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The Night Horseman by Max Brand, CHAPTER XLI. THE FALLING OF NIGHT

CHAPTER XLI. THE FALLING OF NIGHT

It had been hard to gauge the falling of night on this day, and even the careful eyes of the watchers on the Cumberland Ranch could not tell when the greyness of the sky was being darkened by the coming of the evening. All day there had been swift alterations of light and shadow, comparatively speaking, as the clouds grew thin or thick before the wind. But at length, indubitably, the night was there. Little by little the sky was overcast, and even the lines of the falling rain were no longer visible. Before the gloom of the darkness had fully settled over the earth, moreover, there came a change in the wind, and the watchers at the rain-beaten windows of the ranch-house saw the clouds roll apart and split into fragments that were driven from the face of the sky; and from the clean washed face of heaven the stars shone down bright and serene. And still Dan Barry had not come.

After the tumult of that long day the sudden silence of that windless night had more ill omen in it than thunder and lightning. For there is something watching and waiting in silence. In the living room the three did not speak.

Now that the storm was gone they had allowed the fire to fall away until the hearth showed merely fragmentary dances of flame and a wide bed of dull red coals growing dimmer from moment to moment. Wung Lu had brought in a lamp—a large lamp with a circular wick that cast a bright, white light—but Kate had turned down the wick, and now it made only a brief circle of yellow in one corner of the room. The main illumination came from the fireplace and struck on the faces of Kate and Buck Daniels, while Joe Cumberland, on the couch at the end of the room, was only plainly visible when there was an extraordinarily high leap of the dying flames; but usually his face was merely a glimmering hint in the darkness—his face and the long hands which were folded upon his breast. Often when the flames leapt there was a crackling of the embers and the last of the log, and then the two nearer the fire would start and flash a glance, of one accord, towards the prostrate figure on the couch.

That silence had lasted so long that when at length the dull voice of Joe Cumberland broke in, there was a ring of a most prophetic solemnity about it.

"He ain't come," said the old man. "Dan ain't here." The others exchanged glances, but the eyes of Kate dropped sadly and fastened again upon the hearth.

Buck Daniels cleared his throat like an orator.

"Nobody but a fool," he said, "would have started out of Elkhead in a storm like this." "Weather makes no difference to Dan," said Joe Cumberland. "But he'd think of his hoss——" "Weather makes no difference to Satan," answered the faint, oracular voice of Joe Cumberland. "Kate!" "Yes?" "Is he comin'?" She did not answer. Instead, she got up slowly from her place by the fire and took another chair, far away in the gloom, where hardly a glimmer of light reached to her and there she let her head rest, as if exhausted, against the back of the seat.

"He promised," said Buck Daniels, striving desperately to keep his voice cheerful, "and he never busts his promises." "Ay," said the old man, "he promised to be back—but he ain't here." "If he started after the storm," said Buck Daniels. "He didn't start after the storm," announced the oracle. "He was out in it." "What was that," cried Buck Daniels sharply. "The wind," said Kate, "for it's rising. It will be a cold night, to-night." "And he ain't here," said the old man monotonously. "Ain't there things that might hold him up?" asked Buck, with a touch of irritation.

"Ay," said the old rancher, "they's things that'll hold him up. They's things that'll turn a dog wild, too, and the taste of blood is one of 'em!" The silence fell again.

There was an old clock standing against the wall. It was one of those tall, wooden frames in which, behind the glass, the heavy, polished disk of the pendulum, alternated slowly back and forth with wearisome precision. And with every stroke of the seconds there was a faint, metallic clangor in the clock—a falter like that which comes in the voice of a very old man. And the sound of this clock took possession of every silence until it seemed like the voice of a doomsman counting off the seconds. Ay, everyone in the room, again and again, took up the tale of those seconds and would count them slowly—fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three—and on and on, waiting for the next speech, or for the next popping of the wood upon the hearth, or for the next wail of the wind that would break upon the deadly expectancy of that count. And while they counted each looked straight before him with wide and widening eyes.

Into one of these pauses the voice of Buck Daniels broke at length; and it was a cheerless and lonely voice in that large room, in the dull darkness, and the duller lights.

