"You have done a greater service to the Covenant than you know," I said,
then springing up I dashed from the house into the gathering darkness.
I had lost two precious hours--but by the mercy of God I was still
alive, and I should carry my message through.
I raced down the slope to the road, and turned my face to the long
ascent. The wind had abated, and I could make better progress. The
cold air stung my burnt arm, but as I set my mind to my task the pain
ceased to trouble me.
With hope still rising within me I struggled on--breaking into a steady,
mechanical trot. As the woman had said, the road was very bad, but,
after my strange deliverance from death, nothing could daunt me, and I
fought my way on. The stars were looking down upon me now, and I looked
up at them with a grateful heart. At last I reached the top of the
hill, and the long descent lay before me. I paused for a moment to
regain my breath, and saw far below me that tender light which always
hangs in the sky, when night comes, above the habitations of men, and I
knew that I was looking down on Moffat. As though the light were a
beacon which beckoned me, I started to run down-hill.
My stiff limbs warmed to their work and soon I was running with some
freedom. On and on ... splashing through the pools of water that lay in
the path, with eyes strained ever towards the gleam in the sky; on, and
on ... with clenched teeth and parted lips through which my hurrying
breath issued with the poignant sound of a sob. On, and on ... the
rhythmic sound of my footsteps throbbing through my brain. Faster now,
for the light was drawing nearer; on, and on ... till just without the
confines of the little town I turned to the right lest the sound of my
racing feet should awake suspicion. Skirting the township cautiously, I
came out upon the road again beyond it.
On, and on ... fear and desire lending speed to my feet; and behind me
the town clock striking ten. God help me!--a score of miles still lay
before me; had I strength to accomplish the task? The perspiration
broke out upon me, and for very weariness I reeled as I ran. At last I
came to the place where I must leave the highway and take to the open
country. It was harder going thus, but the way was more direct and every
moment was precious. On, and on ... until my mind divorced itself from
my body, and in a mood of abstraction contemplated the running figure
alongside which it sailed so easily. On, and on ... the mind holding
itself aloof and regarding with a kind of pity the struggles of the
tired body that was plunging headlong across the fields. Suddenly I was
conscious that something other than myself was running along beside me
... keeping step with my step, measuring its paces with my paces, neck
and neck with me. What ghostly companion was this? I looked to the
right and left but saw nothing, and, as I looked, the sound of the
attendant footsteps ceased and I heard nothing but the tick-tack of my
own feet. On, and on ... crashing through the hedges, leaping over the
low dykes, stumbling in the ruts of the ploughed fields, wading the
little streams, ... still I pressed on. I was panting wildly now, so
that my breath whistled as the wind whistles through a keyhole in
winter. Nothing mattered: come life, come death, I should carry the
tidings through. Once more the ghostly feet were audible, keeping time
with my own--pit-pat, pit-pat, step for step. I flung my arms to right
and left, but they touched vacancy, and the ghostly footsteps ceased.
On, and on, ... until a heavy languor stole over me and filled me with
the hunger of sleep. My eyelids drooped, so that for an instant I did
not see the ground before me, and I stumbled and almost fell. I sprang
erect and shook myself. Sleep meant death--not for myself, but for
thousands of others who had grown to be dear to me, and on and on I ran.
But the things that a man would do are conditioned by the strength which
God has given him, and the body, though an obedient slave to the mind,
sometimes becomes a tyrant. My limbs were heavy--no longer things of
flesh and blood, but compact of lead. On, and on ... knowing nothing
now but that my task was a sacred one, deaf to the sound of my own
footsteps, blind to the things around me, on and on I reeled till sleep
or something akin to it, seized me, and for a time I raced on
unconscious of what I did. Stumbling, I fell to spring up again wildly
alert. I should win through or die! On and on--and on and on ... till
I sank helpless to the ground.