For one form he looked above all, a big man who rode somewhat slanting7; but Vic Gregg was not among the crowd, and for the rest, Barry had no wish to come within range of their harm. The revolver at his side, the rifle in the case, were for the seventh man who must die for Grey Molly. These who followed him mattered nothing—except that he must not come within their reach. He studied them calmly as they swept nearer, fifteen chosen men as he could tell by their riding, on fifteen choice horses as he could tell by their gait. If they pushed him into a corner—well, five men were odds8 indeed, yet he would not have given them a thought; ten men made it a grim affair, but still he might have taken a chance; however, fifteen men made a battle suicide—he simply must not let them corner him. Particularly fifteen such men as these, for in the mountain-desert where all men are raised gun in hand, these were the quickest and the surest marksmen. Each one of them had struck that elusive9 white ball in motion, and each had done it with a revolver. What could they do with a rifle?
That thought might have sent him rushing Satan down the farther slope, but instead, he raised his head a little more and began to whistle softly to himself. Satan locked an ear back to listen; Black Bart rose with a muffled10 growl11. The posse rode in clear view now, and at their head was a tall, lean man with the sun glinting now and again on his yellow moustaches. He threw out his arm and the posse scattered12 towards the left. Obviously he was the accepted leader, and indeed few men in the mountain-desert would not willingly have followed Mark Retherton. Another gesture from Retherton, and at once a dozen guns gleaned13, and a dozen bullets whizzed perilously14 close to Barry, then the reports came barking up to him; he was just a little out of range.
Still he lingered for a moment before he turned Satan reluctantly, it seemed, and started him down the far slope, straightaway for the Morgan Hills as old Billy had prophesied15. It would be no exercise canter even for Satan, for the horses which followed were rare of their kind, and the western horse at the worst has manifold fine points. His ancestor is the Barb16 or the Arab which the Spaniards brought with them to Mexico and the descendants of that finest of equine bloods made up the wild herds17 which soon roamed the mountain-desert to the north. Long famines of winter, hot deserts in summer, changed their appearance. Their heads grew lumpier, their necks more scraggy, their croups more slanting, their legs shorter; but their hoofs18 grew denser19, hardier20, their shorter coupling gave them greater weight-carrying possibilities, the stout21 bones and the clean lines of their legs meant speed, and above all they kept the stout heart of the thoroughbred and they gained more than this, an indomitable, bulldog persistence22. The cheapest Western cow-pony may look like the cartoon of a horse, but he has points which a judge will note, and he will run a picture horse to death in three days.
Such were the horses which took the trail of Satan and they were chosen specimens23 of their kind. Up the slope they stormed and there went Satan skimming across the hollow beneath them. Their blood was his blood, their courage his courage, their endurance his endurance. The difference between them was the difference between the factory machine and the hand made work of art. From his pasterns to his withers24, from his hoofs to his croup every muscle was perfectly25 designed and perfectly placed for speed, tireless running; every bone was the maximum of lightness and strength combined. A feather bloom on a steady wind, such was the gait of Satan.
Down the hollow the posse thundered, and up the farther slope, and still the black slipped away from them until Mark Retherton cursed deeply to himself.
“Don't race your hosses, boys,” he shouted. “Keep 'em in hand. That devil is playing with us.”
As a result, they checked their mounts to merely a fast gallup, and Barry, looking back, laughed softly with understanding. Far different the laborious26 pounding of the posse and the light stretch of Satan beneath him. He leaned a little until he could catch the sound of the breathing, big, steady draughts28 with comfortable intervals29 between. He could run like that all day, it seemed, and Whistling Dan ran his fingers luxuriously30 down the shining neck. Instantly the head tossed up, and a short whinney whipped back to him like a question. Just before them the Morgan Hills jutted31 up, like stiff mud chopped by the tread of giants. “Now, partner,” murmured Barry, “show 'em what you can do! Jest lengthen32 out a bit.”
