The Roadmaker lay at the edge of the cliff and looked out on a green
sea flecked with white, whose restless soul, holding to some eternal
purpose, forever attains and relinquishes in peace and storm, in
laughter or tears.
A week had passed since the attempt on Christopher's life for which
Ann Barty had paid so high a price. Happily for Christopher, it had
been a week so full of affairs that although they were mostly in
connection with the one thing, yet they claimed his outward active
attention to the exclusion of the inner point of view. The unhappy man
from Birmingham was found, when he recovered from the seizure, to be
in a semi-imbecile state with no knowledge of his deed and was
accordingly handed over to the authorities proper to his condition. He
was easily traced to the works from which he had been harshly enough
discharged, as it turned out on investigation, and Christopher came
into active opposition with the directors of the Steel Axle Company
over the question of providing for his wife and children. It had been
impossible to keep the affair quiet and there had been innumerable
reporters to circumvent, and more innumerable friends from far and
near, eager to express their interest in his providential escape.
Little Dick Barty received more honour in death than in life and the
bereaved mother drew more consolation from the impressive funeral than
poor Christopher.
Mr. Saunderson bustled down in well-meant concern for Christopher's
well-being, and received certain emphatic instructions, which he took
with shrewd docility, and a wink of his eye to the world.
All the while, as he went through the day's particular and general
business, the wild words in the rasping, incoherent voice haunted
Christopher so persistently that he heard them through the
enthusiastic platitudes of congratulations, the calm official
statements of plain facts, behind even Patricia's healing voice of
love. It was not till the following Sunday he awoke to find a
stillness instead of clamour, calm instead of turmoil. He rose early
while the day was still holding the hand of dawn and went out to the
cliff edge, as if there in the heaving waters he might read the
Eternal Meaning and Purpose of it all. He thought how every individual
man is one with the great tide of humanity, advancing with it,
receding with it, subject to one eternal law he could not read. How
the suffering and sin of one was the burden of all: the heroic
endeavours and victories of one the gain of all. The little isolated
aim of the individual must subject itself to the wider meaning or be
swept back to nothingness, just as the stranded pools among the rocks
that for a few hours caught the sunshine and reflected the heavenly
lamp, but were overswept each tide and their being mingled again with
the great sea.
Christopher knew the work he had done had been good, that hundreds
were the happier for his direct concern with their lives, that he
indeed had made the Road of Life more possible for those who would set
out thereon for far or nearer goals. It was all he aspired to do. He
knew it was not his to show them the goal, or to direct them thereto;
that was for themselves and others; but it was his to make the way
possible, that they need not stumble on unbroken ground, or toil in
blinding dust of ages, or wade in clogging mud of tradition, these
children of the world who tramped with patient feet to a vague end.
What was wrong was that he had chosen his own ground, that when he
had stood at the cross roads of life he held himself qualified as a
god to say "that road is evil and this good," taking council only of
what was most in accord with his own will, forgetting that the Great
Power embraces all within itself, knowing no good or evil, but seeing
only a means to fulfil the eternal purpose of creation. It is we who
must be the alchemists to transmute what we term evil into good, we,
who are the servants and instruments by which that purpose must be
achieved. If, seeing evil, we pass by on the other side, how shall the
waste places of the earth be cleansed or the wilderness break forth
into song?
The message so roughly delivered had sunk into Christopher's heart at
last. Looking back at his life he saw how everything had fitted him
for the task he had refused. How he was born to it, trained to its
needs unconsciously by his mother and Cæsar, shaped by his own
experience, armed by the completion of his inner life in his marriage.
He had refused it with blindness, had closed his ears to the voice of
thousands who had called to him in the unattractive voice of a
conventional law. It had taken the deafening report of a madman's
pistol and the sight of a dead child to teach him the lesson.
At that thought he hid his face in his arm on the short turf and lay
very still.
The sea sung its endless Te Deum below him, a lark soared high to
heaven with its morning hymn, and the wind, rustling along the cliff
edge, breathed strength to the land. Day stood free and open upon
earth and called for service from those to whom the Dominion of the
earth is promised. Only by service comes lordship, only by obedience
can be found command.
At the moment of renunciation, Christopher realised for the first time
the greatness of the cost and knew how dear his life and surroundings
were to him. The Roadmaker had been his own master; the successor of
Peter Masters must be the servant of thousands. The work here would go
on, there were men ready to take his place, but he found no salve in
the thought. Deep in his heart he knew he feared the grim struggle
that lay before him, the uprooting of the old "system," the
antagonism, the necessary compromises, the slow result. His age, or
rather his youth, would be a heavy weapon against him. How could he
hope to make his voice heard above the dictates of a dozen committees
of men intent on their personal interests? He told himself
passionately the thing was Impossible, and as quickly came the
remembrance of the hoarse cry for help that had made itself heard
above the report of Plent's pistol.
Step by step through the door of humility he reached the hall of
Audience and in silence surrendered himself to the eternal Purpose.
At length he again stood on the edge and looked out to sea and for the
moment the simplicity instead of the complexity of life visible and
invisible, was written on the face of the deep. He stood bareheaded
and read the message thankfully and went back to the house with peace
in his heart.
He found a new beauty in the house he had made for himself, and as
Patricia came down the garden path to meet him, he was glad for the
real worth of the outward things he must surrender.
She met him with a question on her lips which was not uttered in face
of what she saw in his eyes. They stood for a moment with clasped
hands and he looked at her smiling, and she at him gravely, and
presently they walked to a corner of the garden overlooking the sea,
from where each dear beauty of the place was visible.
"Will it hurt you greatly to leave it, dear?" he asked, prefacing the
inevitable with question of her will to do so.
"Just as much as it will hurt you. No more or less," she answered, her
head against his arm. "But I am glad it is so good to leave."
"That's my mind, too. How do you know what I mean, though?"
"I've always known it must come, Christopher."
She spoke low and looked away, weakly hoping for the moment he would
leave it at that, but Christopher never left uncertain points behind
him.
"You knew I should come to take this other work--this inheritance?"
She nodded. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to him.
"Why didn't you tell me so, Patricia?"
"I was so sure you would know yourself. I hated to be the one to
speak," her voice shook a little. "Oh, forgive me, Christopher,
dearest," she cried suddenly, "it was weak of me, for I did know
always, only I wanted all this for a little time so badly. Just a
taste of the beautiful good life you had planned. I thought it would
not matter, just two years."
He put his arms round her and drew her close.
"We have had it, beloved. It has been beyond anything I ever dreamt.
Only--" his voice broke a little, "we must remember it had to be paid
for--No, no," he cried, seeing the wave of sorrow sweep over her face,
"not you. It is I who should have known and listened. My fault!"
"It is I who should have spoken," she said steadily, "we can't divide
ourselves even in this, dear, but we can bear it together."
"And pay the debt together," he added and raised her face to his and
kissed her. And they crossed the Threshold of the New with this
understanding between them.