Hank Dwight disappeared from the doorway1 and the doctor was called from his pondering by the voice of the girl. There was something about that voice which worried Byrne, for it was low and controlled and musical and it did not fit with the nasal harshness of the cattlemen. When she began to speak it was like the beginning of a song. He turned now and found her sitting a tall bay horse, and she led a red-roan mare2 beside her. When he went out she tossed her reins3 over the head of her horse and strapped4 his valise behind her saddle.
"You won't have any trouble with that mare," she assured him, when the time came for mounting. Yet when he approached gingerly he was received with flattened5 ears and a snort of anger. "Wait," she cried, "the left side, not the right!"
He felt the laughter in her voice, but when he looked he could see no trace of it in her face. He approached from the left side, setting his teeth.
"You observe," he said, "that I take your word at its full value," and placing his foot in the stirrup, he dragged himself gingerly up to the saddle. The mare stood like a rock. Adjusting himself, he wiped a sudden perspiration6 from his forehead.
"I quite believe," he remarked, "that the animal is of unusual intelligence. All may yet be well!"
"I'm sure of it." said the girl gravely. "Now we're off."
And the horses broke into a dog trot7. Now the gait of the red roan mare was a dream of softness, and her flexible ankles gave a play of whole inches to break the jar of every step, the sure sign of the good saddle-horse; but the horse has never been saddled whose trot is really a smooth pace. The hat of Doctor Byrne began to incline towards his right eye and his spectacles towards his left ear. He felt a peculiar8 lightness in the stomach and heaviness in the heart.
"The t-t-t-trot," he ventured to his companion, "is a d-d-d-dam—"
"Dr. Byrne!" she cried.
"Whoa!" called Doctor Byrne, and drew mightily9 in upon the reins. The red mare stopped as a ball stops when it meets a stout10 wall; the doctor sprawled11 along her neck, clinging with arms and legs. He managed to clamber back into the saddle.
"There are vicious elements in the nature of this brute," he observed to the girl.
"I'm very sorry," she murmured. He cast a sidelong glance but found not the trace of a smile.
"The word upon which I—"
"Stopped?" she suggested.
"Stopped," he agreed, "was not, as you evidently assumed, an oath. On the contrary, I was merely remarking that the trot is a damaging gait, but through an interrupted—er—articulation—"
His eye dared her, but she was utterly12 grave. He perceived that there was, after all, a certain kinship between this woman of the mountain-desert and the man thereof. Their silences were filled with eloquence13.
"We'll try a canter," she suggested, "and I think you'll find that easier."
So she gave the word, and her bay sprang into a lope from a standing14 start. The red mare did likewise, nearly flinging the doctor over the back of the saddle, but by the grace of God he clutched the pommel in time and was saved. The air caught at his face, they swept out of the town and onto a limitless level stretch.
He noted16 that she was not moving in the saddle. The horse was like the bottom of a wave swinging violently back and forth17. She was the calm crest18, swaying slightly and graciously with a motion as smooth as the flowing of water. And she spoke19 as evenly as if she were sitting in a rocking chair.
"You'll be used to it in a moment," she assured him.
He learned, indeed, that if one pressed the stirrups as the shoulders of the horse swung down and leaned a trifle forward when the shoulders rose again, the motion ceased to be jarring; for she was truly a matchless creature and gaited like one of those fabulous20 horses of old, sired by the swift western wind. In a little time a certain pride went beating through the veins21 of the doctor, the air blew more deeply into his lungs, there was a different tang to the wind and a different feel to the sun—a peculiar richness of yellow warmth. And the small head of the horse and the short, sharp, pricking22 ears tossed continually; and now and then the mare threw her head a bit to one side and glanced back at him with what he felt to be a reassuring23 air. Life and strength and speed were gripped between his knees—he flashed a glance at the girl.
But she rode with face straightforward25 and there was that about her which made him turn his eyes suddenly away and look far off. It was a jagged country, for in the brief rainy season there came sudden and terrific downpours which lashed24 away the soil and scoured26 the face of the underlying27 rock, and in a single day might cut a deep arroyo28 where before had been smooth plain. This was the season of grass, but not the dark, rank green of rich soil and mild air—it was a yellowish green, a colour at once tender and glowing. It spread everywhere across the plains about Elkhead, broken here and there by the projecting boulders29 which flashed in the sun. So a great battlefield might appear, pockmarked with shell-holes, and all the scars of war freshly cut upon its face. And in truth the mountain desert was like an arena30 ready to stage a conflict—a titanic31 arena with space for earth-giants to struggle—and there in the distance were the spectator mountains. High, lean-flanked mountains they were, not clad in forests, but rather bristling32 with a stubby growth of the few trees which might endure in precarious33 soil and bitter weather, but now they gathered the dignity of distance about them. The grass of the foothills was a faint green mist about their feet, cloaks of exquisite34 blue hung around the upper masses, but their heads were naked to the pale skies. And all day long, with deliberate alteration35, the garb36 of the mountains changed. When the sudden morning came they leaped naked upon the eye, and then withdrew, muffling37 themselves in browns and blues38 until at nightfall they covered themselves to the eyes in thickly sheeted purple—Tyrian purple—and prepared for sleep with their heads among the stars.
