"You're the only friend I've known in twenty years of loneliness,
Price. I've loved you like a brother," he panted, with a pause
between each word.
Again the judge buried his face in his hands.
"I know it, Solomon--I know it!" he moaned wretchedly.
"Price, you are still a man to be reckoned with. There's the
boy; take your place for his sake and keep it--you can."
"I will--by God, I will!" gasped the judge. "You hear me? You
hear me, Solomon? By God's good help, I will!"
"You have the president's letter--I saw it " said Mahaffy in a
whisper.
"Yes!" cried the judge. "Solomon, the world is changing for us!"
"For me most of all," murmured Mahaffy, and there was a bleak
instant when the judge's ashen countenance held the full pathos
of age and failure. "Remember your oath, Price," gasped the
dying man. A moment of silence succeeded. Mahaffy's eyes
closed, then the heavy lids slid back. He looked up at the judge
while the harsh lines of his sour old face softened wonderfully.
"Kiss me, Price," he whispered, and as the judge bent to touch
him on the brow, the softened lines fixed themselves in death,
while on his lips lingered a smilc that was neither bitter nor
sneering.
CHAPTER XXXV
A CRISIS AT THE COURT-HOUSE
In that bare upper room they had shared, the judge, crushed and
broken, watched beside the bed on which the dead man lay;
unconscious of the flight of time he sat with his head bowed in
his hands, having scarcely altered his position since he begged
those who carried Mahaffy up the narrow stairs to leave him alone
with his friend.
Pages:
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422