CHAPTER XXIV. DOCTOR BYRNE LOOKS INTO THE PAST CAPÍTULO XXIV. DOUTOR BYRNE OLHA PARA O PASSADO 第二十四章。伯恩医生回顾过去

The black head of Barry, the brown head of Randall Byrne, the golden head of Kate Cumberland, were all bowed around the limp body of Black Bart. Buck Daniels, still gasping for breath, stood reeling nearby. Buck Daniels, ainda ofegante, cambaleava ali perto.

"Let me attempt to resuscitate the animal," offered the doctor. He was met by a blank look from Barry. Ele foi recebido por um olhar vazio de Barry. The hair of the man was scorched, his skin was blistered and burned. O cabelo do homem estava queimado, sua pele estava cheia de bolhas e queimada. Only his hands remained uninjured, and these continued to move over the body of the great dog. Kate Cumberland was on her knees over the brute. Kate Cumberland estava de joelhos sobre o bruto.

"Is it fatal, Dan?" she asked. "Is there no hope for Bart?" There was no answer from Barry, and she attempted to raise the fallen, lifeless head of the animal; but instantly a strong arm darted out and brushed her hands away. Não houve resposta de Barry, e ela tentou levantar a cabeça caída e sem vida do animal; mas instantaneamente um braço forte disparou e afastou suas mãos. Those hands fell idly at her sides and her head went back as though she had been struck across the face. Aquelas mãos caíram preguiçosamente em seus lados e sua cabeça foi para trás como se ela tivesse sido atingida no rosto. She found herself looking up into the angry eyes of Randall Byrne. Ela se viu olhando nos olhos raivosos de Randall Byrne. He reached down and raised her to her feet; there was no colour in her face, no life in her limbs. Ele se abaixou e a levantou; não havia cor em seu rosto, nenhuma vida em seus membros.

"There's nothing more to be done here, apparently," said the doctor coldly. "Suppose we take your father and go back to the house." "Suponha que levemos seu pai e voltemos para casa." She made neither assent nor dissent. Ela não concordou nem discordou. Dan Barry had finished a swift, deft bandage and stopped the bleeding of the dog's wounds. Dan Barry havia terminado um curativo rápido e hábil e estancou o sangramento das feridas do cachorro. Now he raised his head and his glance slipped rapidly over the faces of the doctor and the girl and rested on Buck Daniels. There was no flash of kindly thanks, no word of recognition. Não houve nenhum lampejo de agradecimento gentil, nenhuma palavra de reconhecimento. His right hand raised to his cheek, and rested there, and in his eyes came that flare of yellow hate. Sua mão direita levantou para sua bochecha, e descansou lá, e em seus olhos veio aquele clarão de ódio amarelo. Buck Daniels shrank back until he was lost in the crowd. Buck Daniels encolheu-se até se perder na multidão. Then he turned and stumbled back towards the house. Então ele se virou e cambaleou de volta para a casa.

Instantly, Barry began to work at expanding and depressing the lungs of the huge animal as he might have worked to bring a man back to life. Instantaneamente, Barry começou a trabalhar para expandir e deprimir os pulmões do enorme animal como ele poderia ter trabalhado para trazer um homem de volta à vida.

"Watch him!" whispered the doctor to Kate Cumberland. "He is closer to that dog—that wolf, it looks like—than he has ever been to any human being!" "Ele está mais perto daquele cachorro — daquele lobo, parece — do que jamais esteve de qualquer ser humano!" She would not answer, but she turned her head quickly away from the man and his beast.

"Are you afraid to watch?" challenged Byrne, for his anger at Barry's blunt refusals still made his blood hot. desafiou Byrne, pois sua raiva pelas recusas contundentes de Barry ainda fazia seu sangue esquentar. "When your father lay at death's door was he half so anxious as he is now? "Quando seu pai estava às portas da morte, ele estava tão ansioso quanto está agora? Did he work so hard, by half? Ele trabalhou tanto, pela metade? See how his eyes are fixed on the muzzle of the beast as if he were studying a human face!" Veja como seus olhos estão fixos no focinho da fera como se estivesse estudando um rosto humano!" "No, no!" breathed the girl. respirou a menina.