"D'you remember Shorty Martin, Kate?" "I remember him." He turned in his chair and hitched it a little closer to her until he could make put her face, dimly, among the shadows. The flames jumped on the hearth, and he saw a picture that knocked at his heart.

"The little bow-legged feller, I mean." "Yes, I remember him very well." Once more the flames sputtered and he saw how she looked wistfully before her and above. She had never seemed so lovely to Buck Daniels. She was pale, indeed, but there was no ugly pinching of her face, and if there were shadows beneath her eyes, they only served to make her eyes seem marvelously large and bright. She was pallid, and the firelight stained her skin with touches of tropic gold, and cast a halo of the golden hair about her face. She seemed like one of those statues wrought in the glory and the rich days of Athens in ivory and in gold—some goddess who has heard the tidings of the coming fall, the change of the old order, and sits passive in her throne waiting the doom from which there is no escape. Something of this filtered through to the sad heart of Buck Daniels. He, too, had no hope—nay, he had not even her small hope, but somehow he was able to pity her and cherish the picture of her in that gloomy place. It seemed to Buck Daniels that he would give ten years from the best of his life to see her smile as he had once seen her in those old, bright days. He went on with his tale.

"You would have busted laughin' if you'd seen him at the Circle Y Bar roundup the way I seen him. Shorty ain't so bad with a rope. He's always talkin' about what he can do and how he can daub a rope on anything that's got horns. He ain't so bad, but then he ain't so good, either. Specially, he ain't so good at ridin'—you know what bowed legs he's got, Kate?" "I remember, Buck." She was looking at him, at last, and he talked eagerly to turn that look into a smile.

"Well, they was the three of us got after one two year old—a bull and a bad 'un. Shorty was on one side and me and Cuttle was on the other side. Shorty daubed his rope and made a fair catch, but when his hoss set back the rope busted plumb in two. Now, Shorty, he had an idea that he could ease the work of his hoss a whole pile if he laid holts on the rope whenever his hoss set down to flop a cow. So Shorty, he had holt on this rope and was pulling back hard when the rope busted, and Shorty, he spilled backwards out'n that saddle like he'd been kicked out. "Whilst he was lyin' there, the bull, that had took a header when the rope busted, come up on his feet agin, and I'll tell a man he was rarin' mad! He seen Shorty lyin' on the ground, and he took a run for Shorty. Me and Cuttle was laughin' so hard we couldn't barely swing our ropes, but I made a throw and managed to get that bull around both horns. So my Betty sits down and braces herself for the tug.

"In the meantime little Shorty, he sits up and lays a hand to his head, and same time he sees that bull come tarin' for him. Up he jumps. And jest then the bull come to the end of the line and wonk!—down he goes, head over heels, and hits the sand with a bang that must of jostled his liver some, I'll be sayin'! "Well, Shorty, he seen that bull fly up into the air and he lets out a yell like the world was comin' to an end, and starts runnin'. If he'd run straight back the other way the bull couldn't of run a step, because I had him fast with my rope, but Shorty seen me, and he come tarin' for my hoss to get behind him. "That bull was like a cat gettin' to his feet, and he sights Shorty tarin' and lights out after him. There they went lickety-split. That bull was puffin' on the seat of Shorty's trowsers and tossin' his horns and jest missin' Shorty by inches; and Shorty had his mouth so wide open hollerin' that you could have throwed a side of beef down his throat; and his eyes was buggin' out. Them bow-legs of his was stretchin' ten yards at a clip, most like, and the boys says they could hear him hollerin' a mile away. But that bull, stretch himself all he could, couldn't gain an inch on Shorty, and Shorty couldn't gain an inch on the bull, till the bull come to the other end of the forty-foot rope, and then, whang! up goes the heels of the bull and down goes his head, and his heels comes over—wonk! and hits Shorty right square on the head.

