"I've got the fire going," she said. "And I'll run up now and get your

clothes. I--had put them away." Her voice broke a little. "You see,

we--You can change in your laboratory. Richard, can't you? If you go

upstairs he'll hear you."

He reached up and caught her hand. That touch, too, of the nearest to

a mother's hand that he had known, he meant to carry away with him. He

could not speak.

She bustled away, into her bright kitchen first, and then with happy

stealth to the store-room. Her very heart was singing within her. She

neither thought nor reasoned. Dick was back, and all would be well.

If she had any subconscious anxieties they were quieted, also

subconsciously, by confidence in the men who were fighting his battle

for him, by Walter Wheeler and Bassett and Harrison Miller. That Dick

himself would present any difficulty lay beyond her worst fears.

She had been out of the room only twenty minutes when she returned to

David and prepared to break her great news. At first she thought he was

asleep. He was lying back with his eyes closed and his hands crossed on

the prayer-book. But he looked up at her, and was instantly roused to

full attention by her face.

"You've had some news," he said.

"Yes, David. There's a little news. Don't count too much on it. Don't

sit up. David, I have heard something that makes me think he is alive.

Alive and well."

He made a desperate effort and controlled himself.

"Where is he?"

She sat down beside him and took his hand between hers.

"David," she said slowly, "God has been very good to us. I want to tell

you something, and I want you to prepare yourself. We have heard

from Dick. He is all right. He loves us, as he always did. And--he is

downstairs, David."

He lay very still and without speaking. She was frightened at first,

afraid to go on with her further news. But suddenly David sat up in bed

and in a full, firm voice began the Te Deum Laudamus. "We praise thee,

O God: we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship

thee, the Father everlasting."

He repeated it in its entirety. At the end, however, his voice broke.

"O Lord, in thee have I trusted--I doubted Him, Lucy," he said.

Dick, waiting at the foot of the stairs, heard that triumphant paean of

thanksgiving and praise and closed his eyes.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024