They tramped to the station and boarded the single passenger car of the accommodation. There they selected a forward seat and waited patiently for the freight-handling to finish and for the leisurely2 puffing3 little engine to move on. An hour later they descended4 at Marion. The journey had been made in an almost absolute silence. Tally5 stared straight ahead, and sucked at his little pipe. To him, apparently6, the journey was merely something to be endured; and he relapsed into that patient absent-mindedness developed among those who have to wait on forces that will not be hurried. Bob's remarks he answered in monosyllables. When the train pulled into the station, Tally immediately arose, as though released by a spring.
Bob's impressions of Marion were of great mills and sawdust-burners along a wide river; of broad, sawdust-covered streets; of a single block of good, brick stores on a main thoroughfare which almost immediately petered out into the vilest8 and most ramshackle frame "joints"; of wide side streets flanked by small, painted houses in yards, some very neat indeed. Tally walked rapidly by the respectable business blocks, but pushed into the first of the unkempt frame saloons beyond. Bob followed close at his heels. He found himself in a cheap bar-room, its paint and varnish9 scarred and marred10, its floor sawdust-covered, its centre occupied by a huge stove, its walls decorated by several pictures of the nude11.
Four men were playing cards at an old round table, hacked12 and bruised13 and blackened by time. One of them was the barkeeper, a burly individual with black hair plastered in a "lick" across his forehead. He pushed back his chair and ducked behind the bar, whence he greeted the newcomers. Tally proffered14 a question. The barkeeper relaxed from his professional attitude, and leaned both elbows on the bar. The two conversed15 for a moment; then Tally nodded briefly16 and went out. Bob followed.
This performance was repeated down the length of the street. The stage-settings varied17 little; same oblong, painted rooms; same varnished18 bars down one side; same mirrors and bottles behind them; same sawdust-strewn floors; same pictures on the walls; same obscure, back rooms; same sleepy card games by the same burly but sodden19 type of men. This was the off season. Profits were now as slight as later they would be heavy. Tim talked with the barkeepers low-voiced, nodded and went out. Only when he had systematically20 worked both sides of the street did he say anything to his companion.
"He's in town," said Tally; "but they don't know where."
"Whither away?" asked Bob.
"Across the river."
They walked together down a side street to a long wooden bridge. This rested on wooden piers21 shaped upstream like the prow22 of a ram1 in order to withstand the battering23 of the logs. It was a very long bridge. Beneath it the swift current of the river slipped smoothly24. The breadth of the stream was divided into many channels and pockets by means of brown poles. Some of these were partially25 filled with logs. A clear channel had been preserved up the middle. Men armed with long pike-poles were moving here and there over the booms and the logs themselves, pushing, pulling, shoving a big log into this pocket, another into that, gradually segregating26 the different brands belonging to the different owners of the mills below. From the quite considerable height of the bridge all this lay spread out mapwise up and down the perspective of the stream. The smooth, oily current of the river, leaden-hued and cold in the light of the early spring, hurried by on its way to the lake, swiftly, yet without the turmoil27 and fuss of lesser28 power. Downstream, as far as Bob could see, were the huge mills' with their flanking lumber29 yards, the masts of their lading ships, their black sawdust-burners, and above all the pure-white, triumphant30 banners of steam that shot straight up against the gray of the sky.
Tally followed the direction of his gaze.
"Modern work," he commented. "Band saws. No circulars there. Two hundred thousand a day"; with which cryptic31 utterance32 he resumed his walk.
The opposite side of the river proved to be a smaller edition of the other. Into the first saloon Tally pushed.
It resembled the others, except that no card game was in progress. The barkeeper, his feet elevated, read a pink paper behind the bar. A figure slept at the round table, its head in its arms. Tally walked over to shake this man by the shoulder.
In a moment the sleeper33 raised his head. Bob saw a little, middle-aged34 man, not over five feet six in height, slenderly built, yet with broad, hanging shoulders. His head was an almost exact inverted35 pyramid, the base formed by a mop of red-brown hair, and the apex36 represented by a very pointed37 chin. Two level, oblong patches of hair made eyebrows38. His face was white and nervous. A strong, hooked nose separated a pair of red-brown eyes, small and twinkling, like a chipmunk39's. Just now they were bloodshot and vague.
"Hullo, Dicky Darrell," said Tally.
The man struggled to his feet, knocking over the chair, and laid both hands effusively40 on Tally's shoulders.
