"Listen!" she cried. "It's Daylight!"
There was a general stampede for the door; but where the double storm-doors were thrown wide open, the crowd fell back. They heard the eager whining4 of dogs, the snap of a dog-whip, and the voice of Daylight crying encouragement as the weary animals capped all they had done by dragging the sled in over the wooden floor. They came in with a rush, and with them rushed in the frost, a visible vapor5 of smoking white, through which their heads and backs showed, as they strained in the harness, till they had all the seeming of swimming in a river. Behind them, at the gee-pole, came Daylight, hidden to the knees by the swirling6 frost through which he appeared to wade7.
He was the same old Daylight, withal lean and tired-looking, and his black eyes were sparkling and flashing brighter than ever. His parka of cotton drill hooded8 him like a monk9, and fell in straight lines to his knees. Grimed and scorched10 by camp-smoke and fire, the garment in itself told the story of his trip. A two-months' beard covered his face; and the beard, in turn, was matted with the ice of his breathing through the long seventy-mile run.
His entry was spectacular, melodramatic; and he knew it. It was his life, and he was living it at the top of his bent11. Among his fellows he was a great man, an Arctic hero. He was proud of the fact, and it was a high moment for him, fresh from two thousand miles of trail, to come surging into that bar-room, dogs, sled, mail, Indian, paraphernalia12, and all. He had performed one more exploit that would make the Yukon ring with his name—he, Burning Daylight, the king of travelers and dog-mushers.
He experienced a thrill of surprise as the roar of welcome went up and as every familiar detail of the Tivoli greeted his vision—the long bar and the array of bottles, the gambling13 games, the big stove, the weigher at the gold-scales, the musicians, the men and women, the Virgin, Celia, and Nellie, Dan MacDonald, Bettles, Billy Rawlins, Olaf Henderson, Doc Watson,—all of them.
It was just as he had left it, and in all seeming it might well be the very day he had left. The sixty days of incessant14 travel through the white wilderness15 suddenly telescoped, and had no existence in time. They were a moment, an incident. He had plunged16 out and into them through the wall of silence, and back through the wall of silence he had plunged, apparently17 the next instant, and into the roar and turmoil18 of the Tivoli.
A glance down at the sled with its canvas mail-bags was necessary to reassure19 him of the reality of those sixty days and the two thousand miles over the ice. As in a dream, he shook the hands that were thrust out to him. He felt a vast exaltation. Life was magnificent. He loved it all. A great sense of humanness and comradeship swept over him. These were all his, his own kind. It was immense, tremendous. He felt melting in the heart of him, and he would have liked to shake hands with them all at once, to gather them to his breast in one mighty20 embrace.
He drew a deep breath and cried: "The winner pays, and I'm the winner, ain't I? Surge up, you-all Malemutes and Siwashes, and name your poison! There's your Dyea mail, straight from Salt Water, and no hornswogglin about it! Cast the lashings adrift, you-all, and wade into it!"
A dozen pairs of hands were at the sled-lashings, when the young Le Barge21 Indian, bending at the same task, suddenly and limply straightened up. In his eyes was a great surprise. He stared about him wildly, for the thing he was undergoing was new to him.
He was profoundly struck by an unguessed limitation. He shook as with a palsy, and he gave at the knees, slowly sinking down to fall suddenly across the sled and to know the smashing blow of darkness across his consciousness.
"Exhaustion," said Daylight. "Take him off and put him to bed, some of you-all. He's sure a good Indian."
The mail was taken charge of, the dogs driven away to quarters and fed, and Bettles struck up the paean23 of the sassafras root as they lined up against the long bar to drink and talk and collect their debts.
A few minutes later, Daylight was whirling around the dance-floor, waltzing with the Virgin. He had replaced his parka with his fur cap and blanket-cloth coat, kicked off his frozen moccasins, and was dancing in his stocking feet. After wetting himself to the knees late that afternoon, he had run on without changing his foot-gear, and to the knees his long German socks were matted with ice. In the warmth of the room it began to thaw24 and to break apart in clinging chunks25. These chunks rattled26 together as his legs flew around, and every little while they fell clattering27 to the floor and were slipped upon by the other dancers. But everybody forgave Daylight. He, who was one of the few that made the Law in that far land, who set the ethical28 pace, and by conduct gave the standard of right and wrong, was nevertheless above the Law. He was one of those rare and favored mortals who can do no wrong. What he did had to be right, whether others were permitted or not to do the same things. Of course, such mortals are so favored by virtue29 of the fact that they almost always do the right and do it in finer and higher ways than other men. So Daylight, an elder hero in that young land and at the same time younger than most of them, moved as a creature apart, as a man above men, as a man who was greatly man and all man. And small wonder it was that the Virgin yielded herself to his arms, as they danced dance after dance, and was sick at heart at the knowledge that he found nothing in her more than a good friend and an excellent dancer. Small consolation30 it was to know that he had never loved any woman. She was sick with love of him, and he danced with her as he would dance with any woman, as he would dance with a man who was a good dancer and upon whose arm was tied a handkerchief to conventionalize him into a woman.
