“Where is everybody?” wondered June. “Is this the Two Bar X?”
“It’s the Two Bar X all right,” said Jack.
His heels were sore from the long walk in high-heeled boots and he limped painfully.
“Open that,” she ordered.
Jack limped over and opened it.
It was a windowless inside room, evidently used as a bedroom by some one who cared little for ventilation. There was a small lamp on the table, and June ordered Jack to light it. She told him to remove the rope, and then she backed into the main room, closing the door behind her.
At some time the room must have been used for storage purposes, because there was a hasp and staple4 fastener. June quickly locked the door, after which she sat down in a chair and drew the first calm breath she had taken since Jack Silver had entered the deserted5 cabin. There was no way for him to get out of that room. She took a small lamp and went on a tour of investigation6. The kitchen was fairly clean and there was plenty of food.
She cooked a meal for herself, but was afraid to take any of it to Silver. She had him under lock and intended keeping him. She felt sure that the men of the Two Bar X would be coming back soon. Perhaps, she thought, they heard of what happened to her and were searching for her.
And what a surprize it would be for them to come back and find her there, and to find Jack Silver a prisoner. She washed the dishes and went back to the main room. It was very quiet. A new moon was peeping over the crest7 of the Tomahawk range, and she heard the distant howling of a coyote.
She put Jack Silver’s gun on the table beside her and sat down to look at some old magazines. Suddenly she heard the muffled8 tread of horses walking and thought it was the boys of the ranch2 coming home. She ran to a front window and looked out, but could see no one.
For several minutes she stood at the window, but the half-light was baffling. She went back and sat down, after deciding that it had been some loose horses. But something made her feel that she was being watched. Perhaps it was sort of sixth sense.
She found herself unable to read. The two dull, uncurtained windows seemed to stare at her like a pair of eyes. Why didn’t they curtain their windows, she wondered? There were noises, too—queer noises.
Suddenly there came the scrape of leather sole on the porch, and the door was flung open. June jerked forward, her hand on the big gun.
Two men stepped inside, looking queerly at her. It was McLeese, the deposed9 foreman, and Chuck Bell, a big, raw-boned, square-faced cowboy who worked for the Two Bar X. McLeese glanced at the hand and gun on the table.
“Yuh got here, eh?” he said easily. “That’s fine. I was kinda late gettin’ here for my stuff. Where’s all the boys?”
“I don’t know,” said June. “I haven’t been here long.”
“Uh-huh,” nodded McLeese. “I suppose they’re late gettin’ in. Well, I’ll gather up my stuff and head back for town. Did yuh come out alone?”
“Two men brought me,” said June.
She didn’t want to tell McLeese anything, because she didn’t trust him.
“And went back and left yuh alone, eh? Dirty trick. This is a lonesome place for a girl, Miss Meline. If yuh want us to, we’ll stay until the boys come back.”
“No, I’m all right,” said June. “I’m not afraid.”
“Uh-huh.”
McLeese went past her and entered the kitchen, where she heard him working around. Chuck Bell came over near the table and sat down in a chair. He began rolling a smoke. June was entirely10 disarmed11. She took her hand away from the gun and picked up a magazine.
As quick as a flash Bell jerked sidewise out of his chair and secured the gun. He leered at June as he shoved the gun inside the waist-band of his overalls12.
“All set, Mac,” he called. McLeese came from the kitchen, glanced quickly toward the table and laughed throatily.
“That’s better than knockin’ her on the head,” he said. “By golly, she had me worried for a minute. I don’t sabe it yet, but that don’t worry me much. Get a rope, Bell.”
Bell walked back to the front door and went out, while McLeese leaned against the table and leered at June.
“Smart little lady, eh? Made a awful hit with Old Man Reber, didn’t yuh? Came out here to catch Jack Silver!”
McLeese laughed scornfully. Bell came in with the rope and gave it to McLeese, who lost no time in tying June’s hands and feet securely.
“Find me a handkerchief or a rag,” he said. “We’d better gag her. Yuh never can tell who might come along. The road is guarded and all that, but we’ll jist play safe.”
“Why don’tcha find out how much she knows, Mac?” he asked.
“Whatsa use? Anyway, we’ve got to get goin’, Chuck. Old Man Reber won’t stop to ask many questions.”
McLeese twisted the handkerchief, forced June’s teeth apart and tied the gag. As he was finishing the job, Bell examined the gun he had taken from her. Suddenly he cried out:
“This is Jack Silver’s gun!”
“What’re yuh talkin’ about?” asked McLeese.
“I tell yuh it is, Mac! There’s the S carved on the bottom of the handle. I’ve seen it lots of times. Where do you suppose she got it?”
McLeese looked at June, who was none too comfortable with the gag between her teeth.
“Take that rag out and let her talk,” suggested Bell, but McLeese shook his head.
