The Country Beyond eBook

James Oliver Curwood
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 319 pages of information about The Country Beyond.

The Country Beyond eBook

James Oliver Curwood
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 319 pages of information about The Country Beyond.

“I’m goin’ with you,” she protested.  “I’m goin’ with you—­and Peter!”

“You can’t—­now,” he said.  “I’ve got to go alone, Nada.  I went back—­and I killed Jed Hawkins.”

Over the roof of the cabin rolled a crash of thunder.  As the explosion of it rocked the floor under their feet, Jolly Roger pointed to a door, and said,

“Father, if you will leave us alone—­just a minute—­”

White-faced, clutching the wallet, the little gray Missioner nodded, and went to the door, and as he opened it and entered into the darkness of the other room he saw Jolly Roger McKay open wide his arms, and the girl go into them.  After that the storm broke.  The rain descended in a deluge upon the cabin roof.  The black night was filled with the rumble and roar and the hissing lightning-flare of pent-up elements suddenly freed of bondage.  And in the darkness and tumult the Missioner stood, a little gray man of tragedy, of deeply buried secrets, a man of prayer and of faith in God—­his heart whispering for guidance and mercy as he waited.  The minutes passed.  Five.  Ten.  And then there came a louder roaring of the storm, shut off quickly, and the little Missioner knew that a door was opened—­and closed.

He lifted the latch, and looked out again into the lampglow.  Huddled at the side of a chair on the floor, her arms and face buried in the lustrous, disheveled mass of her shining hair—­lay Nada, and close beside her was Peter.  He went to her.  Tenderly he knelt down beside her.  His thin arm went about her, and as the storm raved and shrieked above them he tried to comfort her—­and spoke of God.

And through that storm, his head bowed, his heart gone, went Jolly Roger McKay—­heading north.

CHAPTER VIII

Peter, thrust back from the door through which through which his master had gone, listened vainly for the sound of returning footsteps in the beat of rain and the crash of thunder outside.  A strange thing had burned itself into his soul, a thing that made his flesh quiver and set hot fires running in his blood.  As a dog sometimes senses the stealthy approach of death, so he began to sense the tragedy of this night that had brought with it not only a chaos of blackness and storm, but an anguish which roused an answering whimper in his throat as he turned toward Nada.

She was crumpled with her head in her arms, where she had flung herself with Jolly Roger’s last kiss of worship on her lips, and she was sobbing like a child with its heart broken.  And beside her knelt the old gray Missioner, man of God in the deep forest, who stroked her hair with his thin hand, whispering courage and consolation to her, with the wind and rain beating overhead and the windows rattling to the accompaniment of ghostly voices that shrieked and wailed in the tree-tops outside.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Country Beyond from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.