登陆注册
37364200000041

第41章

Annixter had disappeared.He had ridden farther on to the other divisions of his ranch, to watch the work in progress there.At twelve o'clock, according to his orders, all the division superintendents put themselves in communication with him by means of the telephone wires that connected each of the division houses, reporting the condition of the work, the number of acres covered, the prospects of each plough traversing its daily average of twenty miles.

At half-past twelve, Vanamee and the rest of the drivers ate their lunch in the field, the tin buckets having been distributed to them that morning after breakfast.But in the evening, the routine of the previous day was repeated, and Vanamee, unharnessing his team, riding one horse and leading the others, returned to the division barns and bunk-house.

It was between six and seven o'clock.The half hundred men of the gang threw themselves upon the supper the Chinese cooks had set out in the shed of the eating-house, long as a bowling alley, unpainted, crude, the seats benches, the table covered with oil cloth.Overhead a half-dozen kerosene lamps flared and smoked.

The table was taken as if by assault; the clatter of iron knives upon the tin plates was as the reverberation of hail upon a metal roof.The ploughmen rinsed their throats with great draughts of wine, and, their elbows wide, their foreheads flushed, resumed the attack upon the beef and bread, eating as though they would never have enough.All up and down the long table, where the kerosene lamps reflected themselves deep in the oil-cloth cover, one heard the incessant sounds of mastication, and saw the uninterrupted movement of great jaws.At every moment one or another of the men demanded a fresh portion of beef, another pint of wine, another half-loaf of bread.For upwards of an hour the gang ate.It was no longer a supper.It was a veritable barbecue, a crude and primitive feasting, barbaric, homeric.

But in all this scene Vanamee saw nothing repulsive.Presley would have abhorred it--this feeding of the People, this gorging of the human animal, eager for its meat.Vanamee, ******, uncomplicated, living so close to nature and the rudimentary life, understood its significance.He knew very well that within a short half-hour after this meal the men would throw themselves down in their bunks to sleep without moving, inert and stupefied with fatigue, till the morning.Work, food, and sleep, all life reduced to its bare essentials, uncomplex, honest, healthy.They were strong, these men, with the strength of the soil they worked, in touch with the essential things, back again to the starting point of civilisation, coarse, vital, real, and sane.

For a brief moment immediately after the meal, pipes were lit, and the air grew thick with fragrant tobacco smoke.On a corner of the dining-room table, a game of poker was begun.One of the drivers, a Swede, produced an accordion; a group on the steps of the bunk-house listened, with alternate gravity and shouts of laughter, to the acknowledged story-teller of the gang.But soon the men began to turn in, stretching themselves at full length on the horse blankets in the racklike bunks.The sounds of heavy breathing increased steadily, lights were put out, and before the afterglow had faded from the sky, the gang was asleep.

Vanamee, however, remained awake.The night was fine, warm; the sky silver-grey with starlight.By and by there would be a moon.

In the first watch after the twilight, a faint puff of breeze came up out of the south.From all around, the heavy penetrating smell of the new-turned earth exhaled steadily into the darkness.

After a while, when the moon came up, he could see the vast brown breast of the earth turn toward it.Far off, distant objects came into view: The giant oak tree at Hooven's ranch house near the irrigating ditch on Los Muertos, the skeleton-like tower of the windmill on Annixter's Home ranch, the clump of willows along Broderson Creek close to the Long Trestle, and, last of all, the venerable tower of the Mission of San Juan on the high ground beyond the creek.

Thitherward, like homing pigeons, Vanamee's thoughts turned irresistibly.Near to that tower, just beyond, in the little hollow, hidden now from his sight, was the Seed ranch where Angele Varian had lived.Straining his eyes, peering across the intervening levels, Vanamee fancied he could almost see the line of venerable pear trees in whose shadow she had been accustomed to wait for him.On many such a night as this he had crossed the ranches to find her there.His mind went back to that wonderful time of his life sixteen years before this, when Angele was alive, when they two were involved in the sweet intricacies of a love so fine, so pure, so marvellous that it seemed to them a miracle, a manifestation, a thing veritably divine, put into the life of them and the hearts of them by God Himself.To that they had been born.For this love's sake they had come into the world, and the mingling of their lives was to be the Perfect Life, the intended, ordained union of the soul of man with the soul of woman, indissoluble, harmonious as music, beautiful beyond all thought, a foretaste of Heaven, a hostage of immortality.

