On returning to headquarters, as Bob was naturally somewhat incapacitated for manual work, he was given the fire patrol. This meant that every day he was required to ride to four several "lookouts1" on the main ridge3, from which points he could spy abroad carefully over vast stretches of mountainous country. One of these was near the meadow of the cold spring whence the three of them had first caught sight of the Granite4 Creek5 fire. Thence he turned sharp to the north along the ridge top. The trail led among great trees that dropped away to right and left on the slopes of the mountain. Through them he caught glimpses of the blue distance, or far-off glittering snow, or unexpected canon depths. The riding was smooth, over undulating knolls6. Every once in a while passing through a "_puerto suelo_," he looked on either side to tiny green meadows, from which streams were born. Occasionally he saw a deer, or more likely small bands of the wild mountain cattle that swung along before him, heads held high, eyes staring, nostrils7 expanded. Then Bob felt his pony's muscles stiffen8 beneath his thighs9, and saw the animal's little ears prick10 first forward at the cattle, then back for his master's commands.
After three miles of this he came out on a broad plateau formed by the joining of his ridge with that of the Baldy range. Here Granite Creek itself rose, and the stream that flowed by the mill. It was a country of wild, park-like vistas11 between small pines, with a floor of granite and shale12. Over it frowned the steeps of Baldy, with its massive domes13, its sheer precipices14, and its scant15 tree-growth clinging to its sides. Against the sky it looked very rugged16, very old, very formidable; and the sky, behind its yellowed age, was inconceivably blue.
Sometimes Bob rode up into the pass. More often he tied his horse and took the steep rough trail afoot. The way was guarded by strange, distorted trees, and rocks carved into fantastic shapes. Some of them were piled high like temples. Others, round and squat17, resembled the fat and obscene deities18 of Eastern religions. There were seals and elephants and crocodiles and allegorical monsters, some of them as tiny as the grotesque19 Japanese carvings20, others as stupendous as Egypt. The trail led by them, among them, between them. At their feet clutched snowbush, ground juniper, the gnarled fingers of manzanita, like devotees. A foaming21 little stream crept and plunged22 over bare and splintered rocks. Twisted junipers and the dwarf23 pines of high elevations24 crouched25 like malignant26 gnomes27 amongst the boulders28, or tossed their arms like witches on the crags. This bold and splintered range rose from the softness and mystery of the great pine woods on the lower ridge as a rock rises above cool water.
The pass itself was not over fifty feet wide. Either side of it like portals were the high peaks. It lay like the notch29 of a rifle sight between them. Once having gained the tiny platform, Bob would sit down and look abroad over the wonderful Sierra.
Never did he tire of this. At one eye-glance he could comprehend a summer's toilsome travel. To reach yonder snowy peak would consume the greater part of a week. Unlike the Swiss alps, which he had once visited, these mountains were not only high, but wide as well. They had the whole of blue space in which to lie. They were like the stars, for when Bob had convinced himself that his eye had settled on the farthest peak, then still farther, taking half-guessed iridescent30 form out of the blue, another shone.
But his business was not with these distances. Almost below him, so precipitous is the easterly slope of Baldy, lay canons, pine forests, lesser31 ridges32, streams, the green of meadows. Patiently, piece by piece, he must go over all this, watching for that faint blue haze33, that deepening of the atmosphere, that almost imagined pearliness against the distant hills which meant new fire.
"Don't look for _smoke_," California John had told him. "When a fire gets big enough for smoke, you can't help but see it. It's the new fire you want to spot before it gets started. Then it's easy handled. And new fire's almighty34 easy to overlook. Sometimes it's as hard for a greenhorn to see as a deer. Look close!"
So Bob, concentrating his attention, looked close. When he had satisfied himself, he turned square around.
From this point of view he saw only pine forests. They covered the ridge below him like a soft green mantle35 thrown down in folds. They softened36 the more distant ranges. They billowed and eddied37, and dropped into unguessed depths, and came bravely up to eyesight again far away. At last they seemed to change colour abruptly38, and a brown haze overcast39 them through which glimmered40 a hint of yellow. This Bob knew was the plain, hot and brown under the July sun. It rose dimly through the mist to the height of his eye. Thus, even at eight thousand feet, Bob seemed to stand in the cup of the earth, beneath the cup of the sky.
The other two lookouts were on the edge of the lower ridge. They gave an opportunity of examining various coves42 and valleys concealed43 by the shoulder of the ridge from the observer on Baldy. To reach them Bob rode across the plateau of the ridge, through the pine forests, past the mill.
Here, if the afternoon was not too far advanced, he used to allow himself the luxury of a moment's chat with some of his old friends. Welton, coat off, his burly face perspiring44 and red, always greeted him jovially45.
