I ran down to the cabin. I had there, put away in a locker5, ten thousand francs in gold of whose presence on board, so far as I was aware, not a soul, except Dominic had the slightest inkling. When I emerged on deck again Dominic had turned about and was peering from under his cowl at the coast. Cape7 Creux closed the view ahead. To the left a wide bay, its waters torn and swept by fierce squalls, seemed full of smoke. Astern the sky had a menacing look.
Directly he saw me, Dominic, in a placid8 tone, wanted to know what was the matter. I came close to him and, looking as unconcerned as I could, told him in an undertone that I had found the locker broken open and the money-belt gone. Last evening it was still there.
“What did you want to do with it?” he asked me, trembling violently.
“Put it round my waist, of course,” I answered, amazed to hear his teeth chattering9.
“Cursed gold!” he muttered. “The weight of the money might have cost you your life, perhaps.” He shuddered10. “There is no time to talk about that now.”
“I am ready.”
“Not yet. I am waiting for that squall to come over,” he muttered. And a few leaden minutes passed.
The squall came over at last. Our pursuer, overtaken by a sort of murky11 whirlwind, disappeared from our sight. The Tremolino quivered and bounded forward. The land ahead vanished, too, and we seemed to be left alone in a world of water and wind.
“PRENEZ LA BARRE, MONSIEUR,” Dominic broke the silence suddenly in an austere12 voice. “Take hold of the tiller.” He bent13 his hood14 to my ear. “The balancelle is yours. Your own hands must deal the blow. I— I have yet another piece of work to do.” He spoke15 up loudly to the man who steered16. “Let the signorino take the tiller, and you with the others stand by to haul the boat alongside quickly at the word.”
The man obeyed, surprised, but silent. The others stirred, and pricked17 up their ears at this. I heard their murmurs18. “What now? Are we going to run in somewhere and take to our heels? The Padrone knows what he is doing.”
Dominic went forward. He paused to look down at Cesar, who, as I have said before, was lying full length face down by the foremast, then stepped over him, and dived out of my sight under the foresail. I saw nothing ahead. It was impossible for me to see anything except the foresail open and still, like a great shadowy wing. But Dominic had his bearings. His voice came to me from forward, in a just audible cry:
“Now, signorino!”
I bore on the tiller, as instructed before. Again I heard him faintly, and then I had only to hold her straight. No ship ran so joyously19 to her death before. She rose and fell, as if floating in space, and darted20 forward, whizzing like an arrow. Dominic, stooping under the foot of the foresail, reappeared, and stood steadying himself against the mast, with a raised forefinger21 in an attitude of expectant attention. A second before the shock his arm fell down by his side. At that I set my teeth. And then —
Talk of splintered planks22 and smashed timbers! This shipwreck23 lies upon my soul with the dread24 and horror of a homicide, with the unforgettable remorse25 of having crushed a living, faithful heart at a single blow. At one moment the rush and the soaring swing of speed; the next a crash, and death, stillness — a moment of horrible immobility, with the song of the wind changed to a strident wail26, and the heavy waters boiling up menacing and sluggish27 around the corpse28. I saw in a distracting minute the foreyard fly fore3 and aft with a brutal29 swing, the men all in a heap, cursing with fear, and hauling frantically30 at the line of the boat. With a strange welcoming of the familiar I saw also Cesar amongst them, and recognised Dominic’s old, well-known, effective gesture, the horizontal sweep of his powerful arm. I recollect32 distinctly saying to myself, “Cesar must go down, of course,” and then, as I was scrambling33 on all fours, the swinging tiller I had let go caught me a crack under the ear, and knocked me over senseless.
I don’t think I was actually unconscious for more than a few minutes, but when I came to myself the dinghy was driving before the wind into a sheltered cove34, two men just keeping her straight with their oars35. Dominic, with his arm round my shoulders, supported me in the stern-sheets.
We landed in a familiar part of the country. Dominic took one of the boat’s oars with him. I suppose he was thinking of the stream we would have presently to cross, on which there was a miserable36 specimen37 of a punt, often robbed of its pole. But first of all we had to ascend38 the ridge39 of land at the back of the Cape. He helped me up. I was dizzy. My head felt very large and heavy. At the top of the ascent40 I clung to him, and we stopped to rest.
To the right, below us, the wide, smoky bay was empty. Dominic had kept his word. There was not a chip to be seen around the black rock from which the Tremolino, with her plucky41 heart crushed at one blow, had slipped off into deep water to her eternal rest. The vastness of the open sea was smothered42 in driving mists, and in the centre of the thinning squall, phantom-like, under a frightful43 press of canvas, the unconscious guardacosta dashed on, still chasing to the northward44. Our men were already descending45 the reverse slope to look for that punt which we knew from experience was not always to be found easily. I looked after them with dazed, misty46 eyes. One, two, three, four.
“Dominic, where’s Cesar?” I cried.
