Some such thoughts probably filled the mind of the trapper when, on the afternoon of the day whose dawn we have mentioned, he stood beside the wreck of what had once been a full-rigged ship and gazed intently on the scene of desolation.
Life and death were powerfully suggested to him. Many a time had he seen such a craft breasting the waves of the broad Saint Lawrence, when every dip of the bow, every bend of the taper4 masts, every rattle5 of the ropes, and every mellow6 shout of the seamen7, told of vigorous life and energy; and now, the broken masts and yards tipped and fringed with snow-wreaths, the shattered stern, out of which the cargo8 had been evidently washed long ago, the decks crushed down with snow, the bulged9 sides, the bottom pierced by rocks, the bowsprit burst to shivers by the opposing cliff, the pendant and motionless cordage, even the slight ripple10 of the sleeping sea, which deepened rather than broke the prevailing11 silence, all told eloquently12 of death,—death, perchance to passengers and crew, at all events to sanguine13 hopes and prospects14. Nevertheless there was much life connected with that death-like scene, as the sequel of our tale will show.
The trapper, although fond of moralising, was not prone15 to indulge in sentiment when circumstances called him to action. He had come suddenly in sight of the wreck on turning the point of the frowning cliff where the gallant16 ship had met her doom17, and stood only for a few seconds to gaze sadly on the scene.
Hastening forward he proceeded at once to make a thorough survey of the vessel18.
First he went to the stern to ascertain19, if possible, her name. The greater part of the stern had, as we have said, been torn away; but, after careful search, he discovered a piece of wood on which he could plainly trace portions of the letters B and E and T. The remainder of the word, whatever it was, had been completely erased20.
Bellew did not at first climb on board the ship, because from her general aspect he knew full well that there could be no survivor21 in her, besides, through the yawning stern he could see nearly the whole of the interior.
His next step was to search the neighbourhood for tracks, in order to see whether or not the wreck had been lately visited by human beings. This search resulted in discoveries which perplexed22 him greatly, for not only did he find numerous footprints which crossed each other in various directions, but he knew from their appearance that these had been recently made, and that they were those of white men as well as red; some of them showing the prints of shoes, while others displayed the marks of moccasins.
Had Bellew discovered one or two tracks made by men of the forest like himself, his knowledge of wood-craft would have enabled him at once to decide which way they had come and whither they had gone; but, with at least a dozen meandering25 tracks radiating from the ship in all directions, as well towards the sea as the land, he felt himself puzzled. He knew well enough that they were too fresh to be those of the wrecked26 crew, unless indeed the crew had remained by the ship; but in that case there would have been evidences of an encampment of some sort, such as fittings-up on board, or huts on shore. He followed the tracks that led to the sea and found that they terminated abruptly27, as if those who had made them had plunged28 into the water and drowned themselves. Before following up those that went landward he returned to the ship and clambered on board, but found nothing to reward him for his pains. The sea had swept the hold fore23 and aft so completely that nothing whatever was left.
These investigations29 did not take up much time. The trapper, after one or two circuits, found the spot where the footsteps became disentangled from the maze30 of individual tracks, and led, not along the shore as he had supposed they would, but up into a narrow gorge31; and now he learned that the tracks of what appeared a multitude of people had been made by the running to and fro of not more than a dozen men, six of whom were natives. Thinking it probable that the party could not be far distant, for the gorge up which they had proceeded seemed of very limited extent, the trapper pushed forward with increasing expectation, not unmingled with anxiety.
Turning the point of a projecting cliff he came suddenly on a sight that filled him with sadness. It was the mouldering32 remains33 of a human being—one who had been a seaman34, to judge from the garments which covered him. One glance sufficed to show the trapper that his services there were not required. He also observed that the fresh tracks which he had been following circled round the body of the seaman and then led straight on.
Following these, Bellew soon came to an open circular space at the head of the gorge, where the appearance of smoke, rising from among the trees, arrested his attention. In a few minutes he had reached the spot whence it issued, and there to his surprise found Mr Bob Smart with five of his men and several Indians standing35 in solemn silence round something on the ground that appeared to rivet36 their attention. Some of the men looked up as Bellew approached and nodded to him, for the trapper was well-known in the district; they also moved aside and let him pass.
