词汇：fort

n. 堡垒；要塞；（美）边界贸易站

相关场景

“I guess you might break them clothes in by Christmas,” the livery-stable woman said, laughing. “You look like you’re wearing stovepipes.” “I can’t help it if they’re black,” Roscoe said. “It was all they had that fit.” He felt sorry about leaving Janey. What if old Sam got well and tracked them to Fort Worth and found her? He offered her two dollars in case she had expenses, but Janey just shook her head. When they rode off, she was still sitting on the big washtub.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“I expect if we paid that woman she’d board the girl,” July said. “You go buy some duds. You’ll be a laughingstock if you try to travel in those you got on.” The woman at the livery stable agreed to board Janey for three dollars a month. July paid for two months. When told she was to stay in Fort Worth, Janey didn’t say a word. The woman spoke to her cheerfully about getting some better clothes, but Janey sat on the washtub, silent.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“I didn’t get her, exactly,” Roscoe said. He felt on the defensive. It was clear that people would think the worst of him, whatever he did. No doubt in Fort Smith the word would be out that instead of sticking to orders he had run off with the first young girl he could find.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
Janey seemed to think Fort Worth was quite a sight. She was over her fright, and she looked around with interest.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
All the while Roscoe slumped over his horse’s neck, snoring away. They were nearly on the outskirts of Fort Worth before he woke up, and it was not until July handed the prisoners over to the sheriff that he began to feel alive.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
They rode all night, and when the plains got gray they were no more than five miles from Fort Worth. He glanced back at the prisoners and was startled to see the girl, riding behind Roscoe. She looked very young. Her bare legs were as thin as a bird’s. Roscoe was slumped over the horn, asleep, and the girl held the reins. She was also watching the two prisoners, both of whom were plenty wide-awake. July got down and checked Hutto’s knots, which indeed were slipping.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
July had appropriated Hutto’s shotgun, loaded it and put it across his saddle—he assumed it would make the prisoners think twice before starting trouble. His one thought was to get back to Fort Worth, turn the men over and start at once to look for Elmira.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“I don’t intend to spend the night here,” July said. “Has she got a horse?” “No, but she’s quick of foot,” Roscoe said. “She’s been keeping ahead of me without no trouble. Where are we going?” “To Fort Worth,” July said. “The sheriff there will probably be glad to get these men.” “Yes, he will, the son of a bitch,” Hutto said.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“I suspect that girl has Indian blood,” Hutto said. “She had us ambushed, fair and square, and if she was as good with a pistol as she is with a rock we’d be dead.” “What’s the matter with her?” July asked. “Why won’t she come?” “I don’t know,” Roscoe said. “She don’t take to company, I guess.” July thought it a very odd business. Roscoe had never been one to womanize. In fact, around Fort Smith his skill in avoiding various widow women had often been commented on. And yet he had somehow taken up with a girl who could throw rocks more accurately than most men could shoot.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“I never expected to see you right then,” Roscoe said. “Then there you were, pointing that gun.” “This is the main trail to Texas from Fort Smith,” July pointed out. “If I was looking for you that’s where I’d likely be.” “Yeah, but I didn’t know you was looking for me,” Roscoe said. “You don’t usually.” “Peach wrote and told me you was on the way,” July said. It was all the explanation he planned to offer until he could get Roscoe alone.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
He remembered how snug and secure the jail was, back in Fort Smith, how nice it was to come in slightly drunk and have a comfortable couch to lie on. It was a life he fervently wished he had never left.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“Well, I have shot,” Roscoe said. “There ain’t been nobody much to shoot at in Fort Smith. Sometimes July and I shoot at pumpkins, or bottles and things. July’s a good shot, but I’m just fair. I expect I could hit that big fellow but I don’t know about the little one.” “Gimme the pistol, I’ll shoot ’em for you,” Janey said.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“They’re in front of us,” she said. “They got around you while you was poking along.” Roscoe had never felt so at a loss. There was not so much as a tree in sight, and it was a long way back to Fort Smith. He didn’t see how the men could expect to ambush him in the open plain.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
