Clarence Budington Kelland

“ Your boy loves to see any creature scamper before his pursuit in terror.
Angus’s face went wild, his eyes distended, his mouth opened so that his teeth gleamed through, and, head down, he charged the line of his tormentors. His was the unreasoning fury of deadly fear. He kicked, he screamed, he struck out with fists and butted with his head. In an instant there was a seething, scrambling, rolling mêlée, a bedlam of shouts and cries of sudden pain.... Then Angus, crying with fear, worked himself free of the mass and took to his heels in a wild scurry for the refuge of Dave Wilkins’s office. ”

“ As they walked, Trueman repeated the story he had heard from Angus Burke’s lips.
“And there you have it,” he ended as they sat down at a table littered with proof sheets, in a room odorous with printers’ ink and glue and the myriad allied and alluring scents of the craft. “It must be true, because only an extraordinary imagination could have invented it.”
“A new test of credibility. If a thing passes imagination it is, therefore, true. If a man who tells you a story has the brains to invent it, it is a lie; if it’s a stretch above his capacity, it’s the truth.” ”

“ Since the tale had first spread from Gene Goff’s lips while yet Angus was in pursuit of the Judge it had been enlarged, garbled, distorted—but the one fact stood out distinct and admirable in every telling—the money was safe.... And so Angus Burke came into his own at last, not through greatness of soul; not through fineness under trials; not because of the splendidness of his accomplishment, but because eight out of ten residents of the town were not the poorer because of his decision and promptness and readiness. He was a hero, a greater hero than he who risks life to save life. ”

“ It was he, an agnostic, doomed by those spire-builders to eternal damnation, who was concerning himself with the soul of that lad—a soul which he could not bring himself to believe was immortal. He saw the irony of it, that he, who could not accept Christianity, was compelled to the practice of it in its concrete form.
“If,” he said to himself, “there is a God, he must be amused.”
He rested his hand on Angus Burke’s shoulder, and at his touch the boy looked up into his eyes with a sudden brightening of his face that made Dave wince. ”

“ Their farewells were spoken gruffly, jerkily, in monosyllables.
“Jake and me,” stammered Bishwhang, “we come to see you off—didn’t we, Jake?”
Schwartz growled and shuffled his feet. He seemed extraordinarily ill-tempered. Angus’s face grew a trifle more blank than usual. Wilkins’s jaw set and he paced to and fro with short, uneasy, indecisive strides. There fell an awkward silence, the silence of human beings striving to express what was in their hearts—something which uncouth, masculine inhibitions kept imprisoned. ”

“ The moment in which any man realizes this—especially such a man as Malcolm Crane—is one of dreadful possibilities and potentialities. Your business man, your man who pursues a career whose success is dependent upon the approbation of the public, fears insolvency even more than he fears death. Almost daily in the public prints this dark fact is demonstrated—the fact that, offered the choice between facing bankruptcy and his Maker, a man will choose to throw himself into the abyss of eternity.... ”

“ She endowed him with a greatness of soul, when the thing he had possessed was nothing more nor less than a sense of duty—not to Crane but to his employer. Perhaps this had been fine—it was fine. But Lydia raised it to a sublimity.... She glorified Angus, gloried in her love for him... but still would not surrender. “I can’t... I can’t,” she said distractedly. “What he is cannot destroy what he was.” ”

“ Eight years mark vital changes in the individuals who make up the population of a community, but leave little effect upon the community itself. It was so with Rainbow. Arrivals, departures, graying hairs and maturities modified the entity which was Rainbow very little indeed. Eight years! Eight years had passed since the town, being what it was, had driven out Angus Burke, and, continuing to be what it was, Angus was all but forgotten save by the few whose lives were linked by chains of affection with his own. ”

“ Midway he caught sight of young Malcolm Crane and Lydia Canfield emerging from the door with letters in their hand—Lydia’s a letter from a distant father from whom she heard on rare occasions, but whom she had not seen since babyhood—a shadow of a father becoming material to her only as inked words upon paper.... Angus halted, hesitated, turned, but the sight and thought of Lydia stiffened him to resolution while her words repeated themselves in his ear. “Stand up for yourself!... Why don’t you stand up for yourself?” So Angus persisted on his way doggedly. ”

“ He nodded, lifting his eyes to her face, and she, reading what was in them, placed her hands on his shoulders, and, sorrowing for his sorrow, kissed him as a mother would have kissed.
“Angus,” she said. “It is Angus—this man is Angus Burke.”
“Is—is he—” he stammered, but could not finish his question.
“No,” said Mary, hastening to give the assurance he sought. “He is no worse—and no better. Doctor Knipe says he has—a chance. He—he’ll be glad to have you with him, Angus—when he can know you. He talks about you constantly in his delirium.” ”

“ Painstakingly, lovingly, as a sculptor hewing his Moses from Parian marble, Peter Waite labored with Angus, teaching him not only the mechanics but the ethics of the business, instructing him in its ideals and higher functions, demanding that Angus equip himself as for a mission. “Bub,” he said, “you’ve got to learn to be a prophet in Israel. You’ve got to learn not only how to stand up for yourself, but how to stand up for the rights, and fight down the wrongs of the whole community.” ”

“ He compressed his lips, told himself he was very stern and righteous, and girded up his loins to demand his due.... Then Lydia appeared in the door.
She was lovely—the lovelier for a certain wanness, a trace of pallor; for the scarce-discernible shadows under her eyes. She was a picture of desire, vivid even in the extreme pensiveness which rested upon her. The suddenness of her appearance, the loveliness of the unheralded vision fired Malcolm’s veins.... He forgot everything save her desirability, his hunger to hold her in his arms and to subject her lips to the touch of his passion. ”

