He flung himself prone2 and extended the pole. Pierre’s body was making another circuit of that horrible pit and when—if—should it—— The drowning boy’s head was under the current, but his legs swung round upon its surface, faster and faster, as they drew nearer the centre.
[Pg 173]
“Hold! Hold! I’ll pull you out!”
But for the hard labor5 of the past few weeks Adrian’s muscles could not have stood the strain. Yet they did, and as he drew the nearly senseless Pierre upon the rock beside himself his soul went up in such glad thanksgiving as he had never known, or might know again. A life saved. That was worth all things.
For an hour they lay there, resting, recovering; then Pierre, himself, stood up to see what chance there was for a fuller deliverance. He was a very sober and altered Pierre, and his drenched6 clothing added to the forlornness of his appearance.
“Nothing left but—us. Came nigh bein’ only you. Say, Adrian, I shan’t forget it.”
“’Tisn’t much harder’n Margot’s stepping-stones. Done them times enough.”
Again Adrian was grateful for his forest experience, but he asked with some anxiety:
“Suppose you are strong enough to do it?”
[Pg 174]
“Isn’t any supposin’ about it. Got to. Might as well died in the pool as starve on this rock.”
Adrian didn’t see that there was much better than starvation before them even if they did reach shore, but he kept his fear to himself. Besides, it was not probable that they had been saved from the flood to perish in the forest. They would better look at the bright side of the situation, if they hoped to find such.
“I can jump them.”
“So can I.”
“Don’t let go that pole. I mean to keep that as long as I live—’less you want it yourself. If you do——”
“No, Pierre, it belongs to you, and doubly now. Which should go first—you or I?”
“Draw lots. If that one falls in, the other must fish him out. Only we won’t try it on this side, by the pool.”
They carefully surveyed the crossing, almost as dangerous an affair as shooting the [Pg 175]rapids had been. Yet, as Pierre had said, they “had to.”
Adrian picked a bit of floating weed that had swept within his reach and broke it into unequal portions. The shortest bit fell to him and with as cheerful a “here goes!” as he could muster8 he sprang for the next stone. He made it; more easily than he had hoped, and saw that his best chance lay in looking straight ahead to the next landing-point—and the next—never down at the swirling9 river.
“Landed! Come!”
Pierre was heavier but more practiced than his mate, and in a few seconds the two stood together on the shore, regarding the ruins of their boat and thinking of what they would not have for supper.
All at once Pierre’s eye brightened.
“Say! there’s been a camp here. Not so long ago, either. See that barrel in the brush? There’s an old birch shed yonder. Hurrah10!”
They did not linger, though Adrian kept [Pg 176]hoping that something from their lost outfit11 might be tossed outward toward them, even as Pierre had been; but nothing came in sight and he reached the dilapidated shed only a few feet behind the other.
“There’s a bed left still, but not such a soft one. And there’s pork in that barrel. Wonder the hedgehogs haven’t found it.”
But as Pierre thrust his nose into the depths of the cask he understood the reason of its safety.
“Whew! Even a porkypine wouldn’t touch that! Never mind. Reckon our boots’ll need greasing after that ducking, or mine will, and it’ll answer. Anything under the shed?”
“Don’t see anything. Wait. Yes, I do. A canvas bag hung up high. Must have been forgotten when the campers left, for they took everything else, clean sweep. Hurrah! It’s beans!”
[Pg 177]
“How can you eat such hard things? Should think they’d been resurrected from the Pyramids.”
“Well, I don’t know ‘Pyramids,’ but I do know beans, and how to cook them. Fall to. Let’s get a fire. I’m nearly frozen.”
“Fire? Can you make one?”
“I can try and—— I’ve got to. When needs must, you know.”
Adrian hastily collected some dry twigs13 and decaying chips and heaped them in the sunniest place, but for this was promptly15 reprimanded by the shivering Pierre.
“Don’t you know anything at all? Wood won’t light, nor burn after ’tis lighted, in the sunshine. Stick up something to shade the stuff, whilst——”
He illustrated16 what he did not further say, by carefully selecting some hard stones and briskly rubbing them together. A faint spark resulted and a thistle-down caught the spark. To the thistle-down he held a dried grass blade and another. By this small beginning [Pg 178]they had soon a tiny blaze and very soon a comforting fire.
