Before daylight Injin Charley drifted into the camp to find Thorpe already out. With a curt1 nod the Indian seated himself by the fire, and, producing a square plug of tobacco and a knife, began leisurely2 to fill his pipe. Thorpe watched him in silence. Finally Injin Charley spoke3 in the red man's clear-cut, imitative English, a pause between each sentence.
"I find trail three men," said he. "Both dam, three men. One man go down river. Those men have cork-boot. One man no have cork-boot. He boss." The Indian suddenly threw his chin out, his head back, half closed his eyes in a cynical4 squint5. As by a flash Dyer, the scaler, leered insolently6 from behind the Indian's stolid7 mask.
"How do you know?" said Thorpe.
For answer the Indian threw his shoulders forward in Dyer's nervous fashion.
"He make trail big by the toe, light by the heel. He make trail big on inside."
Charley arose and walked, after Dyer's springy fashion, illustrating8 his point in the soft wood ashes of the immediate9 fireside.
Thorpe looked doubtful. "I believe you are right, Charley," said he. "But it is mighty10 little to go on. You can't be sure."
"I sure," replied Charley.
He puffed11 strongly at the heel of his smoke, then arose, and without farewell disappeared in the forest.
Thorpe ranged the camp impatiently, glancing often at the sky. At length he laid fresh logs on the fire and aroused the cook. It was bitter cold in the early morning. After a time the men turned out of their own accord, at first yawning with insufficient12 rest, and then becoming grimly tense as their returned wits reminded them of the situation.
From that moment began the wonderful struggle against circumstances which has become a by-word among rivermen everywhere. A forty-day drive had to go out in ten. A freshet had to float out thirty million feet of logs. It was tremendous; as even the men most deeply buried in the heavy hours of that time dimly realized. It was epic13; as the journalist, by now thoroughly14 aroused, soon succeeded in convincing his editors and his public. Fourteen, sixteen, sometimes eighteen hours a day, the men of the driving crew worked like demons15. Jams had no chance to form. The phenomenal activity of the rear crew reduced by half the inevitable16 sacking. Of course, under the pressure, the lower dam had gone out. Nothing was to be depended on but sheer dogged grit17. Far up-river Sadler & Smith had hung their drive for the season. They had stretched heavy booms across the current, and so had resigned themselves to a definite but not extraordinary loss. Thorpe had at least a clear river.
Wallace Carpenter could not understand how human flesh and blood endured. The men themselves had long since reached the point of practical exhaustion18, but were carried through by the fire of their leader. Work was dogged until he stormed into sight; then it became frenzied19. He seemed to impart to those about him a nervous force and excitability as real as that induced by brandy. When he looked at a man from his cavernous, burning eyes, that man jumped.
It was all willing enough work. Several definite causes, each adequate alone to something extraordinary, focussed to the necessity. His men worshipped Thorpe; the idea of thwarting20 the purposes of their comrade's murderers retained its strength; the innate21 pride of caste and craft--the sturdiest virtue22 of the riverman--was in these picked men increased to the dignity of a passion. The great psychological forces of a successful career gathered and made head against the circumstances which such careers always arouse in polarity.
Impossibilities were puffed aside like thistles. The men went at them headlong. They gave way before the rush. Thorpe always led. Not for a single instant of the day nor for many at night was he at rest. He was like a man who has taken a deep breath to reach a definite goal, and who cannot exhale23 until the burst of speed be over. Instinctively24 he seemed to realize that a let-down would mean collapse25.
After the camp had fallen asleep, he would often lie awake half of the few hours of their night, every muscle tense, staring at the sky. His mind saw definitely every detail of the situation as he had last viewed it. In advance his imagination stooped and sweated to the work which his body was to accomplish the next morning. Thus he did everything twice. Then at last the tension would relax. He would fall into uneasy sleep. But twice that did not follow. Through the dissolving iron mist of his striving, a sharp thought cleaved26 like an arrow. It was that after all he did not care. The religion of Success no longer held him as its devoutest worshiper. He was throwing the fibers28 of his life into the engine of toil29, not because of moral duty, but because of moral pride. He meant to succeed in order to prove to himself that he had not been wrong.
The pain of the arrow-wound always aroused him from his doze30 with a start. He grimly laughed the thought out of court. To his waking moments his religion was sincere, was real. But deep down in his sub-consciousness, below his recognition, the other influence was growing like a weed. Perhaps the vision, not the waking, had been right. Perhaps that far-off beautiful dream of a girl which Thorpe's idealism had constructed from; the reactionary31 necessities of Thorpe's harsh life had been more real than his forest temples of his ruthless god! Perhaps there were greater things than to succeed, greater things than success. Perhaps, after all, the Power that put us here demands more that we cleave27 one to the other in loving-kindness than that we learn to blow the penny whistles it has tossed us. And then the keen, poignant32 memory of the dream girl stole into the young man's mind, and in agony was immediately thrust forth33. He would not think of her. He had given her up. He had cast the die. For success he had bartered34 her, in the noblest, the loftiest spirit of devotion. He refused to believe that devotion fanatical; he refused to believe that he had been wrong. In the still darkness of the night he would rise and steal to the edge of the dully roaring stream. There, his eyes blinded and his throat choked with a longing35 more manly36 than tears, he would reach out and smooth the round rough coats of the great logs.
"We'll do it!" he whispered to them--and to himself. "We'll do it! We can't be wrong. God would not have let us!"
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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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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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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squint
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| v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的 | |
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insolently
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| adv.自豪地，自傲地 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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grit
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| n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关 | |
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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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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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thwarting
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| 阻挠( thwart的现在分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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exhale
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| v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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cleaved
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cleave
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| v．(clave；cleaved)粘着，粘住；坚持；依恋 | |
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fibers
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| 光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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doze
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| v.打瞌睡；n.打盹，假寐 | |
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reactionary
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| n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的 | |
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poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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bartered
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| v.作物物交换，以货换货( barter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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