The Broad Highway

Looking back on all this, it seems that I came very near losing

my reason, for I had then by no means recovered from Black

George's fist, and indeed even now I am at times not wholly free

from its effect.

My sleep, too, was often broken and troubled with wild dreams, so

that bed became a place of horror, and, rising, I would sit before

the empty hearth, a candle guttering at my elbow, and think of

Charmian until I would fancy I heard the rustle of her garments

behind me, and start up, trembling and breathless; at such times

the tap of a blown leaf against the lattice would fill me with a

fever of hope and expectation. Often and often her soft laugh

stole to me in the gurgle of the brook, and she would call to me

in the deep night silences in a voice very sweet, and faint, and

far away. Then I would plunge out into the dark, and lift my

hands to the stars that winked upon my agony, and journey on through

a desolate world, to return with the dawn, weary and despondent.

It was after one of these wild night expeditions that I sat

beneath a tree, watching the sunrise. And yet I think I must

have dozed, for I was startled by a voice close above me, and,

glancing up, I recognized the little Preacher. As our eyes met

he immediately took the pipe from his lips, and made as though to

cram it into his pocket.

"Though, indeed, it is empty!" he explained, as though I had

spoken. "Old habits cling to one, young sir, and my pipe, here,

has been the friend of my solitude these many years, and I cannot

bear to turn my back upon it yet, so I carry it with me still,

and sometimes, when at all thoughtful, I find it between my lips.

But though the flesh, as you see, is very weak, I hope, in time,

to forego even this," and he sighed, shaking his head in gentle

deprecation of himself. "But you look pale--haggard," he went

on; "you are ill, young sir!"

"No, no," said I, springing to my feet; "look at this arm, is it

the arm of a sick man? No, no--I am well enough, but what of him

we found in the ditch, you and I--the miserable creature who lay

bubbling in the grass?"

"He has been very near death, sir--indeed his days are numbered,

I think, yet he is better, for the time being, and last night

declared his intention of leaving the shelter of my humble roof

and setting forth upon his mission."