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The Night-Born-Part8_JACK LONDON(1876-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Persuading his father to advance the capital, he went into

business and keen and successful business he made of it,



devoting his afternoons whole-souled to it, while his partner

devoted the mornings. The early evenings he spent socially,



but, as the hour grew to nine or ten, an irresistible

restlessness overcame him and he disappeared from the haunts of



men until the next afternoon. Friends and acquaintances thought

that he spent much of his time in sport. And they were right,



though they never would have dreamed of the nature of the

sport, even if they had seen him running coyotes in



night-chases over the hills of Mill Valley. Neither were the

schooner captains believed when they reported seeing, on cold



winter mornings, a man swimming in the tide-rips of Raccoon

Straits or in the swift currents between Goat island and Angel



Island miles from shore.

In the bungalow at Mill Valley he lived alone, save for Lee



Sing, the Chinese cook and factotum, who knew much about the

strangeness of his master, who was paid well for saying



nothing, and who never did say anything. After the satisfaction

of his nights, a morning's sleep, and a breakfast of Lee



Sing's, James Ward crossed the bay to San Francisco on a midday

ferryboat and went to the club and on to his office, as normal



and conventional a man of business as could be found in the

city. But as the evening lengthened, the night called to him.



There came a quickening of all his perceptions and a

restlessness. His hearing was suddenly acute; the myriad



night-noises told him a luring and familiar story; and, if

alone, he would begin to pace up and down the narrow room like



any caged animal from the wild.

Once, he ventured to fall in love. He never permitted himself



that diversion again. He was afraid. And for many a day the

young lady, scared at least out of a portion of her young



ladyhood, bore on her arms and shoulders and wrists divers

black-and-blue bruises--tokens of caresses which he had



bestowed in all fond gentleness but too late at night. There

was the mistake. Had he ventured love-making in the afternoon,



all would have been well, for it would have been as the quiet

gentleman that he would have made love--but at night it was the



uncouth, wife-stealing savage of the dark German forests. Out

of his wisdom, he decided that afternoon love-making could be



prosecuted successfully; but out of the same wisdom he was

convinced that marriage as would prove a ghastlyfailure. He



found it appalling to imagine being married and encountering

his wife after dark.



So he had eschewed all love-making, regulated his dual life,

cleaned up a million in business, fought shy of match-making



mamas and bright-eyed and eager young ladies of various ages,

met Lilian Gersdale and made it a rigid observance never to see



her later than eight o'clock in the evening, run of nights

after his coyotes, and slept in forest lairs--and through it



all had kept his secret safe save Lee Sing . . . and now, Dave

Slotter. It was the latter's discovery of both his selves that



frightened him. In spite of the counterfright he had given the

burglar, the latter might talk. And even if he did not, sooner



or later he would be found out by some one else.

Thus it was that James Ward made a fresh and heroic effort to



control the Teutonic barbarian that was half of him. So well

did he make it a point to see Lilian in the afternoons, that



the time came when she accepted him for better or worse, and

when he prayed privily and fervently that it was not for worse.



During this period no prize-fighter ever trained more harshly

and faithfully for a contest than he trained to subdue the wild



savage in him. Among other things, he strove to exhaust himself

during the day, so that sleep would render him deaf to the call



of the night. He took a vacation from the office and went on

long hunting trips, following the deer through the most



inaccessible and rugged country he could find--and always in

the daytime. Night found him indoors and tired. At home he



installed a score of exercise machines, and where other men




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