The Preacher of Cedar Mountain: A Tale of the Open CountrySeton, Ernest Thompson
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The Preacher of Cedar Mountain: A Tale of the Open Country
Seton, Ernest Thompson
Clergy -- Fiction; Great Plains -- Fiction; Western stories
"Yes, sir; two hours after the time fixed. But the minister was in the
middle of his prayer and he didn't seem to finish till it came."
The party entered the death house, and at once were ushered into the
room where Shay and Jim were sitting. Jim was weak and worn looking. The
warden announced, "The Governor." Jim rose, and in a moment, Belle was
in his arms. "I knew you would. I knew you would. I got your message. I
prayed without ceasing. I would have been at it yet."
Mike Shay, calm until now, broke down. Tears ran from his small gray
eyes, and clutching the soft hand of his deliverer, he murmured: "There
ain't anything I got too good for the Hartigans. Ye--ye--ye--oh, God
damn it! I can't talk about it!" and he sobbed convulsively.
The Governor shook his hand and said: "Michael Shay, I think the danger
is over so far as you are concerned; all will be well now that Squeaks
is found." Shay mumbled a "thank you." "Don't thank me," replied the man
of power. "You may thank the loyal friends who found the trap and found
the answer and found the Governor, when almost any other man or woman
would have given up."
CHAPTER LIX
The Heart Hunger
When the flood rushes over the meadow and tears the surface smoothness,
it exposes the unmoved rock foundation; when the fire burns down the
flimsy woodwork, it shows in double force the unchanged girders of
steel. Storm and fire in double power and heat had been Jim's lot for
weeks and, in less degree, for months. Now there was a breathing spell,
a time to stop and look at the things beneath.
It was a little thing that gave Belle the real key to a puzzle. It
occurred one afternoon in the apartment and Belle saw it from the inner
room. Jim thought he was alone; he did not know she had returned. He
stood before the picture of Blazing Star, and lifting down the bunch of
sage he smelt it a long time, then sighed a little and put it back.
Belle saw and understood. The rock foundation was unchanged; he loved
and longed for the things he had always loved, and the experiences of
these months had but exposed the granite beneath. The thought that had
been in her heart since the day he put the ring on her finger, rose up
with appalling strength. "He gave up everything for me. I taught him
that his duty lay through college and then made him give that up for
me." She had been quick enough to mark the little turnings of his spirit
toward the West when there were times of relaxation or unguardedness.
But she had hitherto set them down to a general wish to visit former
scenes rather than to a deep, persistent, fundamental craving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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