THE MIRACLE
Between two storms, the peace that lay upon the seared and battered
head of Thunder Mountain, like the peace that comes to a sufferer
between paroxysms of pain, was of a kind unknown to lower levels. In
all the range of natural phenomena, in all the gamut of sensation,
there is nothing else at once so beautiful, inspiring, and appalling
as utter silence; and nothing else so rare. To the sea, the desert,
and the peak it is given in few and perfect hours; but neither to the
desert nor to the sea is it given in such transcendency as to the
peak. And on no peak could silence ever have seemed so like a miracle
as on the flat top of Thunder Mountain between two storms.
It were hazardous to say how far Marion was conscious of the
beautiful, inspiring, and appalling nature of that silence. She was
too deeply intent upon her purpose to be conscious of much besides the
material difficulties in her path. She knew that on the gray-black
surface of the mountain nothing stirred; that the winds were still;
that no murmur of forest or ripple of water or soft pulsation of a
living world was there. It was a dead place, dead these many ages; and
all its associations in her mind were those of death and the living
terror of death. But she was not afraid. True, she was beset by fears,
but they only hovered over her, brushing her face with their black
wings. True also, her eyes roved wide, as if at any instant something
unknown and dreadful would come upon her out of that blue sky, from
behind the next rock barrier, or up from the mountain's ugly heart
itself. But these were superficial fears, and in her heart she was not
afraid.
From the moment that she emerged upon the first terrace, where Haig
had stood some hours before, she knew that she would not go back until
(and unless) she found him. That had been her purpose from the
beginning, from the time she ran down the hill above Huntington's,
with Smythe following in alarm; but it had been hidden from her until,
in the exaltation that ensued upon the finding of the ashes of Haig's
fire, she drove her pony up the last ascent, and knew that if the
mountain had claimed Philip it must claim her too.
But this thought was, in a sense, as superficial as her fears; for in
her soul there lived a perfect faith. Through all her grief and
jealousy and anger and despair she had never entirely lost the pure
light of her star. She never doubted deeply that her love would
triumph, even when reason told her that it had already failed; and the
very words with which she had consented to leave the Park by the last
stage were hollow, though they contained a prayer. She had prayed for
a miracle; and the miracle had happened. Why should she be afraid?
So she was not surprised when the Twin Sisters welcomed her without so
much as a gentle puff of wind upon her cheek; when the Devil's Chair,
though she held her breath at sight of what lay below, was scarce more
difficult than the ridge in Paradise Park; and when the central
waste, where the storm had leaped on Haig, held no evil in store for
her. The only obstacles encountered were those presented by the trail
itself; and these, as Smythe had told her, though by no means trivial,
were not insurmountable to one with a clear eye and steady nerves. It
was never the trail itself that was deadly; it was the wind that would
blow her into a chasm, the mist that would decoy her from the path,
and the storm that would beat her down among the stones. But there was
no wind, no mist, no storm; and if that was not a miracle--
Several times, to be sure, she missed the trail: once in the second
field of loose stones, before she had become accustomed to the signs;
once on a wide floor of solid rock, where Tuesday slipped and fell,
and she rose a little stunned, and in a brief confusion; and once, the
most alarming of all, when she was for half an hour lost in that
granite wilderness that to Haig had suggested a cemetery of the gods.
But faith sustained her, and her purpose stood in the stead of courage
that might have faltered and even failed. The one moment when
something like despair struck at her heart was that when she found the
bruised and dirty saddle cast aside by the runaway, and thought at
first that it was Philip's; and the one moment of real terror was that
in which, on the summit of the last ridge, she looked back and saw
that dark gray vapors were surging up out of the chasm below the
Devil's Chair.
It chanced that in following the trail from the sharp turn on the last
rock floor to the brink of the cliff (the last pyramid stands some
fifty yards back from it), Marion arrived at about the same distance
to the left of the drop-off as Haig had brought up at the right of
it. From this point even less of the meadow was visible than Haig had
seen at the first view, and the mass of fallen and tumbled granite
appeared even more formidable. Her immediate sensation was of tragic
despair, as the evidence of her eyes for one instant overwhelmed her
faith. But where was Philip? And Sunnysides?
Then a suspicion flashed into her mind. Perhaps she had missed the
trail,--the real trail. She could not have been mistaken in the signs;
there was the last pyramid in plain view still from where she stood.
But it was not unlikely that there was another trail from the sharp
turn where she had been confused for a moment, another exit made
necessary by the disruption of the cliff. She paused uncertainly,
looking now at the great heap of stone below her,--a thousand feet of
jagged rock and sliding sand,--and now back at the toilsome way she
had come. And then her eyes were caught by something that held her
spellbound with horror. Up to the rocky skyline from beyond the
barrier she had lately crossed there swept a tumbling mist, as
gray-black as the rock itself; and an instant after she felt a
stinging blow of wind on her cheek, and heard a low whisper in the air
around her.