“She’d lie about it, anyway.”
He indicated the closed door, where June had locked Silver.
“We’ll put her in there, Chuck. Grab her feet.”
McLeese grasping her by the shoulders and Chuck Bell taking her feet, they carried her over to the door.
McLeese did not seem to think it strange that the hasp was fastened in place. He held June with one arm while he unfastened it. He grasped her again with both hands and kicked the door open.
And as the door flew open, something in the nature of a cyclone14 seemed to strike them. Jack Silver sprang from inside the room, striking Chuck Bell with his shoulder.
June’s feet struck the floor heavily, and McLeese jerked away, letting her fall to the floor as Chuck Bell went spinning across the room. Jack went to his hands and knees, but was up like a flash and into the startled McLeese before he could draw a gun.
He swung a right hand at McLeese’s jaw15, but the blow was too high. It caught McLeese on the bridge of the nose and knocked him to his haunches against the wall. Silver turned quickly to meet the rush of Chuck Bell, and they grappled. It was evident that Bell was so dizzy from his spinning that he forgot to draw a gun; but not so McLeese. He sagged16 back, his broken nose painting his face with gore17, and whipped out his gun and fired upward at Silver.
The report of the gun was echoed by a crash of glass, and the room was plunged18 in darkness. McLeese’s bullet had smashed the lamp, missing Jack Silver’s ear by a fraction of an inch.
Silver whirled Bell around, broke his hold and flung him toward McLeese. It was evident that Bell went down on top of McLeese, and Silver feared for the safety of June, who was only a few feet from McLeese.
He stepped in and tried to drag her out of the mélée, but at that moment one of the men crashed into him, knocking him off his feet. He went rolling against the table, and a man fell over him. Silver struggled to his feet and met the rush of one of them.
In that darkness it was impossible for him to see which one it was. They crashed to the floor, fighting like a pair of animals, but Jack managed to tear himself away and slid along the floor.
The front door opened, and for a moment he could see the silhouette19 of a man, etched blackly against the moonlight.
Came the crashing report of a revolver in the room, and the silhouette sagged down heavily.
The flash of the gun had blinded Silver, and the powder smoke choked him. One of these men had shot the other, thinking it was Jack Silver. He heard this man crawling across the floor, but did not try to stop him. Then he heard him run through the kitchen, slam the door shut and go running across the yard.
Silver ran to the front door. The man who had left the house mounted his horse and spurred toward the gate. Silver turned the man over in the doorway20, and the white face and staring eyes of McLeese looked up at him. He found McLeese’s gun where he had dropped it on the porch, and went back in the house. He secured the lamp in the kitchen, lighted it and went into the main room.
June was still lying where they had dropped her. Silver closed the front door and came back to her. It was a simple task for him to take the gag and ropes off her and help her to a chair, where she sagged wearily. The gag had cut her lips, and there was blood on her wrists, cut by the ropes.
Silver said nothing. His face was bruised21 and one sleeve of his shirt was almost torn off. June stared at him, panting nervously22, as he calmly rolled a cigaret23 with steady fingers.
“Why don’t you say something?” she asked, almost hysterically24.
He looked at her, a half-smile on his lips.
“I dunno,” he said simply. “Don’t seem to be much to say.”
“Well, what is it all about? Oh, why don’t you get excited? You sit there and roll a cigaret just as though nothing had happened. Who—which one did you shoot?”
“I didn’t shoot,” he said slowly. “Bell shot McLeese. Mebbe he thought it was me. He didn’t have any cause to shoot Mac, that I know about. The door over there was too thick for me to hear much that was said, and I’m wonderin’ why they had you tied up.”
June shook her head. She didn’t know.
“Didn’t they tell yuh why?”
“Oh, I don’t know what they talked about. Everything is so mixed up.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“It seems to me,” he said smiling quietly, “that you’ve kinda had a hard time gettin’ started on yore new job.”
“Why did you have me kidnaped?” she asked.
“Me? Lord love yuh, I never did.”
“I’d like to believe you, but—”
“Why should I?”
“Well, I—I—you hate Park Reber.”
“Yo’re not Park Reber.”
“I—I work for him.”
“Lotsa folks work for him, ma’am, and I never kidnaped any of them.”
June bit her lip and studied Jack Silver, who looked at her frankly26. He did not look like a man who would kidnap a woman. There was nothing of the sneak27 about him.
“What do you do for a living?” she asked bluntly.
“Trappin’, mostly. I had a small herd28 of cattle a few years ago, but Park Reber’s men killed ’em off. He didn’t want me to get a start. In the winter I trap from here over into the Clear Valley side of the range. I make a good livin’.”
“What do you do with the cattle you steal from Park Reber?”
