“Who?”
“Him!”
As if this odd explanation made everything clear, Betty Neal sprang from her chair and she grew so pale that every freckle4 stood out.
“Him!” she echoed ungrammatically.
Then: “Where is he? Let me downstairs.”
But the widow closed the door swiftly behind her and leaned her comfortable bulk against it.
“You ain't goin',” she asserted. “You ain't goin', leastways not till you got time to think it over.”
“I haven't time to think. I—he—”
“That was the way with me,” nodded Mrs. Sommers, and her eyes were tragic5. “I went ahead and married Johnny in spite of everything, and look at me now—a widder! No, I ain't sorry for myself because I was a fool.”
“Mrs. Sommers,” said Betty, “will you please step out of my way?”
“Honey, for heaven's sake think a minute before you go down and face that man. He's dangerous. When I opened the door and seen him, I tell you the shivers went up my back.”
“Is he thin? Is he pale?” cried Betty Neal. “How did he get away? Did he escape? Did they parole him? Did they pardon him? Did he—”
“Let me get down!” she cried.
Mrs. Sommers flung away from the door.
“Then go and marry your man-killer!”
But Betty Neal was already clattering6 down the stairs. Half way to the bottom her strength and courage ebbed7 suddenly from her; she went on with short steps, and when at last she closed the parlor8 door behind her, she was staring as if she looked at a ghost.
Yet Vic Gregg was not greatly changed—a little thinner perhaps, and just now he certainly did not have his usual color. The moment she appeared he jumped to his feet as if he had heard a shot, and now he stood with his feet braced9 a little to meet a shock, one hand twitching10 and playing nervously11 with the embroidered12 cloth on the table. She did not speak; merely stood with her fingers still gripping the handle of the door as if she were ready to dart13 away at the first alarm. A wave of pain went over the face of Vic Gregg and remained looking at her out of his eyes, for all that his single-track, concentrated mind could perceive in her was the thing he took for fear.
“Miss Neal,” he said. His voice shook, straightened out again. He made her think of one of her big school boys who had forgotten his lesson and now stood cudgeling his memory and dreading14 that terrible nightmare of “staying after school.” She had a wild desire to laugh.
“Miss Neal, I ain't here to try to take up things that can't be took up ag'in.” Apparently15 he had prepared the speech carefully, and now he went on with more ease: “I'm leavin' these here parts for some place unknown. Before I go I jest want to say I know I was wrong from the beginnin'. All I want to say is that I was jest all sort of tied up in a knot inside and when I seen you with him—” He stopped. “I hope you marry some gent that's worth you, only they ain't any such. An'—I want to wish you good-luck, an' say good-by—”
He swept the perspiration16 from his forehead, and caught up his hat; he had been through the seventh circle of torture.
“Oh, Vic, dear!” cried a voice he had never heard before. Then a flurry of skirts, then arms about him, then tears and laughter, and eyes which went hungrily over his face.
“I been a houn'-dog. My God, Betty, you don't mean—”
“That I love you, Vic. I never knew what it was to love you before.”
“After I been a man-killin', lyin', sneakin'—”
“Don't you say another word. Vic, it was all my fault.”
“It wasn't. It was mine. But if you'd only kind of held off a little and gone easy with me.”
“You didn't give me a chance.”
“When I looked back from the road you wasn't standin' in the door.”
“I was. And you didn't look back.”
“I did.”
“Vic Gregg, are you trying to—”
But the anger fled from her as suddenly as it had come.
“I don't care. I'll take all the blame.”
“I don't want you to. I won't let you.”
She laughed hysterically17.
“Vic, tell me that you're free?”
“I'm paroled.”
“Thank God! Oh, I've prayed and prayed—Vic, don't talk. Sit down there—so! I just want to look and look at you. There's a hollow, hungry place in me that's filling up again.”
