“We’re confoundedly obliged to you,” said George. “Haystoun is keen enough, but when he was out last time he seems to have been very slack about the sport.”
“Sort of student of frontier peoples and politics, as the newspapers call it. I fancy that game is, what you say, ‘played out’ a little nowadays. It is always a good cry for alarmist newspapers to send up their circulation by, but you and I, my friend, who have mixed with serious politicians, know its value.”
George nodded. He liked to be considered a person of importance, and he wanted the conversation to get back to ibex.
“I speak as of a different nation,” Marker said, looking towards Lewis. “But I find the curse of modern times is this mock-seriousness. Some centuries ago men and women were serious about honour and love and religion. Nowadays we are frivolous6 and sceptical about these things, but we are deadly in earnest about fads7. Plans to abolish war, schemes to reform criminals, and raise the condition of woman, and supply the Bada-Mawidi with tooth-picks are sure of the most respectful treatment and august patronage8.”
Marker nodded. He had used the name inadvertently as an illustration, and he had no wish to answer questions on the subject.
“In the past. Now they are quiet enough.”
“But I understood that there was a ferment12 in the Pamirs. The other side threatened, you know.” He had almost said “your side,” but checked himself.
“Ah yes, there are rumours13 of a rising, but that is further west. The Bada-Mawidi are too poor to raise two swords in the whole tribe. You will come across them if you go north, and I can recommend them as excellent beaters.”
“Is the north the best shooting quarter?” asked Lewis with sharp eyes. “I am just a little keen on some geographical14 work, and if I can join both I shall be glad. Due north is the Russian frontier?
“Due north after some scores of the most precipitous miles in the world. It is a preposterous15 country. I myself have been on the verge16 of it, and know it as well as most. The geographical importance, too, is absurdly exaggerated. It has never been mapped because there is nothing about it to map, no passes, no river, no conspicuous17 mountain, nothing but desolate18, unvaried rock. The pass to Yarkand goes to the east, and the Afghan routes are to the west. But to the north you come to a wall, and if you have wings you may get beyond it. The Bada-Mawidi live in some of the wretched nullahs. There is sport, of course, of a kind, but not perhaps the best. I should recommend you to try the more easterly hills.”
The speaker’s manner was destitute19 of all attempt to dissuade20, and yet Lewis felt in some remote way that this man was trying to dissuade him. The rock-wall, the Bada-Mawidi, whatever it was, something existed between Bardur and the Russian frontier which this pleasant gentleman did not wish him to see.
“Our plans are all vague,” he said, “and of course we are glad of your advice.”
“And I am glad to give it, though in many ways you know the place better than I do. Your book is the work of a very clever and observant man, if you will excuse my saying so. I was thankful to find that you were not the ordinary embryo-publicist who looks at the frontier hills from Bardur, and then rushes home and talks about invasion.”
“You think there is no danger, then?”
“On the contrary, I honestly think that there is danger, but from a different direction. Britain is getting sick, and when she is sick enough, some people who are less sick will overwhelm her. My own opinion is that Russia will be the people.”
“But is not that one of the old cries that you object to?” and Lewis smiled.
“It was; now it is ceasing to be a cry, and passing into a fact, or as much a fact as that erroneous form of gratuity21, prophecy, can be. Look at Western Europe and you cannot disbelieve the evidence of your own eyes. In France you have anarchy22, the vulgarest frivolity23 and the cheapest scepticism, joined with a sort of dull capacity for routine work. Germany, the very heart of it eaten out with sentiment, either the cheap military or the vague socialist24 brand. Spain and Italy shadows, Denmark and Sweden farces25, Turkey a sinful anachronism.”
“And Britain?” George asked.
“My Scotch27 blood gives me the right to speak my mind,” said the man, laughing. “Honestly I don’t find things much better in Britain. You were always famous for a dogged common sense which was never tricked with catch-words, and yet the British people seem to be growing nervous and ingenuous28. The cult29 of abstract ideals, which has been the curse of the world since Adam, is as strong with you as elsewhere. The philosophy of ‘gush’ is good enough in its place, but it is the devil in politics.”
“That is true enough,” said Lewis solemnly. “And then you are losing grip. A belief in sentiment means a disbelief in competence30 and strength, and that is the last and fatalest heresy31. And a belief in sentiment means a foolish scepticism towards the great things of life. There is none of the blood and bone left for honest belief. You hold your religion half-heartedly. Honest fanaticism32 is a thing intolerable to you. You are all mild, rational sentimentalists, and I would not give a ton of it for an ounce of good prejudice.” George and Lewis laughed.
