Fall; or, Dodge in Hell - Neal Stephenson Page 0,275

straighten it, and as Feller pointed out several times, it caused them to lose time as the river pushed them back. So Adam learned to sense what Bluff was doing and to match him pull for pull. As the morning wore on Bluff seemed to tire and slackened his pace, and Adam did likewise so as to keep the boat straight.

Before noon they arrived at a place where the stump lands gave way to forest, and there they drew the boat up on the bank, climbed out, and went to work with their axes. Or at least that was true of everyone except for Feller. He spent a while walking to and fro on the bank of the river, gazing intently at the ground. “Thunk and his lot have been here,” he said, “I see his big footprints.”

Adam went to work cutting down a tree that seemed of a good size to him until Feller told him to attack a larger one instead. So into that one Adam began to swing his axe, but found it did not bite as well as it might have. Testing its edge he found that it was dull. Not far away Edger was making much speedier progress cutting down a smaller tree. Adam asked her whether he might have the use of a whetstone from her pouch. She invited him to wander at hazard into the deep forest and be eaten by wolves—a prospect that seemed to amuse her very much. So Adam went down to the bank of the river and found a suitable rock. Feller came over to him and inquired as to why he was not applying himself to his assigned task. Adam explained matters. Feller took the axe and tested its edge and was displeased. “Edger!” he shouted, despite knowing exactly where she was, for she was in plain sight not far away. But he continued to call her name until she had come over to him. Then he rebuked her. Adam was some distance off, whetting the tool with his river rock, and the sound of the rushing water made it difficult for him to understand the words they exchanged. But their tone could not be misunderstood. The discussion went on for some little while before Feller drew his arm across his body and then whipped it back, striking Edger on the cheek with such force that she spun away and fell to the ground.

It was not the first violence that Adam had witnessed, for workers along the river sometimes fell to it. But the violence of Feller seemed of a different nature; like all else that Feller did, it appeared to spring not from passion but from careful forethought. Adam looked up to the edge of the forest and saw Bluff emerging. Seeing how it was, Bluff neither rebuked Feller nor came to Edger’s aid, but rather seemed to shrink into himself.

Later in the day, as Adam, weary from many hours of rowing and chopping, stood back from his work to take a moment’s rest, he heard the sharp popping and splintering of a tree giving way. He looked up to see a tree falling directly toward him. He stepped clear of it and received a blow from one of its branches, which drew blood from his shoulder but did not hurt him otherwise.

Later in the day Feller let them all know that it was time to cease work and get back into the boat, and so they marked the logs that they had dragged down to the bank and then pushed the boat into the current and climbed aboard. Travel downstream required less of the rowers, and so smaller members of the crew took turns at the oars while Adam and Bluff rested.

Ever since the moment when Feller had struck Edger in the face, and Bluff, witnessing it, had only hung his head and slunk away, Bluff had seemed diminished to Adam. Edger likewise had taken leave of the pride and the haughty manner that she had shown toward Adam earlier in the day. One side of her face was misshapen and discolored; when she dared to meet Adam’s eye, she only looked at him sidelong.

Eve asked Adam about the wound on his shoulder when at last he returned to their cabin that night, weary to the bone. He began to relate the story, but seeing its effect on her emotions, changed it in the telling so that it would not cause her so much distress. He