Part One Chapter 9

In the evening I was involved in that trek¹ to the mountains and didn't see Dean or Carlo for five days. Babe Rawlins had the use of her em- ployer's car for the weekend. We brought suits and hung them on the car windows and took off for Central City, Ray Rawlins driving, Tim Gray lounging in the back, and Babe up front. It was my first view of the interior of the Rockies. Central City is an old mining town that was once called the Richest  Square Mile in the World, where a veritable shelf of silver had been found  by the old buzzards who roamed the hills. They grew wealthy overnight  and had a beautiful little opera house built in the midst of their shacks² on the steep slope. Lillian Rus- sell had come there, and opera stars from  Europe. Then Central City became a ghost town, till the energetic Chamber⁴ of Commerce types of the new West decided⁵ to revive the place. They polished up the opera house, and every summer stars from the Metropolitan⁶ came  out  and performed. It was a big vacation for everybody. Tourists came  from everywhere, even Hollywood stars. We drove up the mountain and found the narrow streets chock full of chichi tourists. I thought of Ma- jor's Sam, and Major was right. Major himself was there, turning on his big social smile to everybody and ooh-ing and aah-ing most sincerely over everything. "Sal," he cried, clutching my arm, "just look at this old town. Think how it  was  a hundred--what the hell, only eighty, sixty years ago; they had opera!"
 here."
 "Yeah," I said, imitating one of his characters, "but ithey'rei
"The bastards," he cursed. But he went off to enjoy himself, Betty Gray on his arm.
Babe Rawlins was an enterprising blonde. She knew of an old miner's house at the edge of town where we boys could sleep for the weekend; all we had to do was clean it out. We could also throw vast parties  there. It was an old shack³ of a thing covered with an inch of dust inside; it had a porch and a well in back. Tim Gray and Ray Raw- lins rolled up their sleeves and started in cleaning it, a major job that took them all afternoon and part of the night. But they had a bucket of beer bottles and everything was fine.
As for me, I was scheduled to be a guest at the opera that after- noon,  escorting Babe on my arm. I wore a suit of Tim's. Only a few days ago I'd  come into Denver like a bum⁷; now I was all racked up sharp  in  a  suit,  with  a  beautiful  well-dressed  blonde  on  my  arm, bowing to dignitaries  and chatting in the lobby under andeliers. I wondered what Mississippi Gene⁸ would say if he could see me.
The opera was iFidelioi. "What gloom!" cried the baritone, rising out of the dungeon⁹ under a groaning¹⁰ stone. I cried for it. That's how I see life too. I was so interested in the opera that for a while I for- got the circumstances of my crazy life and got lost in the great mourn- ful sounds of Beethoven and the rich Rembrandt tones of his story.
"Well, Sal, how did you like the production for this year?" asked Denver D. Doll proudly in the street outside. He was connected with the opera association.
"What gloom, what gloom," I said. "It's absolutely great."
"The next thing you'll have to do is meet the members of the cast," he went on in his official tones, but luckily he forgot this in the rush of other things, and vanished.
Babe and I went back to the miner's shack. I took off my duds and  joined the boys in the cleaning. It was an enormous job. Roland Major  sat  in  the  middle  of  the  front  room  that  had  already  been cleaned and refused to help. On a little table in front of him he had his bottle of beer and his glass. As we rushed around with buckets of wa- ter and  brooms he reminisced. "Ah, if you could just come with me sometime and drink Cinzano and hear the musicians of Bandol, then you'd be living. Then there's Normandy in the summers, the sabots, the fine old Calvados. Come on,  Sam," he said to his invisible pal¹¹. "Take the wine out of the water and let's see if it got cold enough while we fished." Straight out of Hemingway, it was.
We called out to girls who went by in the street. "Come on help us clean up the joint¹². Everybody's invited to our party tonight." They joined us. We had a huge crew working for us. Finally the singers in the opera  chorus, mostly young kids, came over and pitched in. The sun went down.
Our day's work over, Tim, Rawlins, and I decided to sharp up for the big night. We went across town to the rooming house where the opera stars were living. Across the night we heard the beginning of the evening performance. "Just right," said Rawlins. "Latch¹³ on to some of these razors and towels and we'll spruce up a bit." We also took hair- brushes, colognes, shaving lotions¹⁴, and went laden¹⁶ into the bathroom. We all took baths and sang. "Isn't this great?" Tim Gray kept saying. "Using the opera stars'  bathroom and towels and shaving lotion¹⁵ and electric azors."
It was a wonderful night. Central City is two miles high; at first you get drunk on the altitude, then you get tired, and there's a fever in your soul. We approached the lights around the opera house down the narrow  dark street; then we took a sharp right and hit some old sa- loons with swinging doors. Most of the tourists were in the opera. We started  off  with  a  few  extra-size  beers.  There  was  a  player  piano. Beyond the back door was a view of mountainsides in the moonlight. I let out a yahoo. The night was on. 
