The acid loneliness ate into him. To be sure, from boyhood he knew the mountain quiet, the still heights and the solemn echoes, but towards the close of the long isolation6 the end of each day found him oppressed by a weightier sense of burden; in a few days he would begin to talk to himself.
From the first the evening pause after supper hurt him most, for a man needs a talk as well as tobacco, and after a time he dreaded7 these evenings so bitterly that he purposely spent himself every day, so as to pass from supper into sleep at a stride. It needed a long day to burn out his strength thoroughly8, so he set his rusted9 alarm-clock, and before dawn it brought him groaning10 out of the blankets to cook a hasty breakfast and go slowly up to the tunnel. In short, he wedded11 himself to his work; he stepped into a routine which took the place of thought, and the change in him was so gradual that he did not see the danger.
A mirror might have shown it to him as he stood this morning at the door of his lean-to, for the wind fluttered the shirt around his labor-dried body, and his forehead puckered12 in a frown, grown habitual13. It was a narrow face, with rather close-set eyes and a slanted14 forehead which gave token of a single-track mind, a single-purposed nature with one hundred and eighty pounds of strong sinews and iron-hard muscle to give it significance. Such was Vic Gregg as he stood at the door waiting for the coffee he had drunk to brush away the cobwebs of sleep, and then he heard the eagle scream.
A great many people have never heard the scream of an eagle. The only voice they connect with the kind of the air is a ludicrously feeble squawk, dim with distance, but in his great moments the eagle has a war-cry like that of the hawk15, but harsher, hoarser16, tenfold in volume. This sound cut into the night in the gulch17, and Vic Gregg started and glanced about for echoes made the sound stand at his side; then he looked up, and saw two eagles fighting in the light of the morning. He knew what it meant—the beginning of the mating season, and these two battling for a prize. They darted18 away. They flashed together with reaching talons19 and gaping20 beaks21, and dropped in a tumult22 of wings, then soared and clashed once more until one of them folded his wings and dropped bulletlike out of the morning into the night. Close over Gregg's head, the wings flirted23 out—ten feet from tip to tip—beat down with a great washing sound, and the bird shot across the valley in a level flight. The conqueror24 screamed a long insult down the hollow. For a while he balanced, craning his bald head as if he sought applause, then, without visible movement of his wings, sailed away over the peaks. A feather fluttered slowly down past Vic Gregg.
He looked down to it, and rubbed the ache out of the back of his neck. All about him the fresh morning was falling; yonder shone a green-mottled face of granite25, and there a red iron blow-out streaked26 with veins27 of glittering silicate28, and in this corner, still misted with the last delicate shades of night, glimmered29 rhyolite, lavender-pink. The single-jack dropped from the hand of Gregg, and his frown relaxed.
When he stretched his arms, the cramps30 of labor unkinked and let the warm blood flow, swiftly, and in the pleasure of it he closed his eyes and drew a luxurious31 breath. He stepped from the door with his, head high and his heart lighter32, and when his hobnailed shoe clinked on the fallen hammer he kicked it spinning from his path. That act brought a smile into his eyes, and he sauntered to the edge of the little plateau and looked down into the wide chasm33 of the Asper Valley.
Blue shadows washed across it, though morning shone around Gregg on the height, and his glance dropped in a two-thousand-foot plunge34 to a single yellow eye that winked35 through the darkness, a light in the trapper's cabin. But the dawn was falling swiftly now, and while Gregg lingered the blue grew thin, purple-tinted36, and then dark, slender points pricked37 up, which he knew to be the pines. Last of all, he caught the sheen of grass.
Around him pressed a perfect silence, the quiet of night holding over into the day, yet he cast a glance behind him as he heard a voice. Indeed, he felt that some one approached him, some one for whom he had been waiting, yet it was a sad expectancy39, and more like homesickness than anything he knew.
“Aw, hell,” said Vic Gregg, “it's spring.”
A deep-throated echo boomed back at him, and the sound went down the gulch, three times repeated.
“Spring,” repeated Gregg more softly, as if he feared to rouse that echo, “damned if it ain't!”
