E-text prepared by John Bickers and Dagny and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D. Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 1646-h.htm or 1646-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/1646/1646-h/1646-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/1646/1646-h.zip) ROADS OF DESTINY by O. HENRY Author of "The Voice of the City," "The Trimmed Lamp," "Strictly Business," "Whirligigs," "Sixes and Sevens," Etc. 1919 [Illustration: "The old medical outrage . . . had a nigger along." (Frontispiece)] CONTENTS I. Roads of Destiny II. The Guardian of the Accolade III. The Discounters of Money IV. The Enchanted Profile V. "Next to Reading Matter" VI. Art and the Bronco VII. Phoebe VIII. A Double-dyed Deceiver IX. The Passing of Black Eagle X. A Retrieved Reformation XI. Cherchez la Femme XII. Friends in San Rosario XIII. The Fourth in Salvador XIV. The Emancipation of Billy XV. The Enchanted Kiss XVI. A Departmental Case XVII. The Renaissance at Charleroi XVIII. On Behalf of the Management XIX. Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking XX. The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss XXI. Two Renegades XXII. The Lonesome Road I ROADS OF DESTINY I go to seek on many roads What is to be. True heart and strong, with love to light-- Will they not bear me in the fight To order, shun or wield or mould My Destiny? Unpublished Poems of David Mignot. The song was over. The words were David's; the air, one of the countryside. The company about the inn table applauded heartily, for the young poet paid for the wine. Only the notary, M. Papineau, shook his head a little at the lines, for he was a man of books, and he had not drunk with the rest. David went out into the village street, where the night air drove the wine vapour from his head. And then he remembered that he and Yvonne had quarrelled that day, and that he had resolved to leave his home that night to seek fame and honour in the great world outside. "When my poems are on every man's tongue," he told himself, in a fine exhilaration, "she will, perhaps, think of the hard words she spoke this day." Except the roisterers in the tavern, the village folk were abed. David crept softly into his room in the shed of his father's cottage and made a bundle of his small store of clothing. With this upon a staff, he set his face outward upon the road that ran from Vernoy.