Several times they met soldiers going east toward Fort Smith. The soldiers were a taciturn lot and passed without much talk. Roscoe attempted to inquire about July, but the soldiers made it clear that they had better things to do than keep a lookout for Arkansas sheriffs.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
But the moment had been missed—Wilbarger was already out of sight, and they were still sitting there. July looked depressed, as he had ever since they had left Fort Smith. Finally, without a word, he turned east, back toward Arkansas.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“Thanks for the company,” he said. “I think we better go look for my deputy.” “There’s a perfectly straight trail from Fort Smith into Texas,” Wilbarger said. “Captain Marcy laid it out. If that deputy can’t even stay in a road, I expect you ought to fire him.” Then he loped away without saying goodbye. Joe wished they were going with him. In only a few hours the man had paid him several compliments and had offered to hire him. He found himself feeling resentful both of July and Roscoe. Julydidn’t seem to know what he wanted to do, and as for Roscoe, if he couldn’t stay in a road, then he deserved to be lost.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“Yes, I met a couple,” Wilbarger said. “They were excellent horsethieves themselves. They stole my remuda back from some sly Mexicans. Are you looking for a killer or what?” “Yes, a man named Jake Spoon,” July said. “He killed a dentist in Fort Smith.” Wilbarger tucked his book carefully into his bedroll and tossed the bedroll in the back of the wagon.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“Let’s go,” July said. “I can’t think in all this bustle.” “Ain’t you gonna look for Jake in the saloons?” Joe asked. After all, that was what they had come to Fort Worth to do.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
In fact, July felt he had reached a point in his life where virtually nothing was known. He and Joe were on a street in Fort Worth, and that was basically the sum of his knowledge.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
He looked at Joe, angry with the boy for a moment though he knew it was wrong to be. If Joe had stayed in Fort Smith, Ellie couldn’t have left so easily. Then he remembered that it was Ellie who had insisted that the boy come along. None of it was Joe’s fault.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“Why, yes,” July said again. “I’m surprised you know.” “Oh, just guessing,” the man said. “I think I got a letter for you here somewhere.” July remembered they had told Peach and Charlie they might stop in Fort Worth and try to get wind of Jake and, ofcourse, Elmira. He had only mentioned it—it had never occurred to him that anyone might want to write him. At the thought that the letter might be from Elmira, his heart beat faster. If it was, he intended to ask for his own letter back so he could write her a proper answer.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
It seemed to Joe that they rode past about fifty saloons, looking for the post office. Fort Smith only had three saloons and one livery stable, whereas Fort Worth had a big wagon yard and stores galore. They even met a small herd of wild-looking longhorn cattle being driven right through the streets by four equally wild-looking cowboys. The cattle, for all their wild looks, behaved so well that they didn’t get to see the cowboys actually rope one, a sight Joe longed to see.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“I’m glad there’s some left,” he said. “I know the hide hunters have about killed them off.” Late that day they rode into Fort Worth. The number of houses amazed Joe, and the wide, dusty streets were filled with wagons and buggies. July decided they ought to go to the post office first, though at the last minute he became so worried about his letter that he almost decided not to mail it. He wanted badly to mail it, and yet he didn’t want to.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
Joe himself was happy enough to be gone from Fort Smith, though he missed Roscoe somewhat. Otherwise he took a lively interest in the sights along the way, though for a while the sights consisted mostly of trees. Gradually they began to get out into more open country. One day, to his delight, they surprised a small bunch of buffalo, only eight animals. The buffalo ran off, and he and July raced after them for a while to get a better look. After a couple of miles they came to a little river and they stopped to watch the buffalo cross. Even July forgot his gloom for a few minutes at the sight of the big, dusty animals.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇
“I bet she’ll be glad to get the letter,” Joe said, to cheer July up. July had been nothing but gloomy since they left Fort Smith.
>> Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