THE EAGLE'S EYES GROW DIM
The county jail in Cedar County was a plain, brick structure set in the
midst of the Court House Square. Connected with it was the official
residence of the sheriff, and brick walks ran diagonally from corner to
corner for the convenience of citizens. Over these walks magnificent
maples flung gorgeous banners in autumn, and it was a favorite promenade
for the young people of the town at all seasons, even in winter.
At times when the jail was filled with disorderly inmates these innocent
lovers could hear the wild yells and see the insulting gestures of the
men at the windows, but ordinarily the grounds were quiet and peaceful.
The robins nested in the maples, the squirrels scampered from tree to
tree, and little children tumbled about on the grass, unmindful of the
sullen captives within the walls.
For seven years Harold himself had played about this yard, hearing the
wild voices of the prisoners and seeing men come and go in irons. Over
these walks he had loitered with Dot--now he was one of those who clawed
at the window bars like monkeys in a cage in order to look out at the
sunshine of the world. The jail pallor was already on his face and a
savage look was in his eyes. He refused to see anyone but Jack, who came
often and whose coming saved him from despair.
In one respect the county jail was worse, than the State's prison; it
had nothing for its captives to do. They ate, amused themselves as best
they could through the long day, and slept. Most of them brooded, like
Harold, on the sunshine lost to them, and paced their cells like wild
animals. It had, however, the advantage of giving to each man a separate
bed at night, though during the day they occupied a common corridor.
Some of them sang indecent songs and cursed their fellows for their
stupidity, and fights were not uncommon.
The jailer was inclined to allow Harold more liberty after his trial,
but the boy said: "I'm not asking any favors from you. I'm working out a
sentence."
He continued his systematic exercise, eating regularly and with care in
order that he should keep his health. He spent several hours each day
leaping up the stairway which led from the lower cells to the upper, and
his limbs were like bundles of steel rods. He could spring from the
floor, catch the hand rail of the runway above, and swing himself with a
single effort to the upper cells. Every possible combination of strength
and agility which the slender variety of means allowed he used, and not
one of all the prisoners cared to try muscular conclusions with him.
Occasionally a new prisoner would experiment, but those who held over
knew better than to "bother the kid." When a rash and doubting man tried
it, he repented it in cotton cloth and arnica.
The only way in which Harold could be enticed into the residence part of
the jail was by sending Jack to call upon him.
At such times the jailer gave him plenty of time, and Harold poured
forth his latest plans in a swift torrent. He talked of nothing but the
West. "My sentence will be out in April," he said; "just the right time
to go. You must make all arrangements for me, old man. You take my money
and get these things for me. I want a six-shooter, the best you can
find, the kind they use out on the plains, and a belt and ammunition. I
want a valise--a good strong one; and I want you to put all my clothes
in it--I mean my underclothes--I won't need cuffs and collars and such
knickknacks out there. I shall never enter father's door again. Then I
want you to be on the lookout for a chance to drive cattle for somebody
going West. We'll find chances enough, and we'll strike for Abilene and
your uncle's place. I haven't money enough to carry me out there on the
train. Oh! won't it be good fun when we have a good horse apiece and go
riding across the plains herding the longhorns! That's life, that is! If
I'd only gone last year, out where the buffalo and the antelope are!"
At such times the eagle's heart in the youth could scarcely endure the
pale, cold light of the prison. For an hour after one of these talks
with Jack he tore around his cell like a crazed wolf, till his weary
muscles absorbed the ache in his heart.
During the winter the Young Men's Christian Association of the town
organized what they called a Prison Rescue Band, which held services in
the jail each Sunday afternoon. They were a great bore to Harold, who
knew the members of the band and disliked most of them. He considered
them "a little off their nut"--that is to say, fanatic. He kept his cell
closely, and the devoted ones seldom caught a glimpse of him, though he
was the chief object of their care. They sang Pull for the Shore, Trust
it all with Jesus, and other well-worn Moody and Sankey hymns, and the
leader prayed resoundingly, and then, one by one, the others made
little talks to the prison walls. There was seldom a face to be seen.
Muttered curses occasionally rumbled from the cells where the prisoners
were trying to sleep.
But the leader was a shrewd young man, and not many Sundays after his
initial attempt the prisoners were amazed to hear female voices joining
in the songs. Heads appeared at every door to see the girls, who stood
timidly behind the men and sang (in quavering voices) the songs that
persuaded to grace.
