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The Seventh Man by Max Brand, Chapter I. Spring

Chapter I. Spring

A man under thirty needs neighbors and to stop up the current of his life with a long silence is like obstructing a river—eventually the water either sweeps away the dam or rises over it, and the stronger the dam the more destructive is that final rush to freedom. Vic Gregg was on the danger side of thirty and he lived alone in the mountains all that winter. He wanted to marry Betty Neal, but marriage means money, therefore Vic contracted fifteen hundred dollars' worth of mining for the Duncans, and instead of taking a partner he went after that stake single handed. He is a very rare man who can turn out that amount of labor in a single season, but Gregg furnished that exception which establishes the rule: he did the assessment work on fourteen claims and almost finished the fifteenth, yet he paid the price. Week after week his set of drills was wife and child to him, and for conversation he had only the clangor of the four-pound single-jack on the drill heads, with the crashing of the "shots" now and then as periods to the chatter of iron on iron. He kept at it, and in the end he almost finished the allotted work, but for all of it he paid in full.

The acid loneliness ate into him. To be sure, from boyhood he knew the mountain quiet, the still heights and the solemn echoes, but towards the close of the long isolation the end of each day found him oppressed by a weightier sense of burden; in a few days he would begin to talk to himself.

From the first the evening pause after supper hurt him most, for a man needs a talk as well as tobacco, and after a time he dreaded these evenings so bitterly that he purposely spent himself every day, so as to pass from supper into sleep at a stride. It needed a long day to burn out his strength thoroughly, so he set his rusted alarm-clock, and before dawn it brought him groaning out of the blankets to cook a hasty breakfast and go slowly up to the tunnel. In short, he wedded himself to his work; he stepped into a routine which took the place of thought, and the change in him was so gradual that he did not see the danger.

A mirror might have shown it to him as he stood this morning at the door of his lean-to, for the wind fluttered the shirt around his labor-dried body, and his forehead puckered in a frown, grown habitual. It was a narrow face, with rather close-set eyes and a slanted forehead which gave token of a single-track mind, a single-purposed nature with one hundred and eighty pounds of strong sinews and iron-hard muscle to give it significance. Such was Vic Gregg as he stood at the door waiting for the coffee he had drunk to brush away the cobwebs of sleep, and then he heard the eagle scream.

A great many people have never heard the scream of an eagle. The only voice they connect with the kind of the air is a ludicrously feeble squawk, dim with distance, but in his great moments the eagle has a war-cry like that of the hawk, but harsher, hoarser, tenfold in volume. This sound cut into the night in the gulch, and Vic Gregg started and glanced about for echoes made the sound stand at his side; then he looked up, and saw two eagles fighting in the light of the morning. He knew what it meant—the beginning of the mating season, and these two battling for a prize. They darted away. They flashed together with reaching talons and gaping beaks, and dropped in a tumult of wings, then soared and clashed once more until one of them folded his wings and dropped bulletlike out of the morning into the night. Close over Gregg's head, the wings flirted out—ten feet from tip to tip—beat down with a great washing sound, and the bird shot across the valley in a level flight. The conqueror screamed a long insult down the hollow. For a while he balanced, craning his bald head as if he sought applause, then, without visible movement of his wings, sailed away over the peaks. A feather fluttered slowly down past Vic Gregg.

He looked down to it, and rubbed the ache out of the back of his neck. All about him the fresh morning was falling; yonder shone a green-mottled face of granite, and there a red iron blow-out streaked with veins of glittering silicate, and in this corner, still misted with the last delicate shades of night, glimmered rhyolite, lavender-pink. The single-jack dropped from the hand of Gregg, and his frown relaxed.

When he stretched his arms, the cramps of labor unkinked and let the warm blood flow, swiftly, and in the pleasure of it he closed his eyes and drew a luxurious breath. He stepped from the door with his, head high and his heart lighter, and when his hobnailed shoe clinked on the fallen hammer he kicked it spinning from his path. That act brought a smile into his eyes, and he sauntered to the edge of the little plateau and looked down into the wide chasm of the Asper Valley.

Blue shadows washed across it, though morning shone around Gregg on the height, and his glance dropped in a two-thousand-foot plunge to a single yellow eye that winked through the darkness, a light in the trapper's cabin. But the dawn was falling swiftly now, and while Gregg lingered the blue grew thin, purple-tinted, and then dark, slender points pricked up, which he knew to be the pines. Last of all, he caught the sheen of grass.

Around him pressed a perfect silence, the quiet of night holding over into the day, yet he cast a glance behind him as he heard a voice. Indeed, he felt that some one approached him, some one for whom he had been waiting, yet it was a sad expectancy, and more like homesickness than anything he knew.

"Aw, hell," said Vic Gregg, "it's spring." A deep-throated echo boomed back at him, and the sound went down the gulch, three times repeated.

"Spring," repeated Gregg more softly, as if he feared to rouse that echo, "damned if it ain't!" He shrugged his shoulders and turned resolutely towards the lean-to, picking up the discarded hammer on the way. By instinct he caught it at exactly the right balance for his strength and arm, and the handle, polished by his grip, played with an oiled, frictionless movement against the callouses of his palm. From the many hours of drilling, fingers crooked, he could only straighten them by a painful effort. A bad hand for cards, he decided gloomily, and still frowning over this he reached the door. There he paused in instant repugnance, for the place was strange to him.

In thought and wish he was even now galloping Grey Molly over the grass along the Asper, and he had to wrench himself into the mood of the patient miner. There lay his blankets, rumpled, brown with dirt, and he shivered at sight of them; the night had been cold. Before he fell asleep, he had flung the magazine into the corner and now the wind rustled its torn, yellowed pages in a whisper that spoke to Gregg of the ten-times repeated stories, tales of adventure, drifts of tobacco smoke in gaming halls, the chant of the croupier behind the wheel, deep voices of men, laughter of pretty girls, tatoo of running horses, shouts which only redeye can inspire. He sniffed the air; odor of burned bacon and coffee permeated the cabin. He turned to the right and saw his discarded overalls with ragged holes at the knees; he turned to the left and looked into the face of the rusted alarm clock. Its quick, soft ticking sent an ache of weariness through him.

