By now it was the first week in March. The weather began to assume a new aspect. During the winter months it had not snowed, for the moisture had all been squeezed from the air, leaving it crisp, brilliant, sparkling. Now the sun, long hesitant, at last began to swing up the sky. Far south the warmer airs of spring were awakening1 the Kansas fields. Here in the barren country the steel sky melted to a haze2. During the day, when the sun was up, the surface of the snow even softened3 a little, and a very perceptible warmth allowed them to rest, their parkas thrown back, without discomfort4.
The men noticed this, and knew it as the precursor5 of the spring snow-fall. Dick grew desperately6 uneasy, desperately anxious to push on, to catch up before the complete obliteration7 of the trail, when his resources would perforce run out for lack of an object to which to apply them. He knew perfectly8 well that this must be what the Indian had anticipated, the reason why he had dared to go out into the barren grounds, and to his present helpless lack of a further expedient9 the defaulter's confidence in the natural sequence seemed only too well justified10. Sam remained inscrutable.
The expected happened late one afternoon. All day the haze had thickened, until at last, without definite transition, it had become a cloud covering the entire sky. Then it had snowed. The great, clogging11 flakes12 sifted13 down gently, ziz-zagging through the air like so many pieces of paper. They impacted softly against the world, standing14 away from each other and from the surface on which they alighted by the full stretch of their crystal arms. In an hour three inches had fallen. The hollows and depressions were filling to the level; the Trail was growing indistinct.
Dick watched from the shelter of a growing despair. Never had he felt so helpless. This thing was so simple, yet so effective; and nothing he could do would nullify its results. As sometimes in a crisis a man will give his whole attention to a trivial thing, so Dick fastened his gaze on a single snow-shoe track on the edge of a covered bowlder. By it he gauged15 the progress of the storm. When at last even his imagination could not differentiate16 it from the surface on either side, he looked up. The visible world was white and smooth and level. No faintest trace of the Trail remained. East, west, north, south, lay uniformity. The Indian had disappeared utterly17 from the face of the earth.
The storm lightened and faint streaks18 of light shot through the clouds.
"Well, let's be moving," said Sam.
"Moving where?" demanded Dick, bitterly. But the old man led forward the hound.
"Remember the lake where we lost the track of that Chippewa?" he inquired. "Well, a foot of light snow is nothing. Mush on, Mack!"
The hound sniffed19 deep, filling his nostrils20 with the feather snow, which promptly21 he sneezed out. Then he swung off easily on his little dog-trot, never at fault, never hesitant, picking up the turns and twistings of the Indian's newer purpose as surely as a mind-reader the concealed22 pin.
For Jingoss had been awaiting eagerly this fall of snow, as this immediate24 change of direction showed. He was sure that now they could no longer follow him. It was for this he had lured25 them farther and farther into the wilderness26, waiting for the great enemy of them all to cover his track, to throw across his vanishing figure her ultimate denial of their purposes. At once, convinced of his safety, he turned to the west and southwest.
At just what moment he discovered that he was still followed it was impossible to determine. But very shortly a certain indecision could be read in the signs of his journeying. He turned to the south, changed his mind, doubled on his tracks like a rabbit, finally, his purpose decided27, he shot away on the direct line again for the frozen reaches of desolation in the north.
The moment's flicker28 of encouragement lighted by the success of the dog, fell again to blackness as the three faced further incursion into the land of starvation. They had allowed themselves for a moment to believe that the Indian might now have reached the limit of his intention; that now he might turn toward a chance at least of life. But this showed that his purpose, or obstinacy29 or madness remained unchanged, and this newer proof indicated that it possessed30 a depth of determination that might lead to any extreme. They had to readjust themselves to the idea. Perforce they had to extend their faith, had to believe in the caribou31 herds32. From every little rise they looked abroad, insisting on a childish confidence in the existence of game. They could not afford to take the reasonable view, could not afford to estimate the chances against their encountering in all that vastness of space the single pin-point where grazed abundance.
