And he succeeded in seeing Felipa. It was most unexpected. He had believed her to be in Stanton, a good many hundred miles away. But Landor having been sent at once into the field, she had come on to Grant to visit the Campbells, who were again stationed there. He met her face to face only once, and he measured with one quick look all the changes there were between the girl of ten years before and the woman of to-day. The great, sad pity that rose within him, and seemed to grasp at his throat chokingly, was the best love he had felt for her yet. It wiped out the wrong of the short madness in the cave's mouth.
She was quite alone, wandering among the trees and bushes in the creek2 bottom, and her hands were full of wild flowers. She had pinned several long sprays of the little ground blossoms, called "baby-blue eyes," at her throat, and they lay along her white gown prettily3.[Pg 274] She stopped and spoke4 to him, with a note of lifelessness in her high, sweet voice; and while he answered her question as to what he had been doing since she had seen him last, she unpinned the "baby-blue eyes" and held them out to him. "Would you like these?" she asked simply. He took them, and she said "Good-by" and went on.
She was broken to the acceptance of the inevitable5 now,—he could see that, any one could see it. She had learned the lesson of the ages—the futility6 of struggle of mere7 man against the advance of men. That it had been a hard lesson was plain. It showed in her face, where patience had given place to unrest, gentleness to the defiance8 of freedom. She had gained, too, she had gained greatly. She was not only woman now, she was womanly. But Cairness did not need to be told that she was not happy.
He went on the next day with his scouts, and eventually joined Landor in the field. Landor was much the same as ever, only more gray and rather more deeply lined. Perhaps he was more taciturn, too, for beyond necessary orders he threw not one word to the chief of scouts. Cairness could understand that the sight of himself was naturally an exasperation9, and in some manner a reproach, too. He was sorry that he had been thrown with this command, but, since he was, it was better that Landor should behave as he was doing. An assumption of friendliness10 would have been a mockery, and to some extent an ignoble11 one.
Landor's troop, with one other, was in the San[Pg 275] Andres Mountains of New Mexico when Cairness joined it. They were on the trail of a large band of renegades, and it led them through the mountains, across the flats, and down to the lava12 beds.
Once in the ?ons which will never unfold their secrets now, when the continent of the Western seas was undreamed of by the sages13 and the philosophers of the Eastern world, when it was as alone, surrounded by its wide waters, as the planets are alone in their wastes of space, when it was living its own life,—which was to leave no trace upon the scroll14 of the wisdom of the ages,—the mountains and the bowels15 of the earth melted before the wrath16 of that same Lord whose voice shook the wilderness17 of Jud?a. At His bidding they ran as water, and poured down in waves of seething18 fire, across the valley of death.
It is a valley of death now, parched19 and desolate20, a waste of white sand—the dry bone dust of the cycles. But then, when the lava came surging and boiling and flaming across the plain, not a thin stream, but a wide, irresistible21 current, there was life; there was a city—one city at least. It is there now, under the mass of sharp, gray, porous22 rock; how much of it no one knows. But it is there, and it has given up its unavailing hints of a life which may have been older than that of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and is as much more safely hidden from the research of the inquiring day as its walls are more hopelessly buried beneath the ironlike stone than are those of the cisalpine cities beneath their ashen23 drift.
[Pg 276]
And the great river of rock is there, too, frozen upon the land like some devouring24 monster changed by a Gorgon25 head into lifeless stone. It is a formidable barrier across the hardly less formidable bad lands. It can be crossed in places where it is narrowest, not quite a mile in width, that is. But horses slip and clamber, and men cut through the leather of their heaviest shoes.
If the sea, whipping in huge waves against the fury of a typhoon, were to become on the instant rocks, it would be as this. There are heights and crevasses26, hills and gulches27, crests28 and hollows, little caves and crannies, where quail29 and snakes and cotton-tails and jack-rabbits, lizards30 and coyotes, creatures of desolation and the barrens, hide and scamper31 in and out. It is an impregnable stronghold, not for armies, because they could not find shelter, but for savages32 that can scatter33 like the quail themselves, and writhe34 on their bellies35 into the coyotes' own holes.
