Yes; all of them flee the shadows for the light. Some more, some less than others ...Then, just as Evenwrite opened his mouth to cap his build-up, the glass door
rattled1 and Les Gibbons entered as though on cue. Everyone turned to watch Les’s
lumbering3 dance as he shook the rain from his clothes. Evenwrite
groaned4 at the
disturbance5, but Les didn’t get the hint; he stood slapping his soaked hat against his
thigh6, enjoying the
spotlight7 his interruption had created. “That there river, fellas, she’s acomin’ up an’ that’s the truth. Boy howdy! I like to not made it. I tole the woman not to expect me back till mornin’, maybe, if it gets worse. So I hope somebody can put me up. Huh? Ifn I can’t make it back?” Evenwrite’s annoyed face suddenly brightened as he saw a way to
salvage8 his point. “You drive in, Les? Up to Scaler’s bridge an’ across?” “I sure didn’t! My car ain’t give me any service at all ever since I lent it to my wife’s kid brother. Ruint it, I reckon. No, that’s why I say I barely made it: I had to give Stamper a phone call to come up and tote me across in his boat, an’ you know? I thought for a piece there the motherjumper wasn’t even gonna? Then he sent that Joe Ben ‘stead of comin’ himself, like he couldn’t waste his time on a ol’ boy up agin it.” Evenwrite tried again. “But someone drove you home by way of Scaler’s last night, Les ...how is it you didn’t call whoever drove you then?” “Why, I just didn’t consider it safe, Floyd! My yard’s warshed clean away. Never did that before, even in ’forty-nine. So I had my doubts about sections o’ that road from my place to Scaler’s. No time for the water to soak, y’ see, fellas; what with this much rain all to once after such a long dry—” “Ex-actly!” Evenwrite brought both fists down on the table with such sudden violence that Les stumbled backward over a chair. “What I was trying to tell you boys . . . just exactly!” Now by god we’ll just see about a better explanation. “You don’t know this, I guess, Mr. Draeger, but you boys, you know as good as I do, if you stop to think about it, what this hard rain comin’ down on bone-dry ground will do! What it will do to haulin’, to the whole of woods-workin’, if we don’t get on the ball and be goddam quick about it. I mean do something!” He nodded, letting them think about it. Les stood stiff and uncomfortable, immobilized by the legs of an overturned chair and the passion in Evenwrite’s words. He had never seen Floyd so forceful. None of them had. They watched him in uncomprehending silence; he strained his features before going on, the way some men clear their throats: “Because this ain’t just a rain, boys . . . it’s like the start of a execution.” He stood up and walked away from the table, rubbing the back of his thick neck. At the bar he turned. “A execution! A goddam knife tearing out ever’ goddam road on this side of the valley! Anybody want to cover my ten dollars that the Breakleg Spur is still in after that night of rain? Anybody want to try to take a crummy up to Pacific Camp or Feeny
Creek9 by way of Spur Nineteen? I told you, goddam your thick heads”—his own round head swung from man to man—“and I tell you again, that if we ain’t back up on those slopes this very goddam week! this very sonofabitchin’ week, that, strike or no strike,
picket10 or no picket, you can just mark her down that we’ll be spending every Monday mornin’ for the rest of this fuckin’ winter driving to Eugene to pick up unemployment checks!” He turned his back on the men and stood for a moment, feeling the men watching him, and Draeger watching all of them. Well, that oughta satisfy them as a better explanation. He waited, expecting Draeger to make a comment, but the silence he had
wrought11 held, so he pushed it to its limit. He let his shoulders rise and fall in a heavy sigh. He rubbed his neck again. And when he turned back around, his red rubber-ball face had been arranged in
sagging12 lines of
fatigue13 and sacrifice. Teddy watched in the bar mirror All like frightened insects as Evenwrite returned to the table... and of all of them Even-write is the most frightened. “Boys ...I mean...you know the story, don’t you? You know what I’m talking, what I been the fuck talking about for a week now! An’ even before then I warned ’em, Mr. Draeger, I told ’em about my suspicions . . .” The one
acting14 the toughest and the bravest, and the one most afraid of the forces of the dark . . . is Evenwrite. “Up till yesterday I kept that report secret, waiting till I was sure I was gonna get another copy . . .” Gibbons there is the scaredest-looking, but he’s too stupid to be as scared as he looks. “Up till yesterday afternoon you boys thought we were in pretty fair shape. I couldn’t get any action stirred up with all my claims about the Stampers, could I? You thought: ‘Hang on a while more.’ You thought: ‘WP can’t hold out much longer; they got to have the logs. They got to have a cold deck stockpiled for spring work.’ You thought we had ’em by the short hairs, didn’t you? Because a