"I fell you, look!" "Eu te derrubei, olhe!" commanded the doctor. "For there's the solution of the mystery. No mystery at all. Barry is simply a man who is closer akin to the brute forces in nature. Barry é simplesmente um homem que está mais próximo das forças brutas da natureza. See! By the eternal heavens, he's dragging that beast—that dumb beast—back from the door of death!" Pelos céus eternos, ele está arrastando aquela besta - aquela besta burra - de volta da porta da morte!" Barry had ceased his rapid manipulations, and turned the big dog back upon its side. Barry cessou suas manipulações rápidas e virou o grande cachorro de lado. Now the eyes of Black Bart opened, and winked shut again. Agora os olhos de Black Bart se abriram e se fecharam novamente. Now the master kneeled at the head of the beast and took the scarred, shaggy head between his hands. Agora o mestre se ajoelhou na cabeça da fera e pegou a cabeça desgrenhada e cheia de cicatrizes entre as mãos.

"Bart!" he commanded.

Not a stir in the long, black body. The stallion edged a pace closer, dropped his velvet muzzle, and whinnied softly at the very ear of the dog. O garanhão deu um passo mais perto, baixou o focinho de veludo e relinchou baixinho bem na orelha do cachorro. Still, there was not an answering quiver. Ainda assim, não houve um tremor de resposta.

"Bart!" called the man again, and there was a ring of wild grief—of fear—in his cry.

"Do you hear?" said Byrne savagely, at the ear of the girl. disse Byrne selvagemente, ao ouvido da garota. "Did you ever use such a tone with a human being? Ever?" "Take me away!" "Tire-me daqui!" she murmured. "I'm sick—sick at heart. "Estou doente - doente no coração. Take me away!" Indeed, she was scarcely sure of her poise, and tottered where she stood. Na verdade, ela mal tinha certeza de seu equilíbrio e cambaleou onde estava. Doctor Byrne slipped his arm about her and led her away, supporting half her weight. O Dr. Byrne passou o braço em volta dela e a levou para longe, suportando metade de seu peso. They went slowly, by small, soft steps, towards the house, and before they reached it, he knew that she was weeping. Eles foram devagar, a passos pequenos e suaves, em direção à casa, e antes que a alcançassem, ele sabia que ela estava chorando. But if there was sadness in Byrne, there was also a great joy. He was afire, for there is a flamelike quality in hope. Ele estava em chamas, pois há uma qualidade flamejante na esperança. Loss of blood and the stifling smoke, rather than a mortal injury or the touch of fire, had brought Black Bart close to death, but now that his breathing was restored, and almost normal, he gained rapidly. A perda de sangue e a fumaça sufocante, em vez de um ferimento mortal ou o toque de fogo, levaram Black Bart à beira da morte, mas agora que sua respiração estava restaurada, e quase normal, ele ganhou rapidamente. One instant he lingered on the border between life and death; the next, the brute's eyes opened and glittered with dim recognition up towards Dan, and he licked the hand which supported his head. Num instante ele se deteve na fronteira entre a vida e a morte; no momento seguinte, os olhos do bruto se abriram e brilharam com um fraco reconhecimento na direção de Dan, e ele lambeu a mão que sustentava sua cabeça. At Dan's direction, a blanket was brought, and after Dan had lifted Black Bart upon it, four men raised the corners of the blanket and carried the burden towards the house. Por ordem de Dan, um cobertor foi trazido e, depois que Dan levantou Black Bart sobre ele, quatro homens ergueram as pontas do cobertor e carregaram o fardo em direção à casa. One of the cowpunchers went ahead bearing the light. This was the sight which Doctor Byrne and Kate Cumberland saw from the veranda of the ranch-house as they turned and looked back before going in. Esta foi a visão que o doutor Byrne e Kate Cumberland viram da varanda da casa da fazenda quando se viraram e olharam para trás antes de entrar.

