Before time had been allowed for remonstrance, the old man, who had continued during the whole scene like one much at a loss how to proceed, though, also, like one who was rather perplexed than alarmed, suddenly assumed a decided air, as if he no longer doubted as to the course it was most advisable to pursue.

“It is time to be doing,” he said, interrupting the controversy that was about to ensue between the naturalist and the bee hunter; “it is time to leave off books and moanings, and to be doing.”

“You have come to your recollection too late, miserable old man!” cried Middleton.“The flames are within a quarter of a mile of us, and the wind is bringing them down in this direction with dreadful rapidity.”

“Anan! the flames! I care but little for the flames! If I only knew how to circumvent the cunning of the Tetons as I know how to cheat the fire of its prey, there would be nothing needed but thanks to the Lord for our deliverance. Do you call that a fire! If you had seen what I have witnessed in the eastern hills, when mighty mountains were like the furnace of a smith, you would have known what it was to fear the flames, and to be thankful that you were spared.—Come, lads, come; 'tis time to be doing now, and to cease talking, for yonder curling flame is truly coming on like a trotting moose. Put hands upon this short and withered grass where we stand, and lay bare the earth.”

“Would you think to deprive the fire of its victims in this childish manner?”exclaimed Middleton.

A faint but solemn smile passed over the features of the old man, as he answered,“Your grandfather would have said, that when the enemy was nigh, a soldier could do no better than obey.”

The captain felt the reproof, and instantly began to imitate the industry of Paul, who was tearing the decayed herbage from the ground in a sort of desperate compliance with the trapper's direction. Even Ellen lent her hands to the labour; nor was it long before Inez was seen similarly employed, though none among them knew why. A very few moments sufficed to lay bare a spot of some twenty feet in diameter.

To one side of this little area the trapper brought the females, directing Middleton and Paul to cover their light and inflammable dresses with the blankets of the party. Then the old man, crossing to the other side, approached the grass, which still environed them in a dangerous circle, and selecting a handful of the driest of the herbage, he placed it over the pan of his rifle. The light combustible kindled at the flash. Then he placed the little flame in a bed of the standing fog, and patiently awaited the result.

The subtle element seized with avidity upon its new fuel, and in a moment forked flames were gliding among the grass, as the tongues of ruminating animals are seen rolling among their food, apparently in quest of its sweetest portions.

“Now,” said the old man, holding up a finger, and laughing in his peculiarly silent manner, “you shall see fire fight fire. Ah's me! many is the time I have burned a path from wanton laziness to pick my way across a tangled bottom.”

“But is this not fatal?” cried the amazed Middleton; “are you not bringing the enemy nigher to us, instead of avoiding it?”

“Do you scorch so easily? Your grandfather had a tougher skin. But we shall live to see, —we shall all live to see.”

The experience of the trapper was in the right. As the fire gained strength, it began to spread on three sides, dying of itself on the fourth for want of aliment. As it increased, and the sullen roaring announced its power, it cleared everything before it, leaving the black and smoking soil far more naked than if the scythe had swept the place. The area in which the fugitives had taken refuge increased as the fire advanced;and by going to the spot where it had been first kindled by the trapper, they avoided the excessive heat. In a very few moments the flames began to recede in every direction, leaving the party enveloped in a cloud of smoke, but perfectly safe from the torrent of fire that was still furiously rolling onward.

The others regarded the simple expedient of the trapper with that species of wonder with which the courtiers of Ferdinand are said to have viewed the manner in which Columbus made his egg to stand on its end, —though with feelings that were filled with gratitude instead of envy.

“Most wonderful!” said Middleton, when he saw the complete success of the device: “the thought was a gift from Heaven.”

“Old trapper,” cried Paul, thrusting his fingers through his shaggy locks, “I have lined many a loaded bee into his hole, and know something of the nature of the woods, but this is robbing a hornet of his sting without touching the insect!”

