For a moment the three men stared at each other without speaking.
"What does it mean?" almost whispered Carpenter.
"Mean? Foul1 play!" snarled2 Thorpe. "Come on, Tim."
The two struck into the brush, threading the paths with the ease of woodsmen. It was necessary to keep to the high inland ridges3 for the simple reason that the pole trail had by now become impassable. Wallace Carpenter, attempting to follow them, ran, stumbled, and fell through brush that continually whipped his face and garments, continually tripped his feet. All he could obtain was a vanishing glimpse of his companions' backs. Thorpe and his foreman talked briefly4.
"It's Morrison and Daly," surmised5 Shearer6. "I left them 'count of a trick like that. They wanted me to take charge of Perkinson's drive and hang her a purpose. I been suspecting something--they've been layin' too low."
Thorpe answered nothing. Through the site of the old dam they found a torrent7 pouring from the narrowed pond, at the end of which the dilapidated wings flapping in the current attested8 the former structure. Davis stood staring at the current.
Thorpe strode forward and shook him violently by the shoulder.
"How did this happen?" he demanded hoarsely9. "Speak!"
The man turned to him in a daze10. "I don't know," he answered.
"You ought to know. How was that 'shot' exploded? How did they get in here without you seeing them? Answer me!"
"I don't know," repeated the man. "I jest went over in th' bresh to kill a few pa'tridges, and when I come back I found her this way. I wasn't goin' to close down for three hours yet, and I thought they was no use a hangin' around here."
"Were you hired to watch this dam, or weren't you?" demanded the tense voice of Thorpe. "Answer me, you fool."
"Yes, I was," returned the man, a shade of aggression11 creeping into his voice.
"Well, you've done it well. You've cost me my dam, and you've killed five men. If the crew finds out about you, you'll go over the falls, sure. You get out of here! Pike! Don't you ever let me see your face again!"
The man blanched12 as he thus learned of his comrades' deaths. Thorpe thrust his face at him, lashed13 by circumstances beyond his habitual14 self-control.
"It's men like you who make the trouble," he stormed. "Damn fools who say they didn't mean to. It isn't enough not to mean to. They should MEAN NOT TO! I don't ask you to think. I just want you to do what I tell you, and you can't even do that."
He threw his shoulder into a heavy blow that reached the dam watcher's face, and followed it immediately by another. Then Shearer caught his arm, motioning the dazed and bloody15 victim of the attack to get out of sight. Thorpe shook his foreman off with one impatient motion, and strode away up the river, his head erect16, his eyes flashing, his nostrils17 distended18.
"I reckon you'd better mosey," Shearer dryly advised the dam watcher; and followed.
Late in the afternoon the two men reached Dam Three, or rather the spot on which Dam Three had stood. The same spectacle repeated itself here, except that Ellis, the dam watcher, was nowhere to be seen.
"The dirty whelps," cried Thorpe, "they did a good job!"
He thrashed about here and there, and so came across Ellis blindfolded19 and tied. When released, the dam watcher was unable to give any account of his assailants.
"They came up behind me while I was cooking," he said. "One of 'em grabbed me and the other one kivered my eyes. Then I hears the 'shot' and knows there's trouble."
Thorpe listened in silence. Shearer asked a few questions. After the low-voiced conversation Thorpe arose abruptly20.
"Where you going?" asked Shearer.
But the young man did not reply. He swung, with the same long, nervous stride, into the down-river trail.
Until late that night the three men--for Ellis insisted on accompanying them--hurried through the forest. Thorpe walked tirelessly, upheld by his violent but repressed excitement. When his hat fell from his head, he either did not notice the fact, or did not care to trouble himself for its recovery, so he glanced through the trees bare-headed, his broad white brow gleaming in the moonlight. Shearer noted21 the fire in his eyes, and from the coolness of his greater age, counselled moderation.
"I wouldn't stir the boys up," he panted, for the pace was very swift. "They'll kill some one over there, it'll be murder on both sides."
He received no answer. About midnight they came to the camp.
Two great fires leaped among the trees, and the men, past the idea of sleep, grouped between them, talking. The lesson of twisted timbers was not lost to their experience, and the evening had brought its accumulation of slow anger against the perpetrators of the outrage22. These men were not given to oratorical23 mouthings, but their low-voiced exchanges between the puffings of a pipe led to a steadier purpose than that of hysteria. Even as the woodsmen joined their group, they had reached the intensity24 of execution. Across their purpose Thorpe threw violently his personality.
