The Pointing Man eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 252 pages of information about The Pointing Man.

The Pointing Man eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 252 pages of information about The Pointing Man.

“He had seen and recognized Rydal, and he had the craftiness to realize that his knowledge was of value.  Next day everyone in Mangadone knew that the hue and cry was out after the absconded clerk.  He had betrayed his trust, cheated and defrauded his employers, and left his wife to die alone, for she died that night, and I was with her.  That was the story in Mangadone.  It was known in the Bazaar, and how or when it came to the ears of the Chinaman I cannot tell you, but out of his knowledge he came to me, and I paid him to keep silence.  He has come several times of late, and I will give him no more money.  Rydal is safe.  I have heard from him, and the law will hardly catch him now.  I know my complicity, I know my own danger, but I have never regretted it.”  Again the surging flood of passion swept into Heath’s voice.  “What is my life or my reputation set against the value of one living soul?  Rydal is working honestly, his penitence is no mere matter of protestation, his whole nature has been strengthened by the awful experience he has passed through.  How it may appear to others I cannot say, and do not greatly care.  In the eyes of God I am vindicated, and stand clear of blame.”

He towered gaunt against the light from the window behind him, and though Coryndon could not see his face, he knew that it was lighted with a great rapture of self-denial and spiritual glory.

“You need fear no further trouble from the boy,” he said, rising to his feet.  “I can tell you that definitely.  I am neither a judge nor a bishop, Mr. Heath, but I can tell you honestly from my heart that I think you were justified.”

He went out into the darkness that had come black over the evening during the hour he had sat with Heath, and as he walked back to the bungalow he thought of the man he had just left.  There had been no need for Coryndon to question him about Mrs. Wilder:  her secret mission to the river interested him no further.  Heath had protected her and had kept silence where her name was concerned, and yet she chose to belittle him in her idle, insolent fashion.

He thought of Heath sitting by the bed of the dying woman, and he thought of him following the wake of the Lady Helen down the dark river with sad, sorrowful eyes, and through the thought there came a strange thrill to his own soul, because he touched the hem of the garment of the Everlasting Mercy, hidden away, pushed out of life, and forgotten in garrulous hours full of idle chatter.

Yet Mrs. Wilder had announced with her regal finality no less than three times in the hearing of Coryndon the previous evening that the Rev. Francis Heath was “a bore.”

XIX

IN WHICH LEH SHIN WHISPERS A STORY INTO THE EAR OF SHIRAZ, THE PUNJABI; THE BURDEN OF WHICH IS:  “HAVE I FOUND THEE, O MINE ENEMY?”

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Project Gutenberg
The Pointing Man from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.