They took up the trail methodically, as though no hurry existed. At the usual time of the evening they camped. Dick was for pushing on an extra hour or so, announcing himself not in the least tired, and the dogs fresh, but Sam would have none of it.
"It's going to be a long, hard pull," he said. "We're not going to catch up with him to-day, or to-morrow, or next day. It ain't a question of whether you're tired or the dogs are fresh to-night; it's a question of how you're going to be a month from now."
"We won't be able to follow him a month," objected Dick.
"Why?"
"It'll snow, and then we'll lose th' trail. The spring snows can't be far off now. They'll cover it a foot deep."
"Mebbe," agreed Sam, inconclusively.
"Besides," pursued Dick, "he'll be with his own people in less than a month, and then there won't be any trail to follow."
Whereupon Sam looked a little troubled, for this, in his mind, was the chief menace to their success. If Jingoss turned south to the Lake Superior country, he could lose himself among the Ojibways of that region; and, if all remained true to him, the white men would never again be able to get trace of him. _If all remained true to him:_--on the chance of that Sam was staking his faith. The Honourable1 the Hudson's Bay Company has been established a great many years; it has always treated its Indians justly; it enjoys a tremendous prestige for infallibility. The bonds of race are strong, but the probabilities were good that in the tribes with whom Jingoss would be forced to seek sanctuary2 would be some members, whose loyalty3 to the Company would out-balance the rather shadowy obligation to a man they had never seen before. Jingoss might be betrayed. The chances of it were fairly good. Sam Bolton knew that the Indian must be perfectly4 aware of this, and doubted if he would take the risk. A single man with three dogs ought to run away from three pursuers with only four. Therefore, the old woodsman thought himself justified5 in relying at least on the meagre opportunity a stern chase would afford.
He did not know where the Indian would be likely to lead him. The checker-board of the wilderness7 lay open. As he had before reflected, it would be only too easy for Jingoss to keep between himself and his pursuers the width of the game. The Northwest was wide; the plains great; the Rocky Mountains lofty and full of hiding-places,--it seemed likely he would turn west. Or the deep forests of the other coast offered unlimited8 opportunities of concealment,--the east might well be his choice. It did not matter particularly. Into either it would not be difficult to follow; and Sam hoped in either to gain a sight of his prize before the snow melted.
The Indian, however, after the preliminary twists and turns of indecision, turned due north. For nearly a week Sam thought this must be a ruse9, or a cast by which to gain some route known to Jingoss. But the forests began to dwindle10; the muskegs to open. The Land of Little Sticks could not be far distant, and beyond them was the Barren Grounds. The old woodsman knew the defaulter for a reckless and determined11 man. Gradually the belief, and at last the conviction, forced itself on him that here he gamed with no cautious player. The Indian was laying on the table the stakes of life or death. He, too, had realised that the test must be one of endurance, and in the superbness of his confidence he had determined not to play with preliminary half measures, but to apply at once the supreme12 test to himself and his antagonists13. He was heading directly out into the winter desert, where existed no game but the single big caribou14 herd15 whose pastures were so wide that to meet them would be like encountering a single school of dolphins in all the seven seas.
As soon as Sam discovered this, he called Dick's attention to it.
"We're in for it," said he, "he's going to take us out on the Barren Grounds and lose us."
"If he can," supplemented Dick.
"Yes, if he can," agreed Sam. After a moment he went on, pursuing his train of thought aloud, as was his habit.
"He's thinking he has more grub than we have; that's about what it amounts to. He thinks he can tire us out. The chances are we'll find no more game. We've got to go on what we have. He's probably got a sledge16-load;--and so have we;--but he has only one to feed, and three dogs, and we have three and four dogs."
"That's all right; he's our Injun," replied Dick, voicing the instinct of race superiority which, after all, does often seem to accomplish the impossible. "It's too bad we have the girl with us," he added, after a moment.
"Yes, it is," agreed Sam. Yet it was most significant that now it occurred to neither of them that she might be abandoned.
The daily supply of provisions was immediately cut to a minimum, and almost at once they felt the effects. The north demands hard work and the greatest resisting power of the vitality18; the vitality calls on the body for fuel; and the body in turn insists on food. It is astonishing to see what quantities of nourishment19 can be absorbed without apparent effect. And when the food is denied, but the vitality is still called upon, it is equally astonishing to see how quickly it takes its revenge. Our travellers became lean in two days, dizzy in a week, tired to the last fibre, on the edge of exhaustion20. They took care, however, not to step over that edge.
