第3章 THE TRAIL(1)

A curious strength seemed to have come to the man.With almost steady hands he took down the photographs and the Sistine Madonna,packing them neatly away in a box to be left.From beneath his bunk he dragged a large,dusty traveling-bag,and in this he stowed a little food,a few garments,and a great deal of the music scattered about the room.

David,in the doorway,stared in dazed wonder.Gradually into his eyes crept a look never seen there before.

"Father,where are we going?"he asked at last in a shaking voice,as he came slowly into the room.

"Back,son;we're going back."

"To the village,where we get our eggs and bacon?""No,no,lad,not there.The other way.We go down into the valley this time.""The valley--MY valley,with the Silver Lake?""Yes,my son;and beyond--far beyond."The man spoke dreamily.He was looking at a photograph in his hand.It had slipped in among the loose sheets of music,and had not been put away with the others.It was the likeness of a beautiful woman.

For a moment David eyed him uncertainly;then he spoke.

"Daddy,who is that?Who are all these people in the pictures?

You've never told me about any of them except the little round one that you wear in your pocket.Who are they?"Instead of answering,the man turned faraway eyes on the boy and smiled wistfully.

"Ah,David,lad,how they'll love you!How they will love you!

But you mustn't let them spoil you,son.You must remember--remember all I've told you."Once again David asked his question,but this time the man only turned back to the photograph,muttering something the boy could not understand.

After that David did not question any more.He was too amazed,too distressed.He had never before seen his father like this.

With nervous haste the man was setting the little room to rights,crowding things into the bag,and packing other things away in an old trunk.His cheeks were very red,and his eyes very bright.He talked,too,almost constantly,though David could understand scarcely a word of what was said.Later,the man caught up his violin and played;and never before had David heard his father play like that.The boy's eyes filled,and his heart ached with a pain that choked and numbed--though why,David could not have told.Still later,the man dropped his violin and sank exhausted into a chair;and then David,worn and frightened with it all,crept to his bunk and fell asleep.

In the gray dawn of the morning David awoke to a different world.

His father,white-faced and gentle,was calling him to get ready for breakfast.The little room,dismantled of its decorations,was bare and cold.The bag,closed and strapped,rested on the floor by the door,together with the two violins in their cases,ready to carry.

"We must hurry,son.It's a long tramp before we take the cars.""The cars--the real cars?Do we go in those?"David was fully awake now.

"Yes."

"And is that all we're to carry?"

"Yes.Hurry,son."

"But we come back--sometime?"

There was no answer.

"Father,we're coming back--sometime?"David's voice was insistent now.

The man stooped and tightened a strap that was already quite tight enough.Then he laughed lightly.

"Why,of course you're coming back sometime,David.Only think of all these things we're leaving!"When the last dish was put away,the last garment adjusted,and the last look given to the little room,the travelers picked up the bag and the violins,and went out into the sweet freshness of the morning.As he fastened the door the man sighed profoundly;but David did not notice this.His face was turned toward the east--always David looked toward the sun.

"Daddy,let's not go,after all!Let's stay here,"he cried ardently,drinking in the beauty of the morning.

"We must go,David.Come,son."And the man led the way across the green slope to the west.

It was a scarcely perceptible trail,but the man found it,and followed it with evident confidence.There was only the pause now and then to steady his none-too-sure step,or to ease the burden of the bag.Very soon the forest lay all about them,with the birds singing over their heads,and with numberless tiny feet scurrying through the underbrush on all sides.Just out of sight a brook babbled noisily of its delight in being alive;and away up in the treetops the morning sun played hide-and-seek among the dancing leaves.

And David leaped,and laughed,and loved it all,nor was any of it strange to him.The birds,the trees,the sun,the brook,the scurrying little creatures of the forest,all were friends of his.But the man--the man did not leap or laugh,though he,too,loved it all.The man was afraid.

He knew now that he had undertaken more than he could carry out.

Step by step the bag had grown heavier,and hour by hour the insistent,teasing pain in his side had increased until now it was a torture.He had forgotten that the way to the valley was so long;he had not realized how nearly spent was his strength before he even started down the trail.Throbbing through his brain was the question,what if,after all,he could not--but even to himself he would not say the words.

At noon they paused for luncheon,and at night they camped where the chattering brook had stopped to rest in a still,black pool.

The next morning the man and the boy picked up the trail again,but without the bag.Under some leaves in a little hollow,the man had hidden the bag,and had then said,as if casually:--"I believe,after all,I won't carry this along.There's nothing in it that we really need,you know,now that I've taken out the luncheon box,and by night we'll be down in the valley.""Of course!"laughed David."We don't need that."And he laughed again,for pure joy.Little use had David for bags or baggage!

They were more than halfway down the mountain now,and soon they reached a grass-grown road,little traveled,but yet a road.