Through every hour of this awful night Tom Camp was in his room
praying--his face now streaming with tears, now dry and white with the
unspoken terror that could stop the beat of his heart. His white hair
and snow-white beard were dishevelled, as he unconsciously tore them
with his trembling hands. Now he was crying in an agony of intensity,
“As thy servant of old wrestled with the angel of the Lord through the
night, so, oh God, will I lie at Thy feet and wrestle and pray! I will
not let Thee go until Thou bless me! Though I perish, let her live!
I have lost all and praised Thee still. Lord, Thou canst not leave me
desolate!”
From the pain of his wound and the exhaustion of soul and body he
fainted once with his lips still moving in prayer. For more than an hour
he lay as one dead. When he revived, he looked at his clock and it was
but an hour till dawn.
Again he fell on his knees, and again the broken accents of his husky
voice could be heard wrestling with God. Now he would beg and plead
like a child, and then he would rise in the unconscious dignity of an
immortal soul in combat with the powers of the infinite and his language
was in the sublime speech of the old Hebrew seers!
Just before the sun rose the signal gun pealed its message of life, ONE!
TWO! in rapid succession.
Tom sprang to his feet with blazing eyes. _One! Two!_ echoed the guns
from another hill, and fainter grew its repeated call from group to
group of the searchers.
“There! Glory to God!” He screamed at the top of his voice, the last
note of his triumphant shout breaking into sobs. “God be praised! I knew
they would find her--she’s not dead, she’s alive! _alive!_ oh! my soul,
lift up thy head!”
The tramp of swift feet was heard at the door and Gaston told him with
husky stammering voice, “She’s alive Tom, but unconscious. I ’ll have
her brought to the house. She was found just where your spring branch
runs into the Flat Rock, not five hundred yards from here in those
woods. Stay where you are. We will bring her in a minute.”
Gaston bounded back to the scene.
Tom paid no attention to his orders to stay at home, but sprang after
him jumping and falling and scrambling up again as he followed. Before
they knew it he was upon the excited tearful group that stood in a
circle around the child’s body.
Gaston, who was standing on the opposite side from Tom’s approach, saw
him and shouted, “My God, men, stop him! Don’t let him see her yet!” But
Tom was too quick for them. He brushed aside, the boy who caught at him,
as though a feather, crying, “Stand back!”
The circle of men fell away from the body and in a moment Tom stood over
it transfixed with horror.
Flora lay on the ground with her clothes torn to shreds and stained with
blood. Her beautiful yellow curls were matted across her forehead in a
dark red lump beside a wound where her skull had been crushed. The stone
lay at her side, the crimson mark of her life showing on its jagged
edges.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account