"What's wrong with me," muttered Gregg. Even that voice seemed ghostly loud in the cabin, and he shivered again. "I must be going nutty." As if to escape from his own thoughts, he stepped out into the sun again, and it was so grateful to him after the chill shadow in the lean-to, that he looked up, smiling, into the sky. A west wind urged a scattered herd of clouds over the peaks, tumbled masses of white which puffed into transparent silver at the edges, and behind, long wraiths of vapor marked the path down which they had traveled. Such an old cowhand as Vic Gregg could not fail to see the forms of cows and heavy-necked bulls and running calves in that drift of clouds. About this season the boys would be watching the range for signs of screw worms in the cattle, and the bog-riders must have their hands full dragging out cows which had fled into the mud to escape the heel flies. With a new lonesomeness he drew his eyes down to the mountains.

Ordinarily, strange fancies never entered the hard head of Gregg, but today it seemed to him that the mountains found a solemn companionship in each other.

Out of the horizon, where the snowy forms glimmered in the blue, they marched in loose order down to the valley of the Asper, where some of them halted in place, huge cliffs, and others stumbled out into foothills, but the main range swerved to the east beside the valley, eastward out of his vision, though he knew that they went on to the town of Alder.

Alder was Vic Gregg's Athens and Rome in one, its schoolhouse his Acropolis, and Captain Lorrimer's saloon his Forum. Other people talked of larger cities, but Alder satisfied the imagination of Vic; besides, Grey Molly was even now in the blacksmith's pasture, and Betty Neal was teaching in the school. Following the march of the mountains and the drift of the clouds, he turned towards Alder. The piled water shook the dam, topped it, burst it into fragments, and rushed into freedom; he must go to Alder, have a drink, shake hands with a friend, kiss Betty Neal, and come back again. Two days going, two days coming, three days for the frolic; a week would cover it all. And two hours later Vic Gregg had cached his heavier equipment, packed his necessaries on the burro, and was on the way.

By noon he had dropped below the snowline and into the foothills, and with every step his heart grew lighter. Behind him the mountains slid up into the heart of the sky with cold, white winter upon them, but here below it was spring indubitably. There was hardly enough fresh grass to temper the winter brown into shining bronze, but a busy, awakening insect life thronged through the roots. Surer sign than this, the flowers were coming. A slope of buttercups flashed suddenly when the wind struck it and wild morning glory spotted a stretch of daisies with purple and dainty lavender. To be sure, the blossoms never grew thickly enough to make strong dashes of color, but they tinted and stained the hillsides. He began to cross noisy little watercourses, empty most of the year, but now the melting snow fed them. From eddies and quiet pools the bright watercress streamed out into the currents, and now and then in moist ground under a sheltering bank he found rich patches of violets.

His eyes went happily among these tokens of the glad time of the year, but while he noted them and the bursting buds of the aspen, reddish-brown, his mind was open to all that middle register of calls which the human ear may notice in wild places. Far above his scale were shrilling murmurs of birds and insects, and beneath it ran those ground noises that the rabbit, for instance, understands so well; but between these overtones and undertones he heard the scream of the hawk, spiraling down in huge circles, and the rapid call of a grouse, far off, and the drone of insects about his feet, or darting suddenly upon his brain and away again. He heard these things by the grace of the wind, which sometimes blew them about him in a chorus, and again shut off all except that lonely calling of the grouse, and often whisked away every murmur and left Gregg, in the center of a wide hush with only the creak of the pack-saddle and the click of the burro's accurate feet among the rocks. At such times he gave his full attention to the trail, and he read it as one might turn the pages of a book. He saw how a rabbit had scurried, running hard, for the prints of the hind feet planted far ahead of those on the forepaws. There was reason in her haste, for here the pads of a racing coyote had dug deeply into a bit of soft ground. The sign of both rabbit and coyote veered suddenly, and again the trail told the reason clearly—the big print of a lobo's paw, that gray ghost which haunts the ranges with the wisest brain and the swiftest feet in the West. Vic Gregg grinned with excitement; fifty dollars' bounty if that scalp were his! But the story of the trail called him back with the sign of some small animal which must have traveled very slowly, for in spite of the tiny size of the prints, each was distinct. The man sniffed with instinctive aversion and distrust for this was the trail of the skunk, and if the last of the seven sleepers was out, it was spring indeed. He raised his cudgel and thwacked the burro joyously.

"Get on, Marne," he cried. "We're overdue in Alder." Marne switched her tail impatiently and canted back a long ear to listen, but she did not increase her pace; for Marne had only one gait, and if Vic occasionally thumped her, it was rather by way of conversation than in any hope of hurrying their journey.

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Chapter I. Spring Kapitel I. Frühling Chapter I. Spring Capítulo I. Primavera Chapitre I. Le printemps 第一章 春 I skyrius Pavasaris Rozdział I. Wiosna Глава I. Весна 第一章 春天

