Part 4 (1/2)
Then John Pride stirred in his arms and showed signs of returning consciousness. The young man laid the financier on the soft gra.s.s and watched until his eyes opened.
”Are you feeling better? Is there anything I can do?”
John Pride smiled feebly as he raised himself with the younger man's aid. ”I'm afraid this has been more strenuous than I bargained for. If I'd known what would transpire I would have kept myself in better condition.”
”But you feel better now?”
”Yes. If you will be so good as to help me to my car, I'll be all right.”
”Certainly. Your car--?”
”A means of conveyance that will take me back to the city. It stands but a few yards down the road beyond the gate.”
A short time later, the two men stood at the place that was to be the parting of their ways. Both sensed this and Pride held out his hand.
The younger man grasped it firmly.
”G.o.dspeed to you, my friend,” John Pride said. ”I fear I can help you no further but if there is ever a time when my services are needed, I will be waiting for your command.”
”Thank you. Whatever befalls me I will always remember you as the first friend I ever set eyes upon in this world.”
With that, John Pride turned his car and drove off down the winding road. As he left, the younger man realized the older man had said nothing of the dead ancient in the great hall but realized it was because of the strain Pride had suffered. The man was still somewhat dazed from the shock of the fire.
He turned and walked slowly back toward the mansion until he stood again in the great front yard. There he stopped and stood looking up at the sun as it topped the hill east of the mansion.
”Who am I?” he asked himself. ”Why was I given knowledge but not all the knowledge necessary to intelligently pursue my destiny? In my heart there is a certainty that I am an educated man. I am aware of the fact that there are different groups of people who speak different languages and I know I will be able to converse with any I meet.
”I know that there are planets and stars and moons and I know what is to be known of the universe. But where is the exact personal knowledge that would help me in my dealings with the future? Why was I left here carefully tended and provided for these hundred years only to be hurled suddenly upon my own?”
He walked slowly into the great hall and knelt beside the still figure on the floor. A feeling of compa.s.sion stirred him but there was no warmth of recognition, no personal sorrow as a result of the ancient's death.
”Have I ever seen you before?” he asked softly. ”Were you--Portox?”
The dead one did not answer and the young man lifted him and took him from the hall and buried him. He could find no tools to dig the soil but located a hole that had once been a shallow well. He dropped the body therein and followed it with stones until the hole was filled. He did this with no sense of callousness but rather with an impersonal reverence he instinctively felt but could not a.n.a.lyze.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The cryptic verse had become a visual symbol in Bram's mind.]
Returning slowly to the front yard, he pondered the dimension of time. How, he wondered, could John Pride's line have gone through three sires to John Pride, the last of the males, while he himself lay for one hundred years to emerge in his obvious prime? Or perhaps even on the near side of his prime.
He pondered this and other points until his mind grew weary from unanswered questions and turned to things of the moment.
”I know not what my destiny is but at least I am able to have a name.
What shall it be?”
He remembered the one Portox had used--C. D. Bram. ”Bram,” he said.
”That I like.” But the C. D. meant nothing to him and Bram seemed somehow incomplete.