lumber2 company, it just ain’t going to make any money, you thought, without it has some lumber to sell! You thought: ‘Okay, so Hank Stamper is makin’ hay while his sun shines, but that’s no skin offn our noses. Live an’ let live. Can’t knock a man for fightin’ for his honest dollar,’ you thought, now ain’t that so?” He paused to glare about at the men; he hoped Draeger noticed how they one and all—even the Real Estate Man and that brother-in-law of his—dropped their eyes before his accusing gaze. Willard Eggleston, on the other side of Gibbons, he might be almost as scared as Floyd Even-write, though he does not make as much
commotion15. “Yessir . . . ‘Can’t knock a man for fightin’ for his honest
buck16,’ you thought.” Floyd had started to settle back into his chair. Now he jumped
standing17 again. “But that’s just it, goddammit anyhow! All this time he wasn’t just makin’ his honest buck. While he was runnin’ around grinnin’ at us an’ shakin’ our hands he was cuttin’ our throats, just like that rain out there now is cuttin’ our log roads!” All of them, talking about rain and logging roads, when it is really the dark; if I were to cut the lights in here the whole lot of them would surely die of fright . . . Now Evenwrite was working to his
climax18; he was
bent19 into a slight
crouch20, and he had let his voice become soft the way he’d seen Spencer Tracy do when he was whipping the cattlemen to action. “An’ I tell you boys this, you can mark her down: if we don’t some way talk that hardnosed so-and-so into breaking that . . . underhanded contract with Wakonda Pacific, if we don’t put the
bind21 on them lard-butts owners like our strike was intended to do—get them running circles around themselves down there in Frisco and LA ’cause they need logs and lumber for the spring and they can’t stop to
haggle22 about what they’re paying to get ’em—and if we don’t do this right soon, like before a couple of weeks of rain washes the roads so bad they can’t be
fixed23, you boys might as well tell your women either get used to the state’s fifty-two forty a week, or go to looking for you a different line of work!” He nodded with grim finality at his audience and, at last, turned
triumphantly24 toward the
isolated25 chair back from the others, where Draeger sat like a noncommittal casting director at an
audition26. “And ain’t that the way you see it, Jonny?”—flushed with confidence and
drenched27 with sweat from standing too near the stove. “Ain’t that just about the way you’d sum up our position?” Teddy watched. Draeger smiled pleasantly, giving no indication of what he thought of the performance. The whole lot of them except this Mr. Draeger. He looked thoughtfully down into his pipe. “What is it you are proposing, Floyd?” This Mr. Draeger, he is really different. “What are you proposing, Floyd?” “A picket! I’m sayin’ we throw a picket around their mill. We shoulda done it a week ago, but I wanted to wait till you got here.” “What do we list as our complaint?” Draeger asked. “Legally, we aren’t able—” “Legal be damned!” Evenwrite erupted uncontrollably—not nearly as uncontrollably as his tone indicated but, by godfrey, it’s time to get off the pot! “Legal be screwed!” Draeger seemed mildly surprised by the outburst and held his flaming match motionless above the bowl of his pipe. “I mean, Jonathan—we got to get back to work!” “Yes, of course . . .” “An’ we got to do something about it.” “Perhaps . . .” Draeger frowned slightly as he sucked the pipe to life. “At any rate, do you have men willing to stand all day out in this weather?” “Shoot, yes! Les! Arthur, what about you? The Sitkins boys, they ain’t here but I’ll guarantee that they’ll stand. And me.” “Before you jump into this wet—and illegal—ordeal, I would like to make a suggestion, if I might.” “Jesus Christ—!” Like I ain’t been waiting a week for you to do something to earn your salary. “Sure we’d like to hear a suggestion.” “Why don’t we talk things over with Mr. Stamper first? Maybe save a lot of walking around in the rain.” “Talk things over? With Hank Stamper? You saw last night how the Stampers talk things over, like goddam
savages28. . . .” “I saw last night a man finally provoked into teaching a
bully29 a lesson; what he did didn’t strike me as being particularly
unreasonable30. . . .” “Unreasonable is a word Hank Stamper was toothed on, Jonathan; talkin’ with him is like talkin’ to a signpost ...didn’t I go to him first off I got that first report? And I get what kind of reasoning?