A man under thirty needs neighbors and to stop up the current of his life with a long silence is like obstructing a river—eventually the water either sweeps away the dam or rises over it, and the stronger the dam the more destructive is that final rush to freedom. A man under thirty needs neighbors and to stop up the current of his life with a long silence is like obstructing a river—eventually the water either sweeps away the dam or rises over it, and the stronger the dam the more destructive is that final rush to freedom. Un homme de moins de trente ans a besoin de voisins et arrêter le courant de sa vie par un long silence, c'est comme obstruer une rivière - finalement, l'eau balaie le barrage ou le franchit, et plus le barrage est solide, plus la ruée finale vers la liberté est destructrice. 30 歳未満の男性は隣人を必要としており、長い沈黙で人生の流れを止めることは、川を塞ぐようなものです。最終的には水がダムを押し流すか、それを越えて上昇し、ダムが強力になればなるほど、その最終的なラッシュはより破壊的になります。自由に。 Mężczyzna poniżej trzydziestki potrzebuje sąsiadów, a zatrzymanie nurtu życia długą ciszą jest jak zatamowanie rzeki — w końcu woda albo zmiata tamę, albo podnosi się nad nią, a im silniejsza tama, tym bardziej niszczycielski jest ten ostateczny pęd. do wolności. Мужчине до тридцати лет нужны соседи, и останавливать течение его жизни долгим молчанием - все равно что преграждать реку: в конце концов вода либо сметает плотину, либо поднимается над ней, и чем крепче плотина, тем разрушительнее последний рывок к свободе. Vic Gregg was on the danger side of thirty and he lived alone in the mountains all that winter. Vic Gregg avait une trentaine d'années et vivait seul dans les montagnes pendant tout l'hiver. ヴィック・グレッグは 30 歳の危険な側にいて、その冬の間ずっと山で一人暮らしをしていました。 Вику Греггу было уже за тридцать, и всю ту зиму он жил один в горах. He wanted to marry Betty Neal, but marriage means money, therefore Vic contracted fifteen hundred dollars' worth of mining for the Duncans, and instead of taking a partner he went after that stake single handed. Il voulait épouser Betty Neal, mais qui dit mariage dit argent. Vic a donc conclu un contrat d'exploitation minière d'une valeur de mille cinq cents dollars pour les Duncan et, au lieu de prendre un associé, il s'est lancé seul dans cette entreprise. Он хотел жениться на Бетти Нил, но брак подразумевает деньги, поэтому Вик заключил контракт на добычу для Данканов на сумму в пятнадцать сотен долларов, и вместо того, чтобы взять себе партнера, принялся за дело в одиночку. He is a very rare man who can turn out that amount of labor in a single season, but Gregg furnished that exception which establishes the rule: he did the assessment work on fourteen claims and almost finished the fifteenth, yet he paid the price. إنه رجل نادر للغاية يمكنه أن يتحول إلى هذا القدر من العمل في موسم واحد ، لكن جريج قدم هذا الاستثناء الذي يحدد القاعدة: لقد قام بعمل التقييم على أربعة عشر مطالبة وأنهى ما يقرب من الخامس عشر ، ومع ذلك فقد دفع الثمن. He is a very rare man who can turn out that amount of labor in a single season, but Gregg furnished that exception which establishes the rule: he did the assessment work on fourteen claims and almost finished the fifteenth, yet he paid the price. Il est très rare qu'un homme puisse produire une telle quantité de travail en une seule saison, mais Gregg constitue l'exception qui confirme la règle : il a effectué le travail d'évaluation sur quatorze concessions et a presque terminé la quinzième, mais il en a payé le prix. Редко кому удается выполнить такой объем работ за один сезон, но Грегг стал тем исключением, которое подтверждает правило: он провел оценочные работы по четырнадцати искам и почти закончил пятнадцатый, но все равно заплатил свою цену. Week after week his set of drills was wife and child to him, and for conversation he had only the clangor of the four-pound single-jack on the drill heads, with the crashing of the "shots" now and then as periods to the chatter of iron on iron. أسبوعًا بعد أسبوع ، كانت مجموعة التدريبات الخاصة به زوجة وطفل له ، وللمحادثة ، كان لديه فقط تشابك بمقبس واحد ذو أربعة أرطال على رؤوس الحفر ، مع تحطيم "الطلقات" بين الحين والآخر على شكل فترات إلى الثرثرة من الحديد على الحديد. Week after week his set of drills was wife and child to him, and for conversation he had only the clangor of the four-pound single-jack on the drill heads, with the crashing of the "shots" now and then as periods to the chatter of iron on iron. Semaine après semaine, son jeu de foreuses était pour lui la femme et l'enfant, et pour toute conversation, il n'avait que le claquement du marteau-pilon de quatre livres sur les têtes de forage, avec le fracas des "coups" de temps en temps comme périodes pour le bavardage du fer sur le fer. He kept at it, and in the end he almost finished the allotted work, but for all of it he paid in full. Il n'a pas lâché l'affaire et, à la fin, il a presque terminé le travail qui lui avait été confié, mais il a payé la totalité du prix.

The acid loneliness ate into him. الوحدة الحمضية أكلت فيه. La solitude acide le ronge. To be sure, from boyhood he knew the mountain quiet, the still heights and the solemn echoes, but towards the close of the long isolation the end of each day found him oppressed by a weightier sense of burden; in a few days he would begin to talk to himself. من المؤكد أنه منذ الصغر كان يعرف الهدوء الجبلي ، وما زال المرتفعات والأصداء الجليلة ، ولكن قرب نهاية العزلة الطويلة التي كانت نهاية كل يوم ، وجده مضطهدًا بإحساس أثقل من العبء ؛ في غضون أيام قليلة ، بدأ في التحدث إلى نفسه. Certes, depuis son enfance, il connaissait le calme de la montagne, les hauteurs immobiles et les échos solennels, mais vers la fin de ce long isolement, la fin de chaque journée le trouvait oppressé par un sentiment de fardeau plus pesant ; au bout de quelques jours, il commençait à se parler à lui-même.

From the first the evening pause after supper hurt him most, for a man needs a talk as well as tobacco, and after a time he dreaded these evenings so bitterly that he purposely spent himself every day, so as to pass from supper into sleep at a stride. من أول توقف مؤقت في المساء بعد أن أضرت به العشاء بشدة ، لأن الرجل يحتاج إلى حديث وكذلك تبغ ، وبعد وقت كان يخاف هذه الأمسيات بمرارة لدرجة أنه يقضي نفسه عن عمد كل يوم ، حتى ينتقل من العشاء إلى النوم في خطوة. Dès le début, la pause du soir après le souper lui fit le plus grand mal, car un homme a besoin de parler autant que de fumer, et au bout d'un certain temps, il redouta si amèrement ces soirées qu'il se dépensa volontairement chaque jour, afin de passer du souper au sommeil en un clin d'œil. It needed a long day to burn out his strength thoroughly, so he set his rusted alarm-clock, and before dawn it brought him groaning out of the blankets to cook a hasty breakfast and go slowly up to the tunnel. كان يحتاج إلى يوم طويل ليحرق قوته تمامًا ، لذلك قام بإعداد المنبه الصدأ ، وقبل الفجر كان يخرجه من أنين من البطانيات ليطبخ وجبة إفطار متسرعة ويذهب ببطء إلى النفق. Il fallait une longue journée pour épuiser complètement ses forces. Il mit donc son réveil rouillé en marche et, avant l'aube, il sortit en gémissant de ses couvertures pour préparer un petit déjeuner à la hâte et remonter lentement jusqu'au tunnel. In short, he wedded himself to his work; he stepped into a routine which took the place of thought, and the change in him was so gradual that he did not see the danger. باختصار ، ألزم نفسه بعمله ؛ صعد إلى روتين أخذ مكان الفكر ، وكان التغيير فيه تدريجيًا لدرجة أنه لم ير الخطر En bref, il s'est attaché à son travail, il est entré dans une routine qui a pris la place de la pensée, et le changement en lui a été si graduel qu'il n'a pas vu le danger.

