The mystery of the thing lured4 her, set her young mind hunting for its solution. And the little ragged5 boy with his weazened face and bright brown eyes tugged6 at her tender heart irresistibly7.
He was a beautiful, small creature despite his thinness and his poverty. There was intelligence in the broad forehead under the long, loose, unkempt, dark curls, capacity for affection in the mobile lips and a terrible hunger for love in the whole little face.
For four days, “hand-running” as her mother said, the girl went to the cañon. The friendship ripened9 with tropical speed, so that she need not search for her quarry10 now, but found it coming to meet her, peering around this boulder11, watching from that vantage point.
When she held out her arms to the child these last two times he had come leaping into them to cling to her neck in delirious12 gladness, while the sedate13 Collie, fast friend by this time and traitor14 to his sacred charge, fawned15 on her knee.
But on the fifth golden day trouble was in the atmosphere.
“Why, what’s the matter with my little man?” said the girl, kneeling and holding him off to scan him searchingly. “Tell Nance, Sonny. What is it?”
And Sonny, dissolved in tears upon the instant, hiding his face in Nance’s neck.
“A lie! Why, how—why——”
“He found your horse’s tracks down the cañon and—he asked me if I saw—any—any one strange,” wept the child.
Nance sat down and took the boy in her lap.
She was meddling20 with someone’s private business, of that she was sure, both from her own reasoning and her mother’s warning, and maybe she had no right to do so, but her sweet mouth set itself into stubborn lines as she fell to smoothing the little head, damp with the ardours of its owner’s remorse21.
She tucked her heels under her thighs23 and, holding the child in the comfortable lap thus formed, began to sway her body back and forth25 for all the world as if she sat in a cushioned rocker.
What is there about a rocking woman with a child’s head on her breast to soothe26 the sorrows of the world?
The swaying motion soon checked Sonny’s sobs27 and she fell to singing to him, adding her voice to the mysterious voices of the cañon in the lilt and fall of an old camp-meeting hymn28 brought forth from her memories of Missouri. And presently, when its spell had soothed29 the tumult30, she raised him up and fed him cookies made for the occasion, a sugary bribe31 if ever there was one.
“Tell me, Sonny,” said Nance, “does Brand cook for you?”
“Sure,” said the child, “sure he does—but he’s gone all day and we get awful hungry ’fore he comes at night.”
“I should think so!” thought Nance grimly, “two meals a day! When a little child should eat whenever it’s hungry, to grow! This precious Brand is about due for an investigation34.”
Aloud she said:
“Sonny, I’m going to stay with you all day—and I’m going to wait and see Brand.”
The boy was aghast at this statement, and it was plain from the distress35 he showed that it was unprecedented36.
“If you do,” he said miserably37, “maybe Brand will take me away again and—and I’ll never see you any more.”
But Nance had other plans and she shook her head.
That was a lovely day. It was warmer than usual, since summer was stepping down the slopes of the lonely hills, and the strangely assorted38 sorted trio in Blue Stone Cañon enjoyed it to the full.
They explored far up the narrow defile39, the child holding to the girl’s hand and skipping happily, the Collie pacing beside them, a step to the left, two steps to the rear.
They watched the trout40 waving in the sunlit pools at noon, and waded41 in a riffle to find barnacles under rocks that Nance might show Sonny the tiny creature which built such a wonderful little house of infinitesimal sticks and mortar42.
But as the sun dropped over toward the west and the shadows deepened in the great gorge, Nance began to feel the loneliness, the cold silence, the oppression of the unpeopled wilderness43.
The voices seemed to raise their tones, to become menacing. More and more she realized what it must mean to a child left alone in the cañon, and a deep and rising indignation swelled44 within her.
This Brand fellow, now—he must be cold-blooded as they made them, cruel—no, Sonny loved him. He could not be exactly that.
But what sort of man could he be?
She held the child close in her warm arms as she rocked again and pondered the problem. She did not know what she intended to say to him, once she faced him, but of one thing she was certain—he would know, in no uncertain terms, indeed, what a monstrous45 thing it was to leave a child alone in Blue Stone Cañon—alone, to listen to its mysterious voices, to feel its chill and its menace of shadows!
Why, it was a wonder the little mind did not crack with strain, the small heart break with fear!
