Jeffray stood gripping his pistols in the cottage room, driven by strange stress of circumstances to fight for a peasant girl against a crowd of cursing and sweating smugglers. He had never stood forward as a hero among his peers, those blue-eyed, plump-bellied worthies1 who preached or swore in the pulpit and at the dining-table. Slim, sensitive, yet strong now as a band of steel, he waited, watching the door heave and creak beneath the weight of Dan’s great body. Bess, kneeling behind her chair, was plying2 the ramrod. Her eyes met Jeffray’s for a moment, the gleam in them speaking for her woman’s heart.
Men were massing outside the cottage, brown handed, brown faced, redolent of liquor and of the sweat of action. Bess heard old Isaac’s treble, warning the fellows to keep clear of the window, and calling for a beam to break down the door. Jeffray saw the hole that he had blown in the lock with the musket3 darkened by the shadow of a man’s head. The glittering white of an eyeball showed through the rent. He stepped aside from the stretch of floor that the hole commanded, knowing that a pistol’s snout might take the place of a man’s eye. Nor was he too swift in the conclusion. There was a brisk report, a belching4 of smoke into the room, and a ball flattened5 itself against the opposite wall. Bess’s eyes flashed round to see whether Jeffray were hurt or no. He shook his head at her, smiled, and pointed6 to the window.
A lull7 followed. Then there was much shouting and a stamping of feet along the pathway to the cottage. They were bringing up a wagon-pole to beat in the door, and the oaken barrier shook and quivered at the first charge. A second shout like the shout of sailors heaving at a rope, a second swing of the pole, and the door split in the centre. Jeffray levelled a pistol and fired. He saw a contorted face sink back out of sight, heard a cry of pain, and a volley of curses. Turning quietly to the table he began recharging the empty pistol. Bess was crouching8 behind her chair, the musket resting on the rail, its muzzle9 covering the window.
She gave a sudden sharp cry, and pressed her cheek close to the stock. Jeffray, who was watching her, saw her eyes gleam out, the white crook10 of her forefinger11 tightening12 on the trigger. An echoing roar filled the room. Smoke swirled13 about the beams, wreathed and drifted into the corners. Jeffray, looking towards the window, saw nothing but a shattered lattice and blue vapor14 curling out into the sunlight. He gazed hard at Bess as he rammed15 home the bullet and sprinkled the powder on the pan. She seemed unconscious for the moment of his presence, a strange smile playing about her mouth.
“Who was it?” he asked her.
She did not move or look at Jeffray.
“A man. He was pointing a pistol at you through the window.”
“Is he down?”
“I saw him fall.”
The shots from the cottage seemed to have sobered the gentry16 for the moment. Jeffray heard old Isaac screaming and cursing, urging on the men to break in the door. Gathering17 together in a bunch, they lunged at it again with the wagon-pole, the door splitting from floor to lintel and the pole starting fully18 three feet into the room. Jeffray had a confused vision of tanned throats and fierce faces, a brandished19 cutlass, an upraised arm. He fired once, saw a red blotch20 show on one sun-tanned cheek, and the men hesitate and edge back from the broken door. The pole sank and wedged itself between the rent planking; the shifting figures melted away towards the garden-gate.
“Look out, lads, the redcoats; gather, gather!”
There was a scattering22 of pistol-shots, a confused trampling23 of feet, the clear-ringing voice of a man shouting orders. A bullet came crashing through the cottage window to bury itself in one of the great beams of the ceiling. Frightened horses were screaming and cantering about the clearing.
Bess was standing24 by the table reloading the musket. Jeffray, with the empty pistol still smoking in his hand, went to the window and looked out. He saw a man crawling down the path on his hands and knees, coughing and spitting blood, his head lolling from side to side. The open space between the trees seemed a-swirl for the moment with swords and plunging25 horses, a tangle26 of redcoats and of blurred27 and dusky figures. The smuggling28 folk and the troopers were stabbing and cutting at one another amid the plunging pack-horses. From the southern end of the clearing Jeffray saw a mounted excise-officer cantering up with some twenty revenue men at his heels. They had tracked the smuggling folk up from Thorney Chapel29, while the cornet of Light-Horse, led by a spy, had brought his troopers through the woods from Rodenham. Soon the struggling knot of fustian30 and scarlet31 broke and spread into scattering eddies32. Figures went scudding33 from the woods, some dropping and grovelling34 before they reached the cover. The fight was over. The foresters and the smuggling folk, such as were left of them, scattered35 and fled for the sanctuary36 of the forest.
