登陆注册
4593900000033

第33章

A few fitful gusts now came from the obscurity; one of them was accompanied by what seemed a flight of small startled birds crossing the road ahead of them. A second larger and more sustained flight showed his astonished eyes that they were white, and each bird an enormous flake of SNOW! For an instant the air was filled with these disks, shreds, patches,--two or three clinging together,--like the downfall shaken from a tree, striking the leather roof and sides with a dull thud, spattering the road into which they descended with large rosettes that melted away only to be followed by hundreds more that stuck and STAYED. In five minutes the ground was white with it, the long road gleaming out ahead in the darkness; the roof and sides of the wagon were overlaid with it as with a coating of plaster of Paris; the harness of the horses, and even the reins, stood out over their steaming backs like white trappings. In five minutes more the steaming backs themselves were blanketed with it; the arms and legs of the outside passengers pinioned to the seats with it, and the arms of the driver kept free only by incessant motion. It was no longer snowing; it was "snowballing;" it was an avalanche out of the slopes of the sky. The exhausted horses floundered in it; the clogging wheels dragged in it; the vehicle at last plunged into a billow of it--and stopped.

The bewildered and half blinded passengers hurried out into the road to assist the driver to unship the wheels and fit the steel runners in their axles. But it was too late! By the time the heavy wagon was converted into a sledge, it was deeply imbedded in wet and clinging snow. The narrow, long-handled shovels borrowed from the prospectors' kits were powerless before this heavy, half liquid impediment. At last the driver, with an oath, relinquished the attempt, and, unhitching his horses, collected the passengers and led them forward by a narrower and more sheltered trail toward the next stations now scarce a mile away. The led horses broke a path before them, the snow fell less heavily, but it was nearly an hour before the straggling procession reached the house, and the snow-coated and exhausted passengers huddled and steamed round the red-hot stove in the bar-room. The driver had vanished with his team into the shed; Masterton's fellow passenger on the box-seat, after a few whispered words to the landlord, also disappeared.

"I see you've got Jake Poole with you," said one of the bar-room loungers to Masterton, indicating the passenger who had just left.

"I reckon he's here on the same fool business."Masterton looked his surprise and mystification.

"Jake Poole, the deputy sheriff," repeated the other. "I reckon he's here pretendin' to hunt for Montagu Trixit like the San Francisco detectives that kem up yesterday."Masterton with difficulty repressed a start. He had heard of Poole, but did not know him by sight. "I don't think Iunderstand," he said coolly.

"I reckon you're a stranger in these parts," returned the lounger, looking at Masterton curiously. "Ef you warn't, ye'd know that about the last man San Francisco or Canada City WANTED to ketch is Monty Trixit! He knows too much and THEY know it. But they've got to keep up a show chase--a kind o' cirkis-ridin'--up here to satisfy the stockholders. You bet that Jake Poole hez got his orders--they might kill him to shut his mouth, ef they got an excuse--and he made a fight--but he ain't no such fool. No, sir!

Why, the sickest man you ever saw was that director that kem up here with a detective when he found that Monty HADN'T left the State.""Then he IS hiding about here?" said Masterton, with assumed calmness.

The man paused, lowered his voice, and said: "I wouldn't swear he wasn't a mile from whar we're talkin' now. Why, they do allow that he's taken a drink at this very bar SINCE the news came!--and that thar's a hoss kept handy in the stable already saddled just to tempt him ef he was inclined to scoot.""That's only a bluff to start him goin' so that they kin shoot him in his tracks," said a bystander.

"That ain't no good ef he has, as they SAY he has, papers stowed away with a friend that would frighten some mighty partickler men out o' their boots," returned the first speaker. "But he's got his spies too, and thar ain't a man that crosses the Divide as ain't spotted by them. The officers brag about havin' put a cordon around the district, and yet they've just found out that he managed to send a telegraphic dispatch from Black Rock station right under their noses. Why, only an hour or so arter the detectives and the news arrived here, thar kem along one o' them emigrant teams from Pike, and the driver said that a smart-lookin' chap in store-clothes had come out of an old prospector's cabin up thar on the rise about a mile away and asked for a newspaper. And the description the teamster gave just fitted Trixit to a T. Well, the information was give so public like that the detectives HAD to make a rush over thar, and b'gosh! although thar wasn't a soul passed them but a file of Chinese coolies, when they got thar they found NOTHIN',--nothin' but them Chinamen cookin' their rice by the roadside."Masterton smiled carelessly, and walked to the window, as if intent upon the still falling snow. But he had at once grasped the situation that seemed now almost providential for his inexperience and his mission. The man he was seeking was within his possible reach, if the story he had heard was true. The detectives would not be likely to interfere with his plans, for he was the only man who really wished to meet the fugitive. The presence of Poole made him uneasy, though he had never met the man before. Was it barely possible that he was on the same mission on behalf of others? IFwhat he heard was true, there might be others equally involved with the absconding manager. But then the spies--how could the deputy sheriff elude them, and how could HE?

同类推荐
  • 百丈清规

    百丈清规

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 永安县志-顺治本

    永安县志-顺治本

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 胎藏梵字真言

    胎藏梵字真言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 贞一斋稿

    贞一斋稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 众经目录序

    众经目录序

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 女人健康密码

    女人健康密码

    呵护女人身体的健康密码,让女人不生病的实用健康手册。向身体做投资,向健康要幸福。健康的身心、红润的容颜以及优雅的气质离你不远。中医、国学等名家教给你最实用的养生经验,一生健康,爱护自己。
  • 王心斋语

    王心斋语

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 五狱轮回

    五狱轮回

    天地不仁,以万物为刍狗!逆尘狱,修罗狱,暗妖狱,雷罚狱,踏天狱由此而生!逆仙,逆佛,逆天道!任天妒,肩负一身血海深仇,看他是如何步步荆棘,在残酷的修真界走出一条血淋淋的道路,称霸六界!
  • 责任胜于能力

    责任胜于能力

    企业界、培训界、咨询界知名人士联袂推荐。让你成为企业优秀员工的密码法则。不负责任,一切都是空谈。不负责任是对企业的最大伤害,强烈的责任心就是企业不可复制的竞争优势。唯有责任,才能生存。责任心就是战斗力,责任心才是企业真正的竞争力,关注责任就是关注企业和个人的成功。领先别人一步,从阅读本书开始。
  • 总裁的多变娇妻

    总裁的多变娇妻

    那一场车祸让她的命运发生了改变。从孤儿变成了万千宠爱集于一身千金小姐,哪怕失忆了。高二那年,意外让她的父母死于车祸之中,男友也劈腿,伤心欲绝的她被两个哥哥送往美国。相识了混血儿杰克,两人成为了朋友。而杰克的母亲是国际著名珠宝设计师艾伦,所以阴差阳错陆惜霜成为了艾伦的首徒。四年后回国,偶然救了一位老太太,没想到是总裁的奶奶。为了报恩,总裁的奶奶让两人结婚,顾秋幕只好与陆惜霜协议恋爱。“喂,大总裁,我没欠你钱吧!你看我干嘛。”“我没看你,我看脸。”“顾秋幕你抱我干嘛?”“我没抱你,我抱腰。”外国朋友,前男友都纷纷来袭,看顾总怎么把他们......
  • 被迫成为勇者的村姑

    被迫成为勇者的村姑

    林天音发现自己重生了,变成了某本蛋疼勇者与魔王故事里的肥婆反派。原著的作者是个变态,整个故事里都没几个正常人,因此她只能努力变得更变态。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 宋代文章学

    宋代文章学

    本书分为上下两篇,上篇“宋代文章学纵论”,从“范畴、体性、审美、传统、体裁、文体”等角度,专门探讨了宋代文章著作(尤其是“散文”)的性质、功能、构造等;下篇则针对具体的几部宋代文章著作进行案例式的探讨。作者希望通过认真研究中国古代特别是宋代的文章学的基本文献,为建立宋代文章学的理论体系做一点贡献。
  • 年轻时做新鲜事

    年轻时做新鲜事

    本书主要收录:我十五岁那年、托翁的动手能力、“托尔斯泰灯”、静的等级、解剖我自己、享受安宁、慢半拍、对一朵花微笑等等。
  • 大唐的裂变 遍地胡虏

    大唐的裂变 遍地胡虏

    沙陀出身的后唐灭了朱梁之后,基本统一了北方,在庄宗李存勖与明宗李嗣源两代皇帝的辛勤努力下开创了一个安定局面。然而随着李嗣源的逝世,后唐大权旁落,各地滋生出掩盖不住的离心倾向,尤其是石敬瑭,他为了自立不惜以“燕云十六州”为代价引契丹军进入中原,最终取后唐而代之建立后晋。这一阶段,少数民族成了中原舞台上的主角,他们为中原带来战乱的同时,也为中华民族注入了新鲜血液。
  • 篮坛第一外挂

    篮坛第一外挂

    林易先是用Crossover在三分线弧顶晃开了防守人的重心,紧接着用山姆高德过掉了补防的阿里扎,哇靠!不看人传球,队友空了!不,队友选择高抛,漂亮的空中接力!等等,怎么有点奇怪呢?因为完成以上动作的是一位七尺大个。【这是一段热血沸腾的篮球故事。】书友群:484028022,欢迎大家进群聊天~!