Dynamite31 throwed at me.” “Still, I think I would like to take a little ride up and ask the man if he wouldn’t reconsider his position. You and I, Floyd . . .” “You and me? I’m damned if I’ll go up to that place tonight.” “Come on, Floyd; the boys will think you’re afraid to be out after dark. . . .” “Jonathan...you don’t know. He lives on the other side of the river, for one thing, an’ no road in.” “Isn’t there a boat we might rent?” Draeger asked the room in general. “There’s Mama Olson,” Teddy answered quickly and avoided Evenwrite’s dark look. “Mama Olson, down at the cannery, sir, she’ll rent you a motor rig.” “But it’s raining out there,” Evenwrite
wailed32. “She’ll rent you rain gear too,” Teddy added, a little astonished by his own
outspoken33 suggestions. He came
gliding34 out from behind the bar to trip the lever in back of the pay phone. He held out the dial-toning receiver, smiling passively. “You can call her from here.” He watched Draeger nod a polite thank you and rise from his chair. He handed him the phone, almost bowing as he did. Yes. I do not understand why yet. But I know that this Mr. Draeger is no ordinary man. He is decidedly intelligent, and sensitive to a high degree, I am sure. And he may even be fearless, too. Teddy stepped back from the phone and stood, his little hands beneath his
apron35, watching the way all the others waited in respectful silence while Draeger got Mama Olson’s number from the operator and placed his call, like dogs waiting in mute and unquestioning
obedience36 for the master’s next move. But he is also something more; yes, something wonderfully special . . . Alongside the statement about one man’s poison being another man’s high, one might as well add that one man’s saint can be another’s sore and one man’s hero can turn out to be that man’s biggest hang-up. And it was beginning to look to Evenwrite as though the hero he had so long awaited to come smooth out this Stamper hassle was turning out to be as big a hang-up as the hassle he had come to smooth.
