The End of the Story 故事的结局
I
一
The table was of hand-hewn spruce boards, and the men who played whist had frequent difficulties in drawing home their tricks across the uneven surface. Though they sat in their undershirts, the sweat noduled and oozed on their faces; yet their feet, heavily moccasined and woollen-socked, tingled with the bite of the frost. Such was the difference of temperature in the small cabin between the floor level and a yard or more above it. The sheet-iron Yukon Stove roared red-hot, yet, eight feet away, on the meat-shelf, placed low and beside the door, lay chunks of solidly frozen moose and bacon. The door, a third of the way up from the bottom, was a thick rime. In the chinking between the logs at the back of the bunks the frost showed white and glistening. A window of oiled paper furnished light. The lower portion of the paper, on the inside, was coated an inch deep with the frozen moisture of the men's breath.
桌子是用手工劈的云杉木板制成的，桌面凹凸不平，所以那些玩惠斯特牌的人们常常好不容易才能把自己的牌抽过来。尽管他们都只穿着汗衫坐着，但汗珠还是一粒粒地从他们脸上渗了出来。而他们的脚虽裹在厚实的软皮平底鞋和羊毛袜里，却依然被严寒刺痛着。小棚屋里，地面的温度与离地一码以上处的温度是如此不同。育空铁皮炉呼呼地烧着，烧得通红，而八英尺外，低低地置在门边的肉架子上却放着大块冻严实了的鹿肉和熏猪肉。门从底部向上，有三分之一结了厚厚的冰霜。床铺后方那些木头的缝隙间露出了闪闪发亮的白霜。一扇油纸窗透着光亮。油纸内侧的下面部分覆了一层一英寸厚的冰霜，是人们呼吸带出的湿气结成的。
They played a momentous rubber of whist, for the pair that lost was to dig a fishing hole through the seven feet of ice and snow that covered the Yukon.
他们玩了一场意义重大的三局两胜制惠斯特牌比赛，输的那两个人要在育空河七英尺厚的冰雪上凿一个钓鱼洞。
"It's mighty unusual, a cold snap like this in March," remarked the man who shuffled. "What would you call it, Bob?"
“这可极不寻常啊，三月里有这样一股寒潮。”洗牌的男人评论道。“你说会是多少度，鲍勃？”
"Oh, fifty-five or sixty below—all o...
“哦，零下五十五度或是零下六十度吧——肯定差不远。那你说会是多少度，医生？”
Doc turned his head and glanced at the lower part of the door with a measuring eye.
医生转过头去，用估测的眼光扫了一眼门的下部。
"Not a bit worse than fifty. If anything, slightly under—say forty-nine. See the ice on the door. It's just about the fifty mark, but you'll notice the upper edge is ragged. The time she went seventy the ice climbed a full four inches higher."He picked up his hand, and without ceasing from sorting called "Come in," to a knock on the door.
“不会低于零下五十度。也就比零下四十九度低一点。看看门上的冰。刚好结到五十度的标记上下，但你们可以注意到上部的边缘处是凹凹凸凸的。零下七十度的时候，冰会结得再高出整整四英尺。他抓起自己的那手牌，听到一阵敲门声便道“进来”，没有停止整理手中的牌。
The man who entered was a big, broad-shouldered Swede, though his nationality was not discernible until he had removed his ear-flapped cap and thawed away the ice which had formed on beard and moustache and which served to mask his face. While engaged in this, the men at the table played out the hand.
进来的是名个子高大、肩膀宽阔的瑞典男人，但是直到他摘掉那带护耳的软帽、须髯上结的冰——那冰就像面具一样罩住他的脸——化掉后，人们才分辨出他是哪国人。经历这一场景的同时，围桌而坐的人们打着手里的牌。
"I hear one doctor faller stop this camp," the Swede said inquiringly, looking anxiously from face to face, his own face haggard and drawn from severe and long endured pain. "I come long way. North fork of the Whyo."
“我听说有位医生朋友住在这个营地里。”瑞典人一边询问，一边将焦虑的目光从这张脸移到那张脸。他的脸憔悴不堪，是长期忍受剧痛所致。“我赶了很远的路。从瓦伊奥河的北河岔口来的。”
"I'm the doctor. What's the matter?"
“我是你说的那个医生。有什么事吗？”
In response, the man held up his left hand, the second finger of which was monstrously swollen. At the same time he began a rambling, disjointed history of the coming and growth of his affliction.
作为回应，那个男人抬起了他的左手，手上的第二根手指肿得厉害。同时，他开始讲述起他手肿的原因和经过来，说得断断续续、毫无章法。
"Let me look at it," the doctor broke in impatiently. "Lay it on the table. There, like that."
“让我瞧瞧。”医生不耐烦地打断了他。“把手放在桌上。你看，就像这样。”
Tenderly, as if it were a great boil, the man obeyed.
那人照做了，动作轻柔，仿佛那是一个大疥疮。
"Humph," the doctor grumbled. "A weeping sinew. And travelled a hundred miles to have it fixed. I'll fix it in a jiffy. You watch me, and next time you can do it yourself."
“嗯，”医生咕哝道，“是腱鞘囊肿。赶了一百英里路就为治这个。我很快就能把它治好。你看着我，下一次就能自己治了。”
Without warning, squarely and at right angles, and savagely, the doctor brought the edge of his hand down on the swollen crooked finger. The man yelled with consternation and agony. It was more like the cry of a wild beast, and his face was a wild beast's as he was about to spring on the man who had perpetrated the joke.
毫无警示地，医生用其手掌外侧对准那根肿起弯曲的手指垂直地猛力劈下去。那人惊恐而又痛苦地尖叫起来。这种尖叫更像是野兽发出的，他的脸也像是一只野兽的，似乎正要扑向那个开此玩笑的人。
"That's all right," the doctor placated sharply and authoritatively. "How do you feel? Better, eh? Of course. Next time you can do it yourself—Go on and deal, Strothers. I think we've got you."
“没事的，”医生严厉且充满权威地安抚道，“你觉得怎么样？好些了吧，嗯？肯定好些了。下次你就可以自行处理了——继续发牌，斯特罗瑟。我看我们要赢你了。”
Slow and ox-like, on the face of the Swede dawned relief and comprehension. The pang over, the finger felt better. The pain was gone. He examined the finger curiously, with wondering eyes, slowly crooking it back and forth. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold-sack.
就像公牛一样，瑞典人的脸上慢慢出现了放松和领悟的表情。剧痛过去，手指感觉好多了。疼痛消失了。他惊奇地一边检查着手指，眼中充满诧异，一边缓缓地来回弯曲着手指。他把手伸到自己的衣袋里，拿出一只装金子的袋子。
"How much?"
“多少钱？”
The doctor shook his head impatiently. "Nothing. I'm not practising—Your play, Bob.”
医生不耐烦地摇了摇头。“不用给钱。我这会儿不是在执业行医——该你出牌了，鲍勃。”
The Swede moved heavily on his feet, re-examined the finger, then turned an admiring gaze on the doctor.
瑞典人挪动起他沉沉的步子，又检查了一下那根手指，然后向医生投以敬重的目光。
"You are good man. What your name?"
“你是个好人。你叫什么名字？”
"Linday, Doctor Linday," Strothers answered, as if solicitous to save his opponent from further irritation.
“林迪，林迪医生。”斯特罗瑟回答，仿佛急切地想让对手别再惹医生生气。
"The day's half done," Linday said to the Swede, at the end of the hand, while he shuffled. "Better rest over to-night. It's too cold for travelling. There's a spare bunk."
“天都快暗下来了。”这局牌打完的时候，林迪一边洗牌一边对瑞典人说。“你今晚最好留下过夜吧。天气太冷了，没法赶路。这儿还有一张空床。”
He was a slender brunette of a man, lean-cheeked, thin-lipped, and strong. The smooth-shaven face was a healthy sallow. All his movements were quick and precise. He did not fumble his cards. The eyes were black, direct, and piercing, with the trick of seeming to look beneath the surfaces of things. His hands, slender, fine and nervous, appeared made for delicate work, and to the most casual eye they conveyed an impression of strength.
他体形修长，头发呈深褐色，脸颊内陷，嘴唇薄薄的，很强壮。他的脸刮得很干净，是健康的麦色。他所有的动作都迅速而准确。他不捻牌。那双漆黑的眼睛射出直接、犀利的目光，似乎有着穿透表面洞察事物本质的能力。他的手又长又细，而且刚健有力，看上去正适合做精细活。哪怕是最随意的眼睛也看得出这双手有着惊人的力量。
"Our game," he announced, drawing in the last trick. "Now for the rub and who digs the fishing hole."
“我们的牌局，”他抽起最后的一墩牌宣布道，“现在到关键时刻了，看谁要去凿捕鱼的窟窿。”
A knock at the door brought a quick exclamation from him.
一阵敲门声又引得他立刻大叫起来。
"Seems we just can't finish this rubber," he complained, as the door opened. "What's the matter with you?"—this last to the stranger who entered.
“看来我们是没法完成这场三局两胜的比赛了。”他正抱怨着，门却开了。“你是哪里不舒服？”——这最后一句是对进门的陌生人说的。
The newcomer vainly strove to move his icebound jaws and jowls. That he had been on trail for long hours and days was patent. The skin across the cheekbones was black with repeated frost-bite. From nose to chin was a mass of solid ice perforated by the hole through which he breathed. Through this he had also spat tobacco juice, which had frozen, as it trickled, into an amber-coloured icicle, pointed like a Van Dyke beard.
新来者竭力想动换他那被冰封住的下颌，却是徒然。显然，他已经长途跋涉好几天了。反复的冻伤使他颧骨处的皮肤变成了青色。从鼻子到下巴结了严严实实一团冰，冰上有个洞眼，他通过这个洞眼呼吸。他也通过这个洞眼吐烟液，吐出的烟液慢慢流出来的同时已经结了冰，结成一个琥珀色的冰锥，尖尖的像范戴克的胡子。
He shook his head dumbly, grinned with his eyes, and drew near to the stove to thaw his mouth to speech. He assisted the process with his fingers, clawing off fragments of melting ice which rattled and sizzled on the stove.
