The shadows of evening were falling when Saleratus Bill returned from pasturing the wearied horses. Bob had been too exhausted1 to look about him, even to think. From a cache the gun-man produced several bags of food and a side of bacon. Evidently Bright's Cove2 was one of his familiar haunts. After a meal which Bob would have enjoyed more had he not been so dead weary, his captor motioned him to one of the bunks3. Only too glad for an opportunity to rest, Bob tumbled in, clothes and all.
About midnight he half roused, feeling the mountain chill. He groped instinctively5; his hand encountered a quilt, which he drew around his shoulders.
When he awoke it was broad daylight. A persistent6 discomfort7 which had for an hour fought with his drowsiness8 for the ascendancy9, now disclosed itself as a ligature tying his elbows at the back. Evidently Saleratus Bill had taken this precaution while the young man slept. Bob could still use his hands and wrists, after a fashion; he could walk about but he would be unable to initiate10 any effective offence. The situation was admirably analogous11 to that of a hobbled horse. Moreover, the bonds were apparently12 of some broad, soft substance like sacking or harness webbing, so that, after Bob had moved from his constrained13 position, they did not excessively discommode14 him.
He had no means of guessing what the hour might be, and no sounds reached him from the other parts of the house. His muscles were sore and bruised15. For some time he was quite content to lie on his side, thinking matters over.
From his knowledge of the connection between Baker16 and Oldham, Oldham and his captor, Bob had no doubt as to the purpose of his abduction; nor did he fail to guess that now, with the chief witness out of the way, the trial would be hurried where before it had been delayed. Personally he had little to fear beyond a detention--unless he should attempt to escape, or unless a searching party might blunder on his traces. Bob had already made up his mind to use his best efforts to get away. As to the probabilities of a rescue blundering on this retreat, he had no means of guessing; but he shrewdly concluded that Saleratus Bill was taking no chances.
That individual now entered; and, seeing his captive awake, gruffly ordered him to rise. Bob found an abundant breakfast ready, to which he was able to do full justice. In the course of the meal he made several attempts on his jailer's taciturnity, but without success. Saleratus Bill met all his inquiries17, open and guarded, with a sullen18 silence or evasive, curt19 replies.
"It don't noways matter why you're here, or how you're here. You _are_ here, and that's all there's to it."
"How long do I stay?"
"Until I get ready to let you go."
"How can you get word from Mr. Oldham when to let me off?" asked Bob.
But Saleratus Bill refused to rise to the bait.
"I'll let you go when I get ready," he repeated.
Bob was silent for some time.
"You know this lets me off from my promise," said he, nodding backward toward his elbows. "I'll get away if I can."
Saleratus Bill, for the first time, permitted himself a smile.
"There's two ways out of this place," said he--"where we come in, and over north on the trail. You can see every inch--both ways--from here. Besides, don't make no mistakes. I'll shoot you if you make a break."
Bob nodded.
"I believe you," said he.
As though to convince Bob of the utter helplessness of any attempt, Saleratus Bill, leaving the dishes unwashed, led the way in a tour of the valley. Save where the wagon20 road descended21 and where the steep side hill of the north wall arose, the boundaries were utterly22 precipitous. From a narrow gorge23, flanked by water-smoothed rock aprons24, the river boiled between glassy perpendicular25 cliffs.
"There ain't no swimming-holes in that there river," remarked Saleratus Bill grimly.
Bob, leaning forward, could just catch a glimpse of the torrent26 raging and buffeting27 in the narrow box canon, above which the mountains rose tremendous. No stream growths had any chance there. The place was water and rock--nothing more. In the valley itself willows29 and alders30, well out of reach of high water, offered a partial screen to soften31 the savage32 vista33.
The round valley itself, however, was beautiful. Ripening34 grasses grew shoulder high. Shady trees swarmed35 with birds. Bees and other insects hummed through the sun-warmed air.
In vain Bob looked about him for the horses, or for signs of them. They were nowhere to be seen. Saleratus Bill, reading his perplexity, grinned sardonically36.
"Yore friends might come in here," said he, evidently not unwilling37 to expose to Bob the full hopelessness of the latter's case. "And if so, they can trail us in; _and then trail us out again!_" He pointed38 to the lacets of the trail up the north wall. He grinned again. "You and I'd just crawl down a mile of mine shaft39."
Having thus, to his satisfaction, impressed Bob with the utter futility40 of an attempt to escape, Saleratus Bill led the way back to the deserted41 village. There he turned deliberately42 on his captive.