And so the hostiles took shelter there from the cavalry36 that had pursued them hard across the open all night, and gave battle after the manner of their kind. It was a very desultory37 sort of a skirmish, for the troops did not venture into the traps beyond the very edge, and the Indians were simply on the defensive38. It was not only desultory, it promised to be unavailing, a waste of time and of ammunition39.
The Chiricahuas might stay there and fire at intervals40 as long as they listed, killing41 a few men perhaps. And then they might retreat quite safely, putting the barrier[Pg 277] between themselves and the pursuers. Obviously there were only two courses wherein lay any wisdom,—to retreat, or to cut off their retreat. Landor said so to the major in command.
"And how, may I ask, would you suggest cutting off their retreat?" the major inquired a little sharply. His temper was not improved by the heat and by twelve hours in the saddle.
It was certainly not apparent, on the face of it, how the thing was to be done, but the captain explained. "I've been stationed here, you know, and I know the roads. We are about a half a mile or more from where the Stanton road to the railway crosses the lava. It is narrow and rough, and about from three-quarters of a mile to a mile wide, but cavalry can go over it without any trouble. I can take my troop over, and then the Indians will be hemmed42 in between us. We might capture the whole band."
The major offered the objection that it would be foolhardy, that it would be cutting through the enemy by file. "They'll pick you off, and you'll be absolutely at their mercy," he remonstrated43. "No, I can't hear of it."
"Suppose you let me call for volunteers," suggested Landor. He was sure of his own men, down to the last recruit.
The major consented unwillingly44. "It's your lookout45. If you come out alive, I shall be surprised, that's all. Take some scouts, too," he added, as he lit a cigar and went on with his walk up and down among his men.
[Pg 278]
The entire command volunteered, as a matter of course, and Landor had his pick. He took thirty men and a dozen scouts. Cairness rode up and offered himself. They looked each other full in the face for a moment. "Very well," said Landor, and turned on his heel. Cairness was properly appreciative46, despite the incivility. He knew that Landor could have refused as well as not, and that would have annoyed and mortified47 him. He was a generous enemy, at any rate. The volunteers mounted and trotted49 off in a cloud of dust that hung above them and back along their trail, to where the road, as Landor had said, entered the malpais.
Just at the edge of the rock stream there was an abandoned cabin built of small stones. Whatever sort of roof it had had in the beginning was now gone altogether, and the cabin itself was tumbling down. Through the doorway50 where there was no door, there showed a blackened fireplace. Once when a party from the post had been taking the two days' drive to the railroad, they had stopped here, and had lunched in the cabin. Landor remembered it now, and glanced at the place where Felipa had reclined in the shade of the walls, upon the leather cushion of the ambulance seat. She very rarely could be moved to sing, though she had a sweet, plaintive51 voice of small volume; but this time she had raised her tin mug of beer and, looking up to the blue sky, had launched into the "Last Carouse," in a spirit of light mockery that fitted with it well, changing the words a little to the scene.[Pg 279]
"We meet 'neath the blazing heavens,
And the walls around are bare;
They shout back our peals52 of laughter,
And it seems that the dead are there.
Then stand to your glasses steady,
We drink to our comrades' eyes
One cup to the dead already.
Hurrah53! for the next that dies."
"Hurrah! for the next that dies," thought Landor himself, with a careless cynicism. The barrel of a Winchester gleamed above a point of rock, a little sharp sparkle of sunlight on steel, and a bullet deflected54 from the big leather hood55 of his stirrup. He rode on calmly, and his horse's shoes clicked on the lava.
