Recovering herself, she began to chafe1 his hands and temples, and moistened his lips with the spirit. When his respiration2 returned with a faint color to his cheeks, she pressed his hands eagerly and leaned over him.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Of what?” he whispered faintly.
“That Low is really your son?”
“Who said so?” he asked, opening his round eyes upon her.
“You did yourself, a moment ago,” she said quickly. “Don't you remember?”
“Did I?”
“You did. Is it not so?”
He smiled faintly. “I reckon.”
She held her breath in expectation. But only the ludicrousness of the discovery seemed paramount3 to his weakened faculties4. “Isn't it just about the ridiculousest thing all round?” he said, with a feeble chuckle5. “First YOU nearly kill me before you know I am Low's father; then I'm just spoilin' to kill him before I know he's my son; then that god-forsaken fool Jack6 Brace7 mistakes you for Nellie and Nellie for you. Ain't it just the biggest thing for the boys to get hold of? But we must keep it dark until after I marry Nellie, don't you see? Then we'll have a good time all round, and I'll stand the drinks. Think of it, Teresha! You don' no me, I do' no you, nobody knowsh anybody elsh. I try kill Lo'. Lo' wants kill Nellie. No thath no ri—'” but the potent8 liquor, overtaking his exhausted9 senses, thickened, impeded10, and at last stopped his speech. His head slipped to her shoulder, and he became once more unconscious.
Teresa breathed again. In that brief moment she had abandoned herself to a wild inspiration of hope which she could scarcely define. Not that it was entirely11 a wild inspiration; she tried to reason calmly. What if she revealed the truth to him? What if she told the wretched man before her that she had deceived him; that she had overheard his conversation with Brace; that she had stolen Brace's horse to bring Low warning; that, failing to find Low in his accustomed haunts, or at the campfire, she had left a note for him pinned to the herbarium, imploring12 him to fly with his companion from the danger that was coming; and that, remaining on watch, she had seen them both—Brace and Dunn—approaching, and had prepared to meet them at the cabin? Would this miserable13 and maddened man understand her self-abnegation? Would he forgive Low and Nellie?—she did not ask for herself. Or would the revelation turn his brain, if it did not kill him outright14? She looked at the sunken orbits of his eyes and hectic15 on his cheek, and shuddered16.
Why was this added to the agony she already suffered? She had been willing to stand between them with her life, her liberty, and even—the hot blood dyed her cheek at the thought—with the added shame of being thought the cast-off mistress of that man's son. Yet all this she had taken upon herself in expiation17 of something—she knew not clearly what; no, for nothing—only for HIM. And yet this very situation offered her that gleam of hope which had thrilled her; a hope so wild in its improbability, so degrading in its possibility, that at first she knew not whether despair was not preferable to its shame. And yet was it unreasonable18? She was no longer passionate19; she would be calm and think it out fairly.
She would go to Low at once. She would find him somewhere—and even if with that girl, what mattered?—and she would tell him all. When he knew that the life and death of his father lay in the scale, would he let his brief, foolish passion for Nellie stand in the way? Even if he were not influenced by filial affection or mere20 compassion21, would his pride let him stoop to a rivalry22 with the man who had deserted23 his youth? Could he take Dunn's promised bride, who must have coquetted with him to have brought him to this miserable plight24? Was this like the calm, proud young god she knew? Yet she had an uneasy instinct that calm, proud young gods and goddesses did things like this, and felt the weakness of her reasoning flush her own conscious cheek.
“Teresa!”
“I was reckoning it was the only square thing for Low to stop this promiscuous26 picnicking here and marry you out and out.”
“Yes,” he repeated, “after I've married Nellie; tote you down to San Angeles, and there take my name like a man, and give it to you. Nobody'll ask after TERESA, sure—you bet your life. And if they do, and he can't stop their jaw28, just you call on the old man. It's mighty29 queer, ain't it, Teresa, to think of your being my daughter-in-law?”
It seemed here as if he was about to lapse30 again into unconsciousness over the purely31 ludicrous aspect of the subject, but he haply recovered his seriousness. “He'll have as much money from me as he wants to go into business with. What's his line of business, Teresa?” asked this prospective32 father-in-law, in a large, liberal way.
“He is a botanist33!” said Teresa, with a sudden childish animation34 that seemed to keep up the grim humor of the paternal35 suggestion; “and oh, he is too poor to buy books! I sent for one or two for him myself, the other day—” she hesitated—“it was all the money I had, but it wasn't enough for him to go on with his studies.”
