登陆注册
15467200000019

第19章 CHAPTER FIVE The Adventure of the Spectacled Roadm

I sat down on the very crest of the pass and took stock of my position.

Behind me was the road climbing through a long cleft in the hills, which was the upper glen of some notable river. In front was a flat space of maybe a mile, all pitted with bog-holes and rough with tussocks, and then beyond it the road fell steeply down another glen to a plain whose blue dimness melted into the distance. To left and right were round- shouldered green hills as smooth as pancakes, but to the south - that is, the left hand - there was a glimpse of high heathery mountains, which I remembered from the map as the big knot of hill which I had chosen for my sanctuary. I was on the central boss of a huge upland country, and could see everything moving for miles. In the meadows below the road half a mile back a cottage smoked, but it was the only sign of human life. Otherwise there was only the calling of plovers and the tinkling of little streams.

It was now about seven o'clock, and as I waited I heard once again that ominous beat in the air. Then I realized that my vantage- ground might be in reality a trap. There was no cover for a tomtit in those bald green places.

I sat quite still and hopeless while the beat grew louder. Then I saw an aeroplane coming up from the east. It was flying high, but as I looked it dropped several hundred feet and began to circle round the knot of hill in narrowing circles, just as a hawk wheels before it pounces. Now it was flying very low, and now the observer on board caught sight of me. I could see one of the two occupants examining me through glasses.

Suddenly it began to rise in swift whorls, and the next I knew it was speeding eastward again till it became a speck in the blue morning.

That made me do some savage thinking. My enemies had located me, and the next thing would be a cordon round me. I didn't know what force they could command, but I was certain it would be sufficient. The aeroplane had seen my bicycle, and would conclude that I would try toescape by the road. In that case there might be a chance on the moors to the right or left. I wheeled the machine a hundred yards from the highway, and plunged it into a moss-hole, where it sank among pond-weed and water-buttercups. Then I climbed to a knoll which gave me a view of the two valleys. Nothing was stirring on the long white ribbon that threaded them.

I have said there was not cover in the whole place to hide a rat. As the day advanced it was flooded with soft fresh light till it had the fragrant sunniness of the South African veld. At other times I would have liked the place, but now it seemed to suffocate me. The free moorlands were prison walls, and the keen hill air was the breath of a dungeon.

I tossed a coin - heads right, tails left - and it fell heads, so I turned to the north. In a little I came to the brow of the ridge which was the containing wall of the pass. I saw the highroad for maybe ten miles, and far down it something that was moving, and that I took to be a motor-car. Beyond the ridge I looked on a rolling green moor, which fell away into wooded glens.

Now my life on the veld has given me the eyes of a kite, and I can see things for which most men need a telescope ... Away down the slope, a couple of miles away, several men were advancing. like a row of beaters at a shoot ...

I dropped out of sight behind the sky-line. That way was shut to me, and I must try the bigger hills to the south beyond the highway. The car I had noticed was getting nearer, but it was still a long way off with some very steep gradients before it. I ran hard, crouching low except in the hollows, and as I ran I kept scanning the brow of the hill before me. Was it imagination, or did I see figures - one, two, perhaps more - moving in a glen beyond the stream?

If you are hemmed in on all sides in a patch of land there is only one chance of escape. You must stay in the patch, and let your enemies search it and not find you. That was good sense, but how on earth was I to escape notice in that table-cloth of a place? I would have buried myself to the neck in mud or lain below water or climbed the tallest tree. But there was not a stick of wood, the bog-holes were little puddles, the stream was aslender trickle. There was nothing but short heather, and bare hill bent, and the white highway.

Then in a tiny bight of road, beside a heap of stones, I found the roadman.

He had just arrived, and was wearily flinging down his hammer. He looked at me with a fishy eye and yawned.

'Confoond the day I ever left the herdin'!' he said, as if to the world at large. 'There I was my ain maister. Now I'm a slave to the Goavernment, tethered to the roadside, wi' sair een, and a back like a suckle.'

He took up the hammer, struck a stone, dropped the implement with an oath, and put both hands to his ears. 'Mercy on me! My heid's burstin'!' he cried.

He was a wild figure, about my own size but much bent, with a week's beard on his chin, and a pair of big horn spectacles.

'I canna dae't,' he cried again. 'The Surveyor maun just report me. I'm for my bed.'

I asked him what was the trouble, though indeed that was clear enough.

'The trouble is that I'm no sober. Last nicht my dochter Merran was waddit, and they danced till fower in the byre. Me and some ither chiels sat down to the drinkin', and here I am. Peety that I ever lookit on the wine when it was red!'