A mirror might have shown it to him as he stood this morning at the door of his lean-to, for the wind fluttered the shirt around his labor-dried body, and his forehead puckered in a frown, grown habitual. ربما تكون قد أظهرت له مرآة وهو يقف صباح هذا اليوم عند باب العجاف ، لأن الريح ترفرف القميص حول جسده المجفف في العمل ، وجبهته تتجول في عبوس ، وهو معتاد. Un miroir aurait pu le lui montrer alors qu'il se tenait ce matin à la porte de son appentis, car le vent faisait voltiger la chemise autour de son corps desséché par le travail, et son front se fronçait dans un froncement de sourcils devenu habituel. It was a narrow face, with rather close-set eyes and a slanted forehead which gave token of a single-track mind, a single-purposed nature with one hundred and eighty pounds of strong sinews and iron-hard muscle to give it significance. لقد كان وجهًا ضيقًا بأعين متقاربة إلى حد ما وجبهة مائلة أعطت رمزًا لعقل أحادي المسار ، وطبيعة أحادية الغرض مع مائة وثمانين رطلاً من الأوتار القوية والعضلات شديدة الصلابة لإعطاءها أهمية. C'était un visage étroit, avec des yeux plutôt rapprochés et un front incliné qui témoignait d'un esprit à voie unique, d'une nature à but unique avec cent quatre-vingts livres de nerfs solides et de muscles durs comme le fer pour lui donner de l'importance. Such was Vic Gregg as he stood at the door waiting for the coffee he had drunk to brush away the cobwebs of sleep, and then he heard the eagle scream. C'est ce que pensait Vic Gregg alors qu'il se tenait à la porte, attendant que le café qu'il avait bu efface les toiles d'araignée du sommeil, et qu'il entendit le cri de l'aigle.

A great many people have never heard the scream of an eagle. Beaucoup de gens n'ont jamais entendu le cri d'un aigle. The only voice they connect with the kind of the air is a ludicrously feeble squawk, dim with distance, but in his great moments the eagle has a war-cry like that of the hawk, but harsher, hoarser, tenfold in volume. الصوت الوحيد الذي يربطونه بنوع الهواء هو صرير ضعيف للغاية ، خافت من بعد ، لكن في لحظاته العظيمة ، كان للنسر صرخة حرب مثل صوت الصقر ، ولكنه أقسى وأشد صوتًا وعشرة أضعاف في الحجم. La seule voix qu'ils associent au genre de l'air est un cri ridiculement faible, affaibli par la distance, mais dans ses grands moments, l'aigle pousse un cri de guerre semblable à celui de l'épervier, mais plus rauque, plus aigu, d'un volume décuplé. This sound cut into the night in the gulch, and Vic Gregg started and glanced about for echoes made the sound stand at his side; then he looked up, and saw two eagles fighting in the light of the morning. قطع هذا الصوت ليلا في الجلش ، وبدأ فيك جريج ونظر إليه لأن أصداء جعل الصوت يقف إلى جانبه. ثم نظر إلى أعلى ورأى نسرين يقاتلان في ضوء الصباح. Vic Gregg sursauta et jeta un coup d'oeil autour de lui pour voir les échos qui lui parvenaient ; puis il leva les yeux et vit deux aigles en train de se battre dans la lumière du matin. He knew what it meant—the beginning of the mating season, and these two battling for a prize. Il savait ce que cela signifiait - le début de la saison des amours, et ces deux-là se battant pour un prix. They darted away. لقد اندفعوا بعيدا. They flashed together with reaching talons and gaping beaks, and dropped in a tumult of wings, then soared and clashed once more until one of them folded his wings and dropped bulletlike out of the morning into the night. تومضوا مع وصولهم إلى المخالب والمناقير المتساقطة ، وسقطوا في أجنحتها ، ثم صعدوا واشتبكوا مرة أخرى حتى قام أحدهم بطي أجنحته وإسقاط الرصاص من الصباح حتى الليل. Ils s'élancent l'un vers l'autre, serres tendues et becs béants, et tombent dans un tumulte d'ailes, puis s'envolent et s'affrontent à nouveau jusqu'à ce que l'un d'entre eux replie ses ailes et tombe comme une balle du matin dans la nuit. Close over Gregg's head, the wings flirted out—ten feet from tip to tip—beat down with a great washing sound, and the bird shot across the valley in a level flight. بالقرب من رأس جريج ، كانت الأجنحة تغازل - على بعد عشرة أقدام من طرف إلى طرف - تغلب عليها بصوت غسيل رائع ، وأطلق الطائر النار عبر الوادي في رحلة جوية متكافئة. Près de la tête de Gregg, les ailes se sont déployées - dix pieds d'un bout à l'autre - se sont abaissées avec un grand bruit de lavage, et l'oiseau a traversé la vallée d'un vol en palier. The conqueror screamed a long insult down the hollow. صرخ الفاتح إهانة طويلة أسفل جوفاء. Le conquérant hurla une longue injure dans le creux. For a while he balanced, craning his bald head as if he sought applause, then, without visible movement of his wings, sailed away over the peaks. لفترة من الوقت كان متوازناً ، يرفرف رأسه الأصلع كما لو كان يسعى للتصفيق ، ثم ، دون حركة واضحة لجناحيه ، أبحر بعيدًا فوق القمم. Il resta un moment en équilibre, penchant sa tête chauve comme s'il cherchait des applaudissements, puis, sans mouvement visible de ses ailes, il s'éloigna au-dessus des sommets. A feather fluttered slowly down past Vic Gregg. ريشة ترفرف ببطء في الماضي غريغ فيك.

