From these Gauchos2 Colonel Marchbanks learned that his troops had been seen searching for him by the eldest3 son, Pizarro, and that handsome youth professed4 himself willing to guide the party to the place where the soldiers were likely to be found. Without delay, therefore, they resumed their journey after supper, and that night encamped on the open plain.
While the party was busy making arrangements for the night, Pedro sauntered to the top of a neighbouring knoll5 to have what he styled a look round.
It was a clear moonlight night, and Lawrence, recognising the figure of the guide, followed him.
“Pedro,” he said, on overtaking him, “how is it possible that Pizarro can guide us to where the troops are, seeing that it is some time since he saw them, and he did not know in what direction they meant to travel? Besides, they may have changed their intentions and their route several times.”
“You forget, senhor, that troops leave a broad trail, and you do not yet, I see, fully6 appreciate the wonderful powers of some Gauchos in tracking out men. This Pizarro, although so young, is already celebrated7 in that way.”
“You know him, then? Why, you seem to know everybody!”
“I know every one of note,” replied the guide, “for my travels have been extensive, and my memory is pretty strong. Let me give you one or two instances of Pizarro’s powers. I was in this part of the country two years ago. Having occasion to pass this way, I fell in with Pizarro, and we travelled together a short time. One forenoon we were riding over the plains, when he stopped suddenly, pointed8 to a footprint, and said, ‘That is the little grey horse that was stolen from my father three years ago!’ ‘Are you sure?’ said I, almost laughing at him. ‘Sure!’ said he, ‘of course I am; moreover, I’m certain that the horse passed here not more than half an hour ago.’ ‘Let’s follow it up, then,’ said I, more in jest than earnest. But we did follow it up, and recovered the little grey horse that same evening.”
“A wonderful power of observation indeed, as well as memory,” said Lawrence, looking with increased interest at the young Gaucho, who could be seen, by the light of the neighbouring camp-fire, moving about in a graceful9, free and easy manner, assisting in the preparation of supper.
“It was pretty well in its way,” returned Pedro, “but he did a sharper thing than that last year. A gold escort was attacked somewhere in the west, and the robbers, after killing10 most of the men, escaped with the bags of gold. The authorities being very anxious to trace out and punish the robbers, offered a high reward for any useful information as to their whereabouts. Now it chanced that Pizarro was moving about the country at that time, and, hearing of the adventure and the reward, kept his eyes open and his wits about him a little more sharply than usual—though he does that pretty well at all times by nature. One day he saw a little child leading a mule11 laden12 with raw hides along a narrow path. This is a common enough sight, in no way calculated to attract particular attention; nevertheless it did attract the attention of Pizarro. I don’t pretend to understand the workings of a Gaucho’s mind. Perhaps it was the extreme smallness of the child that struck him, causing him to think that as no father or mother would risk such a little thing with the charge of a loaded mule without a special reason, it would be as well to find out what that special reason might be. Perhaps it was something else. Anyhow, suspicion being awakened13, he followed the mule for a short distance, and soon observed that it stepped as if it carried a much heavier weight than a mere14 pack of hides. At once the stolen gold flashed into Pizarro’s mind. He stopped the mule, cut the bandages off the hides, and there, concealed15 among them, found the stolen bags!”
“After that,” said Lawrence, “I have no doubt whatever that he will soon find the troops.”
“Neither have I,” returned Pedro; “but Pizarro, and men like him, can do much more than I have told you. By a flight of birds they can tell of an approaching band of men before they are in sight, and by the cloud of dust they make when they appear they can form a close estimate of their numbers. When the Indian hordes16 are about to make a raid, Gauchos are warned of it by the ostriches17 and llamas and other timid beasts of the Pampas all travelling in one direction, and in many other ways that seem little short of miraculous18 they act the part of wilderness19-detectives.”
While continuing their journey next day, Lawrence resolved to have a chat with the Gaucho youth. Riding up alongside, he saluted20 him, and received a reply and a graceful bow that would have done credit to a Spanish grandee21. He discovered ere long that the young man’s mind, like his body, had been cast in a noble mould, and that, although ignorant of almost everything beyond his own wild plains, he was deeply imbued22 with reverence23 for Truth and Justice in all the relations of life. Indeed, his sense of these attributes of God was so strong that the constant violation24 of them by those around him roused in him occasional bursts of hot indignation, as Lawrence very soon found when he touched on a recent revolution which had taken place in the province of San Juan.
