FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  
rred. A small bare foot felt down and reached uncertainly, as if blown about by the wind, for a lower branch; a small hand that had clung to a glass of milk now clung to a limb above his head. Then Tommy saw that his father, with upraised face, was standing directly under that figure up there in the angry foliage. "Steady, Joe, old scout!" said Earle. "Don't talk to him, Papa," pleaded Tommy. "He's right, Steve," spoke Mrs. Davis. But once after this Tommy spoke. "Joe! Try that un on the other side!" Again they watched the foot feeling about. Again it found the limb. Once they saw him, like a bear cub, hug the trunk. Once he slid and fragments of bark came tumbling down. Closer to earth drew the small figure. They could hear the calloused little bare feet scraping the bark. Then, all of a sudden, Steve Earle had swung himself up by the lower branches. His strong arms reached upward and were lowered down to them, and from his fingers a gasping little figure slid to the ground. It was still light enough to see the face. The grin with which he had started out in life to brave an unfriendly world was gone, and in its place was terror--terror of those awful heights, of that swaying tree, of night and storm, and now of these faces about him. The sturdy chest was rising and falling. He looked pitifully small, like a baby. There came a blinding flash of lightning, and a clap of thunder that seemed to burst the woods open. In the momentary flash they saw his white face and dilated eyes. Mrs. Davis had sunk to her knees, arms outstretched. "Darling!" she cried. Tommy had heard his mother say it that way. Then he turned his head in a sort of embarrassment, for Joe had run into Mrs. Davis's arms, and Joe was sobbing on Mrs. Davis's ample bosom; and no gentleman, big or small, likes to witness his friend's emotions. "I guess it's a go, Steve," said John Davis. "Looks like it, John," replied Steve. And then the rain that had held back so long came down through the forest in a deluge. XI BLOOD MONEY "A man," says Poor Richard, "has three friends--an old wife, an old dog, and money." Now two of these friends Jim Taylor had. He had an old wife and he had an old dog, but he had no money. And there are times when, let comfortable moralists say what they please, a man's need for money overshadows everything else. Such a time had come to Jim Taylor. It came at one o'clock on a cold, starry March
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  



Top keywords:

figure

 

Taylor

 

friends

 
terror
 
reached
 

thunder

 
sobbing
 

blinding

 

emotions

 

gentleman


witness
 

friend

 

Darling

 

momentary

 

dilated

 
mother
 

turned

 

embarrassment

 

outstretched

 
lightning

Richard

 
overshadows
 

moralists

 

comfortable

 

starry

 

replied

 

forest

 
deluge
 

watched

 

pleaded


feeling

 

Closer

 

tumbling

 

fragments

 

branch

 

uncertainly

 

father

 

Steady

 

foliage

 

upraised


standing

 

directly

 

unfriendly

 

started

 

heights

 

swaying

 
rising
 

falling

 

looked

 

pitifully