One such man Daylight danced with that night. Among frontiersmen it has always been a test of endurance for one man to whirl another down; and when Ben Davis, the faro-dealer, a gaudy31 bandanna32 on his arm, got Daylight in a Virginia reel, the fun began. The reel broke up and all fell back to watch. Around and around the two men whirled, always in the one direction. Word was passed on into the big bar-room, and bar and gambling tables were deserted33. Everybody wanted to see, and they packed and jammed the dance-room. The musicians played on and on, and on and on the two men whirled. Davis was skilled at the trick, and on the Yukon he had put many a strong man on his back. But after a few minutes it was clear that he, and not Daylight, was going.
For a while longer they spun34 around, and then Daylight suddenly stood still, released his partner, and stepped back, reeling himself, and fluttering his hands aimlessly, as if to support himself against the air. But Davis, a giddy smile of consternation35 on his face, gave sideways, turned in an attempt to recover balance, and pitched headlong to the floor. Still reeling and staggering and clutching at the air with his hands, Daylight caught the nearest girl and started on in a waltz. Again he had done the big thing. Weary from two thousand miles over the ice and a run that day of seventy miles, he had whirled a fresh man down, and that man Ben Davis.
Daylight loved the high places, and though few high places there were in his narrow experience, he had made a point of sitting in the highest he had ever glimpsed. The great world had never heard his name, but it was known far and wide in the vast silent North, by whites and Indians and Eskimos, from Bering Sea to the Passes, from the head reaches of remotest rivers to the tundra37 shore of Point Barrow. Desire for mastery was strong in him, and it was all one whether wrestling with the elements themselves, with men, or with luck in a gambling game. It was all a game, life and its affairs. And he was a gambler to the core. Risk and chance were meat and drink. True, it was not altogether blind, for he applied38 wit and skill and strength; but behind it all was the everlasting39 Luck, the thing that at times turned on its votaries40 and crushed the wise while it blessed the fools—Luck, the thing all men sought and dreamed to conquer. And so he. Deep in his life-processes Life itself sang the siren song of its own majesty41, ever a-whisper and urgent, counseling him that he could achieve more than other men, win out where they failed, ride to success where they perished. It was the urge of Life healthy and strong, unaware42 of frailty43 and decay, drunken with sublime44 complacence, ego-mad, enchanted45 by its own mighty optimism.
And ever in vaguest whisperings and clearest trumpet-calls came the message that sometime, somewhere, somehow, he would run Luck down, make himself the master of Luck, and tie it and brand it as his own. When he played poker46, the whisper was of four aces36 and royal flushes. When he prospected47, it was of gold in the grass-roots, gold on bed-rock, and gold all the way down. At the sharpest hazards of trail and river and famine, the message was that other men might die, but that he would pull through triumphant48. It was the old, old lie of Life fooling itself, believing itself—immortal and indestructible, bound to achieve over other lives and win to its heart's desire.
And so, reversing at times, Daylight waltzed off his dizziness and led the way to the bar. But a united protest went up. His theory that the winner paid was no longer to be tolerated. It was contrary to custom and common sense, and while it emphasized good-fellowship, nevertheless, in the name of good-fellowship it must cease. The drinks were rightfully on Ben Davis, and Ben Davis must buy them. Furthermore, all drinks and general treats that Daylight was guilty of ought to be paid by the house, for Daylight brought much custom to it whenever he made a night. Bettles was the spokesman, and his argument, tersely49 and offensively vernacular50, was unanimously applauded.
Daylight grinned, stepped aside to the roulette-table, and bought a stack of yellow chips. At the end of ten minutes he weighed in at the scales, and two thousand dollars in gold-dust was poured into his own and an extra sack. Luck, a mere51 flutter of luck, but it was his. Elation52 was added to elation. He was living, and the night was his. He turned upon his well-wishing critics.
"Now the winner sure does pay," he said.
And they surrendered. There was no withstanding Daylight when he vaulted53 on the back of life, and rode it bitted and spurred.
At one in the morning he saw Elijah Davis herding54 Henry Finn and Joe Hines, the lumber-jack, toward the door. Daylight interfered55.
"Where are you-all going?" he demanded, attempting to draw them to the bar.
"Bed," Elijah Davis answered.
He was a lean tobacco-chewing New Englander, the one daring spirit in his family that had heard and answered the call of the West shouting through the Mount Desert back odd-lots. "Got to," Joe Hines added apologetically. "We're mushing out in the mornin'."
Daylight still detained them. "Where to? What's the excitement?"
"No excitement," Elijah explained. "We're just a-goin' to play your hunch56, an' tackle the Upper Country. Don't you want to come along?"
"I sure do," Daylight affirmed.
But the question had been put in fun, and Elijah ignored the acceptance.
"We're tacklin' the Stewart," he went on. "Al Mayo told me he seen some likely lookin' bars first time he come down the Stewart, and we're goin' to sample 'em while the river's froze. You listen, Daylight, an' mark my words, the time's comin' when winter diggin's'll be all the go. There'll be men in them days that'll laugh at our summer stratchin' an' ground-wallerin'."