Some of these girlish messengers of mercy Harold knew, but others were
strange to him. The seminary was in session again and new pupils had
entered. For the most part they were colorless and plain, and the
prisoners ceased to show themselves during the singing. Harold lay on
his iron bed dreaming of the wild lands whose mountains he could see
shining through his prison walls. Jack had purchased for him some
photographs of the Rocky Mountains, and when he desired to forget his
surroundings he had but to look on the seamless dome of Sierra Blanca or
the San Francisco peaks, or at the image of the limpid waters of
Trapper's Lake, and like the conjurer's magic crystal sphere, it cured
him of all his mental maladies, set him free and a-horse.
But one Sabbath afternoon he heard a new voice, a girl's voice, so sweet
and tender and true he could not forbear to look out upon the singer.
She was small and looked very pale under the white light of the high
windows. She was singing alone, a wonderful thing in itself, and in her
eyes was neither fear nor maidenly shrinking; she was indeed thrillingly
absorbed and self-forgetful. There was something singular and arresting
in the poise of her head. Her eyes seemed to look through and beyond the
prison walls, far into some finer, purer land than any earthly feet had
trod, and her song had a touch of genuine poetry in it:
"If I were a voice, a persuasive voice,
That could travel the whole earth through,
I would fly on the wings of the morning light
And speak to men with a gentle might
And tell them to be true--
If I were a voice."
The heart of the boy expanded. Music and poetry and love were waked in
him by the voice of this singing girl. To others she was merely simple
and sweet; to him she was a messenger. The vibrant, wistful cadence of
her voice when she uttered the words "And tell them to be true," dropped
down into the boy's sullen and lonely heart. He did not look at her, but
all the week he wondered about her. He thought of her almost
constantly, and the words she sang lay in his ears, soothing and healing
like some subtle Oriental balm. "On the wings of the morning light" was
one haunting phrase--the other was, "And tell them to be true."
The other prisoners had been touched. Only one or two ventured coarse
remarks about her, and they were speedily silenced by their neighbors.
Harold was eager to seek Jack in order to learn the girl's name, but
Jack was at home, sick of a cold, and did not visit him during the week.
On the following Sunday she did not come, and the singing seemed
suddenly a bitter mockery to Harold, who sought to solace himself with
his pictures. The second week wore away and Jack came, but by that time
the image of the girl had taken such aloofness of position in Harold's
mind that he dared not ask about her, even of his loyal chum.
At last she came again, and when she had finished singing Not half has
ever been told, some prisoner started hand clapping, and a volley of
applause made the cells resound. The girl started in dismay, and then,
as she understood the meaning of this noise, a beautiful flush swept
over her face and she shrank swiftly into shadow.
But a man from an upper cell bawled: "Sing The Voice, miss! sing The
Voice!"
The leader of the band said: "Sing for them, Miss Yardwell."
Again she sang If I were a Voice, and out of the cells the prisoners
crept, one by one, and at last Harold. She did not see him till she had
finished the last verse, and then he stood so close to her he could have
touched her, and his solemn dark eyes burned so strangely into her face
that she shrank away from him in awe and terror. She knew him--no one
else but the minister's son could be so handsome and so refined of
feature.
"You're that voice, miss," one of the men called out.
"That's right," replied the others in chorus.
The girl was abashed, but the belief that she was leading these sinners
to a merciful Saviour exalted her and she sang again. Harold crept as
near as he could--so near he could see her large gray eyes, into which
the light fell as into a mountain lake. Every man there perceived the
girl's divine purity of purpose. She was stainless as a summer cloud--a
passionless, serene child, with the religious impulse strong within her.
She could not have been more than seventeen years of age, and yet so
dignified and composed was her attitude she seemed a mature woman. She
was not large, but she was by no means slight, and though colorless, her
pallor was not that of ill health.
Her body resembled that of a sturdy child, straight in the back, wide in
the waist, and meager of bosom.