“And Russia?” they asked.
“Ah, there I have hope. You have a great people, uneducated and unspoiled. They are physically34 strong, and they have been trained by centuries of serfdom to discipline and hardships. Also, there is fire smouldering somewhere. You must remember that Russia is the stepdaughter of the East. The people are northern in the truest sense, but they have a little of Eastern superstition35. A rational, sentimental33 people live in towns or market gardens, like your English country, but great lonely plains and forests somehow do not agree with that sort of creed36. That slow people can still believe freshly and simply, and some day when the leader arrives they will push beyond their boundaries and sweep down on Western Europe, as their ancestors did thirteen hundred years ago. And you have no walls of Rome to resist them, and I do not think you will find a Charlemagne. Good heavens! What can your latter-day philosophic37 person, who weighs every action and believes only in himself, do against an unwearied people with the fear of God in their hearts? When that day comes, my masters, we shall have a new empire, the Holy Eastern Empire, and this rotten surface civilization of ours will be swept off. It is always the way. Men get into the habit of believing that they can settle everything by talk, and fancy themselves the arbiters38 of the world, and then suddenly the great man arrives, your Caesar or Cromwell, and clears out the talkers.”
“I’ve heard something like that before. In fact, on occasions I have said it myself. It’s a pretty idea. How long do you give this Volkerwanderung to get started?”
“It will not be in our time,” said the man sadly. “I confess I am rather anxious for it to come off. Europe is a dull place at present, given up to Jews and old women. But I am an irreclaimable wanderer, and it is some time since I have been home. Things may be already changing.”
“Scarcely,” said Lewis. “And meantime where is this Slav invasion going to begin? I suppose they will start with us here, before they cross the Channel?”
“Undoubtedly. But Britain is the least sick of the crew, so she may be left in peace till the confirmed invalids39 are destroyed. At the best it will be a difficult work. Our countrymen, you will permit the name, my friends, have unexpected possibilities in their blood. And even this India will be a hard nut to crack. It is assumed that Russia has but to find Britain napping, buy a passage from the more northerly tribes, and sweep down on the Punjab. I need not tell you how impossible such a land invasion is. It is my opinion that when the time comes the attack will be by sea from some naval40 base on the Persian Gulf41. It is a mere42 matter of time till Persia is the Tsar’s territory, and then they may begin to think about invasion.”
“You think the northern road impossible! I suppose you ought to know.”
“I do, and I have some reason for my opinion. I know Afghanistan and Chitral as few Europeans know it.”
“But what about Bardur, and this Kashmir frontier? I can understand the difficulties of the Khyber, but this Kashmir road looks promising43.”
Marker laughed a great, good-humoured, tolerant, incredulous laugh. “My dear sir, that’s the most utter nonsense. How are you to bring an army over a rock wall which a chamois hunter could scarcely climb? An invading army is not a collection of winged fowl44. I grant you Bardur is a good starting-point if it were once reached. But you might as well think of a Chinese as of a Russian invasion from the north. It would be a good deal more possible, for there is a road to Yarkand, and respectable passes to the north-east. But here we are shut off from the Oxus by as difficult a barrier as the Elburz. Go up and see. There is some shooting to be had, and you will see for yourself the sort of country between here and Taghati.”
“But people come over here sometimes.”
“Yes, from the south, or by Afghanistan.”
“Not always. What about the Korabaut Pass into Chitral? Ianoff and the Cossacks came through it.”
“That’s true,” said the man, as if in deep thought. “I had forgotten, but the band was small and the thing was a real adventure.”
“And then you have Gromchevtsky. He brought his people right down through the Pamirs.”
For a second the man’s laughing ease deserted45 him. He leaned his head forward and peered keenly into Lewis’s face. Then, as if to cover his discomposure, he fell into the extreme of bluff46 amusement. The exaggeration was plain to both his hearers.
