Max Brand (27 page)

"Well, what of that?"

"What's in the book?"

"Are you going to wait to see that?"

"Open the door a little, Ben, and then we can hear if any one comes
near."

He obeyed and came back, grumbling. "We can hear every one except David.
That step of his wouldn't break eggs."

He found the girl already poring over the first page of the old book, on
which there was writing in a delicate hand.

She read aloud: "The story of the Garden of Eden, who made it and why it
was made. Told without error by Matthew."

"Hot stuff!" chuckled Connor. "We got a little time before the sun comes
up. But it's getting red in the east. Let's hear some more."

There was nothing imposing about the book. It was a ledger with a
half-leather binding such as storekeepers use for accounts. Time had
yellowed the edges of the paper and the ink was dulled. She read:

"In the beginning there was a man whose name was John."

"Sounds like the start of the Bible," grinned Connor. "Shoot ahead and
let's get at the real dope."

"Hush!"

Without raising her eyes, she brushed aside the hand of Connor which had
fallen on the side of the ledger. Her own took its place, ready to turn
the page.

"In the beginning there was a man whose name was John. The Lord looked
upon John and saw his sins. He struck John therefor. First He took two
daughters from John, but still the man was blind and did not read the
writing of his Maker. And God struck down the eldest son of John, and
John sorrowed, but did not understand. Thereat, all in a day, the Lord
took from John his wife and his lands and his goods, which were many and
rich.

"Then John looked about him, and lo! he was alone.

"In the streets his friends forgot him and saw not his passing. The
sound of his own footfall was lonely in his house, and he was left alone
with his sins.

"So he knew that it was the hand of God which struck him, and he heard
a voice which said in the night to him: 'O John, ye who have been too
much with the world must leave it and go into the wilderness.'

"Then the heart of John smote him and he prayed God to send him not out
alone, and God relented and told him to go forth and take with him three
simple men.

"So John on the next morning called to his Negro, a slave who was all
that remained in his hands.

"'Abraham,' he said, 'you who were a slave are free.'

"Then he went into the road and walked all the day until his feet bled.
He rested by the side of the road and one came who kneeled before him
and washed his feet, and John saw that it was Abraham. And Abraham said:
'I was born into your service and I can only die out of it.'

"They went on together until they came to three robbers fighting with
one strong man, and John helped this man and drove away the robbers.

"Then the tall man began to laugh. 'They would have robbed me because I
was once rich,' he said, 'but another thief had already plundered me,
and they have gotten only broken heads for their industry.' Then John
was sorry for the fortune that was stolen.

"'Not I,' said the tall man, 'but I am sorry for the brother I lost with
the money.' Then he told them how his own brother had cheated him.
'But,' he said, 'there is only one way to beat the devil, and that is to
laugh at him.'

"Now John saw this was a good man, so he opened his heart to Luke, which
was the name of him who had been robbed. Then Luke fell in with the two
and went on with them.

"They came to a city filled with plague so that the dead were buried by
the dying and the dog howled over his master in the street; the son fled
from the father and the mother left her child. They found one man who
tended the sick out of charity and the labor was too great for even his
broad shoulders. He had a broad, ugly face, but in his eye was a clear
fire.

"'Brother, what is your name?' said John, and the man answered that he
was called Paul, and begged them for the sweet mercy of Christ to aid
him in his labors.

"But John said: 'Rise, Paul, and follow me.'

"And Paul said: 'How can I follow the living when the dying call to me?'

"But John said: 'Nevertheless, leave them, for these are carrion, but
your soul in which is life eternal is worth all these and far more.'

"Then Paul felt the power of John and followed him and took, also, his
gray horses which were unlike others, and of his servants those who
would follow him for love, and in wagons he put much wealth.

"So they all rode on as a mighty caravan until they came, at the side of
the road, to a youth lying in the meadow with his hands behind his head
whistling, and a bird hovering above him repeated the same note. They
spoke to him and he told them that he was an outcast because he would
not labor.

"'The world is too pleasant to work in,' he said, and whistled again,
and the bird above him made answer.

"Then John said: 'Here is a soul worth all of ours. Rise, brother, and
come with us.'

"So Matthew rose and followed him, and he was the third and last man to
join John, who was the beginning.

"Then they came to a valley set about with walls and with a pleasant
river running through it, and here they entered and called it the Garden
of Eden because in it men should be pure of heart once more. And they
built their houses with labor and lived in quiet and the horses
multiplied and the Garden blossomed under their hands."

Here Ruth marked her place with her finger while she wiped her eyes.

"Do you mean to say this babble is getting you?" growled Ben Connor.

"Please!" she whispered. "Don't you see that it's beautiful?"

And she returned to the book.

"Then John sickened and said: 'Bring me into the room of silence.' So
they brought him to the place where they sat each day to converse with
God in the holy stillness and hear His voice.

"Then John said: 'I am about to depart from among you, and before my
going I put this command on you that you find in the world a male infant
too young to know its father or mother, or without father and mother
living. Rear that child to manhood in the valley, for even as I depart
so will you all do, and the Garden of Eden will be left tenantless.'

"So when John was dead Matthew went forth and found a male child and
brought him to the valley and the two said: 'Where was the child found
and what is its name?' And Matthew said: 'It was found in the place to
which God led me and its name hereafter shall be David.'

"So peace was on the valley, and David grew tall and strong. Then Luke
died, and Paul died in a drift of snow and Matthew grew very old and
wrote these words for the eye of David."

The smooth running, finely made letters come to an end, the narrative
was taken up in fresher ink and in a bold, heavy hand of large
characters.

"One day Matthew called for David and said: 'My hands are cold, whereby
I know I am about to die. As I lay last night with death for a bedfellow
thoughts came to me, which are these: We have been brother and father
and son to one another. But do not grieve that I am gone. I inherit a
place of peace, but you shall come to torment unless you find a woman in
the world and bring her here to bear children to you and be your wife.'