他笨拙地晃了晃脑袋，用眼睛展露出笑容，走近炉子来融化嘴上的冰，以便说话。为加快这个过程，他用手指抓掉冰融化形成的碎屑。碎屑落在炉子上，发出吱吱嘶嘶声。
"Nothing the matter with me," he finally announced. "But if they's a doctor in the outfit he's sure needed. They's a man up the Little Peco that's had a ruction with a panther, an' the way he's clawed is something scand'lous."
“我什么病都没有，”他终于开口道，“但如果你们这群人当中有医生的话，有人正需要呢。小佩科那儿有个人跟豹子搏斗，他被豹子抓伤的程度令人震惊。”
"How far up?" Doctor Linday demanded.
“离这儿有多远？”林迪医生问。
"A matter of a hundred miles."
“一百英里左右。”
"How long since?"
“事发多久了？”
"I've ben three days comin' down."
“赶到这里我用了三天时间。”
"Bad?"
“很严重？”
"Shoulder dislocated. Some ribs broke for sure. Right arm broke. An' clawed clean to the bone most all over but the face. We sewed up two or three bad places temporary, and tied arteries with twine."
“肩膀脱臼了。肋骨肯定是断了几根。右臂也断了。除了脸，他几乎浑身都被撕得露出了骨头。我们将很严重的两三处暂时缝了起来，用合股线扎住了动脉。”
"That settles it," Linday sneered. "Where were they?"
“那就可以了，”林迪医生用讥讽的口吻说，“缝起的伤口在什么位置？”
"Stomach."
“在肚子上。”
"He's a sight by now."
“他现在的样子一定不堪入目。”
"Not on your life. Washed clean with bug-killin' dope before we stitched. Only temporary anyway. Had nothin' but linen thread, but washed that, too."
“绝对不会。用消毒液洗净了伤口我们才封住。不管怎么说，那只是暂时的。除了麻线找不到别的，但也是洗干净了的。”
"He's as good as dead," was Linday's judgment, as he angrily fingered the cards.
“他跟死了没什么区别。”林迪一面判决，一面生气地摸起牌。
"Nope. That man ain't goin' to die. He knows I've come for a doctor, an' he'll make out to live until you get there. He won't let himself die. I know him."
“不会的。他不会死的。他知道我已经出来找医生了，他会撑到你赶过去的。他不会让自己死的。我了解他。”
"Christian Science and gangrene, eh?" came the sneer. "Well, I'm not practising. Nor can I see myself travelling a hundred miles at fifty below for a dead man."
“基督教教义能治好坏疽病，对吗？”医生嘲讽道，“再说我目前不执业行医。我也不觉得我会为一个死人在零下五十度的天气里赶一百英里的路。”
"I can see you, an' for a man a long ways from dead."
“我跟你保证那个人离死还远着呢。”
Linday shook his head. "Sorry you had your trip for nothing. Better stop over for the night."
林迪摇了摇头。“对不起，你白跑一趟了。最好还是留下过夜吧。”
"Nope. We'll be pullin' out in ten minutes."
“不。我们十分钟内出发。”
"What makes you so cocksure?" Linday demanded testily.
“你为什么如此确定？”林迪烦躁地问。
Then it was that Tom Daw made the speech of his life.
接下来，汤姆·道做了他一生的演讲。
"Because he's just goin' on livin' till you get there, if it takes you a week to make up your mind.
“因为他就是会活着，直到你赶过去，即使你要花一周来下定这个决心。
Besides, his wife's with him, not sheddin' a tear, or nothin', an' she's helpin' him live till you come. They think a almighty heap of each other, an' she's got a will like hisn. If he weakened, she'd just put her immortal soul into hisn an' make him live. Though he ain't weakenin' none, you can stack on that. I'll stack on it. I'll lay you three to one, in ounces, he's alive when you get there. I got a team of dawgs down the bank. You ought to allow to start in ten minutes, an' we ought to make it back in less'n three days because the trail's broke. I'm goin' down to the dawgs now, an' I'll look for you in ten minutes."
况且，他的妻子跟他在一起，一滴眼泪都没掉，也没其他反应，她正帮助他支撑下去，等着你赶过去。他们都十分为对方着想，她跟他一样意志坚定。如果他变虚弱了，她就会把自己不息的精神注入到他的体内，让他活着。尽管他一点也没有变弱，但你可以打赌。我会打这个赌。我可以跟你开出一赔三的赔率，以盎司记，赌你到那里的时候他还活着。我有一支狗队在河岸上。你应当在十分钟内准备好出发。我们应该用不了三天就能回到那里，因为这条道上已经破了冰。我现在去看看那些狗，十分钟内来找你的。”
Tom Daw pulled down his earflaps, drew on his mittens, and passed out.
汤姆·道摘下他的耳罩，戴上手套，出去了。
"Damn him!" Linday cried, glaring vindictively at the closed door.
“该死的！”林迪叫道，忿忿地望着已经关上的门。
II
二
That night, long after dark, with twenty-five miles behind them, Linday and Tom Daw went into camp. It was a simple but adequate affair: a fire built in the snow; alongside, their sleeping-furs spread in a single bed on a mat of spruce boughs; behind the bed an oblong of canvas stretched to refract the heat. Daw fed the dogs and chopped ice and firewood. Linday's cheeks burned with frost-bite as he squatted over the cooking. They ate heavily, smoked a pipe and talked while they dried their moccasins before the fire, and turned in to sleep the dead sleep of fatigue and health.
那晚，天黑之后好久，林迪和汤姆·道才搭营休息。他们已经赶了二十五英里的路。这事很简单，却也足够了：在雪中生起火；傍着火堆，将他们睡觉用的皮毛在一层云杉木上铺开，就成了一张单人床；在床后面撑开一块长方形的帆布，用来折射火堆的热量。道喂了狗，劈了些冰和木柴。蹲着做饭菜的时候，林迪的脸颊已被冻伤，长了冻疮。他们狠狠吃了一顿，抽了一管烟，接着边聊边在火堆前烘干了各自的软皮平底鞋，然后就上床熟睡了一场。他们能否从极度疲劳中恢复过来就在这一觉上。
Morning found the unprecedented cold snap broken. Linday estimated the temperature at fifteen below and rising. Daw was worried. That day would see them in the canyon, he explained, and if the spring thaw set in the canyon would run open water. The walls of the canyon were hundreds to thousands of feet high. They could be climbed, but the going would be slow.
清早，一股前所未有的寒流袭来。林迪估计气温有零下十五度，但正在上升。道忧心忡忡的。这天他们会到达峡谷，他解释说，如果春季融冰期已经来临，峡谷中的河水就会解冻流淌。峡谷壁高从几百英尺到几千英尺不等。他们可以爬过去，但是进程会很慢。
Camped well in the dark and forbidding gorge, over their pipe that evening they complained of the heat, and both agreed that the thermometer must be above zero—the first time in six months.
他们在黑暗险峻的峡谷中稳稳地扎了营。那晚抽烟的时候，他们抱怨气温高，两人一致认为气温一定达到零度以上了——这是六个月来第一次。
"Nobody ever heard tell of a panther this far north," Daw was saying. "Rocky called it a cougar. But I shot a-many of 'em down in Curry County, Oregon, where I come from, an' we called 'em panther. Anyway, it was a bigger cat than ever I seen. It was sure a monster cat. Now how'd it ever stray to such out of the way huntin' range?—that's the question."
“从没有人听说过这么远的北方有豹子。”道说。“罗基管它叫美洲狮。可我在俄勒冈州的柯里郡射*过许多豹子，我从那里来的，我们都管它们叫豹子。不管怎样，它比我曾经看到过的豹子都大。它毫无疑问是种巨型豹子。现在的问题是：它怎么会跑到这么远的地方来猎食呢？”
Linday made no comment. He was nodding. Propped on sticks, his moccasins steamed unheeded and unturned. The dogs, curled in furry balls, slept in the snow. The crackle of an ember accentuated the profound of silence that reigned. He awoke with a start and gazed at Daw, who nodded and returned the gaze. Both listened. From far off came a vague disturbance that increased to a vast and sombre roaring. As it neared, ever-increasing, riding the mountain tops as well as the canyon depths, bowing the forest before it, bending the meagre, crevice-rooted pines on the walls of the gorge, they knew it for what it was. A wind, strong and warm, a balmy gale, drove past them, flinging a rocket-shower of sparks from the fire. The dogs, aroused, sat on their haunches, bleak noses pointed upward, and raised the long wolf howl.
林迪没有发表什么评论。他正打着瞌睡。他的软皮鞋支在木条上，冒着蒸汽。林迪没留意它们，也没转身。那些狗蜷成毛茸茸的一团，在雪里睡着了。余烬中发出噼啪一声，突显出这一片沉沉的寂静。林迪被惊醒了，注视着道。道点点头，回望了林迪一眼。两个人都听着。从远处隐约传来一阵*动的声响，这声响渐渐变成了一种巨大而沉闷的咆哮。随着它的临近，声响越来越大，席卷山顶，扫荡谷底，刮歪了前头的树林子，压弯了崖壁上那些扎根于石缝的瘦小松树。他们清楚这意味着什么。一阵强烈而温暖的风，一阵暖和的大风，吹过他们，从火堆中溅开一大片火星子。狗群也醒了，蹲坐着，光秃秃的鼻尖指向上空，发出长长的狼嚎叫一般的声音。
"It's the Chinook," Daw said.
“是奇努克风。”道说。
"It means the river trail, I suppose?"
“这意味着要走河道了，我想？”
"Sure thing. And ten miles of it is easier than one over the tops." Daw surveyed Linday for a long, considering minute.
“必然。水路走十英里比山路走一英里还容易。”道审视了林迪好一会儿说道。
"We've just had fifteen hours of trail," he shouted above the wind, tentatively, and again waited. "Doc," he said finally, "are you game?"
“我们刚已经赶了十五小时的路。”他迎风喊道，显得很犹豫，没继续说下去。“医生，”他终于说，“你够不够勇敢？”
For answer, Linday knocked out his pipe and began to pull on his damp moccasins. Between them, and in few minutes, bending to the force of the wind, the dogs were harnessed, camp broken, and the cooking outfit and unused sleeping furs lashed on the sled. Then, through the darkness, for a night of travel, they churned out on the trail Daw had broken nearly a week before. And all through the night the Chinook roared and they urged the weary dogs and spurred their own jaded muscles. Twelve hours of it they made, and stopped for breakfast after twenty-seven hours on trail.