"A funeral procession," suggested the doctor. "Um cortejo fúnebre", sugeriu o médico. "No," she answered positively. "If Black Bart were dead, Dan wouldn't allow any hands save his own to touch the body. "Se Black Bart estivesse morto, Dan não permitiria que nenhuma mão, exceto a sua, tocasse o corpo. No, Black Bart is alive! Yet, it's impossible." No entanto, é impossível." The word "impossible," however, was gradually dropping from the vocabulary of Randall Byrne. True, the wolf-dog had seemed dead past recovery and across the eyes of Byrne came a vision of the dead rising from their graves. É verdade que o cão-lobo parecia morto após a recuperação e através dos olhos de Byrne veio uma visão dos mortos se levantando de seus túmulos. Yet he merely shook his head and said nothing. No entanto, ele apenas balançou a cabeça e não disse nada.

"Ah!" she broke in. ela invadiu. "Look!" The procession drew nearer, heading towards the back of the big house, and now they saw that Dan Barry walked beside the body of Black Bart, a smile on his lifted face. They disappeared behind the back of the house.

Byrne heard the girl murmuring, more to herself than to him: "Once he was like that all the time." Byrne ouviu a garota murmurar, mais para si mesma do que para ele: "Uma vez ele era assim o tempo todo." "Like what?" he asked bluntly. ele perguntou sem rodeios.

She paused, and then her hand dropped lightly on his arm. He could not see more than a vague outline of her in the night, only the dull glimmer of her face as she turned her head, and the faint whiteness of her hand. Ele não podia ver mais do que um vago contorno dela na noite, apenas o brilho opaco de seu rosto quando ela virou a cabeça, e a brancura fraca de sua mão.

"Let's say good-night," she answered, at length. "Vamos dizer boa noite", ela respondeu, finalmente. "Our little worlds have toppled about our heads to-night—all your theories, it seems, and, God knows, all that I have hoped. "Nossos pequenos mundos caíram sobre nossas cabeças esta noite - todas as suas teorias, ao que parece, e, Deus sabe, tudo o que eu esperava. Why should we stay here and make ourselves miserable by talk?" Por que deveríamos ficar aqui e nos tornarmos miseráveis conversando?" "But because we have failed," he said steadily, "is that a reason we should creep off and brood over our failure in silence? “Mas porque nós falhamos,” ele disse firmemente, “essa é uma razão pela qual devemos nos arrastar e meditar sobre nosso fracasso em silêncio? No, let's talk it out, man to man." Não, vamos conversar, de homem para homem." "You have a fine courage," said the girl. "But what is there we can say?" He answered: "For my part, I am not so miserable as you think. Ele respondeu: "De minha parte, não sou tão infeliz quanto você pensa. For I feel as if this night had driven us closer together, you see; and I've caught a perspective on everything that has happened here." "Tell me what you know." "Only what I think I know. It may be painful to hear." "I'm very used to pain." "Well, a moment ago, when Barry was walking beside his dog, smiling, you murmured that he once was like that always. It gave me light. So I'd say that there was a time when Dan Barry lived here with you and your father. Am I right?" "Yes, for years and years." "And in those times he was not greatly different from other men. "E naquela época ele não era muito diferente dos outros homens. Not on the surface." "No." "You came to be very fond of him." "Você passou a gostar muito dele." "We were to marry," answered Kate Cumberland, and Byrne winced. "Nós deveríamos nos casar", respondeu Kate Cumberland, e Byrne estremeceu. He went on: "Then something happened—suddenly—that took him away from you, and you did not see him again until to-night. Am I right?" "Yes. I thought you must have heard the story—from the outside. I'll tell you the truth. My father found Dan Barry wandering across the hills years ago. He was riding home over the range and he heard a strange and beautiful whistling, and when he looked up he saw on the western ridge, walking against the sky, a tattered figure of a boy. Ele estava cavalgando para casa sobre a cordilheira e ouviu um assobio estranho e bonito, e quando olhou para cima viu no cume ocidental, caminhando contra o céu, uma figura esfarrapada de um menino. He rode up and asked the boy his name. He learned it was Dan Barry—Whistling Dan, he was called. Ele descobriu que era Dan Barry — Whistling Dan, como era chamado. But the boy could not, or would not, tell how he came to be there in the middle of the range without a horse. Mas o menino não soube, ou não quis, dizer como foi parar ali no meio da serra sem cavalo. He merely said that he came from 'over there,' and waved his hand to the south and east. That was all. He didn't seem to be alarmed because he was alone, and yet he apparently knew nothing of the country; he was lost in this terrible country where a man could wander for days without finding a house, and yet the boy was whistling as he walked! So Dad took him home and sent out letters all about—to the railroad in particular—to find out if such a boy was missing. Então papai o levou para casa e mandou cartas por toda parte — especialmente para a ferrovia — para descobrir se aquele menino estava desaparecido.

