The Scarlet Plague

I

I

The way led along upon what had once been the embankment of a railroad. But no train had run upon it for many years. The forest on either side swelled up the slopes of the embankment and crested across it in a green wave of trees and bushes. The trail was as narrow as a man’s body, and was no more than a wild-animal runway. Occasionally, a piece of rusty iron, showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the ties still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at a connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie had evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough for its bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the crumbling, rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the road was, it was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type.

その道は、かつて鉄道の路盤だった盛り土の上を通っていた。だが、もう何年も列車は走っていない。両側の森は盛り土の斜面にまで広がり、木々と茂みが緑の波となって、その頂を越えて押し寄せていた。踏み跡は人の体ほどの幅しかなく、野生動物が通る道にすぎなかった。ときおり、腐葉土の間から錆びた鉄がのぞき、レールと枕木がまだ残っていることを告げている。ある場所では、直径十インチの木が継ぎ目を突き破り、レールの端を持ち上げて、はっきりと見えるようにしていた。枕木も明らかにレールに引きずられたらしい。犬釘でレールにつながれたまま、その下の床が砂利と腐った落ち葉で埋まるまで持ちこたえ、今では朽ちかけた木材が奇妙な角度で突き出していた。この線路は古いものだったが、単軌式だったことは明らかだった。

An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe of stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large leaf, shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of his feet on the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white but which showed the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, fell nearly to his waist in a great tangled mass. About his chest and shoulders hung a single, mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, withered and skinny, betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn and scars and scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements.

一人の老人と一人の少年が、この踏み跡をたどっていた。二人の歩みは遅かった。老人はたいへんな高齢で、軽い麻痺のために動きが震え、杖に重くもたれかかっていたからだ。頭にはヤギの皮で作った粗末な縁なし帽をかぶり、日差しをよけていた。その下からは、汚れてくすんだ白髪がまばらに垂れている。大きな葉でうまく作った庇が目を覆い、その下から老人は足もとの道をのぞき込んでいた。本来なら雪のように白いはずのひげも、髪と同じく風雨にさらされ、野営の汚れがしみついていて、もつれた大きな塊となって腰近くまで垂れていた。胸と肩には、毛の抜けたヤギ皮の衣が一枚かかっているだけだった。腕も脚も干からびて痩せ細り、極度の高齢を物語っていた。日焼けと傷跡とひっかき傷もまた、長年風雨にさらされてきたことを示していた。

The boy, who led the way, checking the eagerness of his muscles to the slow progress of the elder, likewise wore a single garment—a ragged-edged piece of bear-skin, with a hole in the middle through which he had thrust his head. He could not have been more than twelve years old. Tucked coquettishly over one ear was the freshly severed tail of a pig. In one hand he carried a medium-sized bow and an arrow.

少年は先に立ち、はやる筋肉を抑えて老人ののろい歩みに合わせていた。彼もやはり一枚きりの衣をまとっていた。熊の皮の切れ端で、縁はぼろぼろ、真ん中に開けた穴から頭を出している。十二歳にはなっていなかっただろう。片方の耳の上には、切り取ったばかりの豚のしっぽが気取った様子で挟まれていた。片手には中ぐらいの弓と一本の矢を持っていた。

On his back was a quiverful of arrows. From a sheath hanging about his neck on a thong, projected the battered handle of a hunting knife. He was as brown as a berry, and walked softly, with almost a catlike tread. In marked contrast with his sunburned skin were his eyes—blue, deep blue, but keen and sharp as a pair of gimlets. They seemed to bore into aft about him in a way that was habitual. As he went along he smelled things, as well, his distended, quivering nostrils carrying to his brain an endless series of messages from the outside world. Also, his hearing was acute, and had been so trained that it operated automatically. Without conscious effort, he heard all the slight sounds in the apparent quiet—heard, and differentiated, and classified these sounds—whether they were of the wind rustling the leaves, of the humming of bees and gnats, of the distant rumble of the sea that drifted to him only in lulls, or of the gopher, just under his foot, shoving a pouchful of earth into the entrance of his hole.

背中には矢のぎっしり入った矢筒があった。首からひもで下げた鞘からは、使い込まれた狩猟用ナイフの柄が突き出ている。少年は木の実のように褐色に日焼けし、ほとんど猫のような足取りで音もなく歩いた。日焼けした肌と著しい対照をなしていたのが目だった。青い、深い青色で、錐のように鋭かった。その目は、いつものことのように、周囲のあらゆるものに突き刺さるかに見えた。歩きながら、少年は匂いも嗅いでいた。広がってひくつく鼻孔が、外の世界からの知らせを絶え間なく脳へ送り込んでいた。聴覚もまた鋭く、自然に働くまでに鍛えられていた。意識して努力しなくても、一見静かな中のかすかな音をすべて聞き分け、区別し、分類していた。風が葉を揺らす音であれ、蜂や小さな虫の羽音であれ、静まった合間にだけ届く遠い海のとどろきであれ、すぐ足もとでホリネズミが袋いっぱいの土を巣穴の入り口に押し込む音であれ、同じことだった。