【英文文学】Scott Burton and the Timber Thieves.docx

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1、【英文文学】Scott Burton and the Timber ThievesCHAPTER IScott Burton sat on the porch of the little cabin on the edge of the forest and looked absently out across the wide beach at the restless waters of the Gulf of Mexico. No one ever would have guessed from his expression now how crazy he had been to se

2、e that gulf only the day before. He apparently did not see the water at all. The big waves boomed on the beach unheard and even the little oyster schooner, which glided across the picture on its way to port, failed to catch his attention. He had sat motionless for so long that a great big fox-squirr

3、el, afraid but drawn on irresistibly by his curiosity, had crept nervously up within a few feet of him.Suddenly Scott shook his head to rid himself of a bothersome fly and the frightened chatter of the squirrel as it whisked behind the nearest tree broke the spell. He gave the intruder a quick glanc

4、e and turned his attention once more to the open letter which he held in his hand. He had read that letter dozens of times, in fact he knew every word on the typewritten page by heart, but he read it again now in the hope of finding some additional meaning between the lines.“Washington, D. C.“Septem

5、ber 3, 1913.“Mr. Scott Burton,“Okalatchee, Fla.“Dear Mr. Burton:“Your remarkable work in cleaning up the trouble with the sheepmen on the Cormorant Forest last summer has led us to select you for some special work of a rather delicate character on the Okalatchee. There have been some timber thieves

6、at work on that forest for some time, and so far our officers have been unable to catch them or effectually put a stop to their work. It will be your particular duty to see that these thefts are stopped and the trespassers brought to justice.“In order that you may have ample authority, you have been

7、 appointed deputy supervisor under Mr. Graham and will be given every possible assistance.“You will report directly to this office.“Very truly yours,“Martin Spear,“Chief of Personnel.”No, he could not see any more in it, and yet it seemed mighty little to tell a man who had been looking forward to t

8、hat letter for a week and had traveled two thousand miles to get it. He turned the paper over thoughtfully as though he hoped to find some further instructions on the back of it, and then proceeded to review once more the whole situation.He had been fortunate enough to earn considerable distinction

9、in Arizona, where he had been working as a patrolman, by clearing out a gang of grafters who had been running sheep on the Forest without a permit. This achievement had won for him the chance of an appointment as a ranger, but he had asked for the opportunity to obtain a little more experience as a

10、patrolman before taking up a more responsible position. His request had been granted and he had spent the summer very profitably on the district he had cleaned up so creditably in the spring.Suddenly, without the slightest warning, he had received a telegram from the Washington office.“Report Okalat

11、chee, Fla., at once. You will find instructions there.”He had become attached to the Southwest and had looked forward contentedly to a permanent location there, but he was possessed of even more than the usual young mans love of travel, and Florida had always been a country of his dreams, a country

12、of fairy tales that he had hardly even dared hope to see. The sudden realization that he was actually going there had driven everything else from his mind, and an hour after he had received the message he was in the saddle on his way to town.It was only when he was on the train speeding across the v

13、ast expanse of Texas, with plenty of opportunity to think, that he had begun to burn with a consuming curiosity to know what his instructions would be. The longer he had traveled the higher his air castles had grown and the more anxious he had become to see those instructions. By the time he had rea

14、ched New Orleans he was in such a hurry that he could hardly enjoy his ten-hour wait there, though it was the first southern city he had ever been in and a place which he had always longed to see.The sight of the tall palmetto palms and the moss-covered live oaks drove his imagination to even more f

15、antastic efforts, and finally arrived in Okalatchee he had almost run directly from the train to the postoffice to get those precious instructions. And this letter was all that he had found. He had found that the supervisors headquarters were five miles away through the pine woods and the telephone

16、gave him no answer. He had hired an old negro to drive him over. There was no one there, but the door was not locked and he had decided to stay there till some one came. He was not much better off than before he had obtained the letter.“Well,” Scott thought, “there is nothing to do but wait till the

17、 supervisor turns up,” and he proceeded to investigate his new surroundings.The little three-room cabin, built of rough lumber with battens over the cracks, was exactly like numbers of other ranger cabins he had seen, but its location had been selected with more than the usual attention to beauty an

