The Tryst (Annotated) (Grace Livingston Hill Book) (15 page)

The man Hespur stood at attention for so long that his old bones ached, and he trembled with the cold, for the air was keen in that high place, and Hespur had not come prepared for camping out as had the man he was watching, and at last during an interval when Treeves had risen with the book in his hand and his eyes thoughtfully fixed on the far hills, the old man silently unbent, and dropped stealthily to the dry moss at his feet, worn out with exhaustion. 

For a long time the young man continued to walk up and down on the bluff at the top of the hill, reading -- sometimes aloud, sometimes dropping upon his knees and praying. The tired old watcher drowsed a bit and waked to watch uneasily, half-awed, half-impatient, and could not quite make out if it were really prayer or not, this familiar talk with one who seemed not to be there. More than once he furtively stole a glance around the background to make sure no one else was present, and then he settled down once more, for he was still his master's servant and the orders had been to follow and find out. He could not leave till he was certain what was coming, and this impressive uncanny scene filled him with varied emotions that were overwhelming. But when he got a view of the young man's face and saw the light and uplift there, something seemed to quiet his impatience and fill him with a longing to be out there too with God. Some old disquiet stirred within his soul and made him think of life and how near was another world -- only a step! 

The afternoon wore away and still that quiet figure waited behind the rock, hungry now, and shivering at intervals, for the air had grown keen and still the young man on the point of the hill sat beneath the tree turning the leaves of the Bible, or gazing across the valley into the distance. The sun grew ruby clear and dropped slowly with a cheek on either neighboring hill, and Treeves closed the Bible and knelt again with reverent face uplifted to the sky: 

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” he prayed aloud, “if you want me, if you can use me, if you will make me fit, I will preach Thy Gospel. I give my life to thee forever more!” 

There was a look of profound ecstacy on the young, strong, uplifted face in the light of the setting sun, and the watcher marveled as he looked and bowed his head with a half-murmured “Amen!” 

With a light, quick step John Treeves walked down from the mountain top back to the world again after his sojourn in the desert. His feet seemed to have wings and need no guidance from his mind and he went through the shadows like one who had a purpose. Hespur, as he stumbled cautiously on behind, left in shadow because of his slow-going, felt the darkness coming with a kind of dread new to him. He was not a man of fear, but he had seen a sight that afternoon that had made him conscious of another world lying all about him, and he was afraid to be left alone. For the first time in forty years he wished for his mother, and felt a smarting, choking sensation in his throat and eyes as if he were going to cry. As he stumbled through a tangle of prickly blackberry branches into a clearing, he brushed his hand across his eyes to wipe away the blur and murmured: “He's a fine young man, he is, and he's all right. The old man’ll be that mad! But the young one's all right!” 

An hour later Hespur, footsore, cold, weary, and hungry, having seen his charge enter the little bungalow at the end of the village street, sat himself down at the deserted dining-room table of the only lodging house the village boasted and ordered a large meal. And while he waited he consumed quantities of excellent bread and butter with maple syrup from a glass pitcher in the middle of the table. Fasting and prayer might agree with younger men, but if he had it to do over again he would provide himself with a pocketful of sandwiches, or at least some malted milk tablets. 

The next morning, having satisfied himself that his charge was well into the work of sorting and packing away his mother's things and likely to be anchored for a day or two more at least, Hespur boarded a train for the South, and within a few hours presented himself before his master, who greeted him with pitiful joy and wrath. 

Two old men together, they almost forgot their usual relation in their satisfaction of being together again. Hespur even forgot himself once and sat down on the edge of a chair while he was talking, for indeed the trip had been wearing and he was not so young as once; but he arose almost immediately and stood stiffly before his master, who was squeaking out little querulous questions: 

“You say he walked out in the country and climbed a mountain and stayed there all day without any food? I don't understand what he was doing.” 

“Why, sir,” said Hespur searching his mind for the right thing. “Why, sir, sometimes he appeared to be reading.” 

“Reading! Reading! What nonsense! Why should he climb to the top of a mountain this time of year to read? What was he reading? Were you near enough to see?” 

“Yes, sir. That is, sir, I couldn't but help knowing, because he read it out, sir. I sort of recognized it as it were, you know, sir.” 

