CHAPTER III THE “TWO-FACED” MAN

 The boys were discussing the extent of Colonel Hardin’s great estate when Dorothy and Tavia joined them at the garage an hour later. The possibilities of the vast cattle pastures and game preserves, walled in by the natural boundary of the higher Rockies, appealed strongly to Ned and Nat, and even to Dorothy’s younger brothers.

 

“And it was all begun by Colonel Hardin taking advantage of the Homestead Law when he came out of the army. Too bad your father didn’t do that, Dorothy,” said Ned.

 

“What is the Homestead Law?” asked Dorothy.

 

“I can tell you,” interposed Nat, quickly. “Not just in the wording of the law—the legal phraseology, you know,” he added, his eyes twinkling. “But the upshot of it is, that the Government is willing to bet you one hundred and sixty acres of land against fourteen dollars that you can’t live on it five years without starving to death!”

 

 “How ridiculous!” scoffed¹ Dorothy.

 

“What is the use of asking these boys anything?” demanded Tavia, her nose in the air. “They’re like all other college freshmen².”

 

“Don’t say that, Miss,” urged Ned, easily. “Remember that we’re freshmen no longer, but sophs. Or, we will be so rated next fall.”

 

“Then perhaps you’ll know a little less than you have appeared to know this past year,” said the sharp-tongued Tavia. “As juniors you will know a little less. And when you’re seniors, you’ll probably be still more human—less like Olympic Joves, you know.”

 

“Compliments fly when quality meets,” quoth Dorothy. “Don’t let’s scrap³, children. We can tell the boys something they don’t know. We’ve got to get a hustle⁴ on, to quote the provincialism of the locality for which we are bound—the wild and woolly West. A telegram has been already sent to Tavia’s folks. We start West to-morrow.”

 

“To-morrow!” cried Ned and Nat, in surprise.

 

“The Mater must have changed her mind mighty⁵ sudden,” added Ned.

 

“She did,” said Tavia, nodding. “Or, rather, we changed it for her.”

 

“How was that?” asked Nat. “And say! what did the fellow want who came so far for a drink?” and he grinned. “What’s his name?”

 

“Mr. Philo Marsh⁶,” said Dorothy, gravely.19 “And a very shrewd, if not an out-and-out bad man.”

 

“Hul-lo!” exclaimed Ned. “What’s happened? Let’s hear about it.”

 

“You should have stayed and seen the visitor,” said Dorothy.

 

“He’s a two-faced scamp!” declared Tavia, with emphasis.

 

“Right out of Barnum & Bailey’s—eh?” asked Nat. “One of the greatest freaks of the age. Two faces, no less!”

 

But Ned saw that something serious had happened. “What is it, Dorothy?” he asked.

 

“I wish you had remained and seen that Philo Marsh,” said Dorothy Dale. “I—I think he is a bad man. I do not trust him at all.”

 

“And good reason!” broke in Tavia, forgetting that she had first exclaimed over the romantic appearance of the man with the silky black mustache and the yellow diamond.

 

Then, eagerly, she went on to tell the boys of what had happened to her and Dorothy on the road that morning.

 

“Why! the scamp!” ejaculated Nat, quite savagely⁷.

 

“But that isn’t all the story?” queried⁸ Ned, turning to Dorothy. “What were you going to say about Philo Marsh?”

 

Dorothy at once told them how she and Tavia had hidden behind the window draperies when Mr. Philo Marsh was announced, having recognized him as he stood waiting on the porch.

 

“And you should have heard him talk!” interrupted Tavia.

 

“He is a very smooth talking man,” went on Dorothy, seriously, “and we could see father and Aunt Winnie were impressed.”

 

“But what did he want?” Ned demanded.

 

“He says he represents a committee of citizens of Desert City and the farmers on that side of the Hardin estate. He had papers all drawn⁹ up, ready to sign, leasing to him and his fellow-committeemen the water rights on the Hardin place, and he wants father and Aunt Winnie to sign up right now.”

 

“But they didn’t?” cried Ned and Nat.

 

“He urged them to. He claims haste is necessary.”

 

“Why?” asked the older cousin.

 

“He wasn’t just clear about that. I guess that is what made father doubtful. But he was very persuasive¹⁰.”

 

“Say!” interrupted Nat. “What about this water? If there is so much of it on the Hardin place, doesn’t it flow somewhere?”

 

“That’s a curious thing,” Dorothy said, quickly. “It seems this water-supply is a stream called Lost River.”