Unconsciously she hugged Sonny tighter, making of her body, as it were, a bulwark46 between him and all harm, seeming to challenge the world for his possession. It was astonishing how the child had crept into her heart in these few short days—how hungrily her arms had closed about him. She had made his cause her own high-handedly—perhaps without reason.
She was thinking of these things when the Collie barked sharply and leaped away in welcome. Nance flung a startled glance over her shoulder—and got to her feet, sliding the boy down beside her, an arm still about his ragged shoulders.
He was tall, somewhere around six feet, a horseman born by his build, narrow of hip8 and flat of thigh24. He was clad in garments almost as much the worse for wear as Sonny’s—a blue flannel48 shirt and corduroy tucked into boots. But Nance saw in that first swift glance that these habiliments were different from those of their like which McKane sold in Cordova, that seemed made for the man who wore them, so perfectly49 had they fitted him once.
Under a peaked sombrero with a chin-strap run in a bone slide, a pair of dark eyes bored into Nance’s, unsmiling. A very dark face, almost Indian in clean-cut feature and contour, with repressed lips and thin nostrils50, completed the picture.
The newcomer did not speak, but stood holding the bit of a handsome, huge, black horse.
“Brand!” called the boy, “Oh, Brand!”
At that name Nance Allison found her tongue.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she said calmly, “I’m glad you’ve come.”
“Yes?” he said in a singularly deep, sweet voice.
That voice disconcerted Nance upon the instant, stole some of her fire, so to speak. She had been ready to tackle him on the issue at once, to fight, if necessary, with a flood of reasons and protests against his treatment of Sonny.
Now, suddenly, she felt a vague sense of having intruded51, of meddling with another’s affairs. But she was not one to back down from any righteous stand—and Sonny’s cause was righteous in every sense, it seemed to her.
“Yes—I am,” she repeated, “I—want to talk to you.”
“Quite a rare experience,” he said, smiling, as he removed his hat and ran his brown fingers through the thick black hair that stood up from his sweated forehead, “it’s been a long time since any woman has wanted to talk to us—eh, Sonny?”
“But—Oh, she talks sweet, Brand!” cried the child eagerly, “and she—holds me on her lap!”
“We must be pretty far gone as vagabonds!” he said, “that makes me think what a woman’s love must mean to a child. You have been a gift of God, dropped out of the blue to Sonny, Miss Allison, and I ought to thank you.”
“Certainly. And I know how long you’ve been coming here to the cañon. I know where you live, too—down on the flats by the river.”
His slow, amused smile at her evident discomfiture56 was engaging. It disarmed57 Nance, made her feel more than ever an intruder.
“I know what lost waifs you must think us—and you are partly right. We are. I’ve watched you with Sonny twice, and I have not removed our camp—if such it could be called—because I didn’t think you’d talk.”
“I haven’t,” said Nance, “except to my own family.”
“Since you have found us out,” he went on, “I shall tell you that Sonny is not the neglected little cast-off that you must naturally think him. I have hidden him here for a purpose. We have a purpose, the boy and I, and we have traveled many miles in its pursuit. We do seem mysterious—but we’re not so greatly so, after all. I try to care for him as best I may when I must be so much away from him. If it wasn’t for Dirk I couldn’t leave him as I do.”
“He’s well protected,” said Nance, “I used Sonny himself to betray the dog. I couldn’t do otherwise.”
“I know something of it—Sonny didn’t tell me, but I saw the signs of your scuffle. It was printed plain in the sand and shale58.”
“No—Sonny didn’t tell,” said Nance regretfully, “and I made him a liar—when I didn’t mean to. I asked him not to tell you that I’d been here. I was afraid you’d take him away. I didn’t think you’d ask him point blank.”
“I’ve taught the boy not to talk,” said the man—“it’s a vital necessity to us.”
“He doesn’t. I couldn’t find out a thing, for all I wheedled shamelessly, except that you were Brand, and that you two ride always on Diamond there.”
“My name is Fair, Miss Allison—Brand Fair, and that is Sonny’s name also. But—we don’t tell it to strangers.”
He smiled at her again, a slow creasing59 of the lines about his lips, a pleasant narrowing of his eyes.
“Then I—” there was an elemental quality of gladness in Nance’s voice, though she was utterly60 unconscious of it, “am not a stranger?”
“You are Sonny’s friend,” he replied, “and we give you our trust.”
