Engineers -- Fiction; United States -- Fiction; Western stories; Young men -- Fiction
Pen gave a little sigh. Suddenly her tense nerves relaxed and she
settled back in her chair with a little color in her cheeks.
Uncle Denny cleared his throat. "Tell Mrs. Flynn to fetch her some tea
and toast, me boy. Then she must go to bed for a few hours."
The automobile, with Henderson at the wheel, was at the door before
dawn. Jim had sent poor Sara on before midnight. Uncle Denny put Pen
and Jim into the tonneau, then climbed up beside Henderson and the
machine shot swiftly out on the great road.
Pen did not speak for some time and Jim did not disturb her. She looked
back at the Elephant as long as she could discern the great meditative
form in the starlight. Then, after they had gotten into the hills and
were winging like night birds up the mountain road, Jim felt a cold
little hand slip into his lean, warm paw.
Jim's heart gave a thud. He leaned forward to look into Pen's face. It
was dim in the starlight, but he saw that she smiled slightly. Jim
leaned back, feeling as if he could overturn worlds with this thrill in
his veins.
The great road curled like a hair among the dim black mountain tops. The
machine flew lightly. Uncle Denny and Henderson talked quietly, and at
last, under cover of their speech and the whirr of the engine, Pen began
to talk softly to Jim.
"I am hoping that in the years to come I can remember Sara as a college
boy, so full of life and ambition! He was a beautiful boy, Still, wasn't
he?"
"Yes, little Pen, I loved him very much, then."
"Life was unfair to him to give him a greater burden than he was
designed to bear," said Pen. "I shall miss the care of him. I am going
to miss the demands he made on my best spiritual effort. I'm going to
sag like a fiddle string released. If only he has gone on now to a
better chance! Poor, poor tortured Sara!"
Jim rubbed the little twitching fingers and Pen leaned against his
shoulder softly as though she needed his nearness to steady her. She
went on a little brokenly:
"'Envy and calumny and hate and pain
And that unrest which men miscall delight
Can touch him not and torture not again----'
"I guess I won't get over the scarring, Still. I'm so tired."
"You've the priceless gift of youth, dear Penny," said Jim softly. "Go
and play, sweetheart."
There was a long silence. Dawn was marching on the mountain tops.
Penelope watched the silver glory of the star-studded sky and she said
in a steadier tone:
"'Life like a dome of many colored glass
Stains the white radiance of Eternity
Until death tramples it to fragments----'"
A sudden scarlet revealed itself on a far peak. It was like a marvelous
translucent ruby, set in a silver mist.
Uncle Denny turned. "Henderson says we are right on the railroad."
"We are," replied Jim, "and yonder is the train."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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