Sergeant1 Mahon was not happy in his new work. After a Police experience that knew only the ranching2 district he found the new conditions, the new crimes and criminals, irritating and a little bewildering. None of the trailing he loved, of horse and steer3; no ranchers and cowboys and rustling4 gunmen any longer filled the horizon of his friendships and duties. He began to fear that a few months of it would wipe from his mind all he had ever learned. Even his horse was of little use, for the only path to ride, the three miles to the trestle, was quite as easy by foot or ballast train.
The limitations of his official horizon were stifling5, a mere6 mile or two in radius7. And within that circle were only a handful he could call friends, and a camp of bohunks. He hated the shadows of the forest, where life was scarcer than in the Hills, where even keen wits were wasted.
Here the guns of his former enemies were supplanted8 by knives and knuckle-dusters and clubs; and the men who wielded9 them were cowardly, slinking foreigners whose very appearance was repugnant. Sneaky, underground, despicable crime it was, running the gamut10 from petty annoyance11 to senseless murder. None of the open-handed, bold and reasoned intelligence of the prairie criminal. It revolted him. Senseless, insensate, formless, erratic12, it only disgusted him with its sheer and unprofitable lawlessness. On the prairie crime meant double duty for him--to discover, then to catch the criminal; here there was no escape--once the criminal was discovered.
This offscouring of Europe was little more individual to him than a Chinaman; Mahon was doubtful that he could pick out a second time more than a few of the bohunks. With faces dull and brainless, voices drab and lifeless, they merged13 into a mass of slime.
For the first time since he had donned the uniform Mahon began to question his capacity for it. Knowing the history of the wide effort demanded of the Mounted Police, he began to wonder if he could throw himself into it with credit to the Force.
The only attractive feature of his new life was the friendship of the bluff14, cantankerous15, but kind-hearted contractor16, his sunny daughter, the manly17 foreman, and the talkative Murphy. Of Tressa he had so many glowing things to write in his letters to his wife that Helen threatened to rush north in self-defence. Thereupon he crammed18 one letter from start to finish with Tressa Torrance's praises, and defied Helen to fulfil her threat.
In the course of his work the solitary19 part that intrigued20 him was the mystery of the Indian. He felt that there was more there than he knew of; he had more than a suspicion that Torrance was concealing21 from him essential facts. But there seemed no call for official action. Thus far the Indian was friendly; it was his nature to be silent and mysterious.
Failing use for his horse, Mahon spent much time in the forest. And after a time, the very shadows, and the secrecy22 breathed by the trees seemed to hint at revelations just round the corner. Down in the camp half a thousand bohunks, with brutal23 murder in their hearts, would, under Police eye, climb to their bunks24 as innocent in appearance as kittens. There in the woods, freed from observation, the bohunk was more apt to discard his mask of stupidity. Somewhere there his plans were laid, orders given and received.
What the Sergeant picked up little by little in the woods, small as it was and unsatisfying to his youthful impatience25, sufficed to sustain his hopes. The constant meeting after work-hours with slinking bohunks who always avoided him, convinced him that something within the law was afoot, and repeated glimpses of distant groups which dribbled26 away when he came within sight induced him to alter his methods. More covertly27 he hunted, though it tried him sorely, and snatches of conversation untangled from the froth of their utterances28 did much to simplify his task and give more definition to his search.
Somehow his mind never quite freed itself of the haunting memory of his discoveries that early day down the slope of the river bank. Though the tracks were dim, he was satisfied that horses had passed that way at no distant date. Suspicious at first, doubtful as the marks advanced toward the river (largely on account of certain past memories roused by peculiarities29 he seemed to recognise), he had later decided30 that what he saw was no figment of an imagination rendered more lively by the revival31 of the story of Blue Pete. Certainty was added by the suspicion that efforts had been made by a master-hand to hide the tracks.
Where that led he could not even guess, though at that stage his mind kept reverting32 to the Indian.
The mysterious arrivals and disappearances33 of the redskin as Torrance saw them was interesting enough, but they were as nothing to Mahon compared with his own failure to meet the Indian face to face. That was epitomised in the incident of the voice from the darkness over the trestle the night he rushed to Torrance's assistance. There was little to connect Torrance's inexplicable34 Indian friend with the Indian bohunk who had dived that first day over the cliff to almost certain death, but Mahon had been living among inferences and deductions35 and a certain question was arising in his mind. Still it pointed36 nowhere.
Constable37 Williams had told him of isolated38 bands of Indians who had visited the camps during the previous summer, and Mahon conceived the idea that with one of these braves Torrance had had dealings which placed the redskin under obligation though the contractor himself might not suspect it. An Indian never forgets; that was the simplest explanation.
The secrecy of the Indian's movements might be accounted for by a natural reserve, and specially39 by a shyness before the uniform. But where was he hiding? That he was never far away was apparent. Mahon added to his other duties this new trail.
He realised the difficulty of his task after several distinct twinges of that strange sense developed in the wary40 at being under unseen eyes. It could not be a bohunk, for the workmen were not clever enough to trail him unseen. Also it was not an inimical inspection41. Only the Indian could trail the trailer with such unerring confidence.
It was not unnatural42, therefore, that as time went on the Indian assumed the proportions of a gripping mystery.
On the track of the new problem, Sergeant Mahon took to roaming the woods by night. His reward was unexpected and unsought--it had no connection whatever with the Indian. He discovered that the bohunks were meeting in their hundreds under cover of the darkness. To satisfy himself that an outside menace was not added to the perils43 surrounding the trestle, Mahon took to inspecting the camp from hiding whenever he came on one of these gatherings44. The fact that they were composed of the ordinary bohunks of the camp, on some nights almost emptying it, relieved him.
He was turning his attention more directly to these meetings in the woods, when something happened to alter his plan.
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1
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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ranching
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| adj.放牧的 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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8
supplanted
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| 把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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wielded
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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gamut
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| n.全音阶，(一领域的)全部知识 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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cantankerous
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| adj.爱争吵的，脾气不好的 | |
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contractor
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| n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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crammed
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| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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intrigued
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| adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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26
dribbled
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| v.流口水( dribble的过去式和过去分词 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球 | |
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covertly
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| adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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reverting
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| 恢复( revert的现在分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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33
disappearances
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| n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 )；丢失；失踪；失踪案 | |
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34
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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35
deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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36
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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37
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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38
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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39
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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40
wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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41
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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42
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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43
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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44
gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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