"No, not this last minute or two; but my head's splitting; I want to sleep it off."
"Poor chap! I'll leave you now. But what induced you to tackle Hard Times, when you weren't a rider, sweet Heaven only knows!"
"I was a fool," said Engelhardt, wearily.
"You leave that for us to say," returned the other. "You've got some pluck, whatever you are, and that's about all you want in the bush. So long."
He went straight to Naomi, who was awaiting him outside with considerable anxiety. They hovered8 near the barracks, talking all things over for some time longer. Then Naomi herself stole with soft, bold steps to the piano-tuner's door. There she hesitated, one hand on the latch9, the other at her ear. It ended in her entering his room on tiptoe. A moment later she was back in the yard, her fine face shining with relief.
"He's sleeping like a baby," she said to Chester. "I think we may perhaps make[Pg 43] our minds easy about him now—don't you? I was terribly frightened of concussion10; but that's all right, or he wouldn't be breathing as he is now. We'll let him be for an hour or two, and then send Mrs. Potter to him with some toast and tea. Perhaps you'll look him up last thing, Mr. Chester, and give him a hand in the morning if he feels well enough to get up?"
"Certainly I would, Miss Pryse, if I were here; but we were all going out to the shed to-night, as usual, so as to make an early start——"
"I know; I know. And very glad I shall be to get quit of the others; but I have this poor young man on my mind, and you at least must stop till morning to see me through. I shall mention it myself to Mr. Gilroy."
"Very well," said Chester, who was only too charmed with the plan. "I'll stop, with all my heart, and be very glad to do anything that I can."
With Chester it was certainly two for himself and one for the unlucky Engelhardt. He made the most of his evening with Naomi all to himself. It was not a very long evening, for Gilroy delayed his departure to the last limit, and then drove off in[Pg 44] a sullen11 fury, spitting oaths right and left and lashing12 his horses like a madman. This mood of the manager's left Chester in higher spirits than ever; he had the satisfaction of feeling himself partly responsible for it. Moreover, he had given Gilroy, whom he frankly13 detested14, the most excellent provocation15 to abuse him to his face before starting; but, as usual, the opening had been declined. Such were the manager of Taroomba and his subordinate the overseer; the case was sufficiently16 characteristic of them both. As for Chester, he made entertaining talk with Naomi as long as she would sit up, and left her with an assurance that he would attend to the piano-tuner like a mother. Nor was he much worse than his word; though the patient knew nothing until awakened17 next morning by the clatter18 and jingle19 of boots and spurs at his bedside.
"What is it?" he cried, struggling to sit up.
"Me," said Chester. "Lie perfectly20 tight. I only came to tell you that your breakfast's coming in directly, and to see how you are. How are you? Had some sleep?"
"Any quantity," said Engelhardt, with a laugh that slipped into a yawn. "I feel another man."
"How's the arm?"
"I don't feel to have one. I suppose it's broken, is it?"
"No, my boy, only dislocated. So Miss Pryse said when she fixed21 it up, and she knows all about that sort of thing. How's the head?"
"Right as the bank!"
"I don't believe you. You're the color of candles. If you feel fit to get up, after you've had something to eat, I'm to give you a hand; but if I were you I'd lie in."
"Well, we'll see. Here comes Mother Potter with your breakfast. I'll be back in half an hour, and we'll see about it then."
Chester came back to find the piano-tuner half dressed with his one hand. He was stripped and dripping to the waist, and he raised his head so vigorously from the cold water, at the overseer's entrance, that the latter was well splashed.
"Dry me," he cried.
The overseer did his best.
"I feel as fit as a Strad," panted Engelhardt.
"What may that be?"
"Then you don't look it."
"But I soon shall. What's a dislocated arm? Steady on, I say, though. Easy over the stones!"
Chester was nonplussed24.
"My dear fellow, you're bruised25 all over. It'd be cruel to touch you with a towel of cotton-wool."
"Go on," said Engelhardt. "I must be dried and dressed. Dry away! I can stand it."
The other exercised the very greatest care; but ribs26 and shoulders on the same side as the injured arm were fairly dappled with bruises27, and it was perfectly impossible not to hurt. Once he caught Engelhardt wincing28. He was busy at his back, and only saw it in the mirror.
"I am hurting you!" he cried.
"Not a bit, sir. Fire away!"
The white face in the mirror was still racked with pain.
"From my mother," was the prompt reply; "such as I possess."
"My boy," said Chester, "you've as much as most!" And, without thinking, he slapped the other only too heartily on the bruised shoulder. Next moment he was sufficiently horrified30 at what he had done, for this time the pain was more than the sufferer could conceal31. In an instant, however, he was laughing off his friend's apologies with no less tact32 than self-control.
"You're about the pluckiest little devil I've ever seen," said the overseer at last. "I thought so yesterday—I know so to-day."
The piano-tuner beamed with joy. "What rot," however, was all he said.
"Not it, my boy! You're a good sort. You've got as much pluck in one hair of your head—though they are long 'uns, mind—as that fellow Gilroy has in his whole composition. Now I must be off to the shed. I should stroll about in the air, if I were you, but keep out of the sun. If you care to smoke, you'll find a tin of cut-up on the corner bracket in my room, and Miss Pryse'll give you a new pipe out of the store if you want one. You'll see her about pretty soon, I should say. Oh, yes, she had breakfast with me. She means to keep you by main force till you're up to piano-tuning again. Serve Gilroy jolly well right, the brute33! So we'll meet again this week-end; [Pg 48]meanwhile, good-by, old chap, and more power to the arm."
Engelhardt watched the overseer out of sight, with a mingled34 warmth and lightness of heart which for the moment were making an unusually happy young man of him. This Chester was the very incarnation of a type that commonly treated him, as he was too ready to fancy, with contempt; and yet that was the type of all others whose friendship and admiration35 he coveted36 most. All his life he had been so shy and so sensitive that the good in him, the very best of him, was an unknown quantity to all save those who by accident or intimacy37 struck home to his inner nature. The latter was true as steel, and brave, patient, and enduring to an unsuspected degree; but a cluster of small faults hid this from the ordinary eye. The man was a little too anxious to please—to do the right thing—to be liked or loved by those with whom he mixed. As a natural consequence, his anxiety defeated his design. Again, he was a little too apt to be either proud or ashamed of himself—one or the other—he never could let himself alone. Wherefore appreciation38 was inordinately39 sweet to his soul, and the reverse proportionately bitter. Mere40 indifference41 hurt him no[Pg 49] less than active disdain42; indeed, where there was the former, he was in the bad habit of supposing the latter; and thus the normal current of his life was never clear of little unnecessary griefs of which he was ashamed to speak, but which he only magnified by keeping them to himself. Perhaps he had his compensating43 joys. Certainly he was as often in exceedingly high spirits as in the dumps, and it is just possible that the former are worth the latter. In any case he was in the best of spirits this morning; nor by any means ashamed of his slung44 arm, but rather the reverse, if the whole truth be told. And yet, with a fine girl like Naomi, and a smart bushman like Tom Chester, both thinking well of him together, there surely was for once some slight excuse for an attack of self-satisfaction. It was transitory enough, and rare enough, too, Heaven knows.
In this humor, at all events, he wandered about the yard for some time, watching the veranda45 incessantly46 with jealous eyes. His saunterings led him past the rather elaborate well, in the centre of the open space, to the store on the farther side. This was a solid isolated47 building, very strongly built, with an outer coating of cement, and a corrugated48 roof broken on the foremost slope by a [Pg 50]large-sized skylight. A shallow veranda ran in front, but was neither continued at the ends nor renewed at the back of the building. Nor were there any windows; the piano-tuner walked right round to see, and on coming back to the door (a remarkably49 strong one) there was Naomi fitting in her key. She was wearing an old black dress, an obvious item of her cast-off mourning, and over it, from her bosom50 to her toes, a brilliantly white apron51, which struck Engelhardt as the most charming garment he had ever seen.
"Good business!" she cried at sight of him. "I know how you are from Mr. Chester. Just hold these things while I take both hands to this key; it always is so stiff."
The things in question, which she reached out to him with her left hand, consisted of a box of plate-powder, a piece of chamois leather, a tooth-brush, and a small bottle of methylated spirits; the lot lying huddled52 together in a saucer.
"That does it," continued Naomi as the lock shot back with a bang and the door flew open. "Now come on in. You can lend me your only hand. I never thought of that."
Engelhardt followed her into the store.[Pg 51] Inside it was one big room, filled with a good but subdued53 light (for as yet the sun was beating upon the hinder slope of corrugated iron), and with those motley necessaries of station life which are to be seen in every station store. Sides of bacon, empty ration-bags, horse-collars and hames, bridles54 and reins55, hung promiscuously56 from the beams. Australian saddles kept their balance on stout57 pegs58 jutting59 out from the walls. The latter were barely lined with shelves, like book-cases, but laden60 with tinned provisions of every possible description, sauces and patent medicines in bottles, whiskey and ink in stone jars, cases of tea, tobacco, raisins61, and figs62. Engelhardt noticed a great green safe, with a couple of shot-guns and a repeating-rifle in a rack beside it, and two or three pairs of rusty63 hand-cuffs on a nail hard by. The floor was fairly open, but for a few sacks of flour in a far corner. It was cut up, however, by a raised desk with a high office-stool to it, and by the permanent, solid-looking counter which faced the door. A pair of scales, of considerable size and capacity, was the one encumbrance64 on the counter. Naomi at once proceeded to remove it, first tossing the weights onto the flour bags, one after the other, and then lifting down the scales before Engelhardt had time to help her. Thereafter she slapped the counter with her flat hand, and stood looking quizzically at her guest.
