登陆注册
15686100000034

第34章

"There are times, gentlemen, in the life of a parish, when it comes to an epoch which brings it to a moment when it reaches a point--"The Dean stuck fast again, but refusing this time to be beaten went resolutely on:

"--reaches a point where the circumstances of the moment make the epoch such as to focus the life of the parish in that time."Then the Dean saw that he was beaten, and he knew that he not only couldn't manage the parish but couldn't say so in proper English, and of the two the last was the bitterer discovery.

He raised his head, and looked for a moment through the window at the shadow of the church against the night, so outlined that you could almost fancy that the light of the New Jerusalem was beyond it.Then he wrote, and this time not to the world at large but only to Mullins:

"My dear Harry, I want to resign my charge.Will you come over and help me?"When the Dean at last rose from writing that, I think it was far on in the night.As he rose he looked again through the window, looked once and then once more, and so stood with widening eyes, and his face set towards what he saw.

What was that? That light in the sky there, eastward?--near or far he could not say.Was it already the dawn of the New Jerusalem brightening in the east, or was it--look--in the church itself,--what is that?--that dull red glow that shines behind the stained-glass windows, turning them to crimson? that fork of flame that breaks now from the casement and flashes upward, along the wood--and see--that sudden sheet of fire that springs the windows of the church with the roar of splintered glass and surges upward into the sky, till the dark night and the bare trees and sleeping street of Mariposa are all illumined with its glow!

Fire! Fire! and the sudden sound of the bell now, breaking upon the night.

So stood the Dean erect, with one hand pressed against the table for support, while the Mariposa fire bell struck out its warning to the sleeping town,--stood there while the street grew loud with the tumult of voices,--with the roaring gallop of the fire brigade,--with the harsh note of the gong--and over all other sounds, the great seething of the flames that tore their way into the beams and rafters of the pointed church and flared above it like a torch into the midnight sky.

So stood the Dean, and as the church broke thus into a very beacon kindled upon a hill,--sank forward without a sign, his face against the table, stricken.

You need to see a fire in a place such as Mariposa, a town still half of wood, to know what fire means.In the city it is all different.To the onlooker, at any rate, a fire is only a spectacle, nothing more.

Everything is arranged, organized, certain.It is only once perhaps in a century that fire comes to a large city as it comes to the little wooden town like Mariposa as a great Terror of the Night.

That, at any rate, is what it meant in Mariposa that night in April, the night the Church of England Church burnt down.Had the fire gained but a hundred feet, or less, it could have reached from the driving shed behind the church to the backs of the wooden shops of the Main Street, and once there not all the waters of Lake Wissanotti could stay the course of its destruction.It was for that hundred feet that they fought, the men of Mariposa, from the midnight call of the bell till the slow coming of the day.They fought the fire, not to save the church, for that was doomed from the first outbreak of the flames, but to stop the spread of it and save the town.They fought it at the windows, and at the blazing doors, and through the yawning furnace of the open belfry; fought it, with the Mariposa engine thumping and panting in the street, itself aglow with fire like a servant demon fighting its own kind, with tall ladders reaching to the very roof, and with hose that poured their streams of tossing water foaming into the flames.

Most of all they fought to save the wooden driving shed behind the church from which the fire could leap into the heart of Mariposa.

That was where the real fight was, for the life of the town.I wish you could have seen how they turned the hose against the shingles, ripping and tearing them from their places with the force of the driven water: how they mounted on the roof, axe in hand, and cut madly at the rafters to bring the building down, while the black clouds of smoke rolled in volumes about the men as they worked.You could see the fire horses harnessed with logging chains to the uprights of the shed to tear the building from its place.

Most of all I wish you could have seen Mr.Smith, proprietor, as Ithink you know, of Smith's Hotel, there on the roof with a fireman's helmet on, cutting through the main beam of solid cedar, twelve by twelve, that held tight still when the rafters and the roof tree were down already, the shed on fire in a dozen places, and the other men driven from the work by the flaming sparks, and by the strangle of the smoke.Not so Mr.Smith! See him there as he plants himself firm at the angle of the beams, and with the full impact of his two hundred and eighty pounds drives his axe into the wood! I tell you it takes a man from the pine country of the north to handle an axe!