We hurried back to our miner's shack. Everything was in prepa- ration¹⁷ for the big party. The girls, Babe and Betty, cooked up a snack of beans and franks, and then we danced and started on the beer for fair. The opera over, great crowds of young girls came piling into our place. Rawlins and Tim and I licked our lips. We grabbed them and danced. There was no music, just dancing. The place filled up. People began to bring bottles. We rushed out to hit the bars and rushed back.
The night was getting more and more frantic¹⁸. I wished Dean and Carlo were there--then I realized they'd be out of place and un- happy. They were like the man with the dungeon stone and the gloom, rising from  the  underground, the sordid¹⁹ hipsters of America, a new beat generation that I was slowly joining.
The  boys  from  the  chorus  showed  up.  They  began  singing "Sweet Adeline." They also sang phrases such as "Pass me the beer" and "What are you doing with your face hanging out?" and great long baritone  howls of "Fi-de-lio!" "Ah me, what gloom!" I sang. The girls were terrific. They went out in the backyard and necked with us. There were beds in the other rooms, the uncleaned dusty ones, and I had a girl sitting on one and was talking with her when suddenly there was a great inrush of young  ushers²⁰  from the opera, who just grabbed girls and kissed them without  proper come-ons. Teenagers, drunk, dishe- veled, excited--they ruined our party. Inside of five minutes every sin- gle girl was gone and a great big fraternity-type party got under way with banging of beer bottles and roars.
Ray and Tim and I decided to hit the bars. Major was gone, Babe and Betty were gone. We tottered²¹ into the night. The opera crowd was  jamming the bars from bar to wall. Major was shouting above heads. The eager, bespectacled Denver D. Doll was shaking hands with everybody  and  saying,  "Good afternoon,  how are you?" and  when midnight came he was saying, "Good afternoon, how are iyoui?" At one point I saw him going  off somewhere with a dignitary. Then he came back with a middle-aged²² woman; next minute he was talking to a couple of young ushers in the street. The next minute he was shaking my  hand  without  recognizing  me  and  saying,  "Happy  New  Year, m'boy."  He  wasn't drunk  on  liquor,  just  drunk on  what  he  liked-- crowds of people milling. Everybody knew him. "Happy New Year," he called, and sometimes "Merry Christmas." He said this all the time. At Christmas he said Happy Halloween.
There was a tenor²³ in the bar who was highly respected by eve- ryone;  Denver Doll had insisted that I meet him and I was trying to avoid it; his name was D'Annunzio or some such thing. His wife was with him. They sat sourly at a table. There was also some kind of Ar- gentinian tourist at the bar. Rawlins gave him a shove to make room; he turned and snarled²⁴. Rawlins handed me his glass and knocked him down on the brass²⁵ rail with one punch. The man was momentarily out. There were screams; Tim and I  scooted Rawlins out. There was so much confusion the sheriff couldn't  even thread his way through the crowd to find the victim. Nobody could identify Rawlins. We went to other bars. Major staggered up a dark street. "What the hell's the mat- ter? Any fights? Just call on me." Great laughter rang from all sides. I wondered what the Spirit of the Mountain was  thinking, and looked up and saw jackpines in the moon, and saw ghosts of old miners, and wondered about it. In the whole eastern dark wall of the  Divide this night there was silence and the whisper of the wind, except in the ra- vine where we roared; and on the other side of the Divide was the great  Western  Slope,  and  the  big  plateau  that  went  to  Steamboat Springs, and dropped, and led you to the western Colorado desert and the Utah desert; all in darkness now as we fumed²⁶ and screamed in our mountain nook, mad drunken Americans in the mighty²⁷ land. We were on the roof of America and all we could do was yell, I guess--across the night, eastward²⁸ over  the Plains, where somewhere an old man with white hair was probably walking toward us with the Word, and would arrive any minute and make us silent.
Rawlins insisted on going back to the bar where he'd fought. Tim and I didn't like it but stuck to him. He went up to D'Annunzio, the tenor, and threw a highball in his face. We dragged him out. A ba- ritone singer from the chorus joined us and we went to a regular Cen- tral City bar. Here Ray called the waitress a whore. A group of sullen²⁹ men were ranged along the bar; they hated tourists. One of them said, "You boys better be out of here by the count of ten." We were. We stag- gered back to the shack and went to sleep.
In the morning I woke up and turned over; a big cloud of dust rose  from the mattress³⁰. I yanked at the window; it was nailed. Tim Gray was in the bed too. We coughed and sneezed. Our breakfast con- sisted of stale beer.  Babe came back from her hotel and we got our things together to leave.
Everything seemed to be collapsing³¹. As we were going out to the car Babe  slipped  and  fell  flat  on  her  face.  Poor  girl was  over- wrought³². Her brother and Tim and I helped her up. We got in the car; Major and Betty joined us. The sad ride back to Denver began.
Suddenly we came down from the mountain and overlooked the great sea-plain of Denver; heat rose as from an oven. We began to sing songs. I was itching³³ to get on to San Francisco.