He looked down to it, and rubbed the ache out of the back of his neck. نظر إلى الأسفل ، وفرك الألم من خلف عنقه. Il baissa les yeux et se frotta la nuque. All about him the fresh morning was falling; yonder shone a green-mottled face of granite, and there a red iron blow-out streaked with veins of glittering silicate, and in this corner, still misted with the last delicate shades of night, glimmered rhyolite, lavender-pink. كان كل شيء عنه صباحاً جديداً يسقط ؛ أشرق اللون الأصفر على وجه من الجرانيت ذي اللون الأخضر المرقش ، وهناك نفخة من الحديد الأحمر مليئة بأوردة من السيليكات المتلألئة ، وفي هذا الركن ، ما زالت تغمرها ظلال الليل الحساسة الأخيرة ، والريوليت اللامع ، والوردي الخزامى. Tout autour de lui, le matin frais tombait ; là-bas brillait une face de granit aux reflets verts, et là un éclat de fer rouge strié de veines de silicate scintillant, et dans ce coin, encore embué des dernières délicates nuances de la nuit, scintillait de la rhyolite, rose lavande. The single-jack dropped from the hand of Gregg, and his frown relaxed. انخفض جاك واحد من يد جريج ، واسترخ عبوسه. Le simple valet est tombé de la main de Gregg, et son froncement de sourcils s'est détendu.

When he stretched his arms, the cramps of labor unkinked and let the warm blood flow, swiftly, and in the pleasure of it he closed his eyes and drew a luxurious breath. عندما مدّ ذراعيه ، انقطعت المخاض عن المخاض واترك الدم الدافئ يتدفق بسرعة وبسرور ، وأغلق عينيه ورسم أنفاسه الفخمة. Lorsqu'il étirait ses bras, les crampes de l'accouchement se dénouaient et laissaient le sang chaud couler, rapidement, et dans le plaisir, il fermait les yeux et respirait à pleins poumons. He stepped from the door with his, head high and his heart lighter, and when his hobnailed shoe clinked on the fallen hammer he kicked it spinning from his path. صعد من الباب برفقة رأسه وأخف قلبه ، وعندما تشبث حذاءه المصنوع من المطرقة بالمطرقة الساقطة ، ركلها تدور من طريقه. Il sortit de la porte, la tête haute et le cœur plus léger, et lorsque sa chaussure à talon s'entrechoqua sur le marteau tombé à terre, il l'écarta de son chemin d'un coup de pied. That act brought a smile into his eyes, and he sauntered to the edge of the little plateau and looked down into the wide chasm of the Asper Valley.

Blue shadows washed across it, though morning shone around Gregg on the height, and his glance dropped in a two-thousand-foot plunge to a single yellow eye that winked through the darkness, a light in the trapper's cabin. تغرقت الظلال الزرقاء حولها ، على الرغم من أن الصباح أشرق حول جريج على ارتفاع ، وانخفضت نظراته في هبوط يبلغ ارتفاعه ألفي قدم إلى عين صفراء واحدة تغرقت في الظلام ، ضوء في مقصورة الصياد. Des ombres bleues l'enveloppaient, alors que le matin brillait autour de Gregg sur la hauteur, et son regard tomba dans un plongeon de deux mille pieds sur un seul œil jaune qui clignotait dans l'obscurité, une lumière dans la cabane du trappeur. But the dawn was falling swiftly now, and while Gregg lingered the blue grew thin, purple-tinted, and then dark, slender points pricked up, which he knew to be the pines. لكن الفجر كان يسقط بسرعة الآن ، وبينما ظل جريج يظل اللون الأزرق رقيقًا ، ملونًا بنفسجيًا ، ثم داكنًا ، فإن النقاط النحيلة تنتشر ، والتي كان يعرف أنها الصنوبر. Mais l'aube tombait rapidement et, tandis que Gregg s'attardait, le bleu s'éclaircissait, se teintait de pourpre, puis des pointes sombres et élancées se dressaient, qu'il savait être des pins. Last of all, he caught the sheen of grass. أخيرًا ، اشتعل لمعان العشب. Enfin, il aperçoit le reflet de l'herbe.

Around him pressed a perfect silence, the quiet of night holding over into the day, yet he cast a glance behind him as he heard a voice. من حوله ضغط على صمت تام ، هدوء الليل الذي استمر طوال اليوم ، ومع ذلك ألقى نظرة وراءه وهو يسمع صوتًا. Indeed, he felt that some one approached him, some one for whom he had been waiting, yet it was a sad expectancy, and more like homesickness than anything he knew. في الواقع ، شعر أن أحدهم اقترب منه ، شخص كان ينتظره من أجله ، ومع ذلك كان توقعًا محزنًا ، ويشبه الحنين إلى الوطن أكثر من أي شيء يعرفه. En effet, il sentait que quelqu'un s'approchait de lui, quelqu'un qu'il attendait, mais c'était une attente triste, qui ressemblait plus au mal du pays qu'à tout ce qu'il connaissait.

"Aw, hell," said Vic Gregg, "it's spring." قال فيك جريج: "يا جحيم ، إنه فصل الربيع". A deep-throated echo boomed back at him, and the sound went down the gulch, three times repeated. ظهر صدى عميق الحلق مرة أخرى في وجهه ، وذهب الصوت أسفل قلع ، ثلاث مرات المتكررة. L'écho d'une gorge profonde lui parvint, et le son descendit le long du ravin, répété trois fois.

