The Master-Knot of Human Fate | Page 5

room. Her hair was falling about her, and he removed her dusty
shoes, and covered her over as if she had been a child. Then he went
out into the sunlight and sat down on the doorstep and tried to grasp the
situation.
He had been a very ambitious man, and she had been as ambitious for
him as he was for himself; that had been the main bond of union. He
was to have made a great place in the world: the applause of listening
senates was to have been his; wealth, fame, position, all the
possibilities of life were gone; nothing but barely life itself remained. A
living might be wrung from nature, but for ambition,--what? Surely

somewhere on earth there were other human beings; the destruction, if
irreparable, was not universal. Sooner or later some hardy sailor would
find the surviving peaks of this new Atlantis. At least, if the woman
within was not his world, he was thankful that no one else was; and
having looked the grim truth in the face, he too slept.
It was long past noon when the dog wakened him, and he started to his
feet, determined that, having lost all else, they should keep their sound,
clear brains. He walked about the park, which contained perhaps five
hundred acres. There were half a dozen cows, as many horses, some
burros, and a few chickens. There was a rude stable and a few farm
implements. There was a large tunnel in the mountain-side, and some
mining machinery lying about its entrance. The dog, seeming to realize
some of the responsibilities of life, herded the cattle and drove them
toward the cabin. When they reached it, she was standing in the
doorway. She had made her toilet, and looked fresh and calm.
"These are our flocks and our herds," he said in greeting. "What shall
we call them?"
She smiled rather wanly. "Wasn't it Adam who named the animals?
You shall have that honor."
"Very well," he answered; "but if this is the garden, there is an angel
with a flaming sword at the gateway. Do not pass it again. Our life is
here, here,--do you understand? We must give ourselves time to get
used to it, time to realize that we are alive. We must be very patient, for
whatever has befallen us, whether we are in the body or out of it, this
through which we have passed is a miracle, and only time can tell if it
is more. Do not look upon the change again, at least not now. You will
stay here, and we will work together, and be content for awhile?"
"Content?" she said, "content? We will be happy."

II
There is always work, And tools to work withal, for those who will;

And blessed are the horny hands of toil!
LOWELL.
"Do you remember Gabriel Betteredge?" asked Adam, a day or so later,
as he watched her set the house in order after their breakfast. "You
know in times of great mental perturbation he always sought comfort
and counsel from the pages of 'Robinson Crusoe.' When in doubt he
waited until to-morrow, as Robinson advised; and no matter what his
perplexities, he always found just what he wanted in that infallible
book. If I remember correctly, but it's years since I read it, Robinson
goes on a voyage of discovery the first thing."
"He built a raft to get away from the wreck first, I think," she said
reflectively. "Or did he build the raft to get to the wreck? I can't
remember. And then he built a house. Somewhere along there he wrote
down his situation in a deadly parallel; I have sometimes wondered if
he was the inventor of that style. But he offset the debit of being cast
away with gratitude for having escaped with his life. We're not, at least
I'm not, sure that belongs on the credit side."
"We don't want to do much exploring yet," he answered. "If we have no
wreck to supply us with all sorts of things, we have a house ready to
hand, not exactly as we would either of us have ordered it, I fancy, but
better than we could build. Do you know what there is in it? We might
begin our investigations here."
"'With lamp in hand we will explore,'" she hummed, "but two rooms
and a cellar do not promise much. There is nothing to see in this room,
except what we do see, and the contents of that chest, which is locked."
Adam tried the lock, then shook the chest. "There's nothing in it,
anyhow," he said.
"As to the other room," she went on, "there is a bedroom set,--a better
one than I should have expected to find in a