Thus Thorpe and the Indian unexpectedly found themselves in the possession of luxury. The outfit1 had not meant much to Wallace Carpenter, for he had bought it in the city, where such things are abundant and excite no remark; but to the woodsman each article possessed2 a separate and particular value. The tent, an iron kettle, a side of bacon, oatmeal, tea, matches, sugar, some canned goods, a box of hard-tack,--these, in the woods, represented wealth. Wallace's rifle chambered the .38 Winchester cartridge3, which was unfortunate, for Thorpe's .44 had barely a magazineful left.
The two men settled again into their customary ways of life. Things went much as before, except that the flies and mosquitoes became thick. To men as hardened as Thorpe and the Indian, these pests were not as formidable as they would have been to anyone directly from the city, but they were sufficiently4 annoying. Thorpe's old tin pail was pressed into service as a smudge-kettle. Every evening about dusk, when the insects first began to emerge from the dark swamps, Charley would build a tiny smoky fire in the bottom of the pail, feeding it with peat, damp moss5, punk maple6, and other inflammable smoky fuel. This censer swung twice or thrice about the tent, effectually cleared it. Besides, both men early established on their cheeks an invulnerable glaze7 of a decoction of pine tar8, oil, and a pungent9 herb. Towards the close of July, however, the insects began sensibly to diminish, both in numbers and persistency10.
Up to the present Thorpe had enjoyed a clear field. Now two men came down from above and established a temporary camp in the woods half a mile below the dam. Thorpe soon satisfied himself that they were picking out a route for the logging road. Plenty which could be cut and travoyed directly to the banking11 ground lay exactly along the bank of the stream; but every logger possessed of a tract12 of timber tries each year to get in some that is easy to handle and some that is difficult. Thus the average of expense is maintained.
The two men, of course, did not bother themselves with the timber to be travoyed, but gave their entire attention to that lying further back. Thorpe was enabled thus to avoid them entirely13. He simply transferred his estimating to the forest by the stream. Once he met one of the men; but was fortunately in a country that lent itself to his pose of hunter. The other he did not see at all.
But one day he heard him. The two up-river men were following carefully but noisily the bed of a little creek14. Thorpe happened to be on the side-hill, so he seated himself quietly until they should have moved on down. One of the men shouted to the other, who, crashing through a thicket15, did not hear. "Ho-o-o! DYER!" the first repeated. "Here's that infernal comer; over here!"
"Yop!" assented16 the other. "Coming!"
Thorpe recognized the voice instantly as that of Radway's scaler. His hand crisped in a gesture of disgust. The man had always been obnoxious17 to him.
Two days later he stumbled on their camp. He paused in wonder at what he saw.
The packs lay open, their contents scattered18 in every direction. The fire had been hastily extinguished with a bucket of water, and a frying pan lay where it had been overturned. If the thing had been possible, Thorpe would have guessed at a hasty and unpremeditated flight.
He was about to withdraw carefully lest he be discovered, when he was startled by a touch on his elbow. It was Injin Charley.
"Dey go up river," he said. "I come see what de row."
The Indian examined rapidly the condition of the little camp.
"Dey look for somethin'," said he, making his hand revolve19 as though rummaging20, and indicating the packs.
"I t'ink dey see you in de woods," he concluded. "Dey go camp gettum boss. Boss he gone on river trail two t'ree hour."
"You're right, Charley," replied Thorpe, who had been drawing his own conclusions. "One of them knows me. They've been looking in their packs for their note-books with the descriptions of these sections in them. Then they piled out for the boss. If I know anything at all, the boss'll make tracks for Detroit."
"W'ot you do?" asked Injin Charley curiously21.
"I got to get to Detroit before they do; that's all."
Instantly the Indian became all action.
"You come," he ordered, and set out at a rapid pace for camp.
There, with incredible deftness22, he packed together about twelve pounds of the jerked venison and a pair of blankets, thrust Thorpe's waterproof23 match safe in his pocket, and turned eagerly to the young man.
"You come," he repeated.
Thorpe hastily unearthed24 his "descriptions" and wrapped them up. The Indian, in silence, rearranged the displaced articles in such a manner as to relieve the camp of its abandoned air.
It was nearly sundown. Without a word the two men struck off into the forest, the Indian in the lead. Their course was southeast, but Thorpe asked no questions. He followed blindly. Soon he found that if he did even that adequately, he would have little attention left for anything else. The Indian walked with long, swift strides, his knees always slightly bent25, even at the finish of the step, his back hollowed, his shoulders and head thrust forward. His gait had a queer sag26 in it, up and down in a long curve from one rise to the other. After a time Thorpe became fascinated in watching before him this easy, untiring lope, hour after hour, without the variation of a second's fraction in speed nor an inch in length. It was as though the Indian were made of steel springs. He never appeared to hurry; but neither did he ever rest.
At first Thorpe followed him with comparative ease, but at the end of three hours he was compelled to put forth27 decided28 efforts to keep pace. His walking was no longer mechanical, but conscious. When it becomes so, a man soon tires. Thorpe resented the inequalities, the stones, the roots, the patches of soft ground which lay in his way. He felt dully that they were not fair. He could negotiate the distance; but anything else was a gratuitous29 insult.
Then suddenly he gained his second wind. He felt better and stronger and moved freer. For second wind is only to a very small degree a question of the breathing power. It is rather the response of the vital forces to a will that refuses to heed30 their first grumbling31 protests. Like dogs by the fire they do their utmost to convince their master that the limit of freshness is reached; but at last, under the whip, spring to their work.
