In the meantime the main body of the crew under Thorpe and his foremen were briskly tumbling the logs into the current. Sometimes under the urging of the peaveys, but a single stick would slide down; or again a double tier would cascade1 with the roar of a little Niagara. The men had continually to keep on the tension of an alert, for at any moment they were called upon to exercise their best judgment2 and quickness to keep from being carried downward with the rush of the logs. Not infrequently a frowning sheer wall of forty feet would hesitate on the brink3 of plunge4. Then Shearer5 himself proved his right to the title of riverman.
Shearer wore caulks6 nearly an inch in length. He had been known to ride ten miles, without shifting his feet, on a log so small that he could carry it without difficulty. For cool nerve he was unexcelled.
"I don't need you boys here any longer," he said quietly.
When the men had all withdrawn7, he walked confidently under the front of the rollway, glancing with practiced eye at the perpendicular8 wall of logs over him. Then, as a man pries9 jack10-straws, he clamped his peavey and tugged11 sharply. At once the rollway flattened12 and toppled. A mighty13 splash, a hurl14 of flying foam15 and crushing timbers, and the spot on which the riverman had stood was buried beneath twenty feet of solid green wood. To Thorpe it seemed that Shearer must have been overwhelmed, but the riverman always mysteriously appeared at one side or the other, nonchalant, urging the men to work before the logs should have ceased to move. Tradition claimed that only once in a long woods life had Shearer been forced to "take water" before a breaking rollway: and then he saved his peavey. History stated that he had never lost a man on the river, simply and solely16 because he invariably took the dangerous tasks upon himself.
As soon as the logs had caught the current, a dozen men urged them on. With their short peaveys, the drivers were enabled to prevent the timbers from swirling17 in the eddies--one of the first causes of a jam. At last, near the foot of the flats, they abandoned them to the stream, confident that Moloney and his crew would see to their passage down the river.
In three days the rollways were broken. Now it became necessary to start the rear.
For this purpose Billy Camp, the cook, had loaded his cook-stove, a quantity of provisions, and a supply of bedding, aboard a scow. The scow was built of tremendous hewn timbers, four or five inches thick, to withstand the shock of the logs. At either end were long sweeps to direct its course. The craft was perhaps forty feet long, but rather narrow, in order that it might pass easily through the chute of a dam. It was called the "wanigan."
Billy Camp, his cookee, and his crew of two were now doomed18 to tribulation19. The huge, unwieldy craft from that moment was to become possessed20 of the devil. Down the white water of rapids it would bump, smashing obstinately21 against boulders22, impervious23 to the frantic24 urging of the long sweeps; against the roots and branches of the streamside it would scrape with the perverseness25 of a vicious horse; in the broad reaches it would sulk, refusing to proceed; and when expediency26 demanded its pause, it would drag Billy Camp and his entire crew at the rope's end, while they tried vainly to snub it against successively uprooted27 trees and stumps28. When at last the wanigan was moored29 fast for the night,--usually a mile or so below the spot planned,--Billy Camp pushed back his battered30 old brown derby hat, the badge of his office, with a sigh of relief. To be sure he and his men had still to cut wood, construct cooking and camp fires, pitch tents, snip31 browse32, and prepare supper for seventy men; but the hard work of the day was over. Billy Camp did not mind rain or cold--he would cheerfully cook away with the water dripping from his battered derby to his chubby33 and cold-purpled nose--but he did mind the wanigan. And the worst of it was, he got no sympathy nor aid from the crew. From either bank he and his anxious struggling assistants were greeted with ironic34 cheers and facetious35 remarks. The tribulations36 of the wanigan were as the salt of life to the spectators.
Billy Camp tried to keep back of the rear in clear water, but when the wanigan so disposed, he found himself jammed close in the logs. There he had a chance in his turn to become spectator, and so to repay in kind some of the irony37 and facetiousness38.
Along either bank, among the bushes, on sandbars, and in trees, hundreds and hundreds of logs had been stranded39 when the main drive passed. These logs the rear crew were engaged in restoring to the current.
And as a man had to be able to ride any kind of a log in any water; to propel that log by jumping on it, by rolling it squirrel fashion with the feet, by punting it as one would a canoe; to be skillful in pushing, prying40, and poling other logs from the quarter deck of the same cranky craft; as he must be prepared at any and all times to jump waist deep into the river, to work in ice-water hours at a stretch; as he was called upon to break the most dangerous jams on the river, representing, as they did, the accumulation which the jam crew had left behind them, it was naturally considered the height of glory to belong to the rear crew. Here were the best of the Fighting Forty,--men with a reputation as "white-water birlers"--men afraid of nothing.