Something of all this came to Doctor Randall Byrne as he rode, for it seemed to him that there was a similarity between these mountains and the girl beside him. She held that keen purity of the upper slopes under the sun, and though she had no artifice39 or careful wiles40 to make her strange, there was about her a natural dignity like the mystery of distance. There was a rhythm, too, about that line of peaks against the sky, and the girl had caught it; he watched her sway with the gallop41 of her horse and felt that though she was so close at hand she was a thousand miles from him. She concealed42 nothing, and yet he could no more see her naked soul than he could tear the veils of shadow from the mountains. Not that the doctor phrased his emotions in words. He was only conscious of a sense of awe43 and the necessity of silence.
A strange feeling for the doctor! He came from the region of the mind where that which is not spoken does not exist, and now this girl was carrying him swiftly away from hypotheses, doubts, and polysyllabic speech into the world—of what? The spirit? The doctor did not know. He only felt that he was about to step into the unknown, and it held for him the fascination44 of the suspended action of a statue. Let it not be thought that he calmly accepted the sheer necessity for silence. He fought against it, but no words came.
It was evening: the rolling hills about them were already dark; only the heads of the mountains took the day; and now they paused at the top of a rise and the girl pointed45 across the hollow. "There we are," she said. It was a tall clump46 of trees through which broke the outlines of a two-storied house larger than any the doctor had seen in the mountain-desert; and outside the trees lay long sheds, a great barn, and a wide-spread wilderness47 of corrals. It struck the doctor with its apparently48 limitless capacity for housing man and beast. Coming in contrast with the rock-strewn desolation of the plains, this was a great establishment; the doctor had ridden out with a waif of the desert and she had turned into a princess at a stroke. Then, for the first time since they left Elkhead, he remembered with a start that he was to care for a sick man in that house.
"You were to tell me," he said, "something about the sickness of your father—the background behind his condition. But we've both forgotten about it."
"I have been thinking how I could describe it, every moment of the ride," she answered. Then, as the gloom fell more thickly around them every moment, she swerved49 her horse over to the mare, as if it were necessary that she read the face of the doctor while she spoke.
"Six months ago," she said, "my father was robust50 and active in spite of his age. He was cheerful, busy, and optimistic. But he fell into a decline. It has not been a sudden sapping of his strength. If it were that I should not worry so much; I'd attribute it to disease. But every day something of vitality51 goes from him. He is fading almost from hour to hour, as slowly as the hour hand of a clock. You can't notice the change, but every twelve hours the hand makes a complete revolution. It's as if his blood were evaporating and nothing we can do will supply him with fresh strength."
"Is this attended by irritability52?"
"Yes, he minds nothing now. He has no care for the condition of the cattle, or for profit or loss in the sales. He has simply stepped out of every employment."
"In a way, yes. But also he is more alive than he has ever been. He seems to hear with uncanny distinctness, for instance."
The doctor frowned.
"I was inclined to attribute his decline to the operation of old age," he remarked, "but this is unusual. This—er—inner acuteness is accompanied by no particular interest in any one thing?".
As she did not reply for the moment he was about to accept the silence for acquiescence57, but then through the dimness he was arrested by the lustre58 of her eyes, fixed59, apparently, far beyond him.
"One thing," she said at length. "Yes, there is one thing in which he retains an interest."
The doctor nodded brightly.
"Good!" he said. "And that—?"
The silence fell again, but this time he was more roused and he fixed his eyes keenly upon her through the gloom. She was deeply troubled; one hand gripped the horn of her saddle strongly; her lips had parted; she was like one who endures inescapable pain. He could not tell whether it was the slight breeze which disturbed her blouse or the rapid panting of her breath.
"Of that," she said, "it is hard to speak—it is useless to speak!"
"Surely not!" protested the doctor. "The cause, my dear madame, though perhaps apparently remote from the immediate60 issue, is of the utmost significance in diagnosis61."
She broke in rapidly: "This is all I can tell you: he is waiting for something which will never come. He has missed something from his life which will never come back into it. Then why should we discuss what it is that he has missed."
"To the critical mind," replied the doctor calmly, and he automatically adjusted his glasses closer to his eyes, "nothing is without significance."
"It is nearly dark!" she exclaimed hurriedly. "Let us ride on."
"First," he suggested, "I must tell you that before I left Elkhead I heard a hint of some remarkable62 story concerning a man and a horse and a dog. Is there anything—"
But it seemed that she did not hear. He heard a sharp, low exclamation63 which might have been addressed to her horse, and the next instant she was galloping64 swiftly down the slope. The doctor followed as fast as he could, jouncing in the saddle until he was quite out of breath.
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1
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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trot
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| 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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8
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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12
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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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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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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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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fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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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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pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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arroyo
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| n.干涸的河床，小河 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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muffling
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| v.压抑，捂住( muffle的现在分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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artifice
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| n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计 | |
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wiles
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| n.（旨在欺骗或吸引人的）诡计，花招；欺骗，欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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48
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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49
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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50
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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51
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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irritability
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| n.易怒 | |
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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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54
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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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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acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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61
diagnosis
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| n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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63
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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64
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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