Right, left, left, right, down it comes, with never a pause or stay, never missing by a fraction of an inch the line of the stroke! At it, Smith! Down with it! Till with a shout from the crowd the beam gapes asunder, and Mr.Smith is on the ground again, roaring his directions to the men and horses as they haul down the shed, in a voice that dominates the fire itself.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 鬼颜毒妃

    鬼颜毒妃

    借尸还魂,她成右相府的嫡女大小姐,痴傻良善,柔弱无能!亲娘早逝,亲爹不爱!庶妹排队来欺辱,庶弟暗中下死手……冷眸睁开,她残忍狠毒,欺我者,十倍欺之,辱我者,百倍送还!修武术,种灵草,杀魔兽,得灵宠……废物变天才,叱咤穹天大陆!却偏偏栽在一群死男人手里!凰阁阁主墨非离,久微国四皇子千灵久夜,夕耀国国主华夕耀……个个都是她打不过的强大存在!她躲,她藏,她逃……都免不了被他们戏弄!阴谋,始终围绕不散,她初心不变,却在到达巅峰之际惨遭灭杀,拼死挣扎,只余破碎灵魂……古籍上说,唯有她的心头血,方可重启通往神殿的路……
  • 三国杀之卡牌世纪

    三国杀之卡牌世纪

    原本平凡到只会玩玩三国杀的穷小子杨逍洋,竟然穿越到了一个靠卡牌游戏决定一切的世界,不仅如此,那个卡牌的游戏规则居然个三国杀一模一样,就这样,一无所长的平凡人竟然成了炙手可热的英雄,可他不知道他所面临的究竟是一个新世纪,还是一个惊天的阴谋!
  • 至强雇佣军

    至强雇佣军

    一场阴谋,迷雾重重,孩童不惜以命,遮开这层面纱!兄弟情义,死亡对决,孩童会如何选择!雇佣军中也并非只认所谓的钱财!兄弟情义,更为重要!
  • 墨菲定律140条

    墨菲定律140条

    看起来很好笑,想想只有苦笑。看起来是歪理,实际都是真理。看起来话很酷,实际上很残酷。真的包括了生活中几乎全部的可能
  • 天降男友,吴世勋

    天降男友,吴世勋

    那天,他来到她家,对她说:你是我的女朋友。惊呆了她。这一切她的家人都知道,唯独她不知道。她还是个学生啊,哪来的男朋友,还是一个辣么帅的男朋友。啊啊结局会是什么样的呢?一个还在青春期的少女,和一个名气很高的少年。
  • 幻境之王

    幻境之王

    在家庭受到灾难之后,少年踏上社会的道路。一个没有什么文化,没有背景的少年,如何解救家庭的苦难。为何会有如此大的阴谋,进入真武,少年将如何面对,面对无上的修真界,少年又当如何,踏入魔界,少年如何自保。面对所爱之人,他将何去何从。上古诅咒到底是什么?少年到底是何身份,他为何是乱魔命。这到底是上天注定的,还是人为的,2000多年前的修真界为何会消散在人间。得到神珠,改变时空,到底是福还是祸。这片天到底是谁在操控,苍穹到底有无尽头?看少年如何一一解惑这些。
  • 夏雨微凉之夜落星稀

    夏雨微凉之夜落星稀

    本文主要讲了一个初中男生与女生之间的故事,男主和女主在岁月的磨练中变得越来越好,但最后没在一起,各奔东西。她还记得第一次见他的时候,他们还那么天真,转眼已面对人生的抉择,再见时,已是三年后。
  • 黑脸少爷俏女佣

    黑脸少爷俏女佣

    “哈哈!若溪,你看,我刚刚撕掉一个招聘广告,招家教的!”小雪兴高采烈地踩着高跟鞋从外面进来,刚一开门就冲着房间里喊着。“真的啊,快给我看看!”若溪说着,也不顾嘴里还嚼着方便面,就把小雪手里拿着的粉色纸张抢了过来,小雪嗔怪着:“你急什么呀,那人刚贴,我就把它给你撕来了。”“谢谢学姐,你最好了~”若溪说着,扳着小雪的脸蛋,就来了一口。小雪赶紧把若溪推到一边:“你什么味儿啊?”..
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)