Sam Bolton saw to it. His was not only the bodily labour, but the mental anxiety. His attitude was the tenseness of a helmsman in a heavy wind, quivering to the faintest indication, ready to give her all she will bear, but equally ready to luff this side of disaster. Only his equable mind could have resisted an almost overpowering impulse toward sporadic21 bursts of speed or lengthening22 of hours. He had much of this to repress in Dick. But on the other hand he watched zealously23 against the needless waste of even a single second. Every expedient24 his long woods life or his native ingenuity25 suggested he applied26 at once to the problem of the greatest speed, the least expenditure27 of energy to a given end, the smallest consumption of food compatible with the preservation28 of strength. The legitimate29 travel of a day might amount to twenty or thirty miles. Sam added an extra five or ten to them. And that five or ten he drew from the living tissues of his very life. They were a creation, made from nothing, given a body by the individual genius of the man. The drain cut down his nervous energy, made him lean, drew the anxious lines of an incipient30 exhaustion across his brow.
At first, as may be gathered, the advantages of the game seemed to be strongly in the Indian's favour. The food supply, the transportation facilities, and advantage of position in case game should be encountered were all his. Against him he need count seriously only the offset31 of dogged Anglo-Saxon grit32. But as the travel defined itself, certain compensations made themselves evident.
Direct warfare33 was impossible to him. He possessed34 only a single-barrelled muzzle-loading gun of no great efficiency. In case of ambush35 he might, with luck, be able to kill one of his pursuers, but he would indubitably be captured by the other. He would be unable to approach them at night because of their dogs. His dog-team was stronger, but with it he had to break trail, which the others could utilise without further effort. Even should his position in advance bring him on game, without great luck, he would be unable to kill it, for he was alone and could not leave his team for long. And his very swiftness in itself would react against him, for he was continually under the temptation daily to exceed by a little his powers.
These considerations the white men at first could not see; and so, logically, they were more encouraged by them when at last they did appear. And then in turn, by natural reaction when the glow had died, the great discouragement of the barren places fell on their spirits. They plodded37, seeing no further than their daily necessity of travel. They plodded, their eyes fixed38 to the trail, which led always on toward the pole star, undeviating, as a deer flies in a straight line hoping to shake off the wolves.
The dense39 forest growth was succeeded in time by the low spruce and poplar thickets40; these in turn by the open reaches planted like a park with the pointed41 firs. Then came the Land of Little Sticks, and so on out into the vast whiteness of the true North, where the trees are liliputian and the spaces gigantic beyond the measures of the earth; where living things dwindle to the significance of black specks42 on a limitless field of white, and the aurora43 crackles and shoots and spreads and threatens like a great inimical and magnificent spirit.
The tendency seemed toward a mighty44 simplification, as though the complexities45 of the world were reverting46 toward their original philosophic47 unity6. The complex summer had become simple autumn; the autumn, winter; now the very winter itself was apparently48 losing its differentiations of bushes and trees, hills and valleys, streams and living things. The growths were disappearing; the hills were flattening49 toward the great northern wastes; the rare creatures inhabiting these barrens took on the colour of their environment. The ptarmigan matched the snow,--the fox,--the ermine. They moved either invisible or as ghosts.
Little by little such dwindling50 of the materials for diverse observation, in alliance with the too-severe labour and the starving, brought about a strange concentration of ideas. The inner world seemed to undergo the same process of simplification as the outer. Extraneous51 considerations disappeared. The entire cosmos52 of experience came to be an expanse of white, themselves, and the Trail. These three reacted one on the other, and outside of them there was no reaction.
In the expanse of white was no food: their food was dwindling; the Trail led on into barren lands where no food was to be had. That was the circle that whirled insistent53 in their brains.
At night they sank down, felled by the sheer burden of weariness, and no matter how exhausted54 they might be the Trail continued, springing on with the same apparently tireless energy toward its unknown goal in the North. Gradually they lost sight of the ultimate object of their quest. It became obscured by the immediate17 object, and that was the following of the Trail. They forgot that a man had made it, or if for a moment it did occur to them that it was the product of some agency outside of and above itself, that agent loomed55 vaguely56 as a mysterious, extra-human power, like the winds or the cold or the great Wilderness itself. It did not seem possible that he could feel the need for food, for rest, that ever his vital forces could wane57. In the north was starvation for them, a starvation to which they drew ever nearer day by day, but irresistibly58 the notion obsessed59 them that this forerunner60, the forerunner of the Trail, proved no such material necessities, that he drew his sustenance61 from his environment in some mysterious manner not to be understood. Always on and on and on the Trail was destined62 to lead them until they died, and then the maker63 of it,--not Jingoss, not the Weasel, the defaulter, the man of flesh and blood and nerves and thoughts and the capacities for suffering,--but a being elusive64 as the aurora, an embodiment of that dread65 country, a servant of the unfriendly North, would return as he had done.