Dunn looked at her sparkling eyes and glowing cheeks, and became thoughtful. “Curson must have been a d—d fool,” he said finally.
Teresa remained silent. She was beginning to be impatient and uneasy, fearing some mischance that might delay her dreaded36, yet longed-for meeting with Low. Yet she could not leave this sick and exhausted man, HIS FATHER, now bound to her by more than mere humanity.
“Couldn't you manage,” she said gently, “to lean on me a few steps further, until I could bring you to a cooler spot and nearer assistance?”
He nodded. She lifted him almost like a child to his feet. A spasm37 of pain passed over his face. “How far is it?” he asked.
“Not more than ten minutes,” she replied.
“I can make a spurt38 for that time,” he said coolly, and began to walk slowly but steadily39 on. Only his face, which was white and set, and the convulsive grip of his hand on her arm betrayed the effort. At the end of ten minutes she stopped. They stood before the splintered, lightning-scarred shaft40 in the opening of the woods, where Low had built her first camp-fire. She carefully picked up the herbarium, but her quick eye had already detected in the distance, before she had allowed Dunn to enter the opening with her, that her note was gone. Low had been there before them; he had been warned, as his absence from the cabin showed; he would not return there. They were free from interruption—but where had he gone?
The sick man drew a long breath of relief as she seated him in the clover-grown hollow where she had slept the second night of her stay. “It's cooler than those cursed woods,” he said. “I suppose it's because it's a little like a grave. What are you going to do now?” he added, as she brought a cup of water and placed it at his side.
“I am going to leave you here for a little while,” she said cheerfully, but with a pale face and nervous hands. “I'm going to leave you while I seek Low.”
The sick man raised his head. “I'm good for a spurt, Teresa, like that I've just got through, but I don't think I'm up to a family party. Couldn't you issue cards later on?”
“You don't understand,” she said. “I'm going to get Low to send some one of your friends to you here. I don't think he'll begrudge41 leaving HER a moment for that,” she added to herself bitterly.
“Nothing—but that I'm going now.” She turned her face aside to hide her moistened eyes. “Wish me good luck, won't you?” she asked, half sadly, half pettishly44.
“Come here!”
She came and bent45 over him. He suddenly raised his hands, and, drawing her face down to his own, kissed her forehead.
“Give that to HIM,” he whispered, “from ME.”
She turned and fled, happily for her sentiment, not hearing the feeble laugh that followed, as Dunn, in sheer imbecility, again referred to the extravagant46 ludicrousness of the situation. “It is about the biggest thing in the way of a sell all round,” he repeated, lying on his back, confidentially47 to the speck48 of smoke-obscured sky above him. He pictured himself repeating it, not to Nellie—her severe propriety49 might at last overlook the fact, but would not tolerate the joke—but to her father! It would be one of those characteristic Californian jokes Father Wynn would admire.
To his exhaustion50 fever presently succeeded, and he began to grow restless. The heat too seemed to invade his retreat, and from time to time the little patch of blue sky was totally obscured by clouds of smoke. He amused himself with watching a lizard51 who was investigating a folded piece of paper, whose elasticity52 gave the little creature lively apprehensions53 of its vitality54. At last he could stand the stillness of his retreat and his supine position no longer, and rolled himself out of the bed of leaves that Teresa had so carefully prepared for him. He rose to his feet stiff and sore, and, supporting himself by the nearest tree, moved a few steps from the dead ashes of the camp-fire. The movement frightened the lizard, who abandoned the paper and fled. With a satirical recollection of Brace and his “ridiculous” discovery through the medium of this animal, he stooped and picked up the paper. “Like as not,” he said to himself, with grim irony55, “these yer lizards56 are in the discovery business. P'r'aps this may lead to another mystery,” and he began to unfold the paper with a smile. But the smile ceased as his eye suddenly caught his own name.
A dozen lines were written in pencil on what seemed to be a blank leaf originally torn from some book. He trembled so that he was obliged to sit down to read these words:—
“When you get this keep away from the woods. Dunn and another man are in deadly pursuit of you and your companion. I overheard their plan to surprise you in our cabin. DON'T GO THERE, and I will delay them and put them off the scent57. Don't mind me. God bless you, and if you never see me again think sometimes of
“TERESA.”
