贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > the silverado squatters >

第8章

the silverado squatters-第8章

小说: the silverado squatters 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




bearing on its front the legend SILVERADO HOTEL。  Not another 

sign of habitation。  Silverado town had all been carted from 

the scene; one of the houses was now the school…house far 

down the road; one was gone here; one there; but all were 

gone away。



It was now a sylvan solitude; and the silence was unbroken 

but by the great; vague voice of the wind。  Some days before 

our visit; a grizzly bear had been sporting round the 

Hansons' chicken…house。



Mrs。 Hanson was at home alone; we found。  Rufe had been out 

after a 〃bar;〃 had risen late; and was now gone; it did not 

clearly appear whither。  Perhaps he had had wind of Kelmar's 

coming; and was now ensconced among the underwood; or 

watching us from the shoulder of the mountain。  We; hearing 

there were no houses to be had; were for immediately giving 

up all hopes of Silverado。  But this; somehow; was not to 

Kelmar's fancy。  He first proposed that we should 〃camp 

someveres around; ain't it?〃 waving his hand cheerily as 

though to weave a spell; and when that was firmly rejected; 

he decided that we must take up house with the Hansons。  Mrs。 

Hanson had been; from the first; flustered; subdued; and a 

little pale; but from this proposition she recoiled with 

haggard indignation。  So did we; who would have preferred; in 

a manner of speaking; death。  But Kelmar was not to be put 

by。  He edged Mrs。 Hanson into a corner; where for a long 

time he threatened her with his forefinger; like a character 

in Dickens; and the poor woman; driven to her entrenchments; 

at last remembered with a shriek that there were still some 

houses at the tunnel。



Thither we went; the Jews; who should already have been miles 

into Lake County; still cheerily accompanying us。  For about 

a furlong we followed a good road alone; the hillside through 

the forest; until suddenly that road widened out and came 

abruptly to an end。  A canyon; woody below; red; rocky; and 

naked overhead; was here walled across by a dump of rolling 

stones; dangerously steep; and from twenty to thirty feet in 

height。  A rusty iron chute on wooden legs came flying; like 

a monstrous gargoyle; across the parapet。  It was down this 

that they poured the precious ore; and below here the carts 

stood to wait their lading; and carry it mill…ward down the 

mountain。



The whole canyon was so entirely blocked; as if by some rude 

guerilla fortification; that we could only mount by lengths 

of wooden ladder; fixed in the hillside。  These led us round 

the farther corner of the dump; and when they were at an end; 

we still persevered over loose rubble and wading deep in 

poison oak; till we struck a triangular platform; filling up 

the whole glen; and shut in on either hand by bold 

projections of the mountain。  Only in front the place was 

open like the proscenium of a theatre; and we looked forth 

into a great realm of air; and down upon treetops and 

hilltops; and far and near on wild and varied country。  The 

place still stood as on the day it was deserted:  a line of 

iron rails with a bifurcation; a truck in working order; a 

world of lumber; old wood; old iron; a blacksmith's forge on 

one side; half buried in the leaves of dwarf madronas; and on 

the other; an old brown wooden house。



Fanny and I dashed at the house。  It consisted of three 

rooms; and was so plastered against the hill; that one room 

was right atop of another; that the upper floor was more than 

twice as large as the lower; and that all three apartments 

must be entered from a different side and level。  Not a 

window…sash remained。



The door of the lower room was smashed; and one panel hung in 

splinters。  We entered that; and found a fair amount of 

rubbish:  sand and gravel that had been sifted in there by 

the mountain winds; straw; sticks; and stones; a table; a 

barrel; a plate…rack on the wall; two home…made bootjacks; 

signs of miners and their boots; and a pair of papers pinned 

on the boarding; headed respectively 〃Funnel No。 1;〃 and 

〃Funnel No。 2;〃 but with the tails torn away。  The window; 

sashless of course; was choked with the green and sweetly 

smelling foliage of a bay; and through a chink in the floor; 

a spray of poison oak had shot up and was handsomely 

prospering in the interior。  It was my first care to cut away 

that poison oak; Fanny standing by at a respectful distance。  

That was our first improvement by which we took possession。



The room immediately above could only be entered by a plank 

propped against the threshold; along which the intruder must 

foot it gingerly; clutching for support to sprays of poison 

oak; the proper product of the country。  Herein was; on 

either hand; a triple tier of beds; where miners had once 

lain; and the other gable was pierced by a sashless window 

and a doorless doorway opening on the air of heaven; five 

feet above the ground。  As for the third room; which entered 

squarely from the ground level; but higher up the hill and 

farther up the canyon; it contained only rubbish and the 

uprights for another triple tier of beds。



The whole building was overhung by a bold; lion…like; red 

rock。 Poison oak; sweet bay trees; calcanthus; brush; and 

chaparral; grew freely but sparsely all about it。 In front; 

in the strong sunshine; the platform lay overstrewn with busy 

litter; as though the labours of the mine might begin again 

to…morrow in the morning。



Following back into the canyon; among the mass of rotting 

plant and through the flowering bushes; we came to a great 

crazy staging; with a wry windless on the top; and clambering 

up; we could look into an open shaft; leading edgeways down 

into the bowels of the mountain; trickling with water; and 

lit by some stray sun…gleams; whence I know not。  In that 

quiet place the still; far…away tinkle of the water…drops was 

loudly audible。  Close by; another shaft led edgeways up into 

the superincumbent shoulder of the hill。  It lay partly open; 

and sixty or a hundred feet above our head; we could see the 

strata propped apart by solid wooden wedges; and a pine; half 

undermined; precariously nodding on the verge。  Here also a 

rugged; horizontal tunnel ran straight into the unsunned 

bowels of the rock。  This secure angle in the mountain's 

flank was; even on this wild day; as still as my lady's 

chamber。  But in the tunnel a cold; wet draught tempestuously 

blew。  Nor have I ever known that place otherwise than cold 

and windy。



Such was our fist prospect of Juan Silverado。  I own I had 

looked for something different:  a clique of neighbourly 

houses on a village green; we shall say; all empty to be 

sure; but swept and varnished; a trout stream brawling by; 

great elms or chestnuts; humming with bees and nested in by 

song…birds; and the mountains standing round about; as at 

Jerusalem。  Here; mountain and house and the old tools of 

industry were all alike rusty and downfalling。  The hill was 

here wedged up; and there poured forth its bowels in a spout 

of broken mineral; man with his picks and powder; and nature 

with her own great blasting tools of sun and rain; labouring 

together at the ruin of that proud mountain。  The view up the 

canyon was a glimpse of devastation; dry red minerals sliding 

together; here and there a crag; here and there dwarf thicket 

clinging in the general glissade; and over all a broken 

outline trenching on the blue of heaven。  Downwards indeed; 

from our rock eyrie; we behold the greener side of nature; 

and the bearing of the pines and the sweet smell of bays and 

nutmegs commanded themselves gratefully to our senses。  One 

way and another; now the die was cast。  Silverado be it!



After we had got back to the Toll House; the Jews were not 

long of striking forward。  But I observed that one of the 

Hanson lads came down; before their departure; and returned 

with a ship's kettle。  Happy H

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的