THE AFTERMATH
Supper was over. With kindly hands night had laid her deep purple mantle
over the new-made mound back of the cabin, hiding it from the grieving
gaze of the three who sat before the door in painful silence beneath the
star-pierced dome of heaven. In the poignancy of her own sorrow, and her
overwhelming sympathy for Donald, when she had come to a realization of
the meaning of the bundle which he brought out of the woods and laid so
tenderly down on the grass before the cabin's stoop, every vestige of
Smiles' anger had instantly vanished.
"Oh, the pity, the uselessness of it," cried Donald's heart, as his
thoughts again and again turned back to the tragic series of events
which had made the afternoon a thing of horror. The bitter
culmination,--the death of Mike, poor, courageous, self-sacrificing
little Mike--was the most needless of all, for, although he had not
mentioned the fact to Big Jerry, Donald knew that in all human
probability Judd's rifle was empty of cartridges. And, although Jerry
himself uttered no word of complaint, the physician knew, only too well,
that the gripping excitement, against which he had warned the old man
only a few hours earlier, had brought its inevitable aftermath. The
giant's breath came with labored, audible gasps, and his very appearance
told the story of the increased pain within his breast. For these
disasters--as well as the mortal enmity of the young mountaineer and the
heart-ache of the innocent girl--he, and he alone, was to blame. Donald
groaned under his breath.
The silence was finally ended by Smiles crying out bitterly, "Oh, Doctor
Mac, I can't understand why grandfather pulled that trigger, and shot
dear little Mike. He saw him spring at Judd."
"It wasn't in any wise his fault, dear heart. He could not possibly have
helped it. You see our brains are telegraph stations from which the
nerves run like wires, carrying messages to all the different parts of
our bodies. Big Jerry had sent a command to his finger, ordering it to
pull the trigger, and the muscles had started to obey. The second
message countermanding the first--quick as it was--came too late to halt
the purely muscular action; that is all."
"Another good evening, my friends," came a cheery voice, and the
mountain minister approached out of the shadows, and joined them. "I am
just back from a journey into the wilderness, like John the Baptist's,
and ... Why, what's wrong? Do I see the ghost of a sorrow sitting amid
this group, which should be so happy?"
"Oh, Mr. Talmadge," cried Rose, jumping up and stepping to his side as
he paused. "Many ghosts are here to-night. I think that you took God
away with you on your journey, for His spirit has not been in Webb's Gap
this afternoon."
"Tell me, what has happened, my dear?" he answered quietly, as he seated
himself within the circle.
Then, step by step, the whole unhappy story was haltingly poured into
his ears, save only that Smiles consciously refrained from mentioning
the cause which Judd had--by implication--given for the quarrel and
Donald kept his promise and made no allusion to his finding of the
still. Since the minister asked no questions and made no comment
concerning the cause, it is fair to assume that he guessed the truth and
wisely held his own counsel. When he had brought the patchwork recital
to an end, the doctor laughed with a bitter note.
"You see how much good the brief glimpse which I had last night of the
eternal light did me! Before one full day has elapsed, I sound a lower
depth in primitive, brutal passion then I ever had before in my life. I
am sick at heart when I think how quickly and easily I could forget
everything which goes to make up civilization. There was no excuse for
it--that's the worst part. I was infinitely more to blame than Judd,
even leaving out of consideration the fact that a greater degree of
self-restraint and forbearance should reasonably have been expected of
me, a city-bred man, than of him, a more primitive son of the hills."
Donald placed his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands
with a stifled sound, which might have been groan or curse, and very
gently Smiles' hand stole up in the darkness and stroked his tumbled
hair, until the man's own fumblingly sought and held it close, to find
mute comfort in her warm clasp.
"Perhaps I understand better than you think the reasons which underlie
these most unhappy events," answered the old man slowly. There was no
rebuke in his quiet voice.