“Now, fetch on your beans. While they’re cooking, we’ll take account of what is left.”
Adrian brought the bag, refraining from any questions this time. He was wondering and watchful18. Pierre’s misadventures were developing unsuspected resources and the spirits of both lads rose again to the normal.
“You’re so fond of splitting birch for pictures, split me some now for a bucket, while I sharpen this knife again. Lucky for me my pocket buttoned, else it would have gone to the bottom of that pool. Got yours?”
“Yes. I didn’t fall in, you know.”
“Then I don’t ask odds19 of anybody. I’d rather have a good axe20, but when I can’t get my rather I take the next best thing.”
Adrian procured21 the strips of birch, which grows so plentifully22 to hand in all that woodland, [Pg 179]and when Pierre had trimmed it into the desired shape he deftly23 rolled it and tied it with stout24 rootlets, and behold25! there was a shapely sort of kettle, with a twig14 for a handle. But of what use it might be the city lad had yet to learn.
Pierre filled the affair with water and put into it a good handful of the beans. Then he fixed26 a crotched stick over his fire and hung the birch kettle upon it.
“Oh! don’t waste them. I know. I saw Angelique soak them, as they did at camp. I know, now. If we can’t cook them we can make them swell27 up in water, and starving men can exist on such food till they reach a settlement. Of course we’ll start as soon as you’re all right.”
“We’ll start when we’re ready. That’s after we’ve had something to eat and have made our new canoe. Never struck a spot where there was likelier birches. ’Twon’t be the first one I’ve built or seen built. Say. Seems as if that God that Margot is always saying [Pg 180]takes care of folks must have had a hand in this. Doesn’t it?”
“Yes. It does,” answered Adrian, reverently28. Surely, Pierre was a changed and better lad.
Then his eyes rested on the wooden dinner-pot, and to his astonishment29 it was not burning but hung steadily30 in its place and the water in it was already beginning to simmer. Above the water line the bark shrivelled and scorched31 slightly, but Pierre looked out for this and with a scoop32 made from a leaf replenished33 the water as it steamed away. The beans, too, were swelling34 and gave every promise of cooking—in due course of time. Meanwhile, the cook rolled himself over and about in the warmth of the fire till his clothes were dry and all the cold had left his body. Also, he had observed Adrian’s surprise with a pardonable pride.
“Lose an Indian in the woods and he’s as rich as a lord. It’s the Indian in me coming out now.”
[Pg 181]
“It’s an extra sense. Divination35, instinct, something better than education.”
“What the master calls ‘woodcraft.’ Yes. Wonder how he is, and all of them. Say. What do you think I thought about when I was whirling round that pool, before I didn’t think of anything?”
“Your sins, I suppose. That’s what I’ve heard comes to a drowning man.”
“Shucks! Saw the mére’s face when she broke that glass! Fact. Though I wasn’t there at the time. And one thing more: saw that ridiculous Xanthippé, looking like she’d never done a thing but warble. Oh! my! How I do wish Margot’d sell her.”
“Shall I help you get birch for the canoe now? I begin to believe you can do even that, you are so clever.”
This praise was sweet to Pierre’s vain ears and had the result which Adrian desired, of diverting the talk from their island friends. In their present situation, hopeful as the other pretended to find it, he felt it best for [Pg 182]his own peace of mind not to recall loved and absent faces.
They went to work with a will, and will it was that helped them; else with the poor tools at hand they had never accomplished36 their undertaking37. Indeed, it was a labor of considerable time. Not only was that first meal of boiled beans cooked and eaten, but several more of the same sort followed. To vary these, Pierre baked some, in the same method as he had boiled them, or else in the ashes of their fire. He even fashioned a sort of hook from a coat button and with cedar38 roots for a line, caught a fish now and then. But they craved39 the seasoning40 of salt, and even the dessert of blue-berries which nature provided them could not satisfy this longing41, which grew almost intolerable to Adrian’s civilized42 palate.
