Chapter 9 Torrance Evolves A Plan

 "Were they--real dead, daddy? Couldn't we--can't we do anything?" Horror stared from Tressa's eyes; she was trembling from head to foot. "I thought you or--or Adrian were under it, and I almost fell over. I'd have fainted if I hadn't thought you might need me."

 

The big man laid his arm across the shaking shoulders and drew her to him.

 

"I guess it was Adrian before your old dad."

 

"No--I don't think so." She continued naively¹: "Adrian's so quick; I don't think he'd be caught like that. It was you I thought of--too."

 

He smiled a little wistfully. "That's right, little girl, be honest. We all had it--once. When your mother was alive there was no one counted but 'Jim.' God, if I could hear her say it now! . . . 'Jim.'" He lingered over the word, repeating it in reverent² whisper. "It was 'Jim' kept me straight them days. . . . Just the little word 'Jim.' I've always thought if I could die with that in my ears, perhaps there might--might open up a bit of a chance for the big rough fellow who hasn't had much chance to get away from things that make men rougher. . . . 'Jim.' Now I'll have to kick out without it."

 

The girl in his arms was frightened of him when he talked that way; and it was happening more frequently in these days of worry. She had scarcely known her mother, except through the lips of her daddy, but the woman who touched only the fringes of her memory was to her, as to him, a being not quite of this earth.

 

"'Jim,'" she whispered, scarce knowing she said it.

 

His arms closed convulsively, and she could feel his beating heart.

 

"Say it to me--sometimes--won't you, little girl?" he whispered.

 

But she was suddenly conscious of treading sacred ground.

 

"I don't think I can, daddy. It's mother's, mother's own. You're my daddy, and there's nothing as good as that to me."

 

He smiled lovingly down on her, tossing aside his depression.

 

"And a daddy couldn't have anything better--no, not if he searched this whole wide Canada through from terminal to terminal. I'm just about the luckiest dog this side Heaven.

 

 

'Just one girl,

There is just one girl;

There may be others, I know,

But they're not my pearl.

Sun or rain,

She is just the same;

I'll be happy forever with

Just one girl.'"

The song was coarse and toneless, but he knew no other way of voicing it, and she noted³ nothing of its crudeness.

 

"Daddy, you're a base deceiver."

 

She was wagging an accusing finger before his eyes, and he blinked in exaggerated concern.

 

"O' course," he admitted, "I don't say I've had much chance with more than one. This job of mine is death to gallivanting. I wouldn't know how to look at a woman now--not in a way that would mean she was more to me than one of the same sex as the best little girl in the world."

 

But the silently accusing finger continued to wag.

 

"Honest, I don't know what you mean."

 

"What about the cow-girl last year that you bought the horses from?"

 

He chuckled⁴ deep in his throat.

 

"Shucks! I know a pretty girl when I see one, that's all. I knew how to appreciate that skin of hers, and her riding, and the way she lifted her feet when she walked, and how she wore her clothes--though they weren't much, were they? And I bet they don't half prize her where she comes from. A chap like me who's known the two best women in the world can spot a real pippin any time; and he sort of owes it to the world to pass the message along. Shucks, girl! You didn't think--say, you didn't think I was sidling up to her, or anything like that? All I did was to touch her arm. I wanted to see if they were all alike, like yours. And look what she gave me!"

 

He made a grimace⁵ and drew a finger along a dim line cutting down his cheek.

 

"She couldn't have been the nice girl I thought," he reflected, "or she wouldn't have got on her high-and-mighty just for a little thing like that."

 

"Anyway," sighed the girl, snuggling deeper in his arms, "I was real proud of you when she brought that quirt across your face, and your cheek all bleeding, and it looked as if your eye was gone. You just laughed and borrowed my handkerchief."

 

He laughed again now. "You didn't think I'd slam at her with one of these big fists, did you? I believe I kind of enjoyed wiping away the blood."

 

"And you paid her every cent without a word."

 

"O' course! That hadn't anything to do with our little tiff⁶. Didn't I owe the money? I got them horses cheap enough, goodness knows! I'd take a thousand of them any day in the week she trotted⁷ 'em along. Easiest way to make a fortune I know."

 

Tressa eased herself away to look gravely in his face. "Did you ever think those horses might be stolen ones?"