作为回答，林迪敲干净了他的烟斗，开始穿他那双潮湿的软皮平底鞋。屈于风力，没几分钟，他们就给狗上好了挽具，拆了帐篷，把整套炊具和还没用的睡觉的皮毛绑在了雪橇上。接着，他们在黑暗中踏上了将近一周前道破冰赶来的路，开始一夜的跋涉。奇努克风咆哮了一整夜，他们催赶着那群精疲力尽的狗，也鞭策着自己疲惫的身躯。他们这样赶了十二小时的路，总共在道上呆了二十七个小时，然后才停下来吃早饭。
"An hour's sleep," said Daw, when they had wolfed pounds of straight moose-meat fried with bacon.
“睡一个小时吧。”他们狼吞虎咽地吃下几磅与熏肉一起煎过的驼鹿肉之后，道说。
Two hours he let his companion sleep, afraid himself to close his eyes. He occupied himself with making marks upon the soft-surfaced, shrinking snow. Visibly it shrank. In two hours the snow level sank three inches. From every side, faintly heard and near, under the voice of the spring wind, came the trickling of hidden waters. The Little Peco, strengthened by the multitudinous streamlets, rose against the manacles of winter, riving the ice with crashings and snappings.
他让同伴睡了两个小时，自己却不敢合上眼睛。他在松软、下陷的雪地上画记号，让自己忙个不停。雪明显陷下去了。两个小时里，雪面下陷了三英寸。四面八方都能隐约听到春风的声音，与其相伴、夹杂其中的是冰雪下潺潺的水流声。数不清的小溪流使小佩科河变得强壮起来，它挣脱冬天的镣铐，敲打冲折，撕开冰雪。
Daw touched Linday on the shoulder; touched him again; shook, and shook violently.
道推了推林迪的肩，又推了第二次，摇了摇他，接着猛力地摇。
"Doc," he murmured admiringly. "You can sure go some."
“医生，”他带着崇敬之情低声说，“你确实干得不错。”
The weary black eyes, under heavy lids, acknowledged the compliment.
那双疲惫的黑眼睛在沉重的眼睑下接受了这赞美。
"But that ain't the question. Rocky is clawed something scand'lous. As I said before, I helped sew up his in'ards. Doc…” He shook the man, whose eyes had again closed. "I say, Doc! The question is: can you go some more?—hear me? I say, can you go some more?”
“但问题不在于这个。罗基被撕抓得十分骇人。正如我之前说的，我帮他把伤口缝了起来。医生……”他摇着医生，而医生的眼睛已经再次合上了。“我说，医生！问题是：你能不能坚持下去？——听见我说吗？我说，你能不能坚持下去？”
The weary dogs snapped and whimpered when kicked from their sleep. The going was slow, not more than two miles an hour, and the animals took every opportunity to lie down in the wet snow.
那群精疲力尽的狗在睡梦中被踢醒，又是嗷叫又是呜咽。前进的速度很慢，每小时还不到二英里，而且那些狗一有机会就躺倒在湿湿的雪地里。
"Twenty miles of it, and we'll be through the gorge," Daw encouraged. "After that the ice can go to blazes, for we can take to the bank, and it's only ten more miles to camp. Why, Doc, we're almost there. And when you get Rocky fixed up, you can come down in a canoe in one day."
“再这样走二十英里，我们就穿过峡谷了，”道鼓励说，“之后冰就是全化了也没关系，因为我们可以在河岸上走了。然后再走十英里我们就可以扎营休息了。嗨，医生，我们都快走到了。等你治好了罗基，你乘小木舟一天就能赶回去。”
But the ice grew more uneasy under them, breaking loose from the shore-line and rising steadily inch by inch. In places where it still held to the shore, the water overran and they waded and slushed across. The Little Peco growled and muttered. Cracks and fissures were forming everywhere as they battled on for the miles that each one of which meant ten along the tops.
可是他们下面的冰面变得越来越不结实，渐渐脱离河岸，一点点地持续升高。有些地方冰还连结着河岸，河水从上面流过，他们就蹚着水在融雪中赶路。小佩科河隆隆作响，发出低声的怒吼。他们奋力赶路的同时，裂缝到处都在形成，而他们每向前走一英里都相当于在山顶上走了十英里。
"Get on the sled, Doc, an' take a snooze," Daw invited.
“乘上雪橇吧，医生，打个小盹。”道邀请说。
The glare from the black eyes prevented him from repeating the suggestion.
医生那双黑眼睛灼灼的注视令道不敢再提这个话。
As early as midday they received definite warning of the beginning of the end. Cakes of ice, borne downward in the rapid current, began to thunder beneath the ice on which they stood. The dogs whimpered anxiously and yearned for the bank.
刚到中午，他们就收到了最后时刻即将来临的明确警告。大块的冰随着急流冲下来，猛烈地撞击着他们脚下的冰面，发出巨响。狗群不安地吠叫着，向往河岸。
"That means open water above," Daw explained. "Pretty soon she'll jam somewheres, an' the river'll raise a hundred feet in a hundred minutes. It's us for the tops if we can find a way to climb out. Come on! Hit her up I! An' just to think, the Yukon'll stick solid for weeks."
“这意味着上游已经是无冰的水面了，”道解释说，“很快河水就在某些地方被堵住，河流水位每分钟上涨一百英尺。要是我们能找到一条爬出山谷去的路，我们就该从山上走了。拜托！我真得求求这河了！想想吧，育空河里冰面可以严严实实地结上好久周呢。”
Unusually narrow at this point, the great walls of the canyon were too precipitous to scale. Daw and Linday had to keep on; and they kept on till the disaster happened. With a loud explosion, the ice broke asunder midway under the team. The two animals in the middle of the string went into the fissure, and the grip of the current on their bodies dragged the lead-dog backward and in. Swept downstream under the ice, these three bodies began to drag to the edge the two whining dogs that remained. The men held back frantically on the sled, but were slowly drawn along with it. It was all over in the space of seconds. Daw slashed the wheel-dog's traces with his sheath-knife, and the animal whipped over the ice-edge and was gone. The ice on which they stood, broke into a large and pivoting cake that ground and splintered against the shore ice and rocks. Between them they got the sled ashore and up into a crevice in time to see the ice-cake up-edge, sink, and down-shelve from view.
这个地方窄得异乎寻常，峡谷巨大的崖壁太过险峻，无法攀登。道和林迪不得不继续前进。但他们继续前进直到不幸发生。伴随一声爆裂的巨响，队伍脚下的冰面从中间裂开，化成了碎片。处于队伍中央的两只狗掉进了裂缝，拖住它们身体的水流把前面带队的那只狗也拽到了后面，拖了进去。这三只狗被急流冲到了冰下，剩下两只正在哀叫的狗也被拖到了裂缝口上。那两个人拼命地向后拉住雪橇，却被雪橇缓缓地拖向前去。仅仅几秒钟的时间里，这一切都结束了。道用他的鞘刀割断了领队狗身上的缰绳，那狗滑过冰缘不见了。他们脚下的冰碎成了一块旋转的大冰块，与岸上的冰和石头冲突碰撞。他们一起把雪橇弄上岸，刚好来得及把雪橇拖到一个岩石狭缝里，就看到冰块翻了过来，斜斜地沉了下去。
Meat and sleeping furs were made into packs, and the sled was abandoned. Linday resented Daw's taking the heavier pack, but Daw had his will.
肉和睡觉用的皮毛被打包起来，雪橇被丢弃了。林迪因为道拿了比较重的那个包裹而愤愤不平，但道心意已决。
"You got to work as soon as you get there. Come on."
“你一赶到就要开始干活了。快走吧。”
It was one in the afternoon when they started to climb. At eight that evening they cleared the rim and for half an hour lay where they had fallen. Then came the fire, a pot of coffee, and an enormous feed of moosemeat. But first Linday hefted the two packs, and found his own lighter by half.
下午一点的时候，他们开始攀爬。晚上八点他们爬到山顶，在自己倒下的地方躺了半个小时。然后他们生了火，煮了一罐咖啡，吃了一大顿驼鹿肉。林迪先掂了掂两个包裹的重量，发现自己的那个要轻一半。
"You're an iron man, Daw," he admired.
“你就是个铁人啊，道。”他赞叹道。
"Who? Me? Oh, pshaw! You ought to see Rocky. He's made out of platinum, an' armour plate, an' pure gold, an' all strong things. I'm mountaineer, but he plumb beats me out. Down in Curry County I used to 'most kill the boys when we run bear. So when I hooks up with Rocky on our first hunt I had a mean idea to show 'm a few. I let out the links good an' generous, 'most nigh keepin' up with the dawgs, an' along comes Rocky a-treadin' on my heels. I knowed he couldn't last that way, and I just laid down an' did my dangdest. An' there he was, at the end of another hour, a-treadin' steady an' regular on my heels. I was some huffed. 'Mebbe you'd like to come to the front an' show me how to travel,' I says. 'Sure,' says he. An' he done it! I stayed with 'm, but let me tell you I was plumb tuckered by the time the bear tree'd.
“谁？我？噢，算了吧！你该看看罗基。他是白金铸成的，是装甲板、纯金以及所有坚硬之物做成的。我是个登山人，可他绝对比我厉害。过去在柯里郡猎熊的时候，我总是能超过那些男孩子。因此，第一次跟罗基一起出去打猎的时候，我有一个卑鄙的想法，就是要让他见识见识我身手。我把狗链放得很长，几乎是和那些狗并排奔跑，罗基飞步紧跟在我后面。我心想那样子他坚持不了多久，于是拼尽全力只顾奔跑。可又过了一个小时，他还是健步如飞，从容有序，紧紧跟在我后面。我有些吃惊。‘或许你想走在前头，给我带路。’我说。‘当然可以。’他说。而且，他确实做到了。我跟着他，可我得告诉你，把那只熊赶到树上时我真是累坏了。”
"They ain't no stoppin' that man. He ain't afraid of nothin'. Last fall, before the freeze-up, him an' me was headin' for camp about twilight. I was clean shot out—ptarmigan—an' he had one cartridge left. An' the dawgs tree'd a she grizzly. Small one. Only weighed about three hundred, but you know what grizzlies is. 'Don't do it,' says I, when he ups with his rifle. 'You only got that one shot, an' it's too dark to see the sights.'
