章节正文
Freckles' word for it, miss. He knows the old swamp better than any
of us, except me, and if he says `go by the trail,' you'd best do it."
The Angel hesitated. She wanted to recross the swamp and try to
reach the horse. She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save
her crossing the swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while
the trail added over a mile to the walk. She knew the path.
She intended to run for dear life the instant she felt herself from
their sight, and tucked in the folds of her blouse was a fine
little 32-caliber revolver that her father had presented her for
her share in what he was pleased to call her military exploit.
One last glance at Freckles showed her the agony in his eyes, and
immediately she imagined he had some other reason. She would follow
the trail.
"All right," she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance. "If you say
so, I'll return by the trail to please you. Good-bye, everybody."
She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
"You damned fool! Stop her!" growled Wessner. "Keep her till we're
loaded, anyhow. You're playing hell! Can't you see that when this
thing is found out, there she'll be to ruin all of us. If you let
her go, every man of us has got to cut, and some of us will be
caught sure."
Jack sprang forward. Freckles' heart muffled in his throat.
The Angel seemed to divine Jack's coming. She was humming a
little song. She deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads
of the curious grasses that grew all around her. When she straightened,
she took a step backward and called: "Ho! Freckles, the Bird Woman
wants that natural history pamphlet returned. It belongs to a set
she is going to have bound. That's one of the reasons we put it
under the box. You be sure to get them as you go home tonight, for
fear it rains or becomes damp with the heavy dews."
"All right," said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had
heard before.
Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack. She was
overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
"You won't forget that ride and the red tie," she half asserted,
half questioned.
Jack succumbed. Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's,
soul and body. His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as
he softly re-echoed Freckles' "All right." With her head held well
up, the Angel walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
"Drop your damned staring and saw wood," he shouted. "Don't you
know anything at all about how to treat a lady?" It might have been
a question which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires
in the cabins of Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe
and stirring the endless kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had
taught him to do even as well as he had by the Angel.
The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began
working desperately. Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow
the Angel and to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp.
Freckles' heart sank within him, but Jack was in a delirium and
past all caution.
"Yes," he sneered. "Mebby all of you had better give over on the
saw and run after the girl. I guess not! Seems to me I got the
favors. I didn't see no bouquets on the rest of you! If anybody
follows her, I do, and I'm needed here among such a pack of idiots.
There's no danger in that baby face. She wouldn't give me away!
You double and work like forty, while me and Wessner will take the
axes and begin to cut in on the other side."
"What about the noise?" asked Wessner.
"No difference about the noise," answered Jack. "She took us to be
from McLean's gang, slick as grease. Make the chips fly!"
So all of them attacked the big tree.
Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited. In their haste to
fell the tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and
leave them free to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
The Angel was on the trail and safely started. The cold
perspiration made Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little
streams down his chest. It would take her more time to follow the
trail, but her safety was Freckles' sole thought in urging her to
go that way. He tried to figure on how long it would require to
walk to the carriage. He wondered if the Bird Woman had unhitched.
He followed the Angel every step of the way. He figured on when she
would cross the path of the clearing, pass the deep pool where his
"find-out" frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and reach the carriage.
He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it
would take them to pack and start. He knew now that they would
understand, and the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time
to save his wager. She could never do it, for the saw was over half
through, and Jack and Wessner cutting into the opposite side of
the tree. It appeared as if they could fell at least that tree,
before McLean could come, and if they did he lost his wager.
When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner
to wreak his insanevengeance on, or would they take him along to
the next tree and dispose of him when they had stolen all the
timber they could? Jack had said that he should not be touched
until he left. Surely he would not run all that risk for one tree,
when he had many others of far greater value marked. Freckles felt
that he had some hope to cling to now, but he found himself praying
that the Angel would hurry.
Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water. Freckles
arose and showed him where he kept his drinking-water. Jack drank
in great gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said: "When a
man's got a chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not
be mixed up in any dirty business. I wish to God I was out of this!"
