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whether their manner was grave or frivolous he knew that these were good friends of his and he sincerely hoped that he would meet them again |
it was a different harry who started home late in april |
four months had made great changes he bore himself more like a man his manner was much more considered and grave |
he had seen great things and he had done his share of them |
he gazed upon a world full of responsibilities and perils |
but he looked back at charleston the gay the volatile and the beautiful with real affection |
it was almost buried now in flowers and foliage |
he was going home after victory |
he soon left charleston out of sight |
he felt the difference as soon as he reached the hills of his native state |
people were cooler here and they were more prone to look at the two sides of a question |
the air too was unlike that of south carolina there was a sharper tang to it |
it whipped his blood as it blew down from the slopes and crests |
it was afternoon when he reached the little station of winton and left the train a tall sturdy boy the superior of many a man in size strength and agility |
there were never before such times in old kentucky |
bill skelly an his gang them mountaineers are up |
he did not say the last as a boast but merely as an assurance to the liveryman who he saw was anxious on his account |
if you've got pistols just you think once before you shoot said collins |
harry thanked him threw his saddle bags across the horse a powerful bay and giving a final wave of his hand to the sympathetic liveryman rode away |
this was not the fashion of a year ago when they exchanged a friendly word or two but harry knew its cause now nobody could trust anybody else |
but he saw nothing that moved there no signal lights twinkled |
one winter evening as soon as his work was over for the day joseph locked the door of his smithy washed himself well put on clean clothes and taking his violin set out for testbridge mary was expecting him to tea |
it was the afternoon of a holiday and she had closed early |
was there ever a happier man than joseph that night as he strode along the footpath |
he pressed his violin case to his heart as if it were a living thing that could know that he loved it |
earth was gone and heaven was all |
blessed am i here now my god and blessed shall i be there then |
when he reached the suburbs the light of homes was shining through curtains of all colors |
just then he was in no mood to think of the sorrows |
the nettle and the dock said joseph |
he was in a mood for music was he not |
he laid down his violin and seated himself where mary told him in her father's arm chair by the fire |
letty finding herself not quite equal to the emergency came in her turn to call mary she went as quietly as if she were leaving a tiresome visitor |
the music was broken and joseph left alone with the dumb instruments |
but in his hands solitude and a violin were sure to marry in music |
they sat down and listened in silence |
her heart seemed to swell up into her throat and it was all she could do to keep from weeping |
a little longer and she was compelled to yield and the silent tears flowed freely |
letty too was overcome more than ever she had been by music |
let but a mood be strong enough and the soul clothing itself in that mood as with a garment can walk abroad and haunt the world |
it cried aloud that eternity was very long and like a great palace without a quiet room |
nor was this exactly the shape the thing took to the consciousness of the musician |
i love thee i love thee cried the violin and the worship was entreaty that knew not itself |
hast thou yet to learn that the love of the human is love is divine is but a lower form of a part of the love of god |
when thou lovest man or woman or child yea or even dog aright then wilt thou no longer need that i tell thee how god and his christ would not be content with each other alone in the glories even of the eternal original love because they could create more love |
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how shall he love god whom he hath not seen |
a sob like a bird new born burst from mary's bosom |
that enchantment had possessed him usurping as it were the throne of his life and displacing it when it ceased he was not his own master |
he started to conscious confusion only neither knowing where he was nor what he did |
how it happened he never could tell but he brought down his violin with a crash against the piano then somehow stumbled and all but fell |
in the act of recovering himself he heard the neck of his instrument part from the body with a tearing discordant cry like the sound of the ruin of a living world |
his violin was broken but his being was made whole |
his treasure taken type of his self and a woman given him instead |
it's just like him he murmured |
you'll all be over if you don't have a care |
looks like a clump of bushes down there but i ain't sure can you make it out |
yes agreed tad that does look like bushes |
don't move around lie perfectly still warned the guide are you hurt |
and that tumble's enough to knock the sense out of a full grown man |
i could not think of allowing any of my charges to take so terrible a risk and |
no i am the lighter of the two urged tad |
i am the one to go after walt if anyone has to i'll go down mister thomas |
master tad is right decided the guide gazing at the two boys approvingly |
i protest shouted the professor |
you'd have both of us at the bottom if i left it to you to take care of this end |
be sure to fasten him securely to the loop before you give the signal to haul up warned the guide |
are you ready yes |
he tilted his head to look up |
the movement sent his body swaying giddily from side to side |
cautiously placing a hand against the rocks to steady himself tad wisely concluded that hereafter it would not pay to be too curious |
slowly but steadily the slender line was paid out amid a tense silence on the part of the little group at the top of the canyou |
after what seemed to them hours a sharp call from the depths reached their ears |
lige quickly made fast the line to a tree |
i see him called tad his voice sounding hollow and unnatural to those above |
he's so far to the right of me that i can't reach him |
lodged in the branches of a pinyon tree i think it is but he doesn't answer me |
lige leaning over the brink was able to follow the boy's movements by the aid of the thin arc of light made by the torch in tad's hand |
but from the cautious movements of the light far below them the guide understood that the lad was at work carrying out his part of the task of rescue to the best of his ability |
mebby you think he's having some sort of a picnic down there eh glared lige |
shall we haul up asked lige making a megaphone of his hands yes haul away |
sure thing answered the boy |
nor was his sense of security increased when in shifting his position the torch fell from his grasp the fagots scattering as they slipped down between the limbs of the tree and whirling in ever diminishing circles until finally he heard them clatter on the rocks below |
chapter four the first night in camp |
even if i can't sing i can beat that |
not on the range why not demanded the boy |
a loud laugh followed at chunky's expense |
the pony did most of it admitted the lad i just gave him his head and that's all there was to it |
walter had gone out with the second guard and the others had gathered around the camp fire for their nightly story telling |
none of you will be fit for duty to morrow |
we've got a hard drive before us and every man must be fit as a fiddle |
humph grunted curley adams |
the cowboy did this very thing but within an hour he found himself alone the others having turned in one by one |
the lads found that a pair of blankets had been assigned to each of them with an ordinary wagon sheet doubled for a tarpaulin |
these they spread out on the ground using boots wrapped in coats for pillows |
stacy brown proved the only grumbler in the lot declaring that he could not sleep a wink on such a bed as that |
the horses of the outfit save those that were on night duty and two or three others that had developed a habit of straying had been turned loose early in the evening for animals on the trail are seldom staked down |
in spite of their hard couches the pony riders slept soundly even professor zepplin himself never waking the whole night through |
stacy grumbled turned over and went to sleep again |
you won't be so fast to wake up hard working cowboys after that i reckon |
lumpy bates came running toward him not daring to call out for fear of waking the camp |
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