“什么也阻挡不了他。他什么都不怕。去年秋天，冰冻期之前，他和我在黄昏时分出去露营。我子弹全用光了——用来打松鸡了，他也只剩下一发子弹。而狗群把一只母灰熊赶上了树。一只较小的。只有大约三百磅重，但是你知道灰熊是怎么样的。‘别打了，’他举起他那来复枪的时候，我说，‘你只有一枪可打，况且光线太暗了，看不清楚。’”
“'Climb a tree,' says he. I didn't climb no tree, but when that bear come down a-cussin' among the dawgs, an' only creased, I want to tell you I was sure hankerin' for a tree. It was some ruction. Then things come on real bad. The bear slid down a hollow against a big log. Downside, that log was four feet up an' down. Dawgs couldn't get at bear that way. Upside was steep gravel, an' the dawgs'd just naturally slide down into the bear. They was no jumpin' back, an' the bear was a-manglin' 'em fast as they come. All underbrush, gettin' pretty dark, no cartridges, nothin'.
“‘爬到树上去。’他说。我没有爬到树上，但是当灰熊滚下来，只受了点子弹的擦伤，在狗群中咆哮时，我真希望有棵树爬。真是好一场混乱的搏斗。接着，情况变得更糟糕了。那只熊掉进了一个挨着根大圆木的洞里。下面，那根圆木足有四英尺长。狗群无法从那侧靠近灰熊。上面是陡峭的砂砾堆，狗群自然已经朝灰熊滑下去了。它们跳不上来，一进去就被灰熊撕碎了。周围全是矮树丛，天也越来越黑，没有子弹，什么都没有。”
"What's Rocky up an' do? He goes downside of log, reaches over with his knife, an' begins slashin'. But he can only reach bear's rump, an' dawgs bein' ruined fast, one-two-three time. Rocky gets desperate. He don't like to lose his dawgs. He jumps on top log, grabs bear by the slack of the rump, an' heaves over back'ard right over top of that log. Down they go, kit an' kaboodle, twenty feet, bear, dawgs, an' Rocky, slidin', cussin', an' scratchin', ker-plump into ten feet of water in the bed of stream. They all swum out different ways. Nope, he didn't get the bear, but he saved the dawgs. That's Rocky. They's no stoppin' him when his mind's set."
“罗基有什么主意，是怎么做的呢？他走到有圆木的较低一侧，摸出刀去刺灰熊。可是他只能够到灰熊的屁股，而狗群正被快速消灭，一只，两只，三只。罗基变得不顾一切。他不想失去他的狗群。他跳到圆木顶上，扯住灰熊臀部的皮毛，拽起来，直举过圆木上端。他们滚了下去，灰熊、狗，还有罗基，一整群都滚了下去，从二十英尺的高度翻滚着、咆哮着、撕扯着掉进了十英尺深的水里，直冲河床。他们以不同的方式游出水面。不，他没有制服灰熊，但是他救出了那些狗。这就是罗基。他一旦下定决心，就没有什么能阻挡他。”
It was at the next camp that Linday heard how Rocky had come to be injured.
下一次宿营的时候，林迪得知了罗基受伤的经过。
"I'd ben up the draw, about a mile from the cabin, lookin' for a piece of birch likely enough for an axe-handle. Comin' back I heard the darndest goings-on where we had a bear trap set. Some trapper had left the trap in an old cache an' Rocky'd fixed it up. But the goings-on. It was Rocky an' his brother Harry. First I'd hear one yell and laugh, an' then the other, like it was some game. An' what do you think the fool game was? I've saw some pretty nervy cusses down in Curry County, but they beat all. They'd got a whoppin' big panther in the trap an' was takin' turns rappin' it on the nose with a light stick. But that wa'n't the point. I just come out of the brush in time to see Harry rap it. Then he chops six inches off the stick an' passes it to Rocky. You see, that stick was growin' shorter all the time. It ain't as easy as you think. The panther'd slack back an' hunch down an' spit, an' it was mighty lively in duckin' the stick. An' you never knowed when it'd jump. It was caught by the hind leg, which was curious, too, an' it had some slack I'm tellin' you.
“我到距小木屋大约一英里的树林里寻找一根可以用来做斧柄的桦树枝。回来时，在我们曾设下捕熊器的地方，我听到有什么可怕的事正在发生。某个夹兽人在一间旧储藏室里留下了一个捕兽器，罗基把它重新用起来。可事情发生了。是关于罗基和他弟弟哈里的。我先是听到他们其中一个叫喊并大笑着，接着是一个人的声音，似乎是某种游戏。你知道那愚蠢的游戏是什么吗？我在柯里郡见过很多胆子大的人，可他们超过了所有人。他们用捕兽器抓住了一只大豹子，正轮流用一根轻木棍敲它的鼻子。可这还不是关键所在。我从灌木丛里跳出来的时候正好看见哈里在敲打豹子的鼻子。然后，他将棍子截短六英寸，递给了罗基。你明白了吧，棍子一直都在变短。游戏并非如你想象中的那么简单。那豹子弓起身子向后退，发出呼呼的咆哮声，十分灵活地躲避棍子。你永远也不知道它什么时候会扑上来。它被夹住的是一条后腿，这也很奇怪。而且我告诉你，捕兽器有些松动。”
"It was just a game of dare they was playin', an' the stick gettin' shorter an' shorter an' the panther madder 'n madder. Bimeby they wa'n't no stick left—only a nubbin, about four inches long, an' it was Rocky's turn. 'Better quit now,' says Harry. 'What for?' says Rocky. 'Because if you rap him again they won't be no stick left for me,' Harry answers. 'Then you'll quit an' I win,' says Rocky with a laugh, an' goes to it.
“他们玩的是比谁胆大的游戏，棍子越来越短，那豹子变得越来越狂怒。没多久，棍子就没什么剩下了——只剩一小截，大约四英寸长。这回轮到罗基了。‘最好现在就停下吧。’哈里说。‘凭什么？’罗基说。‘因为如果你再敲它一次，就没有什么木棍留下给我了。’哈里回答。‘那时你停下吧，而我就赢了。’罗基大笑道，随即便要行动。”
"An' I don't want to see anything like it again. That cat'd bunched back an' down till it had all of six feet slack in its body. An' Rocky's stick four inches long. The cat got him. You couldn't see one from t'other. No chance to shoot. It was Harry, in the end, that got his knife into the panther's jugular."
“我不想再看到任何类似于那一幕的情景。那只豹子缩回去，蹲下来，直到它六英尺长的身体全都蓄满了弹力。罗基的棍子仅四英寸长。豹子抓住了他。你辨不清哪个是哪个。没有机会开枪射击。最后是哈里用他的刀子刺进了豹子的咽喉。”
"If I'd known how he got it I'd never have come," was Linday's comment.
“如果早知道他是这么受的伤，我是决不会来的。”林迪说。
Daw nodded concurrence.
道点点头表示赞同。
"That's what she said. She told me sure not to whisper how it happened."
“她也这么说。她告诉我，绝不能透露罗基是怎么受伤的。”
"Is he crazy?" Linday demanded in his wrath.
“他是疯了吗？”林迪愤怒地问。
"They're all crazy. Him an' his brother are all the time devilin' each other to tom-fool things. I seen them swim the riffle last fall, bad water an' mush-ice runnin'—on a dare. They ain't nothin' they won't tackle. An' she's 'most as bad. Not afraid some herself. She'll do anything Rocky'll let her. But he's almighty careful with her. Treats her like a queen. No camp-work or such for her. That's why another man an' me are hired on good wages. They've got slathers of money an' they're sure dippy on each other. 'Looks like good huntin',' says Rocky, when they struck that section last fall. 'Let's make a camp then,' says Harry. An' me all the time thinkin' they was lookin' for gold. Ain't ben a prospect pan washed the whole winter."
“他们都是疯子。他和他弟弟总是引对方干那些愚蠢的事。去年秋天，我见过他们在湍流里游泳，河水很冷，水里浮满了冰块——就为了比谁胆大。没什么事情是他们不会*。她也一样糟糕。她自己也什么都不怕。罗基让她做什么她就做什么。不过，他对她总是无微不至。他把她当王后一样对待。不让她干搭帐篷之类的事。正因为这样我和另一个人被重金聘用了。他们很富有，显然也很爱对方。‘看起来是个打猎的好地方。’去年秋天他们来到这片地区的时候，罗基说。‘那我们就在这里扎营吧。’哈里说。我一直以为他们是在寻找金子。可整个冬天都没见他们淘过一盆沙子。”
Linday's anger mounted. "I haven't any patience with fools. For two cents I'd turn back."
林迪愈发生气了。“对傻瓜我是一点耐心也没有的。给我两美分我就掉头回去。”
"No you wouldn't," Daw assured him confidently. "They ain't enough grub to turn back, an' we'll be there tomorrow. Just got to cross that last divide an' drop down to the cabin. An' they's a better reason. You're too far from home, an' I just naturally wouldn't let you turn back."
“不，你不会的。”道很有把握地向他保证说。“没有足够的食物供回去的路上吃，而且我们明天就能赶到那里了。我们只需越过最后一道分水岭，然后往下走到小木屋那里。还有一个更好的理由。你离家太远了，我当然不会就这样让你回去。”
Exhausted as Linday was, the flash in his black eyes warned Daw that he had overreached himself. His hand went out.
尽管林迪已经精疲力竭，但他那双黑眼睛里的闪光告诉道：他说了不该说的话。道把手伸出去。
"My mistake, Doc. Forget it. I reckon I'm gettin' some cranky what of losin' them dawgs."
“是我错了，医生。别介意。我想我是因为失去了那些狗，所以心情不太好。”
III
三
Not one day, but three days later, the two men, after being snowed in on the summit by a spring blizzard, staggered up to a cabin that stood in a fat bottom beside the roaring Little Peco. Coming in from the bright sunshine to the dark cabin, Linday observed little of its occupants. He was no more than aware of two men and a woman. But he was not interested in them. He went directly to the bunk where lay the injured man. The latter was lying on his back, with eyes closed, and Linday noted the slender stencilling of the brows and the kinky silkiness of the brown hair. Thin and wan, the face seemed too small for the muscular neck, yet the delicate features, despite their waste, were firmly moulded.