"Jim!" he cried thickly. "Good ole Jim! Glad to see you! Hav' drink!"
Tally nodded, and, to Bob's surprise, took his place at the bar.
"Hav' 'nother!" cried Darrell. "God! I'm glad to see you! Nobody in town."
"All right," agreed Tally pacifically; "but let's go across the river to Dugan's and get it."
To this Darrell readily agreed. They left the saloon. Bob, following, noticed the peculiar41 truculence42 imparted to Darrell's appearance by the fact that in walking he always held his hands open and palms to the front. Suddenly Darrell became for the first time aware of his presence. The riverman whirled on him, and Bob became conscious of something as distinct as a physical shock as he met the impact of an electrical nervous energy. It passed, and he found himself half smiling down on this little, white-faced man with the matted hair and the bloodshot, chipmunk eyes.
"Who'n hell's this!" demanded Darrell savagely43.
"Friend of mine," said Tally. "Come on."
Darrell stared a moment longer. "All right," he said at last.
All the way across the bridge Tally argued with his companion.
"We've got to have a foreman on the Cedar44 Branch, Dick," he began, "and you're the fellow."
To this Darrell offered a profane45, emphatic46 and contemptuous negative. With consummate47 diplomacy48 Tally led his mind from sullen49 obstinacy50 to mere7 reluctance51. At the corner of Main Street the three stopped.
"But I don't want to go yet, Jim," pleaded Darrell, almost tearfully. "I ain't had all my 'time' yet."
"Well," said Tally, "you've been polishing up the flames of hell for four days pretty steady. What more do you want?"
"I ain't smashed no rig yet," objected Darrell.
Tally looked puzzled.
"Well, go ahead and smash your rig and get done with it," he said.
"A' right," said Darrell cheerfully.
He started off briskly, the others following. Down a side street his rather uncertain gait led them, to the wide-open door of a frame livery stable. The usual loungers in the usual tipped-back chairs greeted him.
"Want m' rig," he demanded.
A large and leisurely man in shirt sleeves lounged out from the office and looked him over dispassionately.
"You've been drunk four days," said he, "have you the price?"
"Bet y'," said Dick, cheerfully. He seated himself on the ground and pulled off his boot from which he extracted a pulpy52 mass of greenbacks. "Can't fool me!" he said cunningly. "Always save 'nuff for my rig!"
He shoved the bills into the liveryman's hands. The latter straightened them out, counted them, thrust a portion into his pocket, and handed the rest back to Darrell.
"There you are," said he. He shouted an order into the darkness of the stable.
An interval53 ensued. The stableman and Tally waited imperturbably54, without the faintest expression of interest in anything evident on their immobile countenances56. Dicky Darrell rocked back and forth57 on his heels, a pleased smile on his face.
After a few moments the stable boy led out a horse hitched58 to the most ramshackle and patched-up old side-bar buggy Bob had ever beheld59. Darrell, after several vain attempts, managed to clamber aboard. He gathered up the reins60, and, with exaggerated care, drove into the middle of the street.
Then suddenly he rose to his feet, uttered an ear-piercing exultant61 yell, hurled62 the reins at the horse's head and began to beat the animal with his whip. The horse, startled, bounded forward. The buggy jerked. Darrell sat down violently, but was at once on his feet, plying63 the whip. The crazed man and the crazed horse disappeared up the street, the buggy careening from side to side, Darrell yelling at the top of his lungs. The stableman watched him out of sight.
"Roaring Dick of the Woods!" said he thoughtfully at last. He thrust his hand in his pocket and took out the wad of greenbacks, contemplated64 them for a moment, and thrust them back. He caught Tally's eye. "Funny what different ideas men have of a time," said he.
"Do this regular?" inquired Tally dryly.
"Every year."
Bob got his breath at last.
"Why!" he cried. "What'll happen to him! He'll be killed sure!"
"Not him!" stated the stableman emphatically. "Not Dicky Darrell! He'll smash up good, and will crawl out of the wreck65, and he'll limp back here in just about one half-hour."
"How about the horse and buggy?"
"Oh, we'll catch the horse in a day or two--it's a spoiled colt, anyway--and we'll patch up the buggy if she's patchable. If not, we'll leave it. Usual programme."
The stableman and Tally lit their pipes. Nobody seemed much interested now that the amusement was over. Bob owned a boyish desire to follow the wake of the cyclone66, but in the presence of this imperturbability67, he repressed his inclination68.