Freckles answered heartily: "I wish I was, too!"
Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough laughter.
"Blest if I blame you," he said. "But you had your chance!
We offered you a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer.
I ain't envying you when he gives you his."
"You're six to one," answered Freckles. "It will be easy enough for
you to be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't
blacken me soul!"
"Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty,"
said Jack.
When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed
with the echo. Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart.
That was so much accomplished. They knew where to dispose of it
safely, with no questions asked. Before the day was over, they
could remove three others, all suitable for veneer and worth far
more than this. Then they would leave Freckles to Wessner and
scatter for safety, with more money than they had ever hoped for in
their possession.
CHAPTER XIII
Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack
Falls upon Her
On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to
see that he had returned to his work. Then she gathered her skirts
above her knees and leaped forward on the run. In the first three
yards she passed Freckles' wheel. Instantly she imagined that was
why he had insisted on her coming by the trail. She seized it and
sprang on. The saddle was too high, but she was an expert rider and
could catch the pedals as they came up. She stopped at Duncan's
cabin long enough to remedy this, telling Mrs. Duncan while working
what was happening, and for her to follow the east trail until she
found the Bird Woman, and told her that she had gone after McLean
and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as possible.
Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched
and began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost. The Angel
looked her in the eyes.
"No matter how afraid you are, you have to go," she said. "If you
don't the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and
they will have trouble with her. If she isn't told to leave at
once, they may follow me, and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible
thing to Freckles. I can't go--that's flat--for if they caught me,
then there'd be no one to go for help. You don't suppose they are
going to take out the trees they're after and then leave Freckles
to run and tell? They are going to murder the boy; that's what they
are going to do. You run, and run for life! For Freckles' life!
You can ride back with the Bird Woman."
The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
Those awful miles of corduroy! Would they never end? She did not
dare use the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could
arrive on time afoot. Where her way was impassable for the wheel,
she jumped off, and pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran
as fast as she could. The day was fearfully warm. The sun poured
with the fiercebaking heat of August. The bushes claimed her hat,
and she did not stop for it.
Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over
the corduroy again. She was panting for breath and almost worn out
when she reached the level pike. She had no idea how long she had
been--and only two miles covered. She leaned over the bars, almost
standing on the pedals, racing with all the strength in her body.
The blood surged in her ears while her head swam, but she kept a
straight course, and rode and rode. It seemed to her that she was
standing still, while the trees and houses were racing past her.
Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she
swerved until she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and
setting her muscles, pedaled as fast as she could. At last she
lifted her head. Surely it could not be over a mile more. She had
covered two of corduroy and at least three of gravel, and it was
only six in all.
She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new
energy, and raced desperately. The sun beat on her bare head and
hands. Just when she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate
with heat and exhaustion--crash, she ran into a broken bottle.
Snap! went the tire; the wheel swerved and pitched over. The Angel
rolled into the thick yellow dust of the road and lay quietly.
From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could. As he
neared the Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel. He was
beside her in an instant. He carried her to a shaded fence-corner,
stretched her on the grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face
all dirt-streaked, crimson, and bearing a startling whiteness
around the mouth and nose.
Wheels were common enough. Many of the farmers' daughters owned and
rode them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was
a stranger's. He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the
silkiness of her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that
she had lost her hat. Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver.
He left her and picked up the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it.
This, then, was Freckles' Swamp Angel. There was trouble in the
Limberlost, and she had broken down racing to McLean. Duncan turned
the bays into a fence-corner, tied one of them, unharnessed the
other, fastened up the trace chains, and hurried to the nearest
farmhouse to send help to the Angel. He found a woman, who took a
bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels, and started on
the run.
Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered
and opened her eyes. She saw that she was on the grass and the
broken wheel beside her. Instantly she realized that someone had
carried her there and gone after help. She sat up and looked
around. She noticed the load of logs and the one horse. Someone was
riding after help for her!
