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Page 5
The electric bell burred softly again through the house, and the man
heard it, and his eyes rested inquiringly on the door of the library. In
a moment another man stood there, of his own age, iron-gray,
strong-featured.
"Dick told me I might come," he said. "Shall I trouble you? May I stay
with you awhile?"
The judge put out his hand friendlily, a little vaguely, much as he had
put it out to the fire. "Surely," he said, and the newcomer was all at
once aware of his look. He started.
"You're not well," he said. "You must take something--whiskey--Miller----"
The butler moved in the room making lights here and there, and he came
quickly.
"No," the judge said. "I don't want anything--I don't need anything.
It's not as you think. I'll tell you about it."
Miller was gone; Dick's father waited, his gaze fixed on the judge's
face anxiously, and for moments no word was spoken. The judge gazed into
the fire with the rapt, smiling look which had so startled his
brother-in-law. At length:
"I don't know how to tell you," he said. "There seem no words. Something
has happened, yet it's difficult to explain."
"Something happened?" the other repeated, bewildered but guarded. "I
don't understand. Has some one been here? Is it about--the trial?"
"No." A slight spasm twisted the smiling lines of the man's mouth, but
it was gone and the mouth smiled still.
A horror-struck expression gleamed for a second from the anxious eyes of
the brother-in-law, but he controlled it quickly. He spoke gently. "Tell
me about it--it will do you good to talk."
The judge turned from the fire, and at sight of his flushed cheeks and
lighted eyes the other shrank back, and the judge saw it. "You needn't
be alarmed," he said quietly. "Nothing is wrong with me. But something
has happened, as I told you, and everything--is changed." His eyes
lifted as he spoke and strayed about the room as if considering a change
which had come also to the accustomed setting.
A shock of pity flashed from the other, and was mastered at once. "Can
you tell me what has happened?" he urged. The judge, his face bright
with a brightness that was dreadful to the man who watched him, held his
hand to the fire, turning it about as if enjoying the warmth. The other
shivered. There was silence for a minute. The judge broke it, speaking
thoughtfully:
"Suppose you had been born blind, Ned," he began, "and no one had ever
given you a hint of the sense of vision, and your imagination had never
presented such a power to your mind. Can you suppose that?"
"I think so--yes," the brother-in-law answered, with careful gentleness,
watching always the illumined countenance. "Yes, I can suppose it."
"Then fancy if you will that all at once sight came, and the world
flashed before you. Do you think you'd be able to describe such an
experience?"
The voice was normal, reflective. Many a time the two had talked
together of such things in this very room, and the naturalness of the
scene, and of the judge's manner, made the brother-in-law for a second
forget the tragedy in which they were living.
"Why, of course," he answered. "If one had never heard of such a power
one's vocabulary wouldn't take in the words to describe it."
"Exactly," the judge agreed. "That's the point I'm making. Perhaps now I
may tell you what it is that has happened. Or rather, I may make you
understand how a definite and concrete event has come to pass, which I
can't tell you."
Alarm suddenly expressed itself beyond control in the brother-in-law's
face. "John, what do you mean? Do you see that you distress me? Can't
you tell clearly if some one has been here--what it is, in plain
English, that has happened?"
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