The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Uncrowned King, by Harold Bell Wright

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Title: The Uncrowned King

Author: Harold Bell Wright

Release Date: July 22, 2004 [EBook #12991]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: (see king001.png)]

THE UNCROWNED KING

BY
HAROLD BELL WRIGHT

AUTHOR OF
"THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS"
ETC., ETC.

ILLUSTRATIONS
BY JOHN REA NEILL

1910

To
MR. ELSBERY W. REYNOLDS
My
Publisher and Friend,
Whose belief in my work has made my
work possible, I gratefully
dedicate this tale
of
The Uncrowned King

Redlands, California.
May fourth, 1910

"Eyes blinded by
the fog of Things cannot
see Truth. Ears
deafened by the din
of Things cannot hear
Truth. Brains bewildered
by the whirl of
Things cannot think
Truth. Hearts deadened
by the weight
of Things cannot feel
Truth. Throats choked
by the dust of Things
cannot speak Truth."

CONTENTS

The Pilgrim and His Pilgrimage
The Voice of the Waves
The Voice of the Evening Wind
The Voice of the Night
The Voice of the New Day

ILLUSTRATIONS
Drawn by
John Rea Neill

* * * * *

THE PILGRIM AND HIS PILGRIMAGE

[Illustration: The Pilgrim and His Pilgrimage (see king002.png)]

For many, many, weary months the Pilgrim journeyed in the wide and
pathless Desert of Facts. So many indeed were the months that the
wayworn Pilgrim, himself, came at last to forget their number.

And always, for the Pilgrim, the sky by day was a sky of brass, softened
not by so much as a wreath of cloud mist. Always, for him, the hot air
was stirred not by so much as the lift of a wild bird's wing. Never, for
him, was the awful stillness of the night broken by voice of his kind,
by foot-fall of beast, or by rustle of creeping thing. For the toiling
Pilgrim in the vast and pathless Desert of Facts there was no kindly
face, no friendly fire. Only the stars were many--