不是一天，而是三天以后，这两个人跌跌撞撞地来到了小木屋。他们在山顶上经历了一场春季暴风雪。小木屋立在肥沃的山脚，傍着咆哮的小佩科河。明媚的阳光照进黑暗的小木屋，林迪看不清木屋的居住者。他只知道里头有两个男人和一个女人。但是他对他们毫无兴趣。他直接走向伤者躺着的那张床。伤者仰躺着，双目闭合。林迪注意到那双眉毛修长有型，那头棕色的卷发柔滑如丝。那张脸清瘦苍白，相对于肌肉发达的颈部来说似乎太小了些。尽管受了伤，那精致的五官依然轮廓清晰。
"What dressings have you been using?" Linday asked of the woman.
“你是用什么来清洗伤口的？”林迪问那个女人。
"Corrosive, sublimate, regular solution," came the answer.
“常规的腐蚀性、挥发性溶剂。”女人这样回答。
He glanced quickly at her, shot an even quicker glance at the face of the injured man, and stood erect. She breathed sharply, abruptly biting off the respiration with an effort of will. Linday turned to the men.
他迅速扫了她一眼，又更快地扫了一眼那伤者的脸，笔直地站着。她呼吸急促，用意志的力量生硬地一口口吞着气。林迪转向那两个男人。
"You clear out—chop wood or something. Clear out.”
“你出去——去劈点木柴或者其他什么的。出去。”
One of them demurred.
其中一个男人迟疑不动。
"This is a serious case," Linday went on. "I want to talk to his wife."
“这个伤者的病情很严重，”林迪继续说，“我想跟他的妻子谈一谈。”
"I'm his brother," said the other.
“我是他的兄弟。”另一方说。
To him the woman looked, praying him with her eyes. He nodded reluctantly and turned toward the door.
女人望着他，用眼神乞求他。他不情愿地点点头，转身出了门。
"Me, too?" Daw queried from the bench where he had flung himself down.
“我也要出去吗？”道问着，躺倒在一条长凳上。
"You, too."
“你也出去。”
Linday busied himself with a superficial examination of the patient while the cabin was emptying.
小木屋空下来的时候，林迪忙着给病人做表面的检查。
"So?" he said. "So that's your Rex Strang."
“那么？”他说。“那么他就是你的雷克斯·斯特朗。”
She dropped her eyes to the man in the bunk as if to reassure herself of his identity, and then in silence returned Linday's gaze.
她垂下眼看那个躺在床上的男人，仿佛是在向自己确认他的身份，然后无言地与林迪对视着。
"Why don't you speak?"
“你为什么不说话？”
She shrugged her shoulders. "What is the use? You know it is Rex Strang."
她耸耸肩。“说了有什么用呢？你知道他就是雷克斯·斯特朗。”
"Thank you. Though I might remind you that it is the first time I have ever seen him. Sit down."He waved her to a stool, himself taking the bench. "I'm really about all in, you know. There's no turnpike from the Yukon here."
“谢谢。但我还是得提醒你，这是我第一次见到他。坐下吧。”他挥手示意她坐到一只凳子上，自己则坐了那条长凳。“你知道吧，我几乎真的是精疲力尽了。从育空河到这里可没什么方便的路。”
He drew a penknife and began extracting a thorn from his thumb.
他抽出一把折刀，开始在自己的大拇指上挑刺。
"What are you going to do?" she asked, after a minute's wait.
“你会怎么做？”等了一小会儿后，她问。
"Eat and rest up before I start back."
“吃，休息，然后回去。”
"What are you going to do about…”She inclined her head toward the unconscious man.
“那你会怎么处理……”她低头侧向那个昏迷的男人。
"Nothing."
“什么也不做。”
She went over to the bunk and rested her fingers lightly on the tight-curled hair.
她走到床前，把手轻轻地放在那十分弯卷的头发上。
"You mean you will kill him," she said slowly. "Kill him by doing nothing, for you can save him if you will."
“你是说你会*了他，”她缓缓道，“以袖手旁观的方式*死他，因为如果你愿意你能够救活他。
"Take it that way."He considered a moment, and stated his thought with a harsh little laugh. "From time immemorial in this weary old world it has been a not uncommon custom so to dispose of wife-stealers.”
“可以那么来理解。”他琢磨了一会儿，伴着一声刺耳的轻笑说出了自己的想法。“这个无聊、陈旧的世界自太古以来就有一个普遍的传统：除掉偷人妻者。”
"You are unfair, Grant," she answered gently. "You forget that I was willing and that I desired. I was a free agent. Rex never stole me. It was you who lost me. I went with him, willing and eager, with song on my lips. As well accuse me of stealing him. We went together."
“你这样不公平，格兰特，”她柔声回答，“你忘了我是自愿的，我是渴望那样的。我是一个自由行动的人。雷克斯从没去偷我。是你自己弄丢了我。我跟他走是心甘情愿、热切向往的，是嘴里哼着歌走的。也可以说是我偷走了他。我们一起走的。”
"A good way of looking at it," Linday conceded. "I see you are as keen a thinker as ever, Madge. That must have bothered him."
“是个看待这件事的好方法，”林迪承认说，“我看你还是以前那个头脑灵活的思考者，马奇。这该让他很头痛吧。”
"A keen thinker can be a good lover—”
“一个头脑灵活的思考者也可以是一个好恋人——”
"And not so foolish," he broke in.
“而且并不那么愚蠢。”他插进一句。
"Then you admit the wisdom of my course?"
“那么你承认我的所作所为是理智的？”
He threw up his hands. "That's the devil of it, talking with clever women. A man always forgets and traps himself. I wouldn't wonder if you won him with a syllogism."
他认输了。“这就是跟聪明女人在一起的坏处。男人总是会一不留神把自己套进去。要是你用三段论征服了他，我也不会觉得奇怪。”
Her reply was the hint of a smile in her straight-looking blue eyes and a seeming emanation of sex pride from all the physical being of her.
她的回答是率直的蓝眼睛里泛起的一丝微笑，是她似乎通身散发着的一种女性骄傲。
"No, I take that back, Madge. If you'd been a numbskull you'd have won him, or any one else, on your looks, and form, and carriage. I ought to know. I've been through that particular mill, and, the devil take me, I'm not through it yet."
“不，我收回刚才的话，马奇。即使你是个傻瓜，你也能征服他，或者是其他任何一个男人，就凭你的长相、身材和仪态。我早该知道的。我受过这种特殊的磨炼，真见鬼，我现在还没有逃脱它呢。”
His speech was quick and nervous and irritable, as it always was, and, as she knew, it was always candid. She took her cue from his last remark.
他说得很快，话里带着紧张和懊恼。而且正如她所知，他说话向来都真诚率直。她从他的最后那句话中得到了提示。
"Do you remember Lake Geneva?"
“你还记得日内瓦湖吗？”
"I ought to. I was rather absurdly happy."
“我当然记得。我那时真是幸福得难以名状。”
She nodded, and her eyes were luminous. "There is such a thing as old sake. Won't you, Grant, please, just remember back… a little…oh, so little…of what we were to each other…then?”
她点点头，双目闪闪动人。“有这么个东西叫做旧情分。难道你没有吗，格兰特，只要稍稍回想一下……噢，就那么一下下……想想我们当时对彼此的意义……那么？”
"Now you're taking advantage," he smiled, and returned to the attack on his thumb. He drew the thorn out, inspected it critically, then concluded. "No, thank you. I'm not playing the Good Samaritan."
“现在你是在利用优势了。”他笑了笑，又开始挑他大拇指上的刺。他把刺挑出来，仔细审视了一番，然后下了结论。“不，谢谢你。我不是什么乐善好施、慈悲为怀之人。”
"Yet you made this hard journey for an unknown man," she urged.
“可你为了一个素不相识的人如此历难犯险。”她恳求着。
His impatience was sharply manifest. "Do you fancy I'd have moved a step had I known he was my wife's lover?"
他显得十分不耐烦。“要是我知道伤者是我妻子的情人，你觉得我还会挪一步？”
"But you are here … now. And there he lies. What are you going to do?”
“可你已经在这里了……现在。而他就躺在那里。你要怎么办呢？”
"Nothing. Why should I? I am not at the man's service. He pilfered me."
“不怎么办。难道我该怎么办吗？我不为这个男人干事。他偷了我的东西。”
She was about to speak, when a knock came on the door.
她正要开口，响起了一阵敲门声。
"Get out!" he shouted.
“出去。”他嚷道。
"If you want any assistance—”
“如果你需要任何协助——”
"Get out! Get a bucket of water! Set it down outside!"
“出去！去打桶水来！放在门外！”
"You are going to…?" she began tremulously.
“你要干什么？”她的声音开始颤抖。
"Wash up."
“洗洗干净。”
She recoiled from the brutality, and her lips tightened.
林迪的残酷使她却步，她抿紧了嘴唇。
"Listen, Grant," she said steadily. "I shall tell his brother. I know the Strang breed. If you can forget old sake, so can I. If you don't do something, he'll kill you. Why, even Tom Daw would if I asked."
“听着，格兰特，”她平静地说，“我会告诉他的兄弟的。我了解斯特朗家族的人。如果你可以不念旧情，那我也可以。如果你什么都不做的话，他会*了你的。唔，如果我开口的话，甚至汤姆·道也会。”
"You should know me better than to threaten," he reproved gravely, then added, with a sneer: "Besides, I don't see how killing me will help your Rex Strang."
“你应该更了解我才是，不至于想要要挟我吧，”他厉声指责，接着又语带嘲讽地补充道，“何况，我并不以为*了我能对你的雷克斯·斯特朗有什么帮助。”
She gave a low gasp, closed her lips tightly, and watched his quick eyes take note of the trembling that had beset her.
她轻吐了口大气，嘴唇抿得紧紧的，看着他那双敏锐的眼睛记录自己浑身的颤抖。
"It's not hysteria, Grant," she cried hastily and anxiously, with clicking teeth. "You never saw me with hysteria. I've never had it. I don't know what it is, but I'll control it. I am merely beside myself. It's partly anger—with you. And it's apprehension and fear. I don't want to lose him. I do love him, Grant. He is my king, my lover. And I have sat here beside him so many dreadful days now. Oh, Grant, please, please."
