登陆注册
4619100000123

第123章 The End of Donald's Contest(3)

He raised his head on his elbow and called across to her: "Say, Linda, how often will you write to me?"Linda answered promptly: "Every Saturday night. Saturday is our day. I'll tell you what has happened all the week. I'll tell you specially what a darned unprofitable day Saturday is when you're three thousand miles away."Bending over the canyon fireplace, her face red with heat and exertion, Katherine O'Donovan caught up her poker and beat up the fire until the ashes flew.

"Easy, Katy, easy," cautioned Linda. "We may want to bury those coals and resurrect them to warm up what is left for supper.""We'll do no such thing," said Katy promptly. "What remains goes to feed the fish. Next time it's hungry ye are, we're goin' to hit it straight to Lilac Valley and fill ourselves with God's own bread and beefsteak and paraties. Don't ye think we're goin' to be atin' these haythen messes twice in one day."To herself she was saying: "The sooner I get you home to Pater Morrison, missy, the better I'll be satisfied."Once she stood erect, her hands at her belt, her elbows widespread, and with narrowed eyes watched the youngsters. Her lips were closed so tightly they wrinkled curiously as she turned back to the fireplace.

"Nayther one of them fool kids has come to yet," she said to herself, "and a mighty good thing it is that they haven't."Linda was looking speculatively at Donald as he lay stretched on the Indian blanket at the base of the cliff. And then, because she was for ever busy with Nature, her eyes strayed above him up the side of the cliff, noting the vegetation, the scarred rocks, the sheer beauty of the canyon wall until they reached the top.

Then, for no reason at all, she sat looking steadily at a huge boulder overhanging the edge of the cliff, and she was wondering how many ages it had hung there and how many more it would hang, poised almost in air, when a tiny pebble at its base loosened and came rattling and bounding down the canyon face. Every nerve in Linda tensed. She opened her mouth, but not a sound came. For a breathless second she was paralyzed. Then she shrieked wildly:

"Donald, Donald, roll under the ledge! Quick, quick!"She turned to Katy.

"Back, Katy, back!" she screamed. "That boulder is loose; it's coming down!"For months Donald Whiting had obeyed Linda implicitly and instantly. He had moved with almost invisible speed at her warning many times before. Sometimes it had been a venomous snake, sometimes a yucca bayonet, sometimes poison vines, again unsafe footing--in each case instant obedience had been the rule.

He did hot "question why" at her warning; he instantly did as he was told. He, too, had noticed the falling pebble. With all the agility of which he was capable he rolled under the narrow projecting ledge above him. Katherine O'Donovan was a good soldier also. She whirled and ran to the roadway. She had barely reached it when, with a grinding crash, down came the huge boulder, carrying bushes, smaller rocks, sand, and debris with it. On account of its weight it fell straight, struck heavily, and buried itself in the earth exactly on the spot upon which Donald had been lying. Linda raised terrified eyes to the top of the wall. For one instant a dark object peered over it and then drew back. Without thought for herself Linda rushed to the boulder, and kneeling, tried to see back of it.

"Donald!" she cried, "Donald, are you all right?""Guess I am, unless it hit one foot pretty hard. Feels fast.""Can you get out?" she cried, beginning to tear with her hands at the stone and the bushes where she thought his head would be.

"I'm fast; but I'm all right," he panted. "Why the devil did that thing hang there for ages, and then come down on me today?""Yes, why did it?" gasped Linda. "Donald, I must leave you a minute. I've got to know if I saw a head peer over just as that stone came down.""Be careful what you do!" he cried after her.

Linda sprang to her feet and rushed to the car. She caught out the field classes and threw the strap over her head as she raced to the far side of the fireplace where the walls were not so sheer. Katherine O'Donovan promptly seized the axe, caught its carrying strap lying beside it, thrust the handle through, swung it over her own head, dropped it between her shoulders, and ripping off her dress skirt she started up the cliff after Linda.

Linda was climbing so swiftly and so absorbedly that she reached the top before she heard a sound behind her. Then she turned with a white face, and her mouth dropped open as she saw Katy three fourths of the way up the cliff. For one second she was again stiff with terror, then, feeling she could do nothing, she stepped back out of sight and waited a second until Katy's red head and redder face appeared over the edge. Realizing that her authority was of no avail, that Katy would follow her no matter where she went or what she did, and with no time to argue, Linda simply called to her encouragingly: "Follow where I go; take your time; hang tight, old dear, it's dangerous!"She started around the side of the mountain, heading almoststraight upward, traveling as swiftly and as noiselessly as possible. Over big boulders, on precarious footing, clinging to bushes, they made their way until they reached a place that seemed to be sheer above them; certainly it was for hundreds of feet below On a point of rock screened by overhanging bushes Linda paused until Katy overtook her.

"We are about stalled," she panted. "Find a good footing and stay where you are. I'm going to climb out on these bushes and see if I can get a view of the mountain side."Advancing a few yards, Linda braced herself, drew around her glasses, and began searching the side of the mountain opposite her and below as far as she could range with the glasses. At last she gave up.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 翻天巨浪

    翻天巨浪

    战神归来,发现回到小时候,于是打算稍微改变一下世界。
  • 空洲

    空洲

    据《荒洲》记载,这片大陆名为空洲,当魔界的结界被破,另四位引星者尽己之力保护自己的土地时,玩世不恭的二尊子却带着稚嫩的五尊子住在空洲之外的小岛上潇洒。却不知他是正是邪。两族开战,看见了兵荒马乱血肉横飞的人界,你当初也只看见了这些吧?只要不动手,就一直是受害者,就能一直受到你的庇护吧?那么,那些你看不到的受害者,就由我来怜悯!
  • 追忆逝去的时光:女囚(第5卷)

    追忆逝去的时光:女囚(第5卷)

    《女囚》法国现代主义文学的主要代表人物马塞尔·普鲁斯特的意识流代表作《追寻逝去的时光》(或译《追忆逝水年华》)的第5卷。本版系“周克希译文集”的一种。全书为周先生的全新翻译,首次在国内出版。小说叙述男主人公如何将女友阿尔贝蒂娜“囚”于家中,直至某一日醒来,却发现她已逃之夭夭。恋爱双方互为陌生人,又渴望了解对方,产生出一场嫉妒型的爱情,作者对这种心态作了淋漓尽致的剖析。
  • 韩湘子全传

    韩湘子全传

    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。
  • 世界经典科幻故事

    世界经典科幻故事

    本书精选了包括法国著名科幻作家、科幻小说之父凡尔纳和英国著名科幻作家威尔斯等人的名篇佳作,无论是所选作家、作品,还是涉及不同领域等方面,都具有一定代表性和普遍性;并且这些科幻作品多数表达了作者对未知的世界、宇宙空间、外星生物等人类尚未探索的种种事物的合理幻想以及向往。
  • 寂上人院联句

    寂上人院联句

    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。
  • 儿女情长

    儿女情长

    刘浪,生于70年代,中国作家协会会员,黑龙江省作家协会签约作家,鲁迅文学院第十五期高研班学员。若干诗歌、中短篇小说发表于《飞天》《文学界》《山花》《作品》等数十家期刊,多篇小说被《小说选刊》等报刊转载。
  • 赶考时代(一)

    赶考时代(一)

    那是黑暗笼罩的季节,也是阳光普照的季节。雨,终于停了!久违的太阳又重新回到这连绵数百里的湘西大山。整个大山被十几日的连阴雨刚刚洗过,显得格外清新。空气中,人们都能闻到野花和泥土的芳香。水雾在阳光的照射下蒸腾着,一抹淡淡的彩虹挂在翠绿的大山之间,洁白的云朵一动不动地挂在天空,山里没有一点儿风。野花在明媚的阳光下顾盼多姿,滴滴露珠颤巍巍地沾在草叶上,哪怕蝴蝶扇动一下翅膀,那露珠也会轻轻滑落。山涧的小溪“哗啦啦”地流淌着,小溪的两旁开满了金黄金黄的山油菜花,蜜蜂忙碌地采着花蜜。
  • 哈佛经典讲座

    哈佛经典讲座

    学习的最大成本,是时间。如何在最短时间里了解更多的知识,尽可能提升自我的人文素养,培养自己的高尚品位?哈佛大学校长邀集30位世界顶级教授,就人类社会的9大核心知识领域,进行了42堂深入浅出的讲座,最终集结成这部《哈佛经典讲座》。此书一经问世,便风靡世界,不仅美国大学人手一册,也几乎成为美国家庭的必备藏书。本书包括历史、哲学、宗教、诗歌、小说与传记、评论与随笔、戏剧、教育、旅行等9个门类,囊括了3000年来的人类知识精华,涉及的原典达百部之多。读者通过这一本书,能轻松踏入人类知识的殿堂,尽情汲取人类智慧的精华,使自己拥有广博的视野、深度的思维和不凡的品位。
  • 特蕾莎修女给青少年的12堂人生必修课

    特蕾莎修女给青少年的12堂人生必修课

    平实的文字讲述了至深的哲理,凝练的话语浓缩了人生的精华,博爱的思想传达了生命的真谛。本书精选特蕾莎修女所讲过的感人箴言和演讲辞,旨教会青少年们做人之道,学会如何放宽胸襟,胸怀大爱,扶危济贫,不弃小事,坚强勇敢,勤奋谦虚。为自己的人生道路树立一个最明亮的指示牌。