"He received no answer. In the meantime he gave Dan a room in the house; and I remember how Dan sat at the table the first night—I was a very little girl then—and how I laughed at his strange way of eating. Enquanto isso, ele deu a Dan um quarto na casa; e eu me lembro de como Dan se sentou à mesa na primeira noite — eu era uma garotinha na época — e como eu ri do seu jeito estranho de comer. His knife was the only thing he was interested in and he made it serve for knife, fork, and spoon, and he held the meat in his fingers while he cut it. Sua faca era a única coisa em que ele estava interessado e ele a fez servir de faca, garfo e colher, e ele segurou a carne em seus dedos enquanto a cortava. The next morning he was missing. Na manhã seguinte, ele estava desaparecido. One of Dad's range riders picked up Dan several miles to the north, walking along, whistling gayly. Um dos patrulheiros do meu pai pegou Dan vários quilômetros ao norte, caminhando, assobiando alegremente. The next morning he was missing again and was caught still farther away. After that Dad had a terrible scene with him—I don't know exactly what happened—but Dan promised to run away no more, and ever since then Dad has been closer to Dan than anyone else. "So Dan grew up. From the time I could first distinctly remember, he was very gentle and good-natured, but he was different, always. Desde a primeira vez que me lembro claramente, ele era muito gentil e bem-humorado, mas ele era diferente, sempre. After a while he got Black Bart, you know, and then he went out with a halter and captured Satan. Depois de um tempo ele pegou Black Bart, você sabe, e então ele saiu com um cabresto e capturou Satanás. Think of capturing a wild mustang with nothing but a halter! He played around with them so much that I was jealous of them. So I kept with them until Bart and Satan were rather used to me. Então eu continuei com eles até que Bart e Satan estivessem bastante acostumados comigo. Bart would even play with me now and then when Dan wasn't near. And so finally Dan and I were to be married. E então, finalmente, Dan e eu nos casaríamos.

"Dad didn't like the idea. He was afraid of what Dan might become. And he was right. One day, in a saloon that used to stand on that hill over there, Dan had a fight—his first fight—with a man who had struck him across the mouth for no good reason. Um dia, em um bar que ficava naquela colina ali, Dan brigou — sua primeira briga — com um homem que o havia golpeado na boca sem motivo aparente. That man was Jim Silent. Of course you've heard of him?" "Never." "He was a famous long-rider—an outlaw with a very black record. "Ele era um famoso long-rider - um fora-da-lei com uma ficha muito negra. At the end of that fight he struck Dan down with a chair and escaped. I went down to Dan when I heard of the fight—Black Bart led me down, to be exact—but Dan would not come back to the house, and he'd have no more to do with anyone until he had found Jim Silent. Fui até Dan quando soube da briga — Black Bart me levou para baixo, para ser exato —, mas Dan não voltou para a casa e não teria mais nada a ver com ninguém até encontrar Jim Silent. I can't tell you everything that happened. Finally he caught Jim Silent and killed him—with his bare hands. Buck Daniels saw it. Then Dan came back to us, but on the first night he began to grow restless. It was last Fall—the wild geese were flying south—and while they were honking in the sky Dan got up, said good-bye, and left us. Foi no outono passado — os gansos selvagens estavam voando para o sul — e, enquanto buzinavam no céu, Dan se levantou, disse adeus e nos deixou. We have never seen him again until to-night. All we knew was that he had ridden south—after the wild geese." Tudo o que sabíamos era que ele havia cavalgado para o sul — atrás dos gansos selvagens." A long silence fell between them, for the doctor was thinking hard.

