Where the Trail Divides

Where the Trail Divides

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Where the Trail Divides, by Will
Lillibridge
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Title: Where the Trail Divides
Author: Will Lillibridge
Release Date: March 23, 2004 [eBook #11683]
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE
THE TRAIL DIVIDES***
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WHERE THE TRAIL DIVIDES
By WILL LILLIBRIDGE

Author of "BEN BLAIR," Etc.
With Frontispiece in Colors By The Kinneys
1907

CONTENTS
I. PRESENTIMENT
II. FULFILMENT
III. DISCOVERY
IV. RECONSTRUCTION
V. THE LAND OF LICENCE
VI. THE RED MAN AND THE WHITE
VII. A GLIMPSE OF THE UNKNOWN
VIII. THE SKELETON WITHIN THE CLOSET
IX. THE VOICE OF THE WILD
X. THE CURSE OF THE CONQUERED
XI. THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE
XII. WITHIN THE CONQUEROR'S OWN COUNTRY
XIII. THE MYSTERY OF SOLITUDE
XIV. FATE, THE SATIRIST
XV. THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

XVI. THE RECKONING
XVII. SACRIFICE
XVIII. REWARD
XIX. IN SIGHT OF GOD ALONE
CHAPTER I
PRESENTIMENT
The man was short and fat, and greasy above the dark beard line. In
addition, he was bowlegged as a greyhound, and just now he moved
with a limp as though very footsore. His coarse blue flannel shirt, open
at the throat, exposed a broad hairy chest that rose and fell mightily
with the effort he was making. And therein lay the mystery. The sun
was hot--with the heat of a cloudless August sun at one o'clock of the
afternoon. The country he was traversing was wild,
unbroken--uninhabited apparently of man or of beast. Far to his left,
just visible through the dancing heat rays, indistinct as a mirage, was a
curling fringe of green trees. To his right, behind him, ahead of him
was not a tree nor a shrub nor a rock the height of a man's head; only
ungrazed, yellowish-green sun-dried prairie grass. The silence was
complete. Not even a breath of wind rustled the grass; yet ever and
anon the man paused glanced back the way he had come, listened, his
throat throbbing with the effort of repressed breathing, in obvious
expectation of a sound he did not hear; then, for the time relieved,
forged ahead afresh, one hand gripping the butt of an old Springfield
rifle slung over his shoulder, the other, big, unclean, sunbrowned,
swinging like a pendulum at his side.
Ludicrous, unqualifiedly, the figure would have been in civilisation,
humorous as a clown in a circus; but seeing it here, solitary, exotic, no
observer would have laughed. Fear, mortal dogging fear, impersonate,
supreme, was in every look, every action. Somewhere back of that
curved line where met the earth and sky, lurked death. Nothing else
would have been adequate to arouse this phlegmatic human as he was

now aroused. The sweat oozed from his thick neck in streams and
dripped drop by drop from the month-old stubble which covered his
chin, but apparently he never noticed it. Now and then he attempted to
moisten his lips; but his tongue was dry as powder, and they closed
again, parched as before.
No road nor trail, nor the semblance of a trail, marked the way he was
going; the hazy green fringe far to the east was his only landmark; yet
as hour after hour went by and the sun sank lower and lower he never
halted, never seemed in doubt as to his destination. The country was
growing more rolling now, almost hilly, and he approached each rise
cautiously, vigilantly. Once, almost at his feet a covey of frightened
prairie chickens sprang a-wing, and at the unexpected sound he
dropped like a stone in his tracks, all but concealing himself in the tall
grass; then, reassured, he was up again, plodding doggedly, ceaselessly
on.
It was after sundown when he paused; and then only from absolute
physical inability to go farther. Outraged nature had at last rebelled, and
not even fear could suffice longer to stimulate him. The grass was wet
with dew, and prone on his knees he moistened his lips therefrom as
drinks many another of the fauna of the prairie. Then, flat on his back,
not sleeping, but very wide awake, very watchful, he lay awaiting the
return of strength. Upon the fringe of hair beneath the brim of his hat
the sweat slowly dried; then, as the dew gathered thicker and thicker,
dampened afresh. Far to the east, where during the day had appeared
the fringe of green, the sky lightened, almost brightened; until at last,
like a