“It will do—it will do,” returned the old man, who, after the first moment of his success, seemed to think no more of the exploit. “Let the flames do their work for a short half hour, and then we will mount. That time is needed to cool the meadow; for these unshod beasts are tender on the hoof as a barefooted girl.”

The veteran, on whose experience they all so implicitly relied for protection, employed himself in reconnoitering objects in the distance, through the openings which the air occasionally made in the immense bodies of smoke, that by this time lay in enormous piles on every part of the plain.

—J. FENIMORE COOPER

Words

aliment,nourishment.

apparently,seemingly.

avidity,greediness.

avoiding,shunning.

compliance,obedience.

controversy,dispute.

deliverance,release.

deprive,cheat.

device,plan.

employed,occupied.

enveloped,enclosed.

expedience,contrivance.

exploit,achievement.

features,countenance.

fugitives,wanderers.

gratitude,thankfulness.

implicitly,confidently.

inflammable,combustible.

occasionally,sometimes.

perplexed,puzzled.

rapidity,celerity.

recollection,remembrance.

remonstrance,expostulation.

reproof,rebuke.

returned,answered.

subtle,wily.

sullen,dismal.

tangled,intricate.

veteran,old man.

witnessed,beheld.

Questions

What did the trapper presently instruct his companions to do? How large a space did they clear? Where did the trapper place the females? What did the trapper do at the other side? What was the result? With what feelings did the others regard the trapper's device?

已經(jīng)沒時(shí)間用來責(zé)備詰問了，那老人繼續(xù)像那不知所措地強(qiáng)調(diào)前進(jìn)的人一樣，其實(shí)，也像一個(gè)與其說是被嚇壞了，不如說是感到困惑的人一樣，突然間打定了主意，好像不再懷疑接下來要走的路是最佳路線似的。

“是時(shí)候行動(dòng)起來了，”他說到，打斷了即將在自然主義者和捕蜂人之間產(chǎn)生的爭(zhēng)論，“是時(shí)候甩開書本和抱怨，開始行動(dòng)了。”

“你現(xiàn)在開竅得太晚了，可憐的老人家！”米德爾頓喊道。“大火離著咱們只有不到四分之一英里的距離了，而風(fēng)把火向著我們這邊吹著，速度驚人。”

“啊！大火！我一點(diǎn)兒都不關(guān)心大火！如果我知道如何把狡猾的提頓族人包圍在中間，就像我知道如何能不讓大火吞噬它眼前的獵物的話，那我們不需要做任何事情，只需要感謝上帝對(duì)我們的救贖就好了。你把這叫作大火！如果你曾經(jīng)看見過我在東邊山上曾見到的景象，那高山崇嶺就像鐵匠的火爐一樣，你就會(huì)知道什么叫對(duì)大火的恐懼了，就會(huì)知道如何感恩自己逃過一劫了。來吧，孩子們，來吧，是時(shí)候行動(dòng)起來了，不要再爭(zhēng)辯了，因?yàn)槟沁吘韯?dòng)的火焰正向這邊襲來，就像跑動(dòng)著的麋鹿一樣。動(dòng)手拔光那些矮小枯萎的草吧，也就是我們站立的地方的草，然后躺在地上。”

“你覺得這樣過家家的方式就能讓我們躲過這個(gè)大劫嗎？”米德爾頓喊道。

老人臉上掠過一絲淡淡的但威嚴(yán)的微笑，他答道，“你的祖父會(huì)說，當(dāng)敵近在眼前，遵從命令是士兵最好的選擇。”

上尉聽出了話里的責(zé)備之音，于是馬上開始學(xué)著保羅，以一種絕望的遵從，順著布置陷阱的人指出的方向拔著地上的枯萎的草木。艾倫甚至也出力幫忙；不一會(huì)兒，恩茲也同樣拔起草來，雖然他們沒有人知道為什么要這么做。過了好一會(huì)兒，他們就有直徑二十英尺的地方可以直接躺在地上了。