"Now, young feller, you listen to me," said he. "Don't you try no monkey business. There won't be no questions asked, none whatever. As long as you set and look at the scenery, you won't come to no harm; but the minute you make even a bluff43 at gettin' funny--even if yore sorry the next minute--I'll shoot. And don't you never forget and try to get nearer to me than three paces. Don't forget that! I don't rightly want to hurt you; but I'd just as leave shoot you as anybody else."
To this view of the situation Bob gave the expected assent44.
The next three days were ones of routine. Saleratus Bill spent his time rolling brown-paper cigarettes at a spot that commanded both trails. Bob was instructed to keep in sight. He early discovered the cheering fact that trout45 were to be had in the glass-green pools; and so spent hours awkwardly manipulating an improvised46 willow28 pole equipped with the short line and the Brown Hackle without which no mountaineer ever travels the Sierras. His bound elbows and the crudity47 of his tackle lost him many fish. Still, he caught enough for food; and his mind was busy.
Canvassing48 the possibilities, Bob could not but admit that Saleratus Bill knew his job. The river was certain death, and led nowhere except into mysterious and awful granite49 gorges50; the outlets51 by roads were well in sight. For one afternoon Bob seriously contemplated52 hazarding a personal encounter. He conceived that in some manner he could get rid of his bonds at night; that Saleratus Bill must necessarily sleep; and that there might be a chance to surprise the gun-man then. But when night came, Saleratus Bill disappeared into the outer darkness; nor did he return until morning. He might have spent the hours camped under the trees of the more remote meadow, whence in the brilliant moonlight he could keep tabs on the trails, or he might be lying near at hand; Bob had no means of telling. Certainly, again the young man reluctantly acknowledged to himself, Saleratus Bill knew his job!
Nevertheless, as the days slipped by; and Bob's physical strength returned in its full measure, his active and bold spirit again took the initiative. A slow anger seized possession of him. The native combative53 stubbornness of the race asserted itself, the necessity of doing something, the inability tamely to submit to imposed circumstances. Bob's careful analysis of the situation as a whole failed to discover any feasible plan. Therefore he abandoned trying to plan ahead, and fell back on those always-ready and comfortable aphorisims of the adventurous--"sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," and "one thing at a time." Obviously, the first thing to do was to free his arms; after that he would see what he would see.
Every evening Saleratus Bill took the candle and departed, leaving Bob to find his own way to his bunk4. This was the time to cut his bonds; if at all. Unfortunately Bob could find nothing against which to cut them. Saleratus Bill had carefully removed every abrasive54 possibility in the two rooms. Bob very wisely relinquished55 the idea of passing the threshold in search of a suitable rock or piece of tin. He had no notion of risking a bullet until something was likely to be gained by it.
Finally his cogitations brought him an idea. Saleratus Bill was attentive56 enough to such of the simple creature comforts as were within his means. Bob's pipe had been well supplied with tobacco. On the fourth evening Bob filled it just as his jailor was about to take away the candle for the night.
"Just a minute," said Bob. "Let me have a light."
Bill set the candle on the table again, and retired57 the three paces which he never forgot rigidly58 to maintain between himself and his captive. Bob thereupon lit his pipe and nodded his thanks. As soon as Saleratus Bill had well departed, however, he retired to his bunk room, shutting the door carefully after him. There, with great care, he deliberately set to work to coax59 into flame a small fire on the old hearth60, using as fuel the rounds of a broken chair, and as ignition the glowing coal in the bowl of his pipe. Before the hearth he had managed to hang the heavy quilt from his bunk, so that the flicker61 of the flames should not be visible from the outside.
The little fire caught, blazed for a few moments, and fell to a steady glow. Bob fished out one of the chair rungs, jammed the cool end firmly in one of the open cracks between the timbers of the room, turned his back, and deliberately pressed the band around his elbows against the live coal.
A smell of burning cloth immediately filled the air. After a moment the coal went out. Bob replaced the charred63 rung in the fire, extracted another, and repeated the operation.
It was exceedingly difficult to gauge64 the matter accurately65, as Bob soon found out to his cost. He managed to burn more holes in his garment--and himself--than in the bonds. However, he kept at it, and after a half hour's steady and patient effort he was able to snap asunder66 the last strands67. He stretched his arms over his head in an ecstasy68 of physical freedom.
That was all very well, but what next? Bob was suddenly called to a decision which had up to that moment seemed inconceivably remote. Heretofore, an apparent impossibility had separated him from it. Now that impossibility was achieved.
A moment's thought convinced him of the senseless hazard of attempting to slip out through any of the doors or windows. The moon was bright, and Saleratus Bill would have taken his precautions. Bob attacked the floor. Several boards proved to be loose. He pried69 them up cautiously, and so was enabled to drop through into the open space beneath the house. Thence it was easy to crawl away. Saleratus Bill's precautions were most likely taken, Bob argued to himself, with a view toward a man bound at the elbows, not to a man with two hands. In this he was evidently correct, for after a painful effort, he found himself among the high grasses of the meadow.
