The rifle fire, disturbing to Torrance, created a panic in the camp below. Men who used weapons on each other with the worst intent were the first to appreciate their menace. True, they seldom resorted to firearms, for the Pole, and the Russian, and the Hungarian, and the Italian and their kind on construction consider the knife more suited to their particular case, as being safer and more satisfying. But for a gun they have a proper respect.
Some of the groups of gamblers on the river bottom saw the raft while yet Torrance was wrapped in the evening picture, watching at first with the stupidity of their class, then with equally characteristic suspicion. From group to group the strange spectacle passed without spoken word; and some whose spotted2 lives had carried them through varied3 scenes realised the threat of the rapids. Here and there one, more sensitive to the struggle, rose to his feet in unconscious sympathy. The stable foreman, recognising the horses, stumbled away to where his charges were housed for the night. But for the most part these slow-witted men without a quiver saw death creeping on the raft. Until the horses leaped ashore4 each knew to a cent his position in the interrupted games.
But the rifle shot whipping out from the boss's shack5 up beside the grade electrified6 them. As if worked by a common spring, they rushed for the camp, heavy footed and panicky, drawing hidden weapons from shirt or trousers or bootleg to repel7 the danger they did not understand.
By the time the stranger across the river had replied twice only one face was visible about the camp.
From a shack part way up the bank toward the trestle a small man had bounded at the first report. In his right hand was a hairbrush, and a pair of mauve suspenders hung from his hips8. Anxious but angry, he searched the camp with those firm eyes.
Adrian Conrad, Torrance's foreman, Tressa's lover--the latter first in sequence of time as in everything else--knew these men and hated them with an intensity9 born of enforced association. Their unorthodox but definitive10 methods of settling the smallest dispute were familiar to him by experience. Indeed, on his small wiry frame were sundry11 scars of knives, whose customarily decisive operations he had thus far escaped by an arrogance12 of manner and a promptness of action that disconcerted a bohunk's aim and riddled13 his nerve.
About the camp he saw only the panic of getting to cover. As he wondered, he caught the movement of the lifting rifle across the river. Ahead of the bullet his eye reached the shack beside the trestle, and Torrance's quick turn pointed14 out its course. Conrad, who kept no rifle at his shack, had to be satisfied with watching, mechanically completing his toilet where he stood. Mauve suspenders jerked to his shoulders--brush slashing15 across his hair--one hand to test the poise16 of his tie--Conrad was preparing for eventualities.
He marvelled17 at his own lack of concern. He could see Tressa's struggle with her father, and he suspected its cause. Also he had sufficient faith in her to feel that she was right. The stranger puzzled him. In the way he handled a rifle was the carelessness of complete confidence. Even before the third bullet directed Torrance's amazed eyes upward, Conrad knew that Tressa and her father were in no danger.
It was a fleeting18 glimpse of the horses disappearing among the trees that galvanised him into action. Running back into the shack, he satisfied himself with a hasty glance in the mirror, stuck a jaunty19 stiff hat askew20 on his head, and sped away up the path his feet had worn through the months straight to Tressa's door.
Torrance was still examining the bullet marks when Conrad dropped over the grade.
"There!" He placed a big finger tip importantly over one hole. "And there--and there!" He turned to Conrad with such a look of awe21 that the latter laughed.
"All you need care," Conrad said, digging a finger into Torrance's chest, "is that he didn't wish to put it there."
The contractor22 scratched his head.
"That fellow sure can shoot . . . but it ain't half as queer as the way he didn't want to."
"Evening, Tressa!" The foreman swept off his hat. "Fine evening for rifle practice."
"I know it don't matter about me," grunted24 Torrance, "but two feet at a range of twelve hundred yards is cutting it fine for Tressa."
But Conrad only smiled his unconcern.
"At least you might be interested in the horses," Torrance grumbled25. "Another bunch gone. That's your business."
"So that's the cuss who's been robbing us."
"Such a clever lad, he is!" sneered26 Torrance. "You could see through a pail with the bottom kicked out of it. He'll keep on robbing us, for all you're doing to stop him. Right before our eyes he gets away with it. What do you think I pay you a hundred a month for?"
