Dan dragged Bess up by the wrist, and, seeing that she was dazed and faint, let her lean for a moment against a tree. The girl had been half stunned1 by the blow he had given her; blood was trickling2 from her mouth, her head drooping3 upon her bosom4.
Dan, who was biting his nails and looking the creature of fury and indecision, turned on her at last, and, taking her by the cloak, dragged her back along the path. Bess had no spirit left in her for the moment. Faint, dizzy, and unable to think, she was yet conscious of the fact that she was utterly5 at her husband’s mercy. Dan dragged her along roughly, cursing her when she stumbled, and shifting his grip from her cloak to her arm. She felt his fingers bruising6 the flesh as he gripped the muscles, grinding his teeth and shaking her now and again as though she were a child.
Dan brought his wife to the Monk’s Grave again. From afar they saw the light of the lantern blinking through the forest, for Isaac had relit it and was standing7 on guard with his gun at full-cock. Dan gave a shout as he dragged Bess through the undergrowth, careless of how the boughs8 and briers smote9 and scratched her face. Isaac came limping up the glade10 towards them, the lantern in one hand, the gun in the other.
“Who be it, Dan?” he asked.
Dan laughed and held the girl out at arm’s-length towards his father. Isaac lifted the lantern. The light flashed upon Bess’s face with its wild and shadowy eyes and bleeding mouth.
“Bess!”
“A pretty trick she’s been playing us, father.”
“Odds my life, how much have you seen, wench—how much have you seen?”
He set the lantern down, seized Bess by the bosom of her gown, and shook her.
“Speak, you she-dog, what were you spying on us for?”
“I followed Dan,” she said.
“The deuce—you did!”
“I saw him throw the money out.”
She broke suddenly into half-hysterical laughter, the mirthless and uncontrollable laughter of one unnerved by shock. Isaac threw her back from him so roughly that she reeled and staggered against Dan. Bess felt her husband’s hands over her bosom, gripping her so that she stood with her back to him and could not move. Isaac was limping to and fro before them, handling his gun, flashing now and again a fierce look at Bess. For the moment she understood but vaguely12 what was passing in the old man’s mind.
Isaac faced them suddenly, his eyes glinting from a net-work of wrinkles.
“Stand aside, lad,” he said, his fingers contracting about the stock of the gun.
“What be ye thinking of, father?” he asked.
“Stand aside.”
Bess, with a sudden flash of dread14, understood the fierce purpose in him, and her terror swept away all other feelings for the instant. She twisted herself round in Dan’s arms and clung to him desperately15, looking up into his face.
“No, no,” she panted, “hold me, Dan; dear God, don’t let the old man shoot me.”
Dan’s arms were fast about her, and he faced his father, who was poking16 the gun forward and licking his lips.
“Odd’s my life, stand aside from the she-dog.”
Dan kept his post, feeling the pressure of his wife’s arms and the terror of her appealing face.
“Put the gun down, father,” he said.
Isaac hesitated. Bess cast a rapid glance at him over her shoulder.
“I’ll not tell,” she said. “I’ll not tell.”
“Ye great fool,” he said, “will ye trust to a woman’s word!”
“I’ll not have ye shoot my wife like a dog,” quoth the younger man, fierce with the pride of ownership.
Isaac uncocked the gun and threw it from him with a curse.
“As ye will, as ye will,” he said, limping rapidly to and fro in his agitation20. “I have heard o’ kings losing their crowns from the curse of a woman’s tongue.”
Dan had freed Bess. He sprang forward and picked up the gun.
“Ye shall not be doing murder this night, father,” he said.
The dawn was creeping up over Pevensel when Isaac, Dan, and Bess came through the woods towards the hamlet. The forest was full of mist and silence, vague and ghostly vapor21 standing in the glades22. The stars sank back as the gray light increased in the vault23 above. Then came the first whimper of a waking bird, followed as by magic by the shrill24 piping from a thousand throats. The whole vast wilderness25 seemed to grow great with sound. The trees stood as though listening, their huge polls shrouded26 in mysterious vapor. From the east a gradual glory of gold swam up into the heavens, flashing over the misty27 hills, touching28 all the dewy greenness of the woods with light.
Isaac limped along in front, sniffing29 the air, and darting30 rapid glances from side to side. Bess and her husband followed him, the girl white and silent, her black hair in a tangle31, her eyes dark with the perilous32 fortune of the night. She walked wearily, looking neither to the right hand nor the left, but watching old Isaac limping in the van. Dan, dour33 and sullen34, strode at her side, his gun over one shoulder, spade and pick over the other.
Not till he reached his own doorway35 did Isaac turn and face the two who followed him. He gave a fierce glance at Bess, a questioning look at Dan, and, unlocking the door of the cottage, went in without a word. They heard the merry whimpering of the dog, the jingle36 of money, the sound of the old man rummaging37 in a cupboard. When he came out again there were pistols in his belt.
Dan nodded Bess towards the cottage beyond the orchard39. She walked on slowly, Dan setting himself beside his father as they followed under the trees. Bess heard them talking together in undertones, the old man’s voice suave40 and insinuating41, Dan’s gruff and obstinate42. When they came through the garden, with its monthly roses dashed with dew and all its green life fragrant43 and full of a summer freshness, Dan laid a hand on Bess’s shoulder, unlocked the door, and pushed her over the threshold. He bade her sit down in the heavy oak chair, while Isaac sank with a tired grunt44 on the settle by the window. Dan brought Bess a mug of water and a hunch45 of bread and commanded her to eat. She obeyed mechanically, wondering what they were going to do with her. Isaac and his son watched her in silence.