There were now, as he recognized, two courses open to him: he could either try to discover Saleratus Bill's sleeping place and by surprise overpower that worthy70 as he slept; or he could make the best of the interim71 before his absence was discovered to get as far away as possible. Both courses had obvious disadvantages. The most immediate62 to the first alternative was the difficulty, failing some clue, of finding Saleratus Bill's sleeping place without too positive a risk of discovery; the most immediate to the second was the difficulty of getting to the other side of the river. As Saleratus Bill might be at any one of a thousand places, in or out of doors; whereas the river could be crossed only by the bridge. Bob, without hesitation72, chose the latter.
Therefore he made his way cautiously to that structure. It proved to be lying in broad moonlight. As it constituted the only link with the outside world to the south, Bob could not doubt that his captor had arranged to keep it in sight.
The bridge was, as has been said, suspended across a strait between two rocks by means of heavy wire cables. Slipping beneath these rocks and into the shadow, Bob was rejoiced to find that between the stringers and the shore, smaller cables had been bent73 to act as guy lines. If he could walk "hand over hand," the distance comprised by the width of the stream he could pass the river below the level of the bridge floor. He measured the distance with his eye. It did not look farther than the length of the gymnasium at college. He seized the cable and swung himself out over the waters.
Immediately the swift and boiling current, though twenty feet below, seemed to suck at his feet. The swirling74 and flashing of the water dizzied his brain with the impression of falling upstream. He had to fix his eyes on the black flooring above his head. The steel cable, too, was old and rusted75 and harsh. Bob's hands had not for many years grasped a rope strongly, and in that respect he found them soft. His muscles, cramped76 more than he had realized by the bonds of his captivity77, soon began to drag and stretch. When halfway78 across, suspended above a ravening79 torrent; confronted, tired, by an effort he had needed all his fresh energies to put forth80, Bob would have given a good deal to have been able to clamber aboard the bridge, risk or no risk. It was, however, a clear case of needs must. He finished the span on sheer nerve and will power; and fell thankfully on the rocks below the farther abutment. For a half minute he lay there, stretching slowly his muscles and straightening his hands, which had become cramped like claws. Then he crept, always in the shadow, to the level of the meadow.
Bob was learning to be a mountaineer. Therefore, on the way down, he had subconsciously81 noted82 that from the head of the meadow a steep dry wash climbed straight up to intersect the road. The recollection came to the surface of his mind now. If he could make his way up this wash, he would gain three advantages: he would materially shorten his journey by cutting off a mile or so of the road-grade's twists and doublings; he would avoid the necessity of showing himself so near the Cove in the bright moonlight; and he would leave no tracks where the road touched the valley. Accordingly he turned sharp to the left and began to pick his way upstream, keeping in close to the river and treading as much as possible on the water-worn rocks. The willows and elders protected him somewhat. In this manner he proceeded until he had come to the smooth rock aprons near the gorge from which the river flowed. Here, in accordance with his intention of keeping close in the shadow of the mountain, he was to turn to the right until he should have arrived at the steep "chimney" of the wash. He was about to leave the shelter of the last willows when he looked back. As his eyes turned, a flash of moonlight struck them full, like the heliographing of a mirror. He fixed83 his gaze on the bushes from which the flicker had come. In a moment it was repeated. Then, stooping low, a human figure hurried across a tiny opening, and once again the moonlight reflected from the worn and shining revolver in its hand.
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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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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drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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ascendancy
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| n.统治权，支配力量 | |
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initiate
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| vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入 | |
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analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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discommode
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| v.使失态，使为难 | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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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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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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buffeting
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| 振动 | |
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willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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alders
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| n.桤木( alder的名词复数 ) | |
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soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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ripening
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成 | |
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swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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sardonically
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| adv.讽刺地，冷嘲地 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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40
futility
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| n.无用 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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crudity
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| n.粗糙，生硬；adj.粗略的 | |
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48
canvassing
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| v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的现在分词 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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49
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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50
gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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51
outlets
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| n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店 | |
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52
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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combative
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| adj.好战的；好斗的 | |
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54
abrasive
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| adj.使表面磨损的；粗糙的；恼人的 | |
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55
relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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56
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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57
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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58
rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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59
coax
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| v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取 | |
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60
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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61
flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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62
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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67
strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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pried
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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71
interim
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| adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间 | |
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72
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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73
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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74
swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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75
rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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77
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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78
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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79
ravening
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| a.贪婪而饥饿的 | |
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80
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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81
subconsciously
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| ad.下意识地，潜意识地 | |
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82
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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83
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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