Show the limited mail K B ELMER E YANCE VANCE caf A love story of steel rails 1 1 tile the doctor snapped his bag soberly bob Nat watching ching s saw tm the mid midwife ife sirs mrs 0 lear dearv clutch the baby close to her in i a scared way na saw ran the minister wet ct his ili lips lifts the doctor in whose face acio cie the lines and tile the cares of hird fights ind and harder cespon responsibilities conceded words that ili ins voice failed to beir bear then seemed to expect that tile the testimony of his face would serve sene beyond ond the need of speech gut but jim in a sudden ull cn frena caught hold bold of him and shook him my aly boy the doctor forced himself to say in in an awkwardly flat and fired voice noice lour wife ife I 1 is dead CHAPTER III bob the shabby anti and ed cd hobo in that tragic moment had a laaden feeling that lie he was as sacrilegiously out of place and avi wished bed that lie he a thousand disinterested miles away aal dut but this selfish elf i thought was a dismissed the next instant b bv a self forgetful I 1 wave ave of human sympathy for the man who lie ind befriended him over oer that fine and idealistic face 0 so o flushed with ith love loe and adoring pride and happy expectations only a fe few momo nets ets before there no now came such frozen and bloodless as might be on the face of a lost soul before the rinal final car bar struggling to grasp the sentence of eternal con dem nation lie he has just heard pronounced by the maker bob ila had never seen such naked tragedy he felt himself relaxing limply against the janil jamb of the doorway ay through which lie he had barely stepped jim on rigid limbs moed moved stifle stiffly toward a darl dark door the ae sepulchral ral silence of this outer room seemed a hallowed measure for that inner one the doctor knowing full well the deNa devastating stating menace of such a pent up flood of emotion shook jim a as if in an effort to break loose looe the key log of his emotions come jim my lad dont dont 11 but even the professional Nit witness nebs to grief realized the futility of words here and now non and fo forc bore jim had neither heard nor felt for a long long time these four doctor and minister nurse and hobo stared toward the un voluble darkness of the door to that room wherein was nas entombed life and love loe hope and hap no sound carne came from this first and last meeting of living liing death and dead life no sound to iellene the anxiety of the doctor wise in such crises or of the woman koman who ibo held in her arms the restless wriggling 1 living cost of the sacrifice the doctor said at length ile he must break and cry or he be too will go the silence became so op oppressive that the slow and tense breathing of tile the four adults the fretting of the newborn the unduly guined ticking of a mantel clock somewhere onic bere the rasping whisper I usper of the gas jet and like a mourn mourners erb dirge the vague ague mur eurings of the shut out tempest only seemed to make it more tangibly real and intense it was nas a breathing curiously alert silence bob never knew how dionn long that wait ait that silence that frightened tableau eau of watchers endured it might have been a minute or an hour but it was as unfading lv inked in the white memory cells of ili his mind with the in of du autless dut ales less slow infirm steps and jim emerged from the dark tomb the lines of his agony had set dr dry anti and hard on his face his dully bright eves cues stared straight ahead seeing nothing or at least nothing that was as within the ken of those who he Nat watched ched him so oblivious livious was lie he to external impre impressions that lie he did not c cv en blink in the sharp change from the blackness of the loom of death to the brightness of this room of new nenn life he walked toward ard the lutei door and the storm the ilie doctor with the kindly ignorance anti and blundering psychology of his class to whom grief is a generic thing to be met and humored anil and broken thus and so said come jim slipping lipping an arm round around the noung mans shoulders shoulder with ith the fa license of a life long healer and friend come my mv bov boi then adding lamely inar inwardly dIv baffled b bv the in insufficiency af fici ency of his power of suggestion it cant be helped chete s nothing to be done cry now noi have hae a good cry it will do you good jim lid did not even cen know inov to shake hake the restraining arm off ile he merely walked alk unheeding from under it the minister stepped after him with gingery softness and said monotonously ly why not tr try prayer my son n seek N bour our comfort and solace in the final hope of all those who ho grieve grice 1 ii I jim shook the mim min itei aci s blue white kubite hands off as is though they were ere sticky caterpillars go to hell lie said in a 10 low thin tone anil and walked on as if lie he had neithel heard nor spoken 10 lo bob as ii a disinterested observer it appeared that the ministers quick discomfiture grew out or oc ruffled htide in lu his own on sense of weakness rather than sm path pathetic betic feeling for jim bob felt himself elf an audience to a shadow hadow diama here was life bared to its essentials here was a tiny hinterland parlor transformed into a tragic stage last urged b bv instincts de developed eloped in the loie and tradition of her sex sek that told hei bei the canny camil thing to do in such a case mrs olcar impo imposed ed hei lei matronly bulk in jims vay ay and held out to him his new nen bom boin rake the little one jimmy she said tremulously jim automatically recci received ed th the e in jant fint into his outstretched hands hand and a concerted sigh announced the belief of the professional viat Nate cheis beis that sur cease foi jim was as at liand hand bob li oever seeing in jim jims face a lull dull insensibility of what lie was doing was not fooled it yas nas well that lie he had not ben been for with the oti ers terii tem