The Colossus | Page 8

a contest-ground, soon ended the struggle.
On a brown hill-top they met the sunrise, and from a drowsy
roosting-place they flushed a flock of greenish birds. Witherspoon
stood in his stirrups and waved his hat. "Good-by," he cried, "but you
needn't have got up so soon. We didn't want you. Hank," he said,
turning sideways in his saddle, "I think we can get there in about five
days, at the pace we'll be compelled to go; and we can sell these mules
or give them away, just as we like. Going home! I can't get the
strangeness of it out of my head. And a sister, too, mind you. I'm
beginning to feel like a man now. You see, uncle wanted me to be a
boy as long as I could, and it was only of late that he began to tell me
that I must put aside foolishness; but I am beginning to feel like a man
now."
"You will need to feel like one when you take up your new
responsibilities. You are playing now, but it may be serious enough
after a while."
"What! Don't preach, Hank. Responsibilities! Why, I'll throw them over
my shoulder like a twine string. But let me tell you something. There's
one thing I'm not going to allow--they shan't say a word against that old

man. Oh, I know the trouble and grief he brought about, but by
gracious, he had a cause. If--if--mother didn't love him, why did she
say that if he didn't love her she would go away somewhere and grieve
herself to death? That was no way to treat a fellow, especially a fellow
that loves you like the mischief. And besides, why did father cut him
out? Pretty mean thing for a man to slip around and steal his brother's
sweetheart. In this country it would mean blood."
"You are a jewel, my boy."
"No, I'm simply just. Of course, two wrongs don't make a right, as the
saying has it, but a wrong with a cause is half-way right, and I'll tell
them at the very start that they better not talk about the matter. In fact, I
told them so in the letter. You've had a pretty hard time of it, haven't
you, Hank?"
"I shouldn't want an enemy's dog to have a harder one," DeGolyer
answered.
"But you've got a good education."
"So has the hog that picks up cards and tells the time of day," said
DeGolyer, "but what good does that do him? He has to work harder
than other hogs, and is kept hungry so that he may perform with more
sprightliness. But if I have a good education, my boy, I stole it, and I
shouldn't be surprised at any time to meet an officer with a warrant of
arrest sworn out against me by society."
"Good; but you didn't steal trash at any rate. But, Hank, you look for
the dark when the light would serve you better. Don't do it. Throw off
your trouble."
"Oh, I'm not disposed to look so much for the dark as you may imagine.
Throw it off! That's good advice. It is true that we may sometimes
throw off a trouble, but we can't very well throw off a cause. Some
natures are like a piece of fly-paper--a sorrow alights and sticks there.
But that isn't my nature. It doesn't take much to make me contented."
The weather remained pleasant, and the travelers were within a day's
ride of Dura, when Witherspoon complained one morning of feeling ill,
and by noon be could scarcely sit in his saddle.
"Let us stop somewhere," DeGolyer urged.
"No," Witherspoon answered, "let us get to Dura as soon as we can.
I've got a fever, haven't I?"
DeGolyer leaned over and placed his hand on Witherspoon's forehead.

"Yes, you have."
"The truth is, I haven't felt altogether right since the first day after we
started, but I thought it would wear off."
When they reached Dura, Witherspoon was delirious. Not a ship was in
port, and DeGolyer took him to an inn and summoned such medical aid
as the hamlet afforded. The physician naturally gave the case a
threatening color, and it followed that he was right, for at the close of
the fourth day the patient gave no promise of improvement. The
innkeeper said that sometimes a month passed between the landing of
ships at that point. The fifth day came. DeGolyer sat by the bedside of
his friend, fanning him. The doctor had called and had just taken his
leave.
"Give me some water, Hank."
"Ah, you are coming around all right, my boy," DeGolyer cried. He
brought the water; and when the patient drank and shook his head as a
signal to take away the cup,