Her voice and her eyes subdued the beast in the men. An indefinable
personal quality ran through her utterance, a sadness, a sympathy, and
an intuitive comprehension of the sin of the world unusual in one so
young. She had been carefully reared: that was evident in every gesture
and utterance. Her dress was a studiously plain gray gown, not without a
little girlish ornament at the neck and bosom. Every detail of her
lovely personality entered Harold's mind and remained there. He had
hardly reached the analytic stage in matters of this kind, but he knew
very well that this girl was like her song; she could die but never
deceive. He wondered what her first name could be; no girl like that
would be called "Dot" or "Cad." It ought to be Lily or Marguerite. He
was glad to hear one of the girls call her Mary.
He gazed at her almost without ceasing, but as the other convicts did
the same he was not observably devoted, and whenever she raised her big,
clear eyes toward him both shrank, he from a sense of unworthiness, she
from the instinctive fear of men which a young girl of her type has
deep-planted within her. She studied him shyly when she dared, and after
the first song sang only for him. She prayed for him when the Band
knelt on the stone floor, and at night in her room she plead for him
before God.
The boy was smitten with a sudden sense of his crime, not in the way of
a repentant sinner, but as one who loves a sweet and gentle woman. All
that his father's preaching and precept could not do, all that the
judge, jury, and prison could not do, this slip of a girl did with a
glance of her big gray eyes and the tremor of her voice in song. All his
misdeeds arose up suddenly as a wall between him and the girl singer.
His hard heart melted. The ugly lines went out of his face and it grew
boyish once more, but sadder than ever.
His was not a nature to rest inactive. He poured out a hundred questions
to Jack who could not answer half a dozen of them. "Who is she? Where
does she live? Do you know her? Is she a good scholar? Does she go to
church? I hope she don't talk religion. Does she go to parties? Does she
dance?"
Jack replied as well as he was able. "She's a queer kind of a girl. She
don't dance or go to parties at all. She's an awful fine scholar. She
sings in the choir. Most of the boys are afraid to speak to her, she's
so distant. She just says 'Yes,' or 'No,' when you ask her anything.
She's religious--goes to prayer meeting and Sunday school. About a dozen
boys go to prayer meeting just because she goes and sings. Her folks
live in Waverly, but she boards with her aunt, Mrs. Brown. Now, that's
all I can tell you about her. She's in some of my classes, but I dassent
talk to her."
"Jack, she's the best and grandest girl I ever saw. I'm going to write
to her."
Jack wistfully replied: "I wish you was out o' here, old man."
Harold became suddenly optimistic. "Never you mind, Jack. It won't be
long till I am. I'm going to write to her to-day. You get a pencil and
paper for me quick."
Jack's admiration of Harold was too great to admit of any question of
his design. He would have said no one else was worthy to tie Mary's
shoe, for he, too, worshiped her--but afar off. He was one of those whom
women recognize only as gentle and useful beings, plain and unobtrusive.
He brought the pad and pencil and sat by while the letter was written.
Harold's was not a nature of finedrawn distinctions; he wrote as he
fought, swift and determined, and the letter was soon finished, read,
and approved by Jack.
"Now, don't you let anybody see you give that to her," Harold said in
parting.
"Trust me," Jack stanchly replied, and both felt that here was business
of greatest importance. Jack proceeded at once to walk on the street
which led past Mary's boarding place, and hung about the corner, in the
hope of meeting Mary on her return from school. He knew very exactly her
hours of recitation and at last she came, her arms filled with books,
moving with such stately step she seemed a woman, tall and sedate. She
perceived Jack waiting, but was not alarmed, for she comprehended
something of his goodness and timidity.
He took off his cap with awkward formality. "Miss Yardwell, may I speak
with you a moment?"
"Certainly, Mr. Burns," she replied, quite as formally as he.
He fell into step with her and walked on.
"You know--my chum--" he began, breathing hard, "my chum, Harry Excell,
is in jail. You see, he had a fight with a great big chap, Clint Slocum,
and Clint struck Harry with a whip. Of course Harry couldn't stand that
and he cut Clint with his knife; of course he had to do it, for you see
Clint was big as two of him and he'd just badgered the life out of Harry
for a month, and so they jugged Harry, and he's there--in jail--and I
suppose you've seen him; he's a fine-looking chap, dark hair, well
built. He's a dandy ball player and skates bully; I wish you could see
him shoot. We're going out West together when he gets out o' jail. Well,
he saw you and he liked you, and he wrote you a letter and wanted me to
hand it to you when no one was looking. Here it is: hide it, quick."
