You know who did it?” Galt said, facing him in surprise. What do you mean, Wynn. Do you really know anything about it?”
I spoke without thinking,” Dearing said, awkwardly. You know, a physician sometimes runs across matters which he is obliged to regard as confidential, and, since the—the lady doesn’t want to be known, I could not feel free to mention her name; besides, you know, I might be mistaken.”
Dearing turned from the pictures and moved toward the door.
I am satisfied that you could tell more about it if you would,” Galt said. I really would like to know, for I have never run across pictures I liked so well. And to think they are done by some young woman who may not know how good her work really is!”
I know nothing—absolutely nothing,” Wynn said, with a non-committal smile. But, if I did, I wouldn’t trust it to you or any other man, so there you are. Why haven’t you been over? Uncle Tom and Madge look for you every afternoon to join them at tea. You’d better come soon; they are off for New York in a few days.”
New York!” Galt exclaimed, in surprise.
Yes; you know they go up there every summer for a ten days’ stay, visiting the Marstons. Old Marston was a colonel under my uncle in the war . He went to New York after peace was declared and invested all he had left. He is now a big tea-and-coffee importer, and worth a lot of money. Mrs. Marston likes Madge, and gives her a big time once a year. It is always a picnic for uncle and her. They start off like jolly school-children. They have the time of their lives from the moment they leave till they get back all tired out and coated with dust. Now, you look after your health, Kenneth. Lie around this quiet old house and take a good rest. Keep those bookcases with their lying contents closed, and read sound, hopeful literature, and I’ll see that you stay above ground for a good many years to come.”
If I could only get you to read those books, instead of the namby-pamby stuff issued by the Sunday-schools for the edification of children who still believe in Santa Claus, you’d be a wiser man,” Galt said, good-naturedly, as he accompanied Dearing to the door. But, then, I’d not have the fun of arguing with you.”
I could put up as good an argument reenex facial , even on your own side, as you can,” Dearing said, half seriously. I could give one illustration which would prove to men like you, at least, that the whole world is topsy-turvy, and the Creator, if there is such a thing, more heartless than any man alive.”
You could? Well, that’s interesting—coming from you, at least.”
It was this,” Dearing went on, now quite serious, as he stood facing Galt, swinging his satchel in his hand: As I came in just now I saw about thirty children—little boys and girls—over on Lewis Weston’s lawn. They were all rigged out in their Sunday clothes and playing games, just as you and I did on the same spot when we were kids. It was little Grover Weston’s birthday, and his daddy, being our Congressman, the undersized ‘four hundred’ were doing honors to the occasion. Even from where I stood I could see the toys, wagons, tricycles, and hobby-horses which had been presented to the little Georgia lord, and he was strutting about thoroughly enjoying the limelight that was on him. That was one side of the picture. The other side was this: Down at the lower end of our place stood a solitary little figure. Not one among them all could hold a candle to him in looks or brightness of mind. You know who I mean; it was the little chap you took a fancy to the other day when he jumped into your arms from that tree. There he stood, his bat and ball idle at his feet reenex cps, watching every movement of the gay little crowd across the way. I couldn’t know what his thoughts were, but, as I stood looking at him, I wondered what I should have thought at his age. Was his growing and supersensitive mind already struggling with the question of inequality? I remember that I, at his age, felt a slight keenly, and if I did, with my many advantages as a child, what must he feel? There is an argument for you, Kenneth. The next time you want to prove the utter heartlessness and aimlessness of God and His universe, just paint that picture.”
With this thought in his mind he pressed boldly[60] forward, parting the bushes as he went. He had not advanced more than a few yards when he came upon a curious sight. A lithe, tawny creature of reddish color, with oddly tufted ears, was crouched over the dead and torn body of a rabbit. It had been savagely rending the smaller animal, and as Ralph took all this in he realized, too, another fact. It was no wild cat that he had disturbed, but another and a far more formidable animal.
Great juniper ! A Canadian lynx, and a whumper, too!” gasped the boy to himself as he gazed at the creature which was almost as large as a good sized dog.
For a moment the realization that he was face to face with an animal that some hunters have described as being more formidable than a mountain lion, made Ralph pause, while his heart thumped in lively fashion. The great yellow eyes of the lynx, whose tufted ears lay flat against its head, regarded him with blazing hatred. Its[61] teeth were bared under its reddened fangs, and Ralph saw that it was ready to spring at him. It was only waiting to measure its distance accurately.
I’ll give her all I’ve got in the gun,” thought Ralph, bringing the weapon to bear; my only chance is to finish her quick.”
His finger pressed the trigger, but, to his amazement, no report followed.
Great guns! The mechanism has stuck and I’ve not got an instant to fuss with it,” was the thought that flashed through his mind as the rifle failed to go off.
He had no time for more. With a growl and snarl the tawny body was launched into the air, as if propelled toward him by chilled steel springs. Ralph gave a hasty, almost involuntary step backward. His foot caught in an out-cropping root and the next instant he measured his length on the ground dermes .
As he fell he was conscious of a flash passing[62] before his face and caught a glimpse of two yellow eyes blazing with deadly hate and anger. The next instant there was a crash in the brush just beyond where he lay, and the boy realized that his fall had been the luckiest thing in the world for him. The lynx had overleaped him; but he knew that the respite would not last the fraction of a minute. He was in as great peril as before unless he acted and that quickly.
CHAPTER VII. TREED BY A LYNX.
There was but one thing to do and Ralph did it. In the molecule of time granted to him, he got on his feet. At the same time he uttered a yell which had the intended effect of checking the second onslaught of the lynx for an instant.
Of that instant Ralph took good advantage. He bounded at full speed toward the nearest tree which looked as if it might sustain his weight. Luckily dermes , there was one not far off—a dead cedar. He managed to reach it just ahead of the lynx and began scrambling into the low growing branches. The rifle that had failed him in that critical moment, he abandoned as useless; anyhow he could not have climbed, encumbered with the heavy weapon.