点击
收听单词发音
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1
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 |
参考例句： |
- The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
- Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。
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2
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 |
参考例句： |
- The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
- They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。
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3
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 |
参考例句： |
- Lumbering and, later, paper-making were carried out in smaller cities. 木材业和后来的造纸都由较小的城市经营。
- Lumbering is very important in some underdeveloped countries. 在一些不发达的国家，伐木业十分重要。
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4
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 |
参考例句： |
- He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
- The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
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5
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 |
参考例句： |
- He is suffering an emotional disturbance.他的情绪受到了困扰。
- You can work in here without any disturbance.在这儿你可不受任何干扰地工作。
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6
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 |
参考例句： |
- He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了，疼得很。
- The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
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7
spotlight
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| n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目 |
参考例句： |
- This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
- The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。
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8
salvage
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| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 |
参考例句： |
- All attempts to salvage the wrecked ship failed.抢救失事船只的一切努力都失败了。
- The salvage was piled upon the pier.抢救出的财产被堆放在码头上。
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9
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 |
参考例句： |
- He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
- People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。
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10
picket
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| n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫 |
参考例句： |
- They marched to the factory and formed a picket.他们向工厂前进,并组成了纠察队。
- Some of the union members did not want to picket.工会的一些会员不想担任罢工纠察员。
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11
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 |
参考例句： |
- Events in Paris wrought a change in British opinion towards France and Germany.巴黎发生的事件改变了英国对法国和德国的看法。
- It's a walking stick with a gold head wrought in the form of a flower.那是一个金质花形包头的拐杖。
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12
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 |
参考例句： |
- The morale of the enemy troops is continuously sagging. 敌军的士气不断低落。
- We are sagging south. 我们的船正离开航线向南漂流。
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 |
参考例句： |
- The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
- I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 |
参考例句： |
- Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
- During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。
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15
commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 |
参考例句： |
- They made a commotion by yelling at each other in the theatre.他们在剧院里相互争吵，引起了一阵骚乱。
- Suddenly the whole street was in commotion.突然间，整条街道变得一片混乱。
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16
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 |
参考例句： |
- The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
- The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。
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17
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 |
参考例句： |
- After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
- They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
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18
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 |
参考例句： |
- The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
- His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。
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19
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 |
参考例句： |
- He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
- We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
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20
crouch
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| v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏 |
参考例句： |
- I crouched on the ground.我蹲在地上。
- He crouched down beside him.他在他的旁边蹲下来。
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21
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 |
参考例句： |
- I will let the waiter bind up the parcel for you.我让服务生帮你把包裹包起来。
- He wants a shirt that does not bind him.他要一件不使他觉得过紧的衬衫。
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22
haggle
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| vi.讨价还价，争论不休 |
参考例句： |
- In many countries you have to haggle before you buy anything.在许多国家里买东西之前都得讨价还价。
- If you haggle over the price,they might give you discount.你讲讲价，他们可能会把价钱降低。
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23
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 |
参考例句： |
- Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
- Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。
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24
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 |
参考例句： |
- The lion was roaring triumphantly. 狮子正在发出胜利的吼叫。
- Robert was looking at me triumphantly. 罗伯特正得意扬扬地看着我。
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25
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 |
参考例句： |
- His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
- Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
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26
audition
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| n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等) |
参考例句： |
- I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
- At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。
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27
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） |
参考例句： |
- We were caught in the storm and got drenched to the skin. 我们遇上了暴雨，淋得浑身透湿。
- The rain drenched us. 雨把我们淋得湿透。 来自《简明英汉词典》
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28
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) |
参考例句： |
- There're some savages living in the forest. 森林里居住着一些野人。
- That's an island inhabited by savages. 那是一个野蛮人居住的岛屿。
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29
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 |
参考例句： |
- A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
- The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
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30
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 |
参考例句： |
- I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
- They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。
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31
dynamite
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| n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破) |
参考例句： |
- The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
- The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。
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32
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) |
参考例句： |
- She wailed over her father's remains. 她对着父亲的遗体嚎啕大哭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- The women of the town wailed over the war victims. 城里的妇女为战争的死难者们痛哭。 来自辞典例句
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33
outspoken
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| adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的 |
参考例句： |
- He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
- She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。
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34
gliding
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| v. 滑翔
adj. 滑动的 |
参考例句： |
- Swans went gliding past. 天鹅滑行而过。
- The weather forecast has put a question mark against the chance of doing any gliding tomorrow. 天气预报对明天是否能举行滑翔表示怀疑。
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35
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 |
参考例句： |
- We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
- She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。
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36
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 |
参考例句： |
- Society has a right to expect obedience of the law.社会有权要求人人遵守法律。
- Soldiers act in obedience to the orders of their superior officers.士兵们遵照上级军官的命令行动。
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