"Been an ordinary feller, and he wouldn't of lived to talk about it afterwards, but seein' it was Shorty, he jest goes up in the air and lands about ten yards away, and rolls over and hits his feet without once gettin' off his stride—and then he did start runnin', and he didn't stop runnin' nor hollerin' till he got plumb back to the house!" Buck Daniels sat back in his chair and guffawed at the memory. In the excitement of the tale he had quite forgotten Kate, but when he remembered her, she sat with her head craned a little to one side, her hand raised for silence, and a smile, indeed, upon her lips, but never a glance for Buck Daniels. He knew at once.

"Is it him?" he whispered. "D'you hear him?" "Hush!" commanded two voices, and then he saw that old Joe Cumberland also was listening.

"No," said the girl suddenly, "it was only the wind." As if in answer, a far, faint whistling broke upon them. She drew her hands slowly towards her breast, as if, indeed, she drew the sound in with them.

"He's coming!" she cried. "Oh, Dad, listen! Don't you hear?" "I do," answered the rancher, "but what I'm hearin' don't warm my blood none. Kate, if you're wise you'll get up and go to your room and don't pay no heed to anything you might be hearin' to-night."

CHAPTER XLI. THE FALLING OF NIGHT CAPÍTULO XLI. O CAÍR DA NOITE

It had been hard to gauge the falling of night on this day, and even the careful eyes of the watchers on the Cumberland Ranch could not tell when the greyness of the sky was being darkened by the coming of the evening. Tinha sido difícil avaliar o cair da noite neste dia, e mesmo os olhos cuidadosos dos observadores no Cumberland Ranch não podiam dizer quando o cinza do céu estava sendo escurecido pela chegada da noite. All day there had been swift alterations of light and shadow, comparatively speaking, as the clouds grew thin or thick before the wind. Durante todo o dia houve rápidas alterações de luz e sombra, comparativamente falando, à medida que as nuvens se tornavam finas ou espessas diante do vento. But at length, indubitably, the night was there. Mas finalmente, indubitavelmente, a noite estava lá. Little by little the sky was overcast, and even the lines of the falling rain were no longer visible. Pouco a pouco o céu escureceu, e até as linhas da chuva que caíam não eram mais visíveis. Before the gloom of the darkness had fully settled over the earth, moreover, there came a change in the wind, and the watchers at the rain-beaten windows of the ranch-house saw the clouds roll apart and split into fragments that were driven from the face of the sky; and from the clean washed face of heaven the stars shone down bright and serene. Além disso, antes que a escuridão da escuridão se instalasse completamente sobre a terra, houve uma mudança no vento, e os observadores nas janelas batidas pela chuva da casa da fazenda viram as nuvens se separarem e se dividirem em fragmentos que foram expulsos a face do céu; e da face limpa e lavada do céu as estrelas brilhavam brilhantes e serenas. And still Dan Barry had not come. E ainda assim Dan Barry não tinha vindo.

After the tumult of that long day the sudden silence of that windless night had more ill omen in it than thunder and lightning. Depois do tumulto daquele longo dia, o súbito silêncio daquela noite sem vento tinha mais mau agouro do que trovões e relâmpagos. For there is something watching and waiting in silence. Pois há algo observando e esperando em silêncio. In the living room the three did not speak.

Now that the storm was gone they had allowed the fire to fall away until the hearth showed merely fragmentary dances of flame and a wide bed of dull red coals growing dimmer from moment to moment. Agora que a tempestade havia passado, eles permitiram que o fogo se apagasse até que a lareira mostrasse apenas danças fragmentárias de chamas e um amplo leito de brasas vermelhas opacas que escureciam a cada momento. Wung Lu had brought in a lamp—a large lamp with a circular wick that cast a bright, white light—but Kate had turned down the wick, and now it made only a brief circle of yellow in one corner of the room. Wung Lu trouxe um abajur – um abajur grande com um pavio circular que emitia uma luz branca e brilhante – mas Kate havia diminuído o pavio, e agora ele formava apenas um breve círculo amarelo em um canto da sala. The main illumination came from the fireplace and struck on the faces of Kate and Buck Daniels, while Joe Cumberland, on the couch at the end of the room, was only plainly visible when there was an extraordinarily high leap of the dying flames; but usually his face was merely a glimmering hint in the darkness—his face and the long hands which were folded upon his breast. A iluminação principal vinha da lareira e atingia os rostos de Kate e Buck Daniels, enquanto Joe Cumberland, no sofá no fundo da sala, só era claramente visível quando havia um salto extraordinariamente alto das chamas moribundas; mas geralmente seu rosto era apenas uma sugestão brilhante na escuridão - seu rosto e as mãos compridas que estavam dobradas sobre o peito. Often when the flames leapt there was a crackling of the embers and the last of the log, and then the two nearer the fire would start and flash a glance, of one accord, towards the prostrate figure on the couch. Muitas vezes, quando as chamas saltavam, ouvia-se o crepitar das brasas e o resto da tora, e então os dois mais próximos do fogo acendiam e lançavam um olhar, de comum acordo, para a figura prostrada no sofá.