No, he, Vanamee, could never, never forget, never was the edge of his grief to lose its sharpness, never would the lapse of time blunt the tooth of his pain.Once more, as he sat there, looking off across the ranches, his eyes fixed on the ancient campanile of the Mission church, the anguish that would not die leaped at his throat, tearing at his heart, shaking him and rending him with a violence as fierce and as profound as if it all had been but yesterday.The ache returned to his heart a physical keen pain; his hands gripped tight together, twisting, interlocked, his eyes filled with tears, his whole body shaken and riven from head to heel.

同类推荐
  • 云峰体宗宁禅师语录

    云峰体宗宁禅师语录

    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。
  • 三天内解经

    三天内解经

    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。
  • 宜麟策

    宜麟策

    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。
  • 宝星陀罗尼经

    宝星陀罗尼经

    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。
  • The Lone Star Ranger

    The Lone Star Ranger

    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。
热门推荐
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 廿八躔

    廿八躔

    《廿八躔》指躔次在黄道赤道附近一周天的二十八宿等星辰。星照大陆四国对应星辰分布为青龙、白虎、朱雀、玄武四国,故事的开端,从朱雀国的一个小镇上开始。
  • 浮生为歌

    浮生为歌

    八年前,九岁的清明捡了个男孩,给他吃给他穿,还给他住。男孩终于长到了十八岁,她以为他们可以像村里的其他年轻男女一样成亲生子。可这只是她想的。变故,还是来了。有一群人说他是皇子,皇帝驾崩,他作为唯一的皇子要去继承皇位了。他说过要来娶她。可却是用全村上下三百五十三条人命来娶的。
  • 爱情氧吧

    爱情氧吧

    记录当代都市生活中的男女青春爱情成长的疼痛
  • 李二狗和武则天

    李二狗和武则天

    一个穿越,不够?那就两个,一起穿越?夫妻一起穿越,这是要干嘛?夫妻双双把家环?李治望向眼前妩媚动人的武媚娘咬牙切齿地说道:“武珝你这个臭婆娘,我是绝对不会爱上你的,现在是唐朝,我绝对不会再让你来管我。”武媚娘微微一笑:“现在我是你后妈,更加好管你。”......唐朝史歌,爆笑来袭,如有雷同,纯属虚构。
  • TFBOYS一生的守护

    TFBOYS一生的守护

    TFBOYS是四叶草的信仰,而对于不是四叶草的她会怎样呢?PS:本文微虐
  • 幸而不负情深

    幸而不负情深

    惊!!!传说中那个为爱疯魔的迟城大佬南安卿正常了!!!据说是有了新欢~(﹁﹁)~林家主家众人:不可能,当年为了给家主报仇,他可是把迟城翻了个天o( ̄ヘ ̄o)惊!!!有情人终成仇敌⊙▽⊙!!!大佬又疯了……林如苒:谁让他爸风流成性╭(╯^╰)╮惊!!!林家家主死而复生(°ー°〃)!!!众人:去去去,谁特么死了?给我好好讲话o( ̄ヘ ̄o)当年真相到底如何?请听下回分解……= ̄ω ̄=
  • 最佳文娱时代

    最佳文娱时代

    重生平行世界的关水在这陌生的时代,只是随便写了本小说,还断更了!谁知道……
  • 重回17年前之我命由我不由天

    重回17年前之我命由我不由天

    某男说:“第一次见面,我们在酒店里打了一架;第二次见面,我们在天台上打了一架;第三次见面,我们在我家睡了一觉。你说,我们这样是不是进展太快了。”某女:“滚蛋。。。”
  • 寻梦寻紫

    寻梦寻紫

    寻梦,寻梦,我能否寻到自己的好梦,我的梦是什么?谁又能帮助我寻到?寻紫,寻紫,紫为何物,它能否让我得到什么?