“Well, what was it?” snapped the old man. “Why don't you say?” 

“Why, sir, as far as I could rightly hear, sir, I might have been mistaken, of course, sir, but it seemed, sir--” 

“Well, why don't you get there? Why don't you speak? Are you afraid to say it, or what is the matter? WHAT was my nephew READING!” 

The last words were fairly shouted and the old man was growing apoplectic. 

“Why, sir, now, sir, don’t get excited, sir! You know what the doctor said the consequences might be, sir!” 

“Shut up about the doctor and tell me what I want to hear!” 

“There, there, Mister Treeves, I’m getting there fast as I can!” soothed the servant. “I think, sir, he was reading the Bible!” 

“The Bible! The BIBLE!” fumed the old man. “You old rascal you, do you mean to tell me you would know the Bible if you heard it?” 

“I think, sir, I might, sir,” said the servant humbly, “but I might have made a mistake, sir, of course, sir. There's many queer modern things written today, sir, and I can't pretend to keep up with the new-fangled kinds of religions, but it really sounded to me, sir, like what my old mother in England used to read by the fireside when I was a; boy back in the old country.” 

“Well, get a Bible then and show me what he read. I suppose you'd know it again if you knew it once, wouldn't you?” 

“I might, sir, and then again I mightn't. You know, sir, if I remember rightly, that Bible is somewhat of an extended book, and he turned over many pages, sir, and read little pickings, sir, like you take the nice bits from the tray, sir, that comes up for you to eat. But there was one I could mostly remember if I tried, I think. He said it over so many times. It was something like about going to hunt for God and finding Him if you was in earnest about it when you went. And he --" 

“Well, what did he do?” shouted the impatient invalid. “You act as if you were afraid to tell!” 

“Oh, no, sir, I'm not afraid to tell. It isn't that, but I think, sir, he was in earnest, and he was hunting. It was a queer thing to do, sir, and one that I never heard of a man doing before, sir, in all my experience, which has been many, sir, but I think if you was to ask me, sir --” 

“Get away with all that muddle of words, you rascal! Get to your point. What do you think?” 

“Well, I think, sir, as he went out to that lonely place on a mountain to hunt for God!”

There was an awesome reverence about the old servant’s voice that made his words tremendously impressive. The old man looked at him wildly with his little restless eyes, and then glanced fearsomely behind him and shuddered. 

“Don't be a FOOL!” he bawled out. “WHY do you think such a nonsensical, unreasonable, lunatic thing as that?” 

“Because, sir,” quite humbly, “he said as much, sir.” 

“Do you mean he talked to you about it, Hespur?” 

“Oh, no, sir! He was talking to God, sir, as far as I could make out, sir. He was down on his knees and looking up into the sky, sir, and he said just like this, just like he might be talking to a friend you know, he cried out, ‘Lord, you know that I'm hunting for you with all my heart, and I've come here to pray to you because you promised to hear me and let me find you,’ or words to that effect, sir. Just like that, sir!” 

“Hespur! You don't think he's out of his mind, do you?” 

“Oh, no, sir, not at all, sir. On the contrary, after listening to him all day I came to the conclusion, sir --” 

“Well! Why don't you SAY what conclusion you came to?” 

“Well, I thought perhaps, sir, it might be the rest of us, begging your pardon, of course, sir, who was off our minds.” 

“What do you MEAN, you old rascal you? I'll discharge you some day pretty soon if you don't look out.” 

“Well, you see, air, listening to him for sometime, sir, it became quite dear that we are all more or less going to die sometime soon, sir!” 

“WH-H-H-A-AT!” 

“Well, sir, I wasn't meaning one more than another, you know --” 

“Now you're Ex-CI-I-T-ing me! And you know what the doctor said!” The old man was all of a quiver, and fear crouched in the beady old eyes, fear of his enemy, the only enemy his money had not been able to buy out ahead of him as the years had gone by. Always there had lurked ahead that DEATH, peering round at him menacingly from every corner, and always he had known that one day it would get him --

“Well, sir, --I'm sorry to stir you, sir, -- but you would have the telling, sir, and if you'll permit me, sir, it wasn't so exciting a thing when you heard what he read, sir. And if you'd have seen his face, his fine young face with the joy on it as he said the words --words about not being afraid, sir, when the time comes and all that, sir” 

“Well, you needn't talk about it. I don't want to have it rubbed in that I'm getting old --” 

“Oh, you're holding your own fine. Mister Treeves!” 