That silence had lasted so long that when at length the dull voice of Joe Cumberland broke in, there was a ring of a most prophetic solemnity about it. Esse silêncio durou tanto tempo que, quando finalmente a voz monótona de Joe Cumberland interrompeu, houve um toque da mais profética solenidade sobre ele.

"He ain't come," said the old man. "Ele não veio", disse o velho. "Dan ain't here." The others exchanged glances, but the eyes of Kate dropped sadly and fastened again upon the hearth. Os outros trocaram olhares, mas os olhos de Kate caíram tristes e se fixaram novamente na lareira.

Buck Daniels cleared his throat like an orator. Buck Daniels pigarreou como um orador.

"Nobody but a fool," he said, "would have started out of Elkhead in a storm like this." "Ninguém além de um tolo", disse ele, "teria saído de Elkhead em uma tempestade como esta." "Weather makes no difference to Dan," said Joe Cumberland. "But he'd think of his hoss——" "Mas ele pensaria em seu hoss--" "Weather makes no difference to Satan," answered the faint, oracular voice of Joe Cumberland. "O tempo não faz diferença para Satanás", respondeu a voz fraca e oracular de Joe Cumberland. "Kate!" "Yes?" "Is he comin'?" She did not answer. Instead, she got up slowly from her place by the fire and took another chair, far away in the gloom, where hardly a glimmer of light reached to her and there she let her head rest, as if exhausted, against the back of the seat. Em vez disso, ela se levantou lentamente de seu lugar perto da lareira e pegou outra cadeira, longe na escuridão, onde mal um vislumbre de luz a alcançava e ali ela deixou sua cabeça descansar, como se estivesse exausta, contra o encosto do assento. .

"He promised," said Buck Daniels, striving desperately to keep his voice cheerful, "and he never busts his promises." "Ele prometeu", disse Buck Daniels, esforçando-se desesperadamente para manter a voz alegre, "e nunca quebra suas promessas." "Ay," said the old man, "he promised to be back—but he ain't here." "If he started after the storm," said Buck Daniels. "Se ele começou depois da tempestade", disse Buck Daniels. "He didn't start after the storm," announced the oracle. "He was out in it." "Ele estava fora disso." "What was that," cried Buck Daniels sharply. "The wind," said Kate, "for it's rising. “O vento,” disse Kate, “pois está subindo. It will be a cold night, to-night." "And he ain't here," said the old man monotonously. "Ain't there things that might hold him up?" "Não há coisas que possam detê-lo?" asked Buck, with a touch of irritation.

"Ay," said the old rancher, "they's things that'll hold him up. “Sim”, disse o velho fazendeiro, “são coisas que o seguram. They's things that'll turn a dog wild, too, and the taste of blood is one of 'em!" The silence fell again.