From time to time, thereafter, the snow fell. On the mere34 fact of their persistence35 it had litle effect; but it clogged36 their snow-shoes, it wore them down. A twig37 tripped them; and the efforts of all three were needed to aid one to rise. A dozen steps were all they could accomplish without rest; a dozen short, stumbling steps that were, nevertheless, so many mile-posts in the progress to their final exhaustion38. When one fell, he lay huddled39, unable at once to rally his vital forces to attempt the exertion40 of regaining41 his feet. The day's journey was pitifully short, pitifully inadequate42 to the imperious demands of that onward-leading Trail, and yet each day's journey lessened43 the always desperate chance of a return to the game country. In spite of that, it never again crossed their minds that it might be well to abandon the task. They might die, but it would be on the Trail, and the death clutch of their fingers would still be extended toward the north, where dwelt their enemy, and into whose protective arms their quarry44 had fled.
As his strength ebbed45 Dick Herron's energies concentrated more and more to his monomania of pursuit. The round, full curves of his body had shrunken to angles, the fresh tints46 of his skin had turned to leather, the flesh of his cheeks had sunken, his teeth showed in the drawing back of his lips. All these signs spoke47 of exhaustion and of ultimate collapse48. But as the case grew more desperate, he seemed to discover in some unsuspected quality of his spirit, or perhaps merely of his youth, a fitful and wonderful power. He collapsed49 from weakness, to be sure; but in a moment his iron will, apparently50 angered to incandescence51, got him to his feet and on his way with an excess of energy. He helped the others. He urged the dog. And then slowly the fictitious52 vigour53 ran out. The light, the red, terrible glare of madness, faded from his eye; it became glazed54 and lifeless; his shoulders dropped; his head hung; he fell.
Gradually in the transition period between the darkness of winter and the coming of spring the world took on an unearthly aspect. It became an inferno55 of light without corresponding warmth, of blinding, flaring56, intolerable light reflected from the snow. It became luminous57, as though the ghosts of the ancient days of incandescence had revisited the calendar. It was raw, new, huge, uncouth58, embryonic59, adapted to the production of tremendous monsters, unfit for the habitation of tiny men with delicate physical and mental adjustments. Only to the mind of a Caliban could it be other than terrifying. Things grew to a size out of all reason. The horizon was infinitely60 remote, lost in snow-mists, fearful with the large-blown mirages61 of little things. Strange and indeterminate somethings menaced on all sides, menaced in greater and greater threat, until with actual proximity62 they mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind them as a blind to conceal23 their real identity such small matters as a stunted63 shrub64, an exposed rock, the shadow of a wind-rift on the snow. And low in the sky danced in unholy revel65 the suns, sometimes as many as eight of them, gazing with the abandoned red eyes of debauchees on the insignificant66 travellers groping feebly amid phantasmagoria.
The great light, the dazzle, the glitter, the incessant67 movement of the mirages, the shining of the mock suns, all these created an impression of heat, of light, of the pleasantness of a warmed land. Yet still persisted, only modified by the sun, the cold of the northern winter. And this denial of appearance sufficed to render unreal all the round globe, so that at any moment the eye anticipated its crumbling68 like a dust apple, with its cold, its vastness, its emptiness, its hunger, its indecently many suns, leaving the human soul in the abyss of space. The North threw over them the power of her spell, so that to them the step from life to death seemed a short, an easy, a natural one to take.
Nevertheless their souls made struggle, as did their bodies. They fought down the feeling of illusion just as they had fought down the feelings of hunger, of weariness, and of cold. Sam fashioned rough wooden spectacles with tiny transverse slits69 through which to look, and these they assumed against the snow-blindness. They kept a sharp watch for freezing. Already their faces were blackened and parched70 by the frost, and cracked through the thick skin down to the raw. Sam had frozen his great toe, and had with his knife cut to the bone in order to prevent mortification71. They tried to talk a little in order to combat by unison72 of spirit the dreadful influence the North was bringing to bear. They gained ten feet as a saint of the early church gained his soul for paradise.
Now it came to the point where they could no longer afford to eat their pemmican. They boiled it, along with strips of the rawhide73 dog-harness, and drank the soup. It sufficed not at all to appease74 the pain of their hunger, nor appreciably75 did it give them strength, but somehow it fed the vital spark. They endured fearful cramps76. So far had their faculties77 lost vigour that only by a distinct effort of the will could they focus their eyes to the examination of any object.