“What’s wrong, Mr Smart?” he asked, on coming up.
The fur-trader pointed37 to the ground, on which lay a group of men, who, at a first glance, appeared to be dying. One in particular, a youth, seemed to be in the very last stage of exhaustion38. Smart had just risen from his side after administering a cup of hot tea, when the trapper appeared.
“I fear he won’t last long,” said Smart, turning to Bellew, with a shake of his head.
“What have you been givin’ him?” asked Bellew, stooping and feeling his pulse.
“Just a cup of tea,” replied Smart; “I have unfortunately nothing better. We only heard of the wreck yesterday, and came down in our boat in such haste that we forgot spirits. Besides, I counted on bringing whoever I should find up to the fort without delay, but although we may move most of these poor fellows, I doubt much that we daren’t move him.”
This was said in a whisper, for the poor fellows referred to, although unable to rise, lay listening eagerly to every word that was spoken. There were six of them—one a negro—all terribly emaciated39, and more or less badly frost-bitten. They formed the remnant of a crew of twenty-five, many of whom, after suffering dreadfully from hunger and frost-bites, had wandered away into the woods, and in a half delirious40 state, had perished.
“You have hot water, I see,” said the trapper, hastily unfastening his pack, “fetch some.”
Bob Smart promptly41 and gladly obeyed, for he saw that Bellew was a man of action, and appeared to know what to do.
“You’re right, Mr Smart,” said Bellew, as he poured a little of the contents of a bottle into the tin pannikin that had served him for a tea-cup the night before, “this poor lad couldn’t stand moving just now. Fortunately I’ve brought some spirits with me. It will start fresh life in him if he’s not too far gone already. Here, sir,” he continued, in a louder tone, “let me put this to your lips.”
The youth opened a pair of brilliant black eyes and gazed earnestly at the speaker, then smiled faintly and sipped43 the offered beverage44.
As might have been expected, he at once revived a little under its influence.
“There, that’s enough just now; it don’t do to take much at a time. I’ll give ’ee somethin’ else in a minute,” said Bellew, as he went from one to another and administered a teaspoonful45 or two to each.
They were very grateful, and said so in words more or less emphatic46. One of them, indeed, who appeared to have once been a jovial47 seaman, intimated that he would be glad to take as many more teaspoonfuls of “that same” as Bellew chose to administer! but the trapper, paying no attention to the suggestion, proceeded to open his store of provisions and to concoct48, in his tin tea-kettle, a species of thin soup. While this was simmering, he began to remove the blankets with which Bob Smart had covered the unfortunate men.
“Don’t you think,” said Bob, “that it would be well to leave their wraps alone till we get them up to the fort? They’re badly bitten, and I know little about dressing49 sores. By the time we get there Mr Redding will probably have returned from Partridge Bay, and he’s more than half a a doctor, I believe.”
“Nevertheless I’ll have a look,” said Bellew, with a smile, “for I’m a bit of a doctor myself in such matters,—about a quarter of one, if I may say so.”
Without further parley50 the trapper laid bare their sores, and truly the sad sight fully3 justified51 Smart’s remark that the poor fellows were badly bitten. One of them, the seaman above referred to, whom his comrades styled Ned, had only lost the ends of one or two toes and the forefinger52 of his left hand, but some of the others had been so severely53 frost-bitten in their feet that all the toes were rotting off; the negro in particular had lost his left foot, while the heel-bone of the other was exposed to the extent of nearly an inch, and all the toes were gone. (We describe here, from memory, what we have actually seen.)
In perfect silence, but with a despatch54 that would have done credit to hospital training, the trapper removed the dead flesh, dressed the sores, applied55 poultices of certain herbs gathered in the woods, and bandaged them up. This done, he served out the thin soup, with another small allowance of spirits and hot water, after which, with the able assistance of Bob Smart and his men, he wrapped them up in their blankets and made arrangements for having them conveyed to the boat which had been pulled into a convenient creek56 further down the shore than the wreck.
Strange to say, the youth who appeared to be dying was the least injured by frost-bites of the party, his fingers and face being untouched, and only a portion of the skin of his feet damaged; but this was explained by the seaman, Ned, who, on hearing Bellew’s expression of surprise, said, with a touch of feeling:—
“It’s not the frost as damaged him, sir, it’s the water an’ the rocks. W’en we was wrecked, sir,—now three weeks ago, or thereby,—we’d ableeged to send a hawser57 ashore58, an’ not one of us could swim, from the cap’n to the cabin-boy, so Mister McLeod he wolunteered to—”
“Mister who?” demanded Bellew hastily.
“Mister McLeod.”
“What was your ship’s name?”
“The Betsy, sir.”
“From what port?”
“Plymouth.”
“Ho ho! well, go on.”
“Well, as I was a-sayin’, sir, Mister McLeod, who’s as bold as a lion, he wolunteered to swim ashore wi’ a line, an’ swim he did, though the sea was rollin’ in on the cliffs like the Falls o’ Niagery,—which I’m told lie somewhere in these latitudes,—leastwise they’re putt down in all the charts so. We tried for to dissuade60 him at first, but when the starn o’ the ship was tore away, and the cargo began to wash out, we all saw that it was neck or nothin’, so we let him go. For a time he swam like a good ’un, but when he’d bin59 dashed agin’ the cliffs two or three times an’ washed back again among the wreck of spars, cargo, and riggin’, we thought it was all over with all of us. Hows’ever we wasn’t forsooken at the eleventh hour, for a wave all of a sudden washed him high and dry on a ledge24 of rock, an’ he stood up and waved his hand and then fell down in a swound. Then we thought again it was all up with us, for every wave went roarin’ up to young Mister McLeod, as if it wor mad to lose him, and one or two of ’em even sent the foam61 washin’ in about his legs. Well, sir, the last one that did that seemed to bring him to, for as it washed over his face he jumped up and held on to the rocks like a limpet. Then he got a little higher on the cliff, and when we saw he was looking out to us we made signs to him that a hawser was made fast to the line, an’ all ready. He understood us an’ began to haul away on the line, but we could see that he had bin badly hurt from the way he stopped from time to time to git breath, and rested his head on a big rock that rose at his side like a great capstan. Hows’ever, he got the hawser ashore at last, an’ made it fast round the big rock, an’ so by means of that, an’ the blessin’ o’ Providence62, we all got ashore. P’r’aps,” added Ned thoughtfully, “it might have bin as well if some of us hadn’t—hows’ever, we wasn’t to know that at the time, you understand, sir.”
It must not be supposed that Ned said all this in the hearty63 tones that were peculiar64 to his former self. The poor fellow could only utter it sentence by sentence in a weak voice, which was strengthened occasionally by a sip42 from “that same” beverage which had first awakened65 his admiration66. Meanwhile the object of his remarks had fallen asleep.
“Now, Mister Smart,” said Bellew, taking the fur-trader aside, “from all that I have heard and seen it is clear to me that this wreck is the vessel in which the McLeods of Jenkins Creek had shipped their property from England, and that this youth is Roderick, the youngest son of the family. I’ve bin helping67 the McLeods of late with their noo saw-mill, and I’ve heard the father talking sometimes with his sons about the Betsy of Plymouth and their brother Roderick.”
At another time Bob Smart would not have been at all sorry to hear that the interloping McLeods had lost all their property, but now he was filled with pity, and asked Jonas Bellew with much anxiety what he thought was best to be done.
“The best thing to do,” said Bellew, “is to carry these men to the boat and have them up to the Cliff Fort without delay.”
“We’ll set about it at once. You’ll go with us, I suppose.”
“No, I’ll remain behind and take care of young McLeod. In his present state it would likely cost him his life to move him.”
“Then I’ll leave some of my men with you.”
“Not needful,” replied the trapper, “you know I’m used to bein’ alone an’ managin’ things for myself. After you get them up you may send down a couple of men with some provisions and their hatchets68. For to-night I can make the poor fellow all snug69 with the tarpaulin70 of your boat.”
In accordance with these plans the shipwrecked men were sent up to the Cliff Fort. Roderick McLeod was sheltered under a tarpaulin tent and carefully tended by Bellew, and one of Smart’s most active Indians was despatched with a pencil-note to Jenkins Creek.
It was this note which interrupted the conversation between Reginald Redding and the elder McLeod at a somewhat critical moment, and this note, as the reader may easily believe, threw the whole establishment into sudden consternation71.
点击收听单词发音
1 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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2 dreary | |
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的 | |
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3 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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4 taper | |
n.小蜡烛,尖细,渐弱;adj.尖细的;v.逐渐变小 | |
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5 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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6 mellow | |
adj.柔和的;熟透的;v.变柔和;(使)成熟 | |
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7 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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8 cargo | |
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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9 bulged | |
凸出( bulge的过去式和过去分词 ); 充满; 塞满(某物) | |
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10 ripple | |
n.涟波,涟漪,波纹,粗钢梳;vt.使...起涟漪,使起波纹; vi.呈波浪状,起伏前进 | |
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11 prevailing | |
adj.盛行的;占优势的;主要的 | |
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12 eloquently | |
adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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13 sanguine | |
adj.充满希望的,乐观的,血红色的 | |
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14 prospects | |
n.希望,前途(恒为复数) | |
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15 prone | |
adj.(to)易于…的,很可能…的;俯卧的 | |
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16 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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17 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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18 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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19 ascertain | |
vt.发现,确定,查明,弄清 | |
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20 erased | |
v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 );抹去;清除 | |
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21 survivor | |
n.生存者,残存者,幸存者 | |
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22 perplexed | |
adj.不知所措的 | |
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23 fore | |
adv.在前面;adj.先前的;在前部的;n.前部 | |
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24 ledge | |
n.壁架,架状突出物;岩架,岩礁 | |
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25 meandering | |
蜿蜒的河流,漫步,聊天 | |
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26 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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27 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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28 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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29 investigations | |
(正式的)调查( investigation的名词复数 ); 侦查; 科学研究; 学术研究 | |
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30 maze | |
n.迷宫,八阵图,混乱,迷惑 | |
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31 gorge | |
n.咽喉,胃,暴食,山峡;v.塞饱,狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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32 mouldering | |
v.腐朽( moulder的现在分词 );腐烂,崩塌 | |
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33 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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34 seaman | |
n.海员,水手,水兵 | |
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35 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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36 rivet | |
n.铆钉;vt.铆接,铆牢;集中(目光或注意力) | |
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37 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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38 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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39 emaciated | |
adj.衰弱的,消瘦的 | |
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40 delirious | |
adj.不省人事的,神智昏迷的 | |
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41 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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42 sip | |
v.小口地喝,抿,呷;n.一小口的量 | |
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43 sipped | |
v.小口喝,呷,抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44 beverage | |
n.(水,酒等之外的)饮料 | |
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45 teaspoonful | |
n.一茶匙的量;一茶匙容量 | |
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46 emphatic | |
adj.强调的,着重的;无可置疑的,明显的 | |
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47 jovial | |
adj.快乐的,好交际的 | |
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48 concoct | |
v.调合,制造 | |
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49 dressing | |
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料 | |
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50 parley | |
n.谈判 | |
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51 justified | |
a.正当的,有理的 | |
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52 forefinger | |
n.食指 | |
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53 severely | |
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地 | |
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54 despatch | |
n./v.(dispatch)派遣;发送;n.急件;新闻报道 | |
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55 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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56 creek | |
n.小溪,小河,小湾 | |
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57 hawser | |
n.大缆;大索 | |
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58 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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59 bin | |
n.箱柜;vt.放入箱内;[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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60 dissuade | |
v.劝阻,阻止 | |
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61 foam | |
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫 | |
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62 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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63 hearty | |
adj.热情友好的;衷心的;尽情的,纵情的 | |
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64 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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65 awakened | |
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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66 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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67 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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68 hatchets | |
n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 );恶毒攻击;诽谤;休战 | |
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69 snug | |
adj.温暖舒适的,合身的,安全的;v.使整洁干净,舒适地依靠,紧贴;n.(英)酒吧里的私房 | |
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70 tarpaulin | |
n.涂油防水布,防水衣,防水帽 | |
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71 consternation | |
n.大为吃惊,惊骇 | |
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