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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48
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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49
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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50
obstruct
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| v.阻隔，阻塞(道路、通道等)；n.阻碍物，障碍物 | |
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51
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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52
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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53
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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54
swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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55
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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56
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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57
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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58
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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59
mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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60
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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61
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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62
swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
bogged
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| adj.陷于泥沼的v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的过去式和过去分词 )；妨碍，阻碍 | |
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64
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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