"You don't know what's under this counter," she said at last, announcing an obvious fact with extraordinary unction.
"I don't, indeed," said the piano-tuner, shaking his head.
"Nor does your friend Mr. Sanderson, though he's the store-keeper. He's out at the shed during shearing-time, branding bales and seeing to the loading of the drays. But all the rest of the year he keeps the books at that desk or serves out rations65 across this counter; and yet he little dreams what's underneath66 it."
"You interest me immensely, Miss Pryse."
"I wonder if I dare interest you any more?"
"You had better not trust me with a secret."
"Why not? Do you mean that you couldn't keep one?"
"I don't say that; but I have no right——"
"Right be bothered," cried Naomi, crisply; "there's no question of right."
Engelhardt colored up.
"I was only going to say that I had no right to get in your way and perhaps make you feel it was better to tell me things than to turn me out," he explained, humbly67. "I shall turn myself out, since you are too kind to do it for me. I meant in any case to take a walk in the pines."
"Did I invite you to come in here, or did I not?" inquired Miss Pryse.
"Well, only to carry these things. Here they are."
He held them out to her, but she refused to look at them.
"When I tell you I don't want you, then it will be time for you to go," she said. "Since you don't live here, there's not the least reason why you shouldn't know what no man on the place knows, except Mr. Gilroy. Besides, you can really help me. So now will you be good?"
"Then I forgive everything. Now listen to me. My dear father was the best and kindest man in all the world; but he had his fair share of eccentricity69. I have mine, too; and you most certainly have yours; but that's neither here nor there. My father[Pg 54] came of a pretty good old Welsh family. In case you think I'm swaggering about it, let me tell you I'd like to take that family and drop the whole crew in the well outside—yes, and heat up the water to boil 'em before they'd time to drown! I owe them nothing nice, don't you believe it. They treated my father shamefully70; but he was the eldest71 son, and when the old savage72, his father, had the good taste to die, mine went home and collared his dues. He didn't get much beyond the family plate; but sure enough he came back with that. And didn't the family sit up, that's all! However, his eccentricity came in then. He must needs bring that plate up here. It's here still. I'm sitting on it now!"
Indeed, she had perched herself on the counter while speaking; and now, spinning round where she sat, she was down on the other side and fumbling73 at a padlock before her companion could open his mouth.
"Isn't it very dangerous?" he said at length, as Naomi stood up and set the padlock on the desk.
"Hardly that. Mr. Gilroy is absolutely the only person who knows that it is here. Still, the bank would be best, of course, and I mean to have it all taken there one of these days. Meanwhile, I clean my silver whenever I come up here. It's a splendid opportunity when my young men are all out at the shed. I did a lot last week, and I expect to finish off this morning."
As she spoke74 the top of the counter answered to the effort of her two strong arms, and came up with a jerk. She raised it until it caught, when Engelhardt could just get his chin over the rim75, and see a huge, heavily clamped plate-chest lying like a kernel76 in its shell. There were more locks to undo77. Then the baize-lined lid of the chest was raised in its turn. And in a very few minutes the Taroomba store presented a scene which it would have been more than difficult to match throughout the length and breadth of the Australian bush.
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1
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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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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abominably
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| adv. 可恶地，可恨地，恶劣地 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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8
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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latch
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| n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁 | |
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concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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13
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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16
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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18
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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jingle
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| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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21
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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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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24
nonplussed
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| adj.不知所措的，陷于窘境的v.使迷惑( nonplus的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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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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bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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28
wincing
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的现在分词 ) | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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34
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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36
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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39
inordinately
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| adv.无度地，非常地 | |
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40
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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41
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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42
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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43
compensating
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| 补偿，补助，修正 | |
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44
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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45
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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46
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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47
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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48
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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49
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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50
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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51
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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52
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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53
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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54
bridles
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| 约束( bridle的名词复数 )； 限动器； 马笼头； 系带 | |
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55
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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56
promiscuously
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| adv.杂乱地，混杂地 | |
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58
pegs
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| n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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59
jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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60
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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61
raisins
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| n.葡萄干( raisin的名词复数 ) | |
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62
figs
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| figures 数字，图形，外形 | |
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63
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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64
encumbrance
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| n.妨碍物，累赘 | |
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65
rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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66
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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67
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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68
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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69
eccentricity
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| n.古怪，反常，怪癖 | |
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70
shamefully
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| 可耻地； 丢脸地； 不体面地； 羞耻地 | |
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71
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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72
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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73
fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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74
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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75
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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76
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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77
undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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