Their obsessions78 of mind were now two. They followed the Trail; they looked for the caribou herds. After a time the improbability became tenuous79. They actually expected the impossible, felt defrauded80 at not obtaining it, cried out weakly against their ill fortune in not encountering the herd33 that was probably two thousand miles away. In its withholding81 the North seemed to play unfairly. She denied them the chances of the game.
And the Trail! Not the freezing nor the starvation nor the illusion were so potent82 in the deeper discouragement of the spirit as that. Always it led on. They could see it; they could see its direction; that was all. Tireless it ran on and on and on. For all they knew the Indian, hearty83 and confident in his wilderness strength, might be watching them at every moment, laughing at the feeble thirty feet their pain bought them, gliding84 on swiftly in an hour farther than they could travel in a day. This possibility persisted until, in their minds, it became the fact. They endowed their enemy with all they themselves lacked; with strength, with swiftness, with the sustenance85 of life. Yet never for a moment did it occur to them to abandon the pursuit.
Sam was growing uncertain in his movements; Dick was plainly going mad. The girl followed; that was all one could say, for whatever suffering she proved was hidden beneath race stolidity86, and more nobly beneath a great devotion.
And then late one afternoon they came to a bloody87 spot on the snow. Here Jingoss had killed. Here he had found what had been denied them, what they needed so sorely. The North was on his side. He now had meat in plenty, and meat meant strength, and strength meant swiftness, and swiftness meant the safety of this world for him and the certainty of the next for them. The tenuous hope that had persisted through all the psychological pressure the North had brought to bear, the hope that they had not even acknowledged to themselves, the hope based merely on the circumstance that they did not _know_, was routed by this one fact. Now they could no longer shelter behind the flimsy screen of an ignorance of their enemy's condition. They knew. The most profound discouragement descended88 on them.
But even yet they did not yield to the great antagonist89. The strength of meat lacked them: the strength of despair remained. A rapid dash might bring them to grapples. And somewhere in the depths of their indomitable spirits, somewhere in the line of their hardy90, Anglo-Saxon descent, they knew they would find the necessary vitality91.
Stars glittered like sparks on polished steel. On the northwest wind swooped92 the chill of the winter's end, and in that chill was the breath of the North. Sam Bolton, crushed by the weight of a great exhaustion, recognised the familiar menace, and raised his head, gazing long from glazed eyes out into the Silent Places.
"Not yet!" he said aloud.
收听单词发音 |
1
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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precursor
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| n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆 | |
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6
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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7
obliteration
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| n.涂去，删除；管腔闭合 | |
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8
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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clogging
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| 堵塞，闭合 | |
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flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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sifted
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| v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
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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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gauged
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| adj.校准的；标准的；量规的；量计的v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；计量；划分 | |
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16
differentiate
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| vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；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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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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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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lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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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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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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30
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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caribou
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| n.北美驯鹿 | |
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herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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clogged
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| （使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞 | |
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twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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43
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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44
quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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45
ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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46
tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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47
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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48
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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49
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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50
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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51
incandescence
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| n.白热，炽热；白炽 | |
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52
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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53
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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54
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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55
inferno
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| n.火海；地狱般的场所 | |
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56
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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57
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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58
uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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embryonic
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| adj.胚胎的 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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mirages
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| n.海市蜃楼，幻景( mirage的名词复数 ) | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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63
stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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64
shrub
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| n.灌木，灌木丛 | |
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65
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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66
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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67
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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68
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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69
slits
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| n.狭长的口子，裂缝( slit的名词复数 )v.切开，撕开( slit的第三人称单数 )；在…上开狭长口子 | |
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70
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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71
mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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rawhide
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| n.生牛皮 | |
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74
appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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appreciably
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| adv.相当大地 | |
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cramps
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| n. 抽筋, 腹部绞痛, 铁箍 adj. 狭窄的, 难解的 v. 使...抽筋, 以铁箍扣紧, 束缚 | |
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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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obsessions
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| n.使人痴迷的人（或物）( obsession的名词复数 )；着魔；困扰 | |
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tenuous
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| adj.细薄的，稀薄的，空洞的 | |
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80
defrauded
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| v.诈取，骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81
withholding
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| 扣缴税款 | |
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82
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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83
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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84
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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85
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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86
stolidity
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| n.迟钝，感觉麻木 | |
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87
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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88
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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89
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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90
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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91
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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92
swooped
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| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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