The men followed, sitting erect56, toes in. They might have been on mounted inspection57 except for the field clothes, stained and dusty. They were to go down a narrow path for close on a mile, between two rows of rifle barrels, and that not at a run or a gallop58, but at a trot48, at the most, for the lava was slippery as glass in spots. They were willing enough to do it, even anxious—not that there was any principle involved, or glory to be gained, but because their blood was up and it was part of the chances of the game.
They were not destined59 to get beyond the first fifty yards, nevertheless. The rifle that had fired at Landor as he came upon the malpais went glistening60 up again. There was a puff61 of blue-hearted smoke in the still air, and Cairness's bronco, struck on the flanks, stung to frenzy62, stopped short, then gathering63 itself together with every quivering sinew in a knot, after the way of its[Pg 280] breed, bounded off straight in among the jagged boulders64. It was all done in an instant, and almost before Landor could see who had dashed ahead of him the horse had fallen, neck to the ground, throwing its rider with his head against a point of stone.
Landor did not stop to consider it. It was one of the few impulses of his life, or perhaps only the quickest thinking he had ever done. Cairness was there among the rocks, disabled and in momentary65 danger of his life. If it had been a soldier, under the same circumstances, Landor might have gone on and have sent another soldier to help him. It was only a chief of scouts, but it was a man of his own kind, for all that—and it was his enemy. Instinct dismounted him before reason had time to warn him that the affair of an officer is not to succor66 his inferiors in the thick of the fighting when there are others who can be better spared to do it. He threw his reins67 over his horse's head and into the hands of the orderly-trumpeter, and jumped down beside Cairness.
When the sergeant68 reported it to the major afterward69, he said that the captain, in stooping over to raise the chief of scouts, had been struck full in the temple by a bullet, and had pitched forward with his arms stretched out. One private had been wounded. They carried the two men back to the little cabin of stones, and that was the casualty list. But the dash had failed.
They laid Landor upon the ground, in the same patch of shade he had glanced at in coming by not five [Pg 281]minutes before. His glazed70 eyes stared back at the sky. There was nothing to be done for him. But Cairness was alive. They washed the blood from his face with water out of the canteens, and bound his head with a wet handkerchief. And presently he came back to consciousness and saw Landor stretched there, with the bluing hole in his brow, and the quiet there is no mistaking on his sternly weary face. And he turned back his head and lay as ashy and almost as still as the dead man, with a look on his own face more terrible than that of any death.
After a time, when a soldier bent71 over him and held a flask72 to his teeth, he drank, and then he pointed73 feebly, and his lips framed the question he could not seem to speak.
The soldier understood. "Trying to save you, sir," he said a little resentfully.
But Cairness had known it without that. It was so entirely74 in keeping with the rest of his fate, that every cup which ought to have been sweet should have been embittered75 like this.
He rolled his cut and throbbing76 head over again, and watched the still form. And he was conscious of no satisfaction that now there was nothing in all the world to keep him from Felipa, from the gaining of the wish of many years, but only of a dull sort of pity for Landor and for himself, and of a real and deep regret.
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1
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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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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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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futility
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| n.无用 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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scroll
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| n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
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bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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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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seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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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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21
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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porous
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| adj.可渗透的，多孔的 | |
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ashen
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| adj.灰的 | |
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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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gorgon
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| n.丑陋女人，蛇发女怪 | |
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crevasses
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| n.破口，崩溃处，裂缝( crevasse的名词复数 ) | |
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gulches
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| n.峡谷( gulch的名词复数 ) | |
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crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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scamper
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| v.奔跑，快跑 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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writhe
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| vt.挣扎，痛苦地扭曲；vi.扭曲，翻腾，受苦；n.翻腾，苦恼 | |
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35
bellies
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| n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的 | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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40
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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41
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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42
hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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43
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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44
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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45
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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46
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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47
mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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48
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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49
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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50
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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51
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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peals
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| n.（声音大而持续或重复的）洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 )；隆隆声；洪亮的钟声；钟乐v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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53
hurrah
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| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
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54
deflected
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| 偏离的 | |
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55
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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71
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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72
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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73
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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