At that time, winter mining was undreamed of on the Yukon. From the moss57 and grass the land was frozen to bed-rock, and frozen gravel58, hard as granite59, defied pick and shovel60. In the summer the men stripped the earth down as fast as the sun thawed61 it. Then was the time they did their mining. During the winter they freighted their provisions, went moose-hunting, got all ready for the summer's work, and then loafed the bleak62, dark months through in the big central camps such as Circle City and Forty Mile.
"Winter diggin's sure comin'," Daylight agreed. "Wait till that big strike is made up river. Then you-all'll see a new kind of mining. What's to prevent wood-burning and sinking shafts63 and drifting along bed-rock? Won't need to timber. That frozen muck and gravel'll stand till hell is froze and its mill-tails is turned to ice-cream. Why, they'll be working pay-streaks a hundred feet deep in them days that's comin'. I'm sure going along with you-all, Elijah."
Elijah laughed, gathered his two partners up, and was making a second attempt to reach the door.
"Hold on," Daylight called. "I sure mean it."
The three men turned back suddenly upon him, in their faces surprise, delight, and incredulity.
"G'wan, you're foolin'," said Finn, the other lumberjack, a quiet, steady, Wisconsin man.
"There's my dawgs and sled," Daylight answered. "That'll make two teams and halve64 the loads—though we-all'll have to travel easy for a spell, for them dawgs is sure tired."
The three men were overjoyed, but still a trifle incredulous.
"Now look here," Joe Hines blurted65 out, "none of your foolin, Daylight. We mean business. Will you come?"
Daylight extended his hand and shook.
"Then you'd best be gettin' to bed," Elijah advised. "We're mushin' out at six, and four hours' sleep is none so long."
"Mebbe we ought to lay over a day and let him rest up," Finn suggested.
Daylight's pride was touched.
"No you don't," he cried. "We all start at six. What time do you-all want to be called? Five? All right, I'll rouse you-all out."
"You oughter have some sleep," Elijah counselled gravely. "You can't go on forever."
Daylight was tired, profoundly tired. Even his iron body acknowledged weariness. Every muscle was clamoring for bed and rest, was appalled66 at continuance of exertion67 and at thought of the trail again. All this physical protest welled up into his brain in a wave of revolt. But deeper down, scornful and defiant68, was Life itself, the essential fire of it, whispering that all Daylight's fellows were looking on, that now was the time to pile deed upon deed, to flaunt69 his strength in the face of strength. It was merely Life, whispering its ancient lies. And in league with it was whiskey, with all its consummate70 effrontery71 and vain-glory.
"Mebbe you-all think I ain't weaned yet?" Daylight demanded. "Why, I ain't had a drink, or a dance, or seen a soul in two months. You-all get to bed. I'll call you-all at five."
And for the rest of the night he danced on in his stocking feet, and at five in the morning, rapping thunderously on the door of his new partners' cabin, he could be heard singing the song that had given him his name:—
"Burning daylight, you-all Stewart River hunchers! Burning daylight! Burning daylight! Burning daylight!"
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收听单词发音
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1
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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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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3
yelps
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| n.（因痛苦、气愤、兴奋等的）短而尖的叫声( yelp的名词复数 )v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的第三人称单数 ) | |
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4
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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7
wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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8
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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9
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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10
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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11
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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12
paraphernalia
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| n.装备；随身用品 | |
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13
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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14
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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15
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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16
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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17
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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18
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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19
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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20
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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21
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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22
plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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23
paean
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| n.赞美歌，欢乐歌 | |
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24
thaw
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| v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和 | |
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25
chunks
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| 厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分 | |
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26
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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27
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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28
ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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29
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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30
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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31
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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32
bandanna
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| n.大手帕 | |
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33
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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34
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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35
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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36
aces
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| abbr.adjustable convertible-rate equity security (units) 可调节的股本证券兑换率；aircraft ejection seat 飞机弹射座椅；automatic control evaluation simulator 自动控制评估模拟器n.擅长…的人( ace的名词复数 )；精于…的人；（ 网球 ）（对手接不到发球的）发球得分；爱司球 | |
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37
tundra
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| n.苔原，冻土地带 | |
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38
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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39
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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40
votaries
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| n.信徒( votary的名词复数 )；追随者；（天主教）修士；修女 | |
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41
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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42
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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43
frailty
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| n.脆弱；意志薄弱 | |
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44
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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45
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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46
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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47
prospected
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| vi.勘探（prospect的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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48
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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49
tersely
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| adv. 简捷地, 简要地 | |
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50
vernacular
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| adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名 | |
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51
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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52
elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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53
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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54
herding
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| 中畜群 | |
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55
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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56
hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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57
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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58
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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59
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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60
shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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61
thawed
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| 解冻 | |
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62
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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63
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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64
halve
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| vt.分成两半，平分；减少到一半 | |
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65
blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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67
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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68
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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69
flaunt
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| vt.夸耀，夸饰 | |
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70
consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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71
effrontery
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| n.厚颜无耻 | |
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