"Spend all your salary this month?" he would ask. "Does the business keep you occupied?" And once or twice, seriously, "Bob, haven't you had enough of this confounded nonsense? You're getting too old to find any great fun riding around in this kid fashion pretending to do things. There's big business to be done in this country, and we need you boys to help. When I was a youngster I'd have jumped hard at half the chance that's offered you."
But Bob never would answer seriously. He knew this to be his only chance of avoiding even a deeper misunderstanding between himself and this man whom he had learned to admire and love.
Once he met Baker46. That young man greeted him as gaily47 as ever, but into his manner had crept the shadow of a cold contempt. The stout48 youth's standards were his own, and rigid49, as is often the case with people of his type. Bob felt himself suddenly and ruthlessly excluded from the ranks of those worthy50 of Baker's respect. A hard quality of character, hitherto unsuspected, stared from the fat young man's impudent51 blue eyes. Baker was perfectly52 polite, and suitably jocular; but he had not much time for Bob; and soon plunged into a deep discussion with Welton from which Bob was unmistakably excluded.
On one occasion, too, he encountered Oldham riding down the trail from headquarters. The older man had nodded to him curtly53. His eyes had gleamed through his glasses with an ill-concealed and frosty amusement, and his thin lips had straightened to a perceptible sneer54. All at once Bob divined an enemy. He could not account for this, as he had never dealt with the man; and the accident of his discovering the gasoline pump on the Lucky Land Company's creeks55 could hardly be supposed to account for quite so malignant a triumph. Next time Bob saw Welton, he asked his old employer about it.
"What have I ever done to Oldham?" he inquired. "Do you know?"
"Oldham?" repeated Welton.
"Baker's land agent."
"Oh, yes. I never happened to run across him. Don't know him at all."
Bob put down Oldham's manifest hatred56 to pettiness of disposition57.
Even from Merker, the philosophic58 storekeeper, Bob obtained scant comfort.
"Men like you, with ability, youth, energy," said Merker, "producing nothing, just conserving59, saving. Conditions should be such that the possibility of fire, of trespass60, of all you fellows guard against, should be eliminated. Then you could supply steam, energy, accomplishment61, instead of being merely the lubrication. It's an economic waste."
Bob left the mill-yards half-depressed, half-amused. All his people had become alien. He opposed them in nothing, his work in no way interfered62 with their activities; yet, without his volition63, and probably without their realization64, he was already looked upon as one to be held at arms' length. It saddened Bob, as it does every right-thinking young man when he arrives at setting up his own standards of conduct and his own ways of life. He longed with a great longing65, which at the same time he realized to be hopeless, to make these people feel as he felt. It gave him real pain to find that his way of life could never gain anything beyond disapproval66 or incomprehension. It took considerable fortitude67 to conclude that he now must build his own structure, unsupported. He was entering the loneliness of soul inseparable from complete manhood.
After such disquieting68 contacts, the more uncomfortable in that they defied analysis, Bob rode out to the last lookout2 and gazed abroad over the land. The pineclad bluff69 fell away nearly four thousand feet. Below him the country lay spread like a relief map--valley, lesser ranges, foothills, far-off plain, the green of trees, the brown of grass and harvest, the blue of glimpsed water, the haze of heat and great distance, the thread-like gossamer70 of roads, the half-guessed shimmer71 of towns and cities in the mirage72 of summer, all the opulence73 of earth and the business of human activity. Millions dwelt in that haze, and beyond them, across the curve of the earth, hundreds of millions more, each actuated by its own selfishness or charity, by its own conception of the things nearest it. Not one in a multitude saw or cared beyond the immediate74, nor bothered his head with what it all meant, or whether it meant anything. Bob, sitting on his motionless horse high up there in the world, elevated above it all, in an isolation75 of pines, close under his sky, bent76 his ear to the imagined faint humming of the spheres. Affairs went on. The machine fulfilled its function. All things had their place, the evil as well as the good, the waste as well as the building, balancing like the governor of an engine the opposition77 of forces. He saw, by the soft flooding of light, rather than by any flash of insight, that were the shortsightedness, the indifference78, the ignorance, the crass79 selfishness to be eliminated before yet the world's work was done, the energies of men, running too easily, would outstrip80 the development of the Plan, as a machine "races" without its load. A humility81 came to him. His not to judge his fellows by the mere41 externals of their deeds. He could only act honestly according to what he saw, as he hoped others were doing.
"Just so a man isn't _mean_, I don't know as I have any right to despise him," he summed it all up to his horse. "But," he added cheerfully, "that doesn't prevent my kicking him into the paths of righteousness if he tries to steal my watch."