The steady breeze from the running sharpened into a gale33, whisking about his face; there was no longer the wave-like rock of that swinging gallup but a smooth, swift succession of impulses. Rocks, shrubs34 darted35 past him, and he felt a gradual settling of the horse beneath him as the strides lengthened36, From behind a yell of dismay, and with a backward glance he saw every man of the posse leaning forward and swinging his quirt. An instant later half a dozen of the ragged little hills closed between them.
Once fairly into the heart of the Morgans, he called the stallion back from the racing stride to a long canter, and from the gallop37 to a rapid trot38, for in this broken country it was wearing on an animal to maintain a lope up hill and down the quick, jerking falls. The cowpuncher hates the trot, for his ponies39 are not built for it, but the deep play of Satan's fetlock joints40 broke the hard impacts; his gait now was hardly more jarring than the flow of the single-foot in an ordinary animal.
Black Bart, who had been running directly under the nose of the stallion, now skirted away in the lead. Here and there he twisted among the gullies at a racing clip, his head high, and always he picked out the smoothest ground, the easiest rise, the gentlest descent which lay more or less straight in the line of his master's flight. It cut down the work of the stallion by half to have this swift, sure scout41 run before and point out the path, yet it was stiff labor27 at the best and Barry was glad when he came on the hard gravel42 of an old creek43 bed cutting at right angels to his course.
From the first he had intended to run towards the Morgans only to cover the true direction of his flight, and now, since the posse was hopelessly left behind him, well out of hearing, he rode Satan into the middle of the creek bed and swung him north.
It was bad going for a horse carrying a rider, and even the catlike certainty of Satan's tread could not avoid sharp edges here and there that might cut his hoofs. So Barry leaped to the ground and ran at full speed down the bed. Behind him Satan followed, his ears pricked44 uneasily, and Black Bart, at a signal from the master, dropped back and remained at the first bend of the old, empty stream. In a moment they wound out of sight even of Bart, but Barry kept steadily45 on. It would take a magnifying glass to read his trail over those rocks.
He had covered a mile, perhaps, when Bart came scurrying46 again and leaped joyously47 around the master.
“They've hit the creek, eh?” said Whistling Dan. “Well, they'll mill around a while and like as not they'll run a course south to pick me up agin.”
He gestured toward the side, and as soon as Satan stood on the good going once more, Barry swung into the saddle and headed straight back west. No doubt the posse would ride up and down the creek bed until they found his trail turning back, but they would lose precious minutes picking it up, and in the meantime he would be far, far away toward the ford48 of Tucker Creek. Then, clearly, but no louder than the snapping of a dry twig49 near his ear, he heard the report of a revolver and it spoke50 to him of many things as the baffled posse rode up and down the creek bed hunting for the direction of his escape. Some one had fired that shot to relieve his anger.
He neither spoke to Satan nor struck him, but there was a slight leaning forward, an imperceptible flexing51 of the leg muscles, and in response the black sprang again into the swift trot which sent him gliding52 over the ground, and twisting back and forth53 among the sharp-sided gullies with a movement as smooth as the run of the wolf-dog, which once again raced ahead.
When they came out in view of the rolling plain Barry stopped again and glanced to the west and the north, while Black Bart ran to the top of the nearest hill and looked back, an ever vigilant54 outpost. To the north lay the fordable streams near Caswell City, and that way was perfect safety, it seemed. Not perfect, perhaps, for Barry knew nothing of the telephones by which the little bald headed clerk at the sheriff's office was rousing the countryside, but if he struck toward Caswell City from the Morgans, there was not a chance in ten that scouts55 would catch him at the river which was fordable for mile after mile.
That way, then, lay the easiest escape, but it meant a long detour56 out of the shortest course, which struck almost exactly west, skirting dangerously close to Rickett. But, as Billy had presupposed, it was the very danger which lured57 the fugitive58. Behind him, entangled59 in the gullies of the bad-lands, were the fifteen best men of the mountain-desert. In front of him lay nothing except the mind of Billy the clerk. But how could he know that?