"Although it is true, doctor, that the deeper we get into the heart of
primal nature, the closer we get to the heart of nature's God, it is
equally true that the nearer we also get to the primal in man.
"I cannot help feeling that the city's laws and conventions trammel the
spirit in its free exercise of self, which is ill; but yet the inbred
realization of those very laws and conventions, and the fear of
consequences if they are broken, act as a salutary check on the
primitive passions inherited by every one of us from our savage
ancestors.
"Of course, I know that, in places where men are crowded together, such
man-made laws and conventions are wise and necessary; but the life which
results is not--cannot be--full and natural as it may be in an isolated
place like this, when honest obedience is paid to the still higher laws
of God--and it is for _that_ obedience which all of us must strive
constantly.
"You failed in the test to-day; but, believe me, there are many in
these mountains who, lacking all the advantages of training and
education which are yours, meet it. Their lives are lived under nature's
higher laws in perfect sincerity, and, although they might not conform
to the standards of so-called civilization, they are surely purer in
God's sight than those of millions who pattern theirs by printed
precept."
"I reckon," murmured Smiles, "that St. Peter had to put many black marks
on three books to-day ... yes, mine too, for I was wickedly angry. It
was hate that made me run away from Doctor Mac, and if I hadn't done it,
M ... M ... Mike wouldn't have been shot." She leaned her head against
Donald's arm, and cried softly.
"'The wages of sin is death,'" said the minister. "And he paid the
penalty for you, Dr. MacDonald, sacrificing himself because of his great
love. Poor little Mike. Such faithful animals as he must have souls, and
his is now in its own paradise."
No one spoke for a little, and then Mr. Talmadge continued to muse
aloud.
"Mere repentance, such as the doctor now feels, is not enough. You
remember the parable of the woman who drove the evil spirit from her
fleshly temple, and swept it clean, but failed to fill its place with
another guest, and seven other devils came and repossessed it? So it is
always with human life, Dr. MacDonald. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so
does the spirit. If a man does not fill his soul--swept free of past
evil by repentance--with that which is actively good, the repentance is
of little avail."
"Yes, yes, I can readily understand that, for it has a parallel in
bodily illness," answered Donald, somewhat impatiently. "We all know
that, when the sick physical being is freed of its disease, it is left
weak and an easy prey for new troubles. We can bring back to it the
strength to resist by giving nerve-and tissue-building food and tonics,
but how is the spirit to be ..."
"How persistently the earth-man kicks against the pricks," cried Mr.
Talmadge. "Child, your friend will not lift his eyes from the maze of
doubt. You pledged yourself to help him. Help him now."
Her face suddenly glowing with light, Rose turned to Donald eagerly, and
said without hesitation, "Oh, Doctor Mac, don't you see? The answer is
so clear, so simple that even I know it. The dear God spirit is
everywhere, just waiting for you to call it to your aid. Please pray to
Him to give you new strength so that you may not be weak again, and I
will pray, too."
"Yes," supplemented the minister, "'Whence cometh my help? My help
cometh even from the Lord, which hath made heaven and earth.'"
Donald was strongly moved at the eager interest in him which these two
displayed. Shifting uncomfortably he replied, "I need His help, I know;
but ... but I guess I have forgotten how to pray for it."
"Open your heart with sincerity, and He will enter and bestow the
strength you need in order to take up your task anew, and carry on until
your purpose here on earth has been accomplished. That is all that
prayer need be, for He is ever more ready to give than we to receive.
Verbal petitions are vain and empty things; honest communion with Him
_is_ prayer."
He arose, content to say no more, and to leave the sorely troubled
spirit of the stranger to Smiles' tender ministrations. "I am deeply
sorry for you in your distress, Dr. MacDonald, but although there is
small comfort in the remark, I cannot help but feel that what has
happened was ordained to complete your lesson, so that you may leave
these hills with a new understanding and higher purpose in life. Good
night, and God be with you all."