 

"Not more'n I could help," he grinned. "It wasn't any of my business; she offered them at a reasonable price--"

 

"You set the price."

 

"The buyer always does, my dear--when he can. Ten dollars was only a starter; I'd have given five times as much. They've been the best horses I've had." He stopped with a sudden inspiration. "Say, come to think of it, they're the very ones we've been losing lately. Looks as if some one else is a good judge of horseflesh."

 

"I hope they don't touch Doll and Prince. Surely nobody would come right up here to our own stable!"

 

"Not while Big Jim Torrance and booze don't get mixing company too free. You didn't used to think so much of Doll--but that was before she was broke. You're getting your riding legs pretty quick, I say. We'll sell them before we pull out. They're real prairie horses; they wouldn't be happy down East. Just the same," he murmured, after a long pause, "I'd give a week's pay to know who got them horses. Perhaps the camps out west needed brightening up their horse-power, and they've done it at my expense. If we could have got on the trail of the last lot that nearly went over the rapids--but there's nobody can trail in this camp." He smote⁸ his knee with a loud smack⁹. "By hickory! Why didn't I think of the Indian before?"

 

"Peter Maverick¹⁰?"

 

"Sure. The only Indian we got. He did me a good turn to-day on that trestle. Never saw an Indian couldn't follow a trail, if there was whisky or a horse at the end of it . . . and I never saw a likelier one than Mavy. Might be worth my while to get in ahead of the Mounted Police. They had to be told, you know."

 

"Did you tell them how you got the horses, daddy?"

 

The big man looked grieved. "Do you think your dad has lost all his senses? But this smashing of things was getting too common, and they'd have found out about the horses and wondered why I hadn't called them in. I don't think they'd favour buying strange horses at ten dollars a head and trying to look innocent about it. It isn't any use arguing with them--but you got common sense. You wouldn't suspect your old dad of receiving stolen property--at ten per; but them Mounted Police will ask for a birth certificate for every blessed one. I haven't time to look into the pedigree of every horse I buy. I'm busy. The Police are so unreasonable¹¹ when it comes to law."

 

"That's why," he went on, after a thoughtful silence, "I'd like to steer¹² them off the horse question. There's lots else for them to do. . . . Why didn't I think of Mavy before?"

 

He went to the edge of the bank and whistled. Ten minutes later Conrad was with them.

 

"Koppy got them repairs done yet?"

 

"Pretty nearly," replied the foreman.

 

"When the Indian can get away, send him up . . . or maybe we'd better wait till after hours--if he wouldn't ask overtime¹³."

 

"You'll never find him after hours; he doesn't sleep in the camp. Wanders off somewhere in the bush. He has about as much use for white trash as you have."

 

"Send him right away then." 

1 naively   

adv. 天真地

参考例句：

• They naively assume things can only get better. 他们天真地以为情况只会变好。
• In short, Knox's proposal was ill conceived and naively made. 总而言之，诺克斯的建议考虑不周，显示幼稚。

2 reverent   

adj.恭敬的，虔诚的

参考例句：

• He gave reverent attention to the teacher.他恭敬地听老师讲课。
• She said the word artist with a gentle,understanding,reverent smile.她说作家一词时面带高雅，理解和虔诚的微笑。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 chuckled   

轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
• She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情，她就轻轻地暗自发笑。

5 grimace   

v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭

参考例句：

• The boy stole a look at his father with grimace.那男孩扮着鬼脸偷看了他父亲一眼。
• Thomas made a grimace after he had tasted the wine.托马斯尝了那葡萄酒后做了个鬼脸。

6 tiff   

n.小争吵，生气

参考例句：

• They patched up their tiff again.他们平息了争执，又和好如初了。
• There was a new tiff between the two girls.那两个女孩之间有一场新的吵嘴。

7 trotted   

小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
• Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。

8 smote   

v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Figuratively, he could not kiss the hand that smote him. 打个比方说，他是不能认敌为友。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• \"Whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully.\" 珠儿会毫不留情地将这些\"儿童\"踩倒，再连根拔起。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学

9 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

10 maverick   

adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者

参考例句：

• He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
• You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人，样样事情都要尝试一下。

11 unreasonable   

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。

12 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

13 overtime   

adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地

参考例句：

• They are working overtime to finish the work.为了完成任务他们正在加班加点地工作。
• He was paid for the overtime he worked.他领到了加班费。