 

 “Lost River?” ejaculated Ned.

 

“Yes. There’s more than one like it out there, too. I guess this particular Lost River has its rise on the estate somewhere. And without flowing beyond the boundaries of the land Colonel Hardin has left to us, it dives right down into a crack in the earth again.”

 

“Crickey!” exclaimed Nat. “Some river! I want to see that.”

 

“I’ve read of such things,” said his brother.

 

“It must be wonderful,” Dorothy said. “You see, they want father and Aunt Winnie to let them turn the water into another channel. From that channel they will pipe water to Desert City, while the surplus will be carried by open ditches to the irrigated¹¹ farms.”

 

“And how about the water supply for the cattle pastures?” demanded Ned, who, from the first, had shown a deep interest in the cattle end of the business in hand.

 

“Oh, they say there is water in abundance,” Dorothy answered.

 

“Well,” asked Ned, “did that fellow get mother to sign up? That’s the important question.”

 

“Do you think we would let her, after what we know about the fellow?” retorted Tavia, indignantly.

 

“I don’t see how you girls knew much about him,” chuckled¹² Nat. “You simply did not like the cut of his jib, as the sailors say.”

 

“What did you do to stop them?” asked Joe Dale, round-eyed. “Walk right in and give him away?”

 

“That would have been melodramatic, wouldn’t it?” laughed Dorothy.

 

“But what did you do?” insisted Joe.

 

“Why,” said Tavia, “we climbed out of the window—and I ripped my skirt, of course!—and we ran around to the hall and sent the maid in to call Mrs. White out. Then we told her about Philo Marsh—the two-faced scamp! Why, to hear and see him in that library, you’d think butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth!”

 

“Well, wouldn’t it?” grunted¹³ Nat.

 

“I guess the Major was suspicious, anyway,” chuckled Tavia, ignoring Master Nat. “And Mrs. White declared she would have to look over the ground personally before she could make any decision.”

 

“He was in an awful hurry,” said Dorothy.

 

“Who’s in a hurry?” asked Ned, quickly.

 

“That Philo Marsh, as he calls himself. So we are going to start for the West to-morrow, instead of next week.”

 

“And what is this fellow who’s come East here going to do?” asked Ned.

 

“Going back. Says he’ll meet us at Dugonne. That is where we leave the train. Oh, Aunt Winnie has already looked up our route, and the time-tables, and all that,” Dorothy said.

 

“Well, we’ll be on hand to look out for Little Mum, and see that this fellow doesn’t ‘double cross’ her in any way,” said Nat, with assurance.

 

“We girls shall watch him, too,” Tavia declared. “I believe he’s a regular ‘bad man’—like you read about.”

 

“Shouldn’t read about such things,” advised Dorothy, laughing.

 

“I guess we four can hedge Little Mum about so that no wild and woolly Westerner will trouble her,” Ned said, with gravity.

 

But only time could prove whether that was so, or not.

 

1 scoffed   

嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scoffed at our amateurish attempts. 他对我们不在行的尝试嗤之以鼻。
• A hundred years ago people scoffed at the idea. 一百年前人们曾嘲笑过这种想法。

2 freshmen   

n.（中学或大学的）一年级学生( freshman的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We are freshmen and they are sophomores. 我们是一年级学生，他们是二年级学生。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• University freshmen get lots of razzing, but they like the initiation. 大一新生受各种嘲弄，但是他们对这种入门经验甘之如饴。 来自辞典例句

3 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

4 hustle   

v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌)

参考例句：

• It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city.看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
• I had to hustle through the crowded street.我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。

5 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

6 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

7 savagely   

adv. 野蛮地，残酷地

参考例句：

• The roses had been pruned back savagely. 玫瑰被狠狠地修剪了一番。
• He snarled savagely at her. 他向她狂吼起来。

8 queried   

v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问

参考例句：

• She queried what he said. 她对他说的话表示怀疑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• \"What does he have to do?\" queried Chin dubiously. “他有什么心事？”琴向觉民问道，她的脸上现出疑惑不解的神情。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

9 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

10 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。

11 irrigated   

[医]冲洗的

参考例句：

• They irrigated their crops with water from this river. 他们用这条小河里的水浇庄稼。
• A crop can be sown, weeded, irrigated, and fertilized uniformly. 一种作物可以均匀一致地进行播种，除草，灌溉和施肥。

12 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。

13 grunted   

（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

参考例句：

• She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声，继续看书，不屑抬起头来看一眼。
• She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。