Jeffray felt that Bess was near him, and turning sharply he found her standing at his elbow.
“The revenue men,” she said, in her husky voice, putting her hands upon the sill and looking out through the broken lattice.
Jeffray, conscious of the white and desirable face that dreamed up at him out of a cloud of hair, thrilled to the wild charm of it all, the uprushing of romance into his brain.
“Bess,” he said, smiling, “what are we to do?”
She looked at him half puzzled, smiling a little for the sheer sweetness of having her head resting upon his arm.
“We are free now, are we not, Richard?”
Jeffray pursed up his mouth grimly, and pointed to the broken door.
“I have spilled blood,” he said, “and kept a man from the charge of his own wife. The law takes knowledge of these things. Tell me, Bess, who was the man you fired at through the window?”
She drew closer to Jeffray as though afraid.
“I do not know,” she answered.
“Was it Dan?”
“I don’t know—I don’t know. Take me away,” and she clung to Jeffray like a frightened child.
Jeffray wrenched37 the two halves of the broken door apart and thrust back the wagon-pole, so that there was room for them to pass. He sheathed38 his sword, buckled39 on the belt with the powder-flask and hunting-knife, and, picking up the pistols, looked round for Bess. She had climbed the stairs, and Jeffray could hear her moving to and fro in the room above, while the clock on the kitchen mantle-shelf ticked on as though death and desire were of no account.
The redcoats were securing such prisoners as they had taken, while the revenue men gathered the pack-horses together and broke into the cottages and out-houses to ransack40 them to the very rafters. Jeffray watched them at work through the broken door. Soon he heard Bess descending41 the stairs. She had tidied her clothes and bound up her hair, and thrown an old cloak over her shoulders. He held the broken halves of the door apart from Bess, and followed her down the garden path. The dusk was fast falling, but there was enough light to show the blood-stains on the bricks. Bess shivered a little, drew up her petticoats and picked her way towards the gate. Jeffray swung it back for her, and they passed out into the open land that was still lit by the slanting42 sunlight.
Bess came to a dead halt suddenly some ten paces from the palings. She seized Jeffray’s wrist, and stood pointing to the body of a man lying in the long grass. Her eyes had dilated43, the pupils swimming black, and awed44 under the long lashes45.
“Look!”
Jeffray went a step nearer and gazed down at the man lying in the grass. His head was twisted to one side, the upper lip drawn46 up over the teeth in a snarling47 grin. There was blood on the black beard, blood on the hairy chest and on the shirt that flapped open from the massive throat. It was Dan who lay dead with a musket-bullet through his chest.
Bess and Jeffray stood and looked into each other’s eyes. Her hand still gripped his wrist spasmodically. He saw her lips move, saw the unuttered question in her eyes.
“He is dead,” he said, solemnly.
“Who, who?”
“Dan, your husband.”
She tottered48 and clung to him, struggling for her breath, yet still staring at the dead man in the grass. Jeffray had one arm about her body. He was as white as Bess, yet the master of his own manhood. A shout came to him across the clearing. Several red-coats were approaching the cottage, led by an officer with his sword drawn.
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1
worthies
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| 应得某事物( worthy的名词复数 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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2
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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3
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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belching
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| n. 喷出，打嗝 动词belch的现在分词形式 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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7
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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8
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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10
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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11
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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12
tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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13
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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rammed
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| v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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16
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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17
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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19
brandished
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| v.挥舞( brandish的过去式和过去分词 )；炫耀 | |
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20
blotch
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| n.大斑点；红斑点；v.使沾上污渍，弄脏 | |
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21
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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22
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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23
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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24
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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25
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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26
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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27
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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28
smuggling
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| n.走私 | |
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29
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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30
fustian
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| n.浮夸的；厚粗棉布 | |
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31
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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32
eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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33
scudding
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| 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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34
grovelling
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| adj.卑下的，奴颜婢膝的v.卑躬屈节，奴颜婢膝( grovel的现在分词 )；趴 | |
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35
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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36
sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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37
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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38
sheathed
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| adj.雕塑像下半身包在鞘中的；覆盖的；铠装的；装鞘了的v.将（刀、剑等）插入鞘( sheathe的过去式和过去分词 )；包，覆盖 | |
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39
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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40
ransack
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| v.彻底搜索，洗劫 | |
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41
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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42
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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43
dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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46
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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47
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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48
tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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