wn to keep from tumbling from the ledge; and there on my
side, gripping a pine bush, I lay looking up at him. He was close to
the flowers now, and just before he took the last upward step he turned
and looked down that awful height with as calm a face as though he
could have dropped and floated unhurt to the ravine beneath.

Then with his left hand he caught the ledge to the left, strained up,
and, holding thus, reached out with his right. The hand closed about
the cluster, and the twig was broken. Grayson gave a great shout then.
He turned his head as though to drop them, and, that far away, I heard
the sibilant whir of rattles. I saw a snake's crest within a yard of
his face, and, my God! I saw Grayson loose his left hand to guard it!
The snake struck at his arm, and Grayson reeled and caught back once at
the ledge with his left hand. He caught once, I say, to do him full
justice; then, without a word, he dropped--and I swear there was a
smile on his face when he shot down past me into the trees.

I found him down there in the ravine with nearly every bone in his body
crushed. His left arm was under him, and outstretched in his right
hand was the shattered cluster, with every blossom gone but one. One
white half of his face was unmarked, and on it was still the shadow of
a smile. I think it meant more than that Grayson believed that he was
near peace at last. It meant that Fate had done the deed for him and
that he was glad. Whether he would have done it himself, I do not
know; and that is why I say that though Grayson brought the flower
down--smiling from peak to ravine--I do not know that he was not, after
all, a coward.

That night I wrote to the woman in Kentucky. I told her that Grayson
had fallen from a cliff while climbing for flowers; and that he was
dead. Along with these words, I sent a purple rhododendron.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Hell fer Sartain' and Other Stories, by
John Fox, Jr.

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'HELL FER SARTAIN' ***

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