"Then David groaned in his heart and he said: 'How shall I know her when
I find her?'

"And Matthew said: 'By her simplicity.'

"And David said: 'There may be many who are simple.'

"And Matthew said: 'I have never known such a woman. But when you see
her your heart will rise up and claim her. Therefore, within five years,
before you are grown too old, go out and find this woman and wed her.'

"And on that day Matthew died, and a great anguish came to David. The
days passed heavily. And for five years he has waited."

There was another interval of blank paper, and then the pen had been
taken up anew, hurriedly, and driven with such force and haste that it
tore the paper-surface.

"The woman is here!"

Her fingers stiffened about the edges of the book. Raising her head, she
looked out through the little window and saw the tree tops down the
hillside brightening against the red of the dawn. But Connor could not
see her face. He only noted the place at which she had stopped, and now
he began to laugh.

"Can you beat that? That poor dub!"

She turned to him, slowly, a face so full of mute anguish that the
gambler stopped his laughter to gape at her. Was she taking this
seriously? Was this the Bluebeard's chamber which was to ruin all his
work?

Not that he perceived what was going on in her mind, but her expression
made him aware, all at once, of the morning-quiet. Far down the valley a
horse neighed and a bird swooping past the window cast in on them one
thrilling phrase of music. And Connor saw the girl change under his very
eye. She was looking straight at him without seeing his face and into
whatever distance her glance went he felt that he could not follow her.
Here at the very threshold of success the old ledger was proving a more
dangerous enemy than David himself. Connor fumbled for words, the Open
Sesame which would let in the common sense of the everyday world upon
the girl. But the very fear of that crisis kept him dumb. He glanced
from the pale hand on the ledger to her face, and it seemed to him that
beauty had fallen upon her out of the book.

"The woman is here! God has sent her!"

At that she cried out faintly, her voice trembling with self-scorn: "God
has sent me—me!"

"The heart of David stood up and beat in his throat when he saw her,"
went on the rough, strong writing. "She passed the gate. Every step she
took was into the soul of David. As I went beside her the trees grew
taller and the sky was more blue.

"She has passed the gate. She is here. She is mine!

"What am I that she should be mine? God has sent her to show me that my
strength is clumsy. I have no words to fit her. When I look into her
eyes I see her soul; my vision leaps from star to star, a great
distance, and I am filled with humility. O Father in Heaven, having led
her to my hand, teach me to give her happiness, to pour her spirit full
of content."

She closed the book reverently and pressed her hands against her face.
He heard her murmuring: "What have I done? God forgive me!"

Connor grew angry. It was no time for trifling.

He touched her arm: "Come on out of this, Ruth. If you're going to get
religion, try it later."

At that she flung away and faced him, and what he saw was a revelation
of angry scorn.

"Don't touch me," she stammered at him. "You cheat! Is that the
barbarian you were telling me about? Is that the cruel, selfish fool you
tried to make me think was David of Eden?"

His own weapons were turning against him, but he retained his
self-control.

"I won't listen to you, Ruth. It's this hush-stuff that's got you. It's
this infernal room. It makes you feel that the fathead has actually got
the dope from God."

"How do you know that God hasn't come to him here? At least, he's had
the courage and the faith to believe it. What faith have we? I know your
heaven, Ben Connor. It's paved with dollar bills. And mine, too. We've
come sneaking in here like cowardly thieves. Oh, I hate myself, I loathe
myself. I've stolen his heart, and what have I to give him in exchange?
I'm not even worthy to love him! Barbarian? He's so far greater and
finer than we are that we aren't worthy to look in his face!"

"By the Lord!" groaned Connor. "Are you double-crossing me?"

"Could I do anything better? Who tempted me like a devil and brought me
here? Who taught me to play the miserable game with David? You, you,
you!"

Perspiration was streaming down the white face of Connor.

"Try to give me a chance and listen one minute, Ruth. But for God's sake
don't fly off the handle and smash everything when we're next door to
winning. Maybe I've done wrong. I don't see how. I've tried to give
this David a chance to be happy the way any other man would want to be
happy. Now you turn on me because he's written some high-flying chatter
in a book!"

"Because I thought he was a selfish sham, and now I see that he's real.
He's humbled himself to me—to me! I'm not worthy to touch his feet! And
you—"

"Maybe I'm rotten. I don't say I'm all I should be, but half of what
I've done has been for you. The minute I saw you at the key in Lukin I
knew I wanted you. I've gone on wanting you ever since. It's the first
time in my life—but I love you, Ruth. Give me one more chance. Put this
thing through and I'll turn over the rest of my life to fixing you up
so's you'll be happy."

She watched him for a moment incredulously; then she broke into
hysterical laughter.

"If you loved me could you have made me do what I've done? Love? You?
But I know what real love is. It's written into that book. I've heard
him talk. I'm full of his voice, of his face.

"It's the only fine thing about me. For the rest, we're shams, both of
us—cheats—crooked—small, sneaking cheats!"

She stopped with a cry of alarm; the door behind her stood open and in
the entrance was David of Eden. In the background was the ugly, grinning
face of Joseph. This was his revenge.

Connor made one desperate effort to smile, but the effort failed
wretchedly. Neither of them could look at David; they could only steal
glances at one another and see their guilt.

"David, my brother—" began the gambler heavily.

But the voice of the master broke in: "Oh, Abraham, Abraham, would to
God that I had listened!"

He stood to one side, and made a sweeping gesture.

"Come out, and bring the woman."

They shrank past him and stood blinking in the light of the newly risen
sun. Joseph was hugging himself with the cold and his mute delight. The
master closed the door and faced them again.