There was an old clock standing against the wall. It was one of those tall, wooden frames in which, behind the glass, the heavy, polished disk of the pendulum, alternated slowly back and forth with wearisome precision. Era uma daquelas altas molduras de madeira em que, por trás do vidro, o disco pesado e polido do pêndulo, alternava lentamente para frente e para trás com uma precisão cansativa. And with every stroke of the seconds there was a faint, metallic clangor in the clock—a falter like that which comes in the voice of a very old man. E a cada toque dos segundos havia um tinido fraco e metálico no relógio — um vacilar como aquele que vem na voz de um homem muito velho. And the sound of this clock took possession of every silence until it seemed like the voice of a doomsman counting off the seconds. E o som desse relógio tomou conta de cada silêncio até parecer a voz de um apocalíptico contando os segundos. Ay, everyone in the room, again and again, took up the tale of those seconds and would count them slowly—fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three—and on and on, waiting for the next speech, or for the next popping of the wood upon the hearth, or for the next wail of the wind that would break upon the deadly expectancy of that count. Sim, todos na sala, de novo e de novo, retomavam a história daqueles segundos e os contavam lentamente - cinquenta, cinquenta e um, cinquenta e dois, cinquenta e três - e assim por diante, esperando o próximo discurso, ou para o próximo estalar da madeira na lareira, ou para o próximo lamento do vento que quebraria a expectativa mortal daquela contagem. And while they counted each looked straight before him with wide and widening eyes. E enquanto eles contavam cada um olhou diretamente para ele com olhos arregalados e arregalados.

Into one of these pauses the voice of Buck Daniels broke at length; and it was a cheerless and lonely voice in that large room, in the dull darkness, and the duller lights. Em uma dessas pausas, a voz de Buck Daniels finalmente se interrompeu; e era uma voz triste e solitária naquela sala grande, na escuridão e nas luzes mais apagadas.

"D'you remember Shorty Martin, Kate?" "Você se lembra de Shorty Martin, Kate?" "I remember him." He turned in his chair and hitched it a little closer to her until he could make put her face, dimly, among the shadows. Ele se virou na cadeira e a puxou um pouco mais para perto dela até conseguir colocar seu rosto, vagamente, entre as sombras. The flames jumped on the hearth, and he saw a picture that knocked at his heart. As chamas saltaram sobre a lareira, e ele viu uma imagem que bateu em seu coração.

"The little bow-legged feller, I mean." "O pequeno sujeito de pernas tortas, quero dizer." "Yes, I remember him very well." Once more the flames sputtered and he saw how she looked wistfully before her and above. Mais uma vez as chamas crepitaram e ele viu como ela parecia melancólica diante dela e acima. She had never seemed so lovely to Buck Daniels. Ela nunca parecera tão adorável para Buck Daniels. She was pale, indeed, but there was no ugly pinching of her face, and if there were shadows beneath her eyes, they only served to make her eyes seem marvelously large and bright. Ela estava pálida, de fato, mas não havia nenhum beliscão feio em seu rosto, e se havia sombras sob seus olhos, elas só serviam para fazer seus olhos parecerem maravilhosamente grandes e brilhantes. She was pallid, and the firelight stained her skin with touches of tropic gold, and cast a halo of the golden hair about her face. Ela estava pálida, e a luz do fogo manchava sua pele com toques de ouro tropical, e lançava uma auréola de cabelos dourados sobre seu rosto. She seemed like one of those statues wrought in the glory and the rich days of Athens in ivory and in gold—some goddess who has heard the tidings of the coming fall, the change of the old order, and sits passive in her throne waiting the doom from which there is no escape. Ela parecia uma daquelas estátuas forjadas na glória e nos dias ricos de Atenas em marfim e ouro – alguma deusa que ouviu as notícias do outono vindouro, a mudança da velha ordem, e está sentada passiva em seu trono esperando o desgraça da qual não há escapatória. Something of this filtered through to the sad heart of Buck Daniels. Algo disso se infiltrou no triste coração de Buck Daniels. He, too, had no hope—nay, he had not even her small hope, but somehow he was able to pity her and cherish the picture of her in that gloomy place. Ele também não tinha esperança — não, ele não tinha nem mesmo a pequena esperança dela, mas de alguma forma ele foi capaz de ter pena dela e acalentar a imagem dela naquele lugar sombrio. It seemed to Buck Daniels that he would give ten years from the best of his life to see her smile as he had once seen her in those old, bright days. Parecia a Buck Daniels que ele daria dez anos do melhor de sua vida para vê-la sorrir como ele a vira uma vez naqueles velhos e brilhantes dias. He went on with his tale.