18、d comfort. It nestled just within the edge of a very dense stand of tall, longleaf pines and the little front yard ran out to meet the broad sand beach. Flowerbeds of hibiscus and groups of oleanders lined the walk of crushed oyster shells, and plants with which Scott was entirely unfamiliar were sc

19、attered around in great profusion on either side of the cabin. It seemed to Scott as though a woman must have planned it all, for he could not imagine a man taking so much pains with the decoration of his home. He found himself thinking that it was no wonder this fellow had not caught the timber thi

20、eves.Just to the west of the cabin a little creek bordered with titi and sweet jasmine wandered slowly out to meet the blue waters of the Gulf. It could not always have flowed as slowly as it did now, for some time in the past it had built quite a little delta which extended out in the form of a min

21、iature cape, and was covered with a grove of tall, stately palmettos. Far out from the shore a long line of low-lying sand islands broke the horizon. It was certainly an ideal spot.The interior of the cabin was quite as tastily equipped as the exterior, and the cupboard seemed to be stocked for a lo

22、ng siege. There was nothing lacking even to the luxuries. Scott smiled as he thought of his own bare little shack high up in the southern Rockies with the round bullet hole in the windowpane.“I dont care if that sissy supervisor does not show up for a week,” Scott grunted contentedly as he settled d

23、own in a comfortable steamer chair on the porch. No one could have asked for a better place to wait. But Scott was not much given to idle comfort, especially when his curiosity was aroused, and it usually was aroused about something. Just now he was almost wild to know something more of this new pro

24、blem which he had been given to solve. He watched a little flock of sandpipers run along the smooth beach a way, following the very edge of a wave, but long before they had turned the point of the little palmetto cape he jumped restlessly from the chair and went into the cabin to study a map which h

25、e had noticed hanging on the wall.It was a detailed map, showing the irregular boundary of Okalatchee forest and the different types of timber. It was a great sprawling tract of a million acres extending along the gulf to the river on the west, to the farm lands on the east, and north to the big swa

26、mp. It was covered with unfamiliar terms he had seen in books, but which had never seemed real to him before. He had always read them before as he would read the names in a fairy tale, and here he was in the very midst of them: pine ridge and cypress swamp, hardwood bottom and gum slough, low hammoc

27、k and baygall, high hammock and cane break, turpentine orchards and stills.He marveled at the great number of ridges shown in that flat country, and the many long, stringlike swamps which paralleled the river and the coast. And he wondered where in all that maze of unknown country the timber thieves

28、 whom he was supposed to catch were working. He noted several ranger stations shown on the map and wondered whether any of them were connected with the mystery as had been the case in the sheep business in the West, or whether there were really any thieves at all. He remembered reading a story in wh

29、ich men had been convicted on circumstantial evidence of stealing a raft of logs, and it was not till they had served a month in jail that the raft had been found in the bottom of the pond where it had been tied.If only the supervisor, or any one else who could tell him anything about it, would come

30、. He had not liked the “gum-shoe” game as he had called it when he had been obliged to try his hand at it in the West, but he found himself eager to get at it here because other men had tried it and failed. It seemed to him like a challenge and he was eager to accept it.He pored over the map, studyi

31、ng the lay of the land and letting his imagination run wild. He had caught those thieves in forty different ways in at least a dozen different parts of the map when the failing light warned him that it was time to get supper and prepare for the night.He had no instructions or invitation to make use

32、of that cabin or the supplies in it, but there is a certain freemasonry among the men of the woods which was invitation enough for him. He had no hesitation in spreading his blankets on one of the beds and ransacking the cupboard for his supper. There was plenty to choose from and the wood was laid

33、in the stove ready for the match. In half an hour he was sitting down to his lonely meal.But it was not destined to be a lonely meal. Scott had hardly finished what he probably would have called his “first course,” when he heard a light step on the shell walk, a thud or two on the porch, and a man l

34、oomed big in the doorway.CHAPTER IIScotts first impression was that this was the biggest man he had ever seen. He almost filled the doorway and the crown of his Stetson brushed the frame. His keen eye took in the interior of the cabin in one swift glance as he entered and then focused steadily on Sc

35、ott, who had risen smiling to greet him.“Mr. Burton, I presume?” he said, smiling pleasantly and extending a cordial hand. “My name is Graham. Glad to see you.”“I am afraid that I am trespassing on your property, your provisions and your good nature,” Scott explained, “but I did not know what else t

36、o do.”“Wasnt anything else to do,” Mr. Graham said as he hung his hat carefully on a nail. “If you have just cooked supper enough for three I shall not say a word.”Scott involuntarily glanced toward the door.Mr. Graham noticed the look. “Oh, there isnt anybody with me,” he laughed, “thats just the w

37、ay I feel. Had lunch with a cracker to-day. Maybe you dont know what that means yet, but you soon will.”“Well, I wasnt expecting two men to supper,” Scott laughed, “but I think there is plenty for all three of us.”Scott started to get another cup and plate, but Mr. Graham had already gotten them for

38、 himself and took the seat opposite. He had never seen a man who looked more like his ideal of a woodsman, or one whom he had liked better at first sight. They had not been together five minutes and yet Scott felt as though he had known this big man for months.“I had word from Washington that you wo

39、uld be down here,” Mr. Graham explained, “but I did not know just when you would come. I had a trip to make and thought I would get it in before you arrived. Found out at the postoffice that you had beaten me to it. What do you think of my hang-out here?”“Its a wonder!” Scott exclaimed enthusiastica

40、lly. “I was just thinking before you came that I would not mind waiting here for you for a week or two.”Mr. Graham was evidently pleased with his enthusiasm. “Dont blame you, I feel pretty much that way myself. I ran on to it by chance one time and it took my fancy so that I decided to fix it up for

41、 my summer headquarters. I like it so well now that I stay here nearly all the time.”“You fixed it up?” Scott exclaimed incredulously.“Sure,” the big fellow grinned, immediately divining his thoughts. “Thought some woman did it, did you?”Scott admitted it rather sheepishly.“Yes,” Mr. Graham confesse

42、d, “I am somewhat of a lady myself when it comes to a love of flowers and beauty. I dawdle around out there in the yard a good share of my spare time. Not many movies around here to distract a fellows attention.”And so they talked till the meal was finished, the dishes washed, and the dishrag hung o

43、n its proper nail; for Mr. Graham was as orderly in the house as he was in the yard. Then they settled down in the steamer chairs on the porch and gazed in silence for a few minutes at the line of islands shimmering in the moonlit bay. It was like a scene from a fairy tale.Mr. Graham broke the spell

44、 with a sigh. “I could look at a thing like that all night, but I suppose you are burning up to know something of this peculiar job to which they have assigned you.”Scott admitted that he was rather curious.“Well, Ill try to tell you the whole story. The trouble started about two years ago. The Quil

45、ler Lumber Company had bought a big bunch of pine and cypress timber up near the edge of the big swamp. They are a small concern and do not have a very large crew. Of course, that means slow work and easy checking for us. Their slowness came to be a standing joke with the ranger up there who looks a

46、fter the scaling. He used to say in his diary every now and then, Quiller got down another tree to-day.“They had been at it about six months when the foreman came down to see me. Have you noticed anything peculiar about our scale? he asked. Noticed there has not been much to scale, I told him. Thats

47、 just it, he said, checked up on the stumps any? I explained to him that we seldom did that till a considerable quantity had been cut.“Well, I have, he said, and more than half of the stuff we have cut aint there.“He went on to tell me that he had had a night watchman on the boom for two weeks and t

48、ried in every way to check the thing up, but the logs kept disappearing just the same. A lot of his niggers got superstitious about it and quit the job.”“How do they handle their logs?” Scott asked.“Skid them down to the edge of the big swamp on high wheels and shove them into a bag boom. Then they

49、raft them and float them out into the river.”“Do they keep them in the boom long?” Scott was thinking again of the story of the sunken logs.“Oh, they are not in the bottom of the swamp if that is what you are driving at. Murphy has prodded the bottom of that pond with a pike pole a dozen times.”“Is there a channel through to the river or can