“Shut up! You know that’s a lie! Go get a Bible!”

“Yes, sir. I’ll enquire if there's one about, sir --”

“Of course there's one about. You get it, and get it quick! I want to see what that young rascal's about anyway.” 

Hespur departed hurriedly, and returned in a few minutes with a deprecating air. 

“They don't seem to have any, not so you'd call it handy, down in the office, sir,” he apologized, “and I don't really suppose, sir, that they'd have much call for a thing like that in a place like this where everybody's pretty well off and comfortable like. But the head-waiter did say there was a little girl that helps the chambermaid who was sort of religious like and he's sent to see if she's got one. If she has he'll borrow it for you. I'm sorry I didn't think to stop off in Washington and get you one, but it never entered my head like that you'd care to go to that length, sir. I'm sorry you have to depend on a serving maid, sir, for the book you want, but I asked the man down on the golf links they said was some kind of a preacher if he had one by him and he said no, when he came off on a vacation he wanted to get away from all that sort of thing for a little rest, sir, and he never brought one along, and I suppose, too, that would be quite reasonable, one having to do so much reading of the Bible all the year round being a preacher.” 

“Shut your chatter!” snapped the old man, “and tell me what my nephew did. How did the thing end, anyway?” 

“Why, he told Him he was going to be a preacher!” 

“HE told WHO?” 

“Why HIM, the Lord.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean he just talked to him like I’m talking now to you. He lifted up his face, and you could see he was seeing with his spirit something that wasn’t there to eyes. He was seeing God with his soul as near as I could make out, and talking to him right then and there. They got it all planned out between them what he was to do, I think, sir, and I guess there’s no going back on that!”

“We'll see!” chattered the old man. “WE'LL SEE ! We'll see what MONEY will do!” and his eyes gleamed with grasping satisfaction.

“Now, now, sir, if I was you, sir, I just wouldn't set my heart on that. He's a real headstrong young man, and if I'm thinking rightly, he's got a real headstrong God alongside of him to back him up. I don't think it would be much use, sir, really, and you'd only excite yourself, sir, without any results. You see, sir, that young man has got the same blood in his veins you have, and he's pretty determined. It would be like fighting yourself, sir, if you was to try to turn him. And he's already promised, sir. I wouldn't to try if I was you. It might make it more hard for you later, you know, sir, for you can't get away from things like that when you come to the place where things end. Not that it's near at hand at all, of course, sir, but WHEN it does, I say, you'll be sorry, sir, if you try.” 

“Shut your chatter! I don't need your advice. I'm going to sleep now, and when you get that Bible I want you to look up all the verses you can find that my nephew read and read them to me just as he read them, do you understand? And if you can't find them I want you to go out to those golf links and find that fool preacher and tell him Calvin Treeves wants him to find those verses and mark them. See? And you can give that servant woman a five-dollar note for her Bible and tell her I’ll keep it. Now, pull down those blinds and draw up that afghan and get out! I'm going to sleep!” 

“WELL, she’s coming!” remarked Miss Cole with grim satisfaction, throwing down a letter on the night stand beside the bed. “I thought that would bring her. Now, Cousin Edith Fisher, I want you to understand that you're Marjorie Horliss-Cole's cousin as well. No, you needn't put on that impossible stone-wall look. I’ll fix it all right with Marjorie. She may be a little high-minded at first, but I know how to manage her, and I'm determined she shall have you for a companion --with a little c--for a while. You see, she needs you. I've been watching you for a whole week now and I'm convinced that a course of you will do her a world of good and get some of the notions out of her head.” 

“Oh, Miss Co--Cousin Sylvia, I mean –-really-–I--” 

“Nothing of the sort! Fiddlesticks! Now don't get up in the air! It won't hurt you a particle. In fact, I believe you’ll rather enjoy it, so go ring the bell and have my breakfast sent up. I didn't think the mail would come so soon or I'd have been up before this. Marjorie comes to-night and we've several things to do to get ready for her. No, you needn't bother with that kimono, I'm going to get right up.”