“ Lydia tore herself away and stood an instant white as the lace in the window behind her, white except for her lips which burned a curious carmine, and her eyes which blazed with a light which was impossibly green—the green of trapped fury. She stood rigid, immovable, as if turned to ice by her sense of outrage.... Then she seemed to think, to realize, to become a human girl, capable of ordinary human emotions and actions.... ”

“ It was in this state of mind that Lydia came to Myrtle’s party, which, as such parties inevitably do, divided into couples and groups, carrying their chairs here and there; some, lover-like, seeking an obvious seclusion, knowing they were expected to do so; others walking about to form little knots which broke up only to reform again of different constituents. Throughout the early stages of the evening young Malcolm Crane maneuvered to draw Lydia away from the others. ”

“ I never can ask anyone—to marry me. No one would marry me... not Lydia....”
“Angus Burke,” she said sharply, “you mustn’t say that—you mustn’t think such things. Why shouldn’t you ask Lydia—or anybody else to marry you?... Why, Angus, you don’t know yourself. You don’t know what people think of you—how they respect you. Who cares now what happened so long ago when you were a baby? ”

“ Titus Burke glowered at her venomously, half turned, but thought better of it, and commenced to drag Angus away—but around a turn of the road thirty feet away came panting Jake Schwartz. He bawled to Titus to let go of that there kid.... Angus, hope twinkling in his heart, dragged back. His father cuffed him and cursed. Jake bore down upon him vengefully, wrenched Angus free, and with a savage blow sent Titus Burke headlong into the ditch.
“What’s this here? What’s a-goin’ on here?” Jake demanded as he stood over the man. ”

“ It was a pebble whose widening ripples were destined to trouble the sands of Angus Burke.
Lawyer Crane, as Rainbow called him, as it named other men according to their callings—such as Depot Seaman and Druggist Toms, and the like—considered this encroachment upon his practice a sufficient ground for bitterness against Craig Browning; but as a bond of friendship grew up between the young attorney and the banker, Crane fanned his jealousy with apprehension, for he had reason to look forward to the death of Henry G. Woodhouse as a source of enrichment to himself. ”

“ Lydia said nothing, but her silence was significant.
“He has no business in decent company, meeting people. Why, Lydia, folks wouldn’t have let their children come if they’d known he was going to be here.”
The girl beside Angus felt him draw himself together, looked again at his face, gasped as she perceived the suffering it wore as a tragic mask.... She too listened.
“Malcolm Crane, if you don’t like having him here you can go home—straight home,” Lydia flared.
“It isn’t right, and you know it.... You know what he is. His father was a thief, and he... killed a man. He’s a jailbird.” ”

“ If Lydia Canfield expected her engagement to Malcolm Crane to bring her ease, she was bitterly disappointed. She discovered, as others have discovered before her, that a promise to one man will not force another man out of mind. One may will to give one’s self, but one cannot will to forget, for the function of remembering is independent of the will. ”

“ That was the auspicious beginning of that phase of Angus Burke’s life which lay in the village of Emporia, of that period of education, of development, of adventures in human nature, in which he discovered that people were not necessarily enemies, and that there existed a wonderful occupation by the name of play. ”

“ It was the possessor of a murder for the first time in its history, and that no common murder, but the killing of its duly elected sheriff in the prosecution of his duty. It gave the town a new standing, an eminence among its neighbors.... All day boys and men had been walking out to the scene of the killing, and returning, had passed the jail and stared at its barred windows in the vain hope of seeing the monster who had perpetrated the crime. ”

“ Without affectation Lydia introduced Angus to Myrtle Cuyler, who spoke primly, almost affrightedly. She presented him to the Bowen twins, to several others grouped about the steps, and then conveyed him down the yard under the swaying lines of gaudy paper lanterns—and in her secret thoughts she could not help comparing the manner, the poise, the dignity of her companion with those to whom she had presented him. He underwent the ordeal much more creditably than they, and she flushed with pride in him. “Why,” she said to herself, “he acts and looks more like a gentleman than any of them.” ”

“ Angus unfolded before them as he could have unfolded before no other created beings. With Dave Wilkins he would have been more repressed, worshiping, for he was not without a certain awe of his benefactor—but Jake and Bishwhang walked with their feet upon his earth, were creatures in his mould, sympathetic to him and capable of being understood. ”

“ Rainbow was his profession—to brave it, to battle with it, to slay with his life and his conduct and his achievements the old dragon of prison stigma; to erase the mark of Cain which had been stamped upon him. ”

“ Ideas flit into and out of the normal young mind like bees buzzing about a hive; each may contribute its trifle of honey, though it is highly probable a notable percentage are drones. In any event the coming of a single idea is no hive-bursting occasion. The arrival of an idea in Angus Burke’s mind was comparable to a freshet in a mountain brook. ”

“ Browning was suddenly inspired. “Angus, you said the other day that you were going to stand up for yourself. Do you really want to stand up for yourself?”
“I got to.”
“Then you must go, Angus. That will be standing up for yourself—doing the biggest thing you can do to stand up for yourself.”
Angus looked to Dave for confirmation.
“Yes,” said Dave, “Yes....”
The boy made no comment, because he could think of nothing to say.
“You think it over, Angus.... It’s for you to decide,” Dave said. “It’s for you to do as you want to.” ”