Over the land lay silence. The sea has its undertone on the stillest nights; the woods are quiet with an hundred lesser66 noises; but here was absolute, terrifying, smothering67 silence,--the suspension of all sound, even the least,--looming like a threatening cloud larger and more dreadful above the cowering68 imagination. The human soul demanded to shriek69 aloud in order to preserve its sanity70, and yet a whisper uttered over against the heavy portent71 of this universal stillness seemed a profanation72 that left the spirit crouched73 beneath a fear of retribution. And then suddenly the aurora, the only privileged voice, would crackle like a silken banner.
At first the world in the vastness of its spaces seemed to become bigger and bigger. Again abruptly74 it resumed its normal proportions, but they, the observers of it, had been struck small. To their own minds they seemed like little black insects crawling painfully. In the distance these insects crawled was a disproportion to the energy expended75, a disproportion disheartening, filling the soul with the despair of an accomplishment76 that could mean anything in the following of that which made the Trail.
Always they ate pemmican. Of this there remained a fairly plentiful77 supply, but the dog meat was running low. It was essential that the team be well fed. Dick or Sam often travelled the entire day a quarter of a mile one side or the other, hoping thus to encounter game, but without much success. A fox or so, a few plarmigan, that was all. These they saved for the dogs. Three times a day they boiled tea and devoured78 the little square of pemmican. It did not supply the bulk their digestive organs needed, and became in time almost nauseatingly79 unpalatable, but it nourished. That, after all, was the main thing. The privation carved the flesh from their muscles, carved the muscles themselves to leanness.
But in spite of the best they could do, the dog feed ran out. There remained but one thing to do. Already the sledge was growing lighter80, and three dogs would be quite adequate for the work. They killed Wolf, the surly and stupid "husky." Every scrap81 they saved, even to the entrails, which froze at once to solidity. The remaining dogs were put on half rations36, just sufficient to keep up their strength. The starvation told on their tempers. Especially did Claire, the sledge-dog, heavy with young, and ravenous82 to feed their growth, wander about like a spirit, whining83 mournfully and sniffing84 the barren breeze.
收听单词发音 |
1
honourable
|
|
| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
sanctuary
|
|
| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
justified
|
|
| a.正当的，有理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
unity
|
|
| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
unlimited
|
|
| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
ruse
|
|
| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
dwindle
|
|
| v.逐渐变小（或减少） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
antagonists
|
|
| 对立[对抗] 者，对手，敌手( antagonist的名词复数 )； 对抗肌； 对抗药 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
caribou
|
|
| n.北美驯鹿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
herd
|
|
| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
sledge
|
|
| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
vitality
|
|
| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
nourishment
|
|
| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
exhaustion
|
|
| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
sporadic
|
|
| adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
lengthening
|
|
| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
zealously
|
|
| adv.热心地；热情地；积极地；狂热地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
expedient
|
|
| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
ingenuity
|
|
| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
applied
|
|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
expenditure
|
|
| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
preservation
|
|
| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
legitimate
|
|
| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
incipient
|
|
| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
offset
|
|
| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
grit
|
|
| n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
warfare
|
|
| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
ambush
|
|
| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
rations
|
|
| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
plodded
|
|
| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
thickets
|
|
| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
specks
|
|
| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
aurora
|
|
| n.极光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
complexities
|
|
| 复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
reverting
|
|
| 恢复( revert的现在分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
philosophic
|
|
| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
flattening
|
|
| n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
dwindling
|
|
| adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
extraneous
|
|
| adj.体外的；外来的；外部的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
cosmos
|
|
| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
insistent
|
|
| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
loomed
|
|
| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
wane
|
|
| n.衰微，亏缺，变弱；v.变小，亏缺，呈下弦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
irresistibly
|
|
| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
obsessed
|
|
| adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
forerunner
|
|
| n.前身，先驱（者），预兆，祖先 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
sustenance
|
|
| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
maker
|
|
| n.制造者，制造商 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
elusive
|
|
| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
dread
|
|
| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
lesser
|
|
| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
smothering
|
|
| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的现在分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
cowering
|
|
| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
shriek
|
|
| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
sanity
|
|
| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
portent
|
|
| n.预兆；恶兆；怪事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
profanation
|
|
| n.亵渎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
crouched
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
expended
|
|
| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
accomplishment
|
|
| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
plentiful
|
|
| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
devoured
|
|
| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
nauseatingly
|
|
| adj.令人恶心的，使人厌恶的v.使恶心，作呕( nauseate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
lighter
|
|
| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
scrap
|
|
| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
ravenous
|
|
| adj.极饿的，贪婪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
whining
|
|
| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
sniffing
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |