登陆注册
5240500000110

第110章 CHAPTER XXIII. THE FALL OF BALANCING ROCK(4)

Lassiter was leading the horse up a smooth slope toward cedar trees of twisted and bleached appearance. Among these he halted.

"Jane, give me the girl en' get down," he said. As if it wrenched him he unbuckled the empty black guns with a strange air of finality. He then received Fay in his arms and stood a moment looking backward. Tull's white horse mounted the ridge of round stone, and several bays or blacks followed. "I wonder what he'll think when he sees them empty guns. Jane, bring your saddle-bag and climb after me."

A glistening, wonderful bare slope, with little holes, swelled up and up to lose itself in a frowning yellow cliff. Jane closely watched her steps and climbed behind Lassiter. He moved slowly.

Perhaps he was only husbanding his strength. But she saw drops of blood on the stone, and then she knew. They climbed and climbed without looking back. Her breast labored; she began to feel as if little points of fiery steel were penetrating her side into her lungs. She heard the panting of Lassiter and the quicker panting of the dogs.

"Wait--here," he said.

Before her rose a bulge of stone, nicked with little cut steps, and above that a corner of yellow wall, and overhanging that a vast, ponderous cliff.

The dogs pattered up, disappeared round the corner. Lassiter mounted the steps with Fay, and he swayed like a drunken man, and he too disappeared. But instantly he returned alone, and half ran, half slipped down to her.

Then from below pealed up hoarse shouts of angry men. Tull and several of his riders had reached the spot where Lassiter had parted with his guns.

"You'll need that breath--mebbe!" said Lassiter, facing downward, with glittering eyes.

"Now, Jane, the last pull," he went on. "Walk up them little steps. I'll follow an' steady you. Don't think. Jest go. Little Fay's above. Her eyes are open. She jest said to me, 'Where's movver Jane?"

Without a fear or a tremor or a slip or a touch of Lassiter's hand Jane Withersteen walked up that ladder of cut steps.

He pushed her round the corner of the wall. Fay lay, with wide staring eyes, in the shade of a gloomy wall. The dogs waited.

Lassiter picked up the child and turned into a dark cleft. It zigzagged. It widened. It opened. Jane was amazed at a wonderfully smooth and steep incline leading up between ruined, splintered, toppling walls. A red haze from the setting sun filled this passage. Lassiter climbed with slow, measured steps, and blood dripped from him to make splotches on the white stone.

Jane tried not to step in his blood, but was compelled, for she found no other footing. The saddle-bag began to drag her down; she gasped for breath, she thought her heart was bursting.

Slower, slower yet the rider climbed, whistling as he breathed.

The incline widened. Huge pinnacles and monuments of stone stood alone, leaning fearfully. Red sunset haze shone through cracks where the wall had split. Jane did not look high, but she felt the overshadowing of broken rims above. She felt that it was a fearful, menacing place. And she climbed on in heartrending effort. And she fell beside Lassiter and Fay at the top of the incline in a narrow, smooth divide.

He staggered to his feet--staggered to a huge, leaning rock that rested on a small pedestal. He put his hand on it--the hand that had been shot through--and Jane saw blood drip from the ragged hole. Then he fell.

"Jane--I--can't--do--it!" he whispered.

"What?"

"Roll the--stone!...All my--life I've loved--to roll stones--en' now I--can't!"

"What of it? You talk strangely. Why roll that stone?"

"I planned to--fetch you here--to roll this stone. See! It'll smash the crags--loosen the walls--close the outlet!"

As Jane Withersteen gazed down that long incline, walled in by crumbling cliffs, awaiting only the slightest jar to make them fall asunder, she saw Tull appear at the bottom and begin to climb. A rider followed him-- another--and another.

"See! Tull! The riders!"

"Yes--they'll get us--now."

"Why? Haven't you strength left to roll the stone?"

"Jane--it ain't that--I've lost my nerve!"

"You!...Lassiter!"

"I wanted to roll it--meant to--but I--can't. Venters's valley is down behind here. We could--live there. But if I roll the stone--we're shut in for always. I don't dare. I'm thinkin' of you!"

"Lassiter! Roll the stone!" she cried.

He arose, tottering, but with set face, and again he placed the bloody hand on the Balancing Rock. Jane Withersteen gazed from him down the passageway. Tull was climbing. Almost, she thought, she saw his dark, relentless face. Behind him more riders climbed. What did they mean for Fay--for Lassiter--for herself?

"Roll the stone!...Lassiter, I love you!"

Under all his deathly pallor, and the blood, and the iron of seared cheek and lined brow, worked a great change. He placed both hands on the rock and then leaned his shoulder there and braced his powerful body.

ROLL THE STONE!

It stirred, it groaned, it grated, it moved, and with a slow grinding, as of wrathful relief, began to lean. It had waited ages to fall, and now was slow in starting. Then, as if suddenly instinct with life, it leaped hurtingly down to alight on the steep incline, to bound more swiftly into the air, to gather momentum, to plunge into the lofty leaning crag below. The crag thundered into atoms. A wave of air--a splitting shock! Dust shrouded the sunset red of shaking rims; dust shrouded Tull as he fell on his knees with uplifted arms. Shafts and monuments and sections of wall fell majestically.

From the depths there rose a long-drawn rumbling roar. The outlet to Deception Pass closed forever.

同类推荐
  • 无依道人录

    无依道人录

    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。
  • 唯心集

    唯心集

    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。
  • 大音希声论

    大音希声论

    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。
  • 佐杂谱

    佐杂谱

    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。
  • 评注产科心法

    评注产科心法

    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
  • 老茶客经典闲话

    老茶客经典闲话

    人们爱啖茶,其目的就是聚会:茶馆就是摆龙门阵的论坛,三教九流天所不有,其中精彩在茶水的滋润下汩汩而出。将这些玄龙门阵汇集成册,就是这本《老茶客经典闲话》。老茶客爱啖茶,啖必醉,醉必筛话,姑且听之……
  • 诗人的心

    诗人的心

    本书共46篇诗歌评论,既包括1984年版《诗人的心》的30篇文章,又包括《开明少年》中刊载的其他16篇讲诗词的文章。作者从诗人感情的真实流露这一角度出发选取诗歌,既有新中国成立前后的新诗,也有古代、国外的经典作品。对诗歌的鉴赏也细致入微,从字词含义、句式韵脚,到诗歌创作的时代背景及诗歌蕴含的价值意义。
  • 钟情予你

    钟情予你

    小说简介。知道什么叫一见钟情吗?就在我见到你的那一秒——沈云烟原本是沈家的养女,却因为异父异母的哥哥,在十二岁的时候独自一人出去居住。多年之后,俩人再遇,却又是另一番光景。无微不至的照顾,体贴细微的照顾,使她一步一步地沦陷。宛若朝阳的温暖,是否能温暖那早已冰冷的心?当那层坚冰破碎,往事带来的痛又从哪里修补?
  • 老大,再见!

    老大,再见!

    《老大,再见!》其实就是写一个有情怀的青年教师,临危受命接手一个问题重重的后进班,最后带领全班创造了高考奇迹的故事。但短短一年发生的种种惊天动地与点点滴滴都如此难以置信又如此鲜活真实,让你时而热血沸腾,时而泪流满面,甚至是不忍读完,难舍再见。
  • 辞君几里外

    辞君几里外

    你在等什么?等凉白开变成苏打水?等驶入机场的渔船?还是在等长在地上的芒果?如果我的结局不是你,夕阳余晖里,连背影都对不起。
  • 学校永远不教的30堂感恩课

    学校永远不教的30堂感恩课

    感恩的心,感谢有你,伴我一生,让我有勇气做我自己。感恩的心,感谢命运,花开花落,我一样会珍惜。谨以此书献给所有孩子及其关心下一代成才的人,让孩子从感恩的心对待人生。
  • 梅花女皇

    梅花女皇

    梅花党主席白敬斋的二女儿白薇死了,她的人皮不翼而飞,因为她的人皮上绣刻着梅花党大陆潜伏特务骨干人的名单,只要用美国中央情报局研制的一种特殊药水涂抹才能出现。这张人皮目前已落入稻春阿菊之手,她是日本帝国之花桥本阿菊的女儿。梅花党副主席黄飞虎的私生女。她虽然掌握白薇的人皮,可是没有药水,药水已被我公安部门控制。稻春阿菊为此绑架了中共第一神探龙飞的女儿龙晓菲。稻春阿菊女扮男装,骗取了泰国归侨樊小哲的爱情,并把她的人皮顶替白薇的人皮迷惑我公安部门。稻春阿菊以炸寺要挟舅舅,从哈尔滨取出两瓶细菌武器,准备于“五一节”在北京百货大楼实施爆炸,让细菌武器祸害于民,引起世界轰动。
  • 北漂男一夜获百万:爱情路过北京

    北漂男一夜获百万:爱情路过北京

    毕业后长驻北京的“三无”青年李傲,短短几个月内,突然“捡”了两百万,得了一套房,丢了次“老婆”,还暧了个昧……上帝似乎为他打开了一扇窗,可门在哪儿呢?他想要留在北京,父母不让;他想与女朋友长相厮守,可危机重重;他精神出轨,爱上美丽“富二代”,最后却两败俱伤;终于有了房,产权问题又纠结不清……现实的冰冷,爱的热切,青春就这么左右摇摆……
  • 今生注定赖上你:野蛮女友

    今生注定赖上你:野蛮女友

    “林少龙,你给我站住,这辈子我是要定你了。”一对恋人在海边戏耍追逐着,说这话的是个女孩。文欣是一个近30岁的单身剩女,既没固定工作,也没恋爱对象,她简直像一个十足的男孩,哪个男人见到都会怕,好不容易找到一份自己喜爱的服装设计工作,却没想到自己的上司竟然是面试那天的倒霉鬼,上班后,她认为他所做的一切都是为了逼她离开昌盛服装公司,天天都要绞尽脑汁想着怎么对付他,居然私底下还跟他签了一年的“奴隶”协议,发生一大堆的搞笑趣事,这一切都在一个女人的出现后改变了,变成刀子嘴豆腐心的两人,情感的纠葛,利益的旋涡,如何上演一个单身剩女爱情与工作的双丰收?
  • 上班赚钱下班理财大全集(超值金版)

    上班赚钱下班理财大全集(超值金版)

    本书是一部专为中国工薪阶层精心准备、量身打造的理财教案。全书从“上班赚钱”、“下班理财”两大层面进行论述。“上班赚钱”部分着重论述要以的职业精神和正确的工作态度全力以赴对从事工作,像对待生命一样对待工作,才能从工作中获得回报,在职场中谋求生存和发展。同时阐明了智慧工作的准则和技巧,激励人们创造优秀的业绩,从同行中脱颖而出,得到老板的赏识,成功升职加薪,让职业前景更为光明。