“Oh yes, there was poor old Gromchevtsky. But then you know he was what you call ‘daft,’ and one never knew how much to believe. He had hatred47 of the English on the brain, and he went about the northern valleys making all sorts of wild promises on the part of the Tsar. A great Russian army was soon to come down from the hills and restore the valleys to their former owners. And then, after he had talked all this nonsense, and actually managed to create some small excitement among the tribesmen, the good fellow disappeared. No man knows where he went. The odd thing is that I believe he has never been heard of again in Russia to this day. Of course his mission, as he loved to call it, was perfectly48 unauthorized, and the man himself was a creature of farce26. He probably came either by the Khyber or the Korabaut Pass, possibly even by the ordinary caravan-route from Yarkand, but felt it necessary for his mission’s sake to pretend he had found some way through the rock barrier. I am afraid I cannot allow him to be taken seriously.”
Lewis yawned and reached out his hand for the cigars. “In any case it is merely a question of speculative49 interest. We shall not fall just yet, though you think so badly of us.”
“You will not fall just yet,” said Marker slowly, “but that is not your fault. You British have sold your souls for something less than the conventional mess of pottage. You are ruled in the first place by money-bags, and the faddists whom they support to blind your eyes. If I were a young man in your country with my future to make, do you know what I would do? I would slave in the Stock Exchange. I would spend my days and nights in the pursuit of fortune, and, by heaven, I would get it. Then I would rule the market and break, crush, quietly and ruthlessly, the whole gang of Jew speculators and vulgarians who would corrupt50 a great country. Money is power with you, and I should attain51 it, and use it to crush the leeches52 who suck our blood.”
“Good man,” said George, laughing. “That’s my way of thinking. Never heard it better put.”
“I have felt the same,” said Lewis. “When I read of ‘rings’ and ‘corners’ and ‘trusts’ and the misery53 and vulgarity of it all, I have often wished to have a try myself, and see whether average brains and clean blood could not beat these fellows on their own ground.”
“Then why did you not?” asked Marker. “You were rich enough to make a proper beginning.”
“I expect I was too slack. I wanted to try the thing, but there was so much that was repulsive54 that I never quite got the length of trying. Besides, I have a bad habit of seeing both sides of a question. The ordinary arguments seemed to me weak, and it was too much fag to work out an attitude for oneself.”
Marker looked sharply at Lewis, and George for a moment saw and contrasted the two faces. Lewis’s keen, kindly55, humorous, cultured, with strong lines ending weakly, a face over-bred, brave and finical; the other’s sharp, eager, with the hungry wolf-like air of ambition, every line graven in steel, and the whole transfused56, as it were, by the fire of the eyes into the living presentment of human vigour57.
It was the eternal contrast of qualities, and for a moment in George’s mind there rose a delight that two such goodly pieces of manhood should have found a meeting-ground.
“I think, you know, that we are not quite so bad as you make out,” said Lewis quietly. “To an outsider we must appear on the brink58 of incapacity, but then it is not the first time we have produced that impression. You will still find men who in all their spiritual sickness have kept something of that restless, hard-bitten northern energy, and that fierce hunger for righteousness, which is hard to fight with. Scores of people, who can see no truth in the world and are sick with doubt and introspection and all the latter-day devils, have yet something of pride and honour in their souls which will make them show well at the last. If we are going to fall our end will not be quite inglorious.”
Marker laughed and rose. “I am afraid I must leave you now. I have to see my servant, for I am off to-morrow. This has been a delightful59 meeting. I propose that we drink to its speedy repetition.”
They drank, clinking glasses in continental60 fashion, and the host shook hands and departed.
“Good chap,” was George’s comment. “Put us up to a wrinkle or two, and seemed pretty sound in his politics. I wish I could get him to come and stop with me at home. Do you think we shall run across him again?”
Lewis was looking at the fast vanishing lights of the town. “I should think it highly probable,” he said.
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1
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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recondite
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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enthusiast
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| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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omnivorous
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| adj.杂食的 | |
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versatile
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| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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fads
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| n.一时的流行，一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 ) | |
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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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dissuade
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| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
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gratuity
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| n.赏钱，小费 | |
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anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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frivolity
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| n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止 | |
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socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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farces
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| n.笑剧( farce的名词复数 )；闹剧；笑剧剧目；作假的可笑场面 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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arbiters
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| 仲裁人，裁决者( arbiter的名词复数 ) | |
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invalids
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| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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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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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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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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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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leeches
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| n.水蛭( leech的名词复数 )；蚂蟥；榨取他人脂膏者；医生 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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54
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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56
transfused
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| v.输（血或别的液体）( transfuse的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；使…被灌输或传达 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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