"Spring," repeated Gregg more softly, as if he feared to rouse that echo, "damned if it ain't!" كرر جريج بهدوء "الربيع" ، كما لو كان يخشى إثارة هذا الصدى ، "ملعون إذا لم يكن كذلك!" "Le printemps", répéta Gregg plus doucement, comme s'il craignait d'éveiller cet écho, "c'est bien le cas !". He shrugged his shoulders and turned resolutely towards the lean-to, picking up the discarded hammer on the way. لقد تجاهل كتفيه وتحول بحزم نحو العجاف ، والتقاط المطرقة المهملة في الطريق. Il haussa les épaules et se dirigea résolument vers l'appentis, ramassant au passage le marteau abandonné. By instinct he caught it at exactly the right balance for his strength and arm, and the handle, polished by his grip, played with an oiled, frictionless movement against the callouses of his palm. من خلال غريزته ، استحوذ على التوازن الصحيح تمامًا لقوته وذراعه ، ولعب المقبض ، المصقول بقبضته ، بحركة مزيتة لا تشوبها شائبة ضد قاسي النخيل. Par instinct, il l'attrapa à l'équilibre parfait pour sa force et son bras, et la poignée, polie par sa prise, joua avec un mouvement huilé et sans friction contre les callosités de sa paume. From the many hours of drilling, fingers crooked, he could only straighten them by a painful effort. من ساعات الحفر العديدة ، كانت الأصابع ملتوية ، لم يتمكن من تقويمها إلا بمجهود مؤلم. A cause des nombreuses heures de forage, il avait les doigts crochus et ne pouvait les redresser qu'au prix d'un douloureux effort. A bad hand for cards, he decided gloomily, and still frowning over this he reached the door. يدا سيئة للبطاقات ، قرر كئيب ، وما زال عبق على هذا وصل إلى الباب. Une mauvaise main pour les cartes, décida-t-il sombrement, et toujours en fronçant les sourcils, il atteignit la porte. There he paused in instant repugnance, for the place was strange to him. هناك توقف مؤقتًا في بؤرة ، لأن المكان كان غريباً عليه. Il s'y arrêta avec une répugnance immédiate, car l'endroit lui était étranger.

In thought and wish he was even now galloping Grey Molly over the grass along the Asper, and he had to wrench himself into the mood of the patient miner. في الفكر والرغبة ، كان حتى الآن يركض غراي مولي على العشب على طول Asper ، وكان عليه أن يجذب نفسه في مزاج عامل المنجم المريض. En pensée et en souhait, il galopait déjà avec Grey Molly sur l'herbe le long de l'Asper, et il devait se mettre dans l'état d'esprit du mineur patient. There lay his blankets, rumpled, brown with dirt, and he shivered at sight of them; the night had been cold. Ses couvertures étaient là, froissées, brunes de saleté, et il frissonna en les voyant ; la nuit avait été froide. Before he fell asleep, he had flung the magazine into the corner and now the wind rustled its torn, yellowed pages in a whisper that spoke to Gregg of the ten-times repeated stories, tales of adventure, drifts of tobacco smoke in gaming halls, the chant of the croupier behind the wheel, deep voices of men, laughter of pretty girls, tatoo of running horses, shouts which only redeye can inspire. قبل أن يغفو ، كان قد غرق المجلة في الزاوية ، والآن صدقت الرياح صفحاتها الممزقة الصفراء في الهمس الذي تحدث إلى جريج عن القصص العشر مرات المتكررة ، وحكايات المغامرة ، وانجرافات دخان التبغ في قاعات الألعاب ، وهم يرددون صرخة اللاعب خلف عجلة القيادة ، والأصوات العميقة للرجال ، وضحك الفتيات الجميلات ، وشم الأحصنة ، والصيحات التي لا يمكن أن تلهم إلا العين الحمراء. Avant de s'endormir, il avait jeté le magazine dans un coin et maintenant le vent faisait bruisser ses pages déchirées et jaunies dans un murmure qui parlait à Gregg d'histoires dix fois répétées, de récits d'aventures, de dérives de fumée de tabac dans les salles de jeu, du chant du croupier derrière la roue, des voix profondes des hommes, des rires des jolies filles, des tatouages des chevaux qui courent, des cris que seul le redye peut inspirer. He sniffed the air; odor of burned bacon and coffee permeated the cabin. He turned to the right and saw his discarded overalls with ragged holes at the knees; he turned to the left and looked into the face of the rusted alarm clock. التفت إلى اليمين ورأى ملابسه المهملة مع ثقوب خشنة في الركبتين. التفت إلى اليسار ونظر إلى وجه المنبه الصدأ. Il se tourna vers la droite et vit sa salopette élimée, trouée aux genoux ; il se tourna vers la gauche et regarda le visage du réveil rouillé. Its quick, soft ticking sent an ache of weariness through him. لقد أدى وضع علامة سريعة وناعمة إلى وجع من خلاله. Son tic-tac rapide et doux lui donna un sentiment de lassitude.

"What's wrong with me," muttered Gregg. "ما هو الخطأ معي" ، تمتم غريغ. Even that voice seemed ghostly loud in the cabin, and he shivered again. حتى هذا الصوت بدا مرتفعًا بشكل شبحي في المقصورة ، وارتجف مجددًا. "I must be going nutty." "يجب أن أذهب جوزي". As if to escape from his own thoughts, he stepped out into the sun again, and it was so grateful to him after the chill shadow in the lean-to, that he looked up, smiling, into the sky. كما لو أنه هرب من أفكاره ، خرج إلى الشمس مرة أخرى ، وكان ممتنًا جدًا له بعد الظل البارد في العجاف ، حتى أنه نظر إلى الأعلى مبتسماً في السماء. A west wind urged a scattered herd of clouds over the peaks, tumbled masses of white which puffed into transparent silver at the edges, and behind, long wraiths of vapor marked the path down which they had traveled. حثت الرياح الغربية قطيعًا مبعثرًا من الغيوم فوق القمم ، وهبطت الكتل البيضاء التي انتفخت من الفضة الشفافة عند الحواف ، وخلفها ، غطت باقات طويلة من البخار المسار الذي سلكوه. Un vent d'ouest poussait un troupeau de nuages épars sur les sommets, des masses blanches tumultueuses qui se transformaient en argent transparent sur les bords, et derrière, de longues enveloppes de vapeur marquaient le chemin qu'ils avaient parcouru. Such an old cowhand as Vic Gregg could not fail to see the forms of cows and heavy-necked bulls and running calves in that drift of clouds. لم يستطع مثل البقر القديم مثل فيك جريج أن يرى أشكال الأبقار والثيران ذات العنق القوي وعجول الجري في ذلك الانجراف من السحب. Un vieux vacher comme Vic Gregg ne pouvait pas ne pas voir les formes des vaches, des taureaux au cou lourd et des veaux qui couraient dans cette traînée de nuages. About this season the boys would be watching the range for signs of screw worms in the cattle, and the bog-riders must have their hands full dragging out cows which had fled into the mud to escape the heel flies. في هذا الموسم ، كان الأولاد يراقبون المدى بحثًا عن علامات على وجود دودات لولبية في الماشية ، ويجب أن يكون لدى راكبي المستنقعات أيديهم بالكامل وهم يسحبون الأبقار التي هربت إلى الوحل هربًا من ذباب الكعب. C'est à cette saison que les garçons surveillent les pâturages pour détecter les signes de la présence de vers dans le bétail, et les bog-riders doivent avoir fort à faire pour sortir les vaches qui se sont enfoncées dans la boue pour échapper aux mouches à talon. With a new lonesomeness he drew his eyes down to the mountains. مع وحيدة جديدة ولفت عينيه إلى الجبال.