"Because you can't get any one else to do half the work half as well at twice the price," grinned the foreman.
Torrance growled27 into his moustache. "Four more gone, that is. And I bet you stopped to brush your hat."
"I didn't hurry. Why should I? That chap knew he was safe. He's miles away now, and by the time we could get across the river after him he'd be in the next Province. He knows the prairie better than we do grade. We'd have about as much chance of getting him as you had of hitting him. Besides, we're track builders, not track finders. Your measly hundred a month don't half pay for my real job. Get the Police if you want to keep the excitement up."
"A hundred a month--and every evening in my shack," grumbled Torrance. "I know lots of better men would think it good pay."
"It's every evening in your shack," gibed28 Conrad, "or you'd have to come and live with Tressa and me."
"Oh?" questioned Tressa.
"Sure!" confidently.
"If you two are going to quarrel over me, I'll go back East."
"Dad-in-law," pleaded Conrad, "don't you think we could stage a good rough-and-tumble here and now? I've been two years trying to get her back East for good."
"I'm staying," declared Tressa, tossing her head.
"So'm I--in spite of your father."
"What gets me," marvelled Torrance, "is why he bothered to shoot when he didn't want to hit. A regular splash of them, too. I might have fired back."
Conrad's eyes were twinkling. "So you might. What a blessing29 is self-control! I suppose he's killed so many in his day it's sort of lost its glamour30. See the admiring public he left behind by only frightening you to death."
"But the woman in the case!"
"What woman?" The foreman looked from one to the other.
"You didn't see her?"
"I confess I haven't the eye for skirts you have, but--" He broke off suddenly and darted31 to the grade. "Here!" he snapped, peering into the dark woods beyond. "Come out of it."
Three men emerged somewhat shame-facedly from the gloom and followed him to the shack. One of them, evidently the leader, was talking volubly, but Conrad did not even appear to listen until they stood in the open before the door.
"Now, what were you doing there?"
"Lefty Werner and Heppel and me, we hear shots," explained a large, raw-boned foreigner with an ugly scar along the side of his jaw32. "We come quick. Fear boss and young missus maybe need help."
Koppy, the Polish under foreman, sent his eyes darting33 from face to face. In his manner was a curious mingling34 of bravado35 and diffidence--a lumbering36 body, a shrinking way of holding himself, a stammering37 foreign accent and phrasing. But in spite of it there was ample ground for Torrance's persistent38 suspicions. Perhaps it was the darting, all-seeing eyes, perhaps the exaggeration of diffidence, but Koppy gave the impression of thinking more than he said.
"When we need help--" Torrance began furiously.
Conrad cut in more quietly, but he was evidently holding himself in check. "And so you sneak39 up and listen--hide in the trees?"
"We won't argue it. You know I know."
"I hear rifles," said Koppy, looking from foreman to boss. "I come quick." He was, in his subtle way, demanding an explanation.
"If you were half as keen over the knives and knuckle-dusters of them fellows of yours!" snapped Torrance.
"Except when they throw the beastly things," growled Conrad beneath his breath, with twinges of memory.
"My men throw only when they can't reach," replied Koppy, as if Conrad had spoken aloud.
"Or when they're afraid to," added the foreman.
"Or when they're afraid to," agreed the underforeman.
"I don't know what hold you have over that damned crew," Torrance stormed, "but if you'd make them watch the horses you'd be earning your money better than running up here."
"That damned crew steal no horses," Koppy objected with dignity. "I hold my men--yes," he went on proudly. "You pay me for that. I make them obey boss. Ignace Koppowski make them--"
"No heroics to think of young missus." Koppy turned to Tressa, forced to be an uncomfortable witness of one of the frequent quarrels that never reached an issue. "If she say no danger, Ignace Koppowski satisfied." He bent44 his big frame with surprising grace.
Tressa smiled on the Pole from the upper step. She never could understand why her father and lover hated the fellow so. "Thank you, Koppy. Not a bit of danger--as it happened. It was good of you to be concerned."