As if repulsing47 the very sound of the name, the Padrone made that ample, sweeping48, knocking-down gesture. I stepped back a pace and stared at him fearfully. His open shirt uncovered his muscular neck and the thick hair on his chest. He planted the oar6 upright in the soft soil, and rolling up slowly his right sleeve, extended the bare arm before my face.
“This,” he began, with an extreme deliberation, whose superhuman restraint vibrated with the suppressed violence of his feelings, “is the arm which delivered the blow. I am afraid it is your own gold that did the rest. I forgot all about your money.” He clasped his hands together in sudden distress49. “I forgot, I forgot,” he repeated disconsolately50.
“Cesar stole the belt?” I stammered51 out, bewildered.
“And who else? CANALLIA! He must have been spying on you for days. And he did the whole thing. Absent all day in Barcelona. TRADITORE! Sold his jacket — to hire a horse. Ha! ha! A good affair! I tell you it was he who set him at us . . . .”
Dominic pointed53 at the sea, where the guardacosta was a mere52 dark speck54. His chin dropped on his breast.
“ . . . On information,” he murmured, in a gloomy voice. “A Cervoni! Oh! my poor brother! . . .”
“And you drowned him,” I said feebly.
“I struck once, and the wretch55 went down like a stone — with the gold. Yes. But he had time to read in my eyes that nothing could save him while I was alive. And had I not the right — I, Dominic Cervoni, Padrone, who brought him aboard your fellucca — my nephew, a traitor56?”
He pulled the oar out of the ground and helped me carefully down the slope. All the time he never once looked me in the face. He punted us over, then shouldered the oar again and waited till our men were at some distance before he offered me his arm. After we had gone a little way, the fishing hamlet we were making for came into view. Dominic stopped.
“Do you think you can make your way as far as the houses by yourself?” he asked me quietly.
“Yes, I think so. But why? Where are you going, Dominic?”
“Anywhere. What a question! Signorino, you are but little more than a boy to ask such a question of a man having this tale in his family. AH! TRADITORE! What made me ever own that spawn57 of a hungry devil for our own blood! Thief, cheat, coward, liar31 — other men can deal with that. But I was his uncle, and so . . . I wish he had poisoned me — CHAROGNE! But this: that I, a confidential58 man and a Corsican, should have to ask your pardon for bringing on board your vessel59, of which I was Padrone, a Cervoni, who has betrayed you — a traitor! — that is too much. It is too much. Well, I beg your pardon; and you may spit in Dominic’s face because a traitor of our blood taints60 us all. A theft may be made good between men, a lie may be set right, a death avenged61, but what can one do to atone62 for a treachery like this? . . . Nothing.”
He turned and walked away from me along the bank of the stream, flourishing a vengeful arm and repeating to himself slowly, with savage63 emphasis: “AH! CANAILLE! CANAILLE! CANAILLE!. . .” He left me there trembling with weakness and mute with awe64. Unable to make a sound, I gazed after the strangely desolate65 figure of that seaman66 carrying an oar on his shoulder up a barren, rock-strewn ravine under the dreary67 leaden sky of Tremolino’s last day. Thus, walking deliberately68, with his back to the sea, Dominic vanished from my sight.
With the quality of our desires, thoughts, and wonder proportioned to our infinite littleness, we measure even time itself by our own stature69. Imprisoned70 in the house of personal illusions, thirty centuries in mankind’s history seem less to look back upon than thirty years of our own life. And Dominic Cervoni takes his place in my memory by the side of the legendary71 wanderer on the sea of marvels72 and terrors, by the side of the fatal and impious adventurer, to whom the evoked73 shade of the soothsayer predicted a journey inland with an oar on his shoulder, till he met men who had never set eyes on ships and oars. It seems to me I can see them side by side in the twilight74 of an arid75 land, the unfortunate possessors of the secret lore76 of the sea, bearing the emblem77 of their hard calling on their shoulders, surrounded by silent and curious men: even as I, too, having turned my back upon the sea, am bearing those few pages in the twilight, with the hope of finding in an inland valley the silent welcome of some patient listener.
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1
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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3
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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skulking
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 ) | |
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locker
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| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
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oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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8
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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10
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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11
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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12
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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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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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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15
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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16
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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17
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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18
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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19
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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20
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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22
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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23
shipwreck
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| n.船舶失事，海难 | |
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24
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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27
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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32
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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33
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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34
cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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35
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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36
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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38
ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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40
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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41
plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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42
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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43
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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44
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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45
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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46
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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47
repulsing
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| v.击退( repulse的现在分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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48
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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49
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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50
disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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51
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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53
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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54
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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55
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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56
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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57
spawn
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| n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产 | |
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58
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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59
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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60
taints
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| n.变质( taint的名词复数 )；污染；玷污；丑陋或腐败的迹象v.使变质( taint的第三人称单数 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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61
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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62
atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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63
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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64
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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65
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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66
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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67
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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68
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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69
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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70
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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72
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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73
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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74
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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75
arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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76
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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