The sun dipped toward the heat haze of the plains. It was from a golden world that Bob turned at last to ride through the forest to the cheerfulness of his rude camp.
1 lookouts | |
n.寻找( 某人/某物)( lookout的名词复数 );是某人(自己)的问题;警戒;瞭望台 | |
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2 lookout | |
n.注意,前途,瞭望台 | |
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3 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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4 granite | |
adj.花岗岩,花岗石 | |
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5 creek | |
n.小溪,小河,小湾 | |
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6 knolls | |
n.小圆丘,小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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7 nostrils | |
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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8 stiffen | |
v.(使)硬,(使)变挺,(使)变僵硬 | |
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9 thighs | |
n.股,大腿( thigh的名词复数 );食用的鸡(等的)腿 | |
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10 prick | |
v.刺伤,刺痛,刺孔;n.刺伤,刺痛 | |
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11 vistas | |
长条形景色( vista的名词复数 ); 回顾; 展望; (未来可能发生的)一系列情景 | |
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12 shale | |
n.页岩,泥板岩 | |
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13 domes | |
n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 );像圆屋顶一样的东西;圆顶体育场 | |
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14 precipices | |
n.悬崖,峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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15 scant | |
adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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16 rugged | |
adj.高低不平的,粗糙的,粗壮的,强健的 | |
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17 squat | |
v.蹲坐,蹲下;n.蹲下;adj.矮胖的,粗矮的 | |
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18 deities | |
n.神,女神( deity的名词复数 );神祗;神灵;神明 | |
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19 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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20 carvings | |
n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 );雕刻术;雕刻品;雕刻物 | |
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21 foaming | |
adj.布满泡沫的;发泡 | |
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22 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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23 dwarf | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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24 elevations | |
(水平或数量)提高( elevation的名词复数 ); 高地; 海拔; 提升 | |
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25 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 malignant | |
adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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27 gnomes | |
n.矮子( gnome的名词复数 );侏儒;(尤指金融市场上搞投机的)银行家;守护神 | |
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28 boulders | |
n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 );巨砾;(受水或天气侵蚀而成的)巨石;漂砾 | |
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29 notch | |
n.(V字形)槽口,缺口,等级 | |
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30 iridescent | |
adj.彩虹色的,闪色的 | |
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31 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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32 ridges | |
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 );山脊;脊状突起;大气层的)高压脊 | |
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33 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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34 almighty | |
adj.全能的,万能的;很大的,很强的 | |
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35 mantle | |
n.斗篷,覆罩之物,罩子;v.罩住,覆盖,脸红 | |
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36 softened | |
(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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37 eddied | |
起漩涡,旋转( eddy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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39 overcast | |
adj.阴天的,阴暗的,愁闷的;v.遮盖,(使)变暗,包边缝;n.覆盖,阴天 | |
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40 glimmered | |
v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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42 coves | |
n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 );家伙 | |
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43 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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44 perspiring | |
v.出汗,流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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45 jovially | |
adv.愉快地,高兴地 | |
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46 baker | |
n.面包师 | |
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47 gaily | |
adv.欢乐地,高兴地 | |
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49 rigid | |
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
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50 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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51 impudent | |
adj.鲁莽的,卑鄙的,厚颜无耻的 | |
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52 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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53 curtly | |
adv.简短地 | |
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54 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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55 creeks | |
n.小湾( creek的名词复数 );小港;小河;小溪 | |
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56 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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57 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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58 philosophic | |
adj.哲学的,贤明的 | |
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59 conserving | |
v.保护,保藏,保存( conserve的现在分词 ) | |
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60 trespass | |
n./v.侵犯,闯入私人领地 | |
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61 accomplishment | |
n.完成,成就,(pl.)造诣,技能 | |
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62 interfered | |
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉 | |
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63 volition | |
n.意志;决意 | |
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64 realization | |
n.实现;认识到,深刻了解 | |
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65 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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66 disapproval | |
n.反对,不赞成 | |
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67 fortitude | |
n.坚忍不拔;刚毅 | |
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68 disquieting | |
adj.令人不安的,令人不平静的v.使不安,使忧虑,使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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69 bluff | |
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗 | |
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70 gossamer | |
n.薄纱,游丝 | |
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71 shimmer | |
v./n.发微光,发闪光;微光 | |
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72 mirage | |
n.海市蜃楼,幻景 | |
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73 opulence | |
n.财富,富裕 | |
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74 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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75 isolation | |
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离 | |
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76 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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77 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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78 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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79 crass | |
adj.愚钝的,粗糙的;彻底的 | |
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80 outstrip | |
v.超过,跑过 | |
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81 humility | |
n.谦逊,谦恭 | |
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