She took the letter, mechanically moved to do so by his imperative voice
and action, and slipped it into her algebra. When she turned to speak
Jack was gone, and she walked on, flushed with excitement, her breath
shortened and quickened. She had a fair share of woman's love of romance
and of letters, and she hurried a little in order that she might the
sooner read the message of the dark-eyed, pale boy in the jail.
It was well she did not meet Mrs. Brown as she entered, for the limpid
gray of her eyes was clouded with emotion. She climbed the stairs to her
room and quickly opened the note. It began abruptly:
"DEAR FRIEND: It is mighty good of you to come and sing to us poor
cusses in jail. I hope you'll come every Sunday. I like you. You
are the best girl I ever saw. Don't go to my father's church, he
ain't good enough to preach to you. I like you and I don't want
you to think I'm a hard case. I used up Clint Slocum because I had
to. He had hectored me about enough. He said some mean things about
me and some one else, and I soaked him once with my fist. He struck
me with the whip and downed me, then a kind of a cloud came into my
mind and I guess I soaked him with my knife, too. Anyhow they
jugged me for it. I don't care, I'd do it again. I'd cut his head
off if he said anything about you. Well, now I'm in here and I'm
sorry because I don't want you to think I'm a tough. I've done a
whole lot of things I had not ought to have done, but I never meant
to do anyone any harm.
"Now, I'm going West when I get out. I'm going into the cattle
business on the great plains, and I'm going to be a rich man, and
then I'm going to come back. I hope you won't get married before
that time for I'll have something to say to you. If you run across
any pictures of the mountains or the plains I wisht you'd send them
on to me. Next to you I like the life in the plains better than
anything.
"I hope you'll come every Sunday till I get out. Yours respec'fly,
"HAROLD EXCELL.
"Jack will give this to you. Jack is my chum; I'd trust him with my
life. He's all wool."
The girl sat a long time with the letter in her hand. She was but a
child, after all, and the lad's words alarmed and burdened her, for the
meaning of the letter was plain. It was a message of love and
admiration, and though it contained no subtleties, it came from one who
was in jail, and she had been taught to regard people in jail as lost
souls, aliens with whom it was dangerous to hold any intercourse, save
in prayer and Scripture. The handsome boy with the sad face had appealed
to her very deeply, and she bore him in her thoughts a great deal; but
now he came in a new guise--as a lover, bold, outspoken, and persuasive.
"What shall I do? Shall I tell Aunt Lida?" she asked herself, and ended
by kneeling down and praying to Jesus to give the young man a new heart.
In this fashion the courtship went on. No one knew of it but Jack, for
Mary could not bring herself to confide in anyone, not even her mother,
it all seemed too strange and beautiful. It was God's grace working
through her, and her devoutness was not without its human mixture of
girlish pride and exaltation. She worshiped him in her natural moments,
and in her moments of religious fervor she prayed for him with
impersonal anguish as for a lost soul. She did not consider him a
criminal, but she thought him Godless and rebellious toward his
Saviour.
She wrote him quaint, formal little notes, which began abruptly, "My
Friend." They contained much matter which was hortatory, but at times
she became girlish and very charming. Gradually she dropped the tone
which she had caught from revivalists and wrote of her studies and of
the doings of each member of the class, and all other subjects which a
young girl finds valuable material of conversation. She was just
becoming acquainted with Victor Hugo and his resounding, antithetic
phrases, and his humanitarian outcries filled her mind with commotion.
Her heart swelled high with resolution to do something to help the world
in general and Harold in particular.
She was not one in whom passion ruled; the intellectual dominated the
passional in her, and, besides, she was only a child. She was by no
means as mature as Harold, although about the same age. Naturally
reverent, she had been raised in a family where religious observances
never remitted; where grace was always spoken. In this home her looks
were seldom alluded to in any way, and vanity was not in her. She had
her lovelinesses; her hair was long and fair, her eyes were beautiful,
and her skin was of exquisite purity, like her eyes. Her charm lay in
her modesty and quaint dignity, her grave and gentle gaze, and in her
glorious voice.
The Reverend Excell was pleased to hear that his son was bearing
confinement very well, and made another effort to see him. Simply
because Mary wished it, Harold consented to see his father, and they
held a long conversation, at least the father talked and the boy
listened. In effect, the minister said:
"My son, I have forfeited your good will--that I know--but I think you
do me an injustice. I know you think I am a liar and a hypocrite because
you have seen me in rages and because I have profaned God in your
presence. My boy, let me tell you, in every man there are two natures.