"You would have busted laughin' if you'd seen him at the Circle Y Bar roundup the way I seen him. "Você teria caído na gargalhada se o tivesse visto na rodada do Circle Y Bar do jeito que eu o vi. Shorty ain't so bad with a rope. Shorty não é tão ruim com uma corda. He's always talkin' about what he can do and how he can daub a rope on anything that's got horns. Ele está sempre falando sobre o que pode fazer e como pode colocar uma corda em qualquer coisa que tenha chifres. He ain't so bad, but then he ain't so good, either. Specially, he ain't so good at ridin'—you know what bowed legs he's got, Kate?" Especialmente, ele não é tão bom em montar - você sabe que pernas arqueadas ele tem, Kate?" "I remember, Buck." She was looking at him, at last, and he talked eagerly to turn that look into a smile. Ela estava olhando para ele, finalmente, e ele falou ansiosamente para transformar aquele olhar em um sorriso.

"Well, they was the three of us got after one two year old—a bull and a bad 'un. "Bem, eles foram os três que pegamos depois de uma criança de dois anos - um touro e um mau 'un. Shorty was on one side and me and Cuttle was on the other side. Shorty daubed his rope and made a fair catch, but when his hoss set back the rope busted plumb in two. Shorty esfregou sua corda e fez uma captura justa, mas quando seu hoss recuou, a corda se partiu em dois. Now, Shorty, he had an idea that he could ease the work of his hoss a whole pile if he laid holts on the rope whenever his hoss set down to flop a cow. Agora, Baixinho, ele teve a ideia de que poderia facilitar o trabalho de seu hoss uma pilha inteira se ele colocasse cordas na corda sempre que seu hoss se sentasse para derrubar uma vaca. So Shorty, he had holt on this rope and was pulling back hard when the rope busted, and Shorty, he spilled backwards out'n that saddle like he'd been kicked out. Então, Shorty, ele tinha agarrado esta corda e estava puxando para trás com força quando a corda estourou, e Shorty, ele caiu para trás naquela sela como se tivesse sido chutado. "Whilst he was lyin' there, the bull, that had took a header when the rope busted, come up on his feet agin, and I'll tell a man he was rarin' mad! "Enquanto ele estava deitado lá, o touro, que havia levado uma cabeçada quando a corda estourou, levantou-se novamente, e eu direi a um homem que ele estava louco! He seen Shorty lyin' on the ground, and he took a run for Shorty. Ele viu Shorty deitado no chão, e correu para Shorty. Me and Cuttle was laughin' so hard we couldn't barely swing our ropes, but I made a throw and managed to get that bull around both horns. Eu e Cuttle estávamos rindo tanto que mal conseguíamos balançar nossas cordas, mas eu fiz um arremesso e consegui pegar aquele touro em volta dos dois chifres. So my Betty sits down and braces herself for the tug. Então minha Betty se senta e se prepara para o puxão.