"Some day the damn fool will bust69 his head open," said the liveryman, after a ruminative70 pause.
"I shouldn't think you'd rent him a horse," said Bob.
"He pays," yawned the other.
At the end of the half-hour the liveryman dove into his office for a coat, which he put on. This indicated that he contemplated exercising in the sun instead of sitting still in the shade.
"Well, let's look him up," said he. "This may be the time he busts71 his fool head."
"Hope not," was Tally's comment; "can't afford to lose a foreman."
But near the outskirts72 of town they met Roaring Dick limping painfully down the middle of the road. His hat was gone and he was liberally plastered with the soft mud of early spring.
Not one word would he vouchsafe73, but looked at them all malevolently74. His intoxication75 seemed to have evaporated with his good spirits. As answer to the liveryman's question as to the whereabouts of the smashed rig, he waved a comprehensive hand toward the suburbs. At insistence76, he snapped back like an ugly dog.
"Out there somewhere," he snarled77. "Go find it! What the hell do I care where it is? It's mine, isn't it? I paid you for it, didn't I? Well, go find it! You can have it!"
He tramped vigorously back toward the main street, a grotesque78 figure with his red-brown hair tumbled over his white, nervous countenance55 of the pointed chin, with his hooked nose, and his twinkling chipmunk eyes.
"He'll hit the first saloon, if you don't watch out," Bob managed to whisper to Tally.
But the latter shook his head. From long experience he knew the type.
His reasoning was correct. Roaring Dick tramped doggedly79 down the length of the street to the little frame depot80. There he slumped81 into one of the hard seats in the waiting-room, where he promptly82 slept. Tally sat down beside him and withdrew into himself. The twilight83 fell. After an apparently interminable interval a train rumbled84 in. Tally shook his companion. The latter awakened85 just long enough to stumble aboard the smoking car, where, his knees propped86 up, his chin on his breast, he relapsed into deep slumber87.
They arrived at the boarding house late in the evening. Mrs. Hallowell set out a cold supper, to which Bob was ready to do full justice. Ten minutes later he found himself in a tiny box of a bedroom, furnished barely. He pushed open the window and propped it up with a piece of kindling88. The earth had fallen into a very narrow silhouette89, and the star-filled heavens usurped90 all space, crowding the world down. Against the sky the outlines stood significant in what they suggested and concealed--slumbering roof-tops, the satiated mill glowing vaguely91 somewhere from her banked fires, the blackness and mass of silent lumber yards, the mysterious, hushing fingers of the ships' masts, and then low and vague, like a narrow strip of velvet92 dividing these men's affairs from the star-strewn infinite, the wilderness93. As Bob leaned from the window the bigness of these things rushed into his office-starved spirit as air into a vacuum. The cold of the lake breeze entered his lungs. He drew a deep breath of it. For the first time in his short business experience he looked forward eagerly to the morrow.
收听单词发音 |
1
ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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vilest
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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nude
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| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
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hacked
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| 生气 | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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battering
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| n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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segregating
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| （使）分开( segregate的现在分词 )； 分离； 隔离； 隔离并区别对待（不同种族、宗教或性别的人） | |
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turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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30
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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cryptic
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| adj.秘密的，神秘的，含义模糊的 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apex
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| n.顶点，最高点 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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chipmunk
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| n.花栗鼠 | |
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effusively
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| adv.变溢地，热情洋溢地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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truculence
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| n.凶猛，粗暴 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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pulpy
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| 果肉状的，多汁的，柔软的； 烂糊； 稀烂 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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54
imperturbably
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| adv.泰然地，镇静地，平静地 | |
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55
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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countenances
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| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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58
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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59
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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60
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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61
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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62
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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63
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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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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66
cyclone
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| n.旋风，龙卷风 | |
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imperturbability
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| n.冷静；沉着 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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69
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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ruminative
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| adj.沉思的，默想的，爱反复思考的 | |
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71
busts
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| 半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕 | |
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outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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vouchsafe
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| v.惠予，准许 | |
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74
malevolently
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75
intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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76
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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79
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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80
depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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81
slumped
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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82
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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83
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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84
rumbled
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| 发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋） | |
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85
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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86
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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88
kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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89
silhouette
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| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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90
usurped
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| 篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权 | |
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91
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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92
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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93
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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