The girl swallowed once and tightened61 her hold on the child’s thin shoulders. There was something infinitely62 pathetic, infinitely intriguing63 in this situation, and it gripped her strongly.
“I—thank you,” she said awkwardly, “I’ll not betray it.”
“I’m sure you won’t,” said Brand Fair, “and for the present, if you’ll accept us at our face value, we’ll be mighty64 glad—eh, Sonny?”
“Ingrates!” laughed the man. “Here I’ve shared my poor substance with you two for—a very long time—and at the first bribe of meat and kisses you turn me down cold!”
“Oh!” cried Nance, flushing, “you know all about us!”
But here Sonny could stand Brand’s badinage67 no longer and pulling away from Nance he ran to him, and clinging about his knees, begged forgiveness for the lie whose memory troubled his clear little soul.
The man touched the unkempt small head with a tender hand. “Sure, old-timer,” he said gently; “that’s all right. A gentleman must lie when a lady commands—he couldn’t do anything else.”
“You make me feel like a sinner!” said Nance, “I hope you’ll forgive me, too.”
The man took Sonny’s hand as she made ready to leave and turned down the cañon with her.
“We’ll form a guard-of-honor in token of that,” he said, “and in seeing you off we’ll invite you back again. Sonny would miss you now, you know. But just remember always, Miss Allison, please—that in a way we’re keeping out of sight—until—until some time in an uncertain future. Consider us a secret, will you not?”
Nance Allison rode home to Nameless with her head in a whirl. Life, that had seemed to pass her by in her plodding68 labor69 and her patient bearing of trouble, had suddenly touched her with a flaming finger.
She had found mystery and affection in the silence of Blue Stone Cañon—and now there was something else, a strange vibrant70 element, thin as ether and intangible as wind, a sense of elation71, of excitement. She felt a surge within her of some nameless fire, an uplift, a peculiar72 gladness.
“Mammy,” she said straightly when she stepped in at the cabin door, “I’ve found the man!”
“Whew! Some statement, Sis!” cried Bud as he shambled across the sill behind her. “What’s he like?”
“Why—I don’t just know. He’s tall—and he wears clothes that have once been fine—and he has the straightest eyes I ever saw. His name’s Fair—Brand Fair—and he’s some relation to Sonny, for that is his name, too.”
“I hope you gave him that piece of your mind you laid out to?” pursued Bud.
“Why, no—no,” said Nance wonderingly, looking at him with half-seeing eyes, “I don’t—believe—I did!”
Mrs. Allison looked up from her work of getting supper at the stove.
“I mind me,” she said, “of the first time I ever set eyes on your Pappy. I was goin’ to frail73 him good because he’d run his saddle horse a-past th’ cart I was drivin’, kickin’ a terrible dust all over my Sunday dress—it was camp-meetin’ at Sharfell’s Corners—an’ then—he laughed an’ talked to me—an’ I forgot my mad spell. His eyes jest coaxed74 th’ wrath75 out of my heart—then an’ ever after.”
“Why, Mammy,” said Nance, “that’s just what happened here! This man talked to me and I forgot my mad spell! I never said a thing I’d stayed to say! And I promised to keep the secret of him and Sonny in the cañon.”
“H’m!” said Bud as he sidled into his chair and smoothed his bronze hair, wet from his ablutions at the well, “H’m—Mammy, why’d you tell her that? I wish you hadn’t.”
“Why?” said Nance, but her brother shook his head.
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收听单词发音
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1
nance
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| n.娘娘腔的男人，男同性恋者 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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sedate
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| adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的 | |
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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fawned
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| v.（尤指狗等）跳过来往人身上蹭以示亲热( fawn的过去式和过去分词 )；巴结；讨好 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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pucker
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| v.撅起，使起皱；n.（衣服上的）皱纹，褶子 | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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wheedled
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mortar
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| n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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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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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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45
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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bulwark
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| n.堡垒，保障，防御 | |
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jut
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| v.突出；n.突出，突出物 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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51
intruded
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| n.侵入的，推进的v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的过去式和过去分词 )；把…强加于 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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54
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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shale
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| n.页岩，泥板岩 | |
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creasing
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的现在分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 挑檐 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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intriguing
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| adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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badinage
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| n.开玩笑，打趣 | |
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plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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vibrant
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| adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的 | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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75
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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