第4章 THE TRAIL(2)

Still later they came to where four ways crossed,and two of them bore the marks of many wheels.By sundown the little brook at their side murmured softly of quiet fields and meadows,and David knew that the valley was reached.

David was not laughing now.He was watching his father with startled eyes.David had not known what anxiety was.He was finding out now--though he but vaguely realized that something was not right.For some time his father had said but little,and that little had been in a voice that was thick and unnatural-sounding.He was walking fast,yet David noticed that every step seemed an effort,and that every breath came in short gasps.His eyes were very bright,and were fixedly bent on the road ahead,as if even the haste he was making was not haste enough.Twice David spoke to him,but he did not answer;and the boy could only trudge along on his weary little feet and sigh for the dear home on the mountain-top which they had left behind them the morning before.

They met few fellow travelers,and those they did meet paid scant attention to the man and the boy carrying the violins.As it chanced,there was no one in sight when the man,walking in the grass at the side of the road,stumbled and fell heavily to the ground.

David sprang quickly forward.

"Father,what is it?WHAT IS IT?"

There was no answer.

"Daddy,why don't you speak to me?See,it's David!"With a painful effort the man roused himself and sat up.For a moment he gazed dully into the boy's face;then a half-forgotten something seemed to stir him into feverish action.With shaking fingers he handed David his watch and a small ivory miniature.

Then he searched his pockets until on the ground before him lay a shining pile of gold-pieces--to David there seemed to be a hundred of them.

"Take them--hide them--keep them.David,until you--need them,"panted the man."Then go--go on.I can't."

"Alone?Without you?"demurred the boy,aghast."Why,father,Icouldn't!I don't know the way.Besides,I'd rather stay with you,"he added soothingly,as he slipped the watch and the miniature into his pocket;"then we can both go."And he dropped himself down at his father's side.

The man shook his head feebly,and pointed again to the gold-pieces.

"Take them,David,--hide them,"he chattered with pale lips.

Almost impatiently the boy began picking up the money and tucking it into his pockets.

"But,father,I'm not going without you,"he declared stoutly,as the last bit of gold slipped out of sight,and a horse and wagon rattled around the turn of the road above.

The driver of the horse glanced disapprovingly at the man and the boy by the roadside;but he did not stop.After he had passed,the boy turned again to his father.The man was fumbling once more in his pockets.This time from his coat he produced a pencil and a small notebook from which he tore a page,and began to write,laboriously,painfully.

David sighed and looked about him.He was tired and hungry,and he did not understand things at all.Something very wrong,very terrible,must be the matter with his father.Here it was almost dark,yet they had no place to go,no supper to eat,while far,far up on the mountain-side was their own dear home sad and lonely without them.Up there,too,the sun still shone,doubtless,--at least there were the rose-glow and the Silver Lake to look at,while down here there was nothing,nothing but gray shadows,a long dreary road,and a straggling house or two in sight.From above,the valley might look to be a fairyland of loveliness,but in reality it was nothing but a dismal waste of gloom,decided David.

David's father had torn a second page from his book and was beginning another note,when the boy suddenly jumped to his feet.

One of the straggling houses was near the road where they sat,and its presence had given David an idea.With swift steps he hurried to the front door and knocked upon it.In answer a tall,unsmiling woman appeared,and said,"Well?"David removed his cap as his father had taught him to do when one of the mountain women spoke to him.

"Good evening,lady;I'm David,"he began frankly."My father is so tired he fell down back there,and we should like very much to stay with you all night,if you don't mind."The woman in the doorway stared.For a moment she was dumb with amazement.Her eyes swept the plain,rather rough garments of the boy,then sought the half-recumbent figure of the man by the roadside.Her chin came up angrily.

"Oh,would you,indeed!Well,upon my word!"she scouted."Humph!

We don't accommodate tramps,little boy."And she shut the door hard.