When one is uppermost, actions impossible to the other nature become
easy. You will know this, you should know it now, for in you there is
the same murderous madman that is in me. You must fight him down. I love
you, my son," he said, and his voice was deep and tremulous, "and it
hurts me to have you stand aloof from me. I have tried to do my duty. I
have almost succeeded in putting my worst self under my feet, and I
think if you were to come to understand me you would not be so hard
toward me. It is not a little thing to me that you, my only son, turn
your face away from me. On the day of your trial I thought we came
nearer to an understanding than in many years."
Harold felt the justice of his father's plea and his heart swelled with
emotion, but something arose up between his heart and his lips and he
remained silent.
Mr. Excell bent his great, handsome head and plead as a lover pleads,
but the pale lad, with bitter and sullen mien, listened in silence. At
last the father ended; there was a pause.
"I want you to come home when your term ends," he said. "Will you
promise that?"
Harold said, "No, I can't do that. I'm going out West."
"I shall not prevent you, my son, but I want you to come and take your
place at the table just once. There is a special reason for this. Will
you come for a single day?"
Harold forced himself to answer, "Yes."
Mr. Excell raised his head.
"Let us shake hands over your promise, my boy."
Harold arose and they shook hands. The father's eyes were wet with
tears. "I can't afford to forfeit your good opinion," Mr. Excell went
on, "especially now when you are leaving me, perhaps forever. I think
you are right in going. There is no chance for you here; perhaps out
there in the great West you may get a start. Of my shortcomings as a
father you know, and I suppose you can never love me as a son should,
but I think you will see some day that I am not a hypocrite, and that I
failed as a father more through neglect and passion than through any
deliberate injustice."
The boy struggled for words to express himself; at last he burst forth:
"I don't blame you at all, only let me go where I can do something worth
while: you bother me so."
The minister dropped his son's hand and a look of the deepest sadness
came over his face. He had failed--Harold was farther away from him than
ever. He turned and went out without another word.
That he had hurt his father Harold knew, but in exactly what other way
he could have acted he could not tell. The overanxiety on the father's
part irritated the boy. Had he been less morbid, less self-accusing, he
would have won. Harold passionately loved strength and decision,
especially in a big man like his father, who looked like a soldier and a
man of action, and who ought not to cry like a woman. If only he would
act all the time as he did when he threw the sheriff across the walk
that day on the street. "I wish he'd stop preaching and go to work at
something," he said to Jack. The psychology of the father's attitude
toward him was incomprehensible. He could get along very well without a
father; why could not his father get along without him? He hated all
this fuss, anyway. It only made him feel sorry and perplexed, and he
wished sincerely that his father would let him alone.
Jack brought a letter from Mary which troubled him.
"I am going home in March, a week before the term ends. Mother
isn't very well, and just as soon as I can I must go. If I do, you
must not forget me."
Of course he wrote in reply, saying:
"Don't you go till I see you. You must come in and see
me. Can't you come in when Jack does, he knows all about us,
COME SURE. I can't go without a good-by kiss. Don't you go
back on me now. Come."
"I'm afraid to come," she replied, "people would find out
everything and talk. Besides you mustn't kiss me. We are not
regularly engaged, and so it would not be right."
"We'll be engaged in about two minutes if you'll meet me with
Jack," he replied. "You're the best girl in the world and I'm
going to marry you when I get rich enough to come back and
build you a house to be in, I'm going out where the cattle
are thick as grasshoppers, and I'm going to be a cattle king
and then you can be a cattle queen and ride around with me on
our ranch, that's what they call a farm out there. Now,
you're my girl and you must wait for me to come back. Don't
you get impatient, sometimes a chap has a hard time just to
get a start, after that it's easy. Jack will go with me, he
will be my friend and share everything.
"Now you come and call me sweetheart and I'll call you angel,
for that's what you are. Get to be a great singer, and go
about the country singing to make men like me good, you can
do it, only don't let them fall in love with you, they do
that too just the way I did, but don't let 'em do it for you
are mine. You're my sweetheart. From your sweetheart,
"HARRY EXCELL, Cattle King."