Once again he swayed a little forward and this time the stallion swung at once into his ranging gallop, then verged60 into a half-racing gait, for Barry wished to get out of sight among the rolling ground before the posse came out from the Morgan Hills on his back trail.
点击收听单词发音
1 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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2 curb | |
n.场外证券市场,场外交易;vt.制止,抑制 | |
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3 scudding | |
n.刮面v.(尤指船、舰或云彩)笔直、高速而平稳地移动( scud的现在分词 ) | |
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4 whined | |
v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 );哀诉,诉怨 | |
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5 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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6 racing | |
n.竞赛,赛马;adj.竞赛用的,赛马用的 | |
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7 slanting | |
倾斜的,歪斜的 | |
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8 odds | |
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别 | |
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9 elusive | |
adj.难以表达(捉摸)的;令人困惑的;逃避的 | |
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10 muffled | |
adj.(声音)被隔的;听不太清的;(衣服)裹严的;蒙住的v.压抑,捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 );用厚厚的衣帽包着(自己) | |
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11 growl | |
v.(狗等)嗥叫,(炮等)轰鸣;n.嗥叫,轰鸣 | |
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12 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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13 gleaned | |
v.一点点地收集(资料、事实)( glean的过去式和过去分词 );(收割后)拾穗 | |
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14 perilously | |
adv.充满危险地,危机四伏地 | |
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15 prophesied | |
v.预告,预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16 barb | |
n.(鱼钩等的)倒钩,倒刺 | |
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17 herds | |
兽群( herd的名词复数 ); 牧群; 人群; 群众 | |
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18 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19 denser | |
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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20 hardier | |
能吃苦耐劳的,坚强的( hardy的比较级 ); (植物等)耐寒的 | |
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22 persistence | |
n.坚持,持续,存留 | |
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23 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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24 withers | |
马肩隆 | |
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25 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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26 laborious | |
adj.吃力的,努力的,不流畅 | |
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27 labor | |
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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28 draughts | |
n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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29 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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30 luxuriously | |
adv.奢侈地,豪华地 | |
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31 jutted | |
v.(使)突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 );伸出;(从…)突出;高出 | |
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32 lengthen | |
vt.使伸长,延长 | |
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33 gale | |
n.大风,强风,一阵闹声(尤指笑声等) | |
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34 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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35 darted | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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36 lengthened | |
(时间或空间)延长,伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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38 trot | |
n.疾走,慢跑;n.老太婆;现成译本;(复数)trots:腹泻(与the 连用);v.小跑,快步走,赶紧 | |
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39 ponies | |
矮种马,小型马( pony的名词复数 ); £25 25 英镑 | |
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40 joints | |
接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语) | |
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41 scout | |
n.童子军,侦察员;v.侦察,搜索 | |
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42 gravel | |
n.砂跞;砂砾层;结石 | |
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43 creek | |
n.小溪,小河,小湾 | |
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44 pricked | |
刺,扎,戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 ); 刺伤; 刺痛; 使剧痛 | |
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45 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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46 scurrying | |
v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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47 joyously | |
ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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48 Ford | |
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过 | |
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49 twig | |
n.小树枝,嫩枝;v.理解 | |
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50 spoke | |
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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51 flexing | |
n.挠曲,可挠性v.屈曲( flex的现在分词 );弯曲;(为准备大干而)显示实力;摩拳擦掌 | |
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52 gliding | |
v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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53 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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54 vigilant | |
adj.警觉的,警戒的,警惕的 | |
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55 scouts | |
侦察员[机,舰]( scout的名词复数 ); 童子军; 搜索; 童子军成员 | |
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56 detour | |
n.绕行的路,迂回路;v.迂回,绕道 | |
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57 lured | |
吸引,引诱(lure的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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58 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
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59 entangled | |
adj.卷入的;陷入的;被缠住的;缠在一起的v.使某人(某物/自己)缠绕,纠缠于(某物中),使某人(自己)陷入(困难或复杂的环境中)( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60 verged | |
接近,逼近(verge的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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