She was roused by a sound that brought her up rigid and alert in the
saddle. What was that? A faint report, as of a gun--from somewhere.
She listened, turning her head slowly and cautiously, and holding her
breath. A long time, it seemed to her, she listened; and heard only
that warning whisper of the wind across the flat. But there! Another!
It came up faintly from below, expiring at the very edge of the
precipice. She peered guardedly down into the chasm, and saw nothing
but the vast pile of debris, and a bit of green meadow over against
the edge of the black forest. But it was a gun! She began now to
examine the edge of the cliff. To her left it fell sheer away hundreds
of feet to the lower masses of fallen stone; and there was no trail on
that side. Dismounting, she led her horse slowly along the brink at
her right; and so came at length to the spot where the trail dropped
to the first incline. It seemed incredible; but then, even as the word
framed itself in her mind, her heart bounded up into her throat.
There--there--under her eyes were hoofprints, the print of steel shoes
in the sand; and they went down, down, down. And, as if to remove the
last of doubt and hesitancy, there came wavering up from below a third
thin report, a little more distinct than the others, and undeniable.
She lifted her face toward the sky, and pressed her hands upon her
breast.
"God help us! God help us--both!" she murmured.
Then she remounted Tuesday, and forced him over the edge of the
cliff.
* * * * *
Haig lay on his back, his head against the stone by which he had
recovered the coveted revolver. A handkerchief dyed red and blackened
with powder stains lay against one cheek. His right hand still
clutched the revolver.
He did not move, and she thought him dead. Then, through the blackness
that enveloped her, she dully and slowly comprehended that his eyes
were closed, not staring up at her. She knelt swiftly, and pressed her
head to his breast; and then leaped to her feet with a wild outcry.
Tuesday stood a few yards away, with tail outstretched and nostrils
distended, gazing affrightedly at the body of Trixy lying in her
wretched heap. Marion ran to the saddle, and tore at the thongs that
held her bundle; jerked it loose, and bore it quickly to Haig's side;
and in a few seconds had placed the mouth of her whisky flask between
Haig's lips, and let a little of the liquid trickle down his throat.
But there was no response, and she stood up again, looking for water.
The brook that had seemed so far away from Haig was at no distance for
her flying feet; and she was back on the run with her sombrero filled.
Dashing the water into Philip's face, she was off again for more. With
this she bathed his face and neck and wrists; and then set herself to
slapping the palms of his hands with her own.
Still there was no response. But when she pressed her head to his
breast once more she was assured that she had not been mistaken; his
heart was beating feebly--but beating. A second time she put the
whisky flask to his lips; and returned to the limp hands, rubbing
them, slapping them until her own burned and ached.
Hours it seemed, and ages flowing away into eternity. The sky was
darkening, and from the top of Thunder Mountain came a muffled roar
that was echoed back and forth across the valley. She looked up at the
towering cliff, and trembled. And then, with the last fading
reverberation, there came another sound that brought her leaning down
close to Philip's face. Was it a sigh, or only--
"Philip! Philip! Philip!" she called, softly at first, then in a cry
that rang across the meadow.
At last a quiver went through the limp figure; the eyes were opened,
only to be quickly closed again, as if the light had hurt them. She
called to him again, in pleading accents. The eyelids fluttered, and
he looked up into the face of the girl bending over him. It was a
puzzled, uncomprehending look. And thereupon his lips moved.
"Yes, Philip! What is it?"
"I don't understand," he whispered.
"It's Marion!" she cried. "Don't you know me?"
"But--where?"
"I don't know. Thunder Mountain."
"Yes, I know that!" he said, with a note of impatience. "Sunnysides
and--all that. But--you?"
"I followed, and found you."
A weak smile flickered on his lips. She saw that he did not believe
her.
"Look! Look!" she cried. "It's Marion. And yonder--is Tuesday."
He moved his head a little, and stared at the pony still standing
fascinated and terrified by the stillness of poor Trixy.
"It's--impossible!" he muttered. "You couldn't--"
He made an effort to look up at the cliff down, which he had come.
"But it's quite true, Philip. I'm here."
But she saw that he was still groping in the dark. He lifted his right
hand, and touched his head, while the expression of perplexity grew
rather than lessened on his face. She saw that there was not only a
gash in the left temple, but a furrow on the right side of his head, a
swollen red streak where the hair had been burned away. And the black
stains on the handkerchief, and the revolver clutched in his hand.
"Philip!" she said softly, reproachfully.
"I don't understand!" he reiterated, and closed his eyes.