“这不是歇斯底里，格兰特，”她焦急地脱口喊出，牙齿咯咯作响，“你从未见过我歇斯底里。我从来都不会。我不知道现在这算什么，但我会控制住它的。我只是有点失控。部分是因为生气——生你的气。还有是担忧和恐惧。我不想失去他。我真的爱他，格兰特。他是我的王，我的爱人。我在这里，在他身旁，守了那么多个可怕的日子才到现在。哦，格兰特，求求你，求求你了。”
"Just nerves," he commented drily. "Stay with it. You can best it. If you were a man I'd say take a smoke."
“你只是神经过敏，”他冷冷地说，“坚持一下。你能撑过去的。你若是个男人，我会说，抽点烟吧。”
She went unsteadily back to the stool, where she watched him and fought for control. From the rough fireplace came the singing of a cricket. Outside two wolf-dogs bickered. The injured man's chest rose and fell perceptibly under the fur robes. She saw a smile, not altogether pleasant, form on Linday's lips.
她踉踉跄跄地坐回到凳子上，望着他，竭力控制住自己。简陋的壁炉那边传来蟋蟀的鸣叫声。外头有两只狼狗在打架。皮毛制成的裙袍下伤者的胸膛一起一伏，清晰可见。她看到林迪的唇边显现出一抹叫人不怎么舒服的笑容。
"How much do you love him?" he asked.
“你有多爱他？”他问。
Her breast filled and rose, and her eyes shone with a light unashamed and proud. He nodded in token that he was answered.
她鼓起了胸膛，眸间闪烁着骄傲无畏的光芒。他点点头，表示得到答案了。
"Do you mind if I take a little time?" He stopped, casting about for the way to begin. "I remember reading a story—Herbert Shaw wrote it, I think. I want to tell you about it. There was a woman, young and beautiful; a man magnificent, a lover of beauty and a wanderer. I don't know how much like your Rex Strang he was, but I fancy a sort of resemblance. Well, this man was a painter, a bohemian, a vagabond. He kissed—oh, several times and for several weeks—and rode away. She possessed for him what I thought you possessed for me … at Lake Geneva. In ten years she wept the beauty out of her face. Some women turn yellow, you know, when grief upsets their natural juices.
“你介意我占用一点时间吗？”他停下来，思考着从哪里开始讲起。“我记得读到过一个故事——我想是赫伯特·肖写的。我想把这个故事告诉你。有一个女人，年轻貌美；一个男人，高大挺拔，是个美的追崇者，也是个流浪汉。我不清楚他有多像你的雷克斯·斯特朗，但我想是相似的一类人。对，他是个画家，不拘礼俗，四处漂泊。他吻了她——哦，连着几个星期吻了好几回——然后离开了。她为他着了魔，我想就跟当初你为我着了魔一样……在日内瓦湖畔。她哭泣了十年，哭走了美丽的容颜。你知道，当悲伤搅乱了她们天然的精气，有些女人就会憔悴老去。”
"Now it happened that the man went blind, and ten years afterward, led as a child by the hand, he stumbled back to her. There was nothing left. He could no longer paint. And she was very happy, and glad he could not see her face. Remember, he worshipped beauty. And he continued to hold her in his arms and believe in her beauty. The memory of it was vivid in him. He never ceased to talk about it, and to lament that he could not behold it.
“故事接下来那个男人失明了。十年之后，他像孩子那样被牵着手领着，跌跌撞撞地回到了她身边。他什么也没有了。他再也不能画画了。她却很开心，为他看不到自己的脸而感到高兴。记得吧，他追崇美丽。他仍然把她搂在自己的怀里，认为她是一个美人。她的美貌在他记忆中鲜活生动。他不停地诉说着她的美丽，又不停地哀叹自己无法看见她的美丽。”
"One day he told her of five great pictures he wished to paint. If only his sight could be restored to paint them, he could write finis and be content. And then, no matter how, there came into her hands an elixir. Anointed on his eyes, the sight would surely and fully return."
“有一天，他告诉她，他希望完成五幅巨制画作。要是他的眼睛能复明，让他画完这五幅画，他就可以完满了。而那时，不知怎的，她得到了一种灵丹妙药。把药敷在他眼睛上，他的视力就必定能完全恢复。”
Linday shrugged his shoulders.
林迪耸耸肩。
"You see her struggle. With sight, he could paint his five pictures. Also, he would leave her. Beauty was his religion. It was impossible that he could abide her ruined face. Five days she struggled. Then she anointed his eyes."
“你明白她心中的挣扎。恢复了视力，他就能够完成那五幅画。同时，他也将离开她。他信仰美丽。他不可能会接受她被毁的容颜。她苦苦挣扎了五天。最终，她把药敷在了他眼睛上。”
Linday broke off and searched her with his eyes, the high lights focused sharply in the brilliant black.
林迪突然停了下来，上下打量着她，闪亮的黑色眼眸里鲜明地聚起几束强光。
"The question is, do you love Rex Strang as much as that?"
“问题是，你对雷克斯·斯特朗的爱也有那么深吗？”
"And if I do?" she countered.
“如果是呢？”她反问。
"Do you?"
“是吗？”
"Yes."
“是的。”
"You can sacrifice? You can give him up?"
“你能做出牺牲吗？你能放弃他吗？”
Slow and reluctant was her "Yes."
她迟疑而勉强地回答：“是。”
"And you will come with me?"
“那么你会跟我走吗？”
"Yes." This time her voice was a whisper. "When he is well—yes.”
“是的。”这一次她的声音细弱蚊蝇。“当他好了之后——是的。”
"You understand. It must be Lake Geneva over again. You will be my wife."
“你知道。日内瓦湖畔的光景必将重现。你会是我的妻子。”
She seemed to shrink and droop, but her head nodded.
她似乎顿时萎蔫了下去，但仍点了点头。
"Very well." He stood up briskly, went to his pack, and began unstrapping. "I shall need help. Bring his brother in. Bring them all in. Boiling water—let there be lots of it. I've brought bandages, but let me see what you have in that line. —Here, Daw, build up that fire and start boiling all the water you can. —Here you," to the other man, "get that table out and under the window there. Clean it; scrub it; scald it. Clean, man, clean, as you never cleaned a thing before. You, Mrs. Strang, will be my helper. No sheets, I suppose. Well, we'll manage somehow.—You're his brother, sir. I'll give the anesthetic, but you must keep it going afterward. Now listen, while I instruct you. In the first place—but before that, can you take a pulse?…”
“很好。”他倏地站了起来，走向他的包裹，解开来。“我需要帮助。把他兄弟叫进来。让他们都进来。烧开水——要烧很多。我带了绷带，让我看看你们有什么可以包扎的东西。——这儿，道，生火烧水，能烧多少烧多少。——还有你，”他对另一个人说，“把那张桌子搬出去，搬到那边窗下。清理干净，用刷子刷，用开水烫。弄干净，伙计，弄干净，要比你以前洗过的任何东西都洗得干净。你，斯特朗夫人，你当我的助手。没有床单吧，我猜。算了，我们会凑合过去的——你是他的弟弟吧，先生。我会把他麻醉，但你必须让麻醉状态一直持续下去。现在听好了，我教你。首先——不过在这之前你能给他把把脉吗？……”
IV
四
Noted for his daring and success as a surgeon, through the days and weeks that followed Linday exceeded himself in daring and success. Never, because of the frightful mangling and breakage, and because of the long delay, had he encountered so terrible a case. But he had never had a healthier specimen of human wreck to work upon. Even then he would have failed, had it not been for the patient's catlike vitality and almost uncanny physical and mental grip on life.
作为一个外科医生，林迪以胆大和成功著称，接下来的几日、几周内，他却超越了自己的胆大和成功。由于伤势严重得骇人，也由于延误时日过长，他以前从未遇到过如此糟糕的情况。但他以前也从未诊治过人类一族中如此健壮的伤者。尽管如此，要不是病人像猫一样顽强的生命力，及其近乎于神的生理和精神求生的力量，就连他也很可能失败。
There were days of high temperature and delirium; days of heart-sinking when Strang's pulse was barely perceptible; days when he lay conscious, eyes weary and drawn, the sweat of pain on his face. Linday was indefatigable, cruelly efficient, audacious and fortunate, daring hazard after hazard and winning. He was not content to make the man live. He devoted himself to the intricate and perilous problem of making him whole and strong again.
他有几日连着发高烧说胡话；有几日连着心脏衰弱，那时斯特朗的脉搏微弱得几乎摸不出来；也有几日，他清醒过来，眼睛疲乏，脸上挂着因疼痛流出的汗水。林迪不知疲倦，又很有效率，敢于冒险，又很有运气，他屡屡冒险，屡屡获胜。让那个男人活过来并不能令他满意。他致力于解决一个复杂而危险的问题，就是让那个男人再次变得健全、强壮。
"He will be a cripple?" Madge queried.
“他会变成一个瘸子吗？”马奇问。
"He will not merely walk and talk and be a limping caricature of his former self," Linday told her. "He shall run and leap, swim riffles, ride bears, fight panthers, and do all things to the top of his fool desire. And, I warn you, he will fascinate women just as of old. Will you like that? Are you content? Remember, you will not be with him."
“他将不光会走路会说话，他将不光是从前那个自己的残疾版，”林迪告诉她，“他将能跑能跳，能在急流里游泳，能骑到熊背上，能跟豹子搏斗；只要他那愚蠢念想里有的，他都能做。还有，我警告你，他将跟以前一样，叫女人们着迷。你喜欢那样吗？你满意吗？记着，你是不会跟他在一起的。”
"Go on, go on," she breathed. "Make him whole. Make him what he was."
“继续，继续，”马奇低语，“使他完整健全。使他跟过去一样。”
More than once, whenever Strang's recuperation permitted, Linday put him under the anesthetic and did terrible things, cutting and sewing, rewiring and connecting up the disrupted organism. Later, developed a hitch in the left arm. Strang could lift it so far, and no farther. Linday applied himself to the problem. It was a case of more wires, shrunken, twisted, disconnected. Again it was cut and switch and ease and disentangle. And all that saved Strang was his tremendous vitality and the health of his flesh.