"Oh, poor Freckles!" she wailed. "They may be killing him by now.
Oh, how much time have I wasted?"
She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free.
Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she
caught the hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for
the first time, the fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality
of us, except me, and if he says `go by the trail,' you'd best do it."
The Angel hesitated. She wanted to recross the swamp and try to
reach the horse. She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save
her crossing the swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while
the trail added over a mile to the walk. She knew the path.
She intended to run for dear life the instant she felt herself from
their sight, and tucked in the folds of her blouse was a fine
little 32-caliber revolver that her father had presented her for
her share in what he was pleased to call her military exploit.
One last glance at Freckles showed her the agony in his eyes, and
immediately she imagined he had some other reason. She would follow
the trail.
"All right," she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance. "If you say
so, I'll return by the trail to please you. Good-bye, everybody."
She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
"You damned fool! Stop her!" growled Wessner. "Keep her till we're
loaded, anyhow. You're playing hell! Can't you see that when this
thing is found out, there she'll be to ruin all of us. If you let
her go, every man of us has got to cut, and some of us will be
caught sure."
Jack sprang forward. Freckles' heart muffled in his throat.
The Angel seemed to divine Jack's coming. She was humming a
little song. She deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads
of the curious grasses that grew all around her. When she straightened,
she took a step backward and called: "Ho! Freckles, the Bird Woman
wants that natural history pamphlet returned. It belongs to a set
she is going to have bound. That's one of the reasons we put it
under the box. You be sure to get them as you go home tonight, for
fear it rains or becomes damp with the heavy dews."
"All right," said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had
heard before.
Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack. She was
overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
"You won't forget that ride and the red tie," she half asserted,
half questioned.
Jack succumbed. Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's,
soul and body. His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as
he softly re-echoed Freckles' "All right." With her head held well
up, the Angel walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
"Drop your damned staring and saw wood," he shouted. "Don't you
know anything at all about how to treat a lady?" It might have been
a question which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires
in the cabins of Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe
and stirring the endless kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had
taught him to do even as well as he had by the Angel.
The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began
working desperately. Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow
the Angel and to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp.
Freckles' heart sank within him, but Jack was in a delirium and
past all caution.
"Yes," he sneered. "Mebby all of you had better give over on the
saw and run after the girl. I guess not! Seems to me I got the
favors. I didn't see no bouquets on the rest of you! If anybody
follows her, I do, and I'm needed here among such a pack of idiots.
There's no danger in that baby face. She wouldn't give me away!
You double and work like forty, while me and Wessner will take the
axes and begin to cut in on the other side."
"What about the noise?" asked Wessner.
"No difference about the noise," answered Jack. "She took us to be
from McLean's gang, slick as grease. Make the chips fly!"
So all of them attacked the big tree.
Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited. In their haste to
fell the tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and
leave them free to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
The Angel was on the trail and safely started. The cold
perspiration made Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little
streams down his chest. It would take her more time to follow the
trail, but her safety was Freckles' sole thought in urging her to
go that way. He tried to figure on how long it would require to
walk to the carriage. He wondered if the Bird Woman had unhitched.
He followed the Angel every step of the way. He figured on when she
would cross the path of the clearing, pass the deep pool where his
"find-out" frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and reach the carriage.
He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it
would take them to pack and start. He knew now that they would
understand, and the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time
to save his wager. She could never do it, for the saw was over half
through, and Jack and Wessner cutting into the opposite side of
the tree. It appeared as if they could fell at least that tree,
before McLean could come, and if they did he lost his wager.
When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner
to wreak his insanevengeance on, or would they take him along to
the next tree and dispose of him when they had stolen all the
timber they could? Jack had said that he should not be touched
until he left. Surely he would not run all that risk for one tree,
when he had many others of far greater value marked. Freckles felt
that he had some hope to cling to now, but he found himself praying
that the Angel would hurry.
Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water. Freckles
arose and showed him where he kept his drinking-water. Jack drank
in great gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said: "When a
man's got a chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not
be mixed up in any dirty business. I wish to God I was out of this!"
Freckles answered heartily: "I wish I was, too!"
Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough laughter.
"Blest if I blame you," he said. "But you had your chance!
We offered you a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer.
I ain't envying you when he gives you his."
"You're six to one," answered Freckles. "It will be easy enough for
you to be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't
blacken me soul!"
"Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty,"
said Jack.
When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed
with the echo. Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart.
That was so much accomplished. They knew where to dispose of it
safely, with no questions asked. Before the day was over, they
could remove three others, all suitable for veneer and worth far
more than this. Then they would leave Freckles to Wessner and
scatter for safety, with more money than they had ever hoped for in
their possession.
CHAPTER XIII
Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack
Falls upon Her
On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to
see that he had returned to his work. Then she gathered her skirts
above her knees and leaped forward on the run. In the first three
yards she passed Freckles' wheel. Instantly she imagined that was
why he had insisted on her coming by the trail. She seized it and
sprang on. The saddle was too high, but she was an expert rider and
could catch the pedals as they came up. She stopped at Duncan's
cabin long enough to remedy this, telling Mrs. Duncan while working
what was happening, and for her to follow the east trail until she
found the Bird Woman, and told her that she had gone after McLean
and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as possible.
Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched
and began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost. The Angel
looked her in the eyes.
"No matter how afraid you are, you have to go," she said. "If you
don't the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and
they will have trouble with her. If she isn't told to leave at
once, they may follow me, and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible
thing to Freckles. I can't go--that's flat--for if they caught me,
then there'd be no one to go for help. You don't suppose they are
going to take out the trees they're after and then leave Freckles
to run and tell? They are going to murder the boy; that's what they
are going to do. You run, and run for life! For Freckles' life!
You can ride back with the Bird Woman."
The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
Those awful miles of corduroy! Would they never end? She did not
dare use the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could
arrive on time afoot. Where her way was impassable for the wheel,
she jumped off, and pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran
as fast as she could. The day was fearfully warm. The sun poured
with the fiercebaking heat of August. The bushes claimed her hat,
and she did not stop for it.
Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over
the corduroy again. She was panting for breath and almost worn out
when she reached the level pike. She had no idea how long she had
been--and only two miles covered. She leaned over the bars, almost
standing on the pedals, racing with all the strength in her body.
The blood surged in her ears while her head swam, but she kept a
straight course, and rode and rode. It seemed to her that she was
standing still, while the trees and houses were racing past her.
Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she
swerved until she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and
setting her muscles, pedaled as fast as she could. At last she
lifted her head. Surely it could not be over a mile more. She had
covered two of corduroy and at least three of gravel, and it was
only six in all.
She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new
energy, and raced desperately. The sun beat on her bare head and
hands. Just when she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate
with heat and exhaustion--crash, she ran into a broken bottle.
Snap! went the tire; the wheel swerved and pitched over. The Angel
rolled into the thick yellow dust of the road and lay quietly.
From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could. As he
neared the Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel. He was
beside her in an instant. He carried her to a shaded fence-corner,
stretched her on the grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face
all dirt-streaked, crimson, and bearing a startling whiteness
around the mouth and nose.
Wheels were common enough. Many of the farmers' daughters owned and
rode them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was
a stranger's. He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the
silkiness of her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that
she had lost her hat. Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver.
He left her and picked up the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it.
This, then, was Freckles' Swamp Angel. There was trouble in the
Limberlost, and she had broken down racing to McLean. Duncan turned
the bays into a fence-corner, tied one of them, unharnessed the
other, fastened up the trace chains, and hurried to the nearest
farmhouse to send help to the Angel. He found a woman, who took a
bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels, and started on
the run.
Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered
and opened her eyes. She saw that she was on the grass and the
broken wheel beside her. Instantly she realized that someone had
carried her there and gone after help. She sat up and looked
around. She noticed the load of logs and the one horse. Someone was
riding after help for her!
"Oh, poor Freckles!" she wailed. "They may be killing him by now.
Oh, how much time have I wasted?"
She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free.
Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she
caught the hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for
the first time, the fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality
- instant [´instənt]
a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词) - sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- divine [di´vain] a.神圣的 v.预言 (初中英语单词)
- backward [´bækwəd] ad.向后 a.向后的 (初中英语单词)
- captive [´kæptiv] n.俘虏；捕获物 (初中英语单词)
- softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
- safely [´seifli] ad.安全地；平安地 (初中英语单词)
- carriage [´kæridʒ] n.马车；客车；货运 (初中英语单词)
- dispose [di´spəuz] v.处置；安排；布置 (初中英语单词)
- stolen [´stəulən] steal 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- despair [di´speə] vi.&n.绝望 (初中英语单词)
- suitable [´su:təbəl, ´sju:-] a.合适的，适当的 (初中英语单词)
- instantly [´instəntli] ad.立即，立刻 (初中英语单词)
- saddle [´sædl] n.鞍子 v.装鞍(于) (初中英语单词)
- expert [´ekspə:t] n.&a.专家；内行 (初中英语单词)
- fierce [fiəs] a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- ribbon [´ribən] n.缎带；带子；色带 (初中英语单词)
- damned [dæmd] a.该死的 ad.非常，极 (高中英语单词)
- deliberately [di´libərətli] ad.故意地；慎重地 (高中英语单词)
- desperately [´despəritli] ad.绝望地；拼命地 (高中英语单词)
- grease [gri:s] n.脂肪；油脂 vt.涂油 (高中英语单词)
- sleepy [´sli:pi] a.困的，想睡的 (高中英语单词)
- insane [in´sein] a.患神经病的；疯狂的 (高中英语单词)
- vengeance [´vendʒəns] n.报复，复仇 (高中英语单词)
- bucket [´bʌkit] n.水桶 (高中英语单词)
- heartily [´hɑ:tili] ad.衷心地；亲切地 (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- remedy [´remidi] n.药品 vt.医治；减轻 (高中英语单词)
- finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
- roughly [´rʌfli] ad.粗糙地；毛糙地 (高中英语单词)
- baking [´beikiŋ] n.&a.烘烤(的) (高中英语单词)
- angrily [´æŋgrili] ad.生气地；愤怒地 (高中英语单词)
- gravel [´grævəl] n.砾石 vt.铺砾石 (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- crimson [´krimzən] a.&n.深(紫)红(的) (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- startling [´stɑ:tliŋ] a.惊人的 (高中英语单词)
- blouse [blauz] n.女衬衫；短上衣 (英语四级单词)
- revolver [ri´vɔlvə] n.左轮手枪；旋转者 (英语四级单词)
- pamphlet [´pæmflit] n.小册子 (英语四级单词)
- parting [´pɑ:tiŋ] a.&n.分离(的) (英语四级单词)
- stirring [´stə:riŋ] a.活跃的；热闹的 (英语四级单词)
- clearing [´kliəriŋ] n.(森林中的)空旷地 (英语四级单词)
- accomplished [ə´kʌmpliʃt] a.完成了的；熟练的 (英语四级单词)
- happening [´hæpəniŋ] n.事件，偶然发生的事 (英语四级单词)
- ominous [´ɔminəs] a.不祥的；预示的 (英语四级单词)
- wildcat [´waildkæt] n.野猫 a.靠不住的 (英语六级单词)
- eternally [i:´tə:nli] ad.永久地；不朽地 (英语六级单词)
- hunting [´hʌntiŋ] n.打猎 (英语六级单词)
- august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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