made the sign of acquiescence, she went on: "At first the doctors
wouldn't give us any hope at all; they said you might live, but
you'd--you'd never--never remember--never have your reason again. But
yesterday----"
"Please!" he pleaded. "That's more than enough about me. I want to know
what happened."
"That night, you mean? All the things that you had planned for. Father
got the mine back, and Mr. Leshington and the others got the riot
quelled after about half of the city was burned."
"But Cortwright and Schermerhorn--I promised them----"
"Mr. Leshington carried out your promise and helped them get the money
out of the bank vault before the mob sacked the Niquoia Building and
dynamited it. But at the hotel they were arrested on the order of the
bank examiner, and everything was taken away from them. We haven't
heard yet what is going to be done with them."
"And Gomorrah?" he asked.
She slipped an arm under his shoulders and raised him so he could look
out upon the mountain-girt sea dimpling under the morning breeze.
"There is where it was," she said soberly, "where it was, and is not,
and never will be again, thank God! Mr. Leshington waited until
everybody had escaped, and then he shut the waste-way gates."
Brouillard sank back upon the pillows of comfort and closed his eyes.
"Then it's all up to me and the hundred thousand," he whispered. "And
I'll get it ... honestly, this time."
The violet eyes were smiling when he looked into them again.
"Is she--the one incomparable she--worth it, Victor?"
"Her price is above rubies, as I told you once a long time ago."
"You wouldn't let pride--a false pride--stand in the way of her
happiness?"
"I haven't any; her love has made me very humble and--and good, Amy,
dear. Don't laugh: it's the only word; I'm just hungering and thirsting
after righteousness enough to be half-way worthy of her."
"Then I'll tell you something else that has happened. Father and Stevie
have reorganized the 'Little Susan' Mining Company, dividing the stock
into four equal parts--one for each of us. You must take your share,
Victor. It will break father's heart if you don't. He says you got it
back for him after it was hopelessly lost, and that is true."
He had closed his eyes again, and what he said seemed totally
irrelevant.
"'And after the man had climbed the fourth mountain through all its
seven stages, he saw a bright light, and it blinded him so that he
stumbled and fell, and a great darkness rose up to make the light seem
far beyond his reach. Then the light came near, and he saw that it was
Love, and that the darkness was in his own soul.' ... Kiss me, Amy,
girl, and then go and tell your father that he is a simple-hearted old
spendthrift, and I love him. And if you could wire Castner, and tell him
to bring a license along----"
"O boy--foolish boy!" she said. "Wait: when you are well and strong
again...."
But she did not make him wait for the first of the askings; and after a
healing silence had fallen to show the needlessness of speech between
those who have come through darkness into light, he fell asleep again,
perhaps to dream that the quieting hand upon his forehead was the touch
of Love, angel of the bright and shining way, summoning him to rise up
and go forward as a soul set free to meet the dawning day of fruition.
THE END
* * * * *
BOOKS BY FRANCIS LYNDE
PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
The City of Numbered Days. Illus.
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The Honorable Senator Sage-brush.
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Scientific Sprague. Illus. 12mo _net_ $1.25
The Price. 12mo _net_ $1.30
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