He shrugged40 his shoulders and turned resolutely41 towards the lean-to, picking up the discarded hammer on the way. By instinct he caught it at exactly the right balance for his strength and arm, and the handle, polished by his grip, played with an oiled, frictionless42 movement against the callouses43 of his palm. From the many hours of drilling, fingers crooked44, he could only straighten them by a painful effort. A bad hand for cards, he decided45 gloomily, and still frowning over this he reached the door. There he paused in instant repugnance46, for the place was strange to him.
In thought and wish he was even now galloping47 Grey Molly over the grass along the Asper, and he had to wrench48 himself into the mood of the patient miner. There lay his blankets, rumpled49, brown with dirt, and he shivered at sight of them; the night had been cold. Before he fell asleep, he had flung the magazine into the corner and now the wind rustled50 its torn, yellowed pages in a whisper that spoke51 to Gregg of the ten-times repeated stories, tales of adventure, drifts of tobacco smoke in gaming halls, the chant of the croupier behind the wheel, deep voices of men, laughter of pretty girls, tatoo of running horses, shouts which only redeye can inspire. He sniffed52 the air; odor of burned bacon and coffee permeated53 the cabin. He turned to the right and saw his discarded overalls54 with ragged55 holes at the knees; he turned to the left and looked into the face of the rusted alarm clock. Its quick, soft ticking sent an ache of weariness through him.
“What's wrong with me,” muttered Gregg. Even that voice seemed ghostly loud in the cabin, and he shivered again. “I must be going nutty.”
As if to escape from his own thoughts, he stepped out into the sun again, and it was so grateful to him after the chill shadow in the lean-to, that he looked up, smiling, into the sky. A west wind urged a scattered56 herd57 of clouds over the peaks, tumbled masses of white which puffed58 into transparent59 silver at the edges, and behind, long wraiths60 of vapor61 marked the path down which they had traveled. Such an old cowhand62 as Vic Gregg could not fail to see the forms of cows and heavy-necked bulls and running calves63 in that drift of clouds. About this season the boys would be watching the range for signs of screw worms in the cattle, and the bog-riders must have their hands full dragging out cows which had fled into the mud to escape the heel flies. With a new lonesomeness he drew his eyes down to the mountains.
Ordinarily, strange fancies never entered the hard head of Gregg, but today it seemed to him that the mountains found a solemn companionship in each other.
Out of the horizon, where the snowy forms glimmered in the blue, they marched in loose order down to the valley of the Asper, where some of them halted in place, huge cliffs, and others stumbled out into foothills, but the main range swerved64 to the east beside the valley, eastward65 out of his vision, though he knew that they went on to the town of Alder66.
Alder was Vic Gregg's Athens and Rome in one, its schoolhouse his Acropolis, and Captain Lorrimer's saloon his Forum67. Other people talked of larger cities, but Alder satisfied the imagination of Vic; besides, Grey Molly was even now in the blacksmith's pasture, and Betty Neal was teaching in the school. Following the march of the mountains and the drift of the clouds, he turned towards Alder. The piled water shook the dam, topped it, burst it into fragments, and rushed into freedom; he must go to Alder, have a drink, shake hands with a friend, kiss Betty Neal, and come back again. Two days going, two days coming, three days for the frolic; a week would cover it all. And two hours later Vic Gregg had cached his heavier equipment, packed his necessaries on the burro, and was on the way.
By noon he had dropped below the snowline and into the foothills, and with every step his heart grew lighter. Behind him the mountains slid up into the heart of the sky with cold, white winter upon them, but here below it was spring indubitably. There was hardly enough fresh grass to temper the winter brown into shining bronze, but a busy, awakening68 insect life thronged69 through the roots. Surer sign than this, the flowers were coming. A slope of buttercups flashed suddenly when the wind struck it and wild morning glory spotted70 a stretch of daisies with purple and dainty lavender. To be sure, the blossoms never grew thickly enough to make strong dashes of color, but they tinted and stained the hillsides. He began to cross noisy little watercourses, empty most of the year, but now the melting snow fed them. From eddies71 and quiet pools the bright watercress streamed out into the currents, and now and then in moist ground under a sheltering bank he found rich patches of violets.