She studied him, and the place where he lay, and the dead pony; the
two wounds in his head, the bloody handkerchief--And it was only
partly clear to her. He had fallen, and been hurt; but Philip, as she
knew him, would have made nothing of that cut on his temple. Why,
then, had he abandoned the pursuit, and tried to kill himself?
A groan escaped him.
"What is it, Philip?" she asked.
"You're hurting me!" he answered, opening his eyes again.
"Hurting you?" she exclaimed. "No! Where?"
"My leg's broken."
With a sharp cry she moved away from him, and saw that in her
eagerness she had pressed against his right leg. For just a moment she
was so concerned with the pain she had caused him that she did not
realize the full significance of his answer. Then it came to her with
a shock. She looked slowly around her: at the black forest on three
sides of the little meadow; at the cliff on the other; at the terrible
trail down which she had come, she scarce knew how; and at the storm
clouds on Thunder Mountain.
He saw the thought in her face.
"You see, it's no use!" he said. "With a broken leg."
She met his eyes with a clear and steady gaze; and smiled. And that
look he could not read.
"Now, then, Philip!" she said at length, rising quietly to her feet.
"I'll go to work."
"To work?" he repeated.
"Of course!" she replied, with brave lightness. "There's a lot to do.
First, there's your leg."
"Yes, it's broken," he answered sardonically.
"We'll mend it. And the cut on your head needs to be dressed. And I'm
dreadfully hungry, and--"
She stopped, and the smile fled from her face, and the strength ran
from her limbs.
"I told you. It's no use," said Haig.
But she had one resource of courage of which he was unaware: her
faith.
"Well," she answered stoutly, "I've enough in my bundle for one meal
anyhow. After that--who knows?"
"Will you give me a drink of water, please?"
She stooped quickly for her hat, the only vessel she had.
"Look in the roll on my saddle," he said. "Murray put some things
there."
She glanced around uncertainly; then understood. The saddle was on
Trixy still. But Trixy was dead, and she did not like the idea of
touching her. She hesitated just the length of time required for an
unpleasant smile to twist Haig's lips. She saw it, and her face
flamed with shame. A fine start she was making! And it was only a dead
horse! She walked resolutely to the prostrate body, hurriedly untied
the roll of blankets, and returned running.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" she cried, as she unrolled the bundle. "A cup! A pan!
And bacon and bread! And matches."
"Murray," said Haig.
"Yes, I know. Mrs. Murray told me, but I'd forgotten."
She ran to the stream, and brought him a cupful of water; and another;
and while he drank the second, she picked up his revolver, and carried
it to a stone fully as far away as it had been when he crawled for it.
He was on the point of calling her back, but thought better of it; to
have done that would only have confirmed her suspicions.
"Now then, sir!" she began. "Your leg."
"What about it?"
"We've got to set it."
"That's absurd!"
"Why is it absurd?"
"You can't do it, in the first place."
"But I can. I've seen my father do it."
"It won't heal--in the fix we're in."
"We'll do our best," she rejoined bravely.
"Listen!" he said, with some sternness. "If it should knit, which I
doubt, it will take six weeks or two months before I can use it. Do
you know what will happen before two months--before one month--before
two weeks, even?"
She only looked at him questioningly.
"Snow!" he said shortly.
She could find no answer, unless it were an answer that she dared not
give him--yet.
"Well, then!" he said, with an air of finality. "You can't start
to-night, of course. It's too late, and there's a storm going up there
besides. But to-morrow morning--" He looked up at the cliff and
frowned. "Perhaps Tuesday can make it. If he balks, you've got to do
it on foot. The mountain let you pass once. Maybe it will spare you
again. Maybe! God knows! But it's your only chance. I'm done for, and
can't help you. It's sure death for you to stay here. It's sure death
to try the trail into the Black Lake country. You have just one
chance. You've got to take it to-morrow morning. And God help you for
being such a fool!"
She heard him through, and smiled; and he noted, for his own
information, that this smile of hers was getting on his nerves. What
did she mean by it? There was something very superior about it, though
very gentle and indulgent; and a thing or two she had said to him
before flashed back into his mind. Was she trying to mother him? The
thought made him angry.
"Well?" he demanded.
"Of course I'll not go!" she said simply.
"You will go!" he retorted wrathfully.
She knelt quickly at his side, and took one of his hands between both
her own.
"Philip!" she said gently. "I know that--perhaps--it's a foolish
question to ask. You mustn't call me silly. But--do you believe in
miracles?"
"Miracles be damned!" he blurted out. "I'll see--"
She put her hand over his mouth.
"Listen, Philip!" she went on. "I prayed for a miracle, and it has
happened. Perhaps there'll be another; who knows? We'll wait and see.
If nothing happens, why--Do you think I'm afraid?"
He made no answer, and she needed none.