Part 14 (2/2)

For a moment he stood there, his face working strangely as if he were going to break down, and the men looked away from him. Then he went on in a voice warmly human and tender:

”You and I, boys, we grew up together. I know your wives and children.

You've given me happy hours. I've made you stand for a lot--your old man was considerable boy--had his bad habits, his queer notions. Once in awhile went crazy. But we managed along, quarreling just enough to hit it off together. Remember how I fired Tommy three times in one week?

Couldn't get rid of him. Oh, Tommy, what 'pi' you made of things! Great times we've had, great times. It hurts me raw.” He paused, looking round at them. They were glancing at him furtively with s.h.i.+ning eyes. ”Hurts me raw to think those times are over--for me. But the dead have called me. I go out into another world. I go out into a great fight. I may fail--quite likely I will. But I shall be backed. Your love goes with me, and I've got a big job ahead.” Again he paused, overcome. Then he tried to smile, tried to smooth out the tragic with a forced jocularity.

”Now, boys, behave. Mind you don't work too much. And don't all forget the old man. And--but that's enough, I guess.”

The silence was terrible. Some of those big men were crying softly like stricken children. It was the last requiem over the dead, the last flare-up of the tragic fire. They crowded round Joe. He was blind himself with tears, though he felt a strange quiet in his heart.

And then he was out in the starry autumn night, walking home, murmuring:

”It's all over. That's out of my life.”

And he felt as if something had died within him.

VIII

THE WIND IN THE OAKS

Early Monday evening there came a note from Myra:

I wanted you to know that I am leaving for the country--to-morrow--to get a rest.

MYRA.

Joe at once put on his hat and coat and went out. The last meeting with his men had given him a new strength, a heightened manhood. Like a man doomed to death, he felt beyond despair now. He only knew he must go to Myra and set straight their relations.h.i.+p as a final step before he plunged into the great battle. No more weakness! No more quarreling! But clear words and definite understanding!

He went up the stoop and rang the bell. A servant opened the door, showed him into the dimly lighted parlor, and went up the stairs with his name. He heard her footsteps, light, hesitant. She appeared before him, pale and sick and desperate.

”What do you want?” she asked in a tortured voice.

He arose and came close to her. He spoke authoritatively:

”Myra, get on your things. We must take a walk.”

Her s.h.i.+fting eyes glanced up, gave him their full luminous gray and all the trouble of her heart.

”Myra,” his voice deepened, and struck through her, ”you must go with me to-night. It's our last chance.”

She turned and was gone. He heard her light footsteps ascending; he waited, wondering, hoping; and then she came down again, showing her head at the door. She had on the little rounded felt hat, and she carried her m.u.f.f.

They went out together, saying nothing, stepping near one another under the lamps and over the avenues, and into the Park. It was a strange, windy night, touched with the first bleakness of winter, tinged with the moaning melancholy of the tossing oak-trees, and with streaks of faint reflected city lights in the far heavens.

It was their last night together. Both knew it. There was no help for it. The great issues of life were sweeping them away into black gulfs of the future, where there might never be meeting again, never hand-touch nor sound of each other's voice. And strangely life deepened in their hearts, and they were swept by the mystery of being alive ... alive in the star-streaked darkness of s.p.a.ce, alive with so many other brief creatures that brightened for a moment in the gloom and then sank away into the stormy heart of nature. And Love contended with Death, and the little labors of man helped Death to crush Love; and so that moment of existence, that brief span, became a mere brute struggle, a clash, a fight, a thing sordid and worse than death.

Out of the mystery, each, from some unimaginable distance, had come forth and met here on the earth, met for a wild moment, a moment that gave them lightning-lit glimpses of that mystery, only to part from each other now, each to return into the darkness.

They felt in unison more than they could ever say. And it was the last night together.

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