Ordinarily, strange fancies never entered the hard head of Gregg, but today it seemed to him that the mountains found a solemn companionship in each other. D'ordinaire, les fantaisies étranges n'entraient jamais dans la tête dure de Gregg, mais aujourd'hui, il lui semblait que les montagnes trouvaient un compagnon solennel l'une dans l'autre.

Out of the horizon, where the snowy forms glimmered in the blue, they marched in loose order down to the valley of the Asper, where some of them halted in place, huge cliffs, and others stumbled out into foothills, but the main range swerved to the east beside the valley, eastward out of his vision, though he knew that they went on to the town of Alder. من الأفق ، حيث تلمست الأشكال الثلجية باللون الأزرق ، ساروا بترتيب فضفاض وصولاً إلى وادي الأسبر ، حيث توقف بعضهم في مكانه ، ومنحدرات ضخمة ، وتعثر آخرون في التلال ، لكن المجموعة الرئيسية انحرفت إلى الشرق بجانب الوادي ، شرقًا بعيدًا عن رؤيته ، رغم أنه يعلم أنهم ذهبوا إلى مدينة ألدر. À l'horizon, où les formes enneigées scintillaient dans le bleu, ils marchaient en ordre dispersé jusqu'à la vallée de l'Asper, où certains d'entre eux s'arrêtaient sur place, sur d'immenses falaises, et d'autres s'enfonçaient dans les contreforts, mais la chaîne principale s'écartait vers l'est à côté de la vallée, vers l'est hors de sa vision, bien qu'il sache qu'ils continuaient jusqu'à la ville d'Aulne.

Alder was Vic Gregg's Athens and Rome in one, its schoolhouse his Acropolis, and Captain Lorrimer's saloon his Forum. كان ألدر هو فيك جريج في أثينا وروما في أحدهما ، ومدرسته الخاصة به الأكروبوليس ، وكابتن لوريمر في صالونه. Alder était l'Athènes et la Rome de Vic Gregg, son école son Acropole et le saloon du capitaine Lorrimer son Forum. Other people talked of larger cities, but Alder satisfied the imagination of Vic; besides, Grey Molly was even now in the blacksmith's pasture, and Betty Neal was teaching in the school. تحدث أشخاص آخرون عن مدن أكبر ، ولكن ألدر راض عن خيال فيك ؛ إلى جانب ذلك ، كان جراي مولي في مرعى الحداد ، وكانت بيتي نيل تدرس في المدرسة. D'autres personnes parlaient de villes plus grandes, mais Alder satisfaisait l'imagination de Vic ; en outre, Grey Molly était déjà dans le pâturage du forgeron, et Betty Neal enseignait à l'école. Following the march of the mountains and the drift of the clouds, he turned towards Alder. بعد مسيرة الجبال وانجراف السحب ، التفت نحو ألدر. The piled water shook the dam, topped it, burst it into fragments, and rushed into freedom; he must go to Alder, have a drink, shake hands with a friend, kiss Betty Neal, and come back again. L'eau entassée a ébranlé le barrage, l'a coiffé, l'a fait éclater en fragments et s'est précipitée vers la liberté ; il doit aller à Alder, boire un verre, serrer la main d'un ami, embrasser Betty Neal, et revenir à nouveau. Two days going, two days coming, three days for the frolic; a week would cover it all. يومين ذهابا ، يومين قادمين ، ثلاثة أيام للفرح. سوف تغطي الأسبوع كل شيء. And two hours later Vic Gregg had cached his heavier equipment, packed his necessaries on the burro, and was on the way. Et deux heures plus tard, Vic Gregg avait mis en cache son équipement le plus lourd, emporté son nécessaire sur le burro et était en route.

By noon he had dropped below the snowline and into the foothills, and with every step his heart grew lighter. بحلول الظهر كان قد سقط أسفل خط الثلوج وفي سفوح الجبال ، ومع كل خطوة أصبح قلبه أفتح. À midi, il était descendu sous la ligne de démarcation de la neige et s'était enfoncé dans les contreforts, et à chaque pas, son cœur s'allégeait. Behind him the mountains slid up into the heart of the sky with cold, white winter upon them, but here below it was spring indubitably. Derrière lui, les montagnes glissent jusqu'au cœur du ciel et sont recouvertes d'un hiver froid et blanc, alors qu'ici, en bas, c'est incontestablement le printemps. There was hardly enough fresh grass to temper the winter brown into shining bronze, but a busy, awakening insect life thronged through the roots. Il y avait à peine assez d'herbe fraîche pour transformer le brun de l'hiver en bronze brillant, mais une vie d'insecte active et éveillée se pressait dans les racines. Surer sign than this, the flowers were coming. Surer علامة من هذا ، كانت الزهور القادمة. A slope of buttercups flashed suddenly when the wind struck it and wild morning glory spotted a stretch of daisies with purple and dainty lavender. تومض منحدر من الفراشات فجأة عندما ضربتها الريح ورأى مجد الصباح البري امتداداً من الإقحوانات مع الخزامى الأرجواني واللذيذ. Une pente de boutons d'or s'est soudainement illuminée lorsque le vent l'a frappée et la gloire du matin sauvage a repéré une étendue de marguerites avec du pourpre et de la lavande délicate. To be sure, the blossoms never grew thickly enough to make strong dashes of color, but they tinted and stained the hillsides. Certes, les fleurs n'ont jamais été assez nombreuses pour créer des touches de couleur, mais elles ont teinté et coloré les flancs des collines. He began to cross noisy little watercourses, empty most of the year, but now the melting snow fed them. بدأ عبور المجاري المائية الصاخبة الصغيرة ، فارغًا معظم العام ، ولكن الثلوج الذائبة أطعمتها الآن. Il commence à traverser de bruyants petits cours d'eau, vides la plupart de l'année, mais que la fonte des neiges alimente désormais. From eddies and quiet pools the bright watercress streamed out into the currents, and now and then in moist ground under a sheltering bank he found rich patches of violets. Depuis les tourbillons et les bassins tranquilles, le cresson de fontaine éclatant s'écoule dans les courants, et de temps en temps, dans un sol humide, sous une rive abritée, il trouve de riches taches de violettes.