His trembling ceased; he did not start, but rose in an abstracted way, and made a few deliberate steps in the direction Teresa had gone. Even then he was so confused that he was obliged to refer to the paper again, but with so little effect that he could only repeat the last words, “think sometimes of Teresa.” He was conscious that this was not all; he had a full conviction of being deceived, and knew that he held the proof in his hand, but he could not formulate58 it beyond that sentence. “Teresa”—yes, he would think of her. She would explain it. And here she was returning.
In that brief interval59 her face and manner had again changed. Her face was pale and quite breathless. She cast a swift glance at Dunn and the paper he mechanically held out, walked up to him, and tore it from his hand.
He attempted to speak, but his voice failed him. Even then he was conscious that if he had spoken he would have only repeated, “think sometimes of Teresa.” He looked longingly61 but helplessly at the spot where she had thrown the paper, as if it had contained his unuttered words.
“Yes,” she went on to herself, as if he was a mute, indifferent spectator—“yes, they're gone. That ends it all. The game's played out. Well!” suddenly turning upon him, “now you know it all. Your Nellie WAS here with him, and is with him now. Do you hear? Make the most of it; you've lost them—but here I am.”
“Yes,” he said eagerly—“yes, Teresa.”
She stopped, stared at him; then taking him by the hand led him like a child back to his couch. “Well,” she said, in half-savage explanation, “I told you the truth when I said the girl wasn't at the cabin last night, and that I didn't know her. What are you glowerin' at? No! I haven't lied to you, I swear to God, except in one thing. Did you know what that was? To save him I took upon me a shame I don't deserve. I let you think I was his mistress. You think so now, don't you? Well, before God to-day—and He may take me when He likes—I'm no more to him than a sister! I reckon your Nellie can't say as much.”
She turned away, and with the quick, impatient stride of some caged animal made the narrow circuit of the opening, stopping a moment mechanically before the sick man, and again, without looking at him, continuing her monotonous62 round. The heat had become excessive, but she held her shawl with both hands drawn63 tightly over her shoulders. Suddenly a wood-duck darted64 out of the covert65 blindly into the opening, struck against the blasted trunk, fell half stunned66 near her feet, and then, recovering, fluttered away. She had scarcely completed another circuit before the irruption was followed by a whirring bevy67 of quail68, a flight of jays, and a sudden tumult69 of wings swept through the wood like a tornado70. She turned inquiringly to Dunn, who had risen to his feet, but the next moment she caught convulsively at his wrist; a wolf had just dashed through the underbrush not a dozen yards away, and on either side of them they could hear the scamper71 and rustle72 of hurrying feet like the outburst of a summer shower. A cold wind arose from the opposite direction, as if to contest this wild exodus73, but it was followed by a blast of sickening heat. Teresa sank at Dunn's feet in an agony of terror.
“Don't let them touch me!” she gasped74; “keep them off! Tell me, for God's sake, what has happened!”
He laid his hand firmly on her arm, and lifted her in his turn to her feet like a child. In that supreme75 moment of physical danger, his strength, reason, and manhood returned in their plenitude of power. He pointed76 coolly to the trail she had quitted, and said,
“The Carquinez Woods are on fire!”
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1
chafe
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| v.擦伤；冲洗；惹怒 | |
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respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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paramount
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| a.最重要的，最高权力的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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impeded
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| 阻碍，妨碍，阻止( impede的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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15
hectic
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| adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的 | |
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16
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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expiation
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| n.赎罪，补偿 | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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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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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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promiscuous
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| adj.杂乱的，随便的 | |
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27
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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31
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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botanist
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| n.植物学家 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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37
spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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spurt
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| v.喷出；突然进发；突然兴隆 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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40
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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begrudge
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| vt.吝啬，羡慕 | |
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42
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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pettishly
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45
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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46
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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48
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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49
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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50
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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51
lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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52
elasticity
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| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
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53
apprehensions
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| 疑惧 | |
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54
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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56
lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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57
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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58
formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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59
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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60
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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61
longingly
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| adv. 渴望地 热望地 | |
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62
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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63
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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66
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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67
bevy
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| n.一群 | |
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68
quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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69
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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70
tornado
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| n.飓风，龙卷风 | |
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71
scamper
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| v.奔跑，快跑 | |
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72
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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73
exodus
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| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
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74
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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75
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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76
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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