"And when he came back," he said, "Barry did not know you? I mean you were nothing to him?" "You were there," said the girl, faintly. "Você estava lá", disse a garota, fracamente. "It is perfectly clear," said Byrne. "If it were a little more commonplace it might be puzzling, but being so extraordinary it clears itself up. "Se fosse um pouco mais comum, poderia ser intrigante, mas sendo tão extraordinário, se esclarece. Did you really expect the dog, the wolf-dog, Black Bart, to remember you?" "I may have expected it." "Eu posso ter esperado isso." "But you were not surprised, of course!" "Naturally not." "Yet you see that Dan Barry—Whistling Dan, you call him—was closer to Black Bart than he was to you?" "No entanto, você vê que Dan Barry - Whistling Dan, como você o chama - estava mais perto de Black Bart do que de você?" "Why should I see that?" "Por que eu deveria ver isso?" "You watched him a moment ago when he was leaning over the dog." "Você o observou um momento atrás, quando ele estava debruçado sobre o cachorro." He watched her draw her dressing gown closer about her, as though the cold bit more keenly then. Ele a observou puxar o roupão para mais perto dela, como se o frio estivesse mais forte.

She said simply: "Yes, I saw." "Don't you see that he is simply more in tune with the animal world? And it's really no more reasonable to expect Black Bart to remember you than it is to expect Dan Barry to remember you? E não é mais razoável esperar que Black Bart se lembre de você do que esperar que Dan Barry se lembre de você? It's quite plain. When you go back to the beginning man was simply an animal, without the higher senses, as we call them. Quando você volta ao início, o homem era simplesmente um animal, sem os sentidos superiores, como os chamamos. He was simply a brute, living in trees or in caves. Afterwards he grew into the thing we all know. But why not imagine a throw-back into the earlier instincts? Mas por que não imaginar um retorno aos instintos anteriores? Why not imagine the creature devoid of the impulses of mind, the thing which we call man, and see the splendid animal? Por que não imaginar a criatura desprovida dos impulsos da mente, a coisa que chamamos de homem, e ver o esplêndido animal? You saw in Dan Barry simply a biological sport—the freak—the thing which retraces the biological progress and comes close to the primitive. Você viu em Dan Barry simplesmente um esporte biológico – a aberração – a coisa que refaz o progresso biológico e se aproxima do primitivo. But of course you could not realise this. He seemed a man, and you accepted him as a man. In reality he was no more a man than Black Bart is a man. He had the face and form of a man, but his instincts were as old as the ages. Ele tinha o rosto e a forma de um homem, mas seus instintos eram tão antigos quanto as eras. The animal world obeys him. Satan neighs in answer to his whistle. Satanás relinchou em resposta ao seu apito. The wolf-dog licks his hand at the point of death. There is the profound difference, always. Há a profunda diferença, sempre. You try to reconcile him with other men; you give him the attributes of other men. Você tenta reconciliá-lo com outros homens; você dá a ele os atributos de outros homens. Open your eyes; see the truth: that he is no more akin to man than Black Bart is like a man. And when you give him your affection, Miss Cumberland, you are giving your affection to a wild wolf! Do you believe me?" He knew that she was shaken. Ele sabia que ela estava abalada. He could feel it, even without the testimony of his eyes to witness. Ele podia sentir, mesmo sem o testemunho de seus olhos para testemunhar. He went on, speaking with great rapidity, lest she should escape from the influence which he had already gained over her. Ele continuou, falando com grande rapidez, para que ela não escapasse da influência que ele já havia conquistado sobre ela.