It was a very blunt question. Jack Silver’s eyes did not shift, but narrowed slightly, and for several moments he did not speak. Then—
“I’ve never stolen a cow from Park Reber.”
“That doesn’t check up with what I’ve heard, Mr. Silver.”
“Probably not, ma’am, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve eaten Diamond R beef. He killed off my cattle, didn’t he? When I needed a piece of beef real bad, I took it. Reber hates me. He says he hates me because I steal his cattle, but he’s a liar29.”
“Is it because he wants all the valley?”
“No, it’s because I’ve got Cheyenne blood in me. You’ve heard his story?”
“Stealin’ her, ma’am. Nobody knows how she died—if she did die.”
“I’m sorry,” said June simply.
“About my blood?” Silver smiled bitterly. “I can’t help it.”
He got to his feet and walked to a window and he looked out. Finally he came back and sat down.
“I don’t see where your blood would make any difference,” said June.
“Don’t yuh? Yo’re a white woman; would you marry a half-breed?”
“Why, I—I never thought of that.”
“You wouldn’t. Perhaps there are white women who would, but they’d not be the kind I’d want. I don’t want to marry an Injun girl—so there yuh are. I’m only half good enough to marry a white woman, and I’ve got too much white blood to marry an Indian. Everybody hates a breed. Oh, yes they do. Even the Injuns hate a breed.
“Do yuh know what they say about a half-breed? They say he inherits the vices31 of both sides and the virtues32 of neither. Mebbe that’s right.”
“I think so, ma’am. But this ain’t lettin’ us in on the secret of things. Why do yuh suppose McLeese and Bell tied you up. Who kidnapped yuh, and what was their object? I’m gettin’ kinda anxious. Bell rode away, and he might come back in force. I’d hate to have yuh penned in here with me if Reber’s men try to catch me. I’ve got my own gun and the one McLeese had. If Reber found me here with you he’d hang me—especially if he found McLeese dead on the porch.”
“Then you’d better go away,” said June. “I can get along all right, I guess.”
“I guess yuh can’t. After them fellers tied yuh up and tried to lock yuh in that room? We’ll find a horse to ride and I’ll take yuh over to my place. At least you’ll be safe over there.”
June shook her head quickly.
“No, I’ll stay here.”
“Then I’ll stay with yuh.”
“And get hung for being here?”
“Mebbe. I’d sure hate myself all the rest of my life if I left yuh here alone and anythin’ happened to yuh.”
“Why would you care?”
“I’m half white.”
“And you’d do this, even after I forced you to lead me here with a rope around your neck.”
“That wasn’t anythin’. You didn’t pull it tight,” he smiled at her and went to the front door.
“We’ve got to kinda make this place bull-tight,” he said. “Yore name’s June, ain’t it? I heard it was. I’ll call yuh June. It’s easier to say than ma’am. My name’s Jack. Prob’ly be mud before mornin’.”
“Mr. Reber will come looking for me,” said June.
“Yea-a-ah, and he’ll find me,” laughed Jack. “But I’ve got a hunch34 that Mr. Reber is goin’ to have a hard time gettin’ here.”
“Might be. We’ll just wait and see what happens.”
点击收听单词发音
1 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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2 ranch | |
n.大牧场,大农场 | |
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3 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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4 staple | |
n.主要产物,常用品,主要要素,原料,订书钉,钩环;adj.主要的,重要的;vt.分类 | |
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5 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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6 investigation | |
n.调查,调查研究 | |
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7 crest | |
n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
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8 muffled | |
adj.(声音)被隔的;听不太清的;(衣服)裹严的;蒙住的v.压抑,捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 );用厚厚的衣帽包着(自己) | |
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9 deposed | |
v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 );(在法庭上)宣誓作证 | |
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10 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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11 disarmed | |
v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 );使息怒 | |
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12 overalls | |
n.(复)工装裤;长罩衣 | |
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13 bandanna | |
n.大手帕 | |
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14 cyclone | |
n.旋风,龙卷风 | |
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15 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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16 sagged | |
下垂的 | |
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17 gore | |
n.凝血,血污;v.(动物)用角撞伤,用牙刺破;缝以补裆;顶 | |
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18 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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19 silhouette | |
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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20 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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21 bruised | |
[医]青肿的,瘀紫的 | |
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22 nervously | |
adv.神情激动地,不安地 | |
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23 cigaret | |
n.(cigarette)香烟,纸烟,卷烟 | |
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24 hysterically | |
ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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25 inhaled | |
v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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27 sneak | |
vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝);偷偷摸摸做;n.潜行;adj.暗中进行 | |
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28 herd | |
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起 | |
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29 liar | |
n.说谎的人 | |
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30 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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31 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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32 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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33 buck | |
n.雄鹿,雄兔;v.马离地跳跃 | |
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34 hunch | |
n.预感,直觉 | |
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35 spoke | |
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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