"In the meantime little Shorty, he sits up and lays a hand to his head, and same time he sees that bull come tarin' for him. "Enquanto isso, o pequeno Baixinho, ele se senta e coloca a mão na cabeça, e ao mesmo tempo ele vê aquele touro vir atrás dele. Up he jumps. Para cima ele pula. And jest then the bull come to the end of the line and wonk!—down he goes, head over heels, and hits the sand with a bang that must of jostled his liver some, I'll be sayin'! E, por brincadeira, o touro chega ao fim da linha e vacila! — ele desce, de cabeça para baixo, e bate na areia com um estrondo que deve ter empurrado seu fígado um pouco, eu vou dizer! "Well, Shorty, he seen that bull fly up into the air and he lets out a yell like the world was comin' to an end, and starts runnin'. "Bem, Shorty, ele viu aquele touro voar no ar e solta um grito como se o mundo estivesse acabando e começa a correr. If he'd run straight back the other way the bull couldn't of run a step, because I had him fast with my rope, but Shorty seen me, and he come tarin' for my hoss to get behind him. Se ele tivesse corrido direto para o outro lado, o touro não poderia correr um passo, porque eu o segurei rápido com minha corda, mas Baixinho me viu, e ele veio correndo atrás de meu hoss para ficar atrás dele. "That bull was like a cat gettin' to his feet, and he sights Shorty tarin' and lights out after him. "Aquele touro era como um gato se levantando, e ele vê Shorty tarin' e as luzes se apagam atrás dele. There they went lickety-split. Lá eles foram lickety-split. That bull was puffin' on the seat of Shorty's trowsers and tossin' his horns and jest missin' Shorty by inches; and Shorty had his mouth so wide open hollerin' that you could have throwed a side of beef down his throat; and his eyes was buggin' out. Aquele touro estava bufando no assento das calças de Shorty e jogando seus chifres e brincando de perder Shorty por centímetros; e Shorty estava com a boca tão aberta gritando que você poderia ter jogado um pedaço de carne em sua garganta; e seus olhos estavam esbugalhados. Them bow-legs of his was stretchin' ten yards at a clip, most like, and the boys says they could hear him hollerin' a mile away. As pernas tortas dele estavam se estendendo dez jardas em um clipe, mais ou menos, e os meninos dizem que podiam ouvi-lo gritando a uma milha de distância. But that bull, stretch himself all he could, couldn't gain an inch on Shorty, and Shorty couldn't gain an inch on the bull, till the bull come to the other end of the forty-foot rope, and then, whang! Mas aquele touro, esticou-se o máximo que pôde, não conseguiu ganhar um centímetro em Shorty, e Shorty não conseguiu ganhar um centímetro no touro, até que o touro chegasse à outra extremidade da corda de quarenta pés, e então, whang ! up goes the heels of the bull and down goes his head, and his heels comes over—wonk! para cima sobem os calcanhares do touro e descem sua cabeça, e seus calcanhares se aproximam — wonk! and hits Shorty right square on the head. e acerta Shorty bem na cabeça.

"Been an ordinary feller, and he wouldn't of lived to talk about it afterwards, but seein' it was Shorty, he jest goes up in the air and lands about ten yards away, and rolls over and hits his feet without once gettin' off his stride—and then he did start runnin', and he didn't stop runnin' nor hollerin' till he got plumb back to the house!" "Sou um cara comum, e ele não viveria para falar sobre isso depois, mas vendo que era Shorty, ele subiu no ar e aterrissou a cerca de dez metros de distância, e rola e bate em seus pés sem chegar nem uma vez. ' fora de seu ritmo - e então ele começou a correr, e ele não parou de correr nem gritar até que ele voltou para casa!" Buck Daniels sat back in his chair and guffawed at the memory. Buck Daniels recostou-se na cadeira e gargalhou com a lembrança. In the excitement of the tale he had quite forgotten Kate, but when he remembered her, she sat with her head craned a little to one side, her hand raised for silence, and a smile, indeed, upon her lips, but never a glance for Buck Daniels. Na excitação da história, ele havia esquecido Kate, mas quando se lembrou dela, ela se sentou com a cabeça inclinada um pouco para o lado, a mão erguida para o silêncio e um sorriso, de fato, nos lábios, mas nunca um olhar. para Buck Daniels. He knew at once. Ele soube imediatamente.

"Is it him?" he whispered. "D'you hear him?" "Hush!" "Silêncio!" commanded two voices, and then he saw that old Joe Cumberland also was listening.

"No," said the girl suddenly, "it was only the wind." As if in answer, a far, faint whistling broke upon them. Como que em resposta, um assobio distante e fraco os atingiu. She drew her hands slowly towards her breast, as if, indeed, she drew the sound in with them. Ela levou as mãos lentamente em direção ao peito, como se, de fato, tivesse atraído o som com elas.

"He's coming!" she cried. "Oh, Dad, listen! Don't you hear?" "I do," answered the rancher, "but what I'm hearin' don't warm my blood none. Kate, if you're wise you'll get up and go to your room and don't pay no heed to anything you might be hearin' to-night." Kate, se você for esperta, você vai se levantar e ir para o seu quarto e não prestar atenção em nada que você possa estar ouvindo esta noite.