“It was Pete Glass,” said Gregg brokenly. “He—he trusted me clean through when the rest was lookin' at me like I was a snake. Pete got word to the governor, an'—”
There followed a long interval18 of talk that meant nothing, and then, as the afternoon waned19 towards evening, and the evening toward dark, he told her the whole story of the long adventure. He left out nothing, not a detail that might tell against him. When he came to the moment when Glass persuaded him to go back and betray Barry he winced20, but set his jaw21 and plunged22 ahead. She, too, paled when she heard that, and for a moment she had to cover her eyes, but she was older by half a life-time than she had been when he was last with her, and now she read below the surface. Besides, Vic had offered to undo23 what he had done, had offered to stay and fight for Barry, and surely that evened the score!
There was a light rap on the door, and then Mrs. Sommers came in with a tray.
“Maybe you young folks forgot about supper,” she said. “I just thought I'd bring in a bite for you.”
She placed it on the table, and then lingered, delighted, while her eyes went over them together and one by one. Perhaps Betty Neal was a fool for throwing herself away on a gun-fighter, but at least Mrs. Sommers was furnished with a story which half Alder24 would know by tomorrow. The walls of her house were not sound proof. Besides, Mrs. Sommers had remarkably25 keen ears.
“They's been a gentleman here ask for you, Vic,” she said, “but I thought maybe you wouldn't like it much to be disturbed. So I told him you wasn't here.”
Her smile fairly glowed with triumph.
“Thanks,” said Gregg, “but who was he?”
“I never seen him before. Anyway, it didn't much matter. He wanted to see some of the rest of the boys quite bad: Pete Glass and Ronicky Joe, and Sliver26 Waldron, and Gus Reeve. He seemed to want to see 'em all particular bad.”
“Pete Glass and Ronicky and—the posse!” murmured Vic. He grew thoughtful. “He wanted to see me, too?”
“Very particular, and he seemed kind of down-hearted when he found that Pete was out of town. Wanted to know when he might be back.”
“What sort of a lookin' gent was he?” asked Vic, and his voice was sharp.
“Him? Oh, he looked like a tenderfoot to me. Terrible polite, though, and he had a voice that wasn't hardly rougher'n a girl's. Seemed like he was sort of embarrassed jest talkin' to me.” She smiled at the thought, but Gregg was on his feet now, his hands on the shoulders of Mrs. Sommers as though he would try to shake information from her loose bulk.
“Look quick, now,” he said. “Where did you send him?”
“How you talk! Why, where should I send him? I told him like as not Ronicky and Sliver and Gus would be down to Lorrimer's—”
“What did he look like?”
“Black hair, and young, and good-lookin', and b-b-brown eyes, and—”
“God!”
“Vic,” cried Betty Neal, “what is it!” She looked around her in terror.
“It's Barry.”
He turned towards the door, and then stopped, in an agony of indecision. Betty Neal was before him, blocking the way with her arms outstretched.
“Vic, you shan't go. You shan't go. You've told me yourself that he's sure death.”
“God knows he is.”
“You won't go, Vic?”
“But the others! Ronicky—Gus—”
“But they don't know him. They've never been close enough to see his face. Besides, no three men I—he—for God's sake tell me what to do!”
“Stay here—if you love me. I won't let you go. I won't!”
“I got to warn them.”
“You'll be killed!”
He tore away her hands.
“I got to warn them—but who'll I help? Them three against Dan? He saved me—twice! But—I got. I got to go.”
“If you fight for him first he'll only turn on you afterwards. Vic, stay here.”
“What good's my life? What good's it if I'm a yaller dog ag'in? I'm goin' out—and be a man!”
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收听单词发音
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1
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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2
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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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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freckle
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| n.雀簧；晒斑 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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7
ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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8
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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9
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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10
twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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13
dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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14
dreading
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| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
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15
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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18
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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19
waned
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| v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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sliver
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| n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开 | |
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27
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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28
congealed
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| v.使凝结，冻结( congeal的过去式和过去分词 )；（指血）凝结 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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