布置陷阱的人把女人帶到這片小地方的一邊，指導(dǎo)米德爾頓和保羅把輕盈而易燃的衣物覆蓋到毯子上。然后這老人，走到另一邊，走近那把他們包圍進(jìn)危險(xiǎn)的圈子的草木中，選了一把干草，把它堵在來復(fù)槍的槍口上。輕盈的易燃物馬上就著起了火。然后他把這小火堆放到了冒起的煙上，耐心等待結(jié)果。

柔軟的火焰一遇到新燃料的加入就歡騰起來，不一會(huì)兒的工夫，火焰就在草叢中蔓延開來，就像在食物中打滾的反芻動(dòng)物的舌頭一樣，很顯然是在尋找著其中最美味的東西。

“現(xiàn)在，”老人說道，他舉起一根手指，笑得奇怪而沉默，“你們即將看到火和火的搏斗。啊，我啊！有許多次我都從那火焰的慵懶中燒出一條糾結(jié)的路徑。”

“但這樣就沒事了？”驚奇的米德爾頓叫道，“你這樣不是把敵人帶得離著我們更近了，而不是避免遇上它？”

“你怎么這么容易發(fā)出詰問！你的祖父性格更堅(jiān)毅。但我們會(huì)活著見識(shí)到的，我們會(huì)活著見識(shí)到的。”

布置陷阱的人的經(jīng)驗(yàn)是對(duì)的。當(dāng)火勢(shì)很足的時(shí)候，火開始時(shí)向三個(gè)方向彌散，為了獲取更多的燃料，便會(huì)向第四個(gè)方向蔓延。當(dāng)火勢(shì)漸猛，那沉悶的吼叫聲表明它的力量，它會(huì)把一切出現(xiàn)在自己面前的東西都吞噬掉，只留下漆黑的冒著煙的光禿禿的土地，那光禿程度要比鐮刀割過之后更徹底。隨著大火的到來，逃亡者們藏身之地的范圍在變大；當(dāng)火到達(dá)之前被布置陷阱的人點(diǎn)燃的地方的時(shí)候，他們躲避過了過高的熱浪。不一會(huì)兒，每一個(gè)方向的火焰都開始減弱了，里頭的人被包圍在濃煙滾滾之中，但他們卻非常安全，不會(huì)受到那無情的依然滾滾向前的火焰的吞噬了。

其他人把布置陷阱人的簡單的權(quán)宜之計(jì)看成人類的又一奇跡，就好像菲爾迪南的追隨者們說自己曾見過哥倫布讓雞蛋站立時(shí)的神情一樣——盡管他們心中充滿了感恩而不是嫉妒。

“太棒了！”米德爾頓說道，當(dāng)他看到這個(gè)辦法完全起了作用：“這簡直是神來之筆。”

“年老的布置陷阱的人，”保羅叫道，他把手指從自己破破爛爛的衣兜里伸出來，“我曾經(jīng)從蜂窩里捕過不少的蜜蜂，我了解樹林的特點(diǎn)，但你這么做簡直是把蜜蜂的毒刺從它身上摘掉卻一點(diǎn)都不沾到蜜蜂身上！”

“成了——成了，”老人家回答道，他在自己成功之后似乎馬上想到，不要再做什么了。“讓大火再燒上半個(gè)鐘頭吧，然后我們?cè)倮^續(xù)前進(jìn)。草原需要時(shí)間冷卻；赤腳的野獸在這樣的熱土地上用蹄子走路就像光腳走路的小姑娘一樣柔弱。”

他們?cè)绱斯_依賴的獸醫(yī)，曾如此依靠他的經(jīng)驗(yàn)來保命的獸醫(yī)，則自顧自地觀測(cè)著遠(yuǎn)處的動(dòng)靜，風(fēng)偶爾從大片的煙堆的缺口吹出來，那大片大片的煙到此時(shí)已經(jīng)遍布草原的各個(gè)角落。

——J.費(fèi)尼莫爾·庫珀