"I felt it when I first saw him—a certain nameless kinship with elemental forces. "Senti isso quando o vi pela primeira vez - um certo parentesco sem nome com as forças elementais. The wind blew through the open door—it was Dan Barry. The wild geese called from the open sky—for Dan Barry. Os gansos selvagens gritaram do céu aberto — por Dan Barry. These are the things which lead him. These the forces which direct him. You have loved him; but is love merely a giving? Você o amou; mas o amor é apenas uma doação? No, you have seen in him a man, but I see in him merely the animal force." She said after a moment: "Do you hate him—you plead against him so passionately?" Ela disse depois de um momento: "Você o odeia - você pleiteia contra ele tão apaixonadamente?" He answered: "Can you hate a thing which is not human? No, but you can dread it. It escapes from the laws which bind you and which bind me. Ela escapa às leis que te prendem e que me prendem. What standards govern it? How can you hope to win it? Love? What beauty is there in the world to appeal to such a creature except the beauty of the marrow-bone which his teeth have the strength to snap?" Que beleza há no mundo para atrair tal criatura, exceto a beleza da medula óssea que seus dentes têm a força de quebrar?” "Ah, listen!" murmured the girl. "Here is your answer!" And Doctor Randall Byrne heard a sound like the muted music of the violin, thin and small and wonderfully penetrating. E o doutor Randall Byrne ouviu um som como a música abafada do violino, fina e pequena e maravilhosamente penetrante. He could not tell, at first, what it might be. Ele não poderia dizer, a princípio, o que poderia ser. For it was as unlike the violin as it was like the bow and the rosined strings. Then he made out, surely, that it was the whistling of a human being.

It followed no tune, no reasoned theme. Não seguia nenhuma melodia, nenhum tema raciocinado. The music was beautiful in its own self. A música era linda em si mesma. It rose straight up like the sky-lark from the ground, sheer up against the white light of the sky, and there it sang against heaven's gate. Ergueu-se como a cotovia do chão, escarpada contra a luz branca do céu, e ali cantou contra o portão do céu. He had never heard harmony like it. He would never again hear such music, so thin and yet so full that it went through and through him, until he felt the strains take a new, imitative life within him. Ele nunca mais ouviria tal música, tão fina e ao mesmo tempo tão cheia que o atravessava e atravessava, até que sentiu as cordas tomarem uma nova vida imitativa dentro dele. He would have whistled the strains himself, but he could not follow them. Ele próprio teria assobiado os acordes, mas não podia segui-los. They escaped him, they soared above him. Eles escaparam dele, eles voaram acima dele. They followed no law or rhythm. They flew on wings and left him far below. The girl moved away from him as if led by an invisible hand, and now she stood at the extremity of the porch. A garota se afastou dele como se fosse conduzida por uma mão invisível, e agora estava na extremidade da varanda. He followed her.

"Do you hear?" she cried, turning to him. ela gritou, virando-se para ele.

"What is it?" asked the doctor.

"It is he! Don't you understand?" "Barry? Yes! But what does the whistling mean; is it for his wolf-dog?" "I don't know," she answered quickly. "All I understand is that it is beautiful. Where are your theories and explanations now, Doctor Byrne? ". "It is beautiful—God knows!—but doesn't the wolf-dog understand it better than either you or I?" She turned and faced Byrne, standing very close, and when she spoke there was something in her voice which was like a light. In spite of the dark he could guess at every varying shade of her expression. Apesar da escuridão, ele podia adivinhar cada tom variado de sua expressão.

"To the rest of us," she murmured, "Dan has nothing but silence, and hardly a glance. "Para o resto de nós", ela murmurou, "Dan não tem nada além de silêncio, e dificilmente um olhar. Buck saved his life to-night, and yet Dan remembered nothing except the blow which had been struck. Buck salvou sua vida esta noite, mas Dan não se lembrava de nada, exceto do golpe que havia recebido. And now—now he pours out all the music in his soul for a dumb beast. E agora - agora ele despeja toda a música em sua alma para uma besta burra. Listen!" He saw her straighten herself and stand taller. Ele a viu se endireitar e ficar mais alta.

"Then through the wolf—I'll conquer through the dumb beast!" "Então através do lobo - eu vencerei através da besta muda!" She whipped past Byrne and disappeared into the house; at the same instant the whistling, in the midst of a faint, high climax, broke, shivered, and was ended. Ela passou por Byrne e desapareceu na casa; no mesmo instante, o assobio, em meio a um clímax alto e fraco, quebrou, estremeceu e terminou. There was only the darkness and the silence around Byrne, and the unsteady wind against his face. Havia apenas a escuridão e o silêncio ao redor de Byrne, e o vento instável contra seu rosto.