Part 30 (1/2)
The big man still gripped him and held him with his face toward the darkness. ”Tell me what you see,” he commanded.
Still Harry moaned, and sank upon his knees. ”Lord, forgive, forgive!”
”Tell me what you see,” Larry still commanded. He would try to break up this vision seeing.
”G.o.d! It is the eye. It follows me. It is gone.” He heaved a great sigh of relief, but still remained upon his knees, quivering and weak.
”Did you see it? You must have seen it.”
”I saw nothing, and you saw nothing. It's in your brain, and your brain is sick. You must heal it. You must stop it. Stand now, and conquer it.”
Harry stood, s.h.i.+vering. ”I wanted to end it. It would have been so easy, and all over so soon,” he murmured.
”And you would die a coward, and so add one more crime to the first.
You'd s.h.i.+rk a duty, and desert those who need you. You'd leave me in the lurch, and those women dependent on me--wake up--”
”I'm awake. Let's go away.” Harry put his hand to his forehead and wiped away the cold drops that stood out like glistening beads of blood in the red light of the torch.
Larry grieved for him, in spite of the harshness of his words and tone, and taking him by the elbow, he led him kindly back into the pa.s.sage.
”Don't trouble about me now,” Harry said at last. ”You've given me a thought to clutch to--if you really do need me--if I could believe it.”
”Well, you may! Didn't you say you'd do for me more than sons do for their fathers? I ask you to do just that for me. Live for me. It's a hard thing to ask of you, for, as you say, the other would be easier, but it's a coward's way. Don't let it tempt you. Stand to your guns like a man, and if the time comes and you can't see things differently, go back and make your confession and die the death--as a brave man should. Meantime, live to some purpose and do it cheerfully.” Larry paused. His words sank in, as he meant they should.
He guided Harry slowly back to the place from which they had diverged, his arm across the younger man's shoulder.
”Now I've more to show you. When I saw what I had done, I set myself to find another vein, and see this large room? I groveled all about here, this way and that. A year of this, see. It took patience, and in the meantime I went out into the world--as far as San Francisco, and wasted a year or more; then back I came.
”I tell you there is a lure in the gold, and the mountains are powers of peace to a man. It seemed there was no other place where I could rest in peace of mind. The longing for my son was on me,--but the war still raged, and I had no mind for that,--yet I was glad my boy was taking his part in the world out of which I had dropped. For one thing it seemed as if he were more my own than if he lived in Leauvite on the banker's bounty. I would not go back there and meet the contempt of Peter Craigmile, for he never could forget that I had taken his sister out of hand, and she gone--man--it was all too sad. How did I know how my son had been taught to think on me? I could not go back when I would.
”His name was Richard--my boy's. If he came alive from the army I do not know,--See? Here is where I found another vein, and I have followed it on there to the end of this other branch of the pa.s.sage, and not exhausted it yet. Here's maybe another twenty years' work for some man. Now, wasn't it a great work for one man alone, to tunnel through that rock to the fall? No one man needs all that wealth. I've often thought of Ireland and the poverty we left there. If I had my boy to hearten me, I could do something for them now. We'll go back and sleep, for it's the trail for me to-morrow, and to go and come quickly, before the snow falls. Come!”
They returned in silence to the shed. The torch had burned well down into the clay handle, and Larry Kildene extinguished the last sparks before they crept through the fodder to their room in the shed. The fire of logs was almost out, and the place growing cold.
”You'll find the gold in a strong box made of hewn logs, buried in the ground underneath the wood in the addition to the cabin. There's no need to go to it yet, not until you need money. I'll show you how I prepare it for use, in the morning. I do it in the room I made there near the fall. It's the most secret place a man ever had for such work.”
Larry stretched himself in his bunk and was soon sleeping soundly. Not so the younger man. He could not compose himself after the excitement of the evening. He tossed and turned until morning found him weary and worn, but with his troubled mind more at rest than it had been for many months. He had fought out his battle, at least for the time being, and was at peace.
Harry King rose and went out into the cold morning air and was refreshed. He brought in a large handful of pine cones and made a roaring fire in the chimney he had built, before Larry roused himself.
Then he, too, went out and surveyed the sky with practiced eye.
”Clear and cool--that argues well for me. If it were warm, now, I'd hardly like to start. Sometimes the snow holds off for weeks in this weather.”
They stood in the pallid light of the early morning an hour before the sun, and the wind lifted Larry's hair and flapped his s.h.i.+rt sleeves about his arms. It was a tingling, sharp breeze, and when they returned to the cave, where they went for Harry's lesson in smelting, the old man's cheeks were ruddy.
The sun had barely risen when the lesson was over, and they descended for breakfast. Amalia had all ready for them, and greeted Larry from the doorway.
”Good morning, Sir Kildene. You start soon. I have many good things to eat all prepare to put in your bag, and when you sit to your dinner on the long way, it is that you must think of Amalia and know that she says a prayer to the sweet Christ, that he send his good angels to watch over you all the way you go. A prayer to follow you all the way is good, is not?” Amalia's frank and untrammeled way of referring to Divinity always precipitated a shyness on Larry,--a shyness that showed itself in smiles and stammering.
”Good--good--yes. Good, maybe so.” Harry had turned back to bring down Larry's horse and pack mule. ”Now, while we eat,--Harry will be down soon, we won't wait for him,--while we eat, let me go over the things I'm to find for you down below. I must learn the list well by heart, or you may send me back for the things I've missed bringing.”
As they talked Amalia took from her wrist a heavy bracelet of gold, and from a small leather bag hidden in her clothing, a brooch of emeralds, quaintly set and very precious. Her mother sat in one of her trancelike moods, apparently seeing nothing around her, and Amalia took Larry to one side and spoke in low tones.
”Sir Kildene, I have thought much, and at last it seems to me right to part with these. It is little that we have--and no money, only these.