"And now," he ordered shortly, "you've learned all you're likely to. Get out."
A flash of anger came and went in the underforeman's face. He straightened, looking Conrad in the eye.
"Up here I take boss's orders. Boss want us to go--we go. But boss maybe need us some day. Perhaps we find who steal horses."
"I wish to hell you would," grunted Torrance. "It's worth fifty bucks46 in your hand if you do. Horses don't grow on spruce trees in this country."
"Horses don't. Boss lose no more--and Ignace Koppowski take no more pay."
"One moment, Koppy." His voice was very quiet, but his chin was thrust forward a little. "When Miss Torrance requires protection, there are those here can give it without your assistance. That's all."
A strange gleam they did not understand shot into the Pole's eyes. "Perhaps--not," he muttered, and disappeared over the grade, his two silent followers47 at his heels.
Torrance scowled48 after them. "I'd be willing to lose every horse in the camp, if you'd go with them."
"I'll fire him to-morrow." The words chipped from Conrad's lips.
Torrance laughed. "Two years with them brutes49 hasn't taught you much, Adrian. Fire Koppy, and there wouldn't be a bohunk in camp the same night. . . . And their successors would be viler50 still, primed to vengeance51 by the bunch you'd kicked out. Ten years of it has taught me not to gamble with the unknown because I hate the known. Never really had so little trouble with a gang--at least, not till these last few weeks. . . . What d'ye think's got into them, Adrian? Somebody's sure at the bottom of all these things. That last bit of trestle didn't undermine itself, and them spikes52 didn't loosen just to dump the ballast train. What's the answer?"
"Sheer cussedness. What would you expect from such scum?"
As they passed inside, Torrance stooped to his foreman's face. "I hire a foreman to stop such things--or cow the brutes."
"I suggested firing Koppy to-morrow. That's the best way."
"Why Koppy?"
Conrad's eyes fell away sullenly53. "He had the impertinence to imagine--" He stopped. "I could shoot him like a mad dog," he exploded.
Torrance chuckled54. "That's the spirit, lad. I was going to say that there's only one way to handle the bohunk: beat him down. . . . D'ye realise, Adrian, you haven't killed a single one yet? Sandy, who went before you, did for five in his last season--"
"And 'went before' me," smiled Conrad, "with five knives in his ribs55. Thanks. I'm still alive--and I'm getting the work out of them. But this is a new one about Sandy. You told the Police, of course?"
"Sh-sh! I couldn't swear to it in a court of law. I'm not sure an unprejudiced jury wouldn't call it accidental death. The accidents happened to be convenient to Sandy and me. If a bohunk or two dropped out of the way now, d'ye think I'd try to fix it on you? I think too much of you, Adrian, my lad."
Tressa came round the table and pressed them into their favourite chairs. In Conrad's hand she thrust a lurid-backed novel. "And after all this blood and murder, let's get to the more peaceful pursuits of brigands56 and treasure-hunters. Sandy was a man after daddy's heart, Adrian--and at the last a few hundred bohunks were after Sandy's heart."
"Sandy never was a hero," said Conrad. "The hero never dies."
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1
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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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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electrified
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| v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋 | |
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repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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definitive
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| adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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riddled
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| adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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16
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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17
marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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jaunty
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| adj．愉快的，满足的；adv.心满意足地，洋洋得意地；n.心满意足；洋洋得意 | |
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20
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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contractor
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| n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌 | |
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aglow
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| adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地 | |
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24
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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25
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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26
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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28
gibed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄( gibe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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30
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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31
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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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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33
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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34
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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bravado
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| n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能 | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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37
stammering
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
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38
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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39
sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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40
veneer
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| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
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41
dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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42
nettled
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| v.拿荨麻打，拿荨麻刺（nettle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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43
testily
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| adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
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44
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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45
obeisance
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| n.鞠躬，敬礼 | |
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46
bucks
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| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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47
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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48
scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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50
viler
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的比较级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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51
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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52
spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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53
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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54
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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56
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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