不止一次，只要斯特朗身体恢复得允许了，林迪就把他麻醉，进行一些可怕的手术，切开、缝合、重新连接、搭建这个受损的有机体。后来，病人的左手臂上出现问题。斯特朗把手臂抬到一定高度就抬不上去了。林迪专心一致要解决这个问题。这涉及到更多的筋腱韧带，有的收缩了，有的弯曲了，有的断裂了。又要开刀，将筋腱换位，放开，理顺。斯特朗能熬过这些全凭他惊人的生命力和强健的身躯。
"You will kill him," his brother complained. "Let him be. For God's sake let him be. A live and crippled man is better than a whole and dead one."
“你会*死他的，”他弟弟埋怨道，“就让他那样吧。看在上帝的份上放过他吧。一个残疾的活人总比一个完整的死人好。”
Linday flamed in wrath. "You get out! Out of this cabin with you till you can come back and say that I make him live. Pull—by God, man, you've got to pull with me with all your soul. Your brother's travelling a hairline razor-edge. Do you understand? A thought can topple him off. Now get out, and come back sweet and wholesome, convinced beyond all absoluteness that he will live and be what he was before you and he played the fool together. Get out, I say.”
林迪怒火中烧。“你出去！这屋子里容不下你，除非你能回来说，我是在救活他。加把劲——天哪，伙计，你必须和我一起加油，用上你所有的力量。你的兄弟如今可是命悬一线。你明白吗？一个想法都可以让他栽倒。现在，出去吧。等想开了，心情舒畅，并怀着十二分的信念，坚信他能活过来，恢复到你们一起玩那个愚蠢游戏之前的样子，那时再回来。我说，出去。”
The brother, with clenched hands and threatening eyes, looked to Madge for counsel.
斯特朗的弟弟拳头紧拧，虎视眈眈，看着马奇征询她的意见。
"Go, go, please," she begged. "He is right. I know he is right."
“去吧，去吧，求求你了，”她央求，“他是对的。我知道他是对的。”
Another time, when Strang's condition seemed more promising, the brother said:
又有一次，斯特朗的情况看上去很有起色，他弟弟说：
"Doc, you're a wonder, and all this time I've forgotten to ask your name."
“医生，你真是个奇迹，一直以来我都不记得问你的名字。”
"None of your damn business. Don't bother me. Get out."
“关你屁事。别来烦我。出去。”
The mangled right arm ceased from its healing, burst open again in a frightful wound.
受伤的右臂停止了原本的愈合，裂成一个可怕的伤口。
"Necrosis," said Linday.
“是坏疽。”林迪说。
"That does settle it," groaned the brother.
“这回真的没救了。”那弟弟咕哝道。
"Shut up!" Linday snarled. "Get out! Take Daw with you. Take Bill, too. Get rabbits—alive—healthy ones. Trap them. Trap everywhere.”
“闭嘴！”林迪怒吼，“出去！带上道，一起出去。把比尔也带上。去抓兔子——要活的——健康的。用捕兽器。到处都设满陷阱。”
"How many?" the brother asked.
“要多少？”那弟弟问。
"Forty of them—four thousand—forty thousand—all you can get. You'll help me, Mrs. Strang. I'm going to dig into that arm and size up the damage. Get out, you fellows. You for the rabbits."
“四十只——四千只——四万只——你们能抓多少是多少。你要给我帮把手，斯特朗夫人。我会切开那只手臂看看坏死的范围。出去呀，伙计们。你们要去抓兔子。”
And he dug in, swiftly, unerringly, scraping away disintegrating bone, ascertaining the extent of the active decay.
他敏捷而准确地切入、刮去开始坏死的骨头，确定溃烂的范围。
"It never would have happened," he told Madge, "if he hadn't had so many other things needing vitality first. Even he didn't have vitality enough to go around. I was watching it, but I had to wait and chance it. That piece must go. He could manage without it, but rabbit-bone will make it what it was.”
“这原本是绝不会发生的，”他告诉马奇，“要是他没有那么多更需要生命力来支持的地方。他甚至没有足够的生命力来维持需要。我一直关注这一点，可我只能等待，只能靠碰运气。那一块组织必须除去。没有它，他也能活，不过兔子的骨头可以使那手臂恢复如初。”
From the hundreds of rabbits brought in, he weeded out, rejected, selected, tested, selected and tested again, until he made his final choice. He used the last of his chloroform and achieved the bone-graft—living bone to living bone, living man and living rabbit immovable and indissolubly bandaged and bound together, their mutual processes uniting and reconstructing a perfect arm.
他从抓来的几百只兔子里淘汰、剔除、删选、实验，再删选、实验，直到他做出最终的选择。他用掉了最后剩下的氯仿，完成了骨头的嫁接——活的骨头和活的骨头，无法动弹的活人和活兔子用绷带牢牢地缠裹在一起，两者在共同的隆起处相互连结，重新构成一只完好的手臂。
And through the whole trying period, especially as Strang mended, occurred passages of talk between Linday and Madge. Nor was he kind, nor she rebellious.
在整个尝试过程中，尤其是斯特朗恢复的过程中，林迪和马奇之间发生了几段对话。他并不友好，她也没有反抗。
"It's a nuisance," he told her. "But the law is the law, and you'll need a divorce before we can marry again. What do you say? Shall we go to Lake Geneva?"
“真是讨厌，”他告诉她，“可法律就是法律，我们复婚之前你得先离一次婚。你怎么说？我们会去日内瓦湖吗？”
"As you will," she said.
“按你的意思办。”她说。
And he, another time: "What the deuce did you see in him anyway? I know he had money. But you and I were managing to get along with some sort of comfort. My practice was averaging around forty thousand a year then—I went over the books afterward. Palaces and steam yachts were about all that was denied you.”
又有一次，他说：“该死的，你到底在他身上看到了什么好？我知道他有钱。但是你和我当初也能过上相对舒适的生活。当时我行医的收入有平均每年四万左右——后来我查阅过账本。除了宫殿和蒸汽游艇，没有什么是你得不到的。”
"Perhaps you've explained it," she answered. "Perhaps you were too interested in your practice. Maybe you forgot me."
“也许你已经给出了答案，”她回答，“也许是因为你太专注于事业了。也许是你忽视了我。”
"Humph," he sneered. "And may not your Rex be too interested in panthers and short sticks?"
“哼，”他嗤笑道，“难道你的雷克斯就没有太专注于豹子和短棒吗？”
He continually girded her to explain what he chose to call her infatuation for the other man.
他继续缠着她，要她解释他所谓的她对另一个男人的痴迷。
"There is no explanation," she replied. And, finally, she retorted, "No one can explain love, I least of all. I only knew love, the divine and irrefragable fact, that is all. There was once, at Fort Vancouver, a baron of the Hudson Bay Company who chided the resident Church of England parson. The dominie had written home to England complaining that the Company folk, from the head factor down, were addicted to Indian wives. 'Why didn't you explain the extenuating circumstances?' demanded the baron. Replied the dominie: 'A cow's tail grows downward. I do not attempt to explain why the cow's tail grows downward. I merely cite the fact.'"
“没有什么解释。”她回答。最后，她反驳道：“没有人能解释爱，而我是最不可能去解释的。我只知道爱情是神圣而无懈可击的，只有这些。在温哥华堡，曾经有一个哈得孙湾公司的工业大亨指责当地英国国教教堂的牧师。牧师就给英国本土写信，抱怨那个公司的人，上至总代理人，都热衷于娶印第安人作妻子。‘你为什么不解释一下其情有可原之处呢？’那个工业大亨责问。牧师回答说：‘牛的尾巴是往下长的。我并不试图去解释牛的尾巴为什么是朝下长的。我只是表述事实而已。”
"Damn clever women!" cried Linday, his eyes flashing his irritation.
“该死的聪明女人！”林迪大叫道，眼里闪着愤怒的火光。
"What brought you, of all places, into the Klondike?" she asked once.
“那么多地方，你为什么偏偏来了克朗代克？”有一回她问。
"Too much money. No wife to spend it. Wanted a rest. Possibly overwork. I tried Colorado, but their telegrams followed me, and some of them did themselves. I went on to Seattle. Same thing. Ransom ran his wife out to me in a special train. There was no escaping it. Operation successful. Local newspapers got wind of it. You can imagine the rest. I had to hide, so I ran away to Klondike. And—well, Tom Daw found me playing whist in a cabin down on the Yukon.”
“太多钱了。没有妻子去花它。想歇一歇。可能是工作过度了。我试过去科罗拉多，可是他们的电报跟上了我，有些还亲自找到了我。接着我去了西雅图。也是一样。兰塞姆用专列火车把他妻子送到了我那里。无处可逃。手术很成功。当地的报纸知道了这件事。剩下的你就可以想象了。我必须躲起来，所以我逃到了克朗代克。然后——哎，汤姆·道发现我在育空河下游的一个小木屋里玩惠斯特。”
Came the day when Strang's bed was carried out of doors and into the sunshine.
斯特朗的床搬出屋子抬到阳光底下的日子终于到了。
"Let me tell him now," she said to Linday.
“现在让我来告诉他吧。”她对林迪说。
"No; wait," he answered.
“不，再等等。”他回答。
Later, Strang was able to sit up on the edge of the bed, able to walk his first giddy steps, supported on either side.
后来，斯特朗能够在床沿上坐起来了，能够在一侧有人搀扶的情况下摇摇晃晃迈出步子了。
"Let me tell him now," she said.
“现在让我告诉他吧。”她说。
"No. I'm making a complete job of this. I want no set-backs. There's a slight hitch still in that left arm. It's a little thing, but I am going to remake him as God made him. Tomorrow I've planned to get into that arm and take out the kink. It will mean a couple of days on his back. I'm sorry there's no more chloroform. He'll just have to bite his teeth on a spike and hang on. He can do it. He's got grit for a dozen men."