At midnight Injin Charley called a halt. He spread his blanket; leaned on one elbow long enough to eat strip of dried meat, and fell asleep. Thorpe imitated his example. Three hours later the Indian roused his companion, and the two set out again.
Thorpe had walked a leisurely32 ten days through the woods far to the north. In that journey he had encountered many difficulties. Sometimes he had been tangled33 for hours at a time in a dense34 and almost impenetrable thicket. Again he had spent a half day in crossing a treacherous35 swamp. Or there had interposed in his trail abattises of down timber a quarter of a mile wide over which it had been necessary to pick a precarious36 way eight or ten feet from the ground.
This journey was in comparison easy. Most of the time the travellers walked along high beech37 ridges38 or through the hardwood forests. Occasionally they were forced to pass into the lowlands, but always little saving spits of highland39 reaching out towards each other abridged40 the necessary wallowing. Twice they swam rivers.
At first Thorpe thought this was because the country was more open; but as he gave better attention to their route, he learned to ascribe it entirely to the skill of his companion. The Indian seemed by a species of instinct to select the most practicable routes. He seemed to know how the land ought to lie, so that he was never deceived by appearances into entering a cul de sac. His beech ridges always led to other beech ridges; his hardwood never petered out into the terrible black swamps. Sometimes Thorpe became sensible that they had commenced a long detour41; but it was never an abrupt42 detour, unforeseen and blind.
From three o'clock until eight they walked continually without a pause, without an instant's breathing spell. Then they rested a half hour, ate a little venison, and smoked a pipe.
An hour after noon they repeated the rest. Thorpe rose with a certain physical reluctance43. The Indian seemed as fresh--or as tired--as when he started. At sunset they took an hour. Then forward again by the dim intermittent44 light of the moon and stars through the ghostly haunted forest, until Thorpe thought he would drop with weariness, and was mentally incapable45 of contemplating46 more than a hundred steps in advance.
"When I get to that square patch of light, I'll quit," he would say to himself, and struggle painfully the required twenty rods.
"No, I won't quit here," he would continue, "I'll make it that birch. Then I'll lie down and die."
And so on. To the actual physical exhaustion47 of Thorpe's muscles was added that immense mental weariness which uncertainty48 of the time and distance inflicts49 on a man. The journey might last a week, for all he knew. In the presence of an emergency these men of action had actually not exchanged a dozen words. The Indian led; Thorpe followed.
When the halt was called, Thorpe fell into his blanket too weary even to eat. Next morning sharp, shooting pains, like the stabs of swords, ran through his groin.
"You come," repeated the Indian, stolid50 as ever.
When the sun was an hour high the travellers suddenly ran into a trail, which as suddenly dived into a spruce thicket. On the other side of it Thorpe unexpectedly found himself in an extensive clearing, dotted with the blackened stumps51 of pines. Athwart the distance he could perceive the wide blue horizon of Lake Michigan. He had crossed the Upper Peninsula on foot!
"Boat come by to-day," said Injin Charley, indicating the tall stacks of a mill. "Him no stop. You mak' him stop take you with him. You get train Mackinaw City tonight. Dose men, dey on dat train."
Thorpe calculated rapidly. The enemy would require, even with their teams, a day to cover the thirty miles to the fishing village of Munising, whence the stage ran each morning to Seney, the present terminal of the South Shore Railroad. He, Thorpe, on foot and three hours behind, could never have caught the stage. But from Seney only one train a day was despatched to connect at Mackinaw City with the Michigan Central, and on that one train, due to leave this very morning, the up-river man was just about pulling out. He would arrive at Mackinaw City at four o'clock of the afternoon, where he would be forced to wait until eight in the evening. By catching52 a boat at the mill to which Injin Charley had led him, Thorpe could still make the same train. Thus the start in the race for Detroit's Land Office would be fair.
"All right," he cried, all his energy returning to him. "Here goes! We'll beat him out yet!"
"You come back?" inquired the Indian, peering with a certain anxiety into his companion's eyes.
"Come back!" cried Thorpe. "You bet your hat!"
"I wait," replied the Indian, and was gone.
"Oh, Charley!" shouted Thorpe in surprise. "Come on and get a square meal, anyway."
But the Indian was already on his way back to the distant Ossawinamakee.
Thorpe hesitated in two minds whether to follow and attempt further persuasion53, for he felt keenly the interest the other had displayed. Then he saw, over the headland to the east, a dense trail of black smoke. He set off on a stumbling run towards the mill.
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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persistency
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| n. 坚持(余辉, 时间常数) | |
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banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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revolve
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| vi.(使)旋转；循环出现 | |
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rummaging
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| 翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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deftness
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waterproof
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| n.防水材料；adj.防水的；v.使...能防水 | |
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unearthed
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| 出土的（考古） | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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sag
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| v.下垂，下跌，消沉；n.下垂，下跌，凹陷，[航海]随风漂流 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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gratuitous
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| adj.无偿的，免费的；无缘无故的，不必要的 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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33
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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detour
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| n.绕行的路，迂回路；v.迂回，绕道 | |
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42
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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44
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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45
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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46
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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47
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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48
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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49
inflicts
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的第三人称单数 ) | |
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50
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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51
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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52
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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53
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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