“Queer, isn’t it? When I was at that lumber43 camp I nearly died because all the meat, or nearly all, was so salt. Got so I couldn’t eat anything, hardly. Now, [Pg 183]just because I haven’t salt I can’t eat, either.”
“Indians not that way. Indians eat one thing same’s another. Indian just wants to live, don’t care about the rest. Indian never eats too much. I’m all Indian now.”
Adrian opened his eyes to their widest, then threw himself back and laughed till the tears came.
“Pierre, Pierre! Would you had been ‘all Indian’ when you tackled Angelique’s fried chicken! Umm! I can taste it now!”
But at length the new canoe was ready. They had put as few ribs44 into it as would suffice to hold it in shape and Pierre had carefully sewn it with the roots of the black cedar, which serves the woodsman for so many purposes, where thread or twine45 is needed. They had made a paddle and a pole as well as they could with their knives, and having nothing to pack except themselves and their small remnant of beans, made their last camp-fire at that spot and lay down to sleep.
[Pg 184]
But the dreams of both were troubled; and in the night Adrian rose and went to add wood to the fire. It had died down to coals, but his attention was caught by a ring of white light upon the ashes, wholly distinct from the red embers.
“What’s that?”
In a moment he had answered his own question. It was the phosphorescent glow from the inner bark of a half burned log, and further away he saw another portion of the same log making a ghostly radiance on the surrounding ground.
“Oh! I wouldn’t have missed that for anything. Mr. Dutton told me of beautiful sights he had witnessed and of the strange will-o’-the-wisps that abound47 in the forest. I’ll gather some of the chips.”
He did so, and they made a fairy-like radiance over his palm; but while he was intently studying them, he felt his hand rudely knocked up, so that the bits of wood flew out of it.
[Pg 185]
“Pierre! Stop that!”
“You foolish fellow. Just as I thought you were beginning to get sense. Nothing in the world but decayed bark and chemical——”
Pierre stopped his ears.
“I was dreaming of the mére. She came with her apron48 to her eyes and her clothes in tatters. She was scolding——”
“Perfectly natural.”
“And begging me——”
“Not to eat so many half-baked beans for supper.”
“There’s something wrong at the island. I saw the cabin all dark. I saw Margot’s eyes red with weeping.”
Pierre ignored these flippant interruptions, [Pg 186]but rehearsed his dismal50 visions till Adrian lost patience and pushed him aside.
“Go. Bring an armful of fresh wood; some that isn’t phosphorescent, if you prefer. That’ll wake you up and drive the megrims out of your mind.”
“’Tis neither of them things. ’Tis a warning. They were all painted with black, and all the Hollow creatures were painted, too. ’Tis a warning. I shall see death before I am——”
Even while he maundered on in this strain he was unconsciously obeying the command to fetch wood, and moved toward a pile left ready. Now, in raking this together, Adrian had, also, swept that spot of ground clean and exposed; and what neither had observed in the twilight51 was plainly revealed by the glow and shadows cast by the fire.
This was a low, carefully made mound52 that, in shape and significance, could be confounded with no other sort of mound, wherever met. Both recognized it at once, and even upon [Pg 187]Adrian the shock was painful; but its effect upon superstitious53 Pierre was far greater. With a shriek54 that startled the silence of the forest he flung himself headlong.
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1
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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3
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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5
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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6
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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7
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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8
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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9
swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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10
hurrah
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| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
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11
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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12
fodder
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| n.草料；炮灰 | |
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13
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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14
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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15
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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16
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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17
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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18
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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19
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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21
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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plentifully
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| adv. 许多地，丰饶地 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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25
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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27
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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28
reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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29
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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30
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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31
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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32
scoop
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| n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出 | |
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33
replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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34
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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35
divination
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| n.占卜，预测 | |
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36
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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37
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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38
cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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39
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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seasoning
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| n.调味；调味料；增添趣味之物 | |
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41
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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42
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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43
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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44
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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45
twine
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| v.搓，织，编饰；（使）缠绕 | |
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46
omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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47
abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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48
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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49
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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50
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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51
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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52
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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53
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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54
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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