I agreed with him about bed. 'It's easy speakin',' he moaned. 'But I got a postcard yestreen sayin' that the new Road Surveyor would be round the day. He'll come and he'll no find me, or else he'll find me fou, and either way I'm a done man. I'll awa' back to my bed and say I'm no weel, but I doot that'll no help me, for they ken my kind o' no-weel-ness.'

Then I had an inspiration. 'Does the new Surveyor know you?' I asked. 'No him. He's just been a week at the job. He rins about in a weemotor-cawr, and wad speir the inside oot o' a whelk.'

'Where's your house?' I asked, and was directed by a wavering finger to the cottage by the stream.

'Well, back to your bed,' I said, 'and sleep in peace. I'll take on your job for a bit and see the Surveyor.'

同类推荐
  • 妙法莲华经论优波提舍

    妙法莲华经论优波提舍

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 汉武帝内传

    汉武帝内传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 九日临渭亭侍宴应制

    九日临渭亭侍宴应制

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 山左笔谈

    山左笔谈

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 于公案

    于公案

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 突天

    突天

    原之力、虹之力、灵之力、时空之力、尊之力。在原界大陆,人类凭借着自然所赐予的力量,主宰着这个世界。而往往有一群人,永远得不到满足,试图想超脱自然,欲与天斗!就在万余年前,上古尊王诀念达到了前无古人的尊之力瓶颈。遂召集了原界大陆的六大天尊,合七星之力于天涯,打破了突天壁的封印。与天大战了将近三百日,七人最终败下了阵来。诀念恼羞成怒,极其仅有的一丝力量,将尊剑残念打向了突天壁......陨落!突天壁裂下了五块碎石,跟着尊剑残念辗转流失......从此世间有了一个传言:集得五块突天壁碎石,得与天相争!
  • 赞法界颂

    赞法界颂

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 有没有爱都不要慌未来很长

    有没有爱都不要慌未来很长

    假若在最宝贵的青春时期遇到一群很有趣的家伙,这人生也当真可谓是一场戏!有一母同胞却性格迥异的姐妹花,一直身居国外却突然回国的兄弟三人组,以及皇甫家族知书达理的独生女,东方家族的呆萌小千金等等,一场爱情追逐便从此拉开序幕,当尘埃落定之日遥想曾经,原来上一辈的恩怨情仇是他们爱情故事的一个转折。
  • 孕妇也穿越2:姐不稀罕帝王宠

    孕妇也穿越2:姐不稀罕帝王宠

    “莫非,你想要朕的宠爱?”切,某人不屑的撇撇嘴,要他的宠爱,她吗?“皇上,你看我像是想要你宠爱的吗?你爱宠谁宠谁,爱爱谁爱谁去,只要到时候放我走就好了!”她看起来有这么的欲求不满吗?这个色皇上,以为人人都像他一样看到是个女人都上啊!她就找头猪,也不会看上他的!穿越成孕妇,咱一样的嚣张
  • 白色眷恋

    白色眷恋

    因为不满皇马6比2的比分,中国青年律师沈星怒砸啤酒瓶,结果电光火石间,他穿越成了佛罗伦蒂诺的儿子,且看来自09年的小伙子如何玩转03年的欧洲足坛
  • 鬼灵精探

    鬼灵精探

    他有着一双令罪犯闻风丧胆的眼睛。他的眼睛能看见鬼。
  • 情枭忆椿

    情枭忆椿

    城南一中是全省最著名的高中,周依萱和苏傲枫就在这所高中读书,城南一中是连接他们爱情的一根红线,也是对他们爱情的美好见证。“你真的喜欢我吗?”“当然了,你是我见过的,最善良的女孩。”一次意外的失忆,她忘记了他,她成为了耀眼的明星,而他却还是一位普普通通的小少爷。她喜欢上了别的男孩儿,而他始终在等她,他相信她会想起他,想起他们在一起的美好时光
  • 时间匆忙以至于我忘记了所有

    时间匆忙以至于我忘记了所有

    或许每个人的言不由衷都有苦衷,我承认自己虚伪,贪婪,但这不过是人的本性,我害怕于黑暗……
  • 终末乐章:黎明护卫队

    终末乐章:黎明护卫队

    这个世界,从来没有获得过……真正意义上的和平……
  • 沧海桑田:玲珑花

    沧海桑田:玲珑花

    沧海桑田中养育出一朵极其漂亮的七窍玲珑花,生来为神不用修炼就有通天本领。可这世上哪有那么好的事情?某神女说:“我觉得,并不是我喜欢上你了,而你勾引我喜欢上你的。”子墨君挑动眉毛:“哦?你不是心甘情愿被我勾引的吗?”某神女含羞挥拳:“讨厌~”推荐作品:《莹本惊华》