"You must not go," he commanded.
Through their anger they looked at him askance.
"I forbid it," Thorpe cried.
They shrugged25 their indifference26 and arose. This was an affair of caste brotherhood27; and the blood of their mates cried out to them.
"The work," Thorpe shouted hoarsely. "The work! We must get those logs out! We haven't time!"
But the Fighting Forty had not Thorpe's ideal. Success meant a day's work well done; while vengeance28 stood for a righting of the realities which had been unrighteously overturned. Thorpe's dry-eyed, burning, almost mad insistence29 on the importance of the day's task had not its ordinary force. They looked upon him from a standpoint apart, calmly, dispassionately, as one looks on a petulant30 child. The grim call of tragedy had lifted them above little mundane31 things.
Then swiftly between the white, strained face of the madman trying to convince his heart that his mind had been right, and the fanatically exalted32 rivermen, interposed the sanity33 of Radway. The old jobber34 faced the men calmly, almost humorously, and somehow the very bigness of the man commanded attention. When he spoke35, his coarse, good-natured, everyday voice fell through the tense situation, clarifying it, restoring it to the normal.
"You fellows make me sick," said he. "You haven't got the sense God gave a rooster. Don't you see you're playing right in those fellows' hands? What do you suppose they dynamited36 them dams for? To kill our boys? Don't you believe it for a minute. They never dreamed we was dry pickin' that jam. They sent some low-lived whelp down there to hang our drive, and by smoke it looks like they was going to succeed, thanks to you mutton-heads.
"'Spose you go over and take 'em apart; what then? You have a scrap37; probably you lick 'em." The men growled38 ominously39, but did not stir. "You whale daylights out of a lot of men who probably don't know any more about this here shooting of our dams than a hog40 does about a ruffled41 shirt. Meanwhile your drive hangs. Well? Well? Do you suppose the men who were back of that shooting, do you suppose Morrison and Daly give a tinker's dam how many men of theirs you lick? What they want is to hang our drive. If they hang our drive, it's cheap at the price of a few black eyes."
The speaker paused and grinned good-humoredly at the men's attentive42 faces. Then suddenly his own became grave, and he swung into his argument all the impressiveness of his great bulk,
"Do you want to know how to get even?" he asked, shading each word. "Do you want to know how to make those fellows sing so small you can't hear them? Well, I'll tell you. TAKE OUT THIS DRIVE! Do it in spite of them! Show them they're no good when they buck43 up against Thorpe's One! Our boys died doing their duty--the way a riverman ought to. NOW HUMP YOURSELVES! Don't let 'em die in vain!"
The crew stirred uneasily, looking at each other for approval of the conversion44 each had experienced. Radway, seizing the psychological moment, turned easily toward the blaze.
"Better turn in, boys, and get some sleep," he said. "We've got a hard day to-morrow." He stooped to light his pipe at the fire. When he had again straightened his back after rather a prolonged interval45, the group had already disintegrated46. A few minutes later the cookee scattered47 the brands of the fire from before a sleeping camp.
Thorpe had listened non-committally to the colloquy48. He had maintained the suspended attitude of a man who is willing to allow the trial of other methods, but who does not therefore relinquish49 his own. At the favorable termination of the discussion he turned away without comment. He expected to gain this result. Had he been in a more judicial50 state of mind he might have perceived at last the reason, in the complicated scheme of Providence51, for his long connection with John Radway.
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1
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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3
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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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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shearer
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| n.剪羊毛的人；剪切机 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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attested
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| adj.经检验证明无病的，经检验证明无菌的v.证明( attest的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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daze
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| v.(使)茫然，(使)发昏 | |
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aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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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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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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distended
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| v.（使）膨胀，肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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blindfolded
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| v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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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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oratorical
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| adj.演说的，雄辩的 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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25
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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29
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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mundane
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| adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的 | |
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32
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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jobber
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| n.批发商；(股票买卖)经纪人；做零工的人 | |
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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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dynamited
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| v.（尤指用于采矿的）甘油炸药( dynamite的过去式和过去分词 )；会引起轰动的人[事物] | |
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37
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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38
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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ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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hog
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| n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占 | |
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41
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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42
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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43
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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44
conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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45
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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46
disintegrated
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| v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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48
colloquy
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| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
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49
relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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50
judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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51
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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