His eyes went happily among these tokens of the glad time of the year, but while he noted72 them and the bursting buds of the aspen, reddish-brown, his mind was open to all that middle register of calls which the human ear may notice in wild places. Far above his scale were shrilling73 murmurs74 of birds and insects, and beneath it ran those ground noises that the rabbit, for instance, understands so well; but between these overtones and undertones he heard the scream of the hawk, spiraling down in huge circles, and the rapid call of a grouse76, far off, and the drone of insects about his feet, or darting77 suddenly upon his brain and away again. He heard these things by the grace of the wind, which sometimes blew them about him in a chorus, and again shut off all except that lonely calling of the grouse, and often whisked away every murmur75 and left Gregg, in the center of a wide hush78 with only the creak of the pack-saddle and the click of the burro's accurate feet among the rocks.
At such times he gave his full attention to the trail, and he read it as one might turn the pages of a book. He saw how a rabbit had scurried79, running hard, for the prints of the hind38 feet planted far ahead of those on the forepaws. There was reason in her haste, for here the pads of a racing80 coyote had dug deeply into a bit of soft ground. The sign of both rabbit and coyote veered81 suddenly, and again the trail told the reason clearly—the big print of a lobo's paw, that gray ghost which haunts the ranges with the wisest brain and the swiftest feet in the West. Vic Gregg grinned with excitement; fifty dollars' bounty82 if that scalp were his! But the story of the trail called him back with the sign of some small animal which must have traveled very slowly, for in spite of the tiny size of the prints, each was distinct. The man sniffed with instinctive83 aversion and distrust for this was the trail of the skunk84, and if the last of the seven sleepers85 was out, it was spring indeed. He raised his cudgel and thwacked the burro joyously86.
Marne switched her tail impatiently and canted back a long ear to listen, but she did not increase her pace; for Marne had only one gait, and if Vic occasionally thumped88 her, it was rather by way of conversation than in any hope of hurrying their journey.
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1
obstructing
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| 阻塞( obstruct的现在分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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assessment
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| n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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7
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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8
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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11
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
puckered
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| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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14
slanted
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| 有偏见的； 倾斜的 | |
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15
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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16
hoarser
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| （指声音）粗哑的，嘶哑的( hoarse的比较级 ) | |
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17
gulch
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| n.深谷，峡谷 | |
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18
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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talons
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| n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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20
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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21
beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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22
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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23
flirted
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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25
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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26
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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27
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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28
silicate
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| n.硅酸盐 | |
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29
glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
cramps
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| n. 抽筋, 腹部绞痛, 铁箍 adj. 狭窄的, 难解的 v. 使...抽筋, 以铁箍扣紧, 束缚 | |
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31
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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32
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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33
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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34
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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35
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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36
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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37
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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38
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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39
expectancy
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| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
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40
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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41
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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42
frictionless
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| adj.没有摩擦力的 | |
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43
callouses
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| n.硬皮，老茧( callous的名词复数 )v.（使）硬结，（使）起茧( callous的第三人称单数 )；（使）冷酷无情 | |
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44
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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45
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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46
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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47
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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48
wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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49
rumpled
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| v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
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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52
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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53
permeated
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| 弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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54
overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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55
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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56
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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57
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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58
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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59
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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60
wraiths
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| n.幽灵( wraith的名词复数 )；（传说中人在将死或死后不久的）显形阴魂 | |
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61
vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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62
cowhand
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| n.牛仔，牧牛工 | |
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63
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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64
swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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66
alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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67
forum
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| n.论坛，讨论会 | |
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68
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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69
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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71
eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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72
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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73
shrilling
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| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的现在分词 )； 凄厉 | |
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74
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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75
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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76
grouse
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| n.松鸡；v.牢骚，诉苦 | |
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77
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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78
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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79
scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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80
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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81
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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82
bounty
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| n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与 | |
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83
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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84
skunk
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| n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥 | |
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85
sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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86
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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87
overdue
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| adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的 | |
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88
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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