Thirty seconds can be very long sometimes. Long enough to work a miracle or a revolution. In thirty seconds life changed wholly for Barney and Valancy Snaith.
They had gone around the lake one June evening in their disappearing propeller1, fished for an hour in a little creek2, left their boat there, and walked up through the woods to Port Lawrence two miles away. Valancy prowled a bit in the shops and got herself a new pair of sensible shoes. Her old pair had suddenly and completely given out, and this evening she had been compelled to put on the little fancy pair of patent-leather with rather high, slender heels, which she had bought in a fit of folly3 one day in the winter because of their beauty and because she wanted to make one foolish, extravagant4 purchase in her life. She sometimes put them on of an evening in the Blue Castle, but this was the first time she had worn them outside. She had not found it any too easy walking up through the woods in them, and Barney guyed her unmercifully about them. But in spite of the inconvenience, Valancy secretly rather liked the look of her trim ankles and high instep above those pretty, foolish shoes and did not change them in the shop as she might have done.
The sun was hanging low above the pines when they left Port Lawrence. To the north of it the woods closed around the town quite suddenly. Valancy always had a sense of stepping from one world to another—from reality to fairyland—when she went out of Port Lawrence and in a twinkling found it shut off behind her by the armies of the pines.
A mile and a half from Port Lawrence there was a small railroad station with a little station-house which at this hour of the day was deserted5, since no local train was due. Not a soul was in sight when Barney and Valancy emerged from the woods. Off to the left a sudden curve in the track hid it from view, but over the tree-tops beyond, the long plume6 of smoke betokened7 the approach of a through train. The rails were vibrating to its thunder as Barney stepped across the switch. Valancy was a few steps behind him, loitering to gather June-bells along the little, winding8 path. But there was plenty of time to get across before the train came. She stepped unconcernedly over the first rail.
She could never tell how it happened. The ensuing thirty seconds always seemed in her recollection like a chaotic9 nightmare in which she endured the agony of a thousand lifetimes.
The heel of her pretty, foolish shoe caught in a crevice10 of the switch. She could not pull it loose.
“Barney—Barney!” she called in alarm.
Barney turned—saw her predicament—saw her ashen11 face—dashed back. He tried to pull her clear—he tried to wrench12 her foot from the prisoning hold. In vain. In a moment the train would sweep around the curve—would be on them.
Barney dropped on his knees, ghost-white, frantically14 tearing at her shoe-lace. The knot defied his trembling fingers. He snatched a knife from his pocket and slashed16 at it. Valancy still strove blindly to push him away. Her mind was full of the hideous17 thought that Barney was going to be killed. She had no thought for her own danger.
“Barney—go—go—for God’s sake—go!”
“Never!” muttered Barney between his set teeth. He gave one mad wrench at the lace. As the train thundered around the curve he sprang up and caught Valancy—dragging her clear, leaving the shoe behind her. The wind from the train as it swept by turned to icy cold the streaming perspiration18 on his face.
“Thank God!” he breathed.
For a moment they stood stupidly staring at each other, two white, shaken, wild-eyed creatures. Then they stumbled over to the little seat at the end of the station-house and dropped on it. Barney buried his face in his hands and said not a word. Valancy sat, staring straight ahead of her with unseeing eyes at the great pine woods, the stumps19 of the clearing, the long, gleaming rails. There was only one thought in her dazed mind—a thought that seemed to burn it as a shaving of fire might burn her body.
Dr. Trent had told her over a year ago that she had a serious form of heart-disease—that any excitement might be fatal.
If that were so, why was she not dead now? This very minute? She had just experienced as much and as terrible excitement as most people experience in a lifetime, crowded into that endless thirty seconds. Yet she had not died of it. She was not an iota20 the worse for it. A little wobbly at the knees, as any one would have been; a quicker heart-beat, as any one would have; nothing more.
Why!
Was it possible Dr. Trent had made a mistake?
Valancy shivered as if a cold wind had suddenly chilled her to the soul. She looked at Barney, hunched21 up beside her. His silence was very eloquent22. Had the same thought occurred to him? Did he suddenly find himself confronted by the appalling23 suspicion that he was married, not for a few months or a year, but for good and all to a woman he did not love and who had foisted24 herself upon him by some trick or lie? Valancy turned sick before the horror of it. It could not be. It would be too cruel—too devilish. Dr. Trent couldn’t have made a mistake. Impossible. He was one of the best heart specialists in Ontario. She was foolish—unnerved by the recent horror. She remembered some of the hideous spasms25 of pain she had had. There must be something serious the matter with her heart to account for them.
But she had not had any for nearly three months.
Why?
“I suppose we’d better be hiking back. Sun’s getting low. Are you good for the rest of the road?”
Barney went across the clearing and picked up the parcel he had dropped—the parcel containing her new shoes. He brought it to her and let her take out the shoes and put them on without any assistance, while he stood with his back to her and looked out over the pines.
They walked in silence down the shadowy trail to the lake. In silence Barney steered28 his boat into the sunset miracle that was Mistawis. In silence they went around feathery headlands and across coral bays and silver rivers where canoes were slipping up and down in the afterglow. In silence they went past cottages echoing with music and laughter. In silence drew up at the landing-place below the Blue Castle.
Valancy went up the rock steps and into the house. She dropped miserably on the first chair she came to and sat there staring through the oriel, oblivious29 of Good Luck’s frantic15 purrs of joy and Banjo’s savage30 glares of protest at her occupancy of his chair.
Barney came in a few minutes later. He did not come near her, but he stood behind her and asked gently if she felt any the worse for her experience. Valancy would have given her year of happiness to have been able honestly to answer “Yes.”
“No,” she said flatly.
Barney went into Bluebeard’s Chamber31 and shut the door. She heard him pacing up and down—up and down. He had never paced like that before.
And an hour ago—only an hour ago—she had been so happy!
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1
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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2
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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3
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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4
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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5
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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6
plume
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| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
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7
betokened
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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9
chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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10
crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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11
ashen
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| adj.灰的 | |
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12
wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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13
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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15
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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16
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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17
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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18
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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19
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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20
iota
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| n.些微，一点儿 | |
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21
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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22
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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24
foisted
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| 强迫接受，把…强加于( foist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
spasms
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| n.痉挛( spasm的名词复数 )；抽搐；（能量、行为等的）突发；发作 | |
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26
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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28
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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29
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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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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31
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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