His eyes went happily among these tokens of the glad time of the year, but while he noted them and the bursting buds of the aspen, reddish-brown, his mind was open to all that middle register of calls which the human ear may notice in wild places. سارت عيناه بسعادة بين هذه الرموز المميزة في الوقت السعيد لهذا العام ، لكن بينما لاحظها والبراعم المتفجرة للأسبن ، البني المحمر ، كان عقله مفتوحًا لكل هذا السجل الأوسط للمكالمات التي قد تلاحظها الأذن البشرية في الأماكن البرية. Ses yeux se promenaient joyeusement parmi ces signes de la période heureuse de l'année, mais tandis qu'il les notait, ainsi que les bourgeons éclatés des trembles, d'un brun rougeâtre, son esprit était ouvert à tout ce registre moyen de cris que l'oreille humaine peut percevoir dans les lieux sauvages. Far above his scale were shrilling murmurs of birds and insects, and beneath it ran those ground noises that the rabbit, for instance, understands so well; but between these overtones and undertones he heard the scream of the hawk, spiraling down in huge circles, and the rapid call of a grouse, far off, and the drone of insects about his feet, or darting suddenly upon his brain and away again. Bien au-dessus de son échelle, il entendait les murmures stridents des oiseaux et des insectes, et en dessous, les bruits du sol que le lapin, par exemple, comprend si bien ; mais entre ces harmoniques et ces sous-entendus, il entendait le cri de l'épervier, qui descendait en décrivant d'énormes cercles, l'appel rapide d'un tétras, au loin, et le bourdonnement des insectes autour de ses pieds, ou qui s'élançaient soudain sur son cerveau et s'en éloignaient à nouveau. He heard these things by the grace of the wind, which sometimes blew them about him in a chorus, and again shut off all except that lonely calling of the grouse, and often whisked away every murmur and left Gregg, in the center of a wide hush with only the creak of the pack-saddle and the click of the burro's accurate feet among the rocks. At such times he gave his full attention to the trail, and he read it as one might turn the pages of a book. في مثل هذه الأوقات ، أعطى انتباهه الكامل إلى الدرب ، وقراءته لأنه قد يدير صفحات كتاب. Dans ces moments-là, il accordait toute son attention au sentier et le lisait comme on tourne les pages d'un livre. He saw how a rabbit had scurried, running hard, for the prints of the hind feet planted far ahead of those on the forepaws. لقد رأى كيف أن الأرنب قد اندفع ، يركض بقوة ، من أجل مطبوعات الأقدام الخلفية المزروعة بفارق كبير عن تلك الموجودة على مقدمة القدم. Il vit comment un lapin avait détalé, en courant fort, car les empreintes des pattes postérieures étaient plantées loin devant celles des pattes antérieures. There was reason in her haste, for here the pads of a racing coyote had dug deeply into a bit of soft ground. Sa hâte était justifiée, car ici, les pattes d'un coyote de course s'étaient profondément enfoncées dans un sol meuble. The sign of both rabbit and coyote veered suddenly, and again the trail told the reason clearly—the big print of a lobo's paw, that gray ghost which haunts the ranges with the wisest brain and the swiftest feet in the West. انحرفت إشارة كل من الأرنب والذئب بشكل مفاجئ ، ومرة أخرى أخبرنا الدرب السبب بوضوح - الطباعة الكبيرة لمخلب لوبو ، ذلك الشبح الرمادي الذي يطارد النطاقات مع الدماغ الأكثر حكمة وأسرع قدم في الغرب. Les signes du lapin et du coyote virèrent brusquement et, une fois de plus, la piste en donna clairement la raison : la grande empreinte de la patte d'un lobo, ce fantôme gris qui hante les massifs avec le cerveau le plus sage et les pieds les plus rapides de l'Ouest. Vic Gregg grinned with excitement; fifty dollars' bounty if that scalp were his! Vic Gregg grimace d'excitation : cinquante dollars de prime si ce scalp est le sien ! But the story of the trail called him back with the sign of some small animal which must have traveled very slowly, for in spite of the tiny size of the prints, each was distinct. Mais l'histoire de la piste le rappela avec le signe d'un petit animal qui avait dû voyager très lentement, car malgré la taille minuscule des empreintes, chacune d'elles était distincte. The man sniffed with instinctive aversion and distrust for this was the trail of the skunk, and if the last of the seven sleepers was out, it was spring indeed. L'homme renifla avec une aversion et une méfiance instinctives, car c'était la piste du putois, et si le dernier des sept dormeurs était sorti, c'était vraiment le printemps. He raised his cudgel and thwacked the burro joyously. Il leva son gourdin et donna un coup de poing joyeux à l'animal.

"Get on, Marne," he cried. "We're overdue in Alder." "لقد تأخرنا في ألدر". Marne switched her tail impatiently and canted back a long ear to listen, but she did not increase her pace; for Marne had only one gait, and if Vic occasionally thumped her, it was rather by way of conversation than in any hope of hurrying their journey. Marne remua la queue avec impatience et pencha une longue oreille en arrière pour écouter, mais elle n'accéléra pas son allure, car Marne n'avait qu'une seule démarche, et si Vic la frappait de temps en temps, c'était plutôt en guise de conversation que dans l'espoir de hâter leur voyage.