1 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

2 shacks   

n.窝棚，简陋的小屋( shack的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They live in shacks which they made out of wood. 他们住在用木头搭成的简陋的小屋里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most people in Port au-Prince live in tin shacks. 太子港的大多数居民居住在铁皮棚里。 来自互联网

3 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

4 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

7 bum   

n.臀部；流浪汉，乞丐；vt.乞求，乞讨

参考例句：

• A man pinched her bum on the train so she hit him.在火车上有人捏她屁股，她打了那人。
• The penniless man had to bum a ride home.那个身无分文的人只好乞求搭车回家。

8 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

9 dungeon   

n.地牢，土牢

参考例句：

• They were driven into a dark dungeon.他们被人驱赶进入一个黑暗的地牢。
• He was just set free from a dungeon a few days ago.几天前，他刚从土牢里被放出来。

10 groaning   

adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
• The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着，无人救助。

11 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

12 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

13 latch   

n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁

参考例句：

• She laid her hand on the latch of the door.她把手放在门闩上。
• The repairman installed an iron latch on the door.修理工在门上安了铁门闩。

14 lotions   

n.洗液，洗剂，护肤液( lotion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Do not use lotions or oils to lubricate the skin. 不要用润肤剂或油类来润滑皮肤。 来自辞典例句
• They were experts at preserving the bodies of the dead by embalming them with special lotions. 他们具有采用特种药物洗剂防止尸体腐烂的专门知识。 来自辞典例句

15 lotion   

n.洗剂

参考例句：

• The lotion should be applied sparingly to the skin.这种洗液应均匀地涂在皮肤上。
• She lubricates her hands with a lotion.她用一种洗剂来滑润她的手。

16 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

17 ration   

n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应

参考例句：

• The country cut the bread ration last year.那个国家去年削减面包配给量。
• We have to ration the water.我们必须限量用水。

18 frantic   

adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的

参考例句：

• I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
• He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。

19 sordid   

adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的

参考例句：

• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively.他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。
• They lived in a sordid apartment.他们住在肮脏的公寓房子里。

20 ushers   

n.引座员( usher的名词复数 )；招待员；门房；助理教员v.引，领，陪同( usher的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Seats clicked, ushers bowed while he looked blandly on. 座位发出啪啦啪啦的声响，领座员朝客人们鞠躬，而他在一边温和殷勤地看着。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• The minister then offers a brief prayer of dedication, and the ushers return to their seats. 于是牧师又做了一个简短的奉献的祈祷，各招待员也各自回座位。 来自辞典例句

21 tottered   

v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠

参考例句：

• The pile of books tottered then fell. 这堆书晃了几下，然后就倒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wounded soldier tottered to his feet. 伤员摇摇晃晃地站了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

23 tenor   

n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意

参考例句：

• The tenor of his speech was that war would come.他讲话的大意是战争将要发生。
• The four parts in singing are soprano,alto,tenor and bass.唱歌的四个声部是女高音、女低音、男高音和男低音。

24 snarled   

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

参考例句：

• The dog snarled at us. 狗朝我们低声吼叫。
• As I advanced towards the dog, It'snarled and struck at me. 我朝那条狗走去时，它狂吠着向我扑来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

26 fumed   

愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟

参考例句：

• He fumed with rage because she did not appear. 因为她没出现，所以他大发雷霆。
• He fumed and fretted and did not know what was the matter. 他烦躁，气恼，不知是怎么回事。

27 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

28 eastward   

adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部

参考例句：

• The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
• The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去，他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。

29 sullen   

adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的

参考例句：

• He looked up at the sullen sky.他抬头看了一眼阴沉的天空。
• Susan was sullen in the morning because she hadn't slept well.苏珊今天早上郁闷不乐，因为昨晚没睡好。

30 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

31 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

32 wrought   

v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的

参考例句：

• Events in Paris wrought a change in British opinion towards France and Germany.巴黎发生的事件改变了英国对法国和德国的看法。
• It's a walking stick with a gold head wrought in the form of a flower.那是一个金质花形包头的拐杖。

33 itching   

adj.贪得的，痒的，渴望的v.发痒( itch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The itching was almost more than he could stand. 他痒得几乎忍不住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My nose is itching. 我的鼻子发痒。 来自《简明英汉词典》