Yes, that was it, he would kill Gibson.  It was no worse than his present state.  Then it would be father and son murderers.  They would hang him or send him back to prison.  Neither would be hard now.  He laughed to himself.

And this was what they had let him out of prison for?  To find out all this.  Why had they not left him there to die in ignorance?  What had he to do with all these people who gave him sympathy?  What did he want of their sympathy?  Could they give him back one tithe of what he had lost?  Could they restore to him his wife or his son or his daughter, his quiet happiness or his simple faith?

He went to work for the Universe, but night after night, armed, he patrolled the sidewalk in front of Fannie’s house.  He did not know Gibson, but he wanted to see them together.  Then he would strike.  His vigils kept him from his bed, but he went to the next morning’s work with no weariness.  The hope of revenge sustained him, and he took a savage joy in the thought that he should be the dispenser of justice to at least one of those who had wounded him.

Finally he grew impatient and determined to wait no longer, but to seek his enemy in his own house.  He approached the place cautiously and went up the steps.  His hand touched the bell-pull.  He staggered back.

“Oh, my Gawd!” he said.

There was crape on Fannie’s bell.  His head went round and he held to the door for support.  Then he turned the knob and the door opened.  He went noiselessly in.  At the door of Fannie’s room he halted, sick with fear.  He knocked, a step sounded within, and his wife’s face looked out upon him.  He could have screamed aloud with relief.

“It ain’t you!” he whispered huskily.

“No, it ‘s him.  He was killed in a fight at the race-track.  Some o’ his frinds are settin’ up.  Come in.”

He went in, a wild, strange feeling surging at his heart.  She showed him into the death-chamber.

As he stood and looked down upon the face of his enemy, still, cold, and terrible in death, the recognition of how near he had come to crime swept over him, and all his dead faith sprang into new life in a glorious resurrection.  He stood with clasped hands, and no word passed his lips.  But his heart was crying, “Thank God! thank God! this man’s blood is not on my hands.”

The gamblers who were sitting up with the dead wondered who the old fool was who looked at their silent comrade and then raised his eyes as if in prayer.

* * * * *

When Gibson was laid away, there were no formalities between Berry and his wife; they simply went back to each other.  New York held nothing for them now but sad memories.  Kit was on the road, and the father could not bear to see his son; so they turned their faces southward, back to the only place they could call home.  Surely the people could not be cruel to them now, and even if they were, they felt that after what they had endured no wound had power to give them pain.