Every morning the crews were divided into two sections under Kerlie and Jack Hyland. Each crew had charge of one side of the river, with the task of cleaning it thoroughly41 of all stranded and entangled42 logs. Scotty Parsons exercised a general supervisory eye over both crews. Shearer and Thorpe traveled back and forth43 the length of the drive, riding the logs down stream, but taking to a partly submerged pole trail when ascending44 the current. On the surface of the river in the clear water floated two long graceful45 boats called bateaux. These were in charge of expert boatmen,--men able to propel their craft swiftly forwards, backwards46 and sideways, through all kinds of water. They carried in racks a great supply of pike-poles, peaveys, axes, rope and dynamite47, for use in various emergencies. Intense rivalry48 existed as to which crew "sacked" the farthest down stream in the course of the day. There was no need to urge the men. Some stood upon the logs, pushing mightily49 with the long pike-poles. Others, waist deep in the water, clamped the jaws50 of their peaveys into the stubborn timbers, and, shoulder bent51, slid them slowly but surely into the swifter waters. Still others, lining52 up on either side of one of the great brown tree trunks, carried it bodily to its appointed place. From one end of the rear to the other, shouts, calls, warnings, and jokes flew back and forth. Once or twice a vast roar of Homeric laughter went up as some unfortunate slipped and soused into the water. When the current slacked, and the logs hesitated in their run, the entire crew hastened, bobbing from log to log, down river to see about it. Then they broke the jam, standing53 surely on the edge of the great darkness, while the ice water sucked in and out of their shoes.
Behind the rear Big Junko poled his bateau backwards and forwards exploding dynamite. Many of the bottom tiers of logs in the rollways had been frozen down, and Big Junko had to loosen them from the bed of the stream. He was a big man, this, as his nickname indicated, built of many awkwardnesses. His cheekbones were high, his nose flat, his lips thick and slobbery. He sported a wide, ferocious54 straggling mustache and long eye-brows, under which gleamed little fierce eyes. His forehead sloped back like a beast's, but was always hidden by a disreputable felt hat. Big Junko did not know much, and had the passions of a wild animal, but he was a reckless riverman and devoted55 to Thorpe. Just now he exploded dynamite.
The sticks of powder were piled amidships. Big Junko crouched56 over them, inserting the fuses and caps, closing the openings with soap, finally lighting57 them, and dropping them into the water alongside, where they immediately sank. Then a few strokes of a short paddle took him barely out of danger. He huddled58 down in his craft, waiting. One, two, three seconds passed. Then a hollow boom shook the stream. A cloud of water sprang up, strangely beautiful. After a moment the great brown logs rose suddenly to the surface from below, one after the other, like leviathans of the deep. And Junko watched, dimly fascinated, in his rudimentary animal's brain, by the sight of the power he had evoked59 to his aid.
When night came the men rode down stream to where the wanigan had made camp. There they slept, often in blankets wetted by the wanigan's eccentricities60, to leap to their feet at the first cry in early morning. Some days it rained, in which case they were wet all the time. Almost invariably there was a jam to break, though strangely enough almost every one of the old-timers believed implicitly61 that "in the full of the moon logs will run free at night."
Thorpe and Tim Shearer nearly always slept in a dog tent at the rear; though occasionally they passed the night at Dam Two, where Bryan Moloney and his crew were already engaged in sluicing62 the logs through the chute.
The affair was simple enough. Long booms arranged in the form of an open V guided the drive to the sluice63 gate, through which a smooth apron64 of water rushed to turmoil65 in an eddying66 pool below. Two men tramped steadily67 backwards and forwards on the booms, urging the logs forward by means of long pike poles to where the suction could seize them. Below the dam, the push of the sluice water forced them several miles down stream, where the rest of Bryan Moloney's crew took them in charge.
Thus through the wide gate nearly three-quarters of a million feet an hour could be run--a quantity more than sufficient to keep pace with the exertions68 of the rear. The matter was, of course, more or less delayed by the necessity of breaking out such rollways as they encountered from time to time on the banks. At length, however, the last of the logs drifted into the wide dam pool. The rear had arrived at Dam Two, and Thorpe congratulated himself that one stage of his journey had been completed. Billy Camp began to worry about shooting the wanigan through the sluice-way.
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cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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shearer
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| n.剪羊毛的人；剪切机 | |
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caulks
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| vt.堵（船的）缝（caulk的第三人称单数形式） | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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pries
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的第三人称单数 )；撬开 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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tribulation
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| n.苦难，灾难 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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impervious
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| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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perverseness
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| n. 乖张, 倔强, 顽固 | |
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expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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uprooted
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| v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
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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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moored
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| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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snip
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| n.便宜货，廉价货，剪，剪断 | |
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browse
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| vi.随意翻阅，浏览；(牛、羊等)吃草 | |
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chubby
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| adj.丰满的，圆胖的 | |
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ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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facetious
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| adj.轻浮的，好开玩笑的 | |
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tribulations
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| n.苦难( tribulation的名词复数 )；艰难；苦难的缘由；痛苦 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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facetiousness
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| n.滑稽 | |
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stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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dynamite
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| n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破) | |
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48
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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50
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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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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52
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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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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54
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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eccentricities
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| n.古怪行为( eccentricity的名词复数 )；反常；怪癖 | |
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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sluicing
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| v.冲洗( sluice的现在分词 )；（指水）喷涌而出；漂净；给…安装水闸 | |
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sluice
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| n.水闸 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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66
eddying
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| 涡流，涡流的形成 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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