“不。我还在将这项工作完成彻底。我不想有什么反复。那只左手臂上还有一点问题。只是个小问题，但我要将他再造，造得跟上帝造的那个一样。明天我打算在那只手臂上开刀，除去筋腱扭结之处。这意味着他还要躺上几天。很遗憾我没有更多的氯仿了。他只能咬块木楔子，忍耐一下。他能做到的。他的勇气和毅力抵得上十几个人的。”
Summer came on. The snow disappeared, save on the far peaks of the Rockies to the east. The days lengthened till there was no darkness, the sun dipping at midnight, due north, for a few minutes beneath the horizon. Linday never let up on Strang. He studied his walk, his body movements, stripped him again and again and for the thousandth time made him flex all his muscles. Massage was given him without end, until Linday declared that Tom Daw, Bill, and the brother were properly qualified for Turkish bath and osteopathic hospital attendants. But Linday was not yet satisfied. He put Strang through his whole repertoire of physical feats, searching him the while for hidden weaknesses. He put him on his back again for a week, opened up his leg, played a deft trick or two with the smaller veins, scraped a spot of bone no larger than a coffee grain till naught but a surface of healthy pink remained to be sewed over with the living flesh.
夏天来了。除了东面落基山脉的几个远峰上还有积雪，其他的雪都消失了。白天越来越长，直到没有了黑夜。午夜时太阳才在正北方落下，只在地平线下呆几分钟。林迪对斯特朗从未放松。他观察他的步态和身体的动作，让他脱去衣服做检查，一遍又一遍，足有上千遍，让他活动身上所有的肌肉。林迪不间断地给斯特朗做按摩，直到他宣布汤姆·道、比尔以及斯特朗的弟弟已经够资格去当土耳其浴房和骨科医院的侍者。可林迪还是不满意。他强使斯特朗完成他全套的肢体动作，仔细查找斯特朗身上隐藏的缺陷。他又让斯特朗在床上躺了一个星期，在他的腿上动刀，对那些更细的血管做了一两处精巧的处理，将骨头上一个咖啡豆大的地方刮到全露出粉红色的健康表面，这才把上面鲜活的血肉缝合起来。
"Let me tell him," Madge begged.
“让我告诉他吧。”马奇央求。
"Not yet," was the answer. "You will tell him only when I am ready."
林迪的回答是：“还不可以。”“我说可以的时候，你才可以告诉他。”
July passed, and August neared its end, when he ordered Strang out on trail to get a moose. Linday kept at his heels, watching him, studying him. He was slender, a cat in the strength of his muscles, and he walked as Linday had seen no man walk, effortlessly, with all his body, seeming to lift the legs with supple muscles clear to the shoulders. But it was without heaviness, so easy that it invested him with a peculiar grace, so easy that to the eye the speed was deceptive. It was the killing pace of which Tom Daw had complained. Linday toiled behind, sweating and panting; from time to time, when the ground favoured, making short runs to keep up. At the end of ten miles he called a halt and threw himself down on the moss.
七月过去，八月都接近尾声了，他才让斯特朗出去野外抓驼鹿。林迪紧随其后，观察他，研究他。斯特朗体形修长，强健有力，又如猫一般灵活。林迪从没见过谁像他那样走得毫不费力，他的整个身体一起活动，灵活的肌肉仿佛能把双腿提得跟肩膀一样高。而他的动作又轻盈无比，那么轻松自如，能带来一种特殊的魅力，让人看了觉得不可置信。这就是汤姆·道抱怨过的那种要命的速度。林迪艰难地跟在后面，大汗淋漓，气喘吁吁；一次次，等地面的情况良好时，短跑一段跟上去。走完十英里，他叫停了，扑倒在苔藓上。
"Enough!" he cried. "I can't keep up with you."
“够了！”他大叫，“我跟不上你了。”
He mopped his heated face, and Strang sat down on a spruce log, smiling at the doctor, and, with the camaraderie of a pantheist, at all the landscape.
他擦了擦自己火辣辣的脸颊。斯特朗则在一根云杉木头上坐了下来，带着一种泛神论者的同志友谊，朝医生微笑，也朝所有的景物微笑。
"Any twinges, or hurts, or aches, or hints of aches?" Linday demanded.
“有任何刺痛、苦痛、疼痛，或者是微痛吗？”林迪问。
Strang shook his curly head and stretched his lithe body, living and joying in every fibre of it.
斯特朗摇摇他那长满卷发的脑袋，伸展了一下柔韧的身躯，身体中的每一根纤维都活跃着、欢乐着。
"You'll do, Strang. For a winter or two you may expect to feel the cold and damp in the old wounds. But that will pass, and perhaps you may escape it altogether."
“你行的，斯特朗。再有一两个冬天，你那些旧伤在寒冷潮湿的天气里可能会感觉得出来。可是那都会过去的，也有可能你根本就不用经历那个过程。”
"God, Doctor, you have performed miracles with me. I don't know how to thank you. I don't even know your name."
“上帝呀，医生你真的是在我身上创造了奇迹。我不知道该怎么感谢你。我甚至都不知道你的名字。”
"Which doesn't matter. I've pulled you through, and that's the main thing."
“这些都不重要。我让你挺了过来，这才是重点。”
"But it's a name men must know out in the world," Strang persisted. "I'll wager I'd recognise it if I heard it."
“可在外面的世界里人们认的就是一个名字，”斯特朗坚持说，“我打赌，如果我听过你的名字，我就能认出来。”
"I think you would," was Linday's answer. "But it's beside the matter. I want one final test, and then I'm done with you. Over the divide at the head of this creek is a tributary of the Big Windy. Daw tells me that last year you went over, down to the middle fork, and back again, in three days. He said you nearly killed him, too. You are to wait here and camp to-night. I'll send Daw along with the camp outfit. Then it's up to you to go to the middle fork and back in the same time as last year."
“我相信你能，”林迪这么回答，“但是这无关紧要。还有最后一项考验，然后我就对你放心了。越过分水岭，在这条溪流的头上是大温迪河的一条支流。道跟我说去年你去过那里，游到了中央分岔口，又游回来，只用了三天。他还说你差点*死了他。你要在这儿等，今晚在此宿营。我会把道叫来，带上露营用的全套用品。然后就看你了，能不能像去年那样用相同的时间到中央分岔口游个来回。”
V
五
"Now," Linday said to Madge. "You have an hour in which to pack. I'll go and get the canoe ready. Bill's bringing in the moose and won't get back till dark. We'll make my cabin to-day, and in a week we'll be in Dawson."
“现在，”林迪对马奇说，“你有一个小时的时间打包。我去看看小舟是不是准备好了。比尔去打驼鹿了，不到天黑回不来的。我们今天就能到我的木屋，一周就能到达道森。”
"I was in hope…” She broke off proudly.
“我本希望……”她突然很自重地停了下来。
"That I'd forego the fee?"
“希望我会不要诊费？”
"Oh, a compact is a compact, but you needn't have been so hateful in the collecting. You have not been fair. You have sent him away for three days, and robbed me of my last words to him."
“噢，定了协议就该遵守，可你不必用如此可恶的方式来实现。你这样不公平。你让他离开三天，夺走了我最后跟他告别的机会。”
"Leave a letter."
“留封信吧。”
"I shall tell him all."
“我会把一切都告诉他的。”
"Anything less than all would be unfair to the three of us," was Linday's answer.
“如果不说清所有一切，对我们三个都是不公平的。”这是林迪的回答。
When he returned from the canoe, her outfit was packed, the letter written.
他查看完小舟回来的时候，她的东西已经打包好了，信也已经写了。
"Let me read it," he said, "if you don't mind."
“让我读读吧，”他说，“如果你不介意的话。”
Her hesitation was momentary, then she passed it over.
她犹豫片刻，然后把信递了过去。
"Pretty straight," he said, when he had finished it. "Now, are you ready?"
“非常直截了当，”他读完信之后说，“现在，你可准备好了？”
He carried her pack down to the bank, and, kneeling, steadied the canoe with one hand while he extended the other to help her in. He watched her closely, but without a tremor she held out her hand to his and prepared to step on board.
他把她的包裹拿到河岸上，屈着膝，一手稳住小舟，一手伸向她，扶她入船。他密切地注视着她，她把手伸给他，不带一丝情绪，并准备上船。
"Wait," he said. "One moment. You remember the story I told you of the elixir. I failed to tell you the end. And when she had anointed his eyes and was about to depart, it chanced she saw in the mirror that her beauty had been restored to her. And he opened his eyes, and cried out with joy at the sight of her beauty, and folded her in his arms."
“等一下，”他说，“就一会儿。你还记得我给你讲的那个关于万灵药的故事吧。我忘了把结局告诉你。她把药敷在了他眼睛上，正准备离开时，恰巧从镜子里看到自己已经恢复了美貌。他睁开眼睛，看到她的美貌不禁高兴得大喊起来，把她紧搂在自己的怀里。”
She waited, tense but controlled, for him to continue, a dawn of wonder faintly beginning to show in her face and eyes.
她等着他说下去，十分紧张，又努力克制。她的脸上和双眸里隐隐约约显出惊奇的神色。
"You are very beautiful, Madge." He paused, then added drily, "The rest is obvious. I fancy Rex Strang's arms won't remain long empty. Good-bye.”
“你很美丽，马奇，”他顿了顿，然后冷冷地补充道，“剩下的故事就很明显了。我想雷克斯·斯特朗的怀里不会空很久的。再见。”
"Grant…” she said, almost whispered, and in her voice was all the speech that needs not words for understanding.
“格兰特……”她说道，几乎是在窃窃私语，话音中包含的万般言辞都无需用字句来表达。
He gave a nasty little laugh. "I just wanted to show you I wasn't such a bad sort. Coals of fire, you know."
他发出一阵坏坏的低笑。“我只是想向你表明我并不是那么坏的人。以德报怨，你明白吧。”
"Grant…”
“格兰特……”
He stepped into the canoe and put out a slender, nervous hand.
他步入船内，伸出一只细长、敏感的手。
"Good-bye," he said.
“再见。”他说。
She folded both her own hands about his.
她用自己的双手裹住他的手。
"Dear, strong hand," she murmured, and bent and kissed it.
“亲爱的，多么有力的手啊。”她低声说着，并俯下身吻了吻那只手。
He jerked it away, thrust the canoe out from the bank, dipped the paddle in the swift rush of the current, and entered the head of the riffle where the water poured glassily ere it burst into a white madness of foam.
他猛地抽开手，将小舟狠狠撑离河岸，在湍急的水流中划起桨来，驶入急流的前端。在那里，水流如注，犹如玻璃一般，刹那间砸成了一团疯狂的白色泡沫。
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