off glaid there would ilac have been a ante climax to the trag tragedy cl for jim with ith a sudden snarled gnarled curse curie as he realized th it he be was nas holding the baby bab the hateful price of a tided io lose e raised it to dish 11 1 1 h it to tile the floor bob was barely quick enough to snatch the infant from its peril ilien ihen jim with a dr dry laugh that raised brittle echoes in the room disappeared out into the night ile he must be fol followed loed cried the doctor or he may ma harm himself I 1 lie he must agreed the lobust minister dob bob pushed public the infant hack back against the ample bosom of mrs irb oleat 1 I was thinking of that he said aid quietly to the doctor take cire of him from that tuffs stuffy parlor into the unsheltered outer night was nas only a step but it carried bob into a different world orld he was nas glad to get out though anil and to offer his bare head and bilked biked cheeks to the cleansing vigor of the elements out licie heie somehow monicho on icho the tragedy did not seem so concentrated anti and poignant and were nere no walls alls to reflect the sounds anti and the sights of gref rob nob came to a pause on the pitch of wet grass that was as in more seemly times a front lawn lan it was as difficult to discern anything through the veil neil of ram rain but hally fin all he made out jim a few fen rods away aal anti anil hurried after him in his tense personalization of the s situation it never neer occurred to him that the sound of footsteps could not be above aboe the toini so involuntarily lie he troll trod on tiptoe it was an unnecessary nicety though it would have hae been unnecessary even een though they walked with non lion shod shoes in marble tombs for jim fouler was as dead to the sounds bounds of reality of tile the storm form anti anil the world lie he plodded stiffly biffl chin in shoulders square and arms ba b ili his sides as a corpse might walk alk with jerking cataleptic bob clutched up his threadbare coat close to his throat alie ahe as followed for tile the rain lapping clapping into ili his face and dribbling down donn inside his clothes chilled him through and through ile he was bareheaded lie he had left his cap where chere he had dropped it on a chair in the fowler fouler pallor pailor dob bob glanced back once in the direction of the little cottage the onh sign of its existence ei stence was as a pale nel ei low lon spot of light glimmering through the cascading window pinc ine that bit of light meant interior comfort and warmth and the hobo choked with nith selfish self ih resentfulness at the spiteful fate that did riot not stop at wrecking reeking a strange home in older to make him uncomfortable at least so it seemed to him for lie he had acquired a personal injure complex life was always closing doors door in his face what sill sills trick of fate nah w as it that had turned him outcast and pariah to participation in an affair of human experience that was nas none of hi his business ne s what mechanism of social intercourse ter course was it that kept his feet plodding after a stranger he had bad not known b sight or word nord until a brief hour before bob stopped in his track it truck struck him as sheer beer nonsense that he should be following this man like a derelict guardian angel the hobo philosophy of potts and of spike and their kind occurred to him what the hell difference does anything make what difference the thing lie he wanted mot most now non was an obscure but sheltered nook in the height ards a barrel or a shanty preferably prefer abl near the ni 11 carious canous heat of the locomotives dumping pit safe from sticks and boot bob with a shrug turned and set his face to retrace ins us steps tohaid tow aid the widespread diffusion of I 1 light against the night sky on lower land ian to the eat that marked the chater chater city city railroad bard cheze was nas the pale of hirn him and his social kind ind on nights like this thib lie had no business wandering from it now NONN with kith his mind made up and his steps already alread retracing acing their i bob glinted bick back with un uneas cur cunos io s 1 it tn after the in min inin in who had ac as tr tried jet 1 t to efriend befriend 1 him but lie he experienced no sense of gratitude only dogs felt gratitude jim seemed to lie be along a sort of ridge some distance abone dob bob and the play of lightning against the unobstructed sky beyond the ridgeline rul rid geline sered to keep his stiff 1 figure in almost constant I 1 silhouette As bol bob Nat watched batched ched lie he saw san jim in ins his trance walk alk into a tree stagger back and fall heavily tile the pool pooi deml lei il lie he muttered I 1 lie he any idea of what lies hes doing or baie hes going ie got to watch atoll him or lie he will lie ile killed involuntarily bob changed his ir resolute reo lute course once more anti and hurried along at a penitent dogtrot to regain the ground he had lost to pick jim up before bob could reach him ho however eer jim arose and resumed his Golz wa an bob fell into step behind him as becote betote and admitted to himself with the usual sheepish Ilce confusion of an inconsistent cynic that it was not doglike gratitude but rather a genuine personal inte interest I 1 est iest and liking that mide him his ili bi brothers others keeper heeper their way ay led sharply upwards dpn ards no now along z the seam of the ridge and bob winded anil and laboring with N itil wearied legs and feet marellen manel marel led at the inward potters of emotional strength that were ere keeping the slender young bourg mill bleik forging ahead with no visible slackening of pice or poise dob bob beg begin gin in to fear for jim mightily this alii strained restriction of a flood of grief behind a dam dain of d aled teed ment menta allt lih was as bound to result in a fearful cracking of body and soul and mind that might sweep cep him to deith death or worse insanity to be continued |