When she had made a meal, Dan went out to the shed behind the cottage and brought back some fathoms46 of stout47 cord. He ordered Bess to hold out her hands. There was no sign of hesitation48 on his sullen, black-bearded face. He tied Bess’s hands together, bound her about the body and the ankles to the chair, Isaac watching with silent satisfaction. When Dan had bound her thus he went out with his father, locking the door after him, and left Bess to the fellowship of her thoughts.
Isaac turned into his cottage for a moment to count out the eighty guineas he had promised Ursula and to lock the rest of the gold in his strong box at the bottom of the oak hutch. He did not doubt that the money would put the old lady in the best of tempers, and that he could safely confide49 in her concerning Bess. Isaac rejoined Dan in the garden, and they moved away towards Ursula’s cottage whose stone-wall and thatched roof showed amid the dark trunks and drooping branches of the pines. The old woman was in bed when Isaac knocked at the door. A lattice opened overhead, and a red beak50 and a pair of beady eyes under a pink night-cap appeared, with a few wisps of gray hair falling about a yellow and skinny neck. Isaac spoke51 a few words to her and jingled52 the money. The face popped in again and they heard Ursula hobbling down the stairs. She had tied on a red petticoat and thrown a black shawl over her shoulders. Isaac went into her when she had unbolted the door, leaving Dan leaning against the wall with his hands deep in his breeches-pockets.
Isaac remained with the old woman half an hour or more, the sound of their voices stealing out on the morning silence. He appeared in the best of tempers when he emerged from the cottage, slapped Dan on the shoulder, and limped away with him towards the hamlet, smiling to himself as though pleased with his own cleverness.
“The money’s tickled53 her into a good temper, lad,” he said. “I told her about the wench, and she took it very quiet.”
Dan cocked an eye shrewdly at his father.
“We waste a powerful lot of patience on the women,” he retorted.
Isaac wagged his head and looked particularly wise and saintly for the moment.
“I reckon we’d better shift the money,” he said.
As they rounded the corner of Ursula’s cow-house Isaac’s glance lighted on a man who was standing in the garden before his cottage. The fellow was busy throwing pebbles54 at the upper casements55, imagining that the owner was still asleep within. As Dan and Isaac crossed the open stretch of grass-land that ran like a broad highway through the hamlet, the man standing in the garden caught sight of them as he turned to gather a fresh handful of pebbles from the path. He looked at them suspiciously for the moment, then waved his cap and came striding towards them over the grass. He was a rough, strongly built fellow, with the keen yet foxy air of a born poacher, his bushy brown beard and whiskers hiding fully56 half of his red and sun-tanned face.
“Hallo, Jim! What brings you this way, eh?”
The man grinned, and glanced first at Isaac and then at Dan.
“It be probable, Master Grimshaw, that we shall be running the ‘osses’ through to-morrow.”
“So—so!”
“Mus Garston be a-wanting to see ye both down at Thorney Chapel57. There be a fat load comin’ through, and Mus Garston he’ll share like a gentleman.”
Isaac’s gray eyes gave that peculiar58 twinkle that told those who knew him that he was in the sweetest of tempers. He was never backward where money might be made, and he had no objection to cheating the Customs occasionally, provided that the adventure was worth the risk. Mus Garston was one of the finest land smugglers on the southern coast—a keen, black-eyed fellow, who loved the game better than he loved his soul. Bess, too, was safe, bound to the chair in Dan’s cottage. They could join Garston’s men and leave the girl to be dealt with at their leisure.
“We’ll come, Jim,” he said. “Come in and have a bite of food and a pull at the ale-pot.”
The poacher capped Isaac, for Grimshaw was a man of some circumstance among the night-moths of Pevensel. They went, the three of them, into Isaac’s cottage, and were soon gossiping over their bacon, brown bread, and ale. When they had ended the meal, Isaac whispered a few words into his son’s ear, and Dan, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, marched off to his cottage to look at Bess.
He found her much as they had left her, sitting stiffly in the chair, and gazing out of the window. Her face brightened a little when Dan entered, and she tried to smile at him as though for welcome. The man appeared in no mood to pity her. He felt the cords about her wrists and ankles, stared at her a moment in silence, stroking his beard with the palm of his hand.
“Dan,” she said, with a wistful drooping of the mouth.
Her husband’s dark eyes were hard and without light.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“Do with ye?”
“Yes.”
Dan frowned as he turned towards the door.
“Keep ye from playing more tricks,” he said. “You will bide59 there safe, I reckon, till we come back.”
Bess said never a word to him, but it was with a sinking heart that she heard Dan shut and lock the door. What would they do with her when they returned? Of a surety she had discovered some great secret that had lain hid in the deeps of Pevensel. What if her meddling60 should bring her to her death?
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1
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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2
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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3
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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4
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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bruising
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| adj.殊死的；十分激烈的v.擦伤(bruise的现在分词形式) | |
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7
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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8
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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9
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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10
glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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11
twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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12
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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13
tighten
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| v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧 | |
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14
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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15
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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16
poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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17
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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18
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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19
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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20
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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21
vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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22
glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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23
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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24
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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25
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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26
shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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27
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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28
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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29
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；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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30
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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31
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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32
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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33
dour
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| adj.冷酷的，严厉的；（岩石）嶙峋的；顽强不屈 | |
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34
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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35
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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36
jingle
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| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
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37
rummaging
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| 翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查 | |
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38
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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39
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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40
suave
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| adj.温和的；柔和的；文雅的 | |
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41
insinuating
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| adj.曲意巴结的，暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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42
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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43
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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44
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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45
hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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46
fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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48
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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49
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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50
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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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
jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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53
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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54
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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55
casements
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| n.窗扉( casement的名词复数 ) | |
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56
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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57
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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58
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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59
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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60
meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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