“Are the troops we search for sent out to aid the government of Mendoza?” demanded Pizarro, turning an earnest and frowning glance on his companion.
“I believe not,” answered Lawrence; “at least I have not heard the colonel talk of such an object; but I am not in his confidence, and know nothing of his plans.”
Pizarro made no rejoinder, and Lawrence, seeing by the continued frown that the youth’s spirit was somewhat stirred, sought for further information by asking about Mendoza.
“Do you not know,” said the Gaucho, with increased vehemence25, and a good deal of fine action, “that the people of San Juan have deposed26 their governor, because he is a bad man?”
“I had not heard of it,” said Lawrence, “but what has that to do with Mendoza?”
“You shall hear, senhor. The governor of San Juan is dishonest. He is bad in every way, and in league with the priests to rob the people. His insolence27 became so great lately that, as I have said, the people arose, asserted their rights, and deposed him. Then the government of Mendoza sent troops to reinstate the governor of San Juan; but they have not yet succeeded! What right,” continued the youth, with grand indignation,—“What right has the government of Mendoza to interfere28? Is not the province of San Juan as free to elect its own governor as the province of Mendoza? Have its men not brains enough to work out their own affairs?—ay, and they have arms strong enough to defend their rights, as the troops shall find when they try to force on the people a governor of whom they do not approve.”
Lawrence felt at once that he was in the presence of one of those strong, untameable spirits, of which the world has all too few, whose love of truth and fair-play becomes, as it were, a master-passion, and around whom cluster not only many of the world’s good men, but—unfortunately for the success of the good cause—also multitudes of the lower dregs of the world’s wickedness, not because these dregs sympathise with truth and justice, but simply because truth-lovers are sometimes unavoidably arrayed against “the powers that be.”
“I don’t know the merits of the case to which you refer,” said Lawrence, “but I have the strongest sympathy with those who fight or suffer in the cause of fair-play—for those who wish to ‘do to others as they would have others do to them.’ Do the people of San Luis sympathise with those of San Juan?”
“I know not, senhor, I have never been to San Luis.”
As the town referred to lay at a comparatively short distance from the other, Lawrence was much surprised by this reply, but his surprise was still further increased when he found that the handsome Gaucho had never seen any of the towns in regard to which his sense of justice had been so strongly stirred!
“Where were you born, Pizarro?” he asked.
“In the hut where you found me, senhor.”
“And you have never been to Mendoza or San Juan?”
“No, senhor, I have never seen a town or a village—never gone beyond the plains where we now ride.”
“How old are you, Pizarro?”
“I do not know, senhor.”
As the youth said this with a slightly confused look, Lawrence forbore to put any more personal questions, and confined his conversation to general topics; but he could not help wondering at this specimen29 of grand and apparently30 noble manhood, who could neither read nor write, who knew next to nothing of the great world beyond his own Pampas, and who had not even seen a collection of huts sufficiently31 large to merit the name of village. He could, however, admirably discern the signs of the wilderness around him, as he showed by suddenly pointing to the sky and exclaiming—
“See! there is a lion!”
“Lions have not wings, Pizarro,” said Lawrence, with a smile, as he looked upward; “but I see, very high in the air, a flock of vultures.”
“Yes, I see that; what then?”
In a short time the correctness of the youth’s observation was proved by the party coming upon, and driving away, a puma34 which had previously35 disturbed the vultures at their banquet on the carcass of an unfortunate ox.
The next morning Pizarro’s capacity for tracking the wilderness was proved by the party coming on the broad trail of the troops. Soon afterwards they discovered the men themselves taking their midday siesta36.
Not long after that the united party came within scent37 of the Atlantic, and on the afternoon of the same day galloped38 into the town of Buenos Ayres.
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1
gaucho
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| n. 牧人 | |
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gauchos
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| n.南美牧人( gaucho的名词复数 ) | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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awakened
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| 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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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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ostriches
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| n.鸵鸟( ostrich的名词复数 )；逃避现实的人，不愿正视现实者 | |